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
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Disgust
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Fear
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Joy
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Sadness
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Language Tone
Analytical
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Confident
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Tentative
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Social Tone
Openness
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Conscientiousness
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Extraversion
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Agreeableness
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Emotional Range
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Tone of specific sentences
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Anger
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In 1935, Bill Wallace went to China as a medical missionary during a time of great political instability.
During WWII, he performed operations while bombs continued to land around him.
Eventually, his hospital was destroyed.
Even while others urged him to leave, he insisted, “I will stay as long as I am able to serve.”
So he stayed, but during the war, he was arrested as a spy and tortured.
One night, the guards had enough of his talk about Jesus, and they beat him to death.
Bill wasn’t even afforded a proper burial, but instead thrown into an unmarked grave.
Some of his friends risked exposure and death themselves and snuck into the graveyard and erected a monument inscribed with 7 words , “For to me to live is Christ.”
You may never encounter the kind of persecution and difficulty that Bill Wallace endured, but you can be sure that opposition isn’t far away.
For some of us it just doesn’t seem fair.
Why doesn’t God silence all of our critics and squash everyone that opposes us?
For some of us it just doesn’t seem fair.
Why doesn’t God silence all of our critics and squash everyone that opposes us?
Few things derail people more than opposition.
It’s easy to give up.
It’s easy to get mad.
It’s tempting to get even.
It’s difficult to stay focused!
But Scripture teaches us that when opposition (and it will!) to keep going!
The internalizer.
- accepts on the surface, but beats themselves to a pulp on the inside.
The shifter. - deflects the blame or the criticisms onto others.
We become resentful and act out of spite.
I’ve heard it said that the only way to get out of a storm is to go through it.
If you are following Jesus and if you are moving in the direction he has called you to move, the storm of opposition is coming!
The defender.
- does just that.
They react defensively and often aggressively (actively or passively) back at the critic.
The good news for the Christian is we don’t have to scrape and claw and complain and thrash our way through a storm we get to trust our way through!
How you respond to opposition is the difference between stalling out and moving forward.
Don’t get distracted by the opposition!
Anger of others against you.
Opposition from the enemy is intended to distract you from what you should be focused on!
Nehemiah’s focus was supposed to be on rebuliding the wall, restoring order to the city of Jerusalem, and renewing the people’s devotion to God.
They did not love God.
They did not love God’s work.
They did not love Nehemiah.
Not all criticism is bad, but if I’m going to listen to somebody criticize me 3 things have to be generally true.
They have to love Jesus.
They have to love his church.
They have to love me.
There are a whole lot of people in this world and it is not God’s desire for the people who know me the least to influence me the most!
The word complete means mature or full.
God wants us in close fellowship with people who love Him and who love us.
That’s where our maturity/growth comes from.
If someone doesn’t love God and they don’t love the church that Jesus died for and if they don’t love me their criticism and opposition is nothing but a weapon formed against me that will not prosper.
The jewish people began to rebuild Jerusalem’s walls according to God’s will, yet their work ignited opposition and criticism.
Sanballat and Tobiah did not love God, they did not love God’s work and they had no love for Nehemiah!
They wanted to distract him from the work he was doing which in turn would lead to his disgrace which would have suited them just fine.
If Nehemiah was disgraced, the King would have no choice but to remove him as Governor of Jerusalem and send him back to Susa.
6 types of opposition:
If you’re following Jesus, you will experience opposition!
You’ve got to be prepared to handle it when it comes.
When others are angry with you.
When others belittle you.
Nehemiah 4:2
When others threaten & intimidate you.
Nehemiah 4:8
When life gets overwhelming & discouraging.
beating yourself up is not the answer.
believing every lie of the enemy is not the answer.
Nehemiah 4:
When others are negative.
blaming others for your suffering isn’t the route you need to take.
When your situation is scary.
What kind of opposition is distracting you from who God wants you to be and what God wants you to do?
*scoffing at others requires no courage at all, especially if the crowd is on your side.
Sanballat had initially questioned the motives of Nehemiah, accusing them of rebellling against the king, but now the potential of strong walls threatened Sanballats power in the region.
God was behind this work that NEhemiah was doing, but the work wasn’t in Sanballot’s favor.
So he ridiculed and mocked it and set his heart & mind against it.
Critics have their own agenda!
Critics have little courage.
Is it the anger of someone towards you?
Is someone belittling you or putting you down?
Is someone or something threatening or intimidating you?
Are you overwhelmed or discouraged?
Are the people around you negative and cynical?
Is your current situation frightening?
I want you to see something!
Opposition came and it hit them from all sorts of angles.
Anger & hostitlity
Mockery & Sarcasm
Threats & Intimidation
Discouragement & Exhaustion
Negativity & Fear
Nehemiah didn’t stall out!
He kept going!
The opposition didn’t go away!
In fact, it got worse!
And Nehemiah kept going!
There are too many Christians stalled out in their spiritual journey because some kind of opposition distracted them and because they didn’t regain focus and remain on the path of righteousness the opposition derailed them.
We’ve all experienced this.
Some of us are experiencing opposition right now.
What do we do?
We do what Nehemiah did?
We keep going!
We refuse to
How do we stay focused when opposition comes?
Keep your emotions in check through prayer!
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