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.
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Tone of specific sentences

Tones
Emotion
Anger
Disgust
Fear
Joy
Sadness
Language
Analytical
Confident
Tentative
Social Tendencies
Openness
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Extraversion
Agreeableness
Emotional Range
Anger
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Offering
As Christians we are called to care for the poor and weak.
Institutionalized compassion can quickly become the least transformational form of Christian compassion.
In fact, it risks losing its mission altogether without a vigilant effort to keep Christ and His Kingdom central to the activities.
On the other hand, personal acts of kindness and generosity are the most powerful and transformational expressions of Christian compassion.
It is always more powerful when help comes from a person than a program.
As a Church we have a benevolence program and are committed to giving a portion of our monthly income to the poor.
But I want to encourage each of you to guard your hearts and keep your compassion alive.
When you see a person in need, see them as Jesus, for Jesus said, when you have done it to the least of these, you have done it unto me.
I want to Thank Chuck for the work he has done in designing our new Giving Envelopes and Guest cards.
We hope to install new Communion cup holders on each row soon to make it more convenient for you to access the giving envelopes.
I do want to clarify one thing about our new giving envelopes though.
Last year when Pastor Calvin was here, he strongly recommended to us that we add the legal disclaimer you can now read at the bottom of the envelopes.
We really wrestled with this, but felt it wise to heed Pastor Calvin’s counsel.
Read the statement.
Let me clarify why we put this statement on here.
In no way does it mean that we plan to reallocate designated funds.
In fact, just the opposite.
We have gone to great lengths in revising our accounting system to track every designated penny and to put it where it belongs.
Especially as it relates to missions, but also across the board.
You can ask any of our board members, and they will tell you that we are tracking our designated funds carefully and endeavoring as best we can to put every penny where it belongs.
The only reason we put that statement on the new envelopes is because it is an IRS requirement.
We would not even be able to move tithe funds to pay for Sunday School Materials, or to support the youth department, etc. if we did not have this statement on our envelopes.
I don’t personally like the statement, but Pastor Calvin instructed me that because it is an IRS requirement to every reallocate any funds, we would be well served to include it on our giving envelopes.
Mudwrestling Mommas
I don’t know about you, but that title is a terrible mental image.
What one generation tolerates, the next generation will embrace.
Abraham and Sarah tolerated Abraham having a child through Hagar.
Now Jacob, Leah and Rachel embrace this practice.
2 Jacob became angry with her and said, “Am I in the place of God, who has kept you from having children?”
3 Then she said, “Here is Bilhah, my servant.
Sleep with her so that she can bear children for me and I too can build a family through her.”
4 So she gave him her servant Bilhah as a wife.
Jacob slept with her, 5 and she became pregnant and bore him a son.
6 Then Rachel said, “God has vindicated me; he has listened to my plea and given me a son.”
Because of this she named him Dan.
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7 Rachel’s servant Bilhah conceived again and bore Jacob a second son.
8 Then Rachel said, “I have had a great struggle with my sister, and I have won.”
So she named him Naphtali.
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Pride Strives To Provide For Self
Rachel fails to pray and instead of trusting God and depending on God, she devises her own plan to get children- give her servant to her husband.
It works.
You can see pride seep in as she names her son Naphtali, which means struggle, declaring:
“I have had a great struggle with my sister, and I have won.”
Love suffers when pride prevails.
Competition springs up when pride is present.
Marriage and childbirth are reduced to means of control and competition.
As long as pride thrives, grace dies.
As pride dies, grace can thrive.
My pride leads me to conclude I have done well by my own efforts, and therefore I expect others to do the same.
When they fail I become unwilling to extend grace.
At the same time, when I fail I can no longer be honest about my failures, because that erodes the foundation of my pride- my belief that I have done well in my own strength.
Therefore I either become driven to perform better or dishonest about my performance- or both.
Either way, the grace I have failed to extend to others I too am now deprived of.
Humility acknowledges my own failures and imperfections, and depends on God's grace to survive day by day.
And that same grace I have received, I am now prepared to offer others- because there is an abundant supply of it flowing into my heart from the Father.
As long as pride thrives, grace dies.
As pride dies, grace can thrive.
God later remembers Rachel, but one has to wonder if she might have born children sooner if she had relied on prayer and not her own scheming.
Prayer Trusts God to Provide
Leah is wounded by her rejection.
She knows Jacob loves Rachel more.
So she seeks to earn Jacob’s love through childbirth.
Your heart has to go out to Leah.
She is forced on a husband that does not love her by a father who views her as little more than property to be traded for profit.
She finds herself the neglected wife in a vicious love triangle, competing with her sister for their husbands love.
This is such an open matter of dispute in the family that when her first son is born she names him Reuben, which means “See, a son” saying Because the Lord has looked on my affliction, for now my husband will love me.
She names her second son Simeon, which means heard, saying “God has heard I am hated.”
She names her 3rd son Levi meaning attached, saying “Now this time my husband will be attached to me, because I have born him 3 sons.”
Trying to earn someone’s love is never a good idea.
If they do not love you for you, they will never really love you for what you do.
But finally Leah turns her heart away from competing with Rachel and trying to earn Jacob’s love to giving glory to God when she names her 4th son Judah.
And it is through Judah that God promises the Messiah will one day be born.
So what we see is this: Praise prepares the way for Jesus.
Someone said: When you enter His presence with praise, He enters your circumstances with power.
As long as pride thrives, grace dies.
As pride dies, grace can thrive.
My pride leads me to conclude I have done well by my own efforts, and therefore I expect others to do the same.
In her pain, Leah turns more and more towards the Lord.
She depends on God.
This is the essence of humility: recognizing we cannot fix our problems and we need God’s help.
When they fail I become unwilling to extend grace.
At the same time, when I fail I can no longer be honest about my failures, because that erodes the foundation of my pride- my belief that I have done well in my own strength.
Therefore I either become driven to perform better or dishonest about my performance- or both.
Either way, the grace I have failed to extend to others I too am now deprived of.
Humility acknowledges my own failures and imperfections, and depends on God's grace to survive day by day.
And that same grace I have received, I am now prepared to offer others- because there is an abundant supply of it flowing into my heart from the Father.
As long as pride thrives, grace dies.
As pride dies, grace can thrive.
Humility declares, "I am not the savior.
I cannot do it all.
God never intended for me to do it all."
And it can then rest, restore and return for even more effective service.
Pride says, "I am the only one.
It all depends on me.
I cannot rest, I must work more, work harder."
Pride often cleverly disguises itself as dedication, but it is not.
Dedication to the Lord leaves us humble and dependent on him.
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