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
0.61LIKELY
Disgust
0.55LIKELY
Fear
0.09UNLIKELY
Joy
0.58LIKELY
Sadness
0.22UNLIKELY
Language Tone
Analytical
0.67LIKELY
Confident
0UNLIKELY
Tentative
0.37UNLIKELY
Social Tone
Openness
0.68LIKELY
Conscientiousness
0.95LIKELY
Extraversion
0.16UNLIKELY
Agreeableness
0.56LIKELY
Emotional Range
0.67LIKELY
Tone of specific sentences
Tones
Emotion
Language
Social Tendencies
Anger
< .5
.5 - .6
.6 - .7
.7 - .8
.8 - .9
> .9
Have you ever interacted with someone who always had his nose stuck in the air?
He thought he was better than everyone else.
He had everything together and didn’t need anyone’s help.
He was arrogant.
We all can think of someone.
Some of us might even say that this described us in the past.
Arrogance.
No one likes to be around an arrogant person.
This is the 2nd group that James turns to as he discusses those who are friends of the world and not following God.
The arrogant man has not humbled himself before man.
James is writing to a specific people in the congregation.
They are a group of business people who were arrogant in their planning.
However, as we will see, though James is writing to a specific group, his warning is given in general terms, showing that the warning can be applied to all his readers and to all of us.
A friend of the world, and an arrogant man, is not humbling himself before the God.
A friend of the world, and an arrogant man, is not humbling himself before the God.
We are all arrogant.
James is writing to a specific people in the congregation.
They are a group of business people who were arrogant in their planning.
Though James is writing to a specific group, his warning is given in general terms, showing that the warning can be applied to all his readers and to us.
1A.
We are arrogant
1B.
We are arrogant in our schemes
We all make plans.
City-dwellers tend to make more concrete plans than rural folk.
But, we all make plans, especially in the realm of travel or money-making.
November through December is my big planning season.
During these months, I plan out my preaching schedule for the next year.
At the beginning of January, I submit to the Board the days that I will be gone during the year, so that my replacements can prepare.
At the beginning of January, I submit to the Board the days that I will be gone throughout the year.
We all plan.
It is good to plan.
However, James is writing to people who think that they are in control.
They arrogantly think that they are solely in control of their travel, their time, and their trade relationships.
They believe that by their own effort they can grow rich.
By the connotation of the phrase here, since they attribute their own success to their own efforts, their wealthy is theirs to do with as they wish.
They are obligate to no one and nothing.
Therefore, they are obligate to do nothing with it for anyone.
Arrogance is when we think that we can plan out the future, that we can be sure of what will happen.
Jesus told a parable about this:
schemes involving travel, time, and trade relationships
“Carry on business” is from a compound verb (emporeusometha, from en, “in,” and poreuomai, “to go”) from which the English word “emporium” has come.
It is related to the noun (emporos) which could be translated “merchant,” “trader,” “drummer,” or “one who goes in and gets the trade.”
A vivid picture of the Jewish merchant James tried to correct is a go-getter salesman out drumming up business for the bottom-line objective: “Make money!”
Parallel with ; rich perishing right in the midst of financial activities.
James talked about this briefly in chapter 1.
J; rich perishing right in the midst of financial activities.
Even the most wealthy cannot control the future.
Arrogance.
The biggest arrogance is not just thinking that the future can be planned, but thinking that God is not in control of the future, that we can make plans without God.
We who are followers of Christ must admit, as Esther did, that
God rules and works according to His eternal purpose, even through events that seem to contradict or oppose His rule.
This arrogance can show up no matter what business we are in, whether office work, newspaper work, grain farming, ranching, mechanics, school work.
We think that everything is up to us, and we forget God’s control in every aspect of our affairs.
If we are not careful, we can be arrogant in our schemes.
2B.
We are arrogant in our speech
Not only did these people plan out in their hearts arrogantly, but they boasted about it.
“Look what we are going to do!”
James seems to belabor the subject of speech.
But, he does so with purpose.
Speech often reveals our heart.
The speech of these men revealed the arrogance in their schemes.
Doubly arrogant: speech and schemes.
Speech often reveals our heart
James says that
I have to note that boasting itself is not bad.
Many times in Scripture we are actually told to boast: Christ’s death, our own weakness, God’s strength, and other things.
The problem is boasting in our own arrogance or pride.
Consider the parable which we just covered about the foolish man and his barns.
These men were arrogantly planning their future without God’s input, thinking that they were in control, and they boasted about it.
Boasting in arrogance (some boasting is ok: Christ’s death, our own weakness, God’s strength, etc.)
We do this too.
If we are not careful, we can be arrogant in our speech, as well as in our schemes.
3B.
We are arrogant in our Savior
Our arrogance points to a lack of understanding of who our Savior is and what he does.
We expect Christ to do our every whim as we approach him in prayer as a vending machine.
But, we insist that we are autonomous.
We are in control.
We can fix.
We can plan.
And Christ will provide what we want.
Arrogance.
We are not like this all the time.
But, we all have the possibility of being like this.
We should not boast, brag, and seek independence.
Instead, we should trust in Christ.
We expect Christ to do our every whim?
But, we insist that we are autonomous
We should not boast and brag, but trust in Christ
2B.
We should rely on Christ
James tells us, instead of our arrogance,
Before I continue, I need to highlight that these are not words for a charm.
James was not giving us the words that we are to say all the time, like pious Christians of old.
These words “If it is the Lord’s will” is not a secret phrase that will help us be right with God, anymore than the Lord’s Prayer is a prayer that we are supposed to repeat verbatim in order to make God pleased.
Scripture is not given as a charm or a talisman.
Instead, James is giving us the formula for a realistic attitude.
Not words for a charm (Scripture was not given as a talisman), but a realistic attitude
< .5
.5 - .6
.6 - .7
.7 - .8
.8 - .9
> .9