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
0.46UNLIKELY
Disgust
0.13UNLIKELY
Fear
0.13UNLIKELY
Joy
0.64LIKELY
Sadness
0.49UNLIKELY
Language Tone
Analytical
0.65LIKELY
Confident
0UNLIKELY
Tentative
0.62LIKELY
Social Tone
Openness
0.73LIKELY
Conscientiousness
0.74LIKELY
Extraversion
0.48UNLIKELY
Agreeableness
0.62LIKELY
Emotional Range
0.43UNLIKELY
Tone of specific sentences
Tones
Emotion
Language
Social Tendencies
Anger
< .5
.5 - .6
.6 - .7
.7 - .8
.8 - .9
> .9
Consequences of complaining
Man robbed a Wendy’s in Atlanta by grabbing the cash drawer in the drive-thru.
Called back.
Twice.
Complaining that there better be more than $586 in there the next time.
Worse still, was the bank robber in Syracuse NY who walked into an Alliance Bank and demanded $20,000.
Handed a bag of cash and made a quick getaway.
Got home, counted the loot and it was way short of $20K.
Went straight back to the bank to complain and was promptly arrested.
Complaining is as natural as breathing to us.
Fortunately, our complaints don’t raise to the level of the two yahoos I just told you about.
Psychologists believe that a “negative bias” is at the root of our need to complain.
We focus on what is “not right” rather than the good.
Now, most of us are nice enough to withhold our irritations and complaints in public although not always.
It’s more likely we’ll save them up and drop all our gripes and grumbles on our friends and family - hoping for a sympathetic ear.
But did you know that all that griping, complaining and grumbling is bad for you and the people who have to listen to it?
Studies have shown that grumbling makes us and our hearers dumber.
MRI’s of the brain show that the hippocampus - part of the brain responsible for memory, emotion and learning - shrinks when subjected to large amounts of the hormones that are released when we are under stress.
When we engage in negative thoughts, emotions and communication, we (and our audience) are stressed.
Add in that we are likely to complain somewhere between 15-30x/day and that’s a lot of stress.
Some researchers theorize that up to 60% of our communication is related to complaints.
Now, we’ve had a lot to complain about this past year and a half.
I proposed last week that the cure for the “blahs” we all seem to feel is to deliberately increase our sense of gratitude.
That a deep and meaningful if begins with being grateful for blessings in all circumstances.
Today, let’s talk about what can get in the way of experiencing that gratitude and joy in life.
It’s grumbling, complaining.
We need to expose our ingratitude by recognizing when we’re falling into the pattern of grumbling and complaining.
How do we turn that negative bias and the resulting grumbling into gratitude?
Ingratitude Exposed
“Expressing displeasure at a perceived injustice.
Being personally dissatisfied.
Censuring the source of our displeasure.
Consequences of Grumbling
We fail to acknowledge everything God has done.
The result is a “lost mind.”
Renew Our Minds
< .5
.5 - .6
.6 - .7
.7 - .8
.8 - .9
> .9