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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Anger
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[INTRODUCTION]
Have you ever been really confident about something you though was true, but then had your whole world flipped upside down when you found out you were wrong?
Did you discover a rumor you had been spreading was completely made up?
Learned something that disproved what yo used to think was true?
Realized someone you though you couldn’t stand was actually really great?
Has new information ever flipped your perspective upside down?
I’ve had my perspective flipped by new information quite a few times - like this one time Ruthie and I were at a resale shop.
I saw this iPhone case in a display case, I asked the person working their if I could look at it.
She opened the case and handed it to me, I turned it over and the cost of the case was $400.
[ILLUSTRATION]
Vinyl records are part of an era none of us line in any more, but a whole bunch of us still appreciate.
People collect records, play records, decorate with records, and love that scratchy earthy sound you can only get from a record player’s needle hitting the vinyl.
Maybe the biggest difference between this vinyl record and your favorite Spotify playlist is when you’re halfway through, you have to flip it.
Sure, you could decide to only play one side of the album.
It would work just fine, but you’d be missing out on half of the music!
If you want to hear the whole thing, you’ve got to flip it.
Meeting and learning from Jesus is a little bit like this vinyl record.
There will be times we think our understanding, beliefs, and perspectives are the whole picture.
We’ll believe we’ve got things figured out.
We’’ feel pretty confident in our judgments about God, ourselves, or others.
But when Jesus shows up, he tends to flip everything upside down and show us there’s a whole new perspective we’ve never considered before!
With Jesus, we finally get the whole picture.
Through him, our wrong assumptions get flipped upside down and finally made right.
When Jesus was here on earth, he spent a lot of time correcting people’s incorrect beliefs about God, themselves, and each other.
At that time, a lot of people were under the assumption God favored people who followed every religious rule, seemed really holy, and had it all together.
But in Jesus’ famous Sermon on the Mount, he flipped all of that upside down.
Matthew 5:1–12 (CSB)
When he saw the crowds, he went up on the mountain, and after he sat down, his disciples came to him.
Then he began to teach them, saying:
“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for the kingdom of heaven is theirs.
Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
Blessed are the humble, for they will inherit the earth.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.
Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God.
Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for the kingdom of heaven is theirs.
“You are blessed when they insult you and persecute you and falsely say every kind of evil against you because of me.
Be glad and rejoice, because your reward is great in heaven.
For that is how they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
Jesus wasn’t exactly known for telling people what they wanted to hear.
He flipped people’s ideas about God, the world, and themselves completely upside down, usually in uncomfortable ways.
This time, Jesus flipped people’s assumptions about who mattered most to God.
Some of the people Jesus was speaking to believed God valued people who were the most religious.
But Jesus said having things like power, status, and fame don’t get you any bonus points or special treatment with God.
According to Jesus, the people who are the most “blessed” in God’s kingdom are people who have known poverty, who are grieving, who are gently and king, or who are suffering.
Because God values the people the world often doesn’t.
I wonder how this news from Jesus would have been received differently by the different kinds of people who were within earshot.
For the people listening who had often been overlooked and undervalued, this was probably really good news.
They likely had been told (and believed) they were less deserving of love, care, and attention than others were.
But now Jesus was flipping their view of themselves upside down.
According to Jesus, they were loved, cared for, seen, and deeply valued by God.
But for the people listening who were religious leaders, powerful, or wealthy, Jesus’ words may have seemed like bad news.
After all, if you’ve always seen yourself as better and more valuable than others, you don’t want to be told you’ve had it all wrong.
Jesus’ message was for everyone who showed up in the crowd that day and for everyone who would hear this story later, like us.
To all of us, Jesus makes this clear: God sees and values people who are often overlooked.
[TRANSITION]
There’s a passage in the book of Micah about another time God’s people got this wrong.
Many years before Jesus was born, people tried to make themselves seem more valuable to God by doing a lot of religious things.
At the same time, they began treating others as not-so-valuable.
These people followed God’s laws, sang worship songs, and made offerings to God, but they sort of lost track of the point.
They cared so much about earning God’s love they forgot to love the people God values.
In response, God sent the prophet Micah to deliver a message.
Micah 6:8 (CSB)
Mankind, he has told each of you what is good
and what it is the Lord requires of you:
to act justly,
to love faithfulness,
and to walk humbly with your God.
Micah’s message was a strong criticism of anyone who neglected, mistreated, or took advantage of others in God’s name.
When people weren’t valuing others well, God used Micah to show them a new way.
God invited them to:
Pursue justice for those who have been mistreated
Be merciful to others, rather than judgmental
Humbly follow God’s lead
Some of this sounds a bit like Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, doesn’t it?
Maybe that’s because God has been trying to tell us the same thing for a long time.
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