Sermon Tone Analysis

Overall tone of the sermon

This automated analysis scores the text on the likely presence of emotional, language, and social tones. There are no right or wrong scores; this is just an indication of tones readers or listeners may pick up from the text.
A score of 0.5 or higher indicates the tone is likely present.
Emotion Tone
Anger
0.12UNLIKELY
Disgust
0.13UNLIKELY
Fear
0.1UNLIKELY
Joy
0.64LIKELY
Sadness
0.16UNLIKELY
Language Tone
Analytical
0.63LIKELY
Confident
0UNLIKELY
Tentative
0.26UNLIKELY
Social Tone
Openness
0.91LIKELY
Conscientiousness
0.75LIKELY
Extraversion
0.18UNLIKELY
Agreeableness
0.36UNLIKELY
Emotional Range
0.62LIKELY

Tone of specific sentences

Tones
Emotion
Anger
Disgust
Fear
Joy
Sadness
Language
Analytical
Confident
Tentative
Social Tendencies
Openness
Conscientiousness
Extraversion
Agreeableness
Emotional Range
Anger
< .5
.5 - .6
.6 - .7
.7 - .8
.8 - .9
> .9
/“In the world but not of the world”/ is a formula you will commonly hear expressed that characterizes the Christian’s relationship to the world.
The implication is that Christians are to live differently than those who do not profess Christ as Savior.
To be in the world and of the world is to be worldly.
And yet many and varied are the opinions about what constitutes worldliness.
Many religious groups and denominations forbid, either explicitly or implicitly, certain behaviors that they catagorize as worldly.
In some Christian circles, smoking is still forbidden—it’s considered /“worldly”/ and therefore /sinful/.
(I once had a church member, who really liked his pipe, ask me with a grin and a wink, /“Pastor, will smoking send me to hell?”/
I responded with a grin and a wink, /“No, but it’ll sure make you smell like it.”/
He didn’t think that was funny at all).
Some Christians believe that drinking alcoholic beverages, or dancing, or listening to rock music or attending movies or play cards are “worldly” pursuits to be abstained from.
Just last week, one of our tweens asked me, /“Why don’t Baptists dance?”/
I said, /“Some do.”/
Some Baptists will look at fellow Methodists and Catholics who imbibe adult beverages and consider that /“worldliness”/.
But then again, most Pentecostals would consider the Baptist woman with her styled hair and who dresses in slacks as /“worldly”/.
I once heard a Pentecostal preacher refer to lipstick as “devil’s grease”.
He believed that using cosmetics was /“worldly”/.
And then there are the old-order Amish who are fighting the government’s demands that they place triangular warning reflectors on their buggies.
They consider the bright orange reflectors as too /“worldly”/.
In some Eastern European cultures, some Christians consider attending public sporting events as /“worldly”/.
My point is: /The Church’s definition of worldliness is often relative to the culture in which the Christian is living./
Although the present passage does not give us rules and regulations, it does make plain the incompatibility of love for the world and love for God.
John’s conception of worldliness goes far deeper than the idea of abstaining from certain behaviors that non-Christians tolerate.
Which may be why he didn’t give us a list of rules and regulations.
He calls his congregation to an active devotion to God that shapes all that they are and do.
The world is not simply a passive entity, but a rival for the allegiance of every person.
So this morning, let’s try to unpack what worldliness is and the dangers it poses to the Christian life.
1 I. THE WARNING AGAINST THE WORLDLY SYSTEM
* /“Do not love the world or anything in the world.
... ”/ (1 John 2:15, NIV84)
#. the text begins with a command—it's the only command in the text and therefore probably the main point
#.
everything else in the text is an argument, or incentive, for why we should not love the world
#.
John issues an emphatic warning to his congregation—they are not to love the world
#. the word love that John employs is the same term he uses in verse 10 where he speaks about the believer who loves his brother
#. the love which he has in mind is that of firm attachment, or intimate fellowship, and loyal devotion
#. he is not talking about a single incident but about a lifestyle
#. the early Christians believed that there had to be a dis-connectedness of the believer from the world
#.
listen to the Apostle James: /“You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world is hatred toward God? Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.”/ (James 4:4, NIV84)
#. listen to the Apostle Paul: /“Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.
Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.”/
(Romans 12:2, NIV84)
#. listen to the Apostle Peter: /“As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance.”/
(1 Peter 1:14, NIV84)
#. most importantly, listen to the Lord Jesus: /“Suppose one of you wants to build a tower.
Will he not first sit down and estimate the cost to see if he has enough money to complete it?
