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
0.07UNLIKELY
Fear
0.08UNLIKELY
Joy
0.68LIKELY
Sadness
0.51LIKELY
Language Tone
Analytical
0.61LIKELY
Confident
0UNLIKELY
Tentative
0.4UNLIKELY
Social Tone
Openness
0.79LIKELY
Conscientiousness
0.99LIKELY
Extraversion
0.33UNLIKELY
Agreeableness
0.89LIKELY
Emotional Range
0.85LIKELY
Tone of specific sentences
Tones
Emotion
Language
Social Tendencies
Anger
< .5
.5 - .6
.6 - .7
.7 - .8
.8 - .9
> .9
Freedom
Good morning and Happy 4thof July Weekend!
I am so glad that you choose to worship here this morning.
While many Americans are out celebrating on boats and having picnics or whatever, you choose to start your day by Worshiping the grantor of freedom.
I believe that God will honor that.
Let’s begin with reading from God’s Word,
Galatians 5:1 (ESV)
1For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.
Galatians 5:13–14 (ESV)
13For you were called to freedom, brothers.
Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.
14For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
Feelings of patriotism tend to flow rather freely at this time of the year.
When we sing the "Star Spangled Banner," or hear a vocalist sing about America and the freedoms that we enjoy, we often want to stand up and salute or just do something to show that we’re proud of our nation.
Sometimes we hear patriotic speeches which contain that ringing phrase, "I’m proud to be an American!"
And we echo those sentiments, too.
But think about it for a moment.
Maybe what we ought to be saying is, "I’m grateful that I’m an American!"
You see, we could have been born in Bosnia or China or Pakistan.
We could have found ourselves on the streets of India this morning, wondering where our next meal is coming from, surrounded by squalor.
But here we are, surrounded by beautiful people, in a loving church, in one of the most beautiful states in the US.
I am deeply grateful to be a citizen of the United States.
And I trust that you are grateful, as well.
A father was talking with his rather rebellious son one day and said, "Every person who lives in the United States is a privileged person."
The boy answered, "I disagree."
And the father replied, "That’s the privilege."
We have the privilege to disagree.
We have the privilege to speak our mind.
We have freedom of religion, of speech, of the press, and the right of petition.
We have the freedom to hope and dream and to pursue our dreams.
We are free in so many ways!
We have these rights because of what our forefathers have done.
You and I didn’t earn the privileges that we enjoy as citizens of this land.
But I am thankful for those who did earn them and passed them on to me, and that is what I celebrate on the 4th of July.
We have been given such an amazing gift, the people of America.
I have already mentioned a few of the freedoms that we possess as inhabitants of this land.
Freedom of Speech, the freedom to protect ourselves and our loved ones, the freedom to assemble and to worship, the promise of our right to life and the freedom to pursue happiness.
Each of these freedoms came at a tremendous cost.
A moment ago, we sang a salute to the men and women of our armed forces.
Each of the freedoms that we posses as Americans were given to us by the grace of God and purchased with the lives of American Veterans.
The old saying is, “Freedom isn’t free.”
It really isn’t.
It takes great sacrifice to be free.
There is another quote by another great American patriot, Uncle Ben from Spiderman said, “With great Power comes great responsibility.”
I want to change it up a bit, sorry Uncle Ben… For today’s purposes it is, “With Great Freedom comes great responsibility.”
We have been given such a great gift.
This freedom we have has historically been envied by the world.
This gift of God should be used for good.
What are our responsibilities you ask?
I am glad you asked!
There are many.
I think perhaps the most important is prayer.
Responsibilities:
Prayer
I think we should spend a significant amount of time praying for our country.
Praying for our leaders.
Praying about current events and people and leaders of other nations.
I think we should pray as Daniel did in Daniel chapter 9.
Daniel 9:3–6 (ESV)
3Then I turned my face to the Lord God, seeking him by prayer and pleas for mercy with fasting and sackcloth and ashes.
4I prayed to the Lord my God and made confession, saying, “O Lord, the great and awesome God, who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments,
5we have sinned and done wrong and acted wickedly and rebelled, turning aside from your commandments and rules.
6We have not listened to your servants the prophets, who spoke in your name to our kings, our princes, and our fathers, and to all the people of the land.
7To you, O Lord, belongs righteousness, but to us open shame, …
In that passage, Daniel and the rest of his people found themselves in exile in Babylon.
They had been cast out of their nation because of the sin of the people and the sin of their leaders.
Daniel understood his responsibility and turned the Lord in prayer.
Nothing could stop Daniel from praying, not even the threat of being thrown to the lions!
Another responsibility is to simply live Godly lives, obeying the authorities over us as long as those authorities do not make laws contradicting Scripture.
Responsibilities:
Prayer
Obedience
Again, the book of Daniel has several illustrations of what that looks like!
Paul spoke of this in his letter to the Romans
Romans 13:1–2 (ESV)
1Let every person be subject to the governing authorities.
For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God.
2Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment.
The last one that I want to mention this morning is voting.
Responsibilities:
Prayer
Obedience
Voting
Responsibilities of Freedom
Prayer
Obedience
Voting
This is a huge one.
You will not find people voting in Scripture.
The only vote in the new testament ended up with Paul and his captors shipwrecked!
But voting in our nations elections is perhaps the most important action outside of prayer that an American Christian can participate in.
We live in a Democratic Republic.
Meaning “We the People” are the rulers!
We decide who represents us.
We decide who gets to go make the rules by which we will live by.
We decide who sits on the bench and judges us by the laws we agree to live under.
What an experiment America is!
What a tremendous responsibility!
We should go the voting booth with fear and trembling!
We should be seeking God’s Will and studying His Word, asking Him who we should select as our leaders.
< .5
.5 - .6
.6 - .7
.7 - .8
.8 - .9
> .9