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
0.12UNLIKELY
Disgust
0.12UNLIKELY
Fear
0.1UNLIKELY
Joy
0.58LIKELY
Sadness
0.54LIKELY
Language Tone
Analytical
0.53LIKELY
Confident
0UNLIKELY
Tentative
0.23UNLIKELY
Social Tone
Openness
0.78LIKELY
Conscientiousness
0.72LIKELY
Extraversion
0.23UNLIKELY
Agreeableness
0.77LIKELY
Emotional Range
0.71LIKELY
Tone of specific sentences
Tones
Emotion
Language
Social Tendencies
Anger
< .5
.5 - .6
.6 - .7
.7 - .8
.8 - .9
> .9
After a few months break, we’re are back in 1 Samuel.
Some have groaned at the thought, wishing we could just pretend we were done with 1 Samuel after “David and Goliath”.
Let me share a thought from H.B. Charles Jr.
He says:
“The Bible is not the cafeteria where you select what you want and leave the rest behind.
The Bible is Big Momma’s house where you eat what she cooked or you don’t eat at all.”
This applies to people who want to ignore truths they don’t like or truths which they believe to be culturally-outdated.
It also applies to those of us who prefer some books over others.
We need ALL of God’s Word.
Every part of it—every mark (every jot and tittle, for you King James folk)—is useful for us.
So we’re back in 1 Samuel and will be here for a while, following the story of God and His people.
Let me refresh our memories since we’ve been out of the book for a while.
Hannah gave birth to a son, Samuel.
Samuel became a prophet, a priest.
Israel eventually asks for a king.
God gives them Saul.
Saul fails.
The Lord leads Samuel to David, the youngest of Jesse’s sons.
Samuel anoints David as king.
David fights the Philistine giant, Goliath, kills him with a stone from his sling, and cuts off his head.
When we come to our text for the day, David is still carrying Goliath’s head around with him (pretty gory, or pretty cool, depending on your perspective).
1 Samuel 17:57 (NIV)
57 As soon as David returned from killing the Philistine, Abner took him and brought him before Saul, with David still holding the Philistine’s head.
This brings us to our text for today, the continuation of the story.
David killing Goliath shook more than the ground.
It shook everything up.
Everyone is now taking notice of David, for better or worse.
Some of the attention he receives is good; other, not so much.
If you have your Bible (and I hope you do), please turn with me to 1 Samuel 18. We’ll be focused on chapters 18-19 this morning.
When I was in Bible College, we had to write a big exegetical paper our senior year.
Every student at MCC dreaded this paper; it was a huge deal and an enormous percentage of that course’s grade.
For years, there was only one topic for students to write about: divorce.
You had to examine all the Bible passages that reference divorce.
My paper was 28-pages long and took me weeks to write.
A year or two before I had to write the paper, the college decided to offer another topic, a topic that would be facing the church in increasing measure.
I now wish I would have chosen the other topic, but I avoided it at the moment.
The other topic was homosexuality and all the related Bible passages.
Oddly enough, one of the passages for the paper on that topic was 1 Samuel 18—Jonathan’s love for David.
This passage, the verses we just read, are used by some in an attempt to suggest that Jonathan and David’s relationship was more than friendship.
It’s ludicrous and insulting and a cheap attempt to read something into the text that is simply not there.
If their relationship was more than friendship, the Bible would have mentioned it and then condemned it.
The Bible is unashamedly truthful; if there was any hint of that here, it would be clearly mentioned as it is throughout (Genesis, Leviticus, Deuteronomy, Judges, Romans, 1 Corinthians).
There’s nothing nefarious going on here with Jonathan and David’s relationship.
They’re friends.
They love one another.
Jonathan will go out of his way to protect his friend David toward the end of our text.
Here’s the truth of these first verses:
The LORD puts His People in Relationship with One Another (18:1-5)
David was young.
He was impressive; he had bravely fought the Philistine.
He was given status just by virtue of that feat.
Carrying Goliath’s head around was a less-than-subtle reminder of what David had done.
David, here, was immediately given status by his relationship with the royal family.
Remember, Jonathan is Saul’s son, the would-be-king (if Saul’s kingship hadn’t already been taken away from him).
Jonathan, the crown prince, recognized something in David and struck up a deep friendship with him.
Saul even, at this point, wanted/needed David with him, gave him a high rank and a home in the palace.
Jonathan made a covenant with David.
Jonathan took off the robe he was wearing and gave it to David, along with his tunic, and even his sword, his bow, and his belt.
This is not mere generosity.
It’s a recognition of David’s worth.
Can you imagine a prince voluntarily renouncing his throne, and symbolically giving it away to a friend?
Perhaps Jonathan knew more than it seems; David will be king.
Jonathan gives his status and position to David.
It’s a hint, a glimpse of what Jesus does for us.
We, who belong to Him by faith, are clothed in His righteousness.
Jesus made Himself nothing so that we could have everything.
The Lord puts His people into relationship with one another, and always for a purpose.
We need each other!
God has always had a people for Himself.
Not a bunch of individual persons, but a people.
After Jesus’ ascension, we call this ‘THE CHURCH’.
We need one another, we need to honor the relationships the Lord has given us.
We must see the gathering together of one another as more than optional.
It’s a necessity.
If you’re a Christian, you are not exempt from the gathering together of Christ’s people.
No Biblical argument can be made for the solitary practice of faith.
The Lord puts His people into relationship with one another.
It’s one of the best things He does.
In verse 5, we see David’s success in whatever he does.
Later in the story (19:5), Jonathan points out that it was the Lord who won the victory, because this is true:
The LORD is Constantly Working Through His People (18:5-9)
There’s a repeated word in these chapters: success.
There are four references to David’s success in 1 Samuel 18 (vv.
5, 14, 15, 30).
David is successful because the Lord Yahweh is at work through him.
David kills the Philistine.
And all the women from all the towns in Israel come out and greet David and Saul, and sing them a song.
David gets more credit and praise than Saul, and that bugs Saul.
It displeased him greatly and from that point on Saul kept a close eye on David.
Let me say this: God’s presence or pleasure with you doesn’t guarantee success (that’s some of that prosperity gospel, Joel Osteen/T.D. Jakes junk theology).
God’s presence or pleasure with you doesn’t guarantee success, but any success you have, any success David had was because of the Lord’s presence and pleasure.
The Lord is constantly working through His people.
If you are part of His people, know this.
Trust this.
Believe this.
The Lord is working through you, right now, His good, pleasing, and perfect will.
As we read the remainder of 1 Samuel 18, keep an eye out for any phrase that repeats itself:
The LORD is Always With His People (18:10-30)
Three times—verse 12, verse 14, verse 28—we read the same thing: the Lord was with David.
Saul, a fierce warrior in his own right, chucks his spear at David.
David eludes Saul twice.
< .5
.5 - .6
.6 - .7
.7 - .8
.8 - .9
> .9