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
0.13UNLIKELY
Disgust
0.18UNLIKELY
Fear
0.08UNLIKELY
Joy
0.56LIKELY
Sadness
0.24UNLIKELY
Language Tone
Analytical
0.54LIKELY
Confident
0UNLIKELY
Tentative
0.14UNLIKELY
Social Tone
Openness
0.9LIKELY
Conscientiousness
0.84LIKELY
Extraversion
0.18UNLIKELY
Agreeableness
0.73LIKELY
Emotional Range
0.75LIKELY

Tone of specific sentences

Tones
Emotion
Anger
Disgust
Fear
Joy
Sadness
Language
Analytical
Confident
Tentative
Social Tendencies
Openness
Conscientiousness
Extraversion
Agreeableness
Emotional Range
Anger
< .5
.5 - .6
.6 - .7
.7 - .8
.8 - .9
> .9
All right, this morning we are continuing our look through the epistle to the Hebrews.
And in case you missed last week, we saw how the writer of Hebrews gave us three exciting differences between the Old Covenant of Moses and the Law, and the New Covenant of Jesus Christ.
The first difference we saw was that in the Old Covenant, all priests had the same weakness: they all died.
But in the New Covenant, Jesus Christ is our High Priest, and He will be alive for the rest of eternity.
The second difference is that the writer of Hebrews said that the Old Covenant was weak and useless, but with the New Covenant, we are able to be saved to the uttermost!
The third difference is that before, God’s people had to take a sacrifice into the temple every time they broke one of God’s commands.
But in the New Covenant, Jesus Christ sacrificed Himself on the cross, so that we would never have to bring another animal sacrifice to God.
Your faith in Christ’s sacrifice has forever removed the stain of sin from your life.
That’s not to say that we don’t sin, it simply means that when God looks at you, He no longer sees your sin; He sees the righteousness of Jesus Christ.
And in chapter eight of the book of Hebrews, the author moves on to analyze what it means to have a relationship with Jesus.
And probably much of what we’re going to see this morning is stuff that even if you haven’t heard before, you know it to be true in your hearts.
So my primary objective this morning is not to blow your socks off with something revolutionary.
No, my primary objective is to let God’s word speak to you anew about the sheer benefits of knowing Jesus Christ.
To see what God’s word has for us this morning, please turn in your Bibles to Hebrews chapter eight, and we’ll be reading all thirteen verses.
“Now of the things which we have spoken this is the sum: we have such an high priest, who is set on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens; a minister of the sanctuary, and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, and not man.
For every high priest is ordained to offer gifts and sacrifices: wherefore it is necessary that this man have somewhat also to offer.
For if He were on earth, He should not be a priest, seeing that there are priests that offer gifts according to the Law: who serve unto the example and shadow of heavenly things, as Moses was admonished of God when he was about to make the tabernacle: for, ‘See,’ He saith, ‘that thou make all things according to the pattern shown to thee in the mount.’
But now hath He obtained a more excellent ministry, by how much also He is the mediator of a better covenant, which was established upon better promises.
For if that first covenant had been faultless, than should no place have been sought for the second.
For finding fault with them, he saith, ‘Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah: not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they continued not in my covenant, and I regarded them not, saith the Lord.
For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people: and they shall not teach every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, “Know the Lord:” for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest.
For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more.’
In that He saith, “a new covenant,” He hath made the first old.
Now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away.”
Let’s pray together.
In the course of this morning’s sermon, I am going to show you the four benefits that the writer of Hebrews gives us of being in the kind of relationship with God he described.
As a matter of fact, this morning’s sermon is titled, “Benefits of a New Covenant Relationship.”
Catchy, right?
And really, all four of the benefits are located in verses ten through twelve of this chapter, but that doesn’t mean that we’re going to neglect the verses before it.
In fact, the first nine verses all build up to the dramatic unveiling of the New Covenant in verse ten.
So if you’re taking notes this morning (which I hope you are) this first point is entitled…
Made possible by our High Priest
Look again at what verse one says to us.
“Now of the things which we have spoken this is the sum: we have such a high priest, who is set on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens.
“ Notice how the author of Hebrews introduces this verse.
Now of the things which we have spoken this is the sum.
Many commentators believe that this verse is the turning point of the entire book.
When he says “Now of the things which we have spoken,” he’s talking about everything he’s said up until this point.
He says that he is about to sum up all of Hebrews chapter one and seven.
And in the following verses, he says many amazing things about Jesus.
