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.
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Conscientiousness
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Extraversion
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Merry Christmas!
Christmas morning services are always a little weird.
Some of us were together yesterday.
And so, we have seen each other two days in a row.
The service is squished between different Christmas breakfast and Christmas lunch.
If anyone hasn’t opened presents, they are squirming in their seat, hoping that the sermon doesn’t go too long.
Too bad.
I’ve decided to preach until Jesus comes.
The world waited over 6000 years for Jesus to come the first time.
But they weren’t quite sure what to look for.
There were so many prophecies about him, and some of them weren’t quite understood as pointing to him.
Isaiah chapter seven is one of them.
Please turn there with me.
First off, when God tells you to ask for a sign, make sure to do that.
Second, please pray with me as we start.
This passage is a dark time in Israel’s history.
The northern kingdom has completely forsaken God.
So, much so, that they have allied themselves with a gentile nation to take over the southern kingdom, which is supposedly a godly nation.
More or less.
The southern kingdom is known as Judah.
They have the temple and the priesthood, and they make a show of following God.
The previous two kings, Uzziah and Jotham, tried to do what was right in the eyes of the Lord, but they did not remove the shrines throughout the kingdom.
People were trying to worship God in the pagan ways of the nations around.
Ahaz takes the throne in Israel.
And he is not good.
He leads Israel in turning against God.
Because of his leadership and the spiritual condition of the rest of Judah, Israel and Aram try to take it over.
Ahaz is scared.
Judah is scared.
God says: “Don’t be scared.
I’ve got it covered.
Since you don’t believe me ask for a sign.”
Ahaz doesn’t because he doesn’t care about God.
So God tells him that a child will be born whose name is God with Us.
Israel and Aram are going to be laid waste, but a worse time is coming because Judah will refuse to trust in the God who has offered to be with them.
Ahaz doesn’t trust God.
He turns to Assyria for help.
Assyria will annihilate the northern kingdom of Israel, and will pave the way for Babylon to come and overthrow Judah.
God says: I will be the God who is with you.
But, Ahaz says: nah.
Fast forward eight hundred years.
An angel appears to Mary and later Joseph and tells them that Mary will have a son, who will be called Jesus for he will save his people from their sins.
Matthew records for us:
Such a small phrase.
But, so powerful!
Let’s look at that phrase.
1. God
Let’s look at God.
To understand the significance of God with us, we must understand who God is.
If we look at Isaiah 7, something might stand out.
Your translations might do what my translation does.
“Lord” is in all caps.
When a translation does this, it is indicating that the original language has indicated the actual name of God: Yahweh.
Out of respect, most translations, in addition to the original Hebrew, do not write that name, because it is so holy.
Yahweh is the covenant name of God.
It is referred to when God is calling to Moses from the burning bush.
One’s name at this time described who someone was.
When I was a kid, I should have been named: he who yells and talks a lot.
My parents instead named me Peter Timothy, because they wanted me to aspire to a more sanctified way of living.
By stating this simple phrase, “I am who I am” God is describing who he is.
Is the Covenant God who existed before all things.
That’s the verb form used in this phrase.
He is the God who always is.
He is the Covenant God who created all things.
The Hebrew could also be translated: I cause to be what I cause to be.
Not only is he the Covenant God who existed before all things and created all things.
But he is the covenant God who chose to be with his creation in a devoted intimate way.
In a few verses, he explains He watches them, he hears them, he accomplishes his promises, he accompanies them to the promised land.
The Covenant God.
2. Us
Well, After learning about God, we have to discuss us.
Let’s look at Ahaz:
Ahaz looks at God and says: Thanks for the help, but I got this.
I’m going to help you out, because truthfully I don’t trust you.
So, Ahaz goes out from the presence of God and makes a deal with the Assyrians.
That’s what we as humans do.
God says: I am everything you need.
I will provide for you.
I will protect you.
I will prove myself to you.
Adam and Eve in the Garden.
Looking back and forth between God and the fruit.
God and the fruit.
God and the fruit.
Sorry God, we have to provide for ourselves.
Flip through all the pages of the Bible, and we will see story after story of humans in a tough spot.
And when faced with a decision to trust God or to provide for themselves, consistently, they choose themselves.
We could look at our own lives.
We go through a hard time, and what is our normal first response?
Is it to fall on our face before the Covenant God who existed before all things, who created all things, and who wants to be with us in a devoted intimate way?
No, we turn to the Assyrians in our lives.
We try to figure out how to do it ourselves.
And we make a mess of it.
Just like Ahaz.
This isn’t only true of going through a hard time.
No.
When we are living through a hard time, we are only responding how we have trained ourselves to respond.
Consistently, we as humans, even those who claim to be followers of Jesus Christ, give God the leftovers in our lives.
“Oh yeah, I know I should go to church.
Oh yeah, I know I should pray and read my Bible every day.
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