HOW TO BOIL A FROG

Doesn’t everyone collect something?

How it all started

•Years ago I preached a sermon – How to Kiss a Frog•I was given a small plaque – “Kiss a bullfrog each morning and nothing worse will happen to you all day.”•It just grew from there – NOW – over 500 frogs, about 15 “frog” sermons

How to Boil a Frog

• Frogs are cold blooded – they adjust to their surroundings

• Very slowly increase the heat – they adjust• Increase too fast – they will jump out• APPLICATION FOR US:– We are no longer shocked– Things that used to bother us – don’t– How does that happen?

Galatians 6:1

• Brethren, if a man is overtaken in any trespass, you who are spiritual restore such a one in the spirit of gentleness, considering yourself, lest you also be tempted.

• We try to do our best, but we still stumble, sin, and fall away

• How does sin “sneak up” on us?

Church History

• Changes happened so SLOWLY – over several generations

• So slow and subtle – no one noticed how far they had drifted

• Hebrews 2:1 – Lest we drift away from them.• EXAMPLE: Ford – but the hood, brakes, doors,

wheels, engine, transmission – all Dodge• When does the Ford become a Dodge?

Application: Divorce

• Malachi 2:16b – The Lord God of Israel says that He hates divorce.

• After WWII the divorce to marriage ratio was 1 divorce for 19 marriages

• It has progressed – slowly:– Hollywood, movie stars– Wicked world of unbelievers– Weak religious people– Main stream conservative religious people– Now common in the Lord’s church

Application: Drinking

• Proverbs 20:1 – Wine is a mocker, strong drink is a brawler, and whosoever is led astray by it is not wise.

• Alcoholics, problem drinkers, occasional drinking, social drinkers

• Some argue – the sin is not drinking, but getting drunk.

• Drunkenness is a matter of degree.• WHEN YOU HAVE DRUNK ONE DRINK, YOU

ARE ONE DRINK DRUNK!

Application: Profanity

• Ephesians 4:29 – Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the brethren.

• 1939 – Gone With the Wind – was banned in many cities – because of one 4-letter word at the end of the movie.

• Today – all kinds of profanity – TV, Movies, Music, Children’s programs

Application: Profanity

• I heard 2 people in the church foyer talking about a movie one of them had seen.

• “It was a really good movie. It only had a few curse words and only one nude scene.”

• How much profanity, taking God’s name in vain, filthy, gutter, cursing – before we change the channel?

• Have you EVER walked out of a movie because of the language?

Application: Sexual Situations

• Adultery, Fornication, Lust, Same-sex marriage,

• Pornography – TV, Internet, movies, music, magazines

• Comedy? – Police dramas – Jerry Springer• We are being “flooded” with this smut from

every direction.• How did this happen?

Application: Sexual Situations

• How does the unthinkable become thinkable? Through slow, persistent, and quiet change. At a time when abortion, infanticide, and euthanasia are becoming widely accepted, you might wonder: What’s left that could possibly be called “unthinkable”? The answer: Pedophilia, the sexual exploitation of children.

Application: Sexual Situations

• In 1979, Dr. C. Everett Koop and Dr. Francis Shaeffer, in their book, Whatever Happened to the Human Race? Predicted that things considered unthinkable in the seventies would become thinkable in the nineties. This would happen, they predicted, because “the consensus of our socity no longer rests on a Judeo-Christian base, but rather on a humanistic one.

Application: Sexual Situations

• Colossians 3:5 – Mortify (put to death) fleshly lusts

• Galatians 5:19 – Works of the flesh are – see the list that follows – adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness

• 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 – Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, will inherit the kingdom of God.

Application: Drugs

• “Just a little marijuana won’t hurt you.”• Then there is meth, crack, cocaine, heroin• There is also abuse of prescription

medications (good when used as directed)• We can become dependent – this leads to

further abuse• 1 Corinthians 6:12b – All things are lawful, but

I will not be brought under the power of any.

Conclusion

• There is a small bush – called Sensitivity Bush– Just touch it – and it shakes and shimmers– Touch it again, and again, and again– The bush becomes less responsive

• Are we aware of the changes that have taken place in our lifetime?

• Are we being boiled – without being aware?