Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

When I was first entering into the ministry, a seasoned pastor named David Somerfeld told me something I have never forgotten.

He told me to find an Aaron and a Hur.

I had no idea what he was talking about and so he explained.

In Exodus 17, the Israelites, led by Joshua, were fighting the Amalekites.

Moses was watching from the top of a mountain and so long as his arms stayed in the air, Israel won.

But when his arms dropped, they’d begin to lose.

As the day wore on, Moses got tired and his arms began to fall and Israel began to lose.

Aaron and Hur grabbed a stone for him to rest and each took an arm and held it up in the air and the Israelites overcame the Amalekites.

Find yourself an Aaron and Hur.

I remember the advice.

But I also know that I’ve never truly followed it because friendship and partnership is hard.

It’s not just hard for individuals, it’s hard for churches too.

Last week, I briefly touched on how we need to be partnering with other churches, even if we don’t agree on every piece of doctrine.

I’m not longer just broaching the subject this week.

I’m focusing on it.

As we look at the text this morning, I see three types of churches we can be at Highland View.

And as we go through, we ought not think that we can only be one.

We can be all three if God so moves.

The first type of church we see in the text is a sending church.

The second type is a sister church.

And thirdly, we can certainly be a supplicating church.

A Sending Church

A Sister Church

A Supplicating Church

A Sending Church

The first type of church that we can be at Highland View is the type of church that sends people.

We either send people away on mission or we send them away to plant other churches.

Both are vital to kingdom work.

Look at what Paul wrote to the church of Rome.

Last week we saw, and this week we see again that Paul’s ministry, as he knew it, was coming to an end.

He is looking to move on to a new ministry, a ministry in which he proclaims the name of Christ were it has never been mentioned.

But he can’t do it alone.

He needed a sending church.

Now, you may not see that in the text.

But we’ll get there in a moment.

Before we do, let’s take a quick look at how Paul began the ministry that he saw coming to an end.

Paul and Barnabas had been valuable resources for the church at Antioch.

But when the Holy Spirit said it was time to go, it was time to go.

So Antioch became their sending church.

The word that Luke used there translated as sending, actually means to free them.

They set them free from their responsibilities at Antioch so that they could go and plant churches in whatever place they were led.

But that ministry, with all its ups and downs and separations and partnerships, was coming to an end.

Paul was planning on going to Spain! Antioch would be about 3,800 miles away.

It was too far to be a sending church anymore.

He needed a closer church partnership.

Rome was less than half that distance.

Plus, he’d be sent off by mature believers.

But you say, “Chris, the text says nothing about being a sending church.”

Not in the ESV, but the word that Paul used that the translators put in as “to be helped on my journey there” literally means simply “to be sent to there.”

By whom?

The church at Rome.

Notice in these verses we are reading how urgent this request is.

He mentions twice that his time there can’t be long.

He will be passing through and staying only a little while.

He is telling them now of his plans so they can prepare for what will come.

Beloved, we are a small church.

There is no doubt about it, but that doesn’t mean that we cannot or should not plan to be a sending church.

There are places all over the United States, especially in the Northeast and Northwest that have little to no gospel witness.

How amazing would it be to partner with church planting efforts?

How rewarding would it be for us to be a sending church, where some of our members actually go and plant a church somewhere?

But like I said earlier, it doesn’t have to be strictly church planting, but missions as well.

We have two mission opportunities this year for you to participate in.

One is in just a few weeks, and another in July.

We, as a church, will be sending some of you off to ministry and be on mission.

I’m so excited about that!

A Sister Church

So the first type of church we can be is a sending church, and that is what we are becoming.

But a second type of church that we can be is a sister church.

Sister churches are often churches of different denominations coming together for projects and supporting one another.

Though they are often just simply churches in various parts of the world or even city that work together and support one another in each other’s efforts to build God’s kingdom.

This is what we see in Romans.

Paul, who was from Tarsus in modern-day Turkey, spent much of his life in Jerusalem, but went all over the Roman Empire to spread the gospel.

And when the Christians in Jerusalem were in trouble, he found churches to partner with them to help.

It would not only be Macedonia, which is in northern Greece and Achaia in western Greece whose capital was Corinth, that would help, but those were the two at the moment.

Think about the ministry in Macedonia and Achaia, while they may be similar in some ways to one another, they would be vastly different than the ministry in Jerusalem.

The people, the cultures, the situations were different.

The same gospel was used, but the ministry looked different.

Macedonia included the cities of Berea, Thessalonica, and Philippi, among others.

Obviously we need only read the two letters to the Corinthians to see what they dealt with, in terms of temple prostitution, meat offered to idols, and such to know that Jerusalem did not deal with such issues.

But one church ministering in one area of the world was willing and able and happy to help another church ministering to a different people in different ways in a different part of the world.

Paul wrote that not only were they pleased to do it, but that they were obligated to do it.

There’s that word again: obligation.

They owed it to them.

It was because of the church in Jerusalem that there were churches in Macedonia and Achaia in the first place!

The gospel came out of Jerusalem and spread to Judea, Samaria, and the uttermost parts of the world!

Supporting the saints in Jerusalem was the least the churches in other parts of the world could do.

We at Highland View Baptist would do well to find a sister church, or sister churches.

They don’t have to look like us, they don’t have to minister as we do, they don’t have to sing the same songs as we do, and they don’t even have to think like us in every area of doctrine, so long as the primary are in place.

When Paul was in prison writing to the Philippians, he noted that some were preaching Christ to bring more strain on him.

But he was happy to let them do it so long as Christ was being proclaimed.

When the disciples tried to get Jesus to stop a man who was casting out demons in his name, he told them not to forbid him, even though he wasn’t following with the disciples.

There is a church in Stevensville, Montana called Bitterroot Family Church.

I’ve been in touch a few times with their pastor and he was wondering if we’d like to partner with them.

To support one another in prayer, in ministry, in sending teams to help each other, and even worship together through live streaming.

What an opportunity to partner with a church in another part of the country, some 1600 miles away and 24 hours to get there if driving with no stops.

Again, the July missions trip is a partnership with FBC, St. Peters.

If anyone decides to go, it would be to a sister church with them, and by extension with us.

A Supplicating Church

So we as Highland View, much like the church in Rome have the opportunity to be a sending church.