Sermon Tone Analysis

ILLUSTRATIONS RELATED TO THE WORLD, WORLDLINESS

A scuba diver lives in the water but breathes the air.

He is able to function because he takes his environment with him.

If he "conforms" to environment around him, he will eventually die! (Modified from source unknown)The world system is committed to at least four major objectives, which I can summarize in four words: fortune, fame, power, pleasure.

First and foremost: Fortune, money.

The world system is driven by money; it feeds on materialism.

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Second: Fame.

That is another word for popularity.

Fame is the longing to be known, to be somebody in someone else's eyes.

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Third: Power.

This is having influence, maintaining control over individuals or groups or companies or whatever.

It is the desire to manipulate and maneuver others to do something for one's own benefit.

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Fourth: Pleasure.

At its basic level, pleasure has to do with fulfilling one's sensual desires.

It's the same mindset that's behind the slogan: "If it feels good, do it."

(Charles Swindoll, Living Above the Level of Mediocrity, p.219)

Addressing a national seminar of Southern Baptist leaders, George Gallup said, "We find there is very little difference in ethical behavior between churchgoers and those who are not active religiously...The levels of lying, cheating, and stealing are remarkable similar in both groups.

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Eight out of ten Americans consider themselves Christians, Gallup said, yet only about half of them could identify the person who gave the Sermon on the Mount, and fewer still could recall five of the Ten Commandments.

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Only two in ten said they would be willing to suffer for their faith.

(Erwin Lutzer, Pastor to Pastor, p. 76)

BEWARE OF THE SUBTLE INFLUENCE OF THE WORLD -

Some years ago, musicians noted that errand boys in a certain part of London all whistled out of tune as they went about their work.

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It was talked about and someone suggested that it was because the bells of Westminster were slightly out of tune.

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Something had gone wrong with the chimes and they were discordant.

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The boys did not know there was anything wrong with the peals, and quite unconsciously they had copied their pitch.

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So we tend to copy the people with whom we associate; we borrow thoughts from the books we read and the programs to which we listen, almost without knowing it.

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God has given us His Word which is the absolute pitch of life and living.

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If we learn to sing by it, we shall easily detect the false in all of the music of the world.

- Donald Grey Barnhouse

The world's smiles are more dangerous that its frowns.

Addressing a national seminar of Southern Baptist leaders, George Gallup said, "We find there is very little difference in ethical behavior between churchgoers and those who are not active religiously...The levels of lying, cheating, and stealing are remarkable similar in both groups.

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Eight out of ten Americans consider themselves Christians, Gallup said, yet only about half of them could identify the person who gave the Sermon on the Mount, and fewer still could recall five of the Ten Commandments.

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Only two in ten said they would be willing to suffer for their faith.

- Erwin Lutzer, Pastor to Pastor, p. 76.

Worldliness - The Bible defines worldliness by centering morality where we intuitively know it should be.

Worldliness is the lust of the flesh (a passion for sensual satisfaction), the lust of the eyes (an inordinate desire for the finer things of life), and the pride of life (self-satisfaction in who we are, what we have, and what we have done).

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Worldliness, then, is a preoccupation with ease and affluence.

It elevates creature comfort to the point of idolatry; large salaries and comfortable life-styles become necessities of life.

(Read -note) 

​ KJV 190015 Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world.

If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.

16 For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.

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Worldliness is reading magazines about people who live hedonistic lives and spend too much money on themselves and wanting to be like them.

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But more importantly, worldliness is simply pride and selfishness in disguises.

It's being resentful when someone snubs us or patronizes us or shows off.

It means smarting under every slight, challenging every word spoken against us, cringing when another is preferred before us.

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Worldliness is harboring grudges, nursing grievance, and wallowing in self-pity.

These are the ways in which we are most like the world.

- Dave Roper, The Strength of a Man, quoted in Family Survival in the American Jungle, Steve Farrar, 1991, Multnomah Press, p. 68.

The course of rebellion against God may be very gradual, but it increases in rapidity as you progress in it; and if you begin to run down the hill, the ever-increasing impetus will send you down faster and faster to destruction.

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You Christians ought to watch against the beginning of worldly conformity.

I do believe that the growth of worldliness is like strife, which is as the letting out of water.

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Once you begin, there is no knowing where you will stop.

I sometimes get this question put to me, concerning certain worldly amusements, "May I do so-and-so?"

I am very sorry whenever anyone asks me that question, because it shows that there is something wrong, or it would not be raised at all.

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If a person's conscience lets him say, "Well, I can go to A," he will very soon go on to B, C, D, E, and through all the letters of the alphabet. .

.When Satan cannot catch us with a big sin, he will try a little one.

It does not matter to him as long as he catches his fish, what bait he uses.

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Beware of the beginning of evil, for many, who bade fair to go right, have turned aside and perished amongst the dark mountains in the wide field of sin.

(C.

H. Spurgeon)

The world was...

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1. Originally created good ().

​ KJV 190031 And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good.

And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.

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2. Cursed and corrupted through Satan ().

​ KJV 19001 Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made.

And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? 2 And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: 3 But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. 4 And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: 5 For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.

6 And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.

7 And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons.

8 And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God amongst the trees of the garden.

9 And the Lord God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou? 10 And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.

11 And he said, Who told thee that thou wast naked?

Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat? 12 And the man said, The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat.

13 And the Lord God said unto the woman, What is this that thou hast done?

And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat.

14 And the Lord God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life: 15 And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.