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
0.15UNLIKELY
Disgust
0.54LIKELY
Fear
0.08UNLIKELY
Joy
0.57LIKELY
Sadness
0.49UNLIKELY
Language Tone
Analytical
0.63LIKELY
Confident
0UNLIKELY
Tentative
0.49UNLIKELY
Social Tone
Openness
0.78LIKELY
Conscientiousness
0.73LIKELY
Extraversion
0.45UNLIKELY
Agreeableness
0.81LIKELY
Emotional Range
0.73LIKELY
Tone of specific sentences
Tones
Emotion
Language
Social Tendencies
Anger
< .5
.5 - .6
.6 - .7
.7 - .8
.8 - .9
> .9
Series Introduction
Most families have their matriarchs and patriarchs.
My grandfather was the Patriarch of the Sharpe family.
He was our root.
We all traced our ancestry back to him.
He held a significant place of leadership - when he spoke we respectfully listened (doesn’t mean he always said the right thing) No one opened the presents without him.
Abraham is the patriarch of the family of God.
All Christians can trace their ancestry - their spiritual ancestry back to him.
I am the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob - God would say when revealing himself to people in the Old Testament.
This series is about Abraham, the father of our faith.
He is an excellent example of faith - not an unwavering faith, but an enduring faith (repeat).
Sermon Introduction
This morning we’re going to look at Abraham.
If you are new or unfamiliar with the United Methodist Church, you might be surprised to learn about the appointment system (described)…we are called, but we aren’t given all of the details;
we all are under the appointment system - if you are a baptized believer, God has called you.
called you to ministry; called you to a certain place, to certain people, sometimes for a season, sometimes for the long term; it’s not wrong to buy a home, plan your life, and say “I want to retire here.”
But so many Christians have heard the same call Abraham heard - Go from your country!
You might hear it too.
We’re going to look at Abraham’s call this morning, and I want you all to be thinking about God’s call on your life.
Some of you have experienced (or are experiencing this).
Some of you have not.
Abraham’s call helps us understand God’s call on our lives.
This Call lacks clarity, but not assurance.
This Call is Unexplainable - why does this happen in the first place?
Adam.
Noah.
Babel.
Why Abraham was even call at all makes no sense.
There is no obvious reason why Abraham, who lived in a pagan nation with too many gods to count, was called.
He didn’t say, “Abraham, here are the spiritual gifts and talents that would make you the right person for this job.”
You might think, “Abraham had the gift of faith, (and didn’t Jesus say something about faith that could move mountains?)
so that’s why God chose him.”
Stick around for the rest of the sermon series: his faith isn’t always that strong.
Not only does the choice of Abraham make no sense...
The destination is not clear.
I don’t like vague driving directions.
My college roommate worked his way through college by delivering pizza’s - before the GPS days when you just relied on the people ordering the pizza.
“My house is by the high school.”
It’s dark outside and there are a dozen houses by the high school (which was by the middle school.)
Just head down Route 206 and when you hit the main drag you’ll know it.
Street names that had been changed.
Signs that did not exist.
Campus buildings without the names on them.
Traveling with vague directions was an expected part of the job.
Abraham has been given vague directions.
Just pack up, and we’ll talk about your destination on the way.
I don’t know about you, but I don’t feel comfortable agreeing to something without some details.
But our calling doesn’t always work that way.
Abraham obeyed God’s vague directions, but God gave him enough assurance to give Abraham the faith to get him out of his seat and go where God was sending him.
God doesn’t always give us clarity, but that doesn’t mean we aren’t being called.
Abraham doesn’t wait for clarity, because God has given him assurance.
Go from your country, and I will show you.
You will be a blessing.
How do you know you are answering God’s call?
Are you blessing those around you?
Is your life about you or those around you?
Well just head down this road, there’s some trees on the right hand side and just a little beyond that you’ll see my house.
You can’t miss it.
and I don’t like it when my GPS
But he had just enough faith to get him out of his seat and going where God was sending him.
The Call is assuring
If you think you know why God has shown his grace to you, then you don’t understand grace at all.
Grace is underserved.
If it was deserved we would call it something else.
We sing the song Amazing Grace, because grace is amazing - its unexplainable.
Genesis 12:2
The Call is costly, but not impossible.
Genesis 12:
It’s important for us to set life goals.
I want to have this number of children, save enough for them to attend college, (you can type this data on the internet and get an exact amount that you want to save) and then retire and vacation alot.
When I think of being 75 years old, I think of being geographically settled.
Hopefully close to family and close friends.
Which sounds like a more ideal retirement: settle down near the grandchildren, vacation, take the grandchildren on vacation.
OR: Uproot my household and move away from family and never see them ago.
God says to Abraham, leave your people and your father’s household.
That’s a huge cost.
Family ties are valuable.
Important.
In the ancient world family ties brought financial stability.
When God calls you to ministry, it comes with a cost.
It will cost you your time.
Your comfort.
Your leisure time.
In another words, God’s call is a call to generosity.
The call is costly (and this is enough to discourage people), but not impossible.
The Call leads to barriers, but not boundaries.
The Call leads to barriers, but not boundaries.
Genesis
Colleague: 1st Sunday of a new appointment he hears voices coming from downstairs.
He notices that his wife and kids are still upstairs, so goes down to check it out.
He’s in his bathrobe, and comes down to see a group of church members in his living room setting up chairs and plugging in a coffee maker.
“Our Sunday School class has been meeting here for years.”
“We’ve always done it this way.”
He was told the parsonage was his home, but not in the full sense of the word.
One of his first executive decisions was to kick some church members out of his home.
Abraham is promised land, and he gets there and it’s occupied.
The Canaanites were in the land.
This is a significant barrier, but I’m going to make a distinction between a barrier and a boundary.
A boundary is a God imposed limitation.
A boundary is like the “do not cross” police tape.
< .5
.5 - .6
.6 - .7
.7 - .8
.8 - .9
> .9