Sermon Tone Analysis

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.

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

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

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

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.

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

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

The question we are really needing to honestly answer is… what is your worldview?

Last week we saw the real analysis of how much the world is affecting us here in the church as a whole today.

We saw that we are easily deceived by false teachers because we are still blinded and influenced by the ways of the world.

Just like the Colossians were still deceived by the patterns of the world and so they were easily deceived by the false teachers of their age, we too are in need of the removal of the blinders and to be in the light as He is in the light.

The deception is real and we have got to be prepared.

Like I said a few weeks ago, how in the world are we supposed extinguish the darkness with light, when we have no light?

How do we identify what is false if we do not know what is true?

How in the world can you have a biblical worldview, if we don’t know the Bible?

The more biblically illiterate we are, the less of a Christian worldview we are gonna have.

We have seen countless studies from Pew Gallup and Barna that show us without question just how biblically illiterate we are in our country.

Even worse how biblically illiterate we are in the church.

“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.

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.

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

And if this is the case… our churches are ripe and ready to host a widespread collection of false teaching leading the masses down the broad and wide road on their way to destruction.

Many who will say Lord Lord… Jesus will say depart from me I never knew you.

And the reality of this scripture… these people thought they were Christians.

It is the reality of deception.

Last week I mentioned the famous quote from Samuel Bolton, “if you would serve Christ for something, you will serve the devil for more.”

People would tell me concerning this… “if I saw the devil was trying to give me a million dollars I would not take it.

Of course you would not, if the devil was in his red suit with fangs with a bi-forkated tail and a pitchfork carrying a black suitcase with 10 million dollars in it, of course not.

But that is not how he will appear...

Now if an angel in all of its glory hands you a case of 10 million dollars that’s different.

We are deceived in thinking that we are doing good when we are really sinning in a major way.

Deception is real… and a great way to tell that you are deceived, is for no reason at all believe that you are not deceived.

That is the definition of deception.

You think you are doing good, but you are not.

And you don’t know it.

It is all about worldly matters, it is about human, not divine teaching, and it is not gonna change anything for the better.

This is the truth about the ways of the world.

Let’s continue.

The grass withers the flower fades but the Word of our God stands forever.

Will Not Sanctify

The Word is Forever

The first thing we will look at is how the ways of the world will not bring the change we are looking for, what we are deeply needing, what we are hoping for, no matter how much we sacrifice.

Second, it is only in Christ, by the power of the Holy Spirit, that we will find real transformation, real life, and real hope.

Thesis: Though sin and the pattern of this world cause us to see life though the lens of a secular worldview with its passions and desires, it is the truth of scripture and the power of the Holy Spirit that will cause us to be transformed by the renewing of our mind because of the grace and mercy of Christ and Christ alone.

I. Will Not Sanctify

- We are in the world but we are not of the world.

A. Remember from last week we saw how the false teachers were able to find their way into the church because many in the Colossian church were preoccupied with the ways of the world.

And the false teaching had more in-line with the matters of the world more than the matters of God.

B. Paul and Timothy made it very clear that the world should not preoccupy us because we are in fact dead to the world and we have nothing to do with it anymore.

Do not live in accordance to the pattern of this world as it you were still alive to it.

Whatever you may have owed the world and what ever the world may have owed you… none of it matters anymore… you are dead to it.

Though you live in the world, you are no longer of it.

No no no.

C.

But it is because of this preoccupation to this world we follow the false teaching that support the ways of the world.

And the abundance of false teaching in our culture today finds its place because we are still of the world.

The ways and priorities of the world are implanted in our hearts and this affects what we will believe.

D. Today we are heavily influenced by the philosophy of the enlightenment with more modern, Albert Camus, Sarte, Rand, Carl Jung, Richard Dawkins and of course the propositions of Dewey and James and the other Harvard proponents of pragmatism.

Now we see things not in light of right and wrong, but success and failure.

All things today are judged by success and failure.

Remember the example I gave last week.

The affect of calling someone a bad person vs. calling them a loser.

Help me God… I feel like a bad person.

Today, its more Help me God I feel like a failure.

We are devastated when we feel like a failure, more than feeling like a bad person.

We struggle when we feel like a bad person, but we are crushed when we feel like a failure.

Right = Success and Wrong = Failure.

E.

Where pragmatism is prevalent is our obsession with the will of God.

What is very very consistent… many times when I am asked of God’s will or sermons on God’s will.

The secret to the will of God for our lives, it is never about God’s will concerning right and wrong… it is about what way will succeed and to avoid the ways that will fail.

When we say things like it was totally the will of God, what are basing it on?

Right or wrong or success or failure.

It is almost always success and failure.

God is not concerned about our accomplishments, he is concerned about our heart.

We should be more concerned about the will of God he has already given, then the ones we don’t know.

The Bible actually warns us of what we are trying to do.

F. There are things that the false teachers teach in our culture today that seem super outlandish and fake.

We know it is so false, but people believe it anyway.

There are fake miraculous displays of false teachers who have oil flowing from their hands and you can see the oil squirting out of tubes on stage.

When you walk into healing services and people are collecting information from people walking into the building.

Gold glitter coming out of air vents.

Pushing people down when they pray for others.

Empty out your bank account today and God will bring you millions in return.

G.

It is so out there, but many will believe it, because we are desperate for it to be true.

It will make it all right because success is in the air.

Water for Elephants - "The only really authentic miracle is success.

It washes away old sins."

Many people today believe this.

Our world is that way… successful people are above the law.

Athletes, politicians, entertainers… no good or bad people, just winners and losers.

And we want it to be true so bad that we will believe anything and everything, if it brings us success.

People flock to the false teaching and run away from the truth… why?

Because the scriptures do not support the wisdom of this world.

The scriptures do not agree with the philosophies of this world.

The scriptures do not teach what we really want to hear.

The scriptures teach God’s way not man’s ways.

The scriptures show some thing so much different.

H. Jesus made it clear that when the disciple would go out to preach there were gonna be those who they would not win over.