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
0.1UNLIKELY
Disgust
0.07UNLIKELY
Fear
0.1UNLIKELY
Joy
0.58LIKELY
Sadness
0.55LIKELY
Language Tone
Analytical
0.44UNLIKELY
Confident
0UNLIKELY
Tentative
0.23UNLIKELY
Social Tone
Openness
0.77LIKELY
Conscientiousness
0.62LIKELY
Extraversion
0.18UNLIKELY
Agreeableness
0.89LIKELY
Emotional Range
0.59LIKELY
Tone of specific sentences
Tones
Emotion
Language
Social Tendencies
Anger
< .5
.5 - .6
.6 - .7
.7 - .8
.8 - .9
> .9
Rescuer
Welcome (Cameron Harris)
Scripture Reading (Matthew 7:28-8:17)
Prayer of Praise (God is patient), Sandra Lindell
Leaning on the Everlasting Arms
Ancient of Days
Prayer of Confession (Hypocrisy), Joel Whitcomb
Lord, From Sorrows Deep I Call
PBC Catechism #26
What do we believe about the Holy Spirit?
We believe the Holy Spirit is the supernatural agent who applies salvation to sinful people.
He is the third person of the Trinity, truly God, eternally proceeding from the Father and the Son.
Pastoral Prayer (Mike Lindell)
SERMON
Grateful to be back in the pulpit this morning...
Thank you to those who have preached as I rested my voice
Thank you to all who have prayed for and encouraged me
Turn to Matthew 7:28
If someone wrote you an email encouraging you to leave everything behind to follow some teacher, wouldn’t you want to know why?
Matthew’s writing a book to encourage his readers to follow a teacher named Jesus.
Why? Matthew insists He’s more than a teacher.
He’s the King of Kings...
Look at His preaching!
(ch.
5-7)
“And when Jesus finished these sayings, the crowds were astonished at his teaching, for he was teaching them as one who had authority, and not as their scribes.”
(7:28-29)
Look at His power!
(ch.
8-9)
Three sets of three miracle stories
In these stories, Jesus reveals power over disease, nature, demons, and death
This morning we’ll examine the first set of three miracle stories, where we’ll learn a simple, counterintuitive truth.
It’s been said, “God helps those who help themselves.”
But that old saying is not in the Bible, and in fact the Bible often teaches the opposite.
Our text teaches us that Jesus helps those who CAN’T help themselves.
Some of you feel like you can’t come to Jesus.
If God only helps those who help themselves, you’re out of luck.
You’ve messed your life up far to miserably to come to Jesus now.
I pray this passage reminds you that your helplessness is what qualifies you to come.
Others feel like you can’t take Jesus’ love to others.
If God only helps those who help themselves, they’re out of luck.
If the sinner has made his bed, let him lie in it!
I pray this passage reminds you that if Jesus helps those who can’t help themselves, we should too.
Three Examples of the simple truth that Jesus helps those who can’t help themselves:
1) No One is Too DIRTY for Jesus to Touch
vv.1-2a—When [Jesus] came down from the mountain, great crowds followed Him.
And behold, a leper came to Him
Leprosy is a generic term for various skin diseases that plagued the ancient world.
In extreme cases, leprosy would not only destroy the skin but could cause fingers, toes, hands, feet, or parts of the face to literally rot off the body [1]
Leprosy was almost impossible to cure, and even if cured it almost always left the individual scarred for a lifetime [2]
For this reason, it was “the most feared disease of the ancient world.”
[3]
The physical effects of leprosy were bad, but the social effects were much worse.
Since leprosy was extremely contagious, lepers were isolated from the community.
Leviticus 13:45-46—The leprous person who has the disease shall wear torn clothes and let the hair of his head hang loose, and he shall cover his upper lip and cry out, ‘Unclean, unclean.’
He shall remain unclean as long as he has the disease.
He is unclean.
He shall live alone.
His dwelling shall be outside the camp.
By his clothes, his hygiene, his “face mask,” and even with his shouting he makes it known that he’s a leper.
And he lives alone away from everybody else.
But why does he cry out “unclean?”
When the OT talks about a person being “unclean,” it’s not about physical dirtiness.
It’s a ritual uncleanness.
The unclean person is cut off from worship in the temple or synagogue
And if he gets too close to a clean person, the clean person becomes unclean too.
Jewish tradition forbade a Jew from coming closer than six feet to a leper, and if the wind was blowing the limit was 150 feet.
[4]
God’s people were social-distancing long before it went mainstream
“One ancient rabbi said, ‘When I see lepers I throw stones at them lest they come near me.’
Another said, ‘I would not so much as eat an egg that was purchased on a street where a leper had walked.”
[5]
With all that background, let’s go back to verse 2...
v. 2a—“...behold, a leper came to Him and knelt before Him...”
Imagine the gasps and screams and whispers as this leper walks right up to Jesus.
Why is this leper approaching Jesus?
v. 2b—“...saying, “Lord, if you will, you can make me clean.”
This leper knows he has a need.
And he knows that Jesus has the power to cleanse him.
If you think people were gasping and screaming when the leper approached Jesus, imagine what they did when Jesus responded...
v. 3—And Jesus stretched out His hand and touched him, saying, “I will; be clean.”
And immediately his leprosy was cleansed.
Jesus could have healed with a word, but He chose to heal by touching the leper.
Why?
Leviticus 5:3 makes it clear that if you touch an unclean person, you become unclean.
But not with Jesus!!!
When Jesus touches an unclean person, Jesus doesn’t become unclean.
The unclean person becomes clean!!!
Why?
Because no one is too dirty for Jesus to touch!!!
Unbeliever: no matter how dirty you are, you aren’t too dirty for Jesus to touch you and clean you up.
The gospel isn’t about cleaning yourself up and coming to Jesus.
It’s about recognizing your filthiness, admitting that you’re unable to clean yourself up, and crying out to Jesus in faith.
It’s believing that He died to pay the penalty for your sin and He rose from the dead to give new life to whoever trusts Him.
Christian: if Jesus didn’t flinch at your filth when you were His enemy, why would He distance Himself from you now that you’re His friend?
About a month ago we were eating lunch with friends at 185.
The adults were sitting at one table and the kids were sitting at another.
As the adults were talking after lunch, one of my kids walked over to our table with a crumpled-up napkin.
I watched as she placed it in front of my plate with a smile on her face.
I asked her what she was doing and she said, “it’s my trash.
I don’t want it near me anymore.”
And then she walked back to her chair, just as boldly as she had walked towards mine.
Christian, you can bring your trash to Jesus.
He’s not surprised by it.
He’s not grossed out by you.
< .5
.5 - .6
.6 - .7
.7 - .8
.8 - .9
> .9