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
0.42UNLIKELY
Disgust
0.08UNLIKELY
Fear
0.12UNLIKELY
Joy
0.6LIKELY
Sadness
0.5LIKELY
Language Tone
Analytical
0.72LIKELY
Confident
0UNLIKELY
Tentative
0.74LIKELY
Social Tone
Openness
0.88LIKELY
Conscientiousness
0.71LIKELY
Extraversion
0.29UNLIKELY
Agreeableness
0.51LIKELY
Emotional Range
0.66LIKELY

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
Introduction:
This weekend, we begin a new series called “The Moral of the Story”.
There are three dozen parables in the gospels depending on who is counting.
Most of them are less than 250 words but they are full of amazing truth.
They are brilliant stories told by the wordsmith Jesus Himself and I want you to think of them as word paintings.
Each parable is intricately nuanced like any well-known art masterpiece hanging in the museums throughout the world.
So over the next seven weeks, we are going to play the curator’s game, if you will.
Illustration of me not being able to build much/building a bookcase.
But this parable isn’t about building a house or even a shelf, it is about building a life.
Life is a little bit like a shelf or bookcase project, there is a lot of construction but my hunch is that there are some of you who are in a little bit of deconstruction.
Maybe a little gut job needs to happen emotionally or spiritually and then reconstruction.
Maybe some of you are rebuilding a marriage or a reputation, so its really all of those things and everything in between.
So let’s talk about this parable.
Verse 25 says he build his house on the rock.
Luke’s version says he dug deep and laid a foundation on the rock.
Many people love the skyline of New York City but they would be even more fascinated with the city beneath the city.
Let me explain.
There are now 6,000 miles of sewers that run beneath New York City circulating 1.3 billion gallons of waste water.
There are 9,000 manhole covers in the city and they service those sewers along with 92,000 miles of utilities.
There are 722 miles of subway tracks beneath the city built about a hundred years ago.
If they were laid end to end, they would stretch from New York to Chicago.
When they first opened, it was quite the fascination for New Yorkers.
In fact, subway explorers would actually go in and walk down the tracks and the trains we slow moving so they could jump out of the way when the trains came.
They were called dodgers, which is where the Brooklyn Dodgers got their name.
So there is the skyline of New York and then there is the city beneath the city.
Then beneath the city that is beneath the city, that is the key because that’s where the rock is.
It has a name.
It is called Manhattan schist.
It is the rock that everything on that city is built on.
It is pretty critical.
In some places, bedrock is pretty close to street level.
Rockefeller Center got lucky because the Manhattan schist is pretty close to the surface, but the Woolworth building, which was the tallest building in the world until 1930, they had to dig down 120 feet to hit bedrock and once they did, they had to sink 69 concrete pillars into the ground.
Here’s my point, the above ground city is really just a mirror of the subterranean topography.
No matter what you are building, you have to find bedrock.
Stick with me.
In 1865, a civil engineer published a topographical map of the island of Manhattan and he superimposed the location of all the streams and waterways with a grid of the city streets.
Engineers continue to reference that 1865 map as the key to building.
Well, not everybody because when Chase Manhattan Plaza was built, the chief engineer did not look at this map.
If he had, he would have known that in 1865, a stream ran right over where they were digging and he discovered quicksand which made it very difficult to build.
Here’s my point, if you don’t build on a bedrock, you are in big trouble.
That’s it.
The subterranean topography is the key to what happens above the surface of the ground and I think that it true of our lives even more than it is true of a physical building.
Transition: So the question is – what is bedrock?
I think it is at least three things.
I think it is core beliefs, core values and core vision.
I. Core Values
We value a statement of beliefs on our website at www.fellowsvilleag.org
and I encourage you to check it out.
Let me tell you what I believe is essential, or what is bedrock theology.
The early church had a creed that was three words: Jesus is Lord.
That was it.
What we believe at Fellowsville AG is that Jesus lived a sinless life, fully God and fully man, lived a sinless life, died a substitutionary death on the cross bearing our sin and was raised again on the third day.
That is essential.
That is a litmus test if you will.
He is the Way, the Truth and the Life.
There is no under name under heaven given unto man by which you must be saved.
says
There are those three words: Jesus is Lord.
That is bedrock.
When all else fails, you need to be able to fall back on something.
I think might say it best:
That is bedrock.
Now, I have what I call fallback positions.
When all else fails, I fall back on these promises.
Do you have some fallback positions?
Here are some examples:
Sometimes when I feel a little lost or a little disoriented, I just need to remind myself that God is ordering my footsteps.
I believe that.
Those are examples of bedrock promises.
What are your core beliefs?
If you have not surrendered your life to the Lordship of Jesus Christ, that is where it starts.
That is where the spiritual journey begins.
That’s how you build your life on the rock.
II.
Core Values
Let me talk about core values.
The Message paraphrases verse 24 this way
24-25 “These words I speak to you are not incidental additions to your life.
They are foundational words, words to build a life on.”
24-25 “These words I speak to you are not incidental additions to your life.
They are foundational words, words to build a life on.”
There is no question here that Jesus is talking about the Word.
says that the Lord is watching over his Word to perform it.
So more important than anything else is that you build your life on the Word of God.
That is the foundation for us as believers.
Pastor Mark Batterson spoke about the importance of foundational words as he said:
“But let me ask, do you have some foundation words?
I think our family has four foundation words that we would love for those words to define us as a family.
They are humility, generosity, gratitude and courage.
Many years ago, we went through a process of trying to discern who we are, what we are about, what is our bedrock, what are our core values as a family.
I promise you we are works in progress!
< .5
.5 - .6
.6 - .7
.7 - .8
.8 - .9
> .9