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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If you were to reflect over the course of your life, how many meals really stick out to you as being just especially awesome meals?
We all have eaten good food, but over time we forget about them, except for the exceptional ones, right?
I can recall the first time I had gourmet duck.
I can recall the delight of some peanut butter cheesecake from a steakhouse in Bardstown.
But most meals....we forget.
Ask me what I had for lunch on tuesday....I don’t know.
What about even yesterday?
I could probably tell you, but I’d have to think about it for a moment.
We eat food all the time, but seldom remember it, and yet that food nourishes us and keeps us alive.
I like to think that it is similar with sermons.
Sometimes pastors bemoan the fact that most people cannot remember the sermons they preach.
“I put so many hours into preparing that and you can’t even remember it for one week”
I have a secret for you.
I don’t even remember my sermons for very long, and I’m the one who preached them!
If I want to know how I handled a certain verse in Philippians, I’d probably have to go back to my notes to find out.
Even though we cannot remember every sermon, just like our regular mundane meals, these sermons do spiritual nourish us.
This is part of why it is so ciritical to be part of a local church where you can fed regularly.
And just as it is with impact meals, there are some sermons that might stick out.
Some of you could probably look back and identify a couple of sermons that had a significant impact on your life.
There a few that stick out in my mind that way.
One particular sermon that really stands out to me as having an outsized impact upon my life is a sermon that my Pastor in Chicago, Pastor Bob, preached when I was in high school.
The sermon was titled, the Three Chairs, and I intend to preach my version of that sermon here today.
I need you to know that I have never once before preached a sermon that was not my own.
I’ve used outlines from other men, but even that is rare and I have always adapted them and have always developed my own content.
I consider it my ethical responsibility to develop and preach original sermons.
But today.
Today is a unique day.
This will be the first time I’ve ever preaching a sermon with content not fully original to me.
Why would I do that?
This sermon had such a profound impact upon me and changed the way that I approached so much of life, that I want to share it with you.
And I need you to know that this message is a challenging one for me as well.
I preach this to myself just as much or more than I do to anyone else.
To give credit where credit is to, I first heard this sermon from Pastor Bob Sheridan, who, when he preached this sermon, was transparent that it was not original with him, either.
He got it from another preacher (Bruce Wilkinson).
When I was in Chicago in September, I asked Pastor Sheridan if I could have a copy of his notes and he graciously sent them to me.
Though I have his notes, I have made some alterations along the way, because even though I’m preaching a sermon largely written by another, I still want it to be me preaching.
I’m not reading someone else’s manuscript today.
I’m taking the outlines, ideas, and concepts and have crafted a sermon that really is mine, even if the original ideas were not.
This is the Three Chairs.
Everyone sits in one of three chairs.
So often, these chairs are represented in three successive generations.
The first generation is fully sold out to the Lord, the second generation introduces compromise and hypocrisy, and the third generation lives in a state of conflict with the things of the Lord.
In our time today we are going to consider several ways to illustrate the concept of the three chairs from biblical characters, beginning with Joshua.
Open your Bibles to Joshua 24.
We spent time in the book of Judges earlier this year.
Joshua 24 is the prequel to that.
God had powerfully brought out the people of Israel from the land of Egypt.
They were slaves and God make a mockery of the Egyptian God through the 10 plagues that he brought upon the land.
He led them out into the wilderness, but they rebelled against him.
As a result they had to wander in the wilderness for 40 years.
But finally, the time for them to enter into the promised that had arrived.
They went in and they conquered the land.
Now the time has come for Joshua to die.
So he issues one final challenge to the people.
Let’s pick things up in 24:14
Notice Joshua’s own commitment to the Lord.
He is a first chair individual.
He is sold out to the Lord.
He has seen all that God has done to bring the people out of Egypt and establish them in the land.
He is not interested in playing games with false gods.
His focus is the Lord and he intends to lead his household to do the same.
Not only that but he is challenging others to do likewise.
Put away the foreign idols!
The people are going to respond favorable to Joshua’s charge “Yes, we will serve the Lord”, and yet Joshua reissues the challenge after that:
It’s amazing that he had to issue that challenge to them.
God had demonstrated his power of the very idols that Joshua is calling them to forsake, and yet they were still clinging to them!
But here is Joshua.
Committed to the Lord, and calling others to the same.
He is in the first chair.
Turn with me now over to Judges 1-2.
Immediately after the death of Joshua we find compromise in the people.
We covered this passage a number of months ago, so I won’t linger too much on the details.
But we find that the people did not do what was right in regard to Adoni-bezek.
We find the people failing to drive out the people God had commanded them to drive out.
In chapter two we find this description:
Here we have the first two chairs represented.
The people served God all the days of Joshua.
He led the people to follow through on their commitment.
The second chair is represented by the elders.
They had seen the great work that the Lord had done for Israel, and so there was a level of commitment there, but it was not the same level as Joshua.
It was under the Elder’s watch that the compromise of chapter one began to creed in.
It was under the Edler’s watch that the Angel of the Lord said “you have not obeyed my voice” in the beginning of Chapter 2.
This was a generation that introduced compromise.
They gave a nod to the Lord, but ultimately did not live wholeheartedly unto him as Joshua had urged.
They are second chair individuals.
Third chair individuals can be found just a few verses later.
This is the third chair.
They do not know the Lord.
Indeed, their lives are going to be characterized by conflict with the one true God.
We have walked through judges so we know what follows.
The people worship false gods, engage in all sorts of evil practices, and are judged by God over and over for their rebellion.
We can think about this as where the focus of an individual is.
Is the focus on God and everything that He has said?
First chair.
Is the focus on God....but then also on me?
Yes, God....but I’m also going to do things my way.
Second chair.
Or is the focus entirely on myself.
It’s all about me.
Third chair.
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