Sermon Tone Analysis
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Conscientiousness
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The Conscience Question
Introduction
Why are people who have had too much to drink inclined to make bad decisions?
-Because they’ve had to muck to drink?
Let me start with the opposite.
First off, there is no link between alcohol consumption and GOOD decision making.
I think we all would agree on that.
No one has ever heard the story of “It was a good thing I was drunk, otherwise I might have made a really bad decision.”
Right?
Why are people who’ve had too much to drink inclined to make bad decisions?
Well, it’s because alcohol increases a chemical in the brain that acts as a stimulant.
Stimulants increase impulsiveness and decrease inhibition.
The result is decreased sensitivity to the potential consequences associated with a decision.
On top of that… alcohol temporarily impairs the activity of the prefrontal cortex.
That’s the part of the brain that enables you to think rationally.
To make good decisions.
To connect the dots as it were.
Plainly put, alcohol liberates a drinker to act without thinking clearly.
Comedian Ron White says it this way when he was getting arrested once:
“You have the right to remain silent,
but I didn’t have the ability to remain silent.”
My point here is that people who’ve had too much to drink are inclined to make bad decisions because they are temporarily desensitized to social, cultural and relational cues.
They are chemically impeded from rational thought.
So, inebriated people can’t help themselves, once their inebriated.
When someone is drunk, they don’t consciously ignore common sense.
The don’t consciously ignore their conscience.
It’s been suppressed, switched off.
Intoxicated people can’t pay attention to social, cultural, and relational cues.
But we’ve all seen sober people refuse to pay attention to those same cues.
The inebriated aren’t even conscious of their consciences.
But we’ve all seen what happens when sober people choose to ignore their consciences—that internal tension that always deserves our attention.
Intoxicated people can’t help themselves.
But sober people often won’t help themselves.
So here’s the third question we should pause to ask whenever we make decisions.
Question #3: Is there a tension that deserves my attention?
Sometimes, in fact, more often than we care to admit, there are options that we consider that create a little tension inside us.
Something just isn’t right about this decision.
It doesn’t seem quite right.
It give us pause.
It bothers us.
It creates hesitation.
And we don’t know why
Experts call this phenomenon a “red flag moment.”
When that happens you owe it tor yourself to pause and pay attention.
Don’t ignore it.
Don’t brush it off.
Ask yourself the question “Why does this bother me?”
Then because we feel pressure to fit in, or to please others, we can find ourselves making decisions that don’t align with you highest good.
When we make decisions from the fear or being feared or rejected, we doom ourselves to a people pleasing brand of decision making.
- Joshua Nash
Now, just to clarify, I’m not suggesting that you prioritize emotion over reason, but to just pay attention to what may appear initially as an unreasonable emotion.
To find its source.
Tension
I bet this has happened to you a time or two.
You’re considering something . . .
nothing about it bothers you . . .
and then somebody comes along and points out something you hadn’t thought about.
Something you hadn’t seen.
Suddenly, where there was no tension, there’s tension.
Where there was no hesitation, you find yourself second-guessing your original intention.
Oftentimes, it’s irritating.
Oftentimes, it’s your mom.
“Honey, that all sounds good except for the fact that it’s against the law.”
Talk about that Still Small Voice: It’s your mom!
Pay attention to that voice
“You shouldn’t do this…”
“I felt like you should…”
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Have you ever made a decision but heard someone else make comments that are tension filled?
Ex:
“Sounds good to me but what about your wife?” - Tension
“Can you afford that?” - Tension
“Did you sign a contract?”
- Tension
“I thought you were on a diet?” - Meddling.
Here’s the real deal.
The problem is that these comments and thoughts are one that create a relational tension.
A tension you should pay attention to as well.
Why because we have a tendency to discount the truth by discounting the truth bearer.
What does he know?
What does she know?
“They don’t have to deal with the consequences, besides what could they possibly know.”
Genetic Fallacy or Fallacy of origins
There is the philosophy they have a name for this.
It’s called the genetic fallacy or the fallacy of origins.
We fall prey to this fallacy when we discount information based on the source rather than the merits of the information.
Making a decision about a car and someone totally unrelated how nice it is to be able to take your family with you and it resulted in us getting a mini van.
They didn’t even know anything about x, but what they said totally made sense.
Once upon a time, I interviewed for a position at a Methodist church.
It was a full-time youth ministry position, and it was in the area where I grew up.
I had known the Pastor there, and when it came up I interviewed.
It all went really well, in fact, I liked them, and they liked me.
But there was something about it that didn’t sit right.
Then one day, I was working around the barns, and someone reminded me about waiting for the right opportunity requires as much discipline as it does to act when the time is right.
This was someone that was talking about grain markets, but it applied to my Pastoral career.
So, I waited.
I passed on the position.
And two weeks later, a friends church in Amboy called me up and the rest is history.
So pay attention to the tension.
Let it bother you.
Don’t excuse it.
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