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
0.14UNLIKELY
Disgust
0.08UNLIKELY
Fear
0.12UNLIKELY
Joy
0.56LIKELY
Sadness
0.6LIKELY
Language Tone
Analytical
0.67LIKELY
Confident
0UNLIKELY
Tentative
0.61LIKELY
Social Tone
Openness
0.58LIKELY
Conscientiousness
0.72LIKELY
Extraversion
0.18UNLIKELY
Agreeableness
0.4UNLIKELY
Emotional Range
0.64LIKELY
Tone of specific sentences
Tones
Emotion
Language
Social Tendencies
Anger
< .5
.5 - .6
.6 - .7
.7 - .8
.8 - .9
> .9
Big Idea: A principled nudged is better than a temporary pleasure.
Tension:To do as you please is to ensure the loss of pleasure but the nudging of a principle will keep your life pointed in the right direction.
Pre-Sermon Introduction
Opening Joke
Ha-foke-bah in Hebrew
Ha-foke-bah in English
I should have seen that coming.
I was duped in Canada by a phony e-mail claiming to be the Canadian government wanting to draft money from my bank account for taxes.
Looking back, I felt a nudge and thought “that don’t seem right” but I did it anyway.
I should have seen that coming.
Many stories like that.
How many times in your life, when you look in the rear view mirror have you said “I should have seen that coming.”
I should have paid attention to that nudge.
Here is what I also know.
It is so much easier from the outside looking in at a person.
It so much easier to say, “You should have seen that coming.”
To make it even more complicated there are sometimes that we get nudged, we know it is God and we still go in the opposite direction?
Here is the bad news: A good nudge by the right source at the right time does not guarantee a good response.
We are not like a computer.
We are not like a car.
We are not like a shovel.
We are far more complicated than that.
Just like Peter could be nudged the right way one second and respond the right way, so he could be nudged the right way again and totally miss it, reject it and not even see it.
Here is the thing.
It takes time, experience, and bumper guards.
Yeah, that is right “bumper guards.”
You know what bumper guards are don’t you.
They are the little rails they put up at the bowling the alley.
They are designed for kids to boost their confidence when first learning how to bowl.
They keep the ball in play and ensure it reaches the right destination: knocking down some pins.
All metaphors break down eventually and this one is no different.
Nudges are the bumper rails of life and the one I am going to talk to you about today will stay up as long as you live.
These are the bumper rails of God’s principles.
Here is the thing
In the Hebrew Bible these are called “edut” or testimonies.
These are not laws that demand obedience but principles based upon reason
Principles are not laws but ignoring them could bring the law to your door.
Principles are not laws you can break, but if you don’t follow them, it can break you.
Example: Newton’s first law, really a principle: things at rest, stay at rest unless an external force acts upon them.
You can’t go to jail for not “obeying” it.
Saying you don’t believe it does not change the really of it.
You may like that is true for you: the alarm clock is the law of inertia at its worst.
Principles are not invented; they are discovered.
Isaac Newton did not “invent” the 3 principles of motion, he discovered them.
Principles explain the world; they apply the world around; they can be leveraged for our benefit; they are the bumper rails of life.
We use them with children all the time and they come from all sorts of places.
All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.
"All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy" is a proverb.
This proverb means that without time off from work, a person becomes both bored and boring.
The vulture eats between His meals and that’s the reason why.
The proverbs means that if you don’t eat a good meal and just snack you will get sick.
Honey catches more flies than vinegar.
This proverb encourages you to be sweet rather than sour when dealing with other people.
Life is like a box of chocolate.
The principle reminds that you really can never know what will happen from day-to-day so take one day at a time, one season of life at a time.
You can’t make an omelet without breaking some eggs.
Principles are discovered.
You can talk about, you can discuss, but you don't invent them.
You recognize them and then you get to make a decision.
You can leverage a principle to your benefit or you can ignore a principle to your demise.
Principles are like bumpers, they will push you back into play but how you respond to them determines the outcomes.
Principles are a path not a solution.
When we get lost we don’t ask “siri” for a solution we ask for “directions.”
Better guidance.
No instant solution or fix to being lost.
We get to where we should be the same way we got to where we should not be.
People go to pastors and counselors with problems they want to fix.
Most people don’t have problems that can be fixed.
Like the way you fix a car or fix a computer.
Your more complicated than that.
They need directions to change not a fix.
A bowling ball can’t be fixed it can only have its direction changed.
When you have been nudged in the wrong direction by the wrong source what you need is to change directions not to be fixed.
Principles change the direction; they do not fix the problem.
The Holy Spirit uses principles to change the direction of your life.
The Holy Spirit will nudge you with principles from Nature just look at Proverbs.
Prov 30:24
The Holy Spirit will nudge you along with the wise words of the One Shepherd.
Eccl 12:11
Let’s call these nudges, top-shelf nudges.
These are the ones that trump everything else that is nudging on the scale from good to great, from evil to not that bad.
They hold all of life together.
Illustrate: When we were growing out of our living room we needed to find a place to meet and quick.
I was guided by a wise saying: Pro 22:7
I did not want to take out a loan for a small store front.
I prayed and said God I will not be a slave to a lender.
We were offered another facility but the terms were “slave” terms and I refused because the same principle.
I kept saying God you don’t want us ruled over harshly, you don’t want us to be slaves.
God opened the door for us here and gave us an amazing opportunity with a rent agreement that respected both parties.
It did not make me feel like a slave at all.
This principle drove me until God showed it to me.
We also know we must be good stewards of this opportunity so that God can open up for us the next opportunity, our own building.
I am equally standing on God’s principles in His word for the resources for the next part of Beth El Shalom’s adventure:
Genesis 12:1-4 the blessing on those who bless Abraham
Luke 6:38 - give, and it will be given to you
Apply: These bumper guards, guide posts are there in His Word and when the Spirit of the Lord nudges you with one, goads you with one, don’t you know He is impressing it on you because of the path that lies before you.
What passage are you letting nudge your prayer life?
What passage are you letting nudge your belief?
Your future, your family’s future.
What passage are you letting nudge out and abscise your doubts?
< .5
.5 - .6
.6 - .7
.7 - .8
.8 - .9
> .9