Sermon Tone Analysis

Nehemiah 2:1–8

1 And it came to pass in the month Nisan, in the twentieth year of Artaxerxes the king, that wine was before him: and I took up the wine, and gave it unto the king.

Now I had not been beforetime sad in his presence.

2 Wherefore the king said unto me, Why is thy countenance sad, seeing thou art not sick?

this is nothing else but sorrow of heart.

Then I was very sore afraid, 3 And said unto the king, Let the king live for ever: why should not my countenance be sad, when the city, the place of my fathers’ sepulchres, lieth waste, and the gates thereof are consumed with fire? 4 Then the king said unto me, For what dost thou make request?

So I prayed to the God of heaven.

5 And I said unto the king, If it please the king, and if thy servant have found favour in thy sight, that thou wouldest send me unto Judah, unto the city of my fathers’ sepulchres, that I may build it.

6 And the king said unto me, (the queen also sitting by him,) For how long shall thy journey be? and when wilt thou return?

So it pleased the king to send me; and I set him a time.

7 Moreover I said unto the king, If it please the king, let letters be given me to the governors beyond the river, that they may convey me over till I come into Judah; 8 And a letter unto Asaph the keeper of the king’s forest, that he may give me timber to make beams for the gates of the palace which appertained to the house, and for the wall of the city, and for the house that I shall enter into.

And the king granted me, according to the good hand of my God upon me.

The Hero for the Negative

Isaiah 53:3

3 He is despised and rejected of men; A man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: And we hid as it were our faces from him; He was despised, and we esteemed him not.

John 1:11 (AV 1873)

11 He came unto his own, and his own received him not.

The Hero of Prayers

Jeremiah 33:3

3 Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and shew thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not.

1 Peter 5:7

7 Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you.

Psalm 34:17

17 The righteous cry, and the Lord heareth, And delivereth them out of all their troubles.

Proverbs 15:29

29 The Lord is far from the wicked: But he heareth the prayer of the righteous.

The Hero for Direction

Proverbs 3:5–6

5 Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; And lean not unto thine own understanding.

6 In all thy ways acknowledge him, And he shall direct thy paths.