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
0.14UNLIKELY
Disgust
0.13UNLIKELY
Fear
0.11UNLIKELY
Joy
0.56LIKELY
Sadness
0.57LIKELY
Language Tone
Analytical
0.53LIKELY
Confident
0UNLIKELY
Tentative
0.06UNLIKELY
Social Tone
Openness
0.64LIKELY
Conscientiousness
0.66LIKELY
Extraversion
0.28UNLIKELY
Agreeableness
0.76LIKELY
Emotional Range
0.76LIKELY
Tone of specific sentences
Tones
Emotion
Language
Social Tendencies
Anger
< .5
.5 - .6
.6 - .7
.7 - .8
.8 - .9
> .9
SUMMARY
intro
the inclusive call
the exclusive call
the commitment
INTRO
Ever started something you couldn’t finish?
One of our kids tries to do that with his second helpings at dinner time.
Why did he pile up so much?
New rule: small second helpings!!
You have to count the cost before you commit!
Have you eve wonder why kids eat the way they do?
Like it’s painful to sit still.
I love sitting still?
Don’t you?
Illustrate sitting techniques
It hurts to do that!
Any way: kids: count the cost before you take seconds!
Ever seen a fight and thought: “That guy’s barking up the wrong tree!”
Jesus tells us to count the cost in this passage.
Why would He tell us to count the cost?
Ever seen a fight and thought: “That guy’s barking up the wrong tree!”
We will address that question near the end today.
Ever eaten at a restaurant that you were excited about, just to find that the food didn’t have much flavor?
First, let’s look at earlier verses and see a parable about what I will call: the Inclusive Call.”
Ever eaten at a restaurant that you were excited about, just to find that the food didn’t have much flavor?
THE INCLUSIVE CALL
kk
Luke 14:15-
The guests accepted an invitation to attend this feast well in advance.
The servant wet out near the hour it would begin to call the guests in.
The guests all gave lousy excuses:
A long real estate transaction
Proving recently purchased oxen
Recently married a wife—this wasn’t a war draft!
When a host planned a feast, he told his guests the day of the feast, but not the hour.
He had to know how many were coming so he could butcher enough meat and provide sufficient food.
The servants would then go out near the hour of the feast and tell the guests to come.
Remember, the guests in this story had already agreed to come; but then they backed out.
Their action and excuses were a terrible breach of etiquette as well as an insult to the host.
The three people all had feeble excuses.
In the East, real estate transactions are long and complicated; and how could he examine his property in the dark?
Furthermore, anybody who buys ten oxen without first testing them is a fool.
Finally, the third man’s wife really had nothing to do with the event, for women were not usually invited to public feasts.
It was only an excuse!
I think it was Billy Sunday who defined an excuse as “the skin of a reason stuffed with a lie.”
The person who is good at excuses is usually not good at anything else.
These three guests actually expected to get another invitation in the future, but that invitation never came.
So, the host had his servant go out and invite and compel all he could find.
They had no excuses.
The poor could not afford to buy oxen;
the blind could not go to examine real estate;
- the blind could not go to examine real estate; and the poor, maimed, lame, and blind were usually not given in marriage.
This crowd would be hungry and lonely and only too happy to accept an invitation to a free banquet.
and the poor, maimed, lame, and blind were usually not given in marriage.
This crowd would be hungry and lonely and only too happy to accept an invitation to a free banquet.
These men may have had only one reason for refusing the kind invitation: they were unprepared to attend such a fine dinner.
So, the servant constrained them to accept (see 2 Cor.
5:20).
They had no excuses.
The poor could not afford to buy oxen; the blind could not go to examine real estate; and the poor, maimed, lame, and blind were usually not given in marriage.
This crowd would be hungry and lonely and only too happy to accept an invitation to a free banquet.
Note: We are called to compel people exactly like that to accept Christ’s invitation.
People today make the same mistake that the people in the parable made: they delay in responding to the invitation because they settle for second best.
There is certainly nothing wrong with owning a farm, examining purchases, or spending an evening with your wife.
But if these good things keep you from enjoying the best things, then they become bad things.
The excuse-makers were actually successful people in the eyes of their friends, but they were failures in the eyes of Jesus Christ.
What a great parable to help us see God’s heart.
ILL
This parable was the text of the last sermon D.L. Moody preached, “Excuses.”
It was given on November 23, 1899 in the Civic Auditorium in Kansas City, and Moody was a sick man as he preached.
“I must have souls in Kansas City,” he told the students at his school in Chicago.
“Never, never have I wanted so much to lead men and women to Christ as I do this time!”
There was a throbbing in his chest, and he had to hold to the organ to keep from falling, but Moody bravely preached the Gospel; and some fifty people responded to trust Christ.
The next day, Moody left for home, and a month later he died.
Up to the very end, Moody was “compelling them to come in.”
What a great parable to help us see God’s heart to make use of His sacrifice on the cross.
God is compelling the lost to believe on Christ and come in to Him.
But these next words of Jesus present a “C” change:
THE EXCLUSIVE CALL
Jesus turned to the multitude and preached a sermon that deliberately thinned out the ranks.
He made it clear that, when it comes to personal discipleship, He is more interested in quality than quantity.
In the matter of saving lost souls, He wants His house to be filled (Luke 14:23); but in the matter of personal discipleship, He wants only those who are willing to pay the price.
Jesus gave three parables to explain why He makes such costly demands on His followers: the man building a tower, the king fighting a war, and the salt losing its flavor.
Wiersbe, W. W. (1996).
The Bible exposition commentary (Vol. 1, p. 232).
Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.
< .5
.5 - .6
.6 - .7
.7 - .8
.8 - .9
> .9