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
0.13UNLIKELY
Disgust
0.12UNLIKELY
Fear
0.1UNLIKELY
Joy
0.65LIKELY
Sadness
0.55LIKELY
Language Tone
Analytical
0.67LIKELY
Confident
0UNLIKELY
Tentative
0.65LIKELY
Social Tone
Openness
0.77LIKELY
Conscientiousness
0.89LIKELY
Extraversion
0.57LIKELY
Agreeableness
0.79LIKELY
Emotional Range
0.81LIKELY
Tone of specific sentences
Tones
Emotion
Language
Social Tendencies
Anger
< .5
.5 - .6
.6 - .7
.7 - .8
.8 - .9
> .9
Not every umpire is blind.
Terrell Hawes is probably the biggest Atlanta Braves Fanatic I know.
I’m certain most of you saw the viral video of Terrell when the Braves won the World Series.
Terrell was at Truist Park on the field watching the game on the Jumbo-tron.
And when the Braves won, Terrell was - exuberant - to say the least.
As were many of us were exuberant.
And I’ve got to admit, when that young man intercepted the Alabama Heisman Trophy winning quarterback for the second time.
And Kirby’s on the sidelines telling him to hit the deck with it.
But he’s running down the sideline with his, “Mama, you better be watching your baby do this Pic-6,” attitude.
Got to admit - I was a bit exuberant.
We love our Braves.
We love our Dawgs.
And with equal emotion we hate our referees and umpires.
How many Jones County Greyhound football games have we watched where we’ve complained, “Yeah, we had to pay the ref’s too.”
More than once in my life, I’ve heard folks say - might have said it myself once or twice - the umpires are blind.
Back in the day in some baseball movies, you’d hear a fan yell, “Throw the bums out.”
But now here’s the thought.
You’ve got four umpires on the field in Braves game.
The guy behind the plate is having a day.
We can see because we’ve got a box on our screen that he’s having trouble calling close pitches.
The more we watch - we get more aggravated than the pitcher in the game.
And the next day we’ll say, “the refs were horrible.”
But was every umpire blind?
In our study in 1 Timothy - you might want to go ahead and get your Bibles out and turn to 1 Timothy 5.
If you don’t have a Bible with you we have some in the pew racks, no shame in using one of those.
And if you don’t have a Bible at home, take one of ours as a gift - every home needs a Bible and we’d be happy you have one from First Baptist.
In our study of 1 Timothy, you might remember we said the job of the Elders - a group of men who could preach and teach and who led the church.
It was their job to Proclaim and Protect the gospel, remember that?
In fact, Proclaiming and Protecting the gospel is the mission of the church and the elders are the gatekeepers for the church.
It’s their job to keep the church on a Godly, Christian path.
But the church at Ephesus wasn’t on a Godly, Christian path.
It was in chaos with people teaching “secret” teachings.
That your genealogy mattered in your salvation and that the family was a burden to you achieving your best life now.
And the Elders didn’t stop it.
If you want to know the frustration the good Christians in the Ephesian church felt, think of our political system.
We elect people and send them to Atlanta and Washington - and then they make some of the asinine and ungodly decisions they could make.
Decisions that have no basis on anything they campaigned on.
Doesn’t that aggravate you?
It does me.
And what do we say, “We should vote every one of them out.”
What Paul is going to say to Timothy today should make us all pause for a minute and think.
Paul will use the Bible and Jesus’ own words to show us how to choose good leaders and what to do with bad leaders.
We talk about wanting to follow Jesus - well here is a very clear, extremely clear path to walk, and it makes me wonder.
How many heartaches could be avoided if we simply followed Jesus?
How do you figure out if a good guy really is a good guy?
I really do believe that the folks in the Ephesian church who were committed to proclaiming and protecting the gospel were telling Timothy, “We need to throw the bums out.”
As far as they are concerned, every Elder is a bad Elder.
They’ve let us down.
They are supposed to be in charge and look at what’s happened to us.
We need to get rid of every last one of them and start all over.
I’ve said the same thing about Washington - and I suspect many of you - whether you are Democrat or Republican or whatever - I suspect you’ve said the same thing.
We need to throw the bums out and start all over.
But the problem with that is - according to Paul - some of the elders aren’t bums.
“Let the elders who rule well...” he says.
Paul kind of hints at - do you really want to get rid of someone who is doing what God called them to do.
I was in seminary during the conservative resurgence in the Southern Baptist Convention.
It was a very difficult time in our convention - I certain believe now that it was necessary - but I still wonder about some of the tactics.
I was talking to someone who was a groupie of the big wigs in charge, telling him about a professor of mine who was a really good professor who got crucified.
And the groupie’s response to me was, “Sometimes you have to shed some innocent blood.”
I think Paul is contradicting that statement right here.
“Let the elders who rule well,” he says.
They are doing their job.
They are proclaiming and protecting the gospel and caring for folks with the best of their ability.
Don’t throw them out, he says.
Instead, 1 Timothy 5:17 “Let the elders who rule well be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in preaching and teaching.”
If they are going a good job and especially if they are preaching and teaching the one thing that has a chance of straightening this whole mess out.
Give them double honor.
Now, I’ve heard this preached a bunch of different ways - but here is what I believe based on what I’ve studied.
Pastors are elders but this doesn’t mean that a Pastor/Elder should be paid twice as much as anyone else.
First of all, back then they didn’t have vocational clergy.
Every elder had a day job.
The beginning church didn’t have the funds to pay full-time staff and certainly to pay them double everyone else that might get paid.
Double honor is simply this.
First, respect them for who they are.
God called them there.
They are struggling with all of their might to lead the church well - that is not easy.
They are proclaiming the gospel; they are trying to protect the gospel; they love you.
Respect them.
And secondly, when they preach, pay them an honorarium.
Double honor - respect and an honorarium.
Now look at what he uses for support.
If you look that up in Deuteronomy, you’ll find that one little sentence is sandwiched between two sections explaining how to treat folks right.
The first section is talking about punishing a criminal.
The second section talks about young widows.
And in the middle of that, it’s like God says, and by the way, treat your animals right too.
Don’t take your beast and make him work making you food while you starve him.
Not cool - don’t do that.
But if that wasn’t enough support, Paul quotes Jesus, Luke 10:6-7
Jesus appointed 72 others, Luke tells us, to go and do the work of an elder - “Go proclaim the good news.”
Stay with whoever will let you - and don’t feel guilty for accepting their hospitality.
“…for the laborer deserves his wages...”
Jesus says they deserve double honor.
Folks who receive the gospel should respect you.
Folks who receive the gospel should support you - so you can keep telling the good news.
So, back to the point, 1 Timothy 5:17 “Let the elders who rule well be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in preaching and teaching.”
You’ve got some bad elders, yes you do.
But you’ve got some good ones too.
You’ve got some good umpires - you’ve got some good politicians.
But you’ve got some bad ones too.
How do you tell the difference?
< .5
.5 - .6
.6 - .7
.7 - .8
.8 - .9
> .9