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
0.16UNLIKELY
Fear
0.19UNLIKELY
Joy
0.45UNLIKELY
Sadness
0.51LIKELY
Language Tone
Analytical
0.53LIKELY
Confident
0UNLIKELY
Tentative
0.49UNLIKELY
Social Tone
Openness
0.76LIKELY
Conscientiousness
0.47UNLIKELY
Extraversion
0.11UNLIKELY
Agreeableness
0.5UNLIKELY
Emotional Range
0.64LIKELY
Tone of specific sentences
Tones
Emotion
Language
Social Tendencies
Anger
< .5
.5 - .6
.6 - .7
.7 - .8
.8 - .9
> .9
* *
* *
*Intro*: There’s something about men and mountains.
As long as their have been mountains, there have been men who’ve tried to climb them, sometimes at great cost.
We all know the tallest mountain in the world is Mt.
Everest.
28,000 feet of snow and ice and danger.
Dozens of men have lost their lives trying to scale it.
The first to do it was Sir Edmund Hillary in 1953.
Since then hundreds have made it.
Not too long a go a blind man made it to the top and back!
I have my concerns about folks who find it necessary to risk so much to accomplish so little.
Christians don’t have to look for mountains to climb.
If they are doing things right, living for the Lord, the mountains will come to them.
Not mountains made of stone and dirt, but mountains made of difficulty and hardship.
Just look at God’s Word.
Can you find a single person who didn’t face some kind of major obstacle?
If you are doing things right, the mountains will come to you.
Count on it.
This morning I want you to understand that…
*Mountains are the insurmountable obstacles God puts in our lives.*
We’ll let the experiences of three men who faced three mountains teach us how to respond when a mountain gets in our way…
* *
I. The biblical accounts
*A. **David’s mountain*
You know this story, so I won’t go into great detail.
The Israelites were at war with the Philistines.
They gathered together for battle with one army on one mountain and one on the other.
But they were at a standstill.
The Philistines were so confident of their victory they challenged the Israelites to find one man who could defeat their greatest warrior.
For forty days their greatest warrior would challenge them from the valley, mocking them and their God.
This warrior was a monster:
*Then a champion named Goliath, from Gath, came out from the Philistine camp.
He was nine feet, nine inches tall** **and wore a bronze helmet and bronze scale armor that weighed 125 pounds.**
**There was bronze armor on his shins, and a bronze sword was slung between his shoulders.**
**His spear shaft was like a weaver’s beam, and the iron point of his spear weighed 15 pounds.
In addition, a shield-bearer was walking in front of him.** 1 Samuel 17:4-7 (HCSB)*
This guy was a mountain walking on two legs!
He was also an obstacle in the way of the Israelites.
And then little David, the shepherd boy came along to deliver cheese to his big strong brave brothers…
* *
*Then it happened when the Philistine rose and came and drew near to meet David, that David ran quickly toward the battle line to meet the Philistine.
And David put his hand into his bag and took from it a stone and slung it, and struck the Philistine on his forehead.
And the stone sank into his forehead, so that he fell on his face to the ground. 1 Samuel 17:48-49 (NASB95)*
* *
All that drama ends in two simple verses.
Bam!
The mountain is gone in five seconds.
Now we go back to an earlier time in Israel’s history.
The people of God are suffering under the thumb of the Midianites.
This is their mountain at this time…
*B.
**Gideon’s mountain*
One day a nobody named Gideon is beating out the wheat in a winepress (hiding!) and the Angel of the Lord appears to him and says, “The Lord is with you, O valiant warrior.”
Huh?
God finally convinces Gideon that the Midianites can be defeated.
He starts out with 32,000 men, but God says that’s too many.
The scaredy cats are asked to leave and 22,000 scurry home.
10,000 is still too many.
God culls it down to 300 of the best men.
Just 300 men to take down a mountain of an army…
* *
*When the three companies blew the trumpets and broke the pitchers, they held the torches in their left hands and the trumpets in their right hands for blowing, and cried, “A sword for the Lord and for Gideon!”
Each stood in his place around the camp; and all the army ran, crying out as they fled.
When they blew 300 trumpets, the Lord set the sword of one against another even throughout the whole army; and the army fled … and they pursued Midian.
Judges 7:20-23 (NASB95)*
* *
Three hundred men took on what the Scripture says was an army so vast it looked like a swarm of locusts.
What a victory.
The last man we’ll look at this morning is way over in the NT.
I know you’ve heard of him.
His name is Paul…
* *
*C. **Paul’s mountain*
Paul waged a one-man campaign against the Christians and then he saw Jesus.
Everything changed.
As Paul heads to Damascus, the Lord speaks to Ananias and reveals the mountain in his life…
* *
*But the Lord said to him, “Go, for he is a chosen instrument of Mine, to bear My name before the Gentiles and kings and the sons of Israel; Acts 9:15 (NASB95)*
* *
There are twelve apostles to handle the Jews, yet God assigns one apostle to all the Gentiles!
Gideon’s odds were better.
But amazingly, during the lifetime of Paul it was said of him that he upset the world…
* *
*… they began dragging Jason and some brethren before the city authorities, shouting, “These men who have upset the world have come here also; Acts 17:6 (NASB95)*
All of us here this morning are the fruit of Paul’s ministry.
* *
Three men, three mountains, one great big God!
From their stories we learn…
* *
*II.
**A few things about mountains*
Whenever we face a mountain in life, there are three choices available.
A.
*Walk away from it*
If anyone had a reason to walk away from a mountain, it was Evelyn Husband.
Her husband was killed in the Columbia space shuttle tragedy, leaving her with two small children and a broken heart.
But she didn’t walk away, and in God’s strength she saw the mountain of living a life without Rick move.
God has used her to help many people.
Another thing you can do is…
B.
*Go around it*
You can try to find a way to avoid having to deal with it.
David could have sought a compromise Goliath.
Gideon could have sought a truce.
Paul could have done just enough to get by and felt justified in that.
But whenever we try to go around a mountain God has put in our life, we spend the rest of our days living with what if’s and deep regret.
* *
In the late 1940s, Charles Templeton was a close friend and preaching associate of Billy Graham.
He effectively preached the gospel to large crowds in major arenas.
However, intellectual doubts began to nag at him.
He questioned the truth of Scripture and other core Christian beliefs.
He finally abandoned his faith and made an unsuccessful attempt to persuade Billy to do the same.
He felt sorry for Billy and commented, "He committed intellectual suicide by closing his mind."
< .5
.5 - .6
.6 - .7
.7 - .8
.8 - .9
> .9