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
Language
Social Tendencies
Anger
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What would you do for a $?
Flying on a plane to California to visit my sister.
It’s Valentine’s Day weekend, KK and I are dating, and I invite her to go with me.
A romantic getaway weekend, with my parents and big sister and her family.
More of a trial by fire, maybe.
But we are on the plane, and KK has told me that she will not back down from a bet.
So I decide to challenge here.
The dude next to us, by the window, is eating chips.
I dare you, to look him in the eyes, not say a word, reach into his bag while maintaining eye contact, take a chip and eat it.
And I’ll give you a $.
And she did.
And it was glorious.
What would you do for a $?
(Or, maybe in this case, for a boy?)
Maybe not much.
But what would you do for a million $$s?
Steal a chip from a stranger?
In a heartbeat.
I think you’re going to have to get pretty creative (or immoral) to find something I won’t do for a million dollars.
The Willingness of Ezekiel
We talked about the obedience of Ezekiel last week.
He had all kinds of feels about being taken away from Israel, from his people, from the temple, from his calling as a priest he had spent his life preparing for...
And now he is in a refugee camp, by the rivers of Babylon, full of bitterness and anger.
But God calls him to be a prophet.
And he goes.
This noble calling, to go and speak to the people of Israel.
They won’t listen, but speak anyway.
And Ezekiel 3:14
He went.
What do you think he is picturing?
What is his calling going to look like?
There’s some noble words in here:
Oooh… a watchman.
Standing on the walls, seeing the danger coming, and letting the people know.
That’s pretty good, powerful words for a prophet priest.
Prophetic Communication
So what is this really going to look like?
Is he going to be like Elijah and Elisha, doing signs and wonders, whirwinds and fire from the sky.
Awesome!
Is he going to be more like Isaiah, speaking in the courtroom and writing to all the peoples?
Or like Jeremiah, proclaiming in the streets and the temples, weeping over the coming destruction.
God gives him his first prophetic mission here in chapter 4.
Now, that’s just kind of fun.
You get to make a model and stand with a skillet.
Go down to HobbyLobby… Maybe smash it with the skillet???
I could see this art project.
Not super interesting, but doable.
But wait, Ezekiel has a part to play in this:
Three hundred and ninety days.
Lie on your left side.
Is this even possible?
Think of the bed sores!
Presumably he didn’t do this 24-7.
Lies down there all day, maybe returns home in the evening?
But even then… no book, no iPad, no headphone audio book, on specifically his left side everyday for more than a year.
And then...
40 more days.
The right side must have felt like SUCH a relief, for like an hour.
And then… I wish I could roll over.
Is he explaining what this represents to people?
Do people come and ask what it all means?
Are they meant to interpret themselves, or wait until the book comes out to understand what the weird guy in the refugee camp is doing?
So he’s tied up as he lies there.
SO we get a bit of a hint that he isn’t tied up and lying on his side the WHOLE time.
He gets to cook and eat and drink occasionally.
He gets to eat muffins, in fact.
But, oh by the way:
WORST.
MUFFINS.
EVER!!!
All the way, worst muffins ever.
Is the lead buried here?
Did that sneak up on anyone else?
In this little living art project, performance art, is anyone going to paying attention to all the other little details… or just the guy using poop fires to cook muffins!!!
Here is where Ezekiel draws the line.
He was “bitter and angry” before… now God is making him eat poop muffins!
And… apparently Ezekiel is fine with this compromise.
He is willing.
Maybe he’s more bitter and angry now, I don’t know.
I would be.
But the hand of the Lord is strong upon him.
And he obeys.
Would you do it?
Make and eat poop muffins?
And not just once, every day for more than a year.
Be that guy, be that girl.
You’d build a reputation real quick.
Setup over here in the park, the story would spread, people would talk about you!
Would you do it?
How about for a million dollars?
This is by far the best one, but God has Ezekiel do some other crazy things.
I love the creativity in Ezekiel.
What has a hope of getting through to these people?
Words aren’t doing it.
Let’s try theater, let’s try art, let’s try to shock them, let’s reach them anyhow, anyway we can.
The willingness on Ezekiel’s part to throw dignity aside.
He lost all dignity at poop muffins.
And this guy was trained to be priest, can you imagine a higher expectation of respect and dignity?
He lays it all down.
Liking it is optional, but he obeys.
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