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
0.16UNLIKELY
Disgust
0.14UNLIKELY
Fear
0.16UNLIKELY
Joy
0.53LIKELY
Sadness
0.51LIKELY
Language Tone
Analytical
0.59LIKELY
Confident
0UNLIKELY
Tentative
0.67LIKELY
Social Tone
Openness
0.62LIKELY
Conscientiousness
0.63LIKELY
Extraversion
0.47UNLIKELY
Agreeableness
0.68LIKELY
Emotional Range
0.79LIKELY
Tone of specific sentences
Tones
Emotion
Language
Social Tendencies
Anger
< .5
.5 - .6
.6 - .7
.7 - .8
.8 - .9
> .9
*Killing Giants (or giant problems) Like David*
A closer look at 1 Samuel 17
J.
Knowlton, Christian Life Center March 15, 2006
· Thanks to pastor Brooks for invitation.
· We’re fairly new here – came from PFUMC; some friends from previous church came to visit.
Acknowledge visitors.
Shows we can still love each other even when God gives us a new assignment.
· Acknowledge Julie “Charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain, but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised” Proverbs 31:30.
· Message from 1 Sam.
17 – we’ll see how David took on a giant problem, and how we can kill the giants in our lives.
· Pray
Set the scene for Chapter 17:
· 1,000 years B. C. Israel has first king, named Saul.
· Jesse from Bethlehem had 8 sons, family involved in raising sheep
· King Saul had called up the army to fight the Philistines – Jesse sent his oldest three boys to join army
· Youngest son was David.
Had to stay home and watch the sheep.
· After a while Jesse sent David to take food to his brothers and find out how the war was going.
· When David got to the army, there hadn’t been a battle yet.
Israelites on one hill, Philistines on another hill with a valley between them.
Instead of fighting, they had been yelling at each other for 40 days.
*Read vv. 3 to 11*
Goliath was a huge guy, with incredible armor and fearsome weapons.
Goliath asked for a man to fight, but instead he got a boy, filled with the Spirit of God!
Now you may not face Goliath in hand to hand combat, but everybody comes against giant problems from time to time:
· Financial
· Addiction
· Medical~/health
· Relationship—marriage, family, friends, or enemies
A giant problem is one that you know you can’t solve on your own.
If your transmission goes out and you’ve got $20,000 in the bank, it’s a bummer, not a giant problem.
But if your transmission goes out and you just bounced the check for your rent, you’re probably facing a giant.
Did anybody think David could kill Goliath by himself?
No.
Not even David.
He knew he needed God to deliver him.
When you face a giant problem that you know you can’t solve on your own, come back to 1 Sam.
17 and find these 8 steps that God’s going to reveal to you.
*1.
Approach problems quickly and head-on; don’t avoid them.*
*vv.
19-22, v. 48*
Saul had avoided Goliath.
Maybe he hoped Goliath would get tired and go away.
But Goliath was persistent and kept it up for 40 days.
Giant problems are like leaky plumbing.
You can ignore it for a while, but it keeps getting worse.
First a leaky pipe, then the flooring rots, then the joists.
Ends up 10X bigger than when it started.
Tell story of *Mitchells*: they owed a few thousand in taxes because of self-employment income.
IRS didn’t discover it for a couple years, then they didn’t have the money to pay it, then they tried to ignore the letters, and by the time I knew the family, their taxes, penalties, and interest were over $70,000.
By stalling, their small problem got so big they had to sell their farm to cover the bill.
Disciplining children is also an area it is important to address right away.
Tell story of *Ross McNeal*: dad died, mom raised three kids and kept up a farm, Ross came up wild.
My dad taught 4th grade, first male teacher Ross had.
· Yogurt in dad’s desk drawer.
Made Ross clean it up, yelled at him a little bit.
· Then when recess time, dad found yogurt in his tennis shoes.
· He said in 28 years Ross was the only kid he actually kicked out of his room!
By giving swift attention to the problem, he didn’t have any more yogurt incidents.
Approach giant problems quickly and head-on; don’t avoid them.
*2.
Focus on the victory, not the problem.
Vv. 23-27, 30*
David doesn’t ask, “how tall is Goliath, how big is his sword?”
Instead, three times he asks about the money, the girl, the freedom from taxation.
This 8th son of a poor family wanted a chance at wealth and a fine wife.
He focused on a victorious outcome, not Goliath.
Bob Harrison says, “Your life will move in the direction of your dominant thoughts.”
In the first Star Wars movie Milleneum Falcon with Luke Skywalker and Han Solo came into view of the Death Star, a moon sized space station run by the evil empire.
While they were staring at the size of the thing they got caught in an invisible tractor beam that drew their ship into the Death Star.
Your dominant thoughts, the things you focus on function like that tractor beam; pulling your life in one direction or another.
If you focus on your debt, your disease, your marriage problems, your singleness problems you will be pulled further in that direction.
Instead, set your eyes on:
· Prosperity
· Health
· Wholeness
· Peace and contentment
Philippians 4:8: “whatever is true, whaterever is honorable, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.”
*Focus on the victory, not the problem!*
*3.
Ignore people who put you down, say you can’t do it, or question your motives.
Vv. 28-29.*
Eliab was afraid to fight Goliath, and as long as nobody fought Goliath, he could continue to believe that it couldn’t be done.
As soon as David started getting serious about killing the giant, he was a threat to Eliab’s beliefs about himself.
David showed that fighting Goliath was a matter of will and courage, not an impossibility.
I learned this in 8th grade band; I played Trumpet.
Prep for *Solo & Ensemble*.
Students play a piece of classical music for a judge and receive scores: 5 is worst, 1 is best.
There was a new kid who played trumpet, and he chose a difficult, challenging piece of music.
I remember talking to other kids after he announced his selection.
We knew he was going to bomb, we thought he was crazy for picking such a hard piece, we knew he bit off more than he could chew.
In the end, he earned a 1 and turned out to be one of the best players in the band.
When I was telling other people that he couldn’t play that piece, I really meant that I didn’t think I could do it.
You may have Eliabs in your life.
People who are glad to have you around as long as you’re not doing better than them.
Then you start to achieve success: Health improves, start getting out of debt, stop complaining about your wife, stop abusing alcohol or drugs, and hands reach up to pull you back down.
Don’t just ignore these people, avoid them!
If you are sick, hang around marathon runners.
If in debt, find rich friends.
If addicted, hang out with fun sober people.
If your friends are better at commiserating about your problems than celebrating your victories, you need new friend!
< .5
.5 - .6
.6 - .7
.7 - .8
.8 - .9
> .9