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
0.09UNLIKELY
Fear
0.14UNLIKELY
Joy
0.53LIKELY
Sadness
0.59LIKELY
Language Tone
Analytical
0.28UNLIKELY
Confident
0.41UNLIKELY
Tentative
0UNLIKELY
Social Tone
Openness
0.88LIKELY
Conscientiousness
0.77LIKELY
Extraversion
0.1UNLIKELY
Agreeableness
0.55LIKELY
Emotional Range
0.75LIKELY
Tone of specific sentences
Tones
Emotion
Language
Social Tendencies
Anger
< .5
.5 - .6
.6 - .7
.7 - .8
.8 - .9
> .9
Praise
A Mighty Fortress is Our God
Preaching
Notes from J. Oswald Sanders’s book, Spiritual Leadership, “Prayer and Leadership”
Last time we were together, we talked about the Holy Spirit helping us to overcome our greatest handicaps in prayer:
1. Sin in our heart
2. Ignorance of our minds
3. Physical weakness
We have one other opponent in prayer.
It is an actual person, the devil.
Satan’s name literally means adversary.
Satan will try to depress you, create doubt and discouragement, keep a Christian from prayer.
The Bible expresses this battle between the devil and God’s saints.
In A Mighty Fortress is Our God, Martin Luther describes our conflict with the devil- See our underlined portions
In A Mighty Fortress is Our God, Martin Luther describes our conflict with the devil- See our underlined portions
Yet the song also speaks to God’s help in the battle- See italicized portions
Vs. 1
A mighty Fortress is our God,
A Bulwark never failing;
Our Helper He amid the flood
Of mortal ills prevailing:
For still our ancient foe
Doth seek to work us woe;
His craft and power are great,
And, armed with cruel hate,
On earth is not his equal.
Vs. 2
Did we in our own strength confide,
Our striving would be losing;
Were not the right Man on our side,
The Man of God’s own choosing:
Dost ask who that may be?
Christ Jesus, it is He;
Lord Sabaoth His Name,
From age to age the same,
And He must win the battle.
Vs. 3
And though this world, with devils filled,
Should threaten to undo us,
We will not fear, for God hath willed
His truth to triumph through us:
The Prince of Darkness grim,
We tremble not for him;
His rage we can endure,
For lo! his doom is sure,
One little word shall fell him.
Vs. 4
That word above all earthly powers,
No thanks to them, abideth;
The Spirit and the gifts are ours
Through Him who with us sideth:
Let goods and kindred go,
This mortal life also;
The body they may kill:
God’s truth abideth still,
His Kingdom is forever.
We have one other opponent in prayer.
It is an actual person, the devil.
Satan’s name literally means adversary.
The Holy Spirit is our ally in countering this supernatural foe.
There is a reason why the devil wants to keep us from prayer.
The Bible often explains prayer as spiritual warfare.
For example, after Paul’s statement of 6:12, he gives us armor imagery to reinforce this daily spiritual warfare:
Ephesisans 6:13-17
Then Paul pulls it all together with prayer.
In this struggle phase of prayer, three personalities are engaged.
Between God and the devil stands the Christian at prayer.
Though weak alone, the Christian plays a strategic role in the struggle between the dragon and the Lamb.
The praying Christian wields no personal power and authority, but authority delegated by the victorious Christ to whom that faithful believer is united by faith.
Faith is like a network through which the victory won on Calvary reaches the devil’s captives and delivers them from darkness.
89
Jesus was not so much concerned over wicked people and their deeds as with the forces of evil that caused those people to sin.
Behind Peter’s denial and Judas’s betrayal was the sinister hand of Satan.
“Get the behind me, Satan,” was the Lord’s response to Peter’s presumptuous rebuke.
All around us are people bound in sin, captives to the devil.
Our prayers should ascend not only for them, but against Satan, who holds them as his prize.
Satan must be compelled to relax his grip, and this can only be achieved by Christ’s victory on the cross.
89
We should deal with sin’s cause rather than effect, so the Christian should adopt the same method of prayer.
This is why in our DGs, we prayer specifically, “I ask you, Lord, to prevent Satan from blinding ___________ to the truth.
2 Tim.
Jesus compared Satan to a storng man, fully armed.
Before anyone can enter such a man’s house and set captives free, the man must first be bound.
Only then can a rescue succeed.
What could it mean to “tie up the strong man” except to neutralize his might through the overcoming power of Christ who cam “to destroy [nullify, render inoperative] the works of the devil”?
And how can that happen except by the prayer of faith that lays hold of the victory of Calvary and claims it for the problem at hand?
We cannot hope to effect a rescue from Satan’s den without first disarming the adversary.
God opens His divine authority through prayer, and we can confidently claim it.
Jesus promised His disciples: “I have given you authority…to overcome all the power of the enemy.”
Pray
Practice
Discipleship Group Orientation
Pray
< .5
.5 - .6
.6 - .7
.7 - .8
.8 - .9
> .9