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
0.11UNLIKELY
Disgust
0.07UNLIKELY
Fear
0.11UNLIKELY
Joy
0.66LIKELY
Sadness
0.47UNLIKELY
Language Tone
Analytical
0.47UNLIKELY
Confident
0UNLIKELY
Tentative
0.6LIKELY
Social Tone
Openness
0.73LIKELY
Conscientiousness
0.8LIKELY
Extraversion
0.45UNLIKELY
Agreeableness
0.79LIKELY
Emotional Range
0.74LIKELY
Tone of specific sentences
Tones
Emotion
Language
Social Tendencies
Anger
< .5
.5 - .6
.6 - .7
.7 - .8
.8 - .9
> .9
“LOVE: the catalyst to growth”
What are these?
(jumper cables)- Wendy and I had a wonderful visit with several family members last week.
Katie and Tyler’s car is getting a little older, and wouldn’t start.
We used these to connect it up, and Vroom!
It worked.
What was this energy transfer?
Just a little “push” or “boost” is all the car needed to start and get itself charged back up.
Also— a more permanent example is a spark plug.
A seemingly very tiny little spark, with the right fuel and air mix, creates an explosion—get a series of these going in the correct order--- internal combustion engine!
In science studies, we call that action a “catalyst”, one chemical or force, an energy, that starts another process— sometimes with exponential results!
Do you realize we can do this for each other also?
Within the body of Christ, within the church, we can give each other the “boost” that we need regularly to stay moving in our faith and service and LOVE to God and our families, community, and world.
As we identified last week, there are many “hallmarks” of the early church— things they devoted themselves to.
An over-arching principle that they implemented hints back to a crucial part of Jesus’ teaching:
LOVE is a critical element of the church.
Today we will be introduced to a person who was recognized as a leader, a teacher, an apostle, and an encourager of the early church.
He is listed among those who first sacrificed what he had to build on Jesus’ vision and instructions.
One of the very first “catalysts” used by God to jump start the church.
Some speculate that he was indeed a fixture among the believers in Jerusalem.
Lets turn in our bibles to Acts 4:32-37
Introducing: Barnabas!
First let’s dive a little deeper into our passage here to pull out a few more details about this man:
His given name was Joseph.
Barnabas means “son of encouragement” or “son of consolation”.
A cheerful Christian, he is believed to have been given this nickname by the apostles.
The tone here is one of positive, optimistic, and prone to bless others in a ministry of building up.
He is Jewish, from the tribe of Levi.
The Levites were historically involved with priestly, or caretaker duties for the people—basically, they were servants of the church!
(I think of Matt’s role here in helping all our programs, facilities and services to run smoothly!)
Barnabas has this in his family history!
He is originally from the island of Cyprus.
He isn’t a Jerusalem insider---and this will be important later in his story!
He is from a Gentile land, and may have either migrated, or was actually visiting when he first believed.
He is a new believer in Jesus.
Bible scholars believe he may have been converted by Jesus himself (as a possible member of the 70 sent by Jesus in Luke 10), or he was converted and believed as a result of Pentecost and the early apostles teaching.
Barnabas was a gifted encourager.
To impart (give) courage
Encourage:
“Giving someone confidence or boldness to do something.”
Exhortation:
“earnest support or encouragement for a response or action”
Paul writes about many spiritual gifts— including the “gift” to build others up— the gift of encouragement.
Romans 12:6–8 (ESV)
6 Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, in proportion to our faith;
7 if service, in our serving; the one who teaches, in his teaching;
8 the one who exhorts, in his exhortation; the one who contributes, in generosity; the one who leads, with zeal; the one who does acts of mercy, with cheerfulness.
Barnabas was a gifted encourager.
He’s one of those people that are positive, optimistic, they are a blessing.
Two main characteristics that I would like to highlight today:
#1: Encouragers are gifted individuals who sacrifice what they have to provide the energy transfer needed to start or continue God’s work in powerful ways!
Many teachers, coaches, pastors, youth sponsors, — all are gifted encouragers.
Cheerleaders, enthusiasts willing to put effort forward to build someone else’s courage.
Barnabas sold that property.
That was a hard thing, a sacrifice, especially in those days.
It may have been much like what we see in our own community now.
Land, probably on the island of Cyprus, was passed down through generations.
This could have been Barnabas’s future, or his children’s future… But he sold it.
And he gave the entire profit to the cause!
He was what we call in today’s terms an “Angel Investor”.
Forbes Magazine defines an Angel Investor this way:
“Angel investors are individuals who offer promising startup companies funding in exchange for a piece of the business, usually in the form of equity or royalties.”
Mike Markkula Mentors Early Apple
Mike Markkula was born on February 11, 1942, in Los Angeles.
He was introduced to the Steves – Jobs and Wozniak, of course, when they were looking for funding to produce the Apple II computer they had designed in 1977.
They had success with the first version of the computer, the Apple I. Markkula has a deep understanding of technology and imagined the possibility of personal computers years earlier.
He was intrigued by Jobs and Wozniak.
And then they showed him the Apple II.
In a 1992 interview with WGBH Boston, Markkula said: "I looked at it, and I said this is the first affordable useful computer for people."
Jobs and Wozniak not only had no money, but they had no actual experience business.
Markkula helped the Steves write a business plan.
As the three men went through that process, he quickly realized they had a potential Fortune 500 company.
He thought they could accomplish that in about five years.
He gave Apple $250,000 in total an equity investment.
Markkula became employee number three and a one-third owner of the fledgling company.
Wozniak actually gives Markkula more credit for the success of Apple than he takes for himself and Woz designed the first two Apple computers.
He was a trained engineer who wrote several of the early programs for the Apple II.
He was a beta tester for Apple hardware and software.
He was responsible for many of the innovations during Apple's early days.
Throughout his tenure with Apple, Markkula's instincts were spot on.
Even when former colleagues from Intel made fun of him because they didn't believe there was a market for the personal computer.
Markkula had the last laugh.
In 1977, Apple had sales of $773,000.
In 1978, sales were $7.86 million.
In 1979, sales were $47.87 million.
In 1980, sales had almost tripled from the year before to $117 million.
When Apple went public, Markkula owned seven million shares.
At the end of the first day of trading, his shares were worth $203 million.
That was a 220,552% gain on his equity investment in just four years.
That’s what we call “exponential growth”.
That’s all well and good for a human investment here on Earth.
But God, through Barnabas, started something even more exponential.
Three thousand at Pentecost, 5000 on two other occasions in the early chapters of Acts,
Acts 5:14 (ESV)
14 And more than ever believers were added to the Lord, multitudes of both men and women,
Acts 9:31 (ESV)
31 So the church throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria had peace and was being built up.
And walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, it multiplied.
What was God doing through them?—
He was rocking the world!
< .5
.5 - .6
.6 - .7
.7 - .8
.8 - .9
> .9