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
0.11UNLIKELY
Disgust
0.12UNLIKELY
Fear
0.12UNLIKELY
Joy
0.61LIKELY
Sadness
0.5LIKELY
Language Tone
Analytical
0.69LIKELY
Confident
0UNLIKELY
Tentative
0UNLIKELY
Social Tone
Openness
0.78LIKELY
Conscientiousness
0.96LIKELY
Extraversion
0.28UNLIKELY
Agreeableness
0.98LIKELY
Emotional Range
0.86LIKELY
Tone of specific sentences
Tones
Emotion
Language
Social Tendencies
Anger
< .5
.5 - .6
.6 - .7
.7 - .8
.8 - .9
> .9
Thanksgiving
Good Morning and welcome to Sunday School.
When I asked God what He would have me teach this morning, the verse, “O, Give thanks to the Lord for He is good, His mercy endures forever” bubbled up in me.
So I looked up the verse.
It actually appears 9 times: once in 1 Chronicles, and 8 times in Psalms.
Then I looked at these passages, trying to figure out how we were going to study them.
But I was missing the big picture.
God wasn’t telling me what to study, He was telling me what to do.
“O Give thanks to the Lord for He is good” and “O Give thanks to the Lord for His mercy endures forever.”
When I did, I found myself saying “praise God.”
And a little while later, “I worship, you.”
But that’s not what God told me to do.
He said, “Give thanks to the Lord.”
You see, we Christians use the words “thanksgiving”, “praise”, and “worship” interchangeably.
But, there are differences.
Thanksgiving is different from praise which is different from worship.
· Thanksgiving relates to God's deeds, what He has done.
· Praise relates to God's character, who He is.
· Worship relates directly to God's holiness.
This morning, I want to talk about the meaning and purpose of thanksgiving.
Thanksgiving is a New Testament term.
Giving thanks comes from the heart.
It is a personal matter.
Our hearts are filled with gratitude.
Praise on the other hand is an Old Testament term.
You may remember a study we did a while back where we looked at the Hebrew words for praise.
They ranged from raising your hands, to playing music, to shouting.
All of the Hebrew terms in the Old Testament for praise are public actions.
Thanksgiving may be silent and private, but praise is vocal and public.
Thanksgiving occurs when we breathe a prayer of thanks to God.
Praise occurs when we thank God publicly, telling others of what He's done for us.
I’m going to shock you now.
There is no word meaning "thank you" in Hebrew.
In Old Testament times they used the word “praise” in place of "thanks".
The word todah translated as "thanks" in the Old Testament is closely connected to the word for "hand."
The Hebrew concept of giving thanks is stretching out or lifting up of the hand to God.
In New Testament, the word for "thanks" is the charis.
This is where we get the term "charismatic".
Translated literally, charis means "grace."
In other words, thanksgiving is our response to God's grace.
Thanksgiving is something we are supposed to do.
Turn with me to 1 Thessalonians 5:16-19:
16 Be joyful always; 17 pray continually; 18 give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.
“Give thanks in all circumstances”?
Let’s get the hard questions out of the way first.
Are we supposed to give thanks when someone is killed?
Or when someone dies of cancer?
Well, at face value it looks that way.
Some people do believe that everything that happens, good or bad, comes from God.
If that is true, then I am supposed to thank God when someone I know dies and goes to hell?
Of course not!
Zip over to 1 John 3:8b
The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work.
If Jesus came to destroy the works of the Devil, then the Devil has obviously been working.
How does he work?
John 10:10:
10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it more abundantly."
The works of the Devil are stealing, killing, and destroying.
The Bible does not command us to thank God for the Devil's work.
Rather the Bible encourages to thank God for what God has done.
We need to stop blaming God for the things that the Devil has been doing.
Back to 1 Thessalonians 5:18 we read,
"In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you."
Notice that the word is "in."
It’s not "for."
We are not to give thanks for everything that happens, we are to give thanks in the midst of whatever is happening.
We give thanks in the midst of sickness by saying,
· "by his stripes we are healed" (1 Peter 2:24).
· I give thanks that Jesus took my infirmities, and bare my sicknesses (Matthew 8:17).
· I give thanks the He is the God that heals me.
(Exodus 15:26)
· we give thanks for God's answer to Satan's attacks
· we give thanks for the Word of God.
We don't give thanks for the things that have us bound; we give thanks that we don't have to remain bound.
It is the Word of God that sets us free!
Thanksgiving sets the tone, it gets our faith moving, it prepares us and opens the door for miracles.
18 give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.
It’s not only the first part of this verse that people misinterpret.
Many people attribute everything that happens in their lives to God and they regard it as God's will for them.
That’s not what Paul is saying.
Turn with me to Ephesians 5:17-20
17 Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is.
18 Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery.
Instead, be filled with the Spirit.
19 Speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs.
Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord, 20 always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ..
In other words, Paul is saying pay attention, this is what the will of God is: (v.
18) to be filled with the Spirit
How do we fulfill the will of God? (v.
19) by speaking to one another in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs.
What happens when you are filled with the Spirit?
(20) you give thanks to God
We’ve spoken quite a bit recently about what comes out of your mouth.
We’ve talked about people who are always complaining and don’t have a good thing to say.
I believe this passage is telling us that if we’re not giving thanks, we are not only out of God's will, but we are also not filled with the Holy Spirit.
I’m not saying that you don’t know God; I’m saying that you are not producing fruit.
And you cannot produce fruit without the Holy Spirit.
We know that we can quench the Spirit.
Matthew 12:34b says, "for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks."
We know that our words have power.
< .5
.5 - .6
.6 - .7
.7 - .8
.8 - .9
> .9