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Don’t Worry—You & Your Treasure Are Secure
10.23.22 [Luke 12:22-34] River of Life (20th Sunday after Pentecost)
Heavenly Father, the grass withers and the flowers fall.
Open our eyes to see the wonderful things you have done for us and are preparing for us in your eternal Word.
Amen.
Why do you worry?
It’s a simple question with a laundry list of answers.
There are many things that make us worry.
Some of the things that cause us to worry are very personal—they don’t trouble other people.
There are some things that make us worry that we keep very private—only a select circle of people are even aware of our troubles.
But there are worries that are common to us all.
We worry about our friends and family members.
We worry about our careers, health, & finances.
We worry about the state of our community, country, & world.
We may worry about our church and ourselves.
We worry about things like making a good first impression or being liked.
We worry about maintaining a good reputation or not disappointing people.
We worry about inanimate objects like homes & cars & other things.
We even stress out about things we have no real control over, like the economy and elections.
We fret about future and our legacies.
You may not worry about all those things, but most of your worries fall into those buckets.
There are also some things you worry about that I didn’t even mention.
We worry much.
Too much.
To make matters worse, we also worry about worrying.
We know it’s not good for us to worry.
It hampers our productivity and often leads to procrastination, which then makes us worry even more.
Worry puts a strain on our most important relationships, too.
When we are saturated with worries, we are miserable to be around.
Worry damages us.
Worry weakens our hearts.
It robs us of focus.
It steals away much needed sleep.
Worry makes us more prone to getting sick.
Worry helps nothing.
But we still do worry.
We still worry and we worry we will never stop worrying.
Sometimes, when we are overly worried people will compare our list of worries with the lists of those we think of as less fortunate.
Suddenly we have a sober and unflattering view of how whiney we look and sound.
Luke 12 does give us some wider & better perspective on all the blessings we take for granted and all the things we don’t have to worry about.
These disciples had hand-to-mouth worries.
They worried about basic things like (Lk.
12:22) what they would eat and… wear.
They had just enough to live on.
So they lived in this precarious position that something might happen and suddenly they didn’t have enough to survive.
You did not go to bed last night wondering if you would have anything to eat today.
You may worry about what to eat, but your trouble is a matter of preference and diet not survival.
You did not go to bed last night with concerns about your clothes for this morning.
You may have woken up and hemmed and hawed over what to wear, but your trouble was having too many options, not none.
We are so blessed that we don’t worry about these things.
Thanks be to God for giving us daily bread!
But the fact that Jesus tells people who did worry about such things, not to worry ought to make a deep impression upon us.
Those are very basic needs.
What we worry about—more often than not—are niceties, not needs.
Our worries seem greedy and piggish by comparison.
But comparing our list of worries with a list of those less fortunate will not bring our worrying to a halt anymore than telling a kid who doesn’t want to eat their dinner that there are starving children in Africa.
Worry and anxiety and stress strike at different levels, but no one eludes them.
We all worry.
Some more than others.
Some about more important things than others.
But we all struggle with worry.
So what should we do?
We tend to have four approaches to our worries: the grasshopper & the ant, the turtle & the owl.
You know Aesop’s fable about the grasshopper and the ant.
The grasshopper spends the summer making music; the ant works diligently to gather enough food for the winter.
Sometimes, we approach our worries like the grasshopper.
We look for amusing diversions to distract us from what we are worried about.
We try to escape and find some slice of serenity by being entertained.
But having a lot of fun doesn’t mean that we don’t still have a lot to worry about.
Other times, we pour ourselves into attacking our worries.
If we’re worried about our finances, we pinch every penny & we take every extra shift.
Worry can make us work hard.
But hard work doesn’t make us worry less.
Ironically, it can be the ant-types that worry more than the grasshoppers, even though they seem to be better prepared for the hard times.
The final two approaches are the turtle and the owl.
When worry comes the turtle’s way, he curls into his shell.
He withdraws and just hopes the thing he was worried about misses him.
The owl takes a more intellectual approach.
The owl analyzes his worries and looks for a scientific solution.
Do you ever approach worry like those two creatures?
Sometimes, like the turtle, we just try to hide from whatever we are worried about.
We withdraw from our friends and family, we hide from as many responsibilities as we can.
But then we are all alone with our worries.
Maybe, we approach our worries like the owl.
We seek out help, which is a very wise thing to do.
But where you find help is crucial.
The solutions our modern world offers are deficient because they don’t recognize how deep the problem of worry really runs.
Psychiatrists say that the problem is a chemical imbalance and prescribe an anti-depressant.
Psychologists say that the problem is your thought patterns.
They'll suggest ways to identify & manage stress and anxiety.
They teach you how to live with your worries.
Here’s the problem.
You are more than your physiological flesh.
You’re more than just a vial of chemicals that needs to be correctly balanced.
You are also more than a cognitive machine.
Teaching you how to identify and manage stress still leaves you living with worries.
The solution to be weighed down with worries is not to live carelessly like the grasshopper, or work tirelessly like the ant, or hide like the turtle, or rely upon human wisdom like the owl.
The solution to being weighed down by our cares is to be certain that you are cared for by a powerful, wise, and loving Father who is pleased to provide for your whole self, heart & mind, body & soul.
So don’t fret, because God is faithful.
Don’t panic, God is compassionate.
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