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
0.12UNLIKELY
Fear
0.12UNLIKELY
Joy
0.58LIKELY
Sadness
0.52LIKELY
Language Tone
Analytical
0.4UNLIKELY
Confident
0.14UNLIKELY
Tentative
0UNLIKELY
Social Tone
Openness
0.86LIKELY
Conscientiousness
0.93LIKELY
Extraversion
0.37UNLIKELY
Agreeableness
0.92LIKELY
Emotional Range
0.77LIKELY

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
Word and Prayer: Hand in Hand
How the Spirit and the Word Produce Change
June 11
                           2 Thessalonians 2:13 - 3:5
 
Before reading today’s Scripture or starting my message, I would like to share a short story with you: There was a nice lady, a minister’s widow, who was a little old-fashioned.
She was planning a week’s vacation in California at Skylake Yosemite campground (Bass Lake, to the uninitiated), but she wanted to make sure of the accommodations first.
Uppermost in her mind were bathroom facilities, but she couldn’t bring herself to write “toilet” in a letter.
After considerable deliberation, she settled on “bathroom commode,” but when she wrote that down, it still sounded too forward, so, after the first page of her letter, she referred to the bathroom commode as “BC.”
“Does the cabin where I will be staying have its own ‘BC’?
If not, where is the ‘BC’ located?” is what she actually wrote.
The campground owner took the first page of the letter and the lady’s check and gave it to his secretary.
He put the remainder of the letter on the desk of the senior member of his staff without noticing that the staffer would have no way of knowing what “BC” meant.
Then the owner went off to town to run some errands.
The staff member came in after lunch, found the letter, and was baffled by the euphemism, so he showed the letter around to several counselors, but they couldn’t decipher it either.
The staff member’s wife, who knew that the lady was the widow of a famous Baptist preacher, was sure that it must be a question about the local Baptist Church.
“Of course,” the first staffer exclaimed, “‘BC’ stands for ‘Baptist Church.’
” And he sat down and wrote:
/Dear Madam,/
/I regret very much the delay in answering your letter, but I now take the pleasure in informing you that the BC is located nine miles north of the campground and is capable of seating 250 people at one time.
I admit it is quite a distance away if you are in the habit of going regularly, but no doubt you will be pleased to know that a great number of people take their lunches along and make a day of it.
They usually arrive early and stay late./
/The last time my wife and I went was six years ago, and it was so crowded we had to stand up the whole time we were there.
It may interest you to know that right now there is a supper planned to raise money to buy more seats.
They are going to hold it in the basement of the “////BC.////”/
/I would like to say that it pains me very much not to be able to go more regularly, but it is surely not lack of desire on my part.
As we grow older, it seems to be more of an effort, particularly in cold weather./
/If you decide to come down to our campground, perhaps I could go with you the first time, sit with you, and introduce you to all the folks.
Remember, this is a friendly community./
/ /
 
You may wonder what this story has to do with 2 Thessalonians 2 and 3 or with today’s message.
The answer is, absolutely nothing!
I just happened to like the story.
I hope you did too.
So, on with today’s message.
Sermons on prayer and meditation are like books on marriage.
They may help point the way to the reality of a deep and precious relationship, but the reality is discovered and experienced in the act of marriage, not in talking or reading about marriage.
The reality of communion with God – you speaking in prayer and God speaking through his written Word by his Spirit – is discovered and experienced in the act of prayer and meditation.
If you want this reality – and Christians do want this reality – you will find it this year when the Word this morning moves you to the act of prayer and meditation where the reality is.
You learn the secrets of prayer and meditation – communion with God through Christ – by doing it.
Oh that God would use this message to move you to do it.
And to keep doing it until it becomes as indispensable in your life as eating and drinking.
Now, let’s look together at our key passage from God’s Word 2 Thessalonians 2:13 – 3:5
/As for us, we always thank God for you, dear brothers and sisters loved by the Lord.
We are thankful that God chose you to be among the first to experience salvation, a salvation that came through the Spirit who makes you holy and by your belief in the truth.
\\ He called you to salvation when we told you the Good News; now you can share in the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.
\\ With all these things in mind, dear brothers and sisters, stand firm and keep a strong grip on everything we taught you both in person and by letter.
\\ May our Lord Jesus Christ and God our Father, who loved us and in his special favor gave us everlasting comfort and good hope, \\ comfort your hearts and give you strength in every good thing you do and say.
Finally, dear brothers and sisters, I ask you to pray for us.
Pray first that the Lord's message will spread rapidly and be honored wherever it goes, just as when it came to you.
\\ Pray, too, that we will be saved from wicked and evil people, for not everyone believes in the Lord.
\\ But the Lord is faithful; he will make you strong and guard you from the evil one.
\\ And we are confident in the Lord that you are practicing the things we commanded you, and that you always will.
\\ May the Lord bring you into an ever deeper understanding of the love of God and the endurance that comes from Christ.
/
Here's my main point this morning: /Prayer and meditation are as inseparable in living the Christian life as are the Spirit of God and the Word of God/.
First, a word of explanation, and then I will show you where I get this truth from the text.
I am implying four things in this main point.
*God's Work Happens through the Word in Your Life, which Happens through the Spirit*
First, I have said this before and am saying it again because it’s so important: the work of God's Spirit in your life happens through the Word - the Scriptures - and the work of the Word in your life happens through the Spirit.
The Spirit and the Word are inseparable in producing change in our lives (call it obedience, or sanctification, or fruit of the Spirit,)  When we become more obedient to the Word it is because we have been in the Word.
When we are in the Word, it can change our minds and hearts.
Romans 8:2 says that God will transform the way you think.
Then you will know God’s good, pleasing, and perfect will.
That process toward holiness God calls sanctification.
It His work in us.
He is faithful; He will do it if we obediently infuse our minds with the truth of His Word.
The He has the chance to produce the fruit of the Spirit – love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.
From the first act of regeneration at salvation to the final act of glorification when we arrive at heaven’s gate, God works by His Spirit through his Word to accomplish his saving purpose in our lives.
Mathematically speaking, there is a formula here:     Word + Spirit = Change
*Prayer Involves Reliance on His Spirit; Meditation Involves Reliance on His Word*
 
