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
0.52LIKELY
Disgust
0.47UNLIKELY
Fear
0.1UNLIKELY
Joy
0.52LIKELY
Sadness
0.52LIKELY
Language Tone
Analytical
0.58LIKELY
Confident
0UNLIKELY
Tentative
0.38UNLIKELY
Social Tone
Openness
0.89LIKELY
Conscientiousness
0.76LIKELY
Extraversion
0.09UNLIKELY
Agreeableness
0.69LIKELY
Emotional Range
0.79LIKELY
Tone of specific sentences
Tones
Emotion
Language
Social Tendencies
Anger
< .5
.5 - .6
.6 - .7
.7 - .8
.8 - .9
> .9
Exodus 4:1-17
Common Tools, and Uncommon Tasks
Moses answered, “What if they do not believe me or listen to me and say, ‘The LORD did not appear to you’?”
Then the LORD said to him, “What is that in your hand?”
“A staff,” he replied.
The LORD said, “Throw it on the ground.”
Moses threw it on the ground and it became a snake, and he ran from it.
Then the LORD said to him, “Reach out your hand and take it by the tail.”
So Moses reached out and took hold of the snake and it turned back into a staff in his hand.
“This,” said the LORD, “is so that they may believe that the LORD, the God of their fathers—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob—has appeared to you.”
Then the LORD said, “Put your hand inside your cloak.”
So Moses put his hand into his cloak, and when he took it out, it was leprous, like snow.
“Now put it back into your cloak,” he said.
So Moses put his hand back into his cloak, and when he took it out, it was restored, like the rest of his flesh.
Then the LORD said, “If they do not believe you or pay attention to the first miraculous sign, they may believe the second.
But if they do not believe these two signs or listen to you, take some water from the Nile and pour it on the dry ground.
The water you take from the river will become blood on the ground.”
Moses said to the LORD, “O Lord, I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor since you have spoken to your servant.
I am slow of speech and tongue.”
The LORD said to him, “Who gave man his mouth?
Who makes him deaf or mute?
Who gives him sight or makes him blind?
Is it not I, the LORD?
Now go; I will help you speak and will teach you what to say.”
But Moses said, “O Lord, please send someone else to do it.”
Then the LORD’s anger burned against Moses and he said, “What about your brother, Aaron the Levite?
I know he can speak well.
He is already on his way to meet you, and his heart will be glad when he sees you.
You shall speak to him and put words in his mouth; I will help both of you speak and will teach you what to do.
He will speak to the people for you, and it will be as if he were your mouth and as if you were God to him.
But take this staff in your hand so you can perform miraculous signs with it.”
One of the great tasks facing the preacher is discovering what God would have him say week-by-week.
A young minister struggled in his first pastorate to prepare sermons.
One week a tornado struck the town in which the young pastor served.
Many people were injured and terrible destruction resulted in the town site.
On Sunday the young preacher chose as the text for his sermon *Job 38:1*.
That text states: The LORD answered Job out of the whirlwind.
The message was so greatly used of God to comfort the grieving that the young minister was encouraged to preach a similar message on the week following.
However, his second attempt fell flat and the people were clearly disappointed in his effort to minister to the congregation.
Wondering what went wrong, the young parson consulted an elderly pastor in the town.
“Son,” the older pastor cautioned, “if you expect to use that text each week, you must pray for a tornado to strike each week.”
During the week past we have witnessed great events which have shaken us as a nation and as individuals.
I confess that I have been tempted to address these great events.
I shall not do so, however.
First, I confess that I need to gain control of my own emotions.
As an expatriate of the United States, I am deeply touched by the pain of my nation.
I am angry and I must guard my tongue so as not to dishonour God through my words.
What the people of this congregation require are sound words which will build and not angry words which can destroy.
Again, I have taught you during the past year (and I shall continue to teach) that God is sovereign.
He is still enthroned in Heaven.
He was on His throne on Tuesday, September 11, 2001; and He is still on His throne.
Some have wondered aloud where God was when evil men perpetuated their horrible deeds.
I say God in the same place He was when evil men crucified His Son. God was not caught by surprise by the wickedness of evil men, but He has made provision for the salvation of all who will be saved.
