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
0.49UNLIKELY
Disgust
0.09UNLIKELY
Fear
0.15UNLIKELY
Joy
0.48UNLIKELY
Sadness
0.55LIKELY
Language Tone
Analytical
0.47UNLIKELY
Confident
0UNLIKELY
Tentative
0.52LIKELY
Social Tone
Openness
0.38UNLIKELY
Conscientiousness
0.71LIKELY
Extraversion
0.12UNLIKELY
Agreeableness
0.72LIKELY
Emotional Range
0.39UNLIKELY

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
*Spiritual Passion and Patience*
*Isaiah 40*
 
Will you open your Bibles please to Isaiah 40?
In our passage for today, Isaiah is writing to a people who are tired of waiting: *Verse 27* IOWs, Isaiah is responding to a people crying out that things are not going well.
We might put it this way: “It’s not fair.”
“It’s not fair for me to be treated this way at work… it’s not fair for me to be single this long… It’s not fair that my children treat me this way… It’s not fair that the other person got the promotion and not me.
The justice due me has escaped the notice of my God.” IOWs, Isaiah is raising the problem of waiting.
Isaiah’s hearers were discouraged and weary from waiting, and when people go into a period of waiting 2 questions seem to emerge: First, “*/When is God going to keep His Word/*?” God has made promises, and God always keeps His promises, so when is this going to happen?
The second question arises precisely because they believe in God: “*/Since God does exists, why am I waiting/*?
IOWs, waiting is a challenge.
Let’s look at these challenges.
You know what it means to wait and wait and wait…panic sets in.
It’s then that some folks begin to flip from /experience/ to /experience/ so they can forget about the fact that they have to wait.
Some run to alcohol, or drugs, or gambling, or whatever…so they can forget.
While others look for an emotional experience in order to make it another day.
IOWs, waiting causes us to do things we wouldn’t otherwise do.
It is like being at a stoplight that will not change.
Ever been there?
Hanbury and Johnstown Rd.– that light has the dumbest timing.
Early in the morning or late at night, or especially on the weekend that light goes red and you wait, and wait, and wait and no traffic is to be seen in any direction.
So what happens…we start getting antsy and start thinking what?
Hey…Nobody is watching…maybe that light isn’t even working…I’ll just go.
Isaiah’s people made this same mistake.
They believed that “If God is silent, maybe He’s not working.”
IOWs, the classic mistake of waiting is this: “If I can’t see God doing something, God must be doing nothing.”
So if you are “waiting,”—that is, you’re waiting on God—yours is not an invitation to an experience, it’s not an invitation to a thrill, it’s not an invitation to the next sermon or song, if you’re waiting, yours is an invitation to stop and reflect on the */character of God/*: *V 28—*So, how do you wait when you have no choice but to wait?  Isaiah says stop and reflect on the character of God.
 
“Do you not know?” he says.
Because when you have to wait, it is easy to forget what God is like.
So in circumstances that are dark and dreary, Isaiah says let what you know about God be the basis of your waiting.
So when you have to wait, concentrate on God’s character and remember…
 
*#1 “God is an everlasting God*.”
In other words, God does not look at your clock to determine His plan.
Time is different for God.
 
*#2* *God is the “Creator God*.”
Not only does God operate outside your clock, but when God does choose to move, God can do so without any raw materials available to Him what-so-ever.
In fact, when God created, He did so…as theologians say, “/exnilo/,” that is “out of nothing.”
Which means: You don’t need to know how God is going to do something, because God doesn’t need anything to get it done.
Then, remember…
 
*#3 God does not become “tired or weary*.”
In other words, God has not zoned out on you like I can do if you try and talk to me late in the afternoon, before I get my second wind.
God does not need a second wind.
Finally…
 
*#4 *Isaiah says, “*God’s* *understanding is inscrutable*”.
Inscrutable, means you cannot figure God out, and you’ll get a headache if you try.
So, don’t get all bent out of shape because God is operating silently and you do not know what in the world He is doing…because you are wasting your time.
His understanding is inscrutable, that’s what makes God…God.
“Given that, how in the world am I supposed to make it, when I don’t know */where/* God is, I don’t know */what/* God is doing, I can’t figure Him out, *and* He operates on a different clock!
How am I supposed to make it!”
Well if you’ll lean upon God and trust God, here’s how you’re going to make it: *V 29* – Now, I can’t tell you when your breakthrough is coming, because God hasn’t told me.
But God did tell me something I can tell you here in verse 29…
 
Notice, first it says, “God gives it.”
That is…God gives “waiters,” who become weary, new strength.
IOWs, Isaiah says, you don’t have to earn it or work for it, because God grants it to those who are weary.
So the only qualification you need, is to be weary.
So you say, “Then how come I don’t have the strength yet?”
You’re not weary yet.
“What!
Don’t tell me I’m not weary!
You don’t know me, or my momma, so how do you know?”
Because you are still trying to make it in your own strength, when to be weary is to come to the end of your resources.
So if you’re still trying to manipulate things and make them happen in your own strength, you’re not weary enough yet.
Now, where this…“becoming weary”…stuff is concerned, you have a choice: you can become weary voluntarily or “mandatorially.”
That is, God can put us in a position where we eventually become weary, OR we can decide up front, “I’m weary.”
So, who gets weary?
“*/Young people/*,” verse 30, “*/grow weary and tired/*.”
So it’s not about how old you are.
I often hear people say, “If I were only 20 years younger, I could handle this.”
God says, “Really, well I know some very tired young folk.”
Young folk who want to give up, young folk who want to commit suicide, young folk who throw their lives away.
Youth does not solve this problem.
In fact, vigorous young men stumble badly, it says.
“Ok, then help me.
Help me.
I’m about to throw in the towel.
I hear this God “stuff” every week, I hear it in small group, I hear it on Sunday, but my circumstance hasn’t changed and I am tired.
I’m tired of my marriage.
I’m tired of my work.
I’m tired of my life.
Well, verse 31 is for you:  *V 31*.
Now, I want you to do something.
I want you to read it again, but this time put your name in it:  *John Dooley, as he waits upon the Lord*…
 
That word “wait” is an interested one.
It was used in the process of making rope.
You all know, that rope is a collection of strands that have been woven together, right?
And the more strands, the thicker the rope.
But it all starts out as one single strand, called the weary.
That is, one that will *easily break*.
So, if you feel like you are about to break…  If you are hanging on by a thread, that means you are not a rope yet.
A rope is a community of strands, woven together to make one thick rope.
In fact, the word “wait” was the process of weaving one strand to another, over and over until you got a rope.
So the question naturally follows…
Why does /one believer quit/, while another does not, when they are in the same situation?
Why—because one is hanging on to a strand, while the other is hanging on to a rope.
“They who wait upon the Lord”…In other words, those who keep weaving with the Lord, again, and again, and again, *are knitting a rope of faith!*
So, what is the key to waiting:
*#1 To wait on the Lord means you are so confident in the Lord, that you continue in your routine faithfulness.
*IOWs, you are so set in your mind about the veracity of the Lord God Jehovah, that even though Monday may be depressing, discouraging, and down right bleak, you are unwilling to give up because you know the character of God.  *PSALM 27:13-14*
 
*#2 /To wait on the Lord means you are not going to go outside of the Lord to fix it yourself./*
You see, every time we try to fix our situations ourselves, we are no longer waiting upon the Lord.
That is, whenever we set aside biblical principles to deal with a frustration in our life, we are no longer waiting on the Lord.
< .5
.5 - .6
.6 - .7
.7 - .8
.8 - .9
> .9