Sermon Tone Analysis

By Pastor Glenn Pease

Successful people almost always attribute their success, in large measure, to the influence and inspiration of some other person.

Henry Ford tells of how he was in a period of uncertainty about building his gas engine.

He was discouraged about it, and was letting the idea go dead in him.

It was at this point that he met Thomas Edison at a convention in New York City.

Edison got him to explain his idea, and draw his plan on a menu card.

When Ford finished, Edison banged his fist on the table and said, "Young man, that's the thing; you have it!

Keep at it!"

This word of encouragement from the world's greatest inventive genius is just what Ford needed.

He wrote, "That bang on the table that night was worth world's to me."

He went back from that convention and built his engine.

He had it in him to do it, but it may never have gotten done without that encouragement from Edison.

Ralph Waldo Emerson spoke wisdom when he said, "Our chief want in life is somebody who shall make us do what we can."

Paul was striving to be that person to the Corinthian Christians.

He was trying to be that external stimulus that motivates people to be all they can be.

In part one of our study of success we stressed the basic truth that the arena where the battle for success is fought is within.

We must never lose sight of this truth.

Dr. Maxwell Maltz, the celebrated plastic surgeon and psychologist, and author of Psycho-Cybernetics, wrote, "Your mind is the battleground in which you win or lose....it is a battleground in which you lose the war against negative feelings or in which you win this essential battle and go on to face life with success-type approaches."

Because this is a vital part of the story of successful living, Paul emphasizes, "Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus."

A vital part is not the whole, however.

The heart is vital, but it is not the whole of the body.

The battle is within, but it is also a fact that a successful battle within depends upon influences from without.

It is almost impossible to be successful alone.

We need the positive influences of others to bring out the best in us.

Victor Goertzel and his wife read over 5,000 volumes of biography to produce their book Cradles Of Eminence.

They examine the childhood and home life of 400 of the most famous men and women of the 20th century.

They concluded that if you want to be successful you have got to be influenced by the right people.

In the majority of cases these successful people were influenced by one or both parents who had a strong drive toward intellectual or creative achievement.

The external influence of someone is what motivated them to will to win within.

Joseph Brunten Jr., who was born and educated in Pittsburgh, tells of the influence that motivated him to climb to Chief Scout Executive of Boy Scouts of America.

He was on a hike with a scout troop as a boy, and they had gone a long way and were tired.

When the scout master said to rest they all flopped on the grass.

Then the scout master said, "Look about you.

What do you see?"

All in chorus they shouted, "Grass!"

He ordered each patrol to lash 4 sticks together in a crude frame about a foot square, and place it on the ground.

This was to be their world for the next hour.

The boys were puzzled, but they began to observe.

In minutes they realized there was more than just grass.

There was a world of great variety with different plants, spiders, mites, earthworm mounds, and even a bit of fluff off a rabbit's tail.

There were rock particles, pebbles, and minerals.

Joseph never forgot that experience, and he writes, "In one hour I received one of the most important lessons I have ever had in my life.

I learned to observe instead of just to see.

I learned to look below the surface instead of to judge by appearance."

The scout master happened to be his father, and this lesson on seeing was a motivating factor in his success.

Success through seeing is common for successful people, for they usually see more than others.

William T. Brady, one of America's most successful executives, told of the little girl who was taken for a cruise around Manhatten Island on a clear day.

Suddenly she exclaimed, "Daddy, I can look farther than my eyes can see."

Brady who knows what success is all about said that is the key- to look farther than our eyes can see.

The person who can help us do that is a key factor in our success.

The Apostle Paul was being that person to the failing Corinthian Christians.

They were failing because they were superficial.

They saw only in front of their noses.

Paul lifted their sights to the future and to eternity.

Look ahead to the day of judgment and reward said Paul.

Build what will last, or in the end you will lose.

Parents need to help their children see the future, and not let them get locked into the present as all there is.

Paul is striving to be that positive parental influence in the lives of these spiritual children that will lead them upward and onward to successful Christian lives.

He is scolding them like foolish children that they might wake up, grow up, look ahead, and become more mature in Christ.

This analogy from the family is not forced on the text, but is actually found in the context.

In chapter 4 verses 14-16 we read, "I do not write this to make you ashamed, but to admonish you as my beloved children.

For though you have countless guides in Christ, you do not have many fathers.

For I became your father in Christ Jesus through the gospel.

I urge you then be imitators of me."

This means that the pattern for Christian success follows the same principle as the pattern for success in all realm of life.

Parental influence is a key to success in the physical and spiritual life.

The battle has to be won within, but in order for this to happen there must be an openness to positive external influence.

As third parties looking on we can put ourselves in either the place of the influencer(Paul), or the influencees(Corinthians).

In order to grow ourselves we need to let the text speak to us, and in order to be a help to others we need to examine what Paul is doing in the text.

Why does he take this approach, and what is its value for us today?

Lets examine first the fact that it is-

I.

A NEGATIVE APPROACH.

Paul is so negative here that we know their must be another paradox involved, for he is a positive thinker.

We can only conclude that somehow a negative approach is sometimes the most positive method of influence.

He tells it like it is, and what is isn't very good.

He tells them that they are not spiritual at all.

They are so unspiritual that they can't appreciate all the gourmet spiritual food he has for them.

He would like to throw a banquet and have a feast, but all they are fit for is a baby bottle of milk.

Paul is expressing his own frustration.

In the previous chapter he has written of the marvelous wisdom God has revealed.

He has revealed secrets beyond what the eyes of man have ever seen, or the ears of man have ever heard, or the mind of man ever conceived.

He has knowledge that is possessed only by the mind of god Himself, and he ends chapter two by saying, "We have the mind of Christ."

Paul is already ready for the marriage supper of the Lamb.

He is in on the secrets of the ages.

He is sinking the teeth of his mind into spiritual steaks as thick as the skulls of these Corinthian Christians.

He now comes to chapter three and he has to start with a but.

The feast is ready, but you are not.

The meat is available, but you cannot digest it.

There is always a but that breaks in between the ideal and the real.

Success is in getting rid of that but.

When the Christian life is murdered it is not mystery.

It is not the butler, but the but that did it.

The potential is there, but it never becomes actual because of that but.

Here is the Apostle Paul with a degree from the school of direct revelation from God, and he is stuck with a class of babes.

They not only do not have the capacity to digest anything but milk, but they even fight over the milk.

They are so childish in their jealousy and strife that Paul says they are no different than ordinary men.

They are so shallow in their spiritual life that the naked eye cannot detect any distinction between them and the non-Christian.

That is really sharp rebuke, and not constructive criticism.

It is cutting negative criticism.