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
0.08UNLIKELY
Disgust
0.1UNLIKELY
Fear
0.14UNLIKELY
Joy
0.64LIKELY
Sadness
0.51LIKELY
Language Tone
Analytical
0.58LIKELY
Confident
0UNLIKELY
Tentative
0.51LIKELY
Social Tone
Openness
0.8LIKELY
Conscientiousness
0.87LIKELY
Extraversion
0.44UNLIKELY
Agreeableness
0.99LIKELY
Emotional Range
0.59LIKELY
Tone of specific sentences
Tones
Emotion
Language
Social Tendencies
Anger
< .5
.5 - .6
.6 - .7
.7 - .8
.8 - .9
> .9
Good morning and welcome to another week at Syvlania Wesleyan Church.
I am so glad that we can be here together this morning.
As you can see we are talking about comfort this morning.
Now i know that that means for many of us.
Comfort reminds me of my couch or recliner in the house.
Think about that for a moment.
When we here the word comfort we think of relaxation.
Being able to sit down is important for us in the church.
Did you know that the Pew or row of chairs for some churches are a relatively new invention.
Now I know what you might be thinking.
Pastor Andy Chairs aren’t new.
You are right.
However, the idea of sitting at church in a row is comparative to the life of the church.
It wasn’t till the Reformation that Pews started to become more popular.
Now i know that it has been about 500 years since the reformation but the pews of early days aren’t like what you are sitting on right now.
Pews early on would only be along the walls of a church.
In fact if you needed to go sit on a pew there was a saying for you.
The Weak Go to the Wall
Only the weak were the ones who would go sit on a pew.
Over time though the Reformation sparked the movement of people wanting to sit while they listened to the preacher.
In all honesty this was a result of the rejection of the liturgy of the Catholic church.
Earlier church services would involve a lot of standing and kneeling and movement in worship.
Than we removed almost all of that but the sermon.
We all know even us preachers that we need to be able to sit while we listen.
How else are we expected to get a short nap every Sunday morning.
Uh oh.
The Pastor said the quiet part out loud.
I know who you are.
I see you.
Now that you are all awake.
Another fun fact about Pews is that early views of them were like luxury boxes of our modern day stadium.
Wealthy people would have them built to house their family.
They would pay for them to be built and to have them in the church.
They were mostly enclosed.
Church pew photo
Notice who could see in that pew.
Only the Preacher and the balcony.
Personally i wonder sometimes if the pastors choice to raise the pulpit or lectern up like that was to help them be able to keep their people accountable.
Now i will also admit that this would have made it easier as a parent with young children.
Now days if you aren’t careful you kid can start crawling under the pews and they are gone.
You look down and all of the sudden your kids on the other side of the church.
Not that i would have ever done that as a kid.
Pews were built for people to be more comfortable though in church.
To sit.
over the years the comfort has increased.
Instead of being straight backed benches we started to recline and ad some angle to the pew.
Than we decided that straight no padding benches weren’t comfortable so we added some padding.
We increased leg room.
Praise Jesus.
I have been to churches that were built and installed their pews when the average height in this country was much lower Needless to say my knees hurt afterwards form them hitting the bench in front of me.
The point is that when we think of comfort we are thinking about our enjoyment or relaxation.
This morning that isn’t the comfort we are talking about.
Instead we are speaking about a much different kind of comfort.
To help us see that we are going to read two stories about Christmas right now.
WE will be in the first chapter of Matthew and of Luke this morning.
For Matthew v. 18-25 and Luke v. 26-38.
Turn with me to Matthew first and than we will move to luke right after it.
and turn Luke chapter 1
Mary and Joseph
Now many of us have heard this story every year of our life for most of our lives.
This is an important story in the life of the church because it talks about how Jesus came into this world.
This is the story of the incarnation.
This is the story of the Virgin birth.
Now I could go into a deep theological discussion right now one why that is so important that we recognize the movement of God and how the incarnation of Jesus is essential to our faith based on these stories.
That, would not be a waste of our time.
However, i don’t want the comfort of those pews to lead you to that nap i was talking about earlier.
Instead something else stood out to me about this passage.
Take a moment.
If your a guy i need you to put yourself in Joseph’s shoes.
Your engaged to this girl named Mary.
You just found out she is pregnant and you aren’t married yet.
We all know what that means.
You don’t want to shame her because you want to show her some mercy and grace.
What do you do?
Now, Ladies.
Put yourself in Mary’s shoes for a moment.
God sends an Angel to you and says he guess what you are special.
You look at the Angel and say, “Tell me something i don’t know”
No, you look at the angel and say what are you talking about.
You are so special you are going to give birth to the Messiah.
Oh and you are going to do this as a virgin.
Your response is of course, “umm how is that going to work”.
No, instead you say you are willing and follow the instruction of God.
Now I know i am trying to bring some humor into the situation but really put yourself in their shoes for a moment.
I don’t know about you but now matter if your Mary or Joseph I would probably be freaking out a little bit.
I don’t think I would be calm and collected.
I think i would have a little bit of panic in my mind.
Needless to say.
I wouldn’t be comfortable.
Yet, they both had their moments of doubt and/or concern.
Joseph was going to divorce Mary.
Mary was troubled by what the angel told her.
Neither of these two were certain about the future.
Joseph’s Discomfort
Joseph was faced with a difficult choice.
He was faced with the reality that the person he was married to was pregnant and it wasn’t his child.
Now what often gets left out of this story is he found out about this before he knew that the child was the will of God.
He was completely ignorant to what God was doing.
Which is why he was thinking of breaking it off.
Yet, he didn’t want to disgrace Mary.
< .5
.5 - .6
.6 - .7
.7 - .8
.8 - .9
> .9