Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction:

What is the worst storm that you have ever been in?

Was it a hurricane?

Perhaps it was a storm producing tornadoes around you.

It can be terrifying when you find yourself in the middle of a storm.

There is a feeling of helplessness that overwhelms us when we catch ourselves in the midst of a powerful storm.

Sometimes, just as scary, is when we have storms in our mind.

These storms are often caused by conflict and relational issues.

We are overwhelmed at the decisions we need to make.

We can’t seem to figure out how to continue living normally all the while we have a tornado of thoughts going through our mind.

Questions continue to fall in our brain like bands of rainfall - Why did he say that?

Why did she do that?

What were they thinking?

We are about to see an issue that was so bad in the Philippian church that Paul publically called it out.

The storm caused by these two women was dividing the church and Paul entreated his fellow believers to come alongside and help these two ladies.

Join me as we read Philippians 4:2-9

Prayer

Today we are going to discuss three ways that we can have a peaceful mind even in the midst of a stormy world.

Messages like this can inevitably turn human-centric.

However, we never want to be a church that is sinner-centric.

That sounds funny and may even sound wrong to some.

Sinner-centric was a term that I coined this past week because of the move in the modern church to focus more on man than on God.

Sadly, this move is one that is not actually even beneficial for man.

We will only see true growth and peace through Jesus Christ.

We must always be Christ-centric (also called Cristocentric) and not sinner-centric.

Keep that in mind as we go through these three points.

The first point is:

I.

You Can Have a Peaceful Mind If You...Avoid Disunity in the Lord (2-3)

Paul starts off this section with a doublet using the word entreat.

This is a word meaning urge, plead, and even beg.

There are two women here, Euodia and Syntyche, that have some form of disagreement, and it is obviously causing division in the church since Paul is bringing it up corporately.

These are likely very well-known women of the church and their disunity is being evident to all around them.

What is their disagreement?

We will never know for sure.

We can know that it is not a doctrinal issue though.

Paul was quick to rebuke false doctrine and if it was a doctrinal issue, he would have addressed the problem and put it to rest.

This problem is more of a preferential or personality issue.

One thing I love about Scripture is that God has intentionally left certain facts out.

The reason for this disagreement was left out because it makes this Scripture applicable to all disagreements in the church!

If you have been around the church very long, you have seen disagreements.

It is amazing how things such as decorations, color schemes, and what food to bring to a dinner can set off a civil war in some churches!

How do we as a church avoid this kind of disunity?

How do we promote love, respect, and unity at CrossPointe?

Paul gives some great advice in verse three:

Paul promotes unity by calling for others in the church to join and help this situation.

I will digress for a minute and remind everyone about the Biblical process of dealing with conflict.

This is something that we always need to remember in case of a problem with someone.

Jesus teaches this wonderful truth in Matthew 18:15-35.

Time fails me to exposit on the entire account but here are a few of the highlights:

First - try to work out the problem among yourselves.

Don’t go and bring someone in right away.

Don’t gossip about the issue.

Then take a couple of solid believers.

This can often be some leadership in the church - deacon, pastor, teacher.

The hope here is reconciliation and restoration and not an attack.

This is a humble approach of multiple godly believers to an unrepentant sinner.

After this we are told to bring it to the church (Matthew 18:17).

This brings us full circle to where we are in this disagreement between Euodia and Syntyche.

This is being brought before the church and he is entreating some of the leadership of the church to step in and help them.

After entreating - or pleading with - the ladies, he reaches out to someone he refers to as true companion (which could be a reference to the qualities of a certain man or could even actually be his name - Syzgos - Siz-a-gose).

This true companion is to remind these women about the labor they have done with Paul along with Clement and the other believers to advance the Gospel and even mentions the fact that their names are in the book of life!

These two women are regenerated, born again believers!

And they are disagreeing here.

It is humbling to know that even after being born again, that we can sin to the point of disunity in the church.

Yet, Paul has given us a charge as a church to come alongside and help those who can’t seem to work out their problems between themselves or a small group.

Disunity is like cancer in a church.

It eats away at relationships and causes division throughout it.

We must fight hard to correct disunity and promote peace.

With unity with one another in Christ, we can have a peaceful mind.

You also...

Scripture References: Matthew 18:15-35

You Can Have a Peaceful Mind If You...Affirm the Power of Lord (4-7)

Disunity with others isn’t the only cause of a turbulent and storm-riddled mind.

Anxiety and worry as we see in verse 6 can also be a major cause of storms in your mind.

This Greek word for anxiety is merimnaō (mare-em-nah-oh) and is used some 19 times in the New Testament.

Many like to use the word concerned or care instead of anxiety because it has a better connotation.

But know that out of the 19 times this word is used, 17 of them are used as the sinful type of anxiety and worry!

God knows that we are much quicker to be anxious than we are to be concerned!

In order to combat these storms of anxiety and worry, Paul gives us some wonderful advice.

He commands us to rejoice twice in verse 4. Note that he is clear in what truly brings us joy.

We aren’t to rejoice in our wealth always, or our health always, or our circumstances always.

Some Christians misinterpret this and make off the wall statements like, “I rejoice in the fact that I got in a car accident today!’

As someone who just got rear-ended and my car completely totaled by a huge truck not too long ago - I was not rejoicing in my circumstance there!

Instead we rejoice in the Lord.

After the accident, I praised God for salvation.

I praised Him for protecting me and miraculously saving my life.

I wasn’t rejoicing in my circumstance.

I was rejoicing in my Savior.

Joy that comes in the Lord is a fruit of the Spirit that transcends all circumstances.

Moving forward, he encourages us to be reasonable to all.

This word, reasonable, can also mean gracious.

And his reasoning for this is because the Lord is at hand.

We should be quick to forgive others and gracious with others because Jesus has been gracious and forgiving to us.

In fact, Jesus gave some tough teaching regarding this in Matthew 6:15

That is quite the tough teaching.

But still we are told to be gracious to all.

When I got rear-ended by a guy who wasn’t paying attention and almost killed me - my reaction was astonishingly a positive one.

Not because I’m naturally a wonderful person.

But instead, it is because the Spirit of the Lord supernaturally helped me to be gracious and loving to the man who hit me.