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
0.14UNLIKELY
Disgust
0.08UNLIKELY
Fear
0.09UNLIKELY
Joy
0.69LIKELY
Sadness
0.46UNLIKELY
Language Tone
Analytical
0.66LIKELY
Confident
0UNLIKELY
Tentative
0.17UNLIKELY
Social Tone
Openness
0.87LIKELY
Conscientiousness
0.87LIKELY
Extraversion
0.42UNLIKELY
Agreeableness
0.66LIKELY
Emotional Range
0.71LIKELY

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
Introduction
A couple of weeks ago, one of my students in Christian Student Fellowship told me about something that happened in her Women’s Studies class.
The instructor told the students to move to one side of the room if they supported so-called “traditional” marriage (one man and one woman for life), and the other side of the room if they believed that “marriage” could be defined however people wanted (whatever number and combination of “gender identities” people wanted.)
Our CSF student and one other student were the only ones who stood on the side of the room for God’s commands regarding marriage.
Each side of the room was then instructed to present their case to the other side of the room.
The CSF student went on to relate that the “Anything Goes” side was flabbergasted that she and her friend were standing on the other side of the room.
They asked her, “How can you possibly believe that??”
She simply answered, “Because the Bible tells me that is God’s definition of marriage, and I believe and obey the Bible!” (I was SO proud of her!!”)
It’s one of the reasons I’m profoundly grateful that God has made it possible for Christian Student Fellowship to be present on campus for the past 13 years—because students who are believers have to live in that kind of atmosphere day-by-day in their classrooms, in campus activities insisting they affirm and celebrate rebellion against God’s commandments, living with roommates who not only don’t share their convictions but are sometimes actively hostile to them.
They need a place like CSF where they can be encouraged and strengthened and equipped to live in such a hostile environment.
And you have to live in this world too, don’t you?
It’s not just on college campuses where believers have to live in a world hostile to their faith—you and I navigate on a daily basis a world that runs on hatred and envy and spite and “cancel culture”, a world that despises any idea of submission to what it sees as a bigoted and outdated morality of the past, a world that belittles any genuine allegiance to Jesus Christ.
Here in our text this morning, John is continuing his teaching on the role of Holy Spirit-generated love in the life of a believer—he uses the word “love” 31 times between 1 John 4:7-5:5!
We have seen that love is the indispensable mark of the Christian, that love is the indelible assurance of the Christian’s salvation, and today we will see that
Loving God SUPREMELY produces an OVERCOMING faith that the WORLD cannot OVERWHELM
1 John 5:4 tells us
1 John 5:4 (ESV)
For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world.
And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith.
And what I aim for you to see from God’s Word this morning is that this overcoming faith—faith that the world cannot overwhelm—is grounded and formed and nourished by an invincible love found in the Spirit of God that dwells in every believer.
In the first verse of Chapter 5, John shows us that the love of God in us produces a faith that will
I.
Overcome the world’s DIVISIVENESS with others (1 John 5:1)
This world, by its very nature, is divisive.
This world runs on envy, jealousy, bitterness and rivalry.
This is particularly evident in what has come to be known as “cancel culture”—
The World: Imperfect ALLEGIANCE gets you CANCELLED
If you don’t completely and utterly conform in every last respect with the prevailing sensibilities of the world, you will be cast out, shunned, and silenced.
And because the spirit of this world is set completely against Christ, it is necessarily a spirit utterly devoid of any kind of grace.
You don’t have to look any further than the way Hollywood treats its own movie stars.
According to a recent MSN article Matt Damon, one of the most consistently liberal and progressive actors in Hollywood today, caused a great deal of consternation and was threatened with being “cancelled” because he only recently stopped using a particular word considered a gay slur.
No matter how perfectly he “checked all the liberal boxes” in his progressive orthodoxy, just one step out of line is worthy of being cast out of polite society.
(https://www.msn.com/en-us/tv/news/how-a-reality-show-almost-got-matt-damon-canceled/ar-AAVskfn)
This is the way the spirit of antichrist that governs this world works—imperfect allegiance gets you cancelled.
But what does John say in the first verse of Chapter 5? For the believer
The Believer: Common LOVE means you BELONG
Look at verse 1:
1 John 5:1 (ESV)
Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the Father loves whoever has been born of him.
The world expects us to divide over everything—gender roles, economic disparity, educational differences, political ideologies, masks and vaccines—the list goes on.
But John says here that the love that we have in God overcomes all of those divisions!
