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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Anger
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Tone of specific sentences

Tones
Emotion
Anger
Disgust
Fear
Joy
Sadness
Language
Analytical
Confident
Tentative
Social Tendencies
Openness
Conscientiousness
Extraversion
Agreeableness
Emotional Range
Anger
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Prayer
As we look at this passage today, we’re no doubt going to see [the world] from TWO DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVES...
We’re going to see it from God’s perspective, and we’re going to see it from man’s perspective...
And we’re actually going to jump around in our text today...
As there’s a section in the middle of this passage that will actually finish the sermon with...
and so let’s actually start with chapter 4 verse 1, and then we’ll circle back to chapter 3 after that...
As we make our way through these verses today, take notice of a couple of phrases that we’ll see again and again...
“I saw”...
“I said in my heart”...
SEEING these things in the world…his HEART then declares…!
Again I SAW - all the oppressions that are done under the sun.
SLIDE: Under the Sun: A Veil of Evil
Under The Sun
Solomon looks out in this world…UNDER THE SUN...
And ALL around him - as far as he can see - there is OPPRESSION...
PEOPLE - Oppressing - OTHER PEOPLE...
Now I DO NOT claim to be a history buff...
…I did what i needed to do to get by...
BUT
If we have ANY knowledge at all of American History…we KNOW that what lines the path of American History is = OPPRESSION...
...of ALL kinds!
Race against Race
Creed against Creed
Religious Beliefs against Religious Beliefs
Oppression is something that has always existed....post Genesis 2.
Now it’s easy to point to the BIGGER examples of oppression…throughout our history...
But even on a smaller scale, we know that various forms of oppression occur every day...
Those with more:
power
influence - WIELDING that power over others!
Listen to this:
I had been in my new job for fewer than six weeks when Syrian government security forces came in and arrested everyone in the office and took us away.
It was February 16, 2012 and I had just started work at the Violations Documentation Centre (VDC) in Damascus - an independent not-for-profit organization that records human rights abuses in Syria.
I wasn't completely blind to the dangers of the kind of work I was doing but I somehow didn't think this would happen to us.
I thought I was untouchable.
For the first few days of our arrest, I thought we would be OK.
They took my whole office - nine men and six women - to an air base and we were questioned by air force intelligence but there was no torture.
They kept us there for 25 days.
As the days dragged on we started to get frustrated - why were they keeping us so long without releasing us or putting us on trial?
We knew our rights!
We told them we were going to go on hunger strike if they didn't let us out and that annoyed them so they handed us over to the 4th Armoured Division, a military unit headed by president Assad's brother, Maher al-Assad.
I was put in a small room with about 80 other people.
It was so crowded, we had to sit down in shifts while the others stood up because there wasn't enough room for us to all sit down on the floor at the same time.
Every now and then they would take a few people away to be tortured.
When they came back - if they came back - there wasn't even enough space for them to lie on the floor.
I was in there for 33 days.
One day, out of the blue, they transferred me to a military court for trial and then I was sent to an ordinary prison for 20 days, where I had access to food, clean clothes and medicine.
You know you've been in a bad place when an ordinary prison in Syria looks good.
When I was released, alongside two of my colleagues, we had been forcibly detained for 86 days.
I wasn't a bad person - I wasn't fighting for Islamic State or the Assad regime - but they took me away anyway.
For 86 days, my family had no idea where I was or whether I was dead or alive.
Sometimes I didn't know it myself.
This is just ONE story…of - an endless number of stories...
Solomon LOOKS out and sees this -
So Solomon holds up THE OPPRESSED and he says - they had NO ONE to comfort them!
POWER rises up AGAINST the weak...
Wherever there is power there is the temptation for its misuse
And we see this all throughout society do we not?
We see this on a national scale…as in the case of rulers
We see this on a local level...
AND we see this even in the church...
UNDER THE SUN - Wherever there is power there is the temptation for its misuse...
Not only that - but I would also say - Wherever there is power, there is the temptation for its gain!
How often do we see the BULLIED - become the BULLY!??
How often do we see the ABUSED - become the ABUSER!??
Satan is alive and well - He will take MAN’S fallen NATURE - and he will distort the image of a God of Justice in whose likeness we are created
What’s the result?
SLIDE: Under The Sun: The Veil of Wickedness
Under The Sun
Our JUSTICE becomes a distorted JUSTICE!
And Solomon speaks to this:
We’ve all heard the stories...
So and so wrongfully convicted…sentenced to life in prison...
So and so wrongfully convicted - sentenced to death...
Even now there are multiple documentaries on Netflix that talk about people being wrongfully convicted...
Rachel and I one night decided to watch one of these...
WE WERE HOOKED!!
But then there’s the OTHER SIDE!
people - being wrongfully - exonerated!
There are BIG cases that have taken place where most EVERYONE agreed the person was guilty...
but then…what?
- Not Guilty
Now - THOSE situations happened in the public eye - but how about our personal lives?
How many times have you RENDERED judgment on a matter, only to CHANGE your position once you heard both sides...
Once you gathered all the facts?
We DO this all the time!
Yet what does the Bible tell us?
We always RUSH to judgment - why?
Because we’re UNDER the SUN....and BEING...
Under the Sun - our JUSTICE is veiled in - wickedness
We see this - and SOLOMON saw this...
And in SEEING it - he declared with his heart...
Being UNDER the sun, our justice is veiled in wickedness...
BUT GOD - being OVER the SUN - judges with a RIGHTEOUS judgement...
His judgement is - FINAL...
Solomon LOOKS at the world - SEES all the oppression...
SEES all of mankind...
TRYING to do what we can to render judgements on matters...
We ALL have to render judgment - EVERY DAY! Do we not?
1000’s of things every day that require us to MAKE judgments!
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