For if he lays the foundation and is not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule him, saying, ‘This fellow began to build and was not able to finish.’
“Or suppose a king is about to go to war against another king.
Will he not first sit down and consider whether he is able with ten thousand men to oppose the one coming against him with twenty thousand?
If he is not able, he will send a delegation while the other is still a long way off and will ask for terms of peace.
In the same way, any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple.”/
(Luke 14:28–33, NIV84)
* ILLUS.
This dis-connectedness is illustrated by an old gospel hymn written by Albert Brumley in 1965 entitled /This World is Not My Home/.
Brumley reminds us that this physical world is temporary—that /“we’re just pass’n through it"/.
Our real home is /“somewhere beyond the blue,”/ therefore we /“can’t feel at home in this world anymore.”/
#. the Apostle John is asserting in this passage that it we indeed feel at home in this world that this is a clear warning of our lack of loving God
!! A. LOVE FOR THE WORLD PERVERTS OUR CHRIST-LIKENESS
#. the word pervert has any number of meanings, one of which is: To change the inherent purpose or function of something
#. our purpose as a Christian is to live as Christ lived in the world
* /“Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.
Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.
For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.”/ (Colossians 3:1–3, NIV84)
#. our functioning as a Christian is compromised when we love the world and the things of the world too much
#.
when we feel at home in this world then the world has become a rival for the allegiance of our heart—a heart that must fully belong to God
#. the question, of course, is what world is the Apostle John referring to?
#. he does not mean the natural world—the world of creation
#.
John would not have commanded his readers to hate something that God in Genesis 1:31 pronounced was originally /“very good”/
#. even though creation itself is marred by the fall, nature’s physical beauties still reflect God’s glory and demand praise
* /“The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.
Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge.
There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard.”/
(Psalm 19:1–3, NIV84)
#. he does not mean the human world—the world of humanity
#. we are told that God so loved the world
#.
what world?
#. the world of people, of human beings
#. we are commanded to love God and to love our neighbor as our self
#. he does mean the fallen world—the world of civilization and culture that is dominated by sin and influenced by Satan
#. when the Apostle refers to the world in verse 16, he is referring to what we call the world order—the structures of culture, society and civilization
#. because we live in a fallen world, the world order is in rebellion against God and the things of God
#. evil permeates every segment of our culture and civilization because men—who are sinners by choice—are in control of culture and civilization
#. when the Apostle refers to “the things in the world” he is referring to a love of material objects or the things the world has to offer: wealth, power, prestige, and influence
#. the things of the world are not evil in and of themselves, but they are never meant to serve as replacements to God—which in a fallen world they frequently do
#.
a culture dominated by fallen men and saturated with sin—and every culture is —inevitably leads men away from the person of and truth of God
#. at it’s heart, this is what worldliness is
#.
what makes the world “worldly” is its persistent rejection of the claims of God in favor of its own values and desires
* ILLUS.
We have seen in recent days with the mandates from the President concerning health care coverage how secularism increasingly demands conformity from Christians to the demands of the culture when the culture knowingly insists that we violate our conscience.
We should not be surprised when the world demands our conformity to its ways.
In response, we must absolutely practice non-conformity!
#. the command do not love the world demands that we reject those ways of life which do not lead us to God or to the practice of truth, justice, righteousness and love
#. the Apostle does not advise the Christian to abandon this world or to live in seclusion
#. rather, he says that a believer should keep himself from a love for the world
!! B. LOVE FOR THE WORLD PUSHES OUT LOVE FOR THE FATHER
#. another reason you shouldn't love the world is that you can't love the world or the things of the world and God at the same time
#.
love for the world pushes out love for God, and love for God pushes out love for the world
* /“No one can serve two masters.
Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other.
You cannot serve both God and Money.”/
(Matthew 6:24, NIV84)
#. so don't love the world, because that would put you in the class with the God-haters whether you think you are or not
< .5
.5 - .6
.6 - .7
.7 - .8
.8 - .9
> .9