“Everyone who loves the Father loves whoever has been born of Him!” Instead of the world outside that insists you have to perfectly conform in every last way before you will be accepted, the love born in you by the New Birth in Christ means that if all you have in common with another person is Jesus, that is enough!
If you confess Jesus Christ as your Savior, you are born of God.
And if you love God as your Father through Jesus Christ, then you love everyone who has been born of God through Jesus!
There are no divisions that this world can come up with that can overwhelm the love you have for God’s people!
Race doesn’t matter, politics doesn’t matter, wealth doesn’t matter—none of the ways the world tries to tear you away from each other can overcome the overcoming faith born of the love of God revealed in you through His Spirit dwelling in you!
Loving God supremely produces an overcoming faith that this world cannot overwhelm.
It is a faith that overcomes this world’s divisiveness, and it is faith that will
II.
Overcome the world’s DISOBEDIENCE to God (1 John 5:2-3)
Look at verses 2-3:
1 John 5:2–3 (ESV)
By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments.
For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments.
And his commandments are not burdensome.
The word “burdensome” can also be translated “heavy”, or “weighty” or oppressive, to use one of our generation’s buzzwords.
To the world around us,
The World: God’s commands are OPPRESSIVE (Psalm 53:1-3)
This is the way God’s standards for marriage (for instance) are described in places like that Women’s Studies class our student is in.
The notion of one man and one woman married for life and producing children is considered monstrously unfair, unjust, oppressive (and very probably illegal somehow).
What it all comes down to is that the world around us hates the idea that there is a God Who has created them and therefore has the right to govern their lives.
The deal that Adam and Eve struck with the Serpent in the Garden, after all, was that they would be like God, deciding for themselves what was good and evil.
And right down to this day, the world around us hates the notion that they can be told by God what to do:
Psalm 53:1–3 (ESV)
The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.”
They are corrupt, doing abominable iniquity; there is none who does good.
God looks down from heaven on the children of man to see if there are any who understand, who seek after God.
They have all fallen away; together they have become corrupt; there is none who does good, not even one.
And Christian, you have to live in this world that is constantly pulling away from obedience to God, that is continually working to undermine His statutes and call His authority into question.
And not only do you have to live in this world, but you have to bring up children in this world.
How do you protect them from succumbing to the gale-force winds of disobedience in this world?
Look again at verse 3:
1 John 5:3 (ESV)
For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments.
And his commandments are not burdensome.
See here that obedience to God is entwined together with love for God.Another way of saying this is that believers don’t just obey God’s commands, they love God’s commands!
To the world, God’s standards are oppressive, but to the believer,
The Believer: God’s standards are BLESSINGS (Psalm 119:47, 127, 143)
The Psalmist says this over and over in Psalm 119:
Psalm 119:127 (ESV)
Therefore I love your commandments above gold, above fine gold.
Psalm 119:143 (ESV)
Trouble and anguish have found me out, but your commandments are my delight.
Psalm 119:47 (ESV)
for I find my delight in your commandments, which I love.
It is hard to overemphasize how crucial it is to understand that we must not just obey the standards, but we must love the standards!
Far too many Christian parents focus only on compliance, on making sure their children obey God’s Word.
And then, after eighteen years of Ten Commandments Boot Camp, they are flabbergasted as to why their kids immediately go off the rails as soon as they get out from under their roof.
They made God’s commands ugly, and it chased their kids away.
But love for God—love for His commandments—produces an overcoming faith that the world cannot overwhelm.
When that student stood facing most of the rest of her class and was called to give an account of why she supported “traditional” marriage, her answer wasn’t because she was afraid some religious authority would find out what she said, she wasn’t afraid that a vengeful God would strike her dead if she didn’t say the right thing.
No—her answer was borne out of her love for God and His Word!
Decades after this book was written, one of John’s disciples (a man by the name of Polycarp) would stand trial for his faith.
According to an eyewitness to his death, the Roman proconsul conducting the trial offered to set him free:
“Swear,” urged the Proconsul, “reproach Christ, and I will set you free.”
“86 years have I have served him,” Polycarp declared, “and he has done me no wrong.
How can I blaspheme my King and my Savior?” (Retrieved from https://christianhistoryinstitute.org/study/module/polycarp/, accessed 3/25/2022)
When you love God and His commands, obedience to His commands is not burdensome, but a blessing—even if means obedience unto death!
Loving God supremely produces an overcoming faith that the world cannot overwhelm.
It will overcome the world’s divisiveness with each other, it will overcome the world’s disobedience to God, and it will
< .5
.5 - .6
.6 - .7
.7 - .8
.8 - .9
> .9