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
0.08UNLIKELY
Disgust
0.08UNLIKELY
Fear
0.13UNLIKELY
Joy
0.65LIKELY
Sadness
0.5LIKELY
Language Tone
Analytical
0.5LIKELY
Confident
0UNLIKELY
Tentative
0.21UNLIKELY
Social Tone
Openness
0.82LIKELY
Conscientiousness
0.86LIKELY
Extraversion
0.06UNLIKELY
Agreeableness
0.37UNLIKELY
Emotional Range
0.67LIKELY
Tone of specific sentences
Tones
Emotion
Language
Social Tendencies
Anger
< .5
.5 - .6
.6 - .7
.7 - .8
.8 - .9
> .9
Seed Secrets pt 4 - Hindrances to the Harvest
Matthew 1
- Then He spoke many things to them in parables, saying: “Behold, a sower went out to sow. 4 And as he sowed, some seed fell by the wayside; and the birds came and devoured them.
5 Some fell on stony places, where they did not have much earth; and they immediately sprang up because they had no depth of earth.
6 But when the sun was up they were scorched, and because they had no root they withered away.
7 And some fell among thorns, and the thorns sprang up and choked them.
8 But others fell on good ground and yielded a crop: some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.
9 He who has ears to hear, let him hear!”
Throughout this series we have been looking at how God’s word in our life produces a wonderful spiritual harvest.
When we follow His laws of the Harvest we have what He has promised.
Our spiritual harvest will affect our everyday living.
People like to compartmentalize the spiritual life and our natural living; the truth is trying to do that is like trying to separate the wet from water.
v Just as it is important to understand the Laws of the Harvest it is just as vital to understand that there are enemies of the seed of the Word of God and things that are designed to hinder our harvest.
The parable of the sower is found in both Matthew chapter 13 and in Luke chapter 8.
This parable makes it clear that in order for the Word of God to do its work in our lives, the soil of our hearts must be ready to receive it.
The seed is flawless, but if the soil is not suitable to its growth we will never see what the seed is designed to accomplish.
If we are finding that the Word of God is doing what it was designed to do in our life the problem is not with the word of God but with the soil---Our hearts.
The heart is designed to receive the seed of God’s word there are things that affect our heart and our ability to receive.
-“Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God. 12 Those by the wayside are the ones who hear; then the devil comes and takes away the word out of their hearts, lest they should believe and be saved.
13 But the ones on the rock are those who, when they hear, receive the word with joy; and these have no root, who believe for a while and in time of temptation fall away.
14 Now the ones that fell among thorns are those who, when they have heard, go out and are choked with cares, riches, and pleasures of life, and bring no fruit to maturity.
15 But the ones that fell on the good ground are those who, having heard the word with a noble and good heart, keep it and bear fruit with patience.
- But he who received seed on the good ground is he who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and produces: some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.”
God’s desire is that His word produces an abundant harvest in our life.
We are going to look at the parable of the sower and a few other verses so we become familiar with hindrances to our harvest.
1) The first hindrance to the seed is unprepared soil.
The Bible calls this the wayside.
There are two parts to this hindrance the condition of our heart and the fact that Satan comes to steal the word.
- When anyone hears the word of the kingdom, and does not understand it, then the wicked one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart.
This is he who received seed by the wayside.
Wayside soil is ground that is hard and not able to receive seed.
It represents a heart that is unprepared to receive the Word of God.
There are people who never accept Christ as their Savior.
They have heart the Word of God but their hearts are hard to His message of love and repentance.
For the believer this ground represents our lack preparation to receive God’s Word.
Wayside is seed that was un-purposed and unplanted.
We just scattered His word in our life hopping something would take root.
To receive God’s Word in any area of our life we must allow Him to deal with our heart first and we ourselves must soften our hearts so we are able to receive His truth so that it can be planted in our life and live.
God tells us to plow the fallow ground of our heart that is to stir up something that has been sitting dormant and unused.
- Sow for yourselves righteousness; Reap in mercy; Break up your fallow ground, For it is time to seek the Lord, Till He comes and rains righteousness on you.
When we throw God’s Word out there it means we really don’t understand it.
We just hope something happens.
