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
0.13UNLIKELY
Fear
0.12UNLIKELY
Joy
0.59LIKELY
Sadness
0.23UNLIKELY
Language Tone
Analytical
0.77LIKELY
Confident
0UNLIKELY
Tentative
0.55LIKELY
Social Tone
Openness
0.65LIKELY
Conscientiousness
0.91LIKELY
Extraversion
0.36UNLIKELY
Agreeableness
0.77LIKELY
Emotional Range
0.83LIKELY
Tone of specific sentences
Tones
Emotion
Language
Social Tendencies
Anger
< .5
.5 - .6
.6 - .7
.7 - .8
.8 - .9
> .9
Today, we begin a new series called Created for Significance.
Each of you are important for the Kingdom of God.
Each of you have a ministry purpose.
It is up to us to spend time in prayer to see what God is calling us to do.
My message today is called What’s My Purpose?
If you were to look up what the word significant means you would find:
Significant - Extensive or Important Enough to Merit Attention
God believes you are significant for His kingdom and the work that He needs done.
God believes that you are important enough to merit attention.
So, God speaks to you and He reveals His plan to you.
We just have to follow that plan.
During this series we are going to be looking at 5 different parables that Jesus taught during His time here on earth.
If you want to read ahead, we will be in Luke 14, 15, & 16.
The first parable we will look at today is in Luke 14.
If you have your Bibles go with me there.
My text this morning covers verses 1 -24.
I’m not going to read all of it to you, just different parts.
Take time when you get home and read it.
If you are following our reading plan this chapter was actually our reading for yesterday.
So please, take a moment this week and read all three chapters that we will be talking on the next few weeks.
Here in Luke’s Gospel, all 24 verses of this conversation takes place at a prominent Pharisee’s house.
This means that this gentlemen was one of the rulers of the Pharisees.
Jesus had been invited to his home.
We don’t know why Jesus was invited, but when you read this passage it makes it seem like he was asked there so that they could frame Him for something.
Luke tells us in verse one that Jesus was being carefully watched.
And because it was the Sabbath, they might have been trying to catch Jesus violating their Sabbath rules.
It is at this dinner party that I believe Jesus was trying to teach the Pharisees some important lessons.
I believe that it is these lessons that you need to put into practice in order to find God’s purpose for your life.
If you have ever asked yourself the question, what is my purpose in this life?
Then today I hope to answer that question for you.
God has a purpose for each of us.
Like I said a few weeks ago, if you are a business man, you were not called to be a business man just to make money.
God had a higher calling for you.
If you are a teacher, you are not just called to be a teacher so you can have summers off.
You are called to be a teacher for a higher purpose.
God is calling each of us for a higher purpose.
What is your higher purpose?
If you are not growing in your spiritual walk with the Lord, then you need to reevaluate your life.
So, here are four requirements for you to find your purpose in this life.
1.
Your Purpose Requires You to Care About People.
Look at verses 2 - 6 again.
One thing you need to understand about the Pharisees is they were completely devoted to the exact observance of the Jewish religion.
If the law said to do something a certain way, then they did it exactly.
They would even possibly go overboard to make sure that it was done a certain way.
Jesus comes along and He would push their buttons.
First of all, they didn’t believe that Jesus was the coming Messiah.
They thought He was an imposter.
Secondly, they didn’t like the fact that Jesus would perform miracles on the Sabbath.
Jesus never broke the commandments of God, but He often offended man’s traditions that surrounded and extended the commandments of God.
The commandments of God are enough, and we should never make the traditions of man—even good traditions, equal to the commandments of God.
Look at what Jesus said in Mark 7:8-9
Just because we do something that is a tradition doesn’t make it Godly.
We church people get caught up in the traditions of doing certain things that they can become ungodly.
That is what the Pharisees did.
They let their traditions get in the way of doing the right thing.
Jesus taught them in this moment that doing the right thing is what mattered.
Caring about people is the right thing.
But the Pharisees didn’t want to admit that it was okay to heal a man.
Or if you want to think of it this way, care about a man on the Sabbath.
Jesus was showing them that we ought to care for people.
Don’t let your traditions get in the way of fulfilling the purpose that God is calling you to.
2. Your Purpose Requires You to Humble Yourself
After Jesus gets no answer from the Pharisees, He moves into the fact that they were all trying to get the best seat at the table.
During Jesus’ day, the seating arrangement at a dinner showed a definite order of prestige or honor.
The most honored person sat in a particular seat, the next most honored person in another seat, and so on down the line.
Jesus uses a parable of a wedding feast to teach them a lesson in humility.
Jesus wasn’t just picking on the Pharisees here, but in Luke 9 he talked to His disciples about this as well.
Jesus wanted to teach them to humble themselves, even to the extent of being willing to serve the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind.
Jesus was encouraging the people to refocus their sights, from exalting themselves to exalting and serving others.
Jesus is calling us today to do the same.
We are to humble ourselves before the Lord and seek to serve others.
If you want to find your purpose, then you must learn to humble yourself.
It is not about the position that you hold, but it is about the way you conduct yourself in that position.
As you move up in a leadership position there are some rights that you lose in order to keep that position of leadership.
God is wanting to take you to a higher place.
He has something greater for you than you ever imagined and that requires you to learn to humble yourself in order to fulfill His purpose for you.
3.
Your Purpose Requires You to Accept Everyone
Look at what Jesus said to the guests that was at the Pharisee’s house.
Jesus was telling the host not to be exclusive in their invites.
He was trying to teach them to do something and don’t expect something back.
Friends, neighbors, and those that are well off probably would invite you back.
But, extending an invitation to those that wouldn’t necessarily have the means to do it probably couldn’t invite you to their party because they wouldn’t be able to afford a party.
He was teaching them to be inclusive.
When God’s people can do good, without expecting reward or repayment, they will have truly served God unselfishly.
God will reward us some day in Heaven.
When we include everyone, we are mirroring God’s generosity.
God offers His kingdom to everyone.
It seems that many of those that accept His offer are often the ones that seem to offer so little value to the world.
Yet no one at God’s banquet, no matter their status or power on this earth, can possibly repay what God has done.
The last thing that Jesus was trying to teach the people at this dinner party was...
4. Your Purpose Requires You to Not Make Excuses
Jesus closes out our passage by giving them another parable.
This parable is called the Parable of the Great Feast.
Let’s read it one more time.
In Jesus’ example there were two invitations that were sent out.
The first invitation was to let the people know about the banquet that was going to happen.
They had plenty of time to make preparations.
Then the second invitation was sent telling the people that the feast was now ready.
This meant that originally these people had accepted the invitation.
They had RSVP to the event.
< .5
.5 - .6
.6 - .7
.7 - .8
.8 - .9
> .9