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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Joy
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Analytical
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Openness
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Conscientiousness
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Extraversion
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Agreeableness
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Tone of specific sentences
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Anger
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There are 2 things I love about Christmas.
I love pulling out my old Christmas music and listening to it.
I have:
Classical Christmas music.
Classic Christmas music.
Country Christmas music.
Irish Christmas music.
And even hill billy Christmas music.
But what I love even more is watching old Christmas movies.
As the evenings get longer, and the weather gets colder, I like to turn on the fireplace, sit on the couch, and watch an old Christmas movie, with the orange flicker of fire on the walls.
After watching enough of these movies, you start to see a common trend among all of them.
None of them are very unique.
All Christmas movies, have the same common theme.
The main character wants something.
He gives everything for that something.
Only to learn that he already had what was important … and it wasn’t what he thought it was.
This simple story line goes all the way back.
The granddaddy of Christmas stories, Charles Dicken’s Christmas Carol has this.
Old Scrooge wanted money.
He wanted lots of money.
But in the end, he learned that it’s friend and kindness that are important.
There is It’s A Wonderful Life, starring James Stewart.
He’s given up on his dreams.
He wants more.
And in the end, he learns that he’s always been the successful man he’s wanted to be.
He’d touched countless lives.
There’s the forgettable Arnold Schwarzenegger movie, Jingle All the Way.
Arnold’s character, Howard Langston, wants to give his son the super rare, Turbo Man action figure.
The movie is all about Howard Langston’s outrageous attempts to give his everything for the doll, so that his son would be impressed.
And in the end, he learns, his son is already proud of him.
He already possessed what his son wanted.
It seems as if most Christmas movies follow this same plot.
National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation.
Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.
A Christmas Story.
All follow this same format.
Though I’ll be honest, I don’t know if Die Hard or Gremlins follow this theme, but it’s debatable whether those are Christmas movies or not.
While these stories are wildly entertaining, they are also wildly misleading.
What you need isn’t already inside you.
If it was … then you wouldn’t be in need.
You wouldn’t be lacking.
Tonight we ask the question, “Why the baby?”
Why the celebration over a child?
What could I possibly be lacking, that would require God to enter into His creation as a child?
We are left with 3 facts.
3 Reasons.
These are 3 reasons you need Jesus.
Which then become 3 true reasons to celebrate Christmas
You need a better human.
You need a Savior.
You need a Lord.
We find these 3 reasons in .
“She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.”
That verse contains 3 facts, or 3 reasons, or 3 things you need.
First, You need a Better Human
The first fact from that verse is, “She will bear a son”.
At Christmas time, we celebrate the arrival of Jesus.
But not just any arrival.
You or I go on a vacation, we pack everything we need.
Put it all into a suitcase.
Get on a plane, fly to our destination.
You have someone pick you up from the airport, and where do they pick you up from?
The arrival section.
That’s not how Jesus arrived.
Jesus didn’t pack his bags.
Hop on a plane.
And arrive as an adult, and say, “I’m here.
I’m ready to die for you.”
Jesus didn’t come as an adult, but as a child.
Why would Jesus need to come as a child?
Because of your first need, you need a better human.
Your average Christmas story has the underlying assumption that there is nothing wrong with you.
We have all we need already.
It’s lying dormant within your heart.
And I think the reason why we enjoy these Christmas movies so much, is that the overall message is that we are better than we truly are.
A marathon is 26.2 miles.
A runner may run really well for 25 miles.
But if he trips, falls and hurts himself in that 25th mile, so that he cannot finish the race … it doesn’t matter how well he ran in those first 25 miles … he didn’t finish the race.
The first 25 miles don’t count.
Imagine if you had a group of runners who all dropped out of a race.
One brags and says, “I ran 15 miles.”
Another says, “I ran 10 miles, but really fast.”
A third says, “I ran further than all of you, 25 miles.”
If none of them finished the race … it doesn’t matter how well they ran or how far they went.
They are all disqualified.
They didn’t finish the race.
The average Christmas movie is nothing more than a bunch of disqualified runners saying their failure isn’t as bad as others.
Yet the Bible says things a bit clearer, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,”
We’ve all fallen short.
We’ve all failed the race.
We’ve all failed the race.
God says:
That’s the race.
Live your whole life absolutely perfect.
And yet none of us have done that.
We have all tripped and fallen.
says, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,”
There’s the fall.
Sadly, this is not true.
There is something wrong with us.
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