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
0.07UNLIKELY
Disgust
0.07UNLIKELY
Fear
0.08UNLIKELY
Joy
0.64LIKELY
Sadness
0.15UNLIKELY
Language Tone
Analytical
0.68LIKELY
Confident
0UNLIKELY
Tentative
0.07UNLIKELY
Social Tone
Openness
0.59LIKELY
Conscientiousness
0.68LIKELY
Extraversion
0.05UNLIKELY
Agreeableness
0.58LIKELY
Emotional Range
0.63LIKELY
Tone of specific sentences
Tones
Emotion
Language
Social Tendencies
Anger
< .5
.5 - .6
.6 - .7
.7 - .8
.8 - .9
> .9
Hebrews 11:1-2, 11-12
It seems that people today are becoming increasingly aware of their health and employ a variety of lifestyle changes in order to increase their vitality and strength.
From:
Dieting to cycling
Lifting weights to running on tread mills
Eating organic foods to various stretches
And to be honest, it’s not that difficult to increase your physical strength.
With a little discipline and work you can become a stronger person.
I hope that you are eating and living healthy so that your physical strength increases.
But what are you doing to increase your spiritual strength?
Last week we studied Abraham’s faith to obey God and to trust Him without understanding.
Today we are introduced to Abraham’s wife, Sarah.
Sarah had received the same promise that Abraham did—they would be blessed with a son in their old age.
Now, understand the situation.
Abraham was operating by faith to receive the promise of God—but it would be Sarah who would physically labor and work for that!
Sarah would be required to conceive, bear, and deliver a child as the ninety-year-old wife of Abraham!
Sarah was going to need an unbelievable amount of strength from someplace other than herself in order to see this one through.
Fortunately, where God guides He provides!
How about you—are you operating spiritually in the strength of the Lord?
Are you holding back in your Christian life because you lack strength?
Do you rely on your strength to supply victory?
How do we experience the power of God at work in our lives?
God’s power is available, but it is available to those who will “wait upon the Lord” through faith!
Notice now the progression of a life filled with the strength and power of God.
I. Natural Strength
vs. 11
Mankind was originally created with the strength and power needed to live lives pleasing to God.
Man was not corrupted
Man was not weak
Man did not have a depraved flesh
Man did not suffer under continual temptation
Man was created perfect.
But somewhere along the line the original strength that God intended us to have was depleted from our life.
A. Unstable
“When she was past age”
One thing that you cannot do is go back in time and recapture years that have expired.
Sarah was past the age of bearing children.
One thing we cannot do is go back and recapture the spiritual strength lost in the fall of man.
In ourselves we fail to have the strength to live and obey.
Adam and Eve were created perfect.
God had supplied them with all of the strength that they would ever need.
They walked with God and they talked with God every day.
But one day they failed.
That day our spiritual strength was depleted.
Mankind failed to secure the power of God.
B. Untrustworthy
Without God’s power, where does man turn to for strength?
Unfortunately he has turned to his own flesh.
Could Sarah have done anything to change her situation?
Absolutely not!
She needed to rely on the Lord.
Her body was old, used, and wearied with life.
She could not trust her own flesh—neither can you!
Paul told the Romans:
Our weakness comes as a result of living in the flesh—being fleshly creatures.
A young man filled out an application for admission to a university.
In response to a request to “List your Personal Strengths,” he wrote, “Sometimes I am trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean and reverent.”
Where the form said, “List Your Weaknesses,” he wrote: “Sometimes I am not trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean and reverent.”
None of us are perfect!
Do not trust your own flesh.
II.
Supernatural Strength
vs. 11
Sarah was not alone—God was with her.
She waited on God and received the strength that she needed to fulfill her duties to God.
Since we have the power of God living within us in the Person of the Holy Spirit, we can receive miraculous strength from God.
But how is this strength received?
Through Faith!
Unbelief asks, “How can this be?” while faith asks, “How shall this be?”
God delights in strengthening His children!
A. Only When Weak
As long as you believe that you have the strength in yourself for success and faithfulness in life, you will not receive the strength that God has to supply.
But when you come to the end of your feeble strength and cry out to God in need, God will meet your needs and supply your life with the omnipotent strength only available from Heaven.
Joseph was a good son.
Joseph had a dream, a God given dream.
But before his dream could be realized in his life, God had to weaken the man for the enduement of His power.
Many others whom God used in miraculous ways and who had experienced the miraculous power of God in their lives had to first be brought down low in order to be just frail enough to be supplied with the power of God.
Moses
Job
Paul
David
Sometimes your biggest weakness can become your biggest strength.
Take, for example, the story of one ten-year-old boy who decided to study judo despite the fact that he had lost his left arm in a devastating car accident.
The boy began lessons with an old Japanese judo master.
The boy was doing well, so he couldn’t understand why, after three months of training, the master had taught him only one move.
“Sensei,” the boy finally said, “shouldn’t I be learning more moves?”
“This is the only move you know, but this is the only move you’ll ever need to know,” the sensei replied.
Not quite understanding, but believing in his teacher, the boy kept training.
Several months later, the sensei took the boy to his first tournament.
Surprising himself, the boy easily won his first two matches.
The third match proved to be more difficult, but after some time, his opponent became impatient and charged; the boy deftly used his one move to win the match.
Still amazed by his success, the boy was now in the finals.
This time, his opponent was bigger, stronger, and more experienced.
For a while, the boy appeared to be overmatched.
Concerned that the boy might get hurt, the referee called a time-out.
He was about to stop the match when the sensei intervened.
“No,” the sensei insisted, “let him continue.”
Soon after the match resumed, his opponent made a critical mistake: he dropped his guard.
Instantly, the boy used his move to pin him.
The boy had won the match and the tournament.
< .5
.5 - .6
.6 - .7
.7 - .8
.8 - .9
> .9