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
0.14UNLIKELY
Disgust
0.12UNLIKELY
Fear
0.12UNLIKELY
Joy
0.6LIKELY
Sadness
0.55LIKELY
Language Tone
Analytical
0.43UNLIKELY
Confident
0UNLIKELY
Tentative
0.47UNLIKELY
Social Tone
Openness
0.7LIKELY
Conscientiousness
0.93LIKELY
Extraversion
0.14UNLIKELY
Agreeableness
0.87LIKELY
Emotional Range
0.67LIKELY
Tone of specific sentences
Tones
Emotion
Language
Social Tendencies
Anger
< .5
.5 - .6
.6 - .7
.7 - .8
.8 - .9
> .9
The Bible Doesn’t Say That
“God Helps Those That Help Themselves”
Today we are going to start a series called, “The Bible Doesn’t Say That.”
You see we hear statements all the time that people say that when you hear it, you think obviously that’s in the Bible.
And the reason is because these statements have just enough truth in them to sound right and make it feel like that WOULD be in the Bible.
This morning I’m going to talk about the saying, “God Helps Those That Help Themselves”.
A study showed that 81% of people believed that saying was in the Bible.
68% of them were born again Christians.
Benjamin Franklin popularized it in his Poor Richard Almanac
But it originated from one of Aesop’s Fables where Hercules says to a man whose wagon is stuck, “Tut, man, don’t sprawl there.
Get up and put your shoulder to the wheel.
“The gods help them that help themselves.”
Yet people like Bill O’Reilly on his show was trying to make a point about people getting jobs and doing things to get their life on track and he said, “God helps those who help themselves.
Isn’t that in the bible?”
The truth is, that saying is NOWHERE in the Bible.
But it sounds like it makes sense
And again there might be just enough truth to believe it.
“For even when we were with you, we gave you this rule: “The one who is unwilling to work shall not eat.”
11 We hear that some among you are idle and disruptive.
They are not busy; they are busybodies.
12 Such people we command and urge in the Lord Jesus Christ to settle down and earn the food they eat.”
Some of you are going to write that down to share with your teenager later!
Yes God makes it clear in his Word that He does not approve of laziness.
We are to work hard and provide for our families.
But that’s not what this phrase is saying.
And this saying can be very dangerous.
So this morning I want to share 3 dangers to this mindset of “God helps those that help themselves.”
WE THINK SELF HELP IS THE BEST HELP
The Self Help industry is estimated to be worth $11 billion in the United States alone.
Apparently we need Self Help in all sorts of areas of our life.
Look at some book titles for self help books.
“The Beginner’s Guide to Human Sacrifice”
“How to Poo on a Date”
“How to Raise Your I.Q.
by Eating Gifted Children”
“How to Live With an Idiot”
People are consumed by Self Help
Which means we are putting our attention and emphasis on ourselves.
And what happens is we take that mindset into our walk with the Lord.
And when we put our attention on to ourselves and in our humanness, it’s easy for things like worry to creep in.
Because we put so much pressure on ourselves.
So we worry, “What if I can’t do this?” or “what if I fail?”
“ So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them.
33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.”
Worry is a HUGE part of many peoples lives.
Jesus is saying when you try to HELP yourself and do it on your own, worry is going to creep in.
But when you seek HIM FIRST, he’ll take care of you in ways that you could never do.
You’ll see worries that you use to have disappear.
Because one thing we have to remember is that following God is not about us and what WE can do.
It’s always about God and what HE can do.
And God is sitting in heaven saying, “there’s just some things you can’t control.”
Things that you can’t do.
That’s where I come in!
Self Help is not the best help.
God’s help is the only help we need.
“I can do all this through him who gives me strength.”
We can do all things through whose strength?
Christ’s strength
PRIDE
This can give us a selfish mindset.
It’s all about me.
This can then lead to pride.
Pride isn’t just being arrogant.
It’s the mindset of I can do it myself.
Pride was the FIRST sin
The devil was a worship leader in heaven and pride settled in where he said he wanted to be like God.
He felt like, “I could do better.”
“I can do what God does.”
A lot of times we act like we can do what only God can do.
That’s a form of pride.
WE want to prove that we can do something.
But God is telling us that’s not the way to handle the situation.
Pride is something we want nothing to do with.
Listen to these verses
“The Lord detests the proud; they will surely be punished.”
“Pride goes before destruction, and haughtiness before a fall.”
Clearly God has some strong thoughts about pride.
It affects everything
First, it affects our relationship with God
“And when they cry out, God does not answer because of their pride.”
It can hinder our prayer life
Our ability to talk to God
It affects our relationship with others
Pride makes us think that certain people are inferior to us.
“Live in harmony with each other.
Don’t be too proud to enjoy the company of ordinary people.
And don’t think you know it all!”
The GREATEST obstacle in showing love and kindness to others is pride.
We think, “I can’t associate with that person”.
YOU ARE NO BETTER THAN ANYBODY ELSE!!
“Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit.
Rather, in humility value others above yourselves,”
It’s not you over other people, it should be people over you.
Jesus would seek out the lowest of the low.
The outcasts
And He would connect with them because He knew the VALUE of every person.
We are called to do the same.
Dan Seaborn spoke last week on marriage.
Some of your marriages are struggling because of pride.
You think, “I can fix this MY way.” or “I don’t need anyone telling me what to do in my marriage.”
< .5
.5 - .6
.6 - .7
.7 - .8
.8 - .9
> .9