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
0.09UNLIKELY
Disgust
0.08UNLIKELY
Fear
0.17UNLIKELY
Joy
0.59LIKELY
Sadness
0.61LIKELY
Language Tone
Analytical
0.28UNLIKELY
Confident
0UNLIKELY
Tentative
0.62LIKELY
Social Tone
Openness
0.66LIKELY
Conscientiousness
0.85LIKELY
Extraversion
0.12UNLIKELY
Agreeableness
0.92LIKELY
Emotional Range
0.57LIKELY
Tone of specific sentences
Tones
Emotion
Language
Social Tendencies
Anger
< .5
.5 - .6
.6 - .7
.7 - .8
.8 - .9
> .9
Are you empty this morning?
Does it feel like things are empty?
I want to suggest this morning that empty might just be right where God needs you to be.
The problem with empty is that we feel like we need to fill it.
Let me say that again…the problem with empty is that we feel like WE need to fill it.
If there is silence, we must say something.
If we don’t have something on our calendar, we need to schedule something.
I think there are times that we miss a blessing because we take matters into our own hands and don’t allow the space for us to hear what the Spirit of God is trying to tell us.
Before we get to the meat of the message today, I want to read two passages of scripture.
Hopefully these will encourage you not to feel despair in what feels like a time of empty.
The first is from Luke 5. Jesus is starting his time of ministry and has not called the disciples yet.
At the end of Luke 4, Jesus heals Simon Peter’s mother-in-law and many others.
Word was getting out about Jesus and what is was able to do and what he was teaching.
People began to follow him around to see what he would do next...
Jesus takes the empty nets of Simon Peter and fills them to over flowing.
They had fished all night unsuccessfully and in the morning the take the time to listen to Jesus.
He then tells them to take their empty nets and cast them again.
Logic tells us that repeating the same action gets the same result, but with Jesus the result is different.
An empty net becomes a full net.
So full in fact that the nets could not contain the catch.
Such is the work of God.
You would think that this turnaround in business would prompt the fishermen to double down on their business, but they recognized a greater opportunity to follow Jesus.
They left it all.
They worked all night to fill the nets.
Jesus made it happen in one cast.
Then they left it all behind to follow Jesus.
Turn with me now to John 21.
This is after the resurrection.
They had already had an encounter with the risen Jesus, but they were still in limbo…I imagine there were wondering what would happen next.
I love that Jesus took some of the same men all the way back to the beginning of their time together.
Took them all the way back and did the very same thing for them again.
Empty nets.
Jesus even asked if they had any fish, just so they could verbalize that they had caught nothing.
Then he tells them to cast again on the right side and that they’d find some.
Haha…find SOME they did.
Once again, empty nets become full and they all realize they have just had another encounter with the Son of God.
Empty might be just where God needs you to be.
How else are you going to recognize a move of the Lord in your life?
If they had caught fish either time, do you think they would have even had the need to cast again?
Sometimes we need to be in a state of emptiness so the Lord can prompt us…how full are you?
Lord, I’m empty.
Then he can tell us where to cast that we might be full.
Turn with me to Acts 1.
The book of acts picks up the events after the resurrection and chronicles the formation of the church.
The book of Acts then tells us how the church spread from a meeting of the disciples in an upstairs room to the rest of the world.
The spread of the church would not have been possible without the filling of the Holy Spirit.
Jesus told us in John 16:
If Jesus sticks around, the Holy Spirit would not come.
So he had to go.
In verse 9 of Acts 1, he goes.
He ascends while the disciples watch.
After that, I imagine they weren’t sure what to do.
What they did though, positioned them to be able to receive the filling of the Holy Spirit they didn’t even know they needed.
Let’s read in verse 12:
They gather together and prayed.
Constantly.
If you are in a position where you feel empty, pray, constantly.
And don’t do it alone.
Bring along those you trust the most.
I think sometimes when we hear the word prayer, we think we have to do all the talking.
In effect, we say “Your servant is here Lord, listen to me speak.”
I imagine the joining together in prayer in the upstairs room had more listening than talking.
They were saying: “Your servants are here Lord, speak.”
What would it look like if we spent more time listening than talking when we pray?
I think there is benefits in listening over talking in our daily lives, but that’s another sermon for another time.
When we pray, are we just looking for God to do something, or are we also looking for Him to show us something?
To tell us something...
If you are feeling empty, be encouraged, you are likely right where God wants you.
Take the example of the disciples and pray.
Constantly.
After the resurrection and ascension of Jesus, this is what they did.
They prayed - constantly.
God then led them to fill the leadership role vacated by Judas.
Then Acts 2...
Jesus dies and is buried.
He rises on the third day and spends 40 days with the disciples (Acts 1:3) and the ascends to heaven.
Ten days later at Pentecost, the Holy Spirit fills the disciples.
For 10 days, the disciples pray.
They are together and they pray constantly.
Are you feeling empty?
Pray and wait.
Then as Acts 2:2 says Suddenly something is going to happen.
It happened suddenly when they were fishing.
The very next cast after Jesus provided direction suddenly filled their nets.
After 10 days of constant time together in prayer, suddenly the Holy Spirit filled them.
From empty to filled…suddenly.
The moment they were filled, they were now equipped to go and do what Jesus told them to do earlier in Acts:
Without the filling of the Holy Spirit, they could not and would not fulfill this command.
But in order for them to be filled, they had to be empty first.
They emptied themselves out in prayer.
In their time of greatest emptiness, the Holy Spirit came and filled them.
Sheri Dursin wrote this prayer of emptying.
Lord, I bring to you all that is on my plate.
The noise, the clutter, the chaos, and the distractions.
Help me to empty myself so that I may see you, hear you, and feel your presence.
Loving God, may your Spirit come to move my life.
< .5
.5 - .6
.6 - .7
.7 - .8
.8 - .9
> .9