The first thing he says is that Jesus is our High Priest.
And he says that Jesus is currently seated at the right hand of the Majesty (that’s God.)
In the following verses, the writer of Hebrews sums up all of his talk about how the entire Old Testament revolves around Jesus Christ.
He says in verses four and five that the old system, which revolves around priests offering sacrifices in a tabernacle, that old way served as an example and a shadow of what Jesus Christ would come to earth and do.
It’s kind of like this: imagine that every event in the entire Bible is situated on a yardstick.
You’ve got Creation at the front, and you’ve got the Second Coming at the back.
But then, in the middle of the yardstick is one event that stands above all others.
Rising out of the middle of the yardstick is the cross.
The cross towers so high above every other event, that it casts its shadow on everything else.
Church, that is what the Bible is like.
That is what the writer of Hebrews is telling us about the Old Testament.
Everything that happened, from Creation, to the fall, to the flood, to Abraham, to Moses, to David, to Malachi; all of it looks forward to Jesus Christ.
As a matter of fact, you can’t truly understand the Old Testament until you know Jesus Christ.
When you know Jesus Christ, and you understand the kind of relationship you have with Him, all of those events in the Old Testament become so much clearer.
Now, when you look at Adam and Eve’s sin, you don’t just see the worst event in human history.
Now, you read that chapter and say, “Jesus is going to fix that.”
Now, when you read the story of Noah’s ark, you don’t just see a man and his family that were saved from a world-wide flood.
Now, you can say, “You know, God is kind of like an ark to me.
He saves me from the floods of life.”
Church, let me say it one more time, “The entire Bible revolves around the cross.”
And if the entire Bible revolves around the cross, then shouldn’t our lives revolve around the cross?
Shouldn’t our church revolve around the cross?
And by the way, I’m not talking about wearing cross necklaces, or about hanging up crosses in your home.
I’m talking about making your whole life revolve around the fact that Jesus Christ died for your sins, and He died for others’ sins, as well.
And as a church, our entire focus must be on proclaiming the message of the cross to those who haven’t heard, and on praising the God who died on that cross.
As soon as we stray from the cross, whether on purpose or by neglect, we will fail.
So, it’s as if the writer of Hebrews is saying, “You know all of this stuff I’ve been writing about, it’s all about Jesus!
It’s all about what He did for us!
It’s all about His sacrifice!
It’s all about the cross!”
And in just a few seconds, we’re going to look at those four benefits I told you about, but what we must know beyond the shadow of a doubt is that the benefits of a relationship with God were not brought about by our own good deeds.
They didn’t come about by sacrifices.
Our relationship wasn’t mediated by a priest.
Our relationship with God was made possible by what Jesus Christ did for us on the cross.
Let us never forget that.
Benefit #1: The Law on our Hearts
Let’s read verses eight through ten again together.
“For finding fault with them, he saith, ‘Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah: not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they continued not in my covenant, and I regarded them not, saith the Lord.
For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people.”
Something I want you to notice is that essentially all of verses eight through twelve are a quote from the Old Testament.
Those verses were first penned by the prophet Jeremiah, approximately 600 years before Jesus Christ was born.
Isn’t that amazing?
And as a little fun fact, this is the longest Old Testament quote in the entire New Testament.
In these verses, Jeremiah described the kind of relationship that we would have with God, even though it’s the kind of relationship he could only dream about.
But even though it’s the writer of Hebrews quoting the prophet Jeremiah, we know that the true author of these words is God Himself.
This is God saying what the New Covenant would be like one day.
And notice the first benefit of the New Covenant that God mentions in verse ten.
The Lord says, “I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts.”
Wow, what is that talking about?
Basically, God is describing the ministry of the Holy Spirit in our lives.
Even people that are not Christians have a conscience.
They might have seared it over the years so much that they don’t notice it anymore, but all people have a conscience.
But when you accept Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit comes into your life and acts like a super conscience.
This is what this verse is talking about.
God is saying that with the Holy Spirit inside you, you are going to know what is right, and what is wrong.
God’s law is written on your heart!
“But hold on, wait a minute Brother Josh, I think that it’s okay to dance, but so and so thinks that it’s a sin.
Are you saying that there’s two different Holy Spirits living in us?” No, that’s not what I’m saying.
This is the beautiful concept known as convictions.
I’ve never preached about convictions before, so allow me to break it down for you.
< .5
.5 - .6
.6 - .7
.7 - .8
.8 - .9
> .9