Sermon Tone Analysis

There's a battle between the eagle and the wolf.

The eagle inside of me

represents everything that is good and pure.

And even though it soars through the valleys,

it still lays its eggs on the mountain tops.

There's a wolf inside of me.

!

And the wolf preys upon my weaknesses

and justifies itself in the presence of the pack.

Who will win the war between the eagle and the wolf?

!  

! */The one that you feed/*

 

 

The words of Dag Hammarskjold -- Secretary General of the UN in the mid and late 1950's throb with wisdom:

 

You cannot play with the animal in you without becoming wholly animal, play with falsehood without forfeiting your right to truth, play with cruelty without losing your sensitivity of mind.

He who wants to keep his garden tidy doesn't reserve a plot for weeds.

“Sludging it or fudging it??” Or “Pardon me but your show Is slipping.

“

 

! n    *What is this “sludge?

*

!  

! James calls it moral filth.

It is that which is plainly corrupt and decadent.

I know of people in our society today who are quicker to identify evil in the world today then others who call themselves Christians.

It is the sort of thing that collects almost unconsciously and it carries a great cumulative effect.

Sludge in the gas tank.

Brought the car to a grinding hault.

Immorality is the cumulative product of small indulgences and minuscule compromises, the immediate consequences of which were, at the time, indiscernible.

n      Randy Alcorn in Leadership, Vol. 9, no.

1.

 

[Worldly] compromise is so hard to find.

It is not an issue that you easily identify, fight, picket, or bomb.

It's slippery.

It's illusive.

It conceals itself in the highest places and wraps its evil tentacles around the most bedrock truth.

It disguises itself with much good intention and, when uncovered, it excuses itself repeatedly with helpless cries of fatalism.

Compromise is primarily a heart issue and this is what makes it so hard to find.

How do you examine the heart?

n      John Fischer in Contemporary Christian Music (Feb.

1987).

Christianity Today, Vol.

31,  no.

11.

 

n      *“**Fudging” in spiritual living   *

 

Prevailing Sins

 

   A recent survey of Discipleship Journal readers ranked areas of greatest spiritual challenge to them:

 1.

Materialism

 2.

Pride

 3.

Self-centeredness

 4.

Laziness

 5.

(Tie) Anger~/Bitterness

 5.

(Tie) Sexual lust.

7.

Envy

 8.

Gluttony

 9.

Lying

 

   Survey respondents noted temptations were more potent when they had neglected their time with God (81 percent) and when they were physically tired (57 percent).

Resisting temptation was accomplished by prayer (84 percent), avoiding compromising situations (76 percent), Bible study (66 percent), and being accountable to someone (52 percent).

Discipleship Journal, 11-12~/92.

"To Verify," Leadership.

We cannot let the masses determine what is wrong or right for us.

We cannot do it on our own even.

There must always be a source in our lives that is more trustworthy and consistent.

It must be the Word of God.

Getting rid of the prevalent evil in our lives is to stay away from the type of sin that is commonly accepted.

Dealing with the “prevalent evil” is more difficult than dealing with those things that are obviously “filth” for that which is prevalent is that which is widely accepted and it is our acceptance of these things that weakens our society as a whole.

Sin arises when things that are a minor good are pursued as though they were goals in life.

If money or affection or power are sought in disproportionate, obsessive ways, then sin occurs.

And that sin is magnified when, for these lesser goals, we fail to pursue the highest good and the finest goals.

So then we ask ourselves why, in a given situation, we committed a sin, the answer is usually one of two things.

Either we wanted to obtain something we didn't have, or we feared losing something we had.

n      Augustine in The Confessions of St. Augustine (Christian Classics in Modern English).

Christianity Today, Vol.

36, no.

14.

 

Pride is a vice that ill suits those that would lead others in a humble way to heaven.

Let us take heed, lest when we have brought others so far, the gates should prove too narrow for ourselves.

For God, who thrust out a proud angel, will not tolerate a proud preacher, either.

For it is pride that is at the root of all other sins: envy, contention, discontent, and all hindrances that would prevent renewal.

Where there is pride, all want to lead and none want to follow or to agree.

-- Richard Baxter in The Reformed Pastor.

Christianity Today, Vol.

40, no.

9.

 

! *How To Clean Up My Act*

 

q      *No more Excuses* –

 

One of the worse things that we can do is to excuse our behavior under any grounds.

When we let ourselves off the hook regardless of how tempting it may be then we perpetuate our failure.

A person who wishes to make changes in his~/her life must be ruthless with himself if he wants to gain ground.

The reasons why I'm giving up sports:  football in the fall, baseball in the summer, basketball in the winter.

I've had it all.

I quit attending sports once and for all, and here are my 11 excuses:

 

1.

Every time I went, they asked for money.

2. The people I sat next to didn't seem friendly.

3. The seats were too hard and not comfortable at all.

4. I went to many games but the coach never came to call on me.

5.

The referees made decisions that I couldn't agree with.

6.

The game went into overtime and I was late getting home.

7. The band played numbers I'd never heard before and it wasn't my style of music.

8.

It seems the games are always scheduled when I want to do other things.

9.

I suspect that I was sitting next to some hypocrites.

They came to see their friends and they talked during the whole game.

10.

I was taken to too many games by my parents when I was growing up.

11.

I hate to wait in the traffic jam in the parking lot after the game.

In the gardens of Hampton Court you will see many trees entirely vanquished and well nigh strangled by huge coils of ivy that are wound about them like snakes.

There is no untwisting the folds, they are too giant-like, and fast fixed, and every hour the tiny roots of the climber are sucking the life out of the unhappy tree.

Yet there was a day when the ivy was a tiny aspirant, only asking a little aid in climbing.

Had it been denied then, the tree would never have become its victim, but by degrees the humble weakling grew in strength and arrogance, and at last it assumed the mastery, and the tall tree became the prey of the creeping, insinuating destroyer.

The moral is too obvious.

Sorrowfully do we remember many noble characters who have been ruined little by little with insinuating habits.

Drink has been the ivy in many cases.

Watch out, lest some slow advancing sin overpower you.