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
0.05UNLIKELY
Fear
0.07UNLIKELY
Joy
0.61LIKELY
Sadness
0.59LIKELY
Language Tone
Analytical
0.7LIKELY
Confident
0UNLIKELY
Tentative
0.21UNLIKELY
Social Tone
Openness
0.85LIKELY
Conscientiousness
0.94LIKELY
Extraversion
0.05UNLIKELY
Agreeableness
0.79LIKELY
Emotional Range
0.63LIKELY

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
Sometimes it is aweful hard to be thankful.
I see this played out in the lives of my boys.
Sometimes they just have a rough day.
Their brothers have been teasing them all day, they can’t find their favorite toys, mom has forced them to do school all day, and to top it all off for supper that night their dad makes them eat a salad with, gasp, a tomato.
Now at that moment, especially for our little ones, it is nigh impossible for them to be thankful.
I can thell them as a dad, you need to be thankful that God has given you food to eat.
And the only response they can give is, “but I don’t like tomatos!”
We laugh at that silly illustration, but sometimes we can get in that same mindset.
We end up believing that it is impossible for me to be thankful.
My car broke down, I lost my job, the furnace gave out, and my kids are driving me crazy!
How can I be thankful?
In Isaiah 51 we come across one of those impossible moments of thankfulness, and yet God still requires his people to be thankful.
Context:
Isaiah is speaking to a people in captivity.
“A military conquest somewhere in Jerusalem’s history functions as a backdrop for explaining God’s cup of wrath, but the specific war is left undefined.”
This is the backdrop of what Isaiah tells them in chapter 51.
Jerusalem has drunken the dregs of the fury of the Lord.
Her current experience is desolation/destruction and famine/sword.
Yet in this backdrop Isaiah calls for joy, gladness, and thanksgiving.
Why?
Isaiah calls for the people of Israel to respond to their suffering with thanksgiving because of the justice of God.
We as believers can respond to any situation in our lives with thanksgiving because of the justice of God.
Why should we respond with thanksgiving because of the justice of God?
I. God’s Justice is grounded in His Promises
Listen to me! Isaiah will use this command repeatedly in the chapter.
Listen you who are following after righteousness and seeking the Lord.
Metaphor:
Look unto the rock which you were hewn
And to the hole of the pit (the idea is that of a rock quarry) where you were dug.
V. 2 gives us the interpretation of this metaphor
Look (Imperative) (has the idea of perceive with attention)
Abraham is the rock from which they were hewn, and Sarah is the quarry from which they were dug.
God says, I called him alone, better- he was but one when I called him.
What did God promise Abraham?
How did God bless him and increase him?
The idea here is that God blessed Abraham, but Abraham was but one man when God made this promise.
Abraham had to trust God by faith.
Abraham trusted me by faith and you Jerusalem are hewn out of the same rock, so follow in his footsteps.
Have faith in my promises as did your father Abraham.
What then is the promise that they are to trust?
Remember right now they are not in comfort, they are in what?
But God will one day comfort Zion.
He will comfort even her waste places.
God will make her like Eden, like the garden of the Lord.
What is this talking about?
I believe Isaiah is referring to the coming millennial kingdom.
This has not happened yet, but this is the only time we read about God changing the land so that it reverts back to a pre-fall state like the Garden of Eden.
The creation is groaning in pain because of the curse of the fall.
It is waiting to be delivered from the bondage of the curse.
I believe this will take place during the literal 1000 yr earthly kingdom where God will fulfill his promises/covenants to His people.
Now notice the end of v. 3,
“Joy and gladness shall be found therein, Thanksgiving, and the voice of melody.”
So, even though you are suffering right now, there is coming a time where joy and gladness and thanksgiving will be the dominate attitude of God’s people.
I think the point of theses verses is you can have an attitude of joy and gladness and thanksgiving right now because God has promised you these things.
Just like God promised Abraham and Abraham believed God by faith, so you too can believe God by faith because of His promises.
Ultimately God will bring you justice and comfort and you can be thankful because God’s justice is grounded in his promises.
Illustration: I asked Dr. Hudson via email to teach our adult SS class this morning.
When he replied that you could do that and that he would put it on his calendar, guess how I replied?
Thank you!
Why?
He hadn’t done anything yet.
He hadn’t taught the class.
Shouldn’t I wait and thank him after he teaches the class?
I thanked him after he game me his word or his promise that he would teach the class.
I knew he would follow through and so I gave him thanks.
Even though we are not Israel, we are a people of God, the church.
And we also have been promised a part of God’s millennial kingdom.
So even though it has not yet happened, God has given us His word so we can be thankful.
No matter what we are going through right now we know that one day God will comfort his people, and so by faith we can be a thankful people.
Why?
Because God’s justice is grounded in His promises.
II.
God’s justice is grounded in His Eternality
Listen to me! (2nd time)
Judgement is better justice
God will set in place his Justice and it will be a light for His people.
This is what is required before you can have the kingdom!
There can be no kingdom without justice.
Here the concept of God’s righteousness is added to the idea of God’s justice.
My righteousness is near, my arms shall judge the people.
Because of God’s righteousness and God’s justice the isles (the nations of the world) will wait upon me or lit.
set their hope in me and they on my arm (arm of judgement) they will trust.
So before you can have the kingdom you must have righteousness and before you can have righteousness you must have justice.
Here we have a great comparison!
Look up into the sky, go ahead look.
And then look down at your feet, go look at the earth beneath you.
Both of these things will be destroyed.
The heavens will vanish like smoke, the earth will wear out like an old pair of jeans.
And those that live here (those that do not follow after righteousness and seek the Lord) they shall die in the same manner.
BUT! my salvation (deliverance from all harm) will be forever!
And my righteousness will not be shattered.
God’s deliverance and His righteousness are forever, because God is forever.
WOW!
What does this mean for me practically?
What does this mean for those who are suffering right now?
Listen to me! (3rd time) You that are righteous, you who have my law in your heart
Don’t fear the reproach (Scorn/Disrespect) of men
And don’t be afraid of their insults
Why?
Because they will be eaten up like a moth eats away a garment, like a worm devouring wool.
< .5
.5 - .6
.6 - .7
.7 - .8
.8 - .9
> .9