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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Fear
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Joy
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Analytical
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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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Tone of specific sentences
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Anger
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Arrival Fallacy
Have you ever achieved something glorious and spectacular… and then collapsed into depression and despair?
I remember this the first time I finished a triathlon.
So many hours of training.
So many hours of running.
And that night, just like… weeping.
I don’t know why?
I just crashed!
Into a puddle of emotion.
From here (relaxing on a bench after) to here (dead on the shore of the Dead Sea)
Sadness… for no reason, really.
Nothing that made sense.
This is a common phenomenon, even more so with more successful people.
Olympic athletes winning on the podium, for example.
It’s known as arrival fallacy.
You reach your goal, your brain releases all the dopamine, maybe even when you’re in the middle of achieving it… and then your done.
And the dopamine falls off.
And you look around for the next thing… and there’s no direction, there’s no goal.
And you crash.
Into depression.
Only bad Christians do that.
Not Christians, though, right?
People of God don’t deal with depression and failure.
We have “faith” so that stuff doesn’t apply to us!
From Victory to Failure
Recap - Total victory on Mount Carmel.
Here we have the Greatest of the Prophets, the legend, the one who stands for all the prophets.
He has the spirit of Elijah, because He IS Elijah.
And fresh off his greatest victory.
The people repented and worshipped the Lord.
The prophets of Baal are dead by his hand.
And Jezebel repented.
Nope.
And Elijah laughed, trusting in YHWH.
Nope.
Yeah, God, I know you are more powerful than Baal… but have you seen Jezebel??? She’s scary.
I’m going to run! Fled to the Southern Kingdom, the very south end of the southern kingdom, right where the wilderness starts.
And… let’s go farther.
Take away my life.
Despairing unto death.
Where does this “I am no better than my fathers” talk come in?
Who said that to him?
Who started the comparison?
Clearly this is a HUGE deal to Elijah, like something someone said to him once that landed so deeply.
It’s part of the story, a deep part of the story he tells himself.
But he despaired unto death.
Reminds me of:
This is a thing that happens to Christians… this is a thing that happens to humans.
To the outside, this doesn’t make sense.
It doesn’t make sense that Elijah should despair or be afraid… but it isn’t logical.
It is human.
Elijah is in the depths of depression and despair.
Under the Broom Tree
Lying down in the wilderness… under a broom tree.
God could mock his pain, here.
Kick him, tell him to “fear not...” Instead, he sends an angel:
Is Elijah “fixed?”
No.
But God gently gets him up again, meets his physical needs.
Elijah lays right back down.
And so again...
Elijah, you’re going to need your strength for what’s coming.
I would think Elijah would say “I know, that’s why I want to die...” but this is enough encouragement, enough to help him go just a bit further.
Horeb, also called Mount Sinai.
All together, Elijah travels a couple hundred miles.
From Mount Carmel to Jabal Musa (Mount of Moses), aka the prime candidate for Mount Sinai.
See the path through that valley?
The valley of the shadow of death.
The literal lowest (dry) point on the planet earth.
Cruising past the Dead Sea.
Maybe a little salty swim like that picture earlier.
From the Mountain to the Valley… and back to the Mountain.
Great man of God - depressed and despairing and just barely dragging himself back to meet God again.
How did God speak to him then?
We don’t know.
What was the tone?
“What are you doing here!!!?”
Is God surprised or curious?
Or is He asking Elijah to ask himself.
Elijah has his answer ready… and I think it’s telling.
I am great.
The people stink.
I am alone.
I am afraid.
Now perhaps Elijah has some good reasons for thinking these things.
I suspect this is something he has rehearsed over and over and over again.
You’ll see why in a minute.
I think this is Elijah’s self talk, this is the story he tells himself.
And there is some truth in it.
He isn’t the “only prophet left.”
The Bible has pointed out other prophets of YHWH both before and after this.
God will speak to that in a minute.
We know Elijah has no reason to fear.
But Elijah is so worked up about this that he would rather die than go on, and now he is presenting his whiny case to God… and God’s going to answer.
Can God be in “in the wind?”
All the time in Scripture.
Spirit and “breath” are the same word in Hebrew.
Pentecost, the Spirit in fire and wind.
Can God be in the earthquake?
Absolutely, springing Peter and later Paul out of prison.
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