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.
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Analytical
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Four people were on a small airplane—the pilot, a college professor, a pastor, and a Boy Scout.
The plane suddenly lost its engines and was heading to the ground.
The passengers reached for the parachutes.
Unfortunately, they found there were only three parachutes onboard.
The pilot grabbed one and said, “I’m the most important man on this plane.
I must go down and report this accident.”
He jumped out.
The college professor said, “I’m the smartest man on this plane.
My knowledge is a benefit to all mankind.”
He grabbed a pack and jumped.
The pastor said, “Son, you go ahead and use the last parachute.
I’m an old man—I’ve lived a good long life, and I’m ready to die.
You go ahead and jump.”
The Boy Scout said, “Pastor, that won’t be necessary.
We can both jump, because the smartest man on the plane just jumped out with my backpack.”
I sure do love that joke!
It reminds me that we aren’t always as smart as we think we are.
In fact, most of us would agree that when we look back on our lives or certain situations there are some things we’d love to change or redo.
The truth is that we’ve all made mistakes.
We’ve been stubborn.
We’ve been wrong.
It’s because we aren’t perfect.
Today we are going to talk about making the best decision you could ever make in your life.
You’ve walked into a room today one way, but I’m telling you that you can walk out a different way.
Things in your life can change.
That change can start this morning.
Right here and Right now.
The past does not need to hold you anymore.
You can be free.
That might seem like a big promise.
You might ask, how do you know?
Or you might say, You don’t know what I’m facing.
You know what?
You’re right, I don’t know your individual situation, but I know what God has done for me.
I know what He’s done for others.
There’s a question I want you to keep in your mind as we study scripture today:
Is God limited by my faith?
Can He work in my life if I don’t believe in Him?
This time of year reminds me of something that happened back when my wife and I lived in Bixby, Oklahoma.
We didn’t have any kids.
Kris and I were both working at a Christian school.
Kris was teaching Art and Biology, and I was teaching Senior Bible and a Computer class.
Well, a miracle happened at the end of October.
We had a massive ice storm followed up by a massive snow storm.
Oklahoma Power and Electric wasn’t prepared and pretty much everyone in the area lost power.
Everyone except US!
It was a miracle.
Our neighborhood had power.
School was canceled for almost 2 weeks!
What a blessing for us!
Not for everyone else without power, but we were having a great time.
Baking, watching movies, and just hanging out with friends.
Well, we had this one couple of friends who were without power.
They would come over to our house during the day and then drive home, sleep in sub zero temps, and drive back to our house the next day.
We invited them to stay, but they wouldn’t do it!
Instead of staying in a warm home with people who cared for them they chose to drive home and sleep in the freezing cold.
I begged them to stay.
We tried everything we knew to do, but they wouldn’t listen.
They were determined to do their own thing.
There was nothing we could do.
They had the power to make their own decisions.
For good or bad, they were in control and there was nothing we could do to change their minds.
When the storms of life come, it feels as though we lose power and control.
When this happens we try to figure out what we are going to do to make it through in our own strength instead of trusting the Lord.
Like our friends, we find a place of comfort in the Lord for a time, but for whatever our reasons, we choose to leave that place of comfort and step out into the cold.
God has all the power, yet we choose to walk through the storms without His strength.
We choose our own strength, ideas, or plans.
What does God do when we choose our own path?
How does He respond?
Well, most of the time, He allows us to do our own thing.
He won’t impose His will in our lives.
It goes all the way back to the perfect garden that God created for humanity to enjoy.
Remember what He said in Genesis 2?
God gave us the power to make decisions.
He allows us to choose a path.
The first man and woman proved that God will allow us to choose the wrong path.
Each one of us have opportunities to choose to trust God or trust ourselves.
To walk in His power or our own.
Our main scripture for today is found in Matthew 13.
It tells us of the time that Jesus went to His hometown of Nazareth.
He wanted people to know that He was the Savior of the world.
He wanted to heal the sick.
He wanted to work miracles in the town that He grew up in, but none of that happened.
I want to point out three things that Jesus Won’t Do.
Let’s read the scripture today:
Jesus Won’t Make You Believe
In this passage we see Jesus at a turning point in His ministry.
If you read through Matthews account of Jesus’ ministry up to chapter 13 we see Jesus talking mostly about the Kingdom of God.
He was going about healing people, teaching, and letting people know the Kingdom of God was coming.
At this point in the story, after the people in His hometown reject Him, we see a kind of turning in His teaching and preaching.
From this point on He started talking more about the cross and how a person was to live in faith for Him.
He had been traveling all over the place preaching and teaching.
He was extremely popular.
In the next two chapters it tells us that He was surrounded by up to 20,000 people at one time.
Massive crowds would follow Him.
People wanted to see miracles.
They didn’t just take Him at His word that the Kingdom of God was coming.
They wanted proof.
You get the idea that this kind of annoyed and saddened Jesus:
Jesus had a desire to reach people with the truth that He was the long awaited Messiah.
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