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.
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Emotion Tone
Anger
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Analytical
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Openness
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Conscientiousness
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Extraversion
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Agreeableness
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Introduction
Get to know you type questions/stuff
Let students know that I appreciate them and that they matter!
Lesson:
What color is the best?
Wait for answers
You believe that the best color is _______ but I believe that the best color is red.
Who is right, and who is wrong?
Think for a minute, I didn’t ask what color is your favorite, I asked which color is the best.
There’s a difference between those questions.
We all can have different favorite colors, but is there 1 singular color that is better than all the other ones?
Maybe in your mind, but what about in the mind of everyone else? No, there’s not.
We all have different experiences and preferences, this is part of being a human being!
Let’s up the ante a little bit, though.
Say that there’s a person who wins an award at your school and this person is your friend - you say that they deserve the award because they’re a good person.
Whenever you use the word good, what do you usually mean by that?
They do nice things
They help others out
They’re friendly
They are dedicated to their sport/activity
They’re always there for you
These are good things - but someone else might have a different opinion of your friend, sadly.
Think of Jesus for a minute, we read the Bible and we read that Jesus is the Son of God (we’ll talk more specifically about Jesus later) and that He came to die on the cross for our sins.
Jesus had a lot of followers, but what did Jesus also have a lot of?
He had a lot of enemies.
Jesus was kind, loving, gracious, and compassionate, yet there were lots of people who didn’t like Him.
Why?
Because people don’t always like other people for whatever reason - even if you think that person is “good”!
Have you ever heard someone say this, “Why do bad things happen to good people?”
This is a statement that lots of people say and it’s a good question.
Why are there bad things?
Why does evil exist?
Why do some people suffer and other people never seem to get in trouble for the wrong they’ve done?
Think about this for a moment, though.
Who gets to define “good” in life?
Is it you or me?
Is there a standard of good for our world that we can find from the government or a business out there?
Good for one person might be not breaking the law.
Good for another person might be making a 95% on a test.
Good for another person might be helping someone out.
We have different definitions of good and this is true of all humans.
It’s impossible to arrive at a universal definition of good based on what humans think.
What do we need, then?
We need a standard of good that we all submit to.
We need a definition of good that comes from someone higher than ourselves.
Tonight I want to give you all several arguments that have been used in the past to help you defend your faith, answer questions that someone asks you, or simply help you as you try to figure out what you think for yourself!
After this, we’ll have a few minutes for some questions.
The 3 arguments we’ll look at tonight are
Moral Argument
Where does our moral compass come from?
Why do we know that some things are right and others are wrong?
Who decides that?
Cosmological Argument
Cause and Effect - how did the Universe begin?
Fine Tuning Argument
How can life happen because of random chance?
Moral Argument
What are some things humans universally agree are right or wrong?
Right:
To help someone who has been hurt
To be honest
To look out for someone being picked on
Wrong:
To kill an innocent person in cold blood
To hit someone who is hurt
How many of you have a brother or sister?
How do you know that they are older or younger than you?
Because you have a starting point.
You know how old you are and you know how old they are.
What if you didn’t know how old you were, though?
Would you know that your brother or sister is older than you?
No.
We have to have a reference point.
We have to have a standard that base something off of in these situations.
Think about these moral things for a moment, now.
How do you know that it is good to help rescue an animal who is stuck or help a person who is struggling?
How do you know that this is a morally right action to do?
Because other people think it is?
Because that’s the general consensus?
Remember that for centuries, the general consensus said that it was ok to treat other humans with no human rights
Because you think something is right?
Person A might say that it is acceptable to punch an innocent person in the face but person B says that that’s not acceptable.
Who is right?
This is called subjective morality - truth changes based on who determines what truth really is… In this world, there is no objective morally right or wrong action.
You can do whatever you want to do and never suffer a consequence because you determine what truth is… This sounds really good, doesn’t it?
We like being in charge and writing the rules… What’s the problem?
All humans have some sort of moral compass that tells us that some actions are right and others are wrong.
Where does this compass come from?
How do we determine what’s wrong and right?
The very existence of such a compass shares with us that there is an objective standard out there.
Say you have a friend who says that God doesn’t exist and the reason they say that is because there are lots of bad things that happen - you can ask them a simple question, “How do you know those things that happen are bad?”
How do we know that sickness, death, and bullying are bad things?
Because that truth is embedded in our brain.
By what standard are things good or bad?
It can’t be based on how we feel because someone else might disagree with our definition of good or bad.
The only way that we can have a true definition of “good”, “bad”, or “truth” is if a higher standard exists.
What does Paul mean here?
Simply that we all know the law of the Lord in our heart and brain.
We all know that some things are morally right and wrong - every human does!
Whenever someone says that something isn’t fair, they are admitting that they believe in moral right and wrong.
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