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
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Disgust
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Fear
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Joy
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Sadness
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Language Tone
Analytical
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Confident
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Tentative
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Social Tone
Openness
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Conscientiousness
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Extraversion
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Agreeableness
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Emotional Range
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Tone of specific sentences
Tones
Emotion
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Anger
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100+ years ago, a Texas pastor told Sam Houston that Christ died for his sins.
Sam asked for baptism in a local pond.
The day came, & up he came out of the water.
Pastor said, "Sam, your sins are washed away."
Houston replied, "God help the fish!" Judah was just as sin stained.
God warned her for ~400 years of judges.
80 years as a united kingdom.
Another 210 years as divided kingdoms (Judah & Israel).
Assyria carried off Israel (N kingdom) into captivity, a huge warning.
God warned Judah for yet another 135 years1 Did they learn?
No. God had to judge.
Jeremiah's times were dark time.
How dark?
Babylon invaded Judea & destroyed city after city.
Finally, they besieged Jerusalem.
Starvation & horror soon followed inside the city walls.
Caring women ate children they'd nurtured.
Too soon, the end came.
Babylonians broke thru city walls.
In the streets, they brutally killed men, women, & children.
They razed the temple.
Destroyed homes.
Looted all the valuables.
Suffering & loss were huge.
The strongest, best, & brightest survivors?
Carried off into exile.
Slaves.
Worst of all?
People brought it on themselves & knew it.
They rebelled against & disobeyed God.
Afterwards, Jeremiah wandered the streets.
Dazed.
As he wept & wandered, he reflected.
The result?
Lamentations.
Most of Lamentations is as dark as his times.
There's one bright spot, the center.
Our verses, his message.
Let's look at Lam 3:19-26.
He starts where we do.
Dwelling on what happened.
19aI remember my affliction...
He had suffered, too.
Not just Judea.
For some 23 years he warned & warned Judah.
People rejected his message & ridiculed him.
Repeatedly.
In Jer 11, hometown people plotted to kill him.
In Jer 19-20, he was arrested, beaten, & put in stocks.
In Jer 26, the high priest had him arrested, beaten, & sentenced to death.
And in Jer 38, he was arrested, beaten & tossed in a cistern to starve.
Finally, Babylon invaded & besieged Jerusalem.
So much negative!
Who wouldn't dwell on it?
19bI remember ... my wandering...
When free, all Jeremiah could do was wander its streets.
19cI remember ... the bitterness & the gall.
He'd seen his people killed & his beloved temple razed.
He saw the destruction of all he'd known.
As he wandered, he wept.
20aI'm remembering all that well.
Dwelling on it, 20bMy soul is downcast within me.
No wonder!
How can anyone avoid depression?
Not seriously question God's goodness?
Can God be good in the middle of so much destruction?
So much suffering?
God called Jeremiah.
When God lets him suffer, how can he avoid wondering if God is good?
The problem? Dwelling on negatives only leads to despair & depression.
It never brings us hope.
Like Jeremiah, are we dwelling on all that's wrong?
Brooding on the negative?
(Pastor's leaving...) Stop!
What should we do instead?
Do what Jeremiah does next.
It's a lesson for us.
Remember.
21aYet this I call to mind.
Remember the Lord.
Remember His goodness.
Remember His faithfulness.
21bTherefore I have hope.
Remembering God's faithfulness brings hope.
Always.
Why? 22aBecause of the Lord's great love (חֶ֫סֶד) we aren't consumed.
Think about that.
Judah has been sticking it in God's eye for over 800 years.
If were God, we'd have zotted them out of existence long ago.
They'd more than earned total destruction.
Many times over.
Who among us is better?
If God chooses to remove us, who doesn't deserve it?
Why hasn't He? Love.
God loves us passionately.
So much that He took human form, lived a perfect life, & sacrificed it on the cross.
He endured all that torture.
Just to pay our sin debt.
He'd rather suffer than let us perish.
That's God's great love for us.
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