Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction:

Do Not Let Your Head Grow Faster Than Your Heart

Matthew 23:23; Luke 11:42; Philippians 4:8

Preaching Themes: Holy Spirit, Pride, Speech

If your child should have a rapid growth in its arms but not in its legs, or if its legs should lengthen but not its arms, what a strange being it would be!

What a monster!

It is the growth of each limb in proportion that brings the man to perfection.

So when our heads grow faster than our hearts, it is an ill sign.

Yet how many know a great deal more than they feel, and criticize much more than they believe!

It is also an evil thing when a man’s tongue grows bigger than his head; when he has more to say than he knows or does; when, like Mr. Talkative [of Pilgrim’s Progress], he can talk about the road to heaven but makes no progress in it.

God give you an abundance of his Holy Spirit, that you may never deserve our Lord’s rebuke to the Pharisee, “It was necessary to do these things while not neglecting those,” but “Whatever things are true, whatever things are honorable, whatever things are right, whatever things are pure, whatever things are pleasing, whatever things are commendable, if there is any excellence of character and if anything praiseworthy, think about these things” (Phil 4:8).

May you have them all.

Mark Twain once said,

"I built a cage and in it I put a dog and a cat.

After a little training I got the dog and the cat to the point where they lived peaceably together.

Then I introduced a pig, a goat, a kangaroo, some birds, and a monkey.

And after a few adjustments, they learned to live in harmony together.

So encouraged was I by such successes that I added an Irish Catholic, a Presbyterian, a Jew, a Muslim from Turkestan, and a Buddhist from China, along with a Baptist missionary that I captured on the same trip.

And in a very short time, there wasn’t a single living thing left in the cage."

https://www.sermoncentral.com/sermon-illustrations/72268/unity-by-guy-mcgraw?ref=TextIllustrationSerps

Our text for today is about harmony, and unity, within the church.

The quote I just read illustrated disunity, and discord between people of different religious convictions.

We are

The NT is clear that as Christians we are to strive to live lives of peace.

Certainly peace within the church and yes, even peace within the communities we live in.

Knowing what we know about 1st century Christian living, both in Israel and in Roman colonies, it was a challenge.

It was and still is a challenge because as puts it “the nations rage” against God and His people.

Mark 12:31

So again, it’s clear, we are to love our neighbors, Christian or not and to strive for peace.

But as we mentioned last week, we can never compromise truth for the sake of unity.

We can’t change the gospel message just so people will like us.

2 corinthians

Our weapon is truth and the convicting powers of the Holy Spirit.

Silencing the ignorance of foolish people in this verse is directly related to doing good.

So the combination of our speeach, actions, and really the whole life we live should serve to silence the ignorant.

John Calvin argued that it was the task of the apologist to stop the mouths of the obstreperous.

The opposite of striving to live peaceably is what, to sow discord.

We see the flip side of God’s commands to strive for peace with God’s view of those who do the opposite.

The title of the lesson today is Godly Attitudes; a recipe for church harmony.

So we have just discussed how Christian lives are to be ones striving for peace, both within the church, and outside the church but peace is not the same thing as harmony.

The faithful church will never be in harmony with the world.

Jesus told us that, we just read that verse in .

What do you think of when you think of harmony?

har·mo·ny - noun

1. the combination of simultaneously sounded musical notes to produce chords and chord progressions having a pleasing effect.

noun

1.

the combination of simultaneously sounded musical notes to produce chords and chord progressions having a pleasing effect.

I think of an orchestra, or a barbershop quartet.

For harmony to exist there has to be multiple sounds coming together to make one sound that is pleasing.

The reason that I say we will never be harmony between the church and the world is because harmony implies a striving together for a united cause, task, or reason.

It implies a common goal and a common foundation to work from.

That is something we will never have with the world.

Read the Text

Key Verse:

Philippians

Christ - The Foundation for Agreement (Vv 2-3)

Verse 1 - We concluded our study last week in 4:1 and I have now included it in our text today.

It serves both to connect what Paul said in chapter 3 verses 17-21 and also now 4:2-9.

The exhortation in verse 1 is to stand firm and we mentioned the idea of standing side by side.

It has military overtones as well just as the military tactics of the day were to stand and fight side by side in rows of soldiers.

Paul refers to them as brothers, his joy and crown, and his beloved.

He is using these endearing terms to express his love for them and as a motive for them to obey.

In verses 2-3 Paul now gives us a real life situation that is presumably at the front of his mind as he once again is calling for unity within the Church at Philippi.

We don’t know much about these two that Paul mentions but they are presumably in places of influence within the church.

It’s clear that Paul knows them personally and has spent much time with them as he mentions they have labored side by side with him in the gospel.

I’m sure they weren’t excited about being called out by name before not only the other Philippians but to every Bible reader throughout the ages.

If you were going to be named in the Bible you certainly wouldn’t want it to be in this context and under these circumstances.

Our Bibles say Paul ‘entreats, urges, or beseeches”.

The Greek word here has the idea of calling to ones side.

It’s an invitation to join with another and be by their side.

So just like in verse 1 where the idea of standing firm implies and standing together side by side the idea carries to both Euodia and Syntyche and there situation.

So just like we have already seen in this letter Paul’s foundation for unity, his illustration if you will, is Christ.

He tells them to “agree in the Lord”.

What does it mean to ‘agree in the Lord”?

Essentially he is calling to set aside their differences for the sake of Christ.

That’s the short way of putting it but Paul is calling them to a mindset.

If you recall our study back in chapter 2 Paul explicitly calls them to share in a Christ-like way of thinking.

The mind is where a lot of the battle is won.

How we think will shape how we live and act.

Our thinking shapes our attitudes and this passage is most certainly about having godly attitudes.

It will serve to shape our will, that is our desires for life and living.

Rejoicing, Praying, and Peace

Rejoicing, Praying, and Peace

Rejoicing, Praying, and Peace (Vv 4-7)

Some of you may recall but I entitles our study of this epistle as “Joy in Jesus”.

That’s because it is a central theme to the book.

There are 14 different mentions about joy, joyful, and/or rejoicing.

Paul in verse 4 once again directs our thinking to Christ.

At first glance this may seem like a random outburst by Paul but no doubt it is at the core of the exhortations to unity.

It’s again about remembering who we are and what we share in Christ as the cause for our joy.

We prefaced our study of this epistle with a study on the fact that God is a God who has joy, mainly the joy He has in saving sinners.

So it is no wonder we have this command given here .

The joy we have in Christ transcends any ill feelings we may have towards other brothers and sisters in Christ.

A joyful person wouldn’t be characterized as being quarrelsome.

The two attitudes are the opposite of each other.

The more joyous we are the more we can navigate church life and all of our personal differences.

They say misery loves company well the same can be said of joy.

Perhaps Euodia and Syntyche just needed a good dose of joy in Jesus.

Paul’s command to rejoice is part of the solution to their problems.

Verse 5