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.
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Emotion Tone
Anger
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Disgust
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Fear
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Joy
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Sadness
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Language Tone
Analytical
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Confident
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Social Tone
Openness
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Conscientiousness
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Extraversion
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Agreeableness
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Emotional Range
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Tone of specific sentences
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INTRO
Hard Road to Faith
One of my favorite books when I was a teenager was titled "A Child Called It".
If you have never heard of this book or read it let me warn you that there are some parts in it that you would find disturbing.
Not because of vulgarity, or any un-chased depictions, but rather because of how this human being was treated.
Basically the book is about this boy who is part of a larger family but is treated as if he is some sort of animal or slave.
He is continuously being starved, tortured, and beaten while continuously being physically neglected as well.
This child who is now a man was recounting, in this book the real life horror he lived through.
I read this book before I was a christian and I often wonder now if this man ever found Christ because I find it hard to think how else he could have survived this outrageous situation.
As a christian this story reminds me of some biblical stories that have similar terrible situations.
Job, who is caught in the middle of some show of power between Satan and the Lord.
He looses everything he has, all his wealth, all his children, even his health is failing him.
Job was called to do the impossible.
Joseph, who was hated and almost murdered by his brothers was sold into slavery.
Then while in slavery he was falsely accused for attempted rape and then imprisoned for years.
Let me tell you that the prisons then are not like they are here!
Rats, flees, ragged clothes, unclean and unsanitary conditions, as well as often abusive jailers.
Joseph was called to do the impossible.
Moses, taken from his people to be raised his whole life long knowing that he belonged to neither.
He was a slave by birth and raised by the very people who were enslaving his relatives.
Yet because he was raised in opulence and privilege he did not fit in nor was he welcomed by his countrymen.
Enslaved to his passions he murders and then flees leaving all that he has ever known to live out in the wilderness.
Then called by God to go back and oppose the king of the mightiest nation in the world.
He would then lead the people of his bloodline who did not respect or trust him out of a land which they knew into a foreign and hostel country which they had no knowledge of.
Not to mention he had to continuously put up with their disobedience which also cause the trip to take 40 years longer then it should have.
Moses was called to the impossible.
Joshua, was to lead an army of escaped slaves and rovers into a land where militarily they were at a disadvantage at every turn.
Not just to lead the army but to lead them to victory over the cities and peoples who lived there taking what was rightfully theirs and cleansing the land of these mighty and wicked people groups.
Joshua was called to the impossible.
David and the other kings after him were to rule a group of people who were consistently seeking to sidestep God's authority in their life.
How does one seek to rule the unruly?
David and these men were called to the impossible.
What is the hardest thing you have ever had to do?
Have you ever been asked to accomplish the impossible?
TITLE & TEXT
Doing The Impossible
Genesis 18.9-15
THEME
The people of God are always called to do the impossible.
ISRAEL
Defeat Enemies
The "ites"
Take Possession
Of the land
Be Holy
Set apart form the peoples
US
Be Holy
Set apart from the world
Take Possession
Our minds
Defeat Enemies
Our hearts
PROBLEM
The problem is that the impossible always seems so, well, impossible.
We walk for a while but then at some point we fall.
The fall seems inevitable.
When we fall we are reminded of the last time we fell, and the time before that.
We begin to weigh our failures with our victories and find the scales are inevitably tipping out of our favor.
We begin to get discouraged and at times even angry with the lord for asking us to do what is so clearly impossible.
So what is the secret?
How did these men and women of the faith recorded in this book continuously seem to find victory?
What was their game plan?
PRAY
TEXT EXPOSITION
Context
So here we are with the great patriarch Abraham and his wife Sarah.
He has just been given this sign of the everlasting covenant between himself and God and is now in the process of entertaining the LORD and two of his angels with a meal as our text for today unfolds.
Text
Why is He always asking questions?
Good Teachers - draw out a response
Adam / Eve
Listen when name comes up
Context?
Hot day
Making meals
women's place
Abraham Already told this...
Why repeat himself?
Did he not tell her?
Lord wants Sarah to hear
the word is given to all
Text = [The time of renewal]
Time = 9 months for a baby = about a year
Sarahs Son
"Sarah shall bear to you" = Abraham
To Sarah = "Listening behind Him"
Why does her position matter?
This is why 17:17 happens
They Were Old
Not only unlikely
The Inside Scoop
Impossible
Like Her Husband...
Bitterness
After This
Patience / longsuffering
Now Have Pleasure?
Childbearing - significance
Is there anything that you have been hopping for, for a very long time?
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