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
0.08UNLIKELY
Disgust
0.42UNLIKELY
Fear
0.09UNLIKELY
Joy
0.58LIKELY
Sadness
0.14UNLIKELY
Language Tone
Analytical
0.63LIKELY
Confident
0UNLIKELY
Tentative
0.14UNLIKELY
Social Tone
Openness
0.78LIKELY
Conscientiousness
0.62LIKELY
Extraversion
0.09UNLIKELY
Agreeableness
0.73LIKELY
Emotional Range
0.65LIKELY
Tone of specific sentences
Tones
Emotion
Language
Social Tendencies
Anger
< .5
.5 - .6
.6 - .7
.7 - .8
.8 - .9
> .9
Intro
Group intro -
Scripture
Scripture
Hear God speak, not self help or opinions
Hear God speak, not self help or opinions
Scripture transforms us
Scripture transforms us
It is the foundation for the other two
It is the foundation for the other two
Prayer
Prayer
Us speaking back to God
Us speaking back to God
Acknowledging the truth of scripture
Acknowledging the truth of scripture
Community
Community
The context that scripture and prayer are effective
The context that scripture and prayer are effective
Not just socializing - ministering the gospel to each other
Not just socializing - ministering the gospel to each other
Review
Studying Counterfeit Gods by Tim Keller
It is good to read through the chapter and make notes and questions
But not required - I am not quizzing anyone and it will all be covered
Intro lesson
Our world is still filled with idols
Not necessarily little Buddas or Zeus
Personal idols - such as love, family, money, power, health, etc.
Cultural idols - family, hard work, duty, & virtue but also freedom, self-discovery, & fulfillment
3 metaphors for idolatry
Love - what we daydream about
Trust - what we have to control
Obey - what are my most extreme emotions
Summed up as worship
Dream come true?
Keller starts the chapter talking about getting or not getting what you want.
Which is more tragic?
We typically say it is not getting what you want.
We never imagine that getting our heart’s deepest desires might be the worst thing that can ever happen to us.
Keller, T. (2011).
Counterfeit Gods: The Empty Promises of Money, Sex, and Power, and the Only Hope that Matters (p. 1).
New York: Riverhead Books.
Discuss
Does this make sense?
Discuss a moment in your life where you can recognize this dynamic?
Anna
A women who wanted children.
She got married late but was still able to have a couple of kids.
But it was not a dream come true.
Her overpowering drive to give her children a perfect life made it impossible for her to actually enjoy them.
Her overprotectiveness, fears and anxieties, and her need to control every detail of her children’s lives made the family miserable.
Keller, T. (2011).
Counterfeit Gods: The Empty Promises of Money, Sex, and Power, and the Only Hope that Matters (pp.
1–2).
New York: Riverhead Books.
Is Anna recognizable?
What desire of yours has turned into a nightmare?
v.24
Lusts of heart - deepest desires
God giving you over to your desire is a punishment
Why is it so bad?
v. 25
Exchanging worship - worshipping the creation instead of the Creator (idols)
We were designed to worship God, to worship anything else makes us incomplete
Said another way, to have idols is dehumanizing
The woman, Anna, who was ruining her children’s lives did not “love her children too much,” but rather loved God too little in relationship to them.
As a result, her child-gods were crushed under the weight of her expectations.
Keller, T. (2011).
Counterfeit Gods: The Empty Promises of Money, Sex, and Power, and the Only Hope that Matters (p.
3).
New York: Riverhead Books.
Abraham
Keller uses Abraham as a biblical example of this dynamic and how to break free (or more precisely be broken free)
Backstory
His call - Gen 12:1
His call to go
Called to leave (His home, country, & family)
His home, country, & family
He was called to be the father of many nations and a child to fulfill those promises
The difficulty of this call
The obvious difficulties of the original call
But he was 75 years old when he received this call
And childless
And despite the promise, 25 years elapse
God’s fulfillment of his promises
Despite Sarah’s barrenness and old age, she conceives
God provides the child of the promise
No man had ever longed for a son more than Abraham.
He had given up everything else to wait for this.
When his son came, he felt, then his community would finally see he hadn’t been a fool to give up everything to trust God’s word.
Then he would finally have an heir, a son in his own likeness, the thing all ancient Middle Eastern patriarchs wanted.
He had waited and sacrificed, and finally his wife had a baby and it was a boy!
Keller, T. (2011).
Counterfeit Gods: The Empty Promises of Money, Sex, and Power, and the Only Hope that Matters (p. 6).
New York: Riverhead Books.
The “question”
So everything is good now right?
Happily ever after?
But the question now was—had he been waiting and sacrificing for God, or for the boy?
Was God just a means to an end?
< .5
.5 - .6
.6 - .7
.7 - .8
.8 - .9
> .9