Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

In August of 2017, my dad purchased the two of us tickets to the 2018 PGA championship in St. Louis.

We had never been to a professional golf tournament but since one of the biggest events was going to be a few hours away we thought it would be fun to go and watch the pro’s in person and enjoy the weekend together.

Fast forward to 2018 and Lindsey and I were gifted these tickets as newlyweds and were able to enjoy a couple days on our honeymoon up in St. Louis.

While we were at this tournament there were several big names that I wanted to follow around but none was bigger than Tiger Woods.

He had been playing well on Thursday and Friday and on Saturday he was making a charge up the leaderboard.

Whenever we entered the gate on Sunday we almost immediately heard a thunderous roar from the valley below - the famous Tiger roar meant that Woods was off and had made an early birdie.

Throughout this morning and afternoon we followed this group of golfers alongside about 30,000 others everywhere around the course.

The fans would scream and erupt in applause but what stuck with me was that the players remained stoic at almost all times.

What Tiger often talked about was having this zone that he would go in to where all of 30,000 fans and their voices would fade into the distance and all that he would see was the ball and the hole.

Michael Jordan talked about this same zone that he would often go into on the basketball court as the noise would fade and he would see himself and the basketball alone in the gym.

Even though the pressure and distractions were present, the best of the best have this ability to tune out the noise and focus on the task at hand.

Have you ever been in this type of zone before?

Maybe you’re doing a hobby or activity that you really enjoy and someone is trying to get your attention and they have to literally grab your arm or get right in your face so that you snap out of the zone that you’re in?

There are times in our life where we get so focused on a goal that everything else, big and small, don’t seem to matter all that much.

There are other times where we have a goal or an objective and it doesn’t matter how hard we try, we keep on getting distracted.

We get distracted by small annoyances and we get distracted by life-changing information.

What we see from the life of Jesus and from the life of Paul in his ministry is that our focus has to remain on the finish line even when distractions pop up.

Jesus kept His eyes on His purpose - to die on the cross and raise from the grave.

His whole ministry is directed toward that end.

Paul finds himself in trouble more often than not and distractions pile up on seemingly every side, yet he enters this zone of sorts where all of the noise drowns out and he keeps his eyes fixed on Christ.

Paul has this ability to not allow things like prison, suffering, and opposition to faze him from his goal of sharing the Gospel with others.

As we continue our study through the book of Philippians this morning we will see how Paul is able to keep this mindset in the midst of difficulty.

Think of yourself this morning as we do this.

Where is your focus?

Are you focused on the noise that surrounds us or are you focused on your ultimate purpose?

Are you looking at the big picture or are you more concerned with your comforts and circumstances?

Let’s read this morning how Paul is able to continue to give thanks because of God’s perfect plan

Suffering Exists to Advance the Gospel (12-14)

One of the most frequently asked questions is “why?”

Why did this happen?

This is the problem of theodicy - the age old question of “Why do bad things happen to good people?”

This question predates Christianity as it was initially framed by the Greek philosopher Epicurus in 300 BC who viewed the existence of evil as a surefire contradiction to an all-powerful and all-good God.

To many people the existence of evil and suffering serve as evidence that God either does not exist or that God is not worthy to be worshiped.

While in the eyes of many non-Christians suffering doesn’t make sense, to anyone who has read their Bible they know that suffering is something to be expected.

Why does suffering exist?

You’re left with a few different options.

Suffering is random and there is no purpose in it

Suffering sometimes has a purpose

Suffering is purposeful, even if we can’t understand why

So many people view suffering as something that is random and they fail to find meaning and purpose in difficult times.

Whenever Jim Elliot and his missionary team were killed by a group of natives in Ecuador the mainstream United States media said that they had wasted their lives and done something foolish.

That there was no purpose in this situation.

If you know how the story plays out, you know that God brings forth purpose in His perfect time and that their lives were not wasted as eventually the Gospel would be presented to these natives by their relatives years later.

Was this random?

No. Was there purpose in this suffering?

Absolutely!

What was the purpose?

To advance the Gospel and change lives.

Paul is in jail as he is writing this letter and he is writing this letter to encourage the Christians in Philippi to remain joyful in Christ in the midst of opposition.

How on earth can Paul tell them to do that?

Who does Paul think that he is?

What experience does Paul have with suffering?!

He has a PhD in suffering.

He’s in prison.

He’s suffered emotionally, physically, and economically for the Gospel and this is exactly what Jesus said would happen!

This was God’s plan for this man’s life

Is there a purpose in Paul’s suffering?

Yes! He’s a part of something far bigger than himself.

He’s a part of God’s plan of taking the Gospel to those who have never heard.

In our text this morning we see this unfold as Paul shares that his imprisonment has actually advanced the Gospel and the entire prison guard has no heard the good news.

If Paul weren’t in prison, the prison guards wouldn’t have heard the Gospel.

If Paul were traveling and planting churches, he might have been too busy to write this letter to this struggling church.

Paul’s stay in prison was purposeful!

His suffering was not random.

Further, Paul shares that the reason that he is in prison is because he is in Christ.

Why is Paul in jail?

Because of the Gospel.

If Paul would have followed the rules and been quiet about Jesus then he would have been prosperous, powerful, and protected because of his status and reputation… But he wouldn’t have had peace that only Christ can bring.

See, there are times in our life where the thing that God calls us to do will get us persecuted and opposed.

Where there will be consequences on this side of things… God’s plan for your life will involve suffering of some sort.

Whenever suffering hits, what do you do?

Will you complain?

Will you fold in the towel?

Will you immediately seek comfort?

Will you curse God?

In the book of Job we see that Job has nearly everything taken away from him: his family, his animals, and his property.

Job’s wife comes up to him after these tragedies with some words that many of us would think but possibly not articulate Job 2:9

Job’s so called friends came up later and tried to get him to admit that he had some secret sin that was causing all of this suffering and that he needed to ask God to forgive him.

So often in life we associate suffering with God’s displeasure.

We think that the reason that things are tough is because we’ve done something to upset God.

The fact of the matter in Scripture is that suffering isn’t always a sign of God’s displeasure, in fact suffering can be a sign of God’s love and mercy.

Paul is in prison and suffering… But God will use this suffering in order to save lots soldiers.

This is what we see in Scripture, God often uses suffering to bring about salvation!

God’s plan for Paul was to suffer greatly for the Gospel and suffer he did.

His plan for Peter was much of the same.

To the one who says that God doesn’t allow and use suffering, I would say read your Bible!

His plan for several of the heroes from the hall of faith in Hebrews 11 included similar things

If you have a health problem or if you have a past full of suffering, don’t fail to use that for the glory of your God! God has already saved you from death to life - He’s already performed a miracle in your heart… Don’t think that your baggage or suffering or pain is off limits for God to use for good as well.

If you are suffering today, use your suffering to advance the Gospel.

Don’t freak out or think that this is a mistake or that this is random… You are not where you find yourself at today by accident.

You are there by divine appointment!

God has a purpose and Paul reminds us that our mentality in such moments should be that of constant joy as we make much of Jesus!

Satisfaction is Found in Christ Alone (15-17)

As we make much of Jesus, there will be obstacles that are thrown our way.

Even when we survive the suffering, it seems like at times whenever it rains, it pours.

For Paul, he continued to rejoice while in prison because he knew that he was exactly where God wanted him to be.

He knew that he had ministry work to do in prison and that lives were being changed.

There are times in our lives where we are able to get through a difficult time only to be bombarded with yet another obstacle.

This is Paul.