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
0.1UNLIKELY
Fear
0.43UNLIKELY
Joy
0.58LIKELY
Sadness
0.57LIKELY
Language Tone
Analytical
0.65LIKELY
Confident
0UNLIKELY
Tentative
0.31UNLIKELY
Social Tone
Openness
0.59LIKELY
Conscientiousness
0.92LIKELY
Extraversion
0.15UNLIKELY
Agreeableness
0.91LIKELY
Emotional Range
0.64LIKELY
Tone of specific sentences
Tones
Emotion
Language
Social Tendencies
Anger
< .5
.5 - .6
.6 - .7
.7 - .8
.8 - .9
> .9
Let’s start this morning by listing 33 things that we have been through that have been very hard.
Maybe 2-that are from the past.
List at least one thing that you are struggling with right now.
(On thing causing you to worry) Job, health, marriage.
single and god not brought a person One thing that is very hard for you.
On my list I put 3 past things, my father’s death, my brothers’ deaths, and my initial entrance into ministry.
I also put down two current things.
The first was my wife’s loss of her kidneys.
This continues to be a hard situation for her and of course, because we are connected at the hip, for me.
The second situation has to do with our church.
Now the verse we encounter today is Romans 8:28.
We have been working our way through Romans and in these final weeks before Christmas we are going to look at 3 of god’s best promises.
3 promises that he has made for us that are truly gifts to us.
Gifts worth remembering.
/28 And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpos/e.
I want to apply this verse to our current situation as a church.
Aas a part of the body here, this is your church, and it will help you to see what we are facing, and how God might be working in your life as a part of the body.
If you don't care about EHBC, stay with me, and you will see how this verse applies to you, maybe as a leader or as you face your life.
Transition to finances:
Right now we face a real challenge.
The challenge comes in two forms.
As a church we are about 160,000 behind budget.
We have cut our spending so we are about 70,000 behind giving.
This is a significant shortfall.
But it gets worse.
In March we will begin a mortgage payment on roughly a 1.5 million dollar mortgage.
This will require an additional 140,000$.
So we have about a ¼ of a million dollar shortfall.
Now as a church we about 150,000 socked away for a rainy day.
So we have a 300,000$ problem with a $150,000 reserve.
This is a problem.
(15%)
The problem gets worse.
As a church we do not appear to be growing.
When we built we made the assumption that we would grow 10-20%.
This seemed like a modest assumption.
Yet our attendance appears to be about the same as it was before we built.
This no doubt is at least in part, the cause of our financial problems.
Now the verse says, /28 And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose./
To be honest I have not always known that.
In fact, I have spent much of the spring and summer specifically choosing not to know it.
Specially choosing not to remember it,.
Specially choosing not to claim it.
Specifically choosing instead to alternatingly first worry and then to complain about it.
God says that we can know this for sure, that we can have complete assurance about this, that we can take this to the bank.
This promise is a gift to us, but there are times when I do not want to hear it, instead I want to complain about the new realities I face.
Do you ever tell god, that there are certain things you don’t want to do? Do you remember when we began this project?
I was very honest and string forward with you.
I really did not want to do it.
I did not want to do it because I don’t like to call people to new levels of faith, because that takes faith on my part.
When we did the campaign, I used the illustration of Peter walking on the water.
Unlike peter I did not want to get out of the boat.
I did not want to cast vision, and ask people to give, and to see God do a great thing through us because that was risking failure.
I don’t like risking failure.
I like to play it safe.
So I fought God about doing this in the first place.
But it was clear to me that we should do it.
But then God pulled off a great campaign.
The consultants who helped us said we would raise maybe 3.5 million.
Instead we raised 4.2 million.
It was one of the best campaigns ever.
This incredible building went up.
God was clearly at work.
Yea God.
But inside something said “We are safe.
I wont have to trust you.”
We moved in 14 months ago.
But about 10 months ago it began to seem that the nickels and noses were not going up.
It has become obvious that we face a problem.
Do you ever tell God that there are certain things you don’t want to do, and God calls you to do them anyway?
And you end up facing the problems you were afraid you would have to face.
Then you end up like Jonah saying “God I knew that this would happen!”
This is why I did not want to do this!
This is why I did not want to come to Nineveh!
So Paul says “/28 And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.
/But I have been purposely forgetting it.
Because I didn’t want to hear it.
Have you ever experienced that?
Maybe you are in a painful situation.
Maybe you are in a tough or difficult situation, and you know this verse, but you don’t want to hear it.
You know that god is working good, but you are filled with anxiety, and anger and worry and most of all you don’t want to be in this situation.
I can relate.
Sometimes God takes us to the very place we want to avoid, and it is just like we thought it would be.
If that is where you are, you need to do what I needed to do.
To have a good conversation with the lord.
One day some time ago, I decided to stop worrying and complaining.
And I said “Lord I will do whatever you want, “what do you want me to do?” the answer or thought that came to my mind was “just be happy where you are.
Stop complaining and claim this promise/.
Maybe that is what you need to do?/
/ /
says “/28 And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.
/
/ /
/God works-/ Contrast this with Fatalism.
I looked up fatalism and “the belief that all things are determined by fate.”
So I looked up fate.
“The power that is supposed to determine all things.”
That helps a lot!! Who is that power?
How does it determine all things?
Clearly Paul’s thought is not that “all things” as impersonal realities by themselves work together constructively; rather it is God’s providential working in and through these various things that God is the one who works.
This promise tells us that God, not fate, is at work in the world.
/ /is in the present tense.
He is at work right now.
At no time is he ever sitting on his hands, or taking a break, or slacking off
< .5
.5 - .6
.6 - .7
.7 - .8
.8 - .9
> .9