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
0.1UNLIKELY
Fear
0.13UNLIKELY
Joy
0.54LIKELY
Sadness
0.54LIKELY
Language Tone
Analytical
0.51LIKELY
Confident
0UNLIKELY
Tentative
0.54LIKELY
Social Tone
Openness
0.69LIKELY
Conscientiousness
0.94LIKELY
Extraversion
0.22UNLIKELY
Agreeableness
0.81LIKELY
Emotional Range
0.82LIKELY
Tone of specific sentences
Tones
Emotion
Language
Social Tendencies
Anger
< .5
.5 - .6
.6 - .7
.7 - .8
.8 - .9
> .9
2 Samuel 6:17 (NIV)
They brought the ark of the Lord and set it in its place inside the tent that David had pitched for it, and David sacrificed burnt offerings and fellowship offerings before the Lord.
Introduction
Have you ever been in a room, but you weren’t really in the room?
Like your body was there, but you weren’t really present.
Don’t you look at me and tell me, “Every Sunday Pastor Josh!”
I will lay hands on you…
We see this a lot don’t we? Especially in the way that people treat their phones.
They’ll be looking at you, but their mind is on the fact that they just got a text and they REALLY want to see who text them so they are looking at you but they aren’t really there.
Come on, how many of you know what I am talking about?
I’m willing to stop and say, “hey, you can go ahead and check that.”
Why?
Because I see you squirming over there and I’d rather you get it out of your system so you and I can have an adult conversation.
I’m like saying this to someone who is in his sixties...
Transition
And I said that because I want to use that as an analogy throughout this sermon as we kick off this new series that we are calling Dwell.
Everybody say Dwell with me.
The Ark
In this passage of scripture we read about King David’s experience bringing the Ark back to Jerusalem a second time.
I say second time because he was unsuccessful the first time, and we’re going to get into that.
But before I do, let me explain to you first what the Ark was all about.
I know you watched Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark, and so you think you got it all figured out.
Some of you are looking at me completely lost becuase you weren’t even born yet when that movie was released.
Just stop bragging OK.
Go play with your Nintendo Switch and let the grown ups talk.
In the wilderness; someone say “wilderness”.
In the wilderness, God gave Moses a command to build the Ark of Covenant.
God entered into a Covenant relationship with Moses and Israel, and the Ark became a physical representation of that relationship.
Inside the Ark were the 10 Commandments engraved in stone, as well as other relics that Moses accumulated in the wilderness.
Can I just stop right here and give you a mini sermon on the wilderness...
God meets you differently in the wilderness.
God encounters you differently in the wilderness.
God teaches you in the wilderness
The unfortunate truth is, you don’t seek God like you do when you are in the wilderness, therefore you don’t hear from God like you do in the wilderness.
When it’s your season, many times you forget WHY it is your season.
You think your grit got you there.
You think your Christian maturity got you there.
You think your personal convictions got you there.
So what happens is you start living like you don’t need God.
You start making decisions without consulting with God.
You start worshipping God like he’s an accessory and not a necessity.
So God will let you walk right into a situation that you had no business being in just to remind you that you can do it HIS way, or you can do it the HARD WAY.
This is the wilderness for many of you.
And in these moments, you cry out to God and he hears you.
Why?
Because he’s a good God.
He’s too good to let you remain in the wilderness.
He’s too good to let you be consumed with your bad decisions.
He’s too good to leave you out there forever.
And so you meet him in a powerful way, and he says to you like he said to the woman, “Now go and sin no more.”
[TRANSITION]
And so the Ark is the ever present reminder of God’s promises to them in the wilderness.
It was supposed to be seen, and taught, generation after generation.
The Ark Was A Problem!
Before David was King, and before Saul was King, the Ark of the Covenant was taken by the Philistines in battle.
When it was in the hands of the Philistines the Ark proved to be very troublesome to the Philistines.
Here’s what happened, let me tell you the story...
The Philistines took the Ark and they placed it in their temple.
They knew the Ark represented the presence of Israel’s God, and so they thought that it would be a good idea to set it right next to their god, Dagon.
So what had happened was… when God said, “you will have no other gods before me,” he meant it.
That wasn’t figuratively speaking, but literally speaking.
The next morning they came into the temple and there was Dagon, laying on his face right in front of the Ark.
The people kinda freaked out, but thought, “hm, that’s weird, let’s get Dagon back to his spot once again.”
So the next morning, when they came back into the temple, there was Dagon once again laying before the Ark.
I mean, if they had the internet back then Dagon could have been a meme.
They could have set him up, and then someone gets on the camera and says “24 hours later” and there’s Dagon on the floor again.
But here is the deal.
This time his hands and his head were separated from his statue body.
So the Philistines were like, OK we’re not going to do this again.
Let’s get this Ark out of here and somewhere else so Dagon doesn’t get hurt again.
But God began to afflict the Philistines, and the Bible says that devastation and tumors came over that region.
That’s when they knew, “we got to get this Ark out of here!”
APPLICATION
The presence of God is to be feared.
The presence of God is not to be played with.
Proverbs 9:10 (NIV)
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.
Growing up in the old church we had a fear of the Lord that we need to make sure that we pass down to the next generation.
All these contemporary songs got us singing, “You’re a good, good father… that’s who you are.”
And that’s true.
But there’s another side of God that is jealous.
He is jealous for your attention.
And he’s not going to be placed alongside some other god in your life.
You might be wondering, what is Pastor Josh talking about?
I don’t have no other gods.
Well let’s inspect, shall we?
Money could be your god.
You don’t live your life through the filter of God’s word, but through the filter of money.
You work more hours than you should work, you sacrifice your family on an altar called career ambition, and you are never generous with the church, or with people in need.
You don’t have your money, your money has you.
And because it has you, it is a god in your life that you worship.
Some of you worship the god of other people’s approval.
You don’t have a sense of identity for yourself because you are shaped by the approval of others.
You are constantly making decisions based off of what others think about your decision.
Some of you have Apps on your phones that will let you know when someone stops following you, because you worship the god of other people’s approval!
That one stung a little bit, didn’t it?
Do you know what I call that App?
The insecurity App.
You are so insecure that you give away too much authority and you let other people control you.
That’s the god of other people’s approval.
< .5
.5 - .6
.6 - .7
.7 - .8
.8 - .9
> .9