Sermon Tone Analysis

| *PRINTED* |

Becoming a Person of Balance in a Culture of Compulsions

!!! Restoring the Savor of Our Salt Series       Message # 11

 

 

In 1 Timothy 4, beginning in verse 6, Paul, speaking to Timothy, says, “If thou put the brethren in remembrance of these things, thou shalt be a good minister of Jesus Christ, nourished up in the words of faith and of good doctrine, whereunto thou hast attained.

7  But refuse profane and old wives’ fables, and exercise thyself rather unto godliness.

8  For bodily exercise profiteth little: but godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come.

9  This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation.

10  For therefore we both labour and suffer reproach, because we trust in the living God, who is the Saviour of all men, specially of those that believe.

11  These things command and teach.

12  Let no man despise thy youth; but be thou an example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity.”

I once visited a lady who was the most meticulous housekeeper I have ever encountered.

You go into her home and open the cupboards and the cans in there are all facing forward, the labels can be read.

There are little tiered steps going up.

Everything in the kitchen is inventoried.

If she used something, she wrote down on a list what she used so that it could be replaced.

The kitchen floor you could eat off of.

It was the kind of home that was meticulously taken care of that everyone going in there feels anxious about being there.

She had a catalog system for everything you could imagine—books, recordings.

Everything was in its place.

No one wears shoes in the house.

You took them off at the door, and she was not oriental.

On the surface, you might think to yourself, boy, that would be a great way to live—to be organized for a change.

To have life in some sort of sense.

But the fact is, I am convinced, this woman is just experiencing a very severe outbreak of one of the American diseases called compulsions.

There is a whole family of diseases in America that surround this idea of compulsion.

They are found in abundance in America, because Americans at the core are hungry people.

I’d like for you to think with me about this issue of some of the compulsive diseases in America.

I’m not going to belabor any of them.

Number one, I think Americans tend to be very impulsive people.

They are who act on what they feel like at the moment.

If they feel like buying a shirt, they buy a shirt.

If they feel like eating a bagel, they eat a bagel.

If they feel like moving somewhere, they move.

They do what they feel like doing at the moment.

They don’t reflect on what it means.

They don’t question what they are doing.

They don’t look at the consequences down the road.

Americans tend to be people of impulse.

Secondly, Americans tend to be people of addictions.

They tend to get hooked on things that they cannot stop.

They tend to have these choices in their lives that they cannot turn away from.

One of the most interesting verses in the New Testament is 1 Corinthians 6:12.

Paul said, “All things are lawful unto me, but all things are not expedient: all things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any.”

Paraphrase—“I can do anything I want to if Christ has not said no, but I won’t do anything that I cannot easily stop when I want to.”

The idea is, I will not be mastered by anything.

We tend to be people who let stuff master us.

Number three, America is also characterized by a disease called drivenness.

People decide that something is good and valuable, and they say to themselves, I will have it.

I don’t care what it costs.

Whatever I have to pay, I will get it.

So men and women are investing their health and their families and their reputations and their finances and their relationships—they are sacrificing everything because they said, I need this thing.

Issue number four.

Americans tend to be people of compulsion.

They are people who are not controlled by personal goals and by choice.

Rather, they are controlled by some sort of a habit that has gotten into their lives that they cannot turn away from.

I’ve read about people who wash their hands forty, fifty times a day.

Wash their hands so often that their hands become red and raw and the skin is injured and they start to bleed, but they cannot stop washing their hands.

I’ve heard of people missing their loved one’s funeral because it was on a Saturday and Saturday was the day to do the lawn.

There are people who weigh themselves three times a day.

Compulsive behaviors that they just can’t seem to turn away from.

Number five.

Americans tend to be people of extremes.

We tend to be out of balance in our lives.

Rather than being content with one nice antique, we try to turn our home into a museum.

Rather than being content with forty or forty-five hours a week, we say to ourselves, I’ve got to give them eighty if I am going to get anywhere.

We tend to be people of extremes.

Number six.

Americans tend to be people with little or no self-discipline.

People who, even if they know what they ought to do, can’t seem to find the power to do what they should do.

They have all these things in their lives they want to do, things they know they should do, and feel absolutely powerless like captives and slaves, unable to do what they should do.

Finally, number seven, Americans tend to be people of imbalance.

People who are diligent masters of some area of their life, and who are letting other areas of their lives absolutely rot.

I’ve known of people who have incredible commitment to body-building.

Their physique is in wonderful shape.

They give huge energy to that pursuit.

But other aspects of their lives are in absolute shambles.

Their finances, their family, their relationships with their children—an absolute mess.

Because they are people of imbalance.

I want to ask you to think today about this whole issue of escaping the compulsive diseases of America, and to think today about your BQ—your balance quotient.

To say to yourself, Am I a person who is living a balanced life?

Or have I somehow gotten involved with some extremes, turned my life in a direction that is really not honoring to the Lord, nor encouraging to my friends around me.

Specifically today, I want to do two things.

Number one, I want to look at 1 Timothy 4:12, talk about this issue of living a balanced spiritual life.

And number two, I want to look very briefly at the end at this question, How do I escape compulsions in my life?

What is the beginning step to escape addiction?

How do I become a person who turns away from imbalance and extremes in my life?

Let’s look first of all at 1 Timothy chapter 4, verse 12. Paul says to Timothy, “Let no man despise thy youth; but be thou an example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity.”

Let’s talk about those six balance points that Paul was urging Timothy to follow.

Balance point # 1 is the question, what is the character of my speech?

A balanced Christian life means I am a person who has to say to myself, what is the character of my speech?

Does my speech matter to me as much as my portfolio, and my home, and my career?

God has some very basic guidelines for our speech.

First of all, to ask myself the question, is it truthful?

Ephesians 4:15—did I say what is true?

God is deeply committed to truth, and God is calling us for us to be people who say what is true.

Secondly, is the question, does my speech embody love for others?

Ephesians 4:15 again.

If I said something to someone, did they get the feeling that I loved them, or did they get the feeling I was out to batter them?

Am I speaking in loving ways?

And number three, do I speak in ways that build people up or that knock people down?