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
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Anger
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Here I raise my Ebenezer;
Hither by Thy help I'm come;
And I hope, by Thy good pleasure,
Safely to arrive at home.
Jesus sought me when a stranger,
Wandering from the fold of God;
He, to rescue me from danger,
Bought me with His precious blood.
Ebenezers REMIND US
Samuel took the stone and set it up in the place of the battle to remind the Israelites, “Till now the Lord has helped us.”
The Ebenezer, in this case was a stone between two mountains.
It was a reminder of God’s provision for the people and their victory in battle.
Throughout Israel’s history, God’s people had set up Ebenezers.
Jacob set up the stone he had used to sleep on up as an Ebenezer following his wrestling match with God.
Joshua instructed the children of Israel to set stones in the Jordan as a reminder of his parting the waters of the Jordan so they could cross on dry land.
And here again in 1 Samuel 7:12
To everyone else, the stones were just a heap of rubble, but to the people of God, they were a constant reminder that Yahweh was a personal and powerful God, working wonders on behalf of His people.
Churches and people all go through seasons.
We all have times in our lives when life if tough.
It may be because of health issues.
We don’t move as we used to.
We’re tired or our bodies are crippled with age.
It may be because of conflict.
We may see division occuring in our churches, our families or our lives.
Ebenezers remind us of what the Lord has done.
This church is an Ebenezer.
For 175 years, Union Baptist Church has set in this community to remind us of his Sovereign grace and mercy.
In the midst of pain, in the midst of suffering, this Ebenezer reminds us that God has worked and will continue to work.
APPLICATION:
What do you need to remember today?
Maybe life has taken the joy of God’s grace and mercy out of your life and you need to remember how gracious and good he is.
Ebenezers CONVICT US
Not only do Ebenezers remind us of where we’ve been, they also challenge us to walk in holiness.
Ebenezers are a method of reminding us of who God is, and when we see who God is the natural response is fear and repentance.
When Isaiah encountered the Sovereign God of the universe it shook him to his core.
Joshua similarly called the Israelites to repentance.
This place as an Ebenezer is a place of repentance.
It was a place to call the people to return to the Lord.
You and I like the people of Israel and like Joshua are sinners in need of the indelible grace of God.
We need God’s mercy to transform us, to change us.
We need the grace of God to make us new.
Application Question:
I know today that God will challenge all of us with some sin in our lives if we’ll listen.
I know this because we all sin.
What is the Spirit convicting you of as you approach God today?
Would you repent?
Ebenezers CHALLENGE US
Finally, the Ebenezers challenge us to move in the future.
Not only do Ebenezers point back to what God has done and call us to repentance, they challenge us to move in faith as he leads.
Samuel’s life was marked by an unerring trust in God.
For all the days of his life, Samuel led Israel to faithfulness.
Each time the children of Israel passed the Ebenezer between Mizpah and Shen, it challenged them to faithfully follow God.
I love church steeples.
We see many churches moving away from steeples, but the steeple plays an important role.
It tells the community in the area, all those that can see it that God is there.
No matter what happens, God is there and he encourages the Christian to serve faithfully, the sinner to repent and trust him.
If you were to take your next vacation in London, and you could visit the Metropolitan Tabernacle… The tour guide would tell you that this is the place that the great Charles Haddon Spurgeon used to preach.
He would tell you that the 5,000 seat auditorium there was never large enough…they packed it to overflowing Sunday after Sunday in Spurgeon’s day.
He would tell you how on Sunday nights, they would actually ask church members to stay home because so many visitors wanted to come and fill the building.
Today, that church is only a shadow of what it used to be.
If you were to visit the Metropolitan Tabernacle, basically what you would hear would be wonderful stories of “the way it used to be.”
The good ole days…
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