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
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Disgust
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Fear
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Joy
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Sadness
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Language Tone
Analytical
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Confident
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Tentative
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Social Tone
Openness
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Conscientiousness
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Extraversion
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Agreeableness
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Emotional Range
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Tone of specific sentences
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Emotion
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Anger
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Good Morning.
I am glad we can be here together.
Hello, My name is…Andy Richmond.
I am the Pastor at Sylvania Wesleyan Church.
That is probably the most common way I will introduce myself.
Sounds pretty normal right.
Let me ask you a question.
Have you ever though about how you introduce yourself?
The introduction is very important for us in society.
It is the first impression that people get about you.
It is interesting that this has changed a lot over the last 20 years.
Introducing yourself
I remember back in High school in my civics class that was required to take in your senior year.
This was a class designed to help prepare you for the “real” world.
Yes, they taught us how to balance a check book.
They taught us about resumes.
They taught us how to introduce our selves.
I remember we had one class on our hand shake.
How the handshake can tell you a lot about a person.
I have to say a lot of these things still hold true but there has been a lot that has changed.
People today face a whole new set of challenges.
This is mostly because our world exists online.
Just the other day I saw a commercial for managing your online profile because employers are looking.
For many people you introduce yourself before you even meet people.
When I was working at Academy one of the other Managers did this on a regular basis.
She would facebook “stalk” incoming interviews.
She said it would give her insight into who they were.
If she saw someone posting lots of pictures of partying she would approach the interview differently than if she saw more “normal” posts.
I always found this to be interesting because if I am honest it rarely played out as making any difference.
Yet, it influenced how she approached her interviews.
I stuck with the more time tested approach of being on time or early.
The strong handshake.
Their presentation of themselves and other factors.
It was retail though and no matter how good you think you are at finding people the truth is that a lot of it is luck.
Retail is a tough job and it is not everyone’s cup of tea.
I learned a lot though about how to interact with people.
I realized that a lot has changed.
For Paul when he would write a letter he had to start off in certian ways.
Often in his letters he would start off with very similar introductions.
A Reminder of who he was and Thanksgiving
This was pretty normal for Paul.
Here is who i am and I am thankful for who you are.
This morning i want to look at one introduction of Paul’s in 1 Corinthians chapter 1.
This introduction is important because if you know anything about the Church of Corinth you will know that it was a church in turmoil.
Paul was writing to them with some strong rebukes and corrections.
This is why his introduction is even more important because it will help set the tone for the letter.
Paul’s Greeting
Paul identifies himself as an apostle.
Now many of us if we have spent time in church and listened to preachers or we have studied the Bible we don’t find this surprising.
After all an Apostle is one who is sent with the Authority of Jesus to share the message of the Gospel.
An aspect of being an apostle is not just the authority but it is a calling that implies an element of care and investment in the community they are going to.
In short Paul cares about the Corinthians.
He is reminding them that he came to share the good news with them.
He is writting to remind them that the have been sanctified.
This is not something that was done in only the past but is a continuing action.
That they are called to be living our holiness in their lives.
Grace and Peace
Paul also greets them with Grace and peace.
Sounds like a very formalized and normal greeting you might expect to hear from someone who is an apostle.
The problem is that when we hear what we think are common sayings we sometimes forget that there are deeper meanings or intentions.
Think of everyone who passes by and says “How are you?”
Most of us just simply respond “ok” or “Fine”
Yet, every now and then we encounter someone we know really wants to know how you are doing.
We know this because we either know the person or we can hear it in their voice.
Paul is trying to share with them a genuine statement of Grace and peace because he does care about this church and the people of this church.
He wants to remind them of the grace of God that we all don’t deserve and that we have come to peace with God because of Jesus Christ.
Paul’s greetings can be easy to overlook but we must always remember that they are personal.
Paul’s Tone
One of the reasons that we can reflect on that is that Paul often would dictate his leters.
His letters were not just him writing but him dictating.
This brings in an element of tone and inflection to the writings.
The writer does their best to impart that but spoken to written language always struggles a little.
To give you a comparison.
Have you ever heard it in a preachers voice when they get passionate or emotional in a sermon.
We all have.
I am guilty of it.
Let me ask you than.
How do you write that emotion into a sermon?
I don’t write on my notes.
Add passion here.
or Insert tears at this moment.
We need to remember that when we read these letters we need to think about how is Paul speaking to these people.
What tone or inflection might be in his voice.
Imagine if Paul spoke this like this.
(read straight face and monotone)
or like this
(put some emotion in it)
Whoops i just realized i wrote a reminder to change my inflection and emotion.
It is after this greeting we see that Paul moves to a time of thanksgiving.
A time to remind the Corinthians that he does care and he values them and he wants God to bless them.
Jesus Christ our Source of Grace
Do you think Jesus is important to Paul?
To help you see it.
In the first three verses he mentions him 4 times.
In the last 5 verses he mentions him 5 times.
Paul is reminding them that Christ is the sources of the grace in our lives.
That it is through him that we are able to receive the gift of grace and be reconciled to God.
Thank God for that as Paul reminds them.
I want to really focus in on two verses though.
Have you ever thought about why we practice our faith the way we do?
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