In order to know his Word we must hide it in our heart.
Plant it in the soil of our life until it grows in us and we grow in our understanding.
David said in the Psalms.
- Your word I have hidden in my heart, that I might not sin against You.
To miss the mark is not always outright defiance to God’s ways it is simply missing His intention for His word in our life.
When God addresses the wayside He is speaking to several things about the condition of our heart.
First we are to realize that any area we want to see a harvest in we must apply His word but before we can receive the Word we must give attention to the condition of our heart.
Proverbs 4:23
- Keep your heart with all diligence, (Guard you heart) For out of it spring the issues of life.
Every issue is a heart issue.
It is a heart prepared to receive His word.
A hard heart can be stubbornness to our own ways.
It can be rebellion; we know we are not walking in God’s ways.
It could be anger, un-forgiveness and hurt that keep us from receiving His Word.
Before we plant His Word we must soften our heat.
B) The wayside is where people walk.
Too often instead of hiding His word in our heart we put it out there for everyone to see what we are trusting God for and they just walk all over the promise with their opinions, doubts and ideas.
Much of our seed is not to be put on display we are to let it grow inside of us until it produces fruit then we can let people see what God is doing.
The wayside are people who are just passing through they are not stopping at your field; they are not interested in what you are growing they are preoccupied with where they are going.
Don’t put your valuable seed in a place where people can treat it as a common thing.
C) If your heart is unprepared to receive God’s word it is guaranteed that Satan will come and steal your seed.
It is only when the seed of God’s Word is planted in your heat that it becomes your Word.
Satan will always try to steal your harvest before it ever gets settled in you.
This is a critical time to guard your heart.
Satan moves in quickly he wants to make sure there is no time for God’s Word to settle in.
- Those by the wayside are the ones who hear; then the devil comes and takes away the word out of their hearts, lest they should believe and be saved.
Satan snatches God’s word through doubt, fear, unbelief and indifference.
The way we prevent Satan from getting our Word is by planting it deep enough that He can’t reach it.
2) The second hindrance to the seed is hard times.
- But he who received the seed on stony places, this is he who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy; 21 yet he has no root in himself, but endures only for a while.
For when tribulation or persecution arises because of the word, immediately he stumbles.
Many people start out receiving Christ and His salvation with Joy and then when life gets difficult they walk away from Christ.
For someone who is already a Christian we receive God’s promise and Word over an area we have purposefully applied His word and when life gets hard or the road gets difficult we allow our harvest to wither under the trial.
Notice this has to do with roots.
The verse says “Yet he has not root in himself but endures on lonely for a while”.
Remember a harvest takes time.
Good fruit must develop deep roots.
It is easy to get excited about planting and expecting but we must remember that all things encounter storms.
v Trials have two sides.
One side is God allowing a difficulty in your life to develop you; Trials from a heavenly perspective are developmental in nature.
They cause us to grow deeper into God; to become rooted, stable and to stop growing in the shallows.
Shallow roots are easily pulled up.
Trials help us grow in the deep things of God in the area we have planted.
~Tony Evans- Every time you have a trial you should dignify the trial by pursuing God and seeking what He wants to develop in you by allowing it to happen in the first place.
The second side to a trial is the enemy trying to defeat you.
Satan wants to keep the roots of your promise from growing deep into God.
The real reason so many Christians live in defeat instead of victory is they really are shallow.
They love God but they have never gone deeper than that.
Remember this - IF YOU WON’T GO DEEP SATAN CAN DEFEAT.
Shallow roots are easily moved and blow around by the wind and easily withered by the heat.
Tell someone to go deep.
To have victory we must allow God’s word to be firmly grounded in our life.
3) The third hindrance to the harvest is the thorns of life.
If the devil can’t get us other ways he will use the world to choke and distract us.
- Now he who received seed among the thorns is he who hears the word, and the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and he becomes unfruitful.
The reason that weeds and thorns are so harmful in a field is that they compete for the space and the nutrients and like a parasite they suck the life right out of what is to produce fruit.
Refuse to settle for weeds when God has given you seed that will satisfy.
He does this two ways.
< .5
.5 - .6
.6 - .7
.7 - .8
.8 - .9
> .9