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
0.17UNLIKELY
Disgust
0.13UNLIKELY
Fear
0.15UNLIKELY
Joy
0.47UNLIKELY
Sadness
0.29UNLIKELY
Language Tone
Analytical
0.46UNLIKELY
Confident
0UNLIKELY
Tentative
0.54LIKELY
Social Tone
Openness
0.82LIKELY
Conscientiousness
0.75LIKELY
Extraversion
0.26UNLIKELY
Agreeableness
0.84LIKELY
Emotional Range
0.53LIKELY
Tone of specific sentences
Tones
Emotion
Language
Social Tendencies
Anger
< .5
.5 - .6
.6 - .7
.7 - .8
.8 - .9
> .9
*Intro*
I am ready to dig into God’s Word again!
We are going to start our study in 1 Peter.
The title of the series is called, “Hope for the Living: Growing when the going gets tough.”
I really pray this year the Word become richer and deeper for our lives and our church through this book.
I also pray that as we dig into the Word of God, we will come into a richer and deeper relationship with the God of the Word.
Who are you?
That would be kind of strange if someone came up to you and asked that question.
No one usually asks us that question!
Usually with people you just met they ask, “You are?”
And by that question they mean to ask, “What’s your name?” or “What name can I call you by?” How many of you like the name your parents gave you?
I have come to terms with my name, though every once in a while someone will say, “Isn’t that more of a girl’s name?”
That irritates me and sometimes I am tempted to introduce myself as Rob or Robert.
Being named or being known by something really shapes you.
There is a negative side to it.
For example, some time ago Katie Couric interviewed Jennifer Wilbanks on NBC News.
Jennifer became famous in 2005 when she disappeared the week before her wedding.
The nation watched and worried as law enforcement officials tried to find her, but the situation turned out to be a hoax.
The bride-to-be had hopped on a Greyhound bus and made up a story about being abducted.
She was later dubbed the "Runaway Bride."
During the conversation, Katie asked: "What do you hope people take away from this interview, Jennifer?"
The young woman replied, "I hope that people will allow me to learn who I truly am.
So I hope that as I go through this healing process and start to learn more about myself, accept myself, love myself for who I am, then everybody else will, too.
And that I will no longer be the Runaway Bride.
Then maybe a lot of these people could call me friend, or call me by my real name—Jennifer."[1]
There is also a positive side to it.
R. C. Sproul shares the story of a college student he once taught who had cerebral palsy.
You know what that looks like—spastic movements and garbled speech.
But as is often the case, this student was very bright and capable.
Sproul writes:
One day he came to me vexed with a problem and asked me to pray for him.
In the course of the prayer, I said something routine, with words like, "Oh, God, please help this man as he wrestles with this problem."
When I opened my eyes, the student was quietly weeping.
I asked him what was wrong and he stammered his reply, "You called me a man.
No one has ever called me a man before."[2]
So let’s start with this:
*I.
**Our identity is based on who God says we are*
If anyone has a right to tell you who you are, it should be your Creator and Savior right?
We are who God says we are.
There is power in knowing your identity.
We all have a sense of identity.
I am sure much of it was developed in our upbringing, much also contributed to by our education, but also much from our deciding "who we wanted to be."
However, when we became Christians, God gave us a new identity.
And one of the biggest struggles we have is to live lives in such a way that we are defined by what God says we are.
I think one of Satan’s strongest weapons is to convince us that we are not who God says we are and that we cannot do what God says, by His grace, we can do.
Why is understanding our identity in Christ so important?
*Because what we do flows out of who we perceive ourselves to be.
*We will consistently behave in ways that is consistent with how we perceive ourselves to be.
If you perceive yourself as no use to God and others, you will probably live that way.
If your core identity is that you are worthless and an embarrassment to the Lord, it will affect your thinking, talk, how you live and your choices.
Some of us been brought up thinking we will never amount to anything and that has shaped us.
Satan is hard at work trying to get you to think in ways that shape your actions.
He will tell you lies that “you are wasting time confessing your sins to God, because He is not listening.”
Or “you are inferior to other Christians and you are destined to always fall short of their successes.”
Or “you are a helpless victim of your past, and you are helpless to change your future.”
Or “You are an embarrassment to God and you will always be.”
I can go on and on and this has crippled us as believers.
It has left us withering away.
So I am not surprised that when Peter begins this epistle, the first thing he wants to talk about is our identity in Christ.
We are not what our parents said we are or what our upbringing was like or how you feel or how people treated you or what your race is or what you look like.
When we looked at Colossians, I gave you seven wrong foundations of our identity:
1. My identity is in my career.
2. My identity is in my culture.
3. My identity is in my countenance.
4. My identity is in my college education.
5. My identity is in my circle of friends.
6. My identity is in my circumstances of the past.
7. My identity is in my children.
And because these things have taken the place of God, we are left disappointed and unfulfilled.
So how will this old, or should I say, seasoned pastor comfort struggling and suffering Christians in the start of his letter?
He will name them and remind them who and whose they are.
Let’s look at some introductory matters first.
Peter writes the letter in typical fashion of his day.
He introduced himself and his original readers, and he wished God’s blessing on them to prepare them for what he had to say.[3]
Interestingly, Peter calls himself “Peter” as he starts this letter.
Jesus had named him.
It meant a rock (John 1:42).
In ancient days, names were intended to describe what the person would be like[4] (Jacob—means supplanter and trickster, but God turned him into Israel—the one who strives with God (Gen.
25:19-34; Gen. 32:22-29)).
But Peter was more of a pebble than the Rock of Gibraltar.
Aren’t you so glad God is not done with us as soon as He names us?
Notice Peter’s title: “An apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ.”This
means he is “a messenger of Christ sent into the world with authority to carry out the will of the one who sent him.
The letter is to be seen, not as the pious opinions of a well-wishing friend, but as the authoritative word of one who speaks for the Lord of the church himself.”[5]
By stating that he is an apostle, he is telling his readers they can listen to him because he has credibility, authenticity and authority.[6]
You need someone like that to encourage you during tough times.
Notice he places himself on the same level as the other apostles.
He says he is /an/ apostle and not /the/ apostle.
I wonder if has learned that he is simply on the same level as the others since in the Gospels, he is always stepping up and saying how he will do things even if others do not.
Here are two things God says we are:
a) We are planted pilgrims
I want to look at the word “elect” in a second, but notice the words “exiles of the dispersion.”
Other translations say, “aliens, scattered” (NASU), or “strangers in the world, scattered” (NIV).
It literally means “sojourners of the dispersion.”
“Dispersion” or “scattered” is the word from which we get “diaspora.”
At the time of Peter perhaps a million Jews were living in Israel and two to four million outside of it, a significant group in the Empire, to be sure.[7]
These believers scattered across modern day Turkey (Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia) were not “home.”
So this is describing what they were geographically, but more than this, it describes what they are metaphorically.
So what he is saying is that God’s people are sojourners or pilgrims.
< .5
.5 - .6
.6 - .7
.7 - .8
.8 - .9
> .9