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
0.11UNLIKELY
Disgust
0.09UNLIKELY
Fear
0.13UNLIKELY
Joy
0.67LIKELY
Sadness
0.54LIKELY
Language Tone
Analytical
0.75LIKELY
Confident
0UNLIKELY
Tentative
0.61LIKELY
Social Tone
Openness
0.76LIKELY
Conscientiousness
0.89LIKELY
Extraversion
0.26UNLIKELY
Agreeableness
0.95LIKELY
Emotional Range
0.54LIKELY
Tone of specific sentences
Tones
Emotion
Language
Social Tendencies
Anger
< .5
.5 - .6
.6 - .7
.7 - .8
.8 - .9
> .9
Intro:
Following Christ will be difficult and will cause us to become outcast
Our suffering is not about us...
When life gets difficult, we need to ask God what He is doing...
Our willingness to suffer shows how much we love God and it shows the world how much God loves us.
Setting the stage...
400 years of silence...
Alexander the Great and his conquest...
Alexander the Great’s death...
years of conflict after A’s death in which all of his generals are fighting for control...
The great wall of china is built
The great wall of china is built
Julius Caesar...
Mark Antony...
Herod the Great (Herod means Hero) is put in power over Isreal by Julius Ceaser, because Herod had saved his life.
Herod is only half Jew...
Think about your own family history for a moment.
How far back can you trace your ancestors?
Consider that the united states isn’t even 250 years old yet.
Let your brain wrap around that.
For almost twice as long as we as a country have existed, the Israelites were literally caught in the middle of many wars.
Think about how much we as a country have messed things up in our short history.
Everything these people have ever known was lying, deceit, murder, adultery, and constant pressure to believe in the gods of your captures.
I bring this up because when we talk about the Anguish of Advent, and we consider the things we have had to suffer… WE HAVE IT SO EASY!
It is no wonder to me why the Jews were convinced that the promised messiah was going to be a conquering king.
That is what they believed they need in order to have Peace and Joy.
They put God in the box… They could only imagine him delivering they in the way they had seen other peoples being delivered by Kings and armies.
They did get their Peace and Joy, just not in the way that they had imagined.
Luke 1:39-
I believe she rushes away because of fear and is looking for counsel and comfort.
Mary has been told by the angel that Elizabeth is also pregnant…
Zechariah was a priest and obviously she knew that she could trust them and they were legitimate followers of God.
Without Mary saying anything other than hello, the HS fills Elizabeth and she immediately knows what is going on.
God uses Elizabeth to confirm for Mary, what is going on.
God loves us enough to speak until we are confident.
Look at Mary’s response after the confirmation of Elizabeth.
1. God speaks through other believers and it helps us to believe and understand what He is doing.
This is not something new for us, but what my goal is during advent is for us to take these stories that we “know” so well and take a fresh look.
Mary rushes away from home to visit her relative (aunt?).
I believe she rushes away because of fear and is looking for counsel and comfort.
Mary has been told by the angel that Elizabeth is also pregnant…
Zechariah was a priest and obviously she knew that she could trust them and they were legitimate followers of God.
Without Mary saying anything other than hello, the HS fills Elizabeth and she immediately knows what is going on.
God uses Elizabeth to confirm for Mary, what is going on.
God loves us enough to speak until we are confident.
Look at Mary’s response after the confirmation of Elizabeth.
Look at Mary’s response to Elizabeth’s testimony...
Luke 1:46-
Mary goes from running in fear to praising the Lord for choosing her, remembering Israel, and for keeping His word by sending the promised Messiah.
There are times when what God’s people need is a testimony to be encouraged and it is also what God wants because it shows people how God is speaking.
Luke 1:57-
2. God does not always want us to tell others what He is doing in our lives.
vs58 points out that Elizabeth’s family and neighbors didn’t even know she was pregnant.
This shows the extremes that she went through to hide this pregnancy from everyone.
Just like we need to share our story, there are also times when we need to keep it to ourselves until the appointed time.
I’ve experienced this God does things in lots of different ways and we don’t need to fall into the trap of simply assuming that we should opperate as we normally do.
Just like in the beginning of Jesus’ ministry, He told those that He healed not to tell anyone.
It wasn’t time for His work and plan to be revealed yet.
you may be thinking that these first two points contradict each other, but they don’t.
God does things in lots of different ways and we don’t need to fall into the trap of simply assuming that we should do what we normally do.
God may need you to keep quite...
OR He may want you to tell everyone what He is saying
Let me give you two examples:
God telling me that Bethany was going to be ok before she even had the official diagnosis that it was cancer.
God told me very specifically that I need to tell people that she was going to be ok and God used that testimony to show others the truth that God loves us and takes care of us.
There have been several times when God has me make a change in my employment and he began to speak that months before it actually happened.
Speaking that too soon would not have been good.
It is critical to that we ask God what we are to share and what we need to keep to ourselves.
Praying with Jason about the outcome of a court case… I needed to know if I was supposed to tell him...
God told me it would be favorable to them
I was nervous about saying it because I didn’t want to be wrong or cause their disappointment to be worse than it already was.
3. God can take what is devastating for us and make it a miracle for others.
Can you imagine being in Zech’s shoes?
His wife is now pregnant and he can’t hear or speak.
Talk about your world being upside down!
God used the temporary disability of Zech to draw the attention of others to prove that God was at work.
We need to be careful about how we respond to what God is doing in our lives.
Especially what we say to others about what we are going through.
God may want to use that time of discomfort to amaze people by showing them what He can do through you.
If you spend the whole time complaining about your circumstances, people will stop listening to you and it will cast a shadow over what God is doing.
Our complaints make the focus go from what God is doing to what we are saying.
Because of the way that both Zechariah and Elizabeth handled this entire situation their neighbors are amazed and the word of the Lord’s goodness and power is spread throughout Judea.
Because of the way that both Zechariah and Elizabeth handled this entire situation their neighbors are amazed and the word of the Lords goodness and power is spread throughout Judea.
Also, because of how they handled it, John’s life is set up the way the Lord needs it too.
There is an expectation from the people in John’s life that God is going to do something great because of what the Lord had done in his birth.
So, where is the Joy and that Christmas is supposed to be about?
4. Our obedience will result in Joy for those around us.
Now, keep in mind what we discussed at the beginning today.
God has sent a prophet in hundreds of years and all of the sudden, when things are at their darkest, God shows up and sends a prophesy through Zech.
Not only do they now have a prophet, his son is a prophet as well and they are preparing the way for the long awaited Messiah!
This is a huge deal!
God has not forgotten them!
Look at Zechariah’s response to this whole ordeal.
Luke 1:67-
As we are enduring, and spending time with God.
He begins to piece together all the things he has been teaching us our entire lives and makes them real.
We gain a small glimpse of what God is doing because we are paying attention and we are asking Him what He is up too.
God uses this experience to allow us to speak truth into the lives of others.
This is not the same old, tired out saying, God uses our pain to help others.
He does, but it is so much deeper than that.
< .5
.5 - .6
.6 - .7
.7 - .8
.8 - .9
> .9