1st Sunday after Christmas Year B Sermon

Now just in case You haven’t! Had a chance to! Look at last week’s message! A quick catch up! To help you! Understand what we covered! That gives context! Leading into today’s message! ... We learnt that the Apostle Paul considers it vital for Christians to! ‘Stand Firm in the Lord!’ For IF? You can’t “Stand Firm in the Lord”? Then the rest of the Important! ‘In the Lord’ actions! Won’t happen! And Paul had! This simple easy solution to! Help our fellow Christian’s! ‘Stand Firm in the Lord!’ Which is! To boast about! Each other’s Christian faith! And then Paul showed Christians! How we need to! ‘Agree in the Lord!’ By discerning! Whether what we are squabbling over! Is going to add value! To the gospel message! So we can all! Be pure and blameless! On that day! When Christ returns! ... (And I don’t know how many times! Since last week! I have had to ask myself! Whether! What I’m getting annoyed over! Is Adding value! To the gospel message! Will it matter? When Christ returns? (Or! As is even more likely! That I go home! To meet Jesus)! And coming to the conclusion! Nope! This is not helping! Me be! Pure and blameless! So did last week’s message? Help you? As much as it did me?
Today we will be exploring Paul’s varied context’s to why you will rejoice and what that looks like. And look at a verse of Paul’s that appears to contradict Philippians 4:4’s Always Rejoice statement! And then how verse 5’s request for Christians to be gentle; has a far deeper meaning; which speaks back into the way your rejoicing should be carried out at times. And we will lightly touch on something that I am assuming you are already doing to help you ‘Stand firm in the Lord’ so you can rejoice and show God’s grace in your rejoicing with Prayer.