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
0.12UNLIKELY
Disgust
0.09UNLIKELY
Fear
0.67LIKELY
Joy
0.57LIKELY
Sadness
0.57LIKELY
Language Tone
Analytical
0.81LIKELY
Confident
0.48UNLIKELY
Tentative
0UNLIKELY
Social Tone
Openness
0.76LIKELY
Conscientiousness
0.63LIKELY
Extraversion
0.01UNLIKELY
Agreeableness
0.55LIKELY
Emotional Range
0.52LIKELY
Tone of specific sentences
Tones
Emotion
Language
Social Tendencies
Anger
< .5
.5 - .6
.6 - .7
.7 - .8
.8 - .9
> .9
Introduction
Elijah had endured God’s wilderness by trusting God.
God supplied his every physical need, but more importantly Elijah’s faith in God grew.
We would think that the test was successful and his suffering was over, but THE BROOK DRIED UP!
When Elijah drank the last sip of water from the brook God spoke to him again.
Why did God wait until the brook was dry to speak to Elijah?
Why not give him some kind of advanced notice.
Couldn’t Elijah have figured out the brook was drying up and simply move on to another place which had some water?
Elijah saw the brook drying up but God had not spoken to Him and Elijah had learned that the child of God never must get ahead of God.
Elijah did not do anything until God told him.
Jesus lived that way, and all His followers must live that was too.
Elijah was still a student in God’s Schoolhouse, but this time class would take up in a city instead of a wilderness.
The course was about to get tougher for Elijah.
But, God’s sustaining grace would again supply his every need as his trust in God grew.
Let’s examine Elijah’s next assignment in God’s Schoolhouse.
We would think that the test was successful and his suffering was over, but THE BROOK DRIED UP!
A. The Difficulty of the Assignment (17:8-9)
So far, every time Elijah obeyed God his circumstances had gotten worse.
This pattern will continue for him all the while he is in God’s classroom of testing.
How difficult for us to handle this truth.
It goes against all logic and human experience.
Life ought to get better, not worse when we obey God.
Yet, that is not the way God teaches us valuable and necessary spiritual lessons in His schoolhouse.
How difficult was this lesson going to be for Elijah?
1.
The Difficult Place (17:8)
The wilderness would have been bad enough, but now God was sending him to an even more difficult place.
Zarephath is Sidon was the enemies epicenter.
This city is Jezebel’s hometown.
Her father, Ethbaal, ruled there.
This city was the heartland of Baal worship.
Richard Blackaby, Living Out of the Overflow
Once again God is leading His servant to do something that contravenes common logic.
Elijah is so impoverished he cannot provide a cup of water for himself.
Yet God commands him to advance into the heart of enemy territory!
At Elijah’s seemingly weakest point, God challenges him to make his most daring move.
What is to be learned by this move to enemy territory?
Elijah’s faith will grow as learns that He fights from victory not for victory!
2 Chronicles
2 Chronicles 20:
2 Chronicles
2. The Deficient Person (17:9)
2. The Deficient Person (17:9)
2. The Deficient Person (17:9)
Not only was the place difficult, but the person to whom God sends Elijah is deficient in resources.
She is a widow.
Remember a drought and famine is upon the land.
Widows were the first to suffer in difficult time because their lives depended on others generosity.
How could this widow woman feed the man of God, when she couldn’t even feed herself?
Elijah’s faith would grow as he learned that human resources cannot sustain him, he must depend upon God’s resources in order to live.
2 Corinthians 3
Two great lessons are learned as we progress through God’s schoolhouse of testing: 1) As we face difficult circumstances we can be confident in God because we fight from victory, not for victory.
2) As we face difficult circumstances we can be confident in God because He is our resource (supplier) not ourselves.
B. The Depravity in the Assignment (17:10-12)
As Elijah arrived in the city the depravity of his assignment becomes very real to him.
1.
The Demeaning Obedience (17:10)
Elijah knew not to move until God said move.
Elijah obeyed God.
Remember, the formula for Christian living:
FAITH + OBEDIENCE = VICTORY.
However, victory may not come immediately when the believer is in God’s schoolhouse.
Victory comes when you have passed the final exam, and Elijah is not there yet.
Elijah has concluded his 100 mile journey to Zarephath and he is very thirsty.
He sees a widow gathering sticks.
Could this be the one God has instructed?
He tests her, with his request.
2. The Destitute Order (17:11-12)
Elijah make one more request of the widow which reveals to him her destitute desperate situation.
She too is a believer in Yahweh, Elijah’s God.
Isn’t this interesting?
It seems that this destitute widow was in God’s schoolhouse as well and God has sent His prophet to her as part of her test.
God is about to “kill two birds with one stone,” for the lack of a better term.
God is working this widow’s life out through the same school of suffering that Elijah is going through.
Folks, we don’t go through God’s schoolhouse alone, others are with us.
Jesus reveals God’s purpose in both Elijah and the widow’s suffering for the learning of a spiritual lesson and not a physical one.
Luke
C. The Declaration in the Assignment (17:13-16)
C. The Declaration in the Assignment (17:13-16)
God’s spiritual lessons are taught to both Elijah and the widow in these verses.
As both of them obey God’s command, the assignment is completed and God reveals His power.
1.
The Prophet’s Command (17:13-14)
“Do not fear” is what this widow needed to obey.
Fear of dying, not only her, but her son, had paralyzed her faith.
That is what fear does to faith.
However, when we exercise faith in God, our fears are calmed.
“Do not fear” or “do not be dismayed” are stated 365 times in the Bible.
God is sending us an important message—never fear, instead have faith in God everyday.
2. The Patron’s Compliance (17:15a)
Would the widow obey?
If she did, then God would sustain her, her son, and Elijah for 2 years, that is how long until the drought would end.
Elijah had believed God’s promise, now the widow must obey.
What will she do?
Richard Blackaby
Scripture tells us, “So she proceeded to do according to the word of Elijah.”
Though she is a poor, humble, Gentile widow, she gives to God’s servant what she cannot afford, and thus performs one of the greatest acts of faith recorded in Scripture.
Paradoxically, it was by losing her life that she would save it.
Here is the great lesson of obedience to God: to obey God requires complete dependence on God and dying to self.
23 And he said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.
24 For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.
25 For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits himself?
26 For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words, of him will the Son of Man be ashamed when he comes in his glory and the glory of the Father and of the holy angels.
< .5
.5 - .6
.6 - .7
.7 - .8
.8 - .9
> .9