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
0.08UNLIKELY
Disgust
0.08UNLIKELY
Fear
0.09UNLIKELY
Joy
0.56LIKELY
Sadness
0.14UNLIKELY
Language Tone
Analytical
0.79LIKELY
Confident
0UNLIKELY
Tentative
0.21UNLIKELY
Social Tone
Openness
0.87LIKELY
Conscientiousness
0.89LIKELY
Extraversion
0.16UNLIKELY
Agreeableness
0.53LIKELY
Emotional Range
0.75LIKELY
Tone of specific sentences
Tones
Emotion
Language
Social Tendencies
Anger
< .5
.5 - .6
.6 - .7
.7 - .8
.8 - .9
> .9
Simple Obedience?
Obedience is simple, right?
When we first think about obedience, we simply assume that obedience is simple.
But, if it were so simple why isn’t it.
I remember the 1st year that I was a teacher, it was a nightmare.
Some classes were fine but I had this one group of hyena’s called 9thgraders that were predators.
They ate teachers up and then spit them out and I was fresh meat.
You’d think teaching would be simple.
Kids come into the class and sit down.
You impart your knowledge to them, demonstrate, ask for feedback, and then test to make sure they understand.
NOPE!
They want to do none of those things.
Getting them to sit down is a skill.
Keeping them from hitting one another is another skill.
Having eyes in the back of your head is a bonus.
Obedience doesn’t come easily.
Do you remember your 2 yr old?
Going to the store, bedtimes, eating…these things can all be as complicated as Washington’s army crossing the Delaware.
I suppose that God often wonders why we do the silly things that we do and then, like the Israelites, we spend 40 years trying to get into a Promised Land that should have taken 11 days.
What is Christian obedience?
“A willingness to submit oneself to the will of God and to put it into effect.”
Interestingly, the Hebrew word is used for both ‘hear’ and ‘obey’.
Have you ever realized that you needed to get the focused attention of your child, your workers, before they can perform the action?
In construction we used to call back the measurement before we made the cut.
You must hear it before you can obey it.
In studying God’s ways we can say that obedience is:
Obedience is a responsive action.
It assumes that God has already acted on our behalf, and that our fitting reply is to follow his will; very often, he then promises further blessing.[1]
Walking in Obedience
We began a study last week that looks at what the Bible means that we are “walking in the light”.
We learned that light and darkness don’t mix and took most of our time discussing sin and the confusion that the early church had on the subject.
We also realized that we often struggle with the same confusion.
Fortunately, we have an advocate with the Father – Jesus Christ who forgives our sin if we will simply confess them.
We are going to stay in the same letter of John today.
Practical Realities of Walking in Obedience
Experience and Beliefs are NOT Necessarily Truths
An experience is not necessarily a truth.
Some people hold experiences as absolute truths.
Have you ever heard people talk about how to get rid of the hiccups?
Stand on your right leg, lift your right hand into the air, and chug a gallon of water.
I had a bad case of hiccups in 2008 and that is what I did, and they went away 30 minutes later.
Just because you have an experience, it doesn’t make it true.
Obeying the rules of your experience is not walking in biblical obedience.
Beliefs are not necessarily the same as the truth.
The first, and most obvious problem with beliefs is that my belief may not be your belief.
That makes belief relative.
Many people believed that the earth was flat or that the Sun rotated around the earth.
You can shout your beliefs or say them tearfully, it doesn’t make them true.
Truth stands apart from both experience and belief.
The Apostle Paul wrote:
Without having the truth, we are without a compass.
As Christians, it is our responsibility to know the truth.
Dennis wasn’t a big fellow, but as he played Little League Baseball, his knowledge of the game made up for any lack of size.
On a particular summer day he swung at the ball with all his might, and to his amazement, the ball rocketed off his bat in the general direction of left field.
Off he ran!
As he rounded first base, his head was down.
In doing so, he failed to see whether or not the ball had landed in fair or foul territory.
Before he arrived at second base, the second baseman on the other team flagged Dennis down and said, “Go back.
It was a foul ball.”
Without hesitation, Dennis ignored the second baseman and slid safely into second base.
The umpire, whose opinion mattered the most, signaled that the ball was fair.
What is the lesson for us here?
Keep on running until the Umpire of our souls, the Lord Jesus Christ, tells us to go back.
We need to ignore any other voice that would hinder our running ahead to the next base.
Fair or foul?
Fair ball—keep on running to the Lord.
In Him, you’ll always be called safe![2]
Many of us recall Jesus saying, “…the truth will set you free” but can we quote the bigger context?
The truth will set you free is predicated on the necessity of holding to the teachings of Jesus.
Obedience demands that we listen to the speaker of truth – God.
Walking in obedience means that we are walking in God’s truth – not the facts of our experiences or personal beliefs.
Obedience Reflects Maturity
John describes a ‘complete’ love to underline for us the fact that obedience is the way to growth and maturity.
’John is here speaking, as often in this Epistle, of an idealstate of things.
No Christian’s love to God is perfect; but the more perfect his knowledge, the more perfect his obedience and his love.[3]
Jesus said a similar statement in the Gospel of Luke
In the Greek he uses the word phulasso which means to guard (like a military sentinel) it (the word heard).”
I think maturity is a lot about taking it seriously.
Do you regard the commandments of God seriously?
The entire faith chapter of Hebrews 11 details men and women who were inspired by faith to do what God commanded them to do.
It is the pinnacle of heroism for the men and women of the Old and New Testaments.
One Bible teacher offers these thoughts:
Obedience to God’s Word is proof of our love for Him.
There are three motives for obedience.
We can obey because we have to, because we need to, or because we want to.
A slave obeys because he has to.
If he doesn’t obey he will be punished.
An employee obeys because he needs to.
He may not enjoy his work, but he does enjoy getting his paycheck!
He needs to obey because he has a family to feed and clothe.
But a Christian is to obey his Heavenly Father because he wants to—for the relationship between him and God is one of love.
“If you love Me, keep My commandments” (John 14:15).
This is the way we learned obedience when we were children.
First, we obeyed because we had to.
If we didn’t obey, we were spanked!
But as we grew up, we discovered that obedience meant enjoyment and reward; so we started obeying because it met certain needs in our lives.
And it was a mark of real maturity when we started obeying because of love.
“Baby Christians” must constantly be warned or rewarded.
Mature Christians listen to God’s Word and obey it simply because they love Him.
(Wiersbe, W: Bible Exposition Commentary - New Testament.
< .5
.5 - .6
.6 - .7
.7 - .8
.8 - .9
> .9