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.
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Anger
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Joy
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Analytical
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Openness
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Conscientiousness
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Agreeableness
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Tones
Emotion
Anger
Disgust
Fear
Joy
Sadness
Language
Analytical
Confident
Tentative
Social Tendencies
Openness
Conscientiousness
Extraversion
Agreeableness
Emotional Range
Anger
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Out of [the Wilderness]
My guess is that most of us know what it means to wander in the wilderness.
After leaving the slavery of Egypt, the Israelites wandered the wilderness for 40 years...
It took 40 years for them to leave behind the mentality of a slave, and embrace a new identity as the people of God.
And I think that most of us know exactly what that’s like…
To find ourselves between where we have been and where God is leading us next.
The wilderness is the place where we wander when we are not yet ready to embrace who God has called us to be.
God has brought Ezekiel into the wilderness - into the middle of a valley filled with bones…
Imagine that you have just come across a valley filled with human remains...
Bones, with every bit of flesh gone from them...
What kind of feeling do you think would wash over you?
It might feel frightening.
You would wonder if you were safe...
But these are not fresh remains…
These bones have been here a good long while.
I think, more than anything, it would feel tragic.
You would wonder what kind of tragedy led to the death of all of the people represented by these bones.
There may be a kind of haunting feeling in that space, because those bones are powerful images of death...
Even though the death that took place - too place long ago.
But as haunting as it may seem...
In this valley, God is preparing to do something new.
Out of [the Wilderness]
God speaks to Ezekiel at a very critical time in the history of His people.
The nation of Israel has divided.
The northern kingdom of Israel has fallen to Assyria.
Assyria will fall to Babylon
The Southern kingdom of Judah has fallen to Babylon…
Babylon is the force of the day…
When Judah falls, not only does Babylon control Israel and Judah,
But exiles them as well.
It forcefully removes them from their homes and drops them in other lands.
So it is not just that the nations are defeated,
They’re devastated.
They’re defeated, homeless, they’re in foreign lands…
They’re exiled.
The objects of worship in the lands where they now live do not match their faith.
It isn’t the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob who the people worship,
But the gods of their own time and culture.
Their culture is vastly different,
Their values are vastly different…
As we explored just a few weeks ago... exile sounds a bit like today’s world…
The world around us doesn’t care much about God…
It worships the gods of the day – sex, money and power.
It worships at the mall, where a person’s value is determined by what they can spend, rather than by God’s love.
The culture is shifting,
The values of the church no longer impact culture the way they once did,
Out of [the Wilderness]
I think we have to recognize that society has changed pretty dramatically…
And forgive me for sounding a bit “doom and gloom” about it...
The truth is, I don’t exactly feel that way...
I think exile can be a good thing for us...
It calls us to make serious decisions about a faith that can no longer be a casual commitment,
But actually costs something.
Exile is a something that refines impurities out of people,
Because Exile actually has a pretty broad appeal.
Sometimes we mourn what we lose during exile,
But more often, we are tempted by what we can gain...
Because the new land we inhabit is filled with new temptations...
The thing about exile is that it tempts Israel to conform…
And I think if we’re honest, the church conforms to culture far more than we wish it did.
We have a difficult time keeping priorities straight,
And maintaining our witness of Christ to the world…
It’s easier to look like the culture than it is to look like Christ.
Dry Bones
The Israelites look around themselves – Ezekiel looks around – and it’s plain to see that the world, and life as they have known it, has changed.
And the truth is… the reason it has changed has a lot to do with the ways they have compromised themselves.
They were not faithful to God.
They did not long to grow, but longed to live without the demands their faith placed on them...
They wanted to serve themselves and their interests rather than God and God’s interests.
And this morning, some of us find ourselves walking through the same kind of valley Ezekiel was walking through.
We are walking among the dry bones of our lives.
Or the dry bones of a once living faith,
Where there was once life, there is now lifelessness.
Many of us, if we were honest, would have to look at our lives and take an honest look at what is really there.
We would have to admit that where there should be life and victory, there is instead a scattered mess of dry, lifeless bones.
Somewhere along the way, where there was once vibrancy and drive and the fullness of God in our lives,
Now there are dusty, empty bones.
We saw it in the world around us first…
Now we see it in ourselves…
For some of us, those dry bones are a decision we’ve made,
Or maybe an addiction that we struggle with – drugs or alcohol, cigarettes or pornography…
And like the scavengers, vultures and buzzards who picked away at the decaying carcasses of those bodies, the habit is eating away at you.
You have convinced yourself that it does not have control over you, but it is killing you slowly spiritually.
And deep inside, you know that you are walking around in the valley of your defeat.
All around you is the evidence of your helplessness and hopelessness.
Dry Bones
For some of us there may be relationships in our lives that are dry and lifeless bones.
Relationships that should be full of life are now dead because of something said or something done.
Marriages seem to be dry bones, lifeless, dead.
Maybe it’s relationships to family members, to friends, or others in the church, but reconciliation seems impossible.
New life being brought into these relationships seems hopeless.
Instead of life, dead bones are all around.
Some of us have replaced the hope of our lives for the hopelessness of our situations.
Some of us have exchanged dreams for an empty, barren reality…
Some of us have exchanged spiritual vibrancy and the power of Christ in our lives,
For a good deed here or there,
Church attendance,
And keeping up a certain image.
But behind that image – maybe even behind what we can see – are dry bones.
Dry bones are but a sad reminder of what once was…
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