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
Tones
Emotion
Language
Social Tendencies
Anger
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Series Review
e.g.
Sears Wishbook; I hope I get this for Christmas…that’s not really a confident hope - that’s a wish; a desperate prayer; but it’s not confidence in a better future
Mary meek and mild;
Sermon Introduction - We need Hope
“This is as good as it gets.”
- That’s a bad place to be.
Believe in the power of suggestion?
Think of the power behind those words.
A person who thinks that way stops trying.
Job - doesn’t think of looking for a better job, or retooling themselves; just accepts the current job.
thirsty, but not seeking water
A person in debt just treats the monthly payment as another bill.
A person in pain accepts the misery.
A grieving person is mired in their misery
A church that is facing decline, and thinks there is no way they can grow, stops trying, circles the wagons and protects their way of life.
“This is as good as it’s going to get.”
There is no hope, and that’s a dangerous place to be.
If you ever think that way, you need hope.
Sometimes we accept pain that we shouldn’t.
We are not meant to mire in depression.
Live with bitterness.
Have no aspirations for a better future.
Exist in a toxic relationship or settle for a belief in a God who really doesn’t do anything.
The words “this is as good as this is going to get” are not in the Bible.
They are not true.
It’s the biggest lie we can believe.
Having hope is the opposite of this lie.
What I’m not saying
What I’m not saying
I’m not a skeptic - but I am a realist.
I can look at situations and recognize that they can’t change.
I’m not a prosperity preacher - I won’t tell you that if you act and pray a certain way that God removes all pain and problems.
But having hope doesn’t necessarily mean that we can see a future where our problems are gone.
Some pain is real and permanent.
Limbs do not grow back.
Dead loved ones are not resurrected.
A destroyed home may not be replaced.
A person with a life sentence may never be freed.
Some pain will never go away.
But we can still have hope.
definition
Bible v. today
Biblical hope on the other hand .. is life shaping confidence about the future.
It is living now with confidence because of what you know will happen in the future.
we can have confidence in our future; we can believe that God has a purpose; God wants to prosper us somehow.
The best is still to come.
Mary had good reason to lack hope.
Good reasons to believe that things weren’t going to get any better.
Barriers to Hope
situation, status and skepticism
Situation
Luke 2:
Poor - hopeless of poverty, see no solution
Poor - hopeless of poverty, see no solution
political - defeated country - no hope
Joseph ready to leave her.
we imagine her being submissive and happy, but let’s not forget the fear she likely experienced.
vulnerable.
how are you optimistic when you are poor, oppressed, and your fiance is about to annul your engagement because you are pregnant by another man.
They used to teach the song “count your blessings.”
Sometimes we can just sit and count our problems.
There could be a lot of them.
Count the problems.
“How might God be at work?”
This can’t be overcome.
“Says who?”
Is this a lie?
This problem will never go away.
How can God use my pain?
(I don’t want certain pain to go away - it has shaped me as a person, a father, a pastor, a Christian).
God uses our pain for a larger purpose.
Status
:L19
2. adulteress - reputation; not the stigma as it is today; although it can be
adulteress - reputation; not the stigma as it is today; although it can be
imagine that story - God did it!
she was likely shunned by her neighbors; rumorschurch can be guilty of this: sin - walk a fine line - upholding the marriage covenant, while helping people work through their grief, not making them second class citizens
to the margins
unimportant
voiceless
You are unintelligent.
I am the expert here.
I have the mind of Christ.
You are a low level employee.
You lack positional authority.
You are not part of the decision making process.
You are inferior.
Stop believing these lies, and instead of thinking that a person like you can’t, remember who you are in Christ.
solution?
who am I in Christ?
Supernatural
we want our problems to go away, but we don’t believe in the solution
questioning the virgin birth; embarrassing teaching; why do we struggle with this, but not the resurrection?
miracles?
the apostles creed…ever get quiet during this?
maybe there is a symbolic way to interpret this, but if God wanted to do it that way, who am I to argue
That’s impossible.
Who can limit God?
For nothing will be impossible with God.” Matthew 1:37
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