Sermon Tone Analysis

Scripture Introduction:

I want to tell you a little about the shirt that I’m wearing today.

Two years ago I had such an amazing opportunity.

The Southern Baptist Convention always meets this week in June.

And the Sunday and Monday before it is the Pastor’s Conference.

Now the SBC is known for a few things that we shouldn’t be proud of.

We’re known for fried chicken and we’re known for being angry and fighting each other all the time.

Heard a guy the other day who isn’t SBC ask a very serious question, “What are y’all so mad about all the time?”

And for quite a few years the Pastor’s Conference was used as a bit of a platform to promote the agenda for the next few days of the convention.

And from the very beginning it was made up of megachurch pastors, celebrities, and superstars within Christian ministry.

Yet the SBC is made up of mostly small to average size churches.

Back in 2016 about 10 of us guys had a crazy vision.

And the name on my shirt is the core of that vision.

It says, “Above Every Name”.

It comes from our text this morning in .

Our core idea was to run a small church pastor as the Pastor’s Conference President and then all work together to put it together.

Our vision for the Pastor’s Conference was to have 12 average church pastors—no celebrities—just faithfully preach through a book of the Bible.

No agenda except to preach the text and point to Jesus.

His name is above every other one.

We believed—and still do that this is the answer to disunity.

And I think the apostle Paul believed the same thing.

Keep in mind that he is preaching to a mostly united congregation.

Things are going pretty well but Paul sees a few issues that are bothersome.

And he is writing this also with Corinth fresh on his mind.

There was some serious factionalism there.

In Corinth they had divided themselves into parties.

They were no longer viewing each other through the lens of the gospel but through the lens of party.

In other words they didn’t see each other fundamentally as brother/sister in Christ they saw each other through a different grid.

The most important question wasn’t are you a follower of Jesus, it became well what kind of follower of Jesus are you.

It is an undoubtedly fictional story of a man that was walking across a bridge one day, only to find a man standing on the edge about to jump.

So, this guy runs over and tries to stop the guy.

“Stop, Don’t do it”.

“Why, shouldn’t I jump”?

“Well there’s so much to live for!” “Like what?” “Well, do you believe in God?” “Yes”.

“Me too!” “Are you Christian, Buddhist, or something else? “ Christian.

“Catholic or Protestant”?

Protestant.

Me too, Episcopalian or Baptist?

Baptist.

Me too, Southern Baptist or Northern Baptist?

Southern.

Me too.

Are you a General Southern Baptist or a Reformed Particular Southern Baptist.

Reformed Particular Southern Baptist.

Me too, Reformed Particular Southern Baptist, Reformation of 1879 or Reformation of 1915?

1915.

DIE HERETIC SCUM.

And the man helped out the desperate man’s cause—he pushed him off the bridge.

What happens in a time such as this is that truth gets mangled and dragged through the mud.

We are given to fighting about party stuff and living for the wrong kingdom.

In Corinth they had definitely ran things through the lens of party.

They were divided.

And now the same thing is threatening to happen at Philippi as Euodia and Syntyche are squabbling.

People are drawing up party lines.

And you’ve got a group of false teachers on the outside looking in and just waiting to get a foothold in Philippi.

It’s still a healthy church but it’s at a crossroads.

Will they be about advancing the gospel?

Or at they going to turn inward?

Will they be about making their name great or the name of Jesus?

Now from the very beginning it was made up of megachurch pastors, celebrities, and superstars within Christian ministry.

Yet the SBC is made up of mostly small to average size churches.

We were always told this was the way it had to be because smaller church guys lacked the resources and ability to put on such a big conference.

Well, about 10 of us guys had a crazy idea in 2016 in St. Louis.

What if we ran a small church pastor and all worked together to make the Pastor’s Conference happen.

We were shocked when we won in 2016 which meant we actually had to come through with putting on a Pastor’s Conference.

We each played a small part.

For me, I had some social media duties during the actual event, I was in charge of getting all the free books for a couple thousand people, and also with partnering with five other guys to pick the 12 speakers…we listened to hundred of sermons to come up with twelve.

We were always told this was the way it had to be because smaller church guys lacked the resources and ability to put on such a big conference.

Well, about 10 of us guys had a crazy idea in 2016 in St. Louis.

What if we ran a small church pastor and all worked together to make the Pastor’s Conference happen.

We were shocked when we won in 2016 which meant we actually had to come through with putting on a Pastor’s Conference.

We each played a small part.

For me, I had some social media duties during the actual event, I was in charge of getting all the free books for a couple thousand people, and also with partnering with five other guys to pick the 12 speakers…we listened to hundred of sermons to come up with twelve.

On my shirt it says, “Above Every Name”.

That was the goal of that conference.

We didn’t want to be about celebrity.

We just wanted average faithful pastors to preach through a text all from the same book of Scripture.

We wanted to exalt the name of Jesus above every other name.

That comes from our text this morning.

I share all of that because I want to

How many of you have been to a 3D movie?

Do you ever notice how much different it looks if you take your glasses off?

Everything looks fuzzy.

You can still make out some of the stuff.

It still looks a little bit the same, but it’s not clear.

You miss things.

Your experience is very limited.

It’s just a drab and blurry show.

But then you put on the 3D glasses and the whole movie comes to life.

It’s no longer fuzzy.

You see things that you didn’t see before.

It’s not blurry anymore but crystal clear.

Everything has come to life.

And I suppose this illustration would be just as effective if we told everyone who had contacts or glasses to take them out and then put them back on.

It makes everything sharper.

If your eyes are as bad as mine it makes life livable.

What Paul is saying in our passage this morning is that the gospel is just like that.

It’s like what C.S. Lewis said: “I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.”

What Lewis is saying, and what Paul is saying in our text is that the gospel not only is something that puts us in a right relationship with God, it’s not only something that gets us to heaven when we die…the gospel is something which gives us a worldview.

It shapes the way we look at things.

We once saw the movie in 2D but now we see it in 3D.