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
0.09UNLIKELY
Disgust
0.05UNLIKELY
Fear
0.09UNLIKELY
Joy
0.72LIKELY
Sadness
0.61LIKELY
Language Tone
Analytical
0.45UNLIKELY
Confident
0UNLIKELY
Tentative
0.83LIKELY
Social Tone
Openness
0.86LIKELY
Conscientiousness
0.58LIKELY
Extraversion
0.18UNLIKELY
Agreeableness
1LIKELY
Emotional Range
0.42UNLIKELY
Tone of specific sentences
Tones
Emotion
Language
Social Tendencies
Anger
< .5
.5 - .6
.6 - .7
.7 - .8
.8 - .9
> .9
Joy
Today I’d like to share with you about joy.
I came across a letter that was written to Pastor Michael Youssef.
The story is called Joy is Black.
Dear Michael,
One day I was trying to teach my students the difference between happiness and joy.
They seemed to understand, so I suggested that maybe they could write about the color of happiness and the color of joy and then tell some of the things that they thought would bring them those feelings.
They were all excited and they had used the whole gamut of colors to express themselves.
It was an enlightening morning.
However, one little boy said that he knew that joy was black!
I was devastated.
I was sure that he was depressed and totally without joy.
So I invited him to come give me a private audience and tell me about his paper.
He said, "Well, Mrs. Lane, you told us that happiness was something that you felt when you went to a birthday party or when you went on vacation or got a new pair of shoes, but that it didn’t last.
Then you said that joy was deep inside of you and that nobody could ever take it away from you.
I figured if it was deep inside of you where it was dark, it must be black!"
I could have cried!
How could I have been so stupid not to have seen that at first?
I hugged him and told him that he was a lot smarter than I was.
He just grinned.
There’s a huge difference between joy and happiness.
Happiness is based on our circumstances.
Maybe a letter came in the mail or somebody brought us a nice gift and it made you happy.
You can have joy even in difficult circumstances because joy comes from trusting that God has good plans for us whether we are in a trial or when we are experiencing good times.
We can have joy because we can trust that Jesus Christ is the same: yesterday, today, and for ever.
The is a Scripture verse on joy that I have often quoted but I thought that I should look at the context.
The verse is found in the book of Nehemiah.
Nehemiah was a cupbearer for King Cyrus.
He had been send to Jerusalem to rebuild the walls of the city.
On October 8th, the had a celebration, and Ezra, who was the scribe started reading the Book of the Law, which is the first 5 books of our Bible: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy.
The Jewish people had been in exile for 70 years and were probably hearing the Law for the first time.
They were weeping as it was read to them.
We have much reason to have joy.
The people that had returned to Jerusalem rejoiced because they had heard God’s Word and understood what it meant.
We too have God’s word.
We can receive much joy and strength from God’s word.
I want to close with a hymn that was written in 1871 (just over 150 years ago) and yet it has great meaning and gives us great hope for us today.
Hymn
Jesus loves even me.
By Philip Bliss and Emily Oakey
Emily Oakey suffered with really poor health her whole life and yet she helped pen the words:
1 I am so glad that our Father in heaven
Tells of His love in the Book He has given;
Wonderful things in the Bible I see,
This is the dearest, that Jesus loves me.
Refrain:
I am so glad that Jesus loves me,
Jesus loves me, Jesus loves me;
I am so glad that Jesus loves me,
Jesus loves even me.
2 Though I forget Him and wander away,
Still He doth love me wherever I stray;
Back to His dear loving arms would I flee,
When I remember that Jesus loves me.
[Refrain]
3 O, if there's only one song I can sing,
When in His beauty I see the great King,
This shall my song in eternity be:
Oh, what a wonder that Jesus loves me! [Refrain]
(#439 in our hymn book)
Today that is the joy that I want to leave you with: Jesus loves even me.
< .5
.5 - .6
.6 - .7
.7 - .8
.8 - .9
> .9