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
0.1UNLIKELY
Disgust
0.07UNLIKELY
Fear
0.14UNLIKELY
Joy
0.6LIKELY
Sadness
0.54LIKELY
Language Tone
Analytical
0.02UNLIKELY
Confident
0UNLIKELY
Tentative
0.58LIKELY
Social Tone
Openness
0.66LIKELY
Conscientiousness
0.45UNLIKELY
Extraversion
0.2UNLIKELY
Agreeableness
0.91LIKELY
Emotional Range
0.4UNLIKELY
Tone of specific sentences
Tones
Emotion
Language
Social Tendencies
Anger
< .5
.5 - .6
.6 - .7
.7 - .8
.8 - .9
> .9
rator] On the mountain, in the valley, in the crowded streets, or the empty desert.
In our hope, and in our waiting.
We are never alone.
God is with us.
- Our series is called God With Us.
And we looked last week about how we experience the presence of God in the valley.
If you were with us we talked about the truth that we often enjoy God on the mountaintops, but we experience him intimately in the valley.
Today what I want to do is I want to talk about another metaphor from Scripture, and that is the wilderness.
How do we experience God's presence in the wilderness.
The wilderness is different from the valley, because time in the wilderness usually lasts a lot longer.
The wilderness is a barren place, a dry place, a desolate place where you feel very alone.
One of the images often found in the wilderness is wandering through the wilderness.
We're wondering when in the world is this going to be over.
We're wondering when are we going to get out of the wilderness.
Some of you right now, you might be in some type of a wilderness.
You're stuck in this job, and you're wondering, should I stay in this job.
Or, should I go back to school, and then I may have to go into student loan debt but I may have a better job.
I'm kind of stuck in this place, should I stay or should I do something different.
I'm renting a house and I wonder, should I buy a house, I'm not getting any equity.
But if I do that I may get transferred, I just don't know.
And so you kind of feel stuck in this place.
I'm dating some guy, and he just won't ask me to marry him.
I dated him, I dated him, and I prayed and I prayed and I fasted and I fasted and fasted and he still didn't do it, he's just playing video games, should I stay with him?
Or should I go out with somebody else, you know.
And then give up all that time, it just kind of goes on and on and on and on.
We often feel alone.
We feel lost.
We feel disoriented.
We feel like nobody really understands what we're going through in the wilderness.
What's so interesting to me is when you look at wilderness stories in the Bible, they often follow mountaintop experiences.
Wilderness times often follow mountaintop times.
And that's exactly what happened with Jesus.
He had a mountaintop moment with God right after he was baptized by John the Baptist in the Jordan River, and literally heaven opens up, and the Holy Spirit descends upon Jesus in the form of a dove.
And his father verbally and publicly expresses his love and approval for his son, and God says, this is my son, whom I love.
With him I'm well pleased.
It's a father saying I'm proud of the son.
It's a mountaintop experience, and then the next verse says, immediate Jesus was driven into the wilderness to be tempted for 40 days.
Mountaintop, followed by wilderness.
Some of you, it may have been like that.
Things were going great, and then you found out that someone wasn't being honest with you.
Suddenly you're in a wilderness.
The big thought is this: your deepest need, as much as it hurts, your deepest need becomes a gift, when it drives you to depend on God.
Your deepest need becomes a gift, when it drives you to depend on God.
In fact, I'm going to show you a story from the Old Testament where this is lived out in a very real way, in .
When we see Elijah the prophet, that God had used in massive ways.
He, literally on the mountaintop, Mount Carmel, he experiences the power of God.
And almost immediate after this, we see him go from the mountaintop to the wilderness, where he's desperate, where he's depressed, where he feels all alone and scared for his life.
To give you a little context, there was an evil king named King Ahab.
And King Ahab had an even more evil wife named Jezebel.
And Jezebel heard about all the Elijah had done.
She got so mad, essentially she said to her husband, look, if you can't do the job right, then let this woman do the job.
And that's kind of what she did, she says, send word to Elijah that by this time tomorrow he will be dead.
She threatened him.
King Ahab had been coming after him for years and years and years, but as soon as a woman got mad, Elijah got scared.
And watch this, now I'm going to show you, right in God's word.
She makes the threat, the king had been pursuing him for years, she makes the threat, and this is what the Bible says.
Elijah was afraid and ran for his life.
When he came to Beersheba in Judah, he left his servant there.
Let me pause for a moment, because when you just read the text you may not understand just how far this bro ran.
To run to Beersheba, listen, this is before Uber, I mean we're talking the guy is on foot.
He runs about 100 miles to get away from this crazy, angry woman.
We're talking the prophet turns into Forrest Gump, I was running.
I mean he is out of dodge, he is scared, he runs 100 miles.
Elijah was afraid and ran for his life.
When he came to Beersheba in Judah, he left his servant there, while he himself went a day's journey.
He was just on the mountaintop, but where did he end up.
He ran into the wilderness, into the wilderness, where he's alone, where he's scared, where he's hurting, and where he's desperate.
He came to a broom bush, and sat down under it and prayed that he might die.
And then he said the words that so many of us have said or felt at some point in our lives.
He said, I've had enough Lord.
I just can't take it anymore.
He had put up battle, ha had fought with bravery, he had faith, he had courage, and finally, he's just at the end of his rope.
I've had enough, Lord.
I'm certain in a group this size that there are some of you that in some point in your life, and many of you at this point in your life, have just said those very words.
I'm done.
I'm spent.
I've had enough, I can't take it anymore.
You're raising kids, you're raising teenagers.
At some point you say it, I've had it up to here.
I've had enough Lord.
Then you say, don't make me come back there, because I will.
You know, you say that, things like that come out of your mouth.
I've had enough Lord.
I can't take it anymore.
Some of you are in a work situation where finally just the straw breaks the camel's back, like I can't take it anymore here, I just can't take another day at this place.
Financially, you're trying to get ahead, and you're making progress, and then, your car breaks, right.
Your toilet overflows.
You work hard, you serve faithfully, you make everybody the greatest meal ever, you put it out on the table, it's made with love.
They eat it in 30 seconds, they leave all the dishes on the table, and so you turn into Jezebel.
I'm going to kill somebody.
By this time tomorrow, everyone who ate of my food will be dead if this house isn't cleaned up.
It just throws you over, it's just something.
And this apparently is what happened to Elijah the prophet.
Because let me tell you what, this guy had experienced the presence of God.
This guy had fought with bravery, with boldness.
In fact, if you don't know the back story, he stood down the evil king, and prophesied, and called for a drought as a punishment to this king's sins.
And sure enough, God stopped the rain.
Well the king is mad at Elijah, so he sends all of his forces after Elijah.
He hides for three years, God is protecting him.
God miraculously feeds him through ravens from heaven.
< .5
.5 - .6
.6 - .7
.7 - .8
.8 - .9
> .9