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
0.15UNLIKELY
Disgust
0.09UNLIKELY
Fear
0.11UNLIKELY
Joy
0.59LIKELY
Sadness
0.54LIKELY
Language Tone
Analytical
0.76LIKELY
Confident
0UNLIKELY
Tentative
0.4UNLIKELY
Social Tone
Openness
0.73LIKELY
Conscientiousness
0.91LIKELY
Extraversion
0.03UNLIKELY
Agreeableness
0.75LIKELY
Emotional Range
0.63LIKELY
Tone of specific sentences
Tones
Emotion
Language
Social Tendencies
Anger
< .5
.5 - .6
.6 - .7
.7 - .8
.8 - .9
> .9
I came across a TV show a while back called “Bait Car”.
I couldn’t stop watching it.
The police would take a car and leave it in a high crime area and then sit back and watch.
Eventually the temptation was too great for someone and they would come over and check it out.
And more often than not you could hear them as they were tempted to steal it.
My favorite was when a friend would say, “Looks like one of them bait cars the police use, don’t do it.”
But they would any way.
Then the fun would start.
The engine would die, the doors would lock and they were stuck.
Invariably you would hear them say, “I knew I shouldn’t have taken this.”
Temptation is that way.
It slowly lulls us to sleep and before we know it we find ourselves in a situation we can’t imagine and we are left wondering how we got there.
We never planned on ending up there.
This morning, James shifts from talking about outside trials and tests in our lives to addressing temptations, those internal struggles we all have.
When we left off last week James told us:
Blessings come to those who stand strong in trials.
And what we will see today is we are also blessed when we resist temptations.
A wrong responses to temptations, just like trials, will stunt our spiritual growth and keep us from blessings.
Trials and temptations are often grouped together, but we need to understand the difference between the two.
James helps us with this as he looks at the:
Source of Temptation
Trials/tests may come from God but,
Temptation Does Not Come From God
It is easy to dismiss our responsibility in temptation if we can say it comes from God.
If I am tempted by God, then it must be God’s fault if I fall to temptation.
Does that make sense?
If God hadn’t tempted me, I would never have gotten into this mess.
James nips this right in the bud.
Don’t you say God is tempting me.
God cannot be tempted by evil.
There is nothing Satan can do to tempt God.
And God does not tempt people.
He may test, but He will not tempt.
A test is meant to check you and let you know what you are capable.
A test is not meant to lead you to sin.
Think of this in parental terms.
Would you as a parent, deliberately set your child up for failure?
Would you take delight in seeing your child give in to temptation?
No, you would normally do everything within in your power to keep that from happening.
You keep your child away from kids who are bad influences, who might tempt them.
You don’t let them go places where they may get into trouble.
You don’t want them to be tempted.
God, because He is a good father, does not test His children.
He will try them but not tempt them to evil.
So, if God does not tempt, where does it come from?
Again, it is easy to blame someone else.
Do you remember the comedian, Flip Wilson?
The Devil Made Me Do It!
We have heard this before and we may have even said it.
The Devil can’t MAKE you do it.
It is like the bait car, no one makes them steal it, but they make the decision to.
The real source of temptation comes from within each of us. it comes from our own evil desires and thoughts.
Our own thoughts are what tempt us.
Now, I think we get some help in getting those thoughts started.
James says our thoughts draw us out, like a fish from its hiding hole.
And then James says we are snared in them.
Do you see what happens?
We both build and bait our own trap.
This happens in increments.
There are:
Steps in Temptation
James uses this biological picture of birth to explain the steps in temptation.
Our Desires Are Conceived In Our Minds
and just like a baby who has been conceived they grow right there in place.
And once they have grown big enough they are born.
When our lusts or desires are born,
Then Sin is Born.
We need to stop and think for a minute, Who the father of this desire is.
Satan is the father of our evil desires.
He is the one who tempts us and plants the seeds.
But we still have a responsibility in this.
We are the ones who water the seeds and help them to grow.
If we don’t feed them they die.
But we think we can entertain evil thoughts and not be affected by them.
but the more we think about them, the more they grow and then we give birth to them by putting our thoughts into action.
That is how sin is born.
We think about it and then we do it.
And once sin is born it brings death.
The wages of sin is death.
We don’t think about sin bringing death, but it has always been that way.
From Adam and Eve’s first sin to the ones we commit today.
Sin leads us to death and separation from God.
We are deceived when we think anything else.
James warns us not to be deceived or led astray.
Satan and people in our society will try to convince us this is not true.
It’s just a little sin.
Who is it really hurting.
It hurts us and it hurts our relationship with God.
James has shown us that a good response in trials can lead us to spiritual growth and a wrong response to temptation will lead us to spiritual poverty and death.
But, thankfully, God does not leave to face sin on our own.
God always gives us hope.
And James shows us this as he talks about a:
Solution For Temptation
If we understand the source of temptation and the the steps of how temptation works then we know we need a solution so that we do not fall to temptation.
C. Resist in deadly temptation (1:13–18)
1. Source of temptation (1:13–14)
2. Steps in temptation (1:15–16)
3. Solution for temptation (1:17–18)
James moves from talking about the grim reality of sin and death to God’s heavenly gifts that bring light and hope.
In contrast to the evil of our desires and sin, James reminds us that everything good comes from the Father of lights.
< .5
.5 - .6
.6 - .7
.7 - .8
.8 - .9
> .9