Dwight Moody told of a remarkable incident in connection with an early visit to London.
He had gone there for a visit.
He was unknown in London, so he did not expect to preach; but a little while after arriving there he was invited to preach for a certain church, which he did.
He described the ceremony as a very cold and uninteresting service to him, but he announced that he would preach again that night.
Upon reaching the church, he noticed that the atmosphere had changed, he did not know just why.
At the close of the meeting he was led to give an invitation for those who wanted to be saved to stand.
A great crowd of people stood.
He left the next day for Dublin, Ireland.
Shortly after arriving there he received a telegram from the church to return, stating that the whole community was stirred up and clamoring for a series of meetings.
He went back and found that a great revival was beginning, and hundreds of people were being converted.
Not long after he learned the secret.
An invalid lady, who could not attend the church, was praying for a mighty outpouring of the Spirit upon the church.
She prayed for months.
Once she saw in the papers’ accounts of some of the Moody meetings in America, and, although she had never heard of Mr. Moody before, she began to pray that God would send him to her church in London for a revival.
One Sunday morning her sister, upon her return from the service, informed her of Moody’s presence and his preaching, whereupon she spent the whole afternoon in prayer that God would make that night a night of power.
That explains the difference between morning and evening services!
I tell you what we need in the church is praying members!
Oh, if we could find even one who would be resolved to pray to God for salvation and power to come upon the church.
This is the need of today—importunate prayer, like the Syro-Phoenician woman’s “Lord, help!
Lord, help!”
Another thing I am saying, and have also said before, in this main point today is that prayer is our response to God in reliance on his Spirit; and meditation is our response to God in reliance on his Word.
In prayer we praise the perfections of God through his Spirit, we thank God for what he has done by his Spirit, we confess our failures to trust the promise of his Spirit, and we ask for the help of his Spirit – all in Jesus' name.
Prayer is the human expression of treasuring and trusting the Spirit of God.
Meditation is hearing and pondering and prizing the Word of God.
It is reading the Bible and chewing on it to get the sweetness and the nourishment from it that God designs to give.
It should involve memorizing the Word so that you can chew on it and be strengthened by it during day and night, like Psalm 1 says.
("On his law he meditates day and night," v. 2.) The essence of meditation is to think your way into the very mind of the inspired writers of the Bible who were granted by inspiration to think the thoughts of God. 2 Peter 1:21 states: /“It was the Holy Spirit who moved the prophets to speak from God.”/  and  2 Timothy 3:16 adds: /“All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives.
It straightens us out and teaches us to do what is right.”/
Think and mull and ponder and chew until you see what they see the way God wants it to be seen, namely, as precious and valuable and beautiful and desirable.
Prayer and meditation are inseparable in living the Christian life.
Kesharan Nair writing in /Leadership Magazine,/ says “Disciplined meditation does not take time away from work; it sustains the spirit and increases the intensity and quality of work.”
/Prayer/ without meditation on the Word will disintegrate into selfish spirituality.
< .5
.5 - .6
.6 - .7
.7 - .8
.8 - .9
> .9