At last, in His time, He shall call all mankind to account, and that includes good people who have never murdered as did the assassins who turned commercial airliners into great bombs.
Finally, there is a more mundane reason why I am loath to alter my planned message.
I prayerfully planned the schedule of preaching months ago.
I considered what God would have me do and invested time in prayer as I planned for the messages I would deliver.
God knew what the future would bring when He directed me in considering the texts I would address.
He was not caught by surprise, but instead directed His servant to those texts which are most needful for the moment.
I am most reluctant to second-guess God because I don’t see the future as clearly as He does.
Therefore, the text which I first considered months ago is the text which I shall treat today.
I am driven to weigh the words of the Bible to discover the message which God would have each of us hear.
I am responsible before God and before this congregation to discover the mind of God and then preach that message so that all may profit from the Word which God has given.
God can hit some mighty straight licks with some mighty crooked sticks.
This truth was drilled into my mind through the writings of Dr. J. B. Gambrell, a prominent Baptist divine who pastored in Texas during the formative years of Baptist work in that state.
Perhaps no more crooked stick has ever entered the ranks of God’s great leaders than a man named Moses.
A slave by birth, the future leader grew to manhood in the halls of national power and in unprecedented luxury.
Attempting to accomplish the work of God in his own strength, he was reduced to the role of a shepherd herding sheep for an insignificant livestock owner living in an insignificant land.
When half his life had been invested in abject humility, God called him to divine service.
From plenty to penury… From power to powerlessness… From haughtiness to humility… From authority to abnegation… From glory to meekness… This is the story of Moses.
When he was at last reduced to the level of a nobody, God used him in a mighty way to accomplish great things for the cause of the Lord God.
The response of Moses to God’s call is instructive to us as we seek to discover how to do God’s work in this place and in this time.
Perhaps you recall the manner in which God called Moses to divine service.
As Moses tended his father-in-law’s flock, he witnessed a strange sight on the side of Horeb, the mountain of God.
He saw a bush which burned without being consumed.
He did not know that this was the angel of the Lord—the preincarnate Christ.
When at last Moses was addressed, he hid his face in terror, because he was afraid to look at God.
I must pause to show you something which is easy to overlook.
In *Exodus 3:2 *we see that it is the Angel of the Lord who appears to Moses in flames of fire from within the bush.
Yet, it is hw:hyÒ—the Lord—who speaks to him from the bush [*Exodus 3:4*].
This Angel of the Lord who is identified as the Lord, is God [*Exodus 3:5*].
Throughout the pages of the Old Testament is this shadowy figure identified as the Angel of the Lord.
Whenever this One appears, those to whom He appears react as though in the presence of God.
He is identified repeatedly as the Lord [see *Genesis 16:7-14*; *32:29, 30*].
I suggest to you that this One, called the Angel of the Lord and yet treated as though He were God Himself, is none other than the Son of God walking through the pages of the Old Testament.
Though Moses knew he was in the presence of the Living God, nevertheless when God called Moses to divine service, Moses met the call of God with repeated objections.
I am not suited for the task, was the first objection [*Exodus 3:11*].
Note the emphasis in his objection.
Who am *I*, that *I* should go.
Perhaps you have felt this same way concerning the work to which God calls you.
Nevertheless, I insist that the greatest qualification to do the work of God is a call from God to that work.
God never chooses those who cannot do the work, though some may perhaps choose themselves for a particular work and thus fail.
Whether He calls you to serve on a worship team or whether He assigns you a task to teach or whether He calls you to provide leadership through the diaconate, God will provide all you need.
God’s answer to Moses’ objection was two-fold.
First, God says I will be with you.
Then God promises Moses you will worship God on this mountain.
In other words, God pledges His own divine protection and gives the reluctant leader a divine hope.
If God calls you to service (and if you are a Christian He has so called you), He will be with you.
Not only does He promise to go with you, but He has given you great hope.
Listen again to one of the great statements of hope which is too easily forgotten.
< .5
.5 - .6
.6 - .7
.7 - .8
.8 - .9
> .9