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
0.13UNLIKELY
Disgust
0.45UNLIKELY
Fear
0.13UNLIKELY
Joy
0.57LIKELY
Sadness
0.22UNLIKELY
Language Tone
Analytical
0.71LIKELY
Confident
0UNLIKELY
Tentative
0UNLIKELY
Social Tone
Openness
0.89LIKELY
Conscientiousness
0.75LIKELY
Extraversion
0.2UNLIKELY
Agreeableness
0.31UNLIKELY
Emotional Range
0.75LIKELY
Tone of specific sentences
Tones
Emotion
Language
Social Tendencies
Anger
< .5
.5 - .6
.6 - .7
.7 - .8
.8 - .9
> .9
By Pastor Glenn Pease
Paul Aurandt in his book, Destiny tells of the life of Bartholomew Roberts, one of the great sea captains.
He commanded 3 ships-The Fortune, The Good Fortune and the Royal Fortune.
Back in his day the ships musicians were on call to provide music anytime of the day or night.
But his musicians got Sunday off as a day of rest and religious observance.
On his ships, temperance was strictly enforced, and gambling was forbidden.
Any sailor who smuggled a woman on board was hanged.
He was one of the most disciplined sea captains ever, and he ran a truly, tight ship.
His discipline was very effective, and made him the best of what he was.
Unfortunately, what he was, was a pirate.
He captured an average of 100 ships a year for one four year period of his career.
He was the most feared man on the sea.
All of his religion, morality, discipline, efficiency, and effectiveness, were for the sake of an evil end.
He was very successful in using good things for evil goals.
That is why success is not an absolute measure of value for the Christian.
It is possible to be very successful, and yet be evil, and displeasing to God.
This being the case, we have the paradoxical reality of a successful failure.
That is what Captain Roberts was.
Herod and Pilate fall into this same category.
This forces us to seek for a Biblical definition of success.
Roberts was religious, good to his own men, moral, and a hard worker.
He had so many good points.
He was just like the Pharisees that Jesus is holding up in this chapter as successful failures.
They were very religious, and did all kinds of right and good things, and they were very good at it.
They had a large following of people who admired them.
They were the people who had fame.
Yet Jesus said, with all of these values that made them a success, by one definition, did not make them successful by his definition.
By his definition they were failures, and not to be followed by Christians.
The first thing we have to get straight in order to be successful according to Jesus is,
I. THE DEFINITION OF SUCCESS.
This is where the Christian gets confused, and is often torn between his culture and his Christianity.
In our culture the definition of success always revolves around the trinity of possessions, power, and prestige.
There are no poor, weak, and unknown successful people by our cultural definition of success.
The successful man, someone said, is the one who can make more money than his wife can spend.
The successful woman is one who can find such a man.
The problem with the worldly definition is not that those things are not good.
It is just that they are not adequate.
They are like Captain Roberts and his good things.
They fall short of the glory of God.
We need to get a new definition of success in our minds so we can distinguish between the worldly and the Christian understanding.
This passage in Matt.
6 makes it clear that for Jesus success is, very simply, pleasing God.
It is not in pleasing man, and getting his approval, but pleasing God, and getting God's approval.
This is the essence of Christian success.
You can do a lot of good things for reasons other than pleasing God.
You can give, pray, and fast, as did the Pharisees, to get fame and man's approval.
You can be very successful in achieving goals, and becoming famous for your religious values, but if in the process you forget that pleasing God is the number one priority, you become a successful failure.
Or, in other words, a failure in spite of your success.
To fail to please God makes all other achievements ultimately worthless.
If God is not pleased with your religious activity because it is all done to please men, and win their approval, then all of your religious life is a form of idolatry.
If pleasing God is not the goal of your activity, then pleasing someone else is, and that someone else, which may be self, the crowd, or whoever, is in the place of God, and that is idolatry.
Success according to Jesus is not measured by the pleasure of the crowd.
You cannot take a vote, and if thousands of people say I am pleased with you, then you must be a success.
Jesus said this was the definition of the Pharisees.
Popularity was a key concept of success in their minds.
That is why they made a big production out of their religious practices.
They sounded the trumpet in the synagogues and the streets to call attention to their giving, and to get the praises of men.
They could have used W. S. Gilbert's poem as their theme song.
If you wish in the world to advance
Your merits, you're bound to enhance.
You must stir it and stump it,
And blow your own trumpet,
Or, trust me, you haven't a chance.
It is true, if your definition of success is pleasing men, and getting their praise, you have to blow your own trumpet, and they did.
But if your definition of success is that which pleases God, you do not need a trumpet at all.
You can please God by doing what is good and right, and do it quietly without fanfare, and do it just because He wants you to.
Jesus had done no mighty works, and had gained no large following by the time he was baptized, but when he was baptized, God spoke from heaven saying, "This is my beloved Son with whom I am well pleased."
Jesus was successful even before He had any public ministry, because He pleased His Father in heaven.
Dr. Charles Malik once said, "Success is neither fame nor wealth nor power.
Success is seeking and knowing and loving and obeying God."
This is the Biblical definition of success.
If success is what the world says it is, then most human beings can never achieve success.
But Jesus' definition of success is good news to all men, for there is no person who has ever lived who cannot achieve the ultimate success of pleasing God.
God is pleased by faith.
In fact, as the book of Hebrews says, without faith it is impossible to please Him.
This means you can have fame and fortune, but if you do not have faith, you are not a success, but a failure, for these things without faith do not please God.
But with faith it is impossible not to please God, and faith is possible for all men.
There are many fringe benefits that we can enjoy as a plus when we please God.
But when these things are aimed at as the end and goal of life, they become minuses, and in God's eyes signs of failure.
This leads us to the second thing we need to focus on, and that is-
II.
THE DANGER OF SUCCESS.
Nothing succeeds like success is the cliché, but equally true, though seldom said is, nothing fails like success.
The Pharisees were failures just because of their success.
They were in to goal setting, and they said, we want to achieve the goal of being praised by the people for our piety.
We want the honor and respect of the masses.
They knew where they wanted to go, and they had a strategy for getting there.
By all standards, except one, they were successful.
The one exception was God's standard.
By His standard they failed miserably.
But if you ignore this minority opinion of Jesus, and take a vote among the people, the majority would tell you they were successful.
They got just what they wanted, and what can be more successful than goal-oriented men who achieved their goal?
But this is the problem.
They got what they wanted, and that can be a curse.
That is why success is so dangerous.
It is because it works.
You get what you want, and you are a success.
Now you cease to ask is this good or wise, and is it what God wants for me?
Your very success cuts you off from seeking the essence of success, which is pleasing God.
You are pleased and that is all that matters.
< .5
.5 - .6
.6 - .7
.7 - .8
.8 - .9
> .9