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
0.14UNLIKELY
Disgust
0.16UNLIKELY
Fear
0.16UNLIKELY
Joy
0.52LIKELY
Sadness
0.22UNLIKELY
Language Tone
Analytical
0.48UNLIKELY
Confident
0UNLIKELY
Tentative
0.44UNLIKELY
Social Tone
Openness
0.74LIKELY
Conscientiousness
0.75LIKELY
Extraversion
0.13UNLIKELY
Agreeableness
0.68LIKELY
Emotional Range
0.76LIKELY
Tone of specific sentences
Tones
Emotion
Language
Social Tendencies
Anger
< .5
.5 - .6
.6 - .7
.7 - .8
.8 - .9
> .9
Finding the Center of God’s Will
1 Samuel 14:1-23
Doing God’s will is risky business, but it pays huge dividends.
An accountant received a call from a firm that offered him a salary four times what he was presently receiving with great benefits.
Being a devout man, he spent much time in prayer trying to discern what God wanted him to do.
One day a friend met the accountant’s young son on the street.
“Do you know what your dad is going to do?” he asked.
“Well,” replied the boy, “Dad’s upstairs praying, but Mom’s downstairs packing!”
I dare say that most of us operate like the mom in that story.
We have certain expectations of what life would be like if we were really living out God’s will.
Some feel that God will prosper them if they live in the center of God’s will.
We presume that being in the center of God’s will is the safest place in the world to be, but maybe it’s not.
Maybe it’s extremely dangerous from the world’s view of things.
I hope that you leave today with your notions about God’s will turned upside down.
I’m confident that being in the center of God’s will is not what most of us imagine.
Let’s look at what it’s really like to be in the center of God’s will.
We’re look at an incident in the life of Jonathan.
He was the son of the first king of Israel, Saul.
Saul began his reign as a good king.
He won many battles against a violent, warring group of people collectively called the Philistines.
Saul was a valiant king and warrior at first, but somewhere along the way he lost his nerve.
On one occasion the Philistine army, 1000’s strong gathered in Micmash, a southern city of Israel.
Saul was only able to gather about 600 men for the fight, so, he wasn’t eager to face such overwhelming odds.
To make matters worse, his men were essentially weaponless.
The Philistines controlled iron production in the region and only two people had swords in the entire army of Israel; King Saul and his son Jonathan.
Saul was paralyzed by the situation, but, as we’ll see shortly, his son Jonathan stepped out into the will of God and saved the day.
Jonathan was a man of action, but his father was a man of indecision.
Why?
\\ 1. INSIGHTS ON INDECISION
One day Jonathan son of Saul said to the young man bearing his armor, “Come, let’s go over to the Philistine outpost on the other side.”
But he did not tell his father.
Saul was staying on the outskirts of Gibeah under a pomegranate tree in Migron.
With him were about six hundred men, among whom was Ahijah, who was wearing an ephod.
He was a son of Icabod’s brother Ahitub son of Phinehas, the son of Eli, the LORD’s priest in Shiloh.
No one was aware that Jonathan had left. 1 Samuel 14:1-3 (NIV)
Jonathan developed a plan to defeat the Philistines.
It was an idea implanted in his heart by God.
He decided not to let his father in on it because Jonathan knew something about the character of the king.
He was wishy-washy when it came to doing God’s will.
Saul would certainly have tried to stop his boy from the risky scheme he was about to embark on.
Saul was a man of indecision concerning God’s will.
We can learn from him because his roadblocks hold some of us up too.
There’s a reason why the author tells us Saul was camped out under a pomegranate tree.
Pomegranate was a highly prized fruit in the ancient world.
It was a luxury food, not a staple of the diet.
This detail about Saul may be the author’s way of telling us about his lifestyle.
His focus was no longer on fulfilling God’s will.
Instead, he was …
A. Concentrating on comfort.
Saul was just like us.
He was hesitant to fight, because he was enjoying the luxuries around him.
Like many of us, he was preoccupied with living the “good life.”
It’s hard to do God’s will when you’re pursuing the American dream.
God’s will can’t be accomplished by couch potatoes, actors, sports stars, or politicians.
He was also indecisive because he was …
B. Living by sight and not by faith.
Saul di the math: 600 men against thousands; 2 swords against 2,000.
He was a man who made his decision by the facts.
He did not factor in faith.
The odds were against him, so he made the decision to make no decision about fighting the Philistines.
Many of us make the same excuses.
God has called us to a specific task, a new job, or a ministry, but it looks like things against us.
We’re not smart enough.
We’re not talented enough.
We educated enough.
Our children are too young, or too old.
We’re too young, or too old.
The excuses go on and on and on.
The question is not whether we are up for God’s call.
The question is whether we believe God is able to pull it off through us.
A final reason why Saul failed to act decisively was his …
C. Excessive reliance on signs.
By appearances, Saul was a religious man.
He had the priest Ahijah with him.
Ahijah wore the ephod, which was an instrument, which people used to determine God’s will.
They would also cast lots.
It was like rolling the dice to figure out God’s will.
While God clearly revealed himself in these ways, such practices neglected a real relationship with God.
Saul never sought God for himself.
He kept a priest around to help him figure out when to fight.
He was sitting around waiting on signs to tell him to go.
His connection to God was so loose that he had no clue how to accomplish his will.
This is the hang up that many Christians have today.
We sit around waiting for signs.
We have to feel led before we’ll do anything.
You can get by with an uncommitted life, be completely unreliable, fail to keep your word, say that you didn’t feel led and still be considered spiritual by some people.
Don’t sit around looking for signs or funny feelings.
God’s will calls you to take action even in the absence of these things.
Jonathan had no signs.
His relationship with God was such that he walked out of his tent and did God’s will.
Let’s examine …
\\ 2. THE WAY OF GOD’S WILL
1 Samuel 14:4-5 On each side of the pass that Jonathan intended to cross to reach the Philistine outpost was a cliff; one was called Bozez, and the other Seneh.
One cliff stood to the north toward Micmash, the other to the South toward Geba.
(NIV)
The situation was; Saul’s army of 600 hundred was stationed on one cliff.
The Philistine armies were on another cliff.
The land in between was a deep ravine that Jonathan would have to cross the face the enemy.
He was willing to do that.
This reveals his character and the kind of attitude that’s a must in accomplishing God’s will:
< .5
.5 - .6
.6 - .7
.7 - .8
.8 - .9
> .9