Sermon Tone Analysis

++

SLIDE 3

-

Intro:

Daniel Webster said: “If religious books are not widely circulated among the masses in this country, I do not know what is going to become of us as a nation.

If truth be not diffused, error will be.

If the evangelical volume does not reach every community, the pages of a corrupt and licentious literature will.

“If the power of the Gospel is not felt throughout the length and breadth of the land, anarchy and misrule, degeneration and misery, corruption and darkness, will reign without mitigation or end”.

++

Daniel Webster was a smart man… he had foresight and understanding that has proven quite true over the years…

++

It all happens so slowly.

Our standards change.

We reduce.. we compromise.. we make excuses.. we reason..

And pretty soon.

We are content, we are.. claiming satisfaction..

++

.. with what?

A different kind of marriage… a different kind of work-place ethic… a different kind of parenthood… a different kind of perspective…

It’s gone through this digression..

And now.. what you have is quite different that what it used to be.

You co-exist..

And.. somehow… you’re content w/it.

++

The passion, the dates, the get a ways, the spontaneity..

No more!

Now.. it’s simply a companionant coexistence..

And, you sometimes, quietly ask..

“How’d it get this way?”

++

maybe, it’s your job.

You went through this digression..

++

And now.. you’re just going through the motions..

Your drudging your way through it, day after day..

Just, getting by.. just, doing the bare minimum.. just, passing time..

The zeal.. the drive.. the integrity to do it good and do it right..

There are so many things in life that we can look at and ask… after some time… we wonder: “How did it get this way?” “How did this change happen?” - “Why are my thoughts, my perspectives, my outlooks, my convictions… so different now than they were before?”

… No more!

Now.. you barely can handle going to work.. you hate it..

But, what else is there to do?

++

And sometimes, you quietly ask..

“How’d it get this way?”

++

When we come to this place every week, and we consider what our Bible’s say… we are often led to ask this about our spiritual life…

++

++ “How’d it get this way?”

It’s not what it used to be… “How’d it get this way?”

++

Quietly: “How’d it get this way?”

It’s a pretty simple answer..

When the good stuff stops coming in..

Something else.. is going to take its place.

++

This was Daniel Webster’s projection..

When the Good Word of God stops coming in..

Something else will..

++

When the truth of God’s Word is shut out and despised..

Something else.. is going to start pouring in.

++

Apply that to your job..

Apply that to the relationships you have w/one another.

Apply that to the relationship you have… with God!

++

We all should be able to make this honest admission.

When we cut back on the Word.. when we cut back on the fellowship.. when we cut back on the service and the worship.. – something else.. will take that place..

++

And the heart.. the attitude.. the joy that was once there, as a product of your spiritual life.. is not the heart, nor the attitude.. nor the joy.. that you are experiencing… after “cutting back”

++

If the good stuff is not coming in.. something else will..

AND IT WILL.. effect us greatly.

Today’s passage of study opens up w/this comment.

“ebad company ruins good morals.”

++

Things work best for us, as spiritual people..

When our minds are opened up, and we are pouring spiritual things into it.

++

As believers.. we are designed for this.. we need this.. this is what makes us operate well..

But when other stuff starts pouring in..

….the worries, the fears, the stresses, the mundane, the mindless, the anxious, the lustful, the greedy…..

What happens?

++

No longer is the influence of spiritual things upon our spiritual life pure..

Now.. it’s corrupt.

++

If you leave America or Canada.. and get a glass of water out of the spigot, it might look clean.. it might look clear.. it might seem to be.. w/o corruption..

++

However.. unseen to the naked eye..

There are certain kinds of bacteria.. and .. single cell life forms..

And when they pour into your mouth, and run down into your stomach..

Something bad.. usually happens..

++

I’m telling you from experience,

The outcome.. is unpleasant.

++

It’s painful.. it’s untimely.. and, if I may be so blatant.. it stinks!

It doesn’t take much..

Just a little bit of the bad..

can corrupt, a whole lot of the good.

++

Maybe they washed those tomatoes with tap water… and in the tiny amount of residue that is left on that tomato… there are bacteria...

++

Those bacteria alone won’t hurt you… but, in no time flat… they begin to multiply… and what was maybe a drop of water… turns into a whole lot of misery.

For there, it was a stomach thing.. a lower intestinal thing.. and it was all due to a tiny bit of corruption in something I shouldn’t have eaten or should not have drunk.

++

++

Spiritually speaking… it’s not that different.

it doesn’t take much bad company… to ruin good morals.

++

things like: fear, regret, anger, pride, slothfulness and down right selfishness…

The outcome.. is similar.. – What comes out.. is painful.. untimely.. and.. if I may be so blatant.. it stinks!!!

Here’s what I know from personal experience… when a little bad comes into my life… and don’t counter react with a reliance upon God and His Word… then it quickly has an affect on me..

I shouldn’t be giving Biblical counsel.

I shouldn’t be up here teaching the Word.

If I’m upholding my end of the deal to be:

blameless, the husband of one wife, temperate, sober-minded, of good behavior, hospitable, able to teach; 3 not 2 given to wine, not violent, 3 not greedy for money, but gentle, not quarrelsome, not 4 covetous; 4 one who rules his own house well, .. 6 not a 5 novice, AND.. having a good testimony among those who are outside….

If I’m not walking in these qualifications..

which are laid before me.. in I Timothy..

Then what business do I have?

++

None.

But here I am, week after week.

And sometimes, I’m here to teach you the word.. and I’m disqualified.

There’s been some corruption.

There’s been some cutting back.. and, some unfavorable input.

Those of you who are more discerning..

You can tell when things are off..

And since I’m a husband, a father, a friend, and a pastor… it also has an affect on the people around me.

++

But here’s the thing.. for me..