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
0.43UNLIKELY
Disgust
0.11UNLIKELY
Fear
0.09UNLIKELY
Joy
0.52LIKELY
Sadness
0.57LIKELY
Language Tone
Analytical
0.89LIKELY
Confident
0UNLIKELY
Tentative
0.08UNLIKELY
Social Tone
Openness
0.9LIKELY
Conscientiousness
0.87LIKELY
Extraversion
0.07UNLIKELY
Agreeableness
0.71LIKELY
Emotional Range
0.62LIKELY
Tone of specific sentences
Tones
Emotion
Language
Social Tendencies
Anger
< .5
.5 - .6
.6 - .7
.7 - .8
.8 - .9
> .9
*What Do You Know*
*Letters of Peter September 29, 2002*
* *
*Scripture Reading:* Jeremiah 8:18-22, page 1186, pew Bible
*Introduction:*
What do you know --- our understanding is a matter of how we emphasize knowledge.
What do you/ know/ – a form of greeting.
What do /you/ know – a form of affirmation.
What /do/ you know – a form of clarification.
/What/ do you know – a form of emphasis.
You have probably used this phrase each one of these ways hundreds of times in your life.
(Examples)
Would it surprise you to know that God also asks us this same question in order to emphasize knowledge to aid our understanding?
He asked this question in the passage we just read in Jeremiah about the balm of Gilead.
(Explain what this is.)
Jeremiah looks ahead into the near prophetic future and sees the suffering of the people about to go into captivity in Babylon.
He cries out for them and God responds with his charge that they have provoked him to anger with their idolatry.
The people weary of exile cry out for salvation.
God has their attention.
They feel they have been there long enough.
Then God through Jeremiah asks the rhetorical question, "Is there no balm in Gilead?
Is there no physician there?
Why then is there no healing for the wound of my people?"
In the question, God gives them the answer.
He is asking, "What /do/ you know?" so that the people will respond, "/What/ do you know?"
There is indeed balm in Gilead.
The God of Israel is their healer.
He asks for their clarification so they will discover their source of healing and hope.
Understanding is a matter of emphasis.
Just as surely as there is this healing balm produced in Gilead, there is healing in the knowledge of God and obedience toward him.
You see, God himself is the balm of Gilead.
We see this in Jer.
30:17 & 33:6 where God says he himself will heal their wounds.
The people are to look to him and return to him in their suffering.
It is the knowledge of God we should seek for our healing.
/“After the suffering of his soul, he will see the light of life and be satisfied; by *his knowledge* my righteous servant will justify many, and he will bear their iniquities.”
(Isaiah 53:11 NIVUS)/
It is the lack of the knowledge of God that destroys us.
/“my people are destroyed from *lack of knowledge*.
"Because you have *rejected knowledge*, I also reject you as my priests; because you have ignored the law of your God, I also will ignore your children.”
(Hosea 4:6 NIVUS)/
I will be emphasizing several related words for "knowledge" in the message this morning as we continue in the letters of Peter.
These several words meaning "knowledge" or "foreknowledge" appear 18 times in Peter's letters.
This tells us that there is something about our knowledge that Peter wanted to emphasize – some things he wants us to know or be reminded of.
Last week's message was on "Finding Purpose in Suffering."
We learned that the semester of suffering is in the classroom of godliness.
We discussed the purpose of suffering so now we will discover what we must know about God to endure it.
No doubt one of the primary ways that Christians are enabled to live and suffer for Christ in the world is because of what they know to be true.
/ILLUS: the seven Pakistani Christians executed by being shot in the head this week by Islamic radicals./
There are certain things that are true about God and true because of him.
Knowledge is an important element to affirm who we are as God's people since our knowledge is how we came to be God's people.
It is also what identifies us as God's people both in the world and with each other.
It is what will keep us, and it is what will enable us to make a difference in the world we live in.
*Big Question:*
/What must I know in order to endure as a Christian?/
*I.
Cycle One*
* A.
Narrative *(1Pet.
1:1-2, 20-21)
When Peter first opens his letter to the scattered people of God, it seems imperative that he reminds them up front that God knows who they are, wherever they are.
They might be strangers in the world (1:1) but not to God who chose them (1:2) because he knew them before they knew him.
There are several ways in which God knows who they are.
They are the ones who were sprinkled by the blood of Jesus and set apart for obedience to him by the Spirit.
God also knows that they have grace and peace in abundance because of his knowledge of them.
Just as Jesus himself was chosen before the creation of the world to be revealed in the present time (1:20) for them, they too were chosen in the present time to set their faith and hope in God through him (1:21).
Christians are set apart in knowing their unique position, that before they knew God, God knew them.
* B.
< .5
.5 - .6
.6 - .7
.7 - .8
.8 - .9
> .9