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
0.16UNLIKELY
Disgust
0.18UNLIKELY
Fear
0.16UNLIKELY
Joy
0.51LIKELY
Sadness
0.25UNLIKELY
Language Tone
Analytical
0.49UNLIKELY
Confident
0UNLIKELY
Tentative
0.06UNLIKELY
Social Tone
Openness
0.85LIKELY
Conscientiousness
0.75LIKELY
Extraversion
0.21UNLIKELY
Agreeableness
0.62LIKELY
Emotional Range
0.68LIKELY
Tone of specific sentences
Tones
Emotion
Language
Social Tendencies
Anger
< .5
.5 - .6
.6 - .7
.7 - .8
.8 - .9
> .9
By Pastor Glenn Pease
One of the greatest heroes in Minnesota history was James Root of White Bear.
He was the engineer on the No. 4 Limited the day it pulled out of Duluth heading for St. Paul on Sept. 1, 1894.
Before that day ended he saved the lives of nearly 400 people.
Unknown to him and his passengers they were heading into one of the worse fires in history.
It completely destroyed 6 Minnesota villages killing 420 people, and it turned every thing to ashes over an area of 350 square miles.
As Root brought his train to Hinkley he saw masses of people running down the track toward him.
He stopped the train and jumped out of the cab.
He soon learned that Hinkley was a furnace, and that a tornado of flame was heading their way.
He encouraged the 300 people of men, women, and children to get on board.
By the time they did the heat was already so intense that it shattered the window of his cab and cut his forehead.
He put the train in reverse and headed back to Skunk Lake, a small station 4 miles North.
The heat was so intense that his fire man climbed into the water tank.
He was alone and fighting for his own survival.
His hands were so burned he feared rubbing them lest he tare off the flesh.
The cars were all on fire and the glass was melting.
It was torture for the passengers to breathe, but Root kept the train moving and got it to the Skunk Lake bridge where there was a swamp with a few feet of water.
He and the passengers got into this swamp and watched the train be destroyed by the flames.
Had Root not been strong in his determination all 400 hundred would have perished.
Hero stories are almost always stories of strength where you see exhibited strength of body, mind and will.
All the heroes of the Bible were not as strong as Samson, but they were all strong in their commitment to the God of Israel, who was called the Strength of Israel.
Habakkuk ends his prophecy with these words, "The Sovereign Lord is my strength."
Over and over the Psalms refer to God as the source of strength, and He is named Strength.
Psa.
18:1, "I love you, O Lord, my strength."
Psa.
18:32, "It is God who arms me with strength."
Psa.
22:19, "David cries out to God O my Strength, come quickly to help me."
There are dozens of references to God as my strength and song.
The joy of the Lord is my strength, and the purpose of worship is to enter into the beauty of God's presence to be strengthened by his strength.
The saints are urged to seek God's strength and to be clothed with it.
They are to walk in His strength for a life of joy and victory.
All of this becomes the background for our understanding of Paul's concept of Christian worship and fellowship.
He writes to the Romans here in chapter 1 verse 11 that he longs to be with them to impart to them some spiritual gift, and why does he feel this is important?
He says the purpose of the gift is to make you strong.
Weak Christians are a great problem.
Therefore, the greatest solution to this problem is to make Christians strong.
That is the point of the gifts of the Spirit.
That is the point of worship and Christian fellowship.
Strong Christians are obedient Christians, and weak Christians are disobedient Christians.
The only the church can fulfill God's purpose in history is to help Christians be strong.
Paul is not so proud as to think that he does not need the strength that can come from them.
In verse 12 he says that he wants to see them, not just to give strength but to receive it, and that they might be mutually encouraged by each other's faith.
Here is the most powerful reason there is for Christians to get together.
It is that they might encourage and make each other stronger.
Paul knows what anyone knows who tries to live in full obedience to God.
It is hard, and there is an ever present temptation to throw in the towel and take the easy way out, and just drift along with the culture.
Swimming against the stream and climbing the mountain of the upward call leads to burn out and discouragement.
We need to be renewed and strengthened to keep going.
We come together to hear the Word of God in order to charge our batteries so that we can go away saying with Paul, "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me."
We can then resist the devil; resist conformity to the world, and in spite of our weakness be witnesses for Christ.
The point of coming to church is to come out of the world to worship God, and then be strengthened to go back into the world to work for God.
You need energy to be a witness.
You need to overcome all the natural weaknesses of the flesh, and recognize that every day you touch lives with either that weakness or the power of God.
George Elliot wrote,
Every soul that touches yours-
Be it the slightest contact-
Gets therefrom some good;
Some little grace; one kindly thought;
One aspiration yet unfelt;
One bit of courage
For the darkening sky;
One gleam of faith
To brave the thickening ills of life;
One glimpse of brighter skies
Beyond the gathering mists-
To make this life worth while
And heaven a surer heritage.
This is true if you are strong.
If you are weak, you are part of the problem and not part of the answer.
Weak Christians offend people and make them doubt the value of being saved.
They do not attack but repel people because they operate in their own strength, which is weakness, rather than in the strength of Christ which draws men to Himself.
The Roman Christians had to be fairly strong and mature, for the report of their faith had spread all over the known world.
Nevertheless, Paul says they still need to be made strong.
The implication is that every Christian, including himself, needs to be strengthened.
There is no such thing as a Christian who is too strong.
There is no level a Christian can reach where he is no longer in need of encouragement and strengthening that comes from other Christians and their gifts.
If anyone could be a lone ranger Christian it would be Paul, but he admits he needed the encouragement of their faith.
Anyone who claims to be so strong that they never need the encouragement of others has achieved a level that is no where recognized in the New Testament.
Look at verse 13, and you can see Paul admitting to his frustration.
He says that he planned many times to come to them but was prevented.
Maybe you thought that being an Apostle of Christ was a perpetual joyride where everything worked out and nothing ever went wrong.
The fact is, Paul's plans fell through over and over again.
He did not get to do what he wanted to do.
It is a great disappointment to have your plans not work out when all you want to do is serve the Lord and do good.
It is bad enough when the plan goes sour once or twice, but when it happens many times you feel jinxed and begin to wonder if you should just give up.
There are disappointments in serving Jesus, that is why Paul needed the encouragement of others, and that is why we all do.
The only way any Christian can be obedient over the long hall, and not get weary in well doing, is to be encouraged by other believers and strengthened to keep running the race.
Paul needed it more than most, for he had problems, trials, and burdens that go beyond what most ever have to bear.
He writes in II Cor.
1:8-9, "We do not want you t be uninformed, brothers, about the hardships we suffered in the province of Asia.
We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired even of life.
Indeed, in our hearts we felt the sentence of death."
In II Cor.
4:8 Paul says that he was perplexed in all his trials.
The word means to be at a loss to explain what is happening.
Paul could not understand why he had to experience so much disappointment.
Here is a man who has more revelation from God than any man who has ever lived, and yet he does not know all the plans of God.
He sees through a glass darkly.
< .5
.5 - .6
.6 - .7
.7 - .8
.8 - .9
> .9