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
0.16UNLIKELY
Disgust
0.1UNLIKELY
Fear
0.52LIKELY
Joy
0.18UNLIKELY
Sadness
0.52LIKELY
Language Tone
Analytical
0.5LIKELY
Confident
0UNLIKELY
Tentative
0.53LIKELY
Social Tone
Openness
0.79LIKELY
Conscientiousness
0.63LIKELY
Extraversion
0.28UNLIKELY
Agreeableness
0.63LIKELY
Emotional Range
0.7LIKELY
Tone of specific sentences
Tones
Emotion
Language
Social Tendencies
Anger
< .5
.5 - .6
.6 - .7
.7 - .8
.8 - .9
> .9
June 16, 2009 [1]
\\ Trumpet Horn call by Joel (Music led by Joel)
Reading of the 10 Commandments (Reader : Ken Davis)
Baptism of William Royce
Reading of the Beatitudes (Reader Monty Gorley)
Call to order of the Solemn Assembly using the Shofar
A time of Reflection of God’s grace and goodness (Audience questions)
* What are some times in your history that God was Good to you?
* What were some times that God has shown His favor on this Church?
* What were some times that God has turned the tide of danger away and saved you?
One woman was recounting an experience she had in an article she wrote.
She said…“My doctor had recommended surgery and referred me to a specialist.
Arriving early for my appointment, I found the door unlocked and the young surgeon, deeply engrossed in reading, behind the receptionist’s desk.
When he didn’t hear me come in, I cleared my throat.
Startled, he closed the book, which I recognized as a Bible.
I asked.
“Does reading the Bible help you before or after an operation?”
My fears were dispelled by his soft, one-word answer: “During.””
[i] \\ \\
You have been called tonight to a very special night.
A night of Solemn Assembly… And in this time I want you to hear the alarm!
Twice Joel says: “Blow the trumpet in Zion!” (verse 1 & 15).
He actually says: “Blow the Shofar in Zion!”
A Shofar is a ram’s or bull’s horn that sounded to warn or call together the people of Israel.
[play shofar sound] \\ Now Joel says twice to blow the shofar in this passage, but for two different but related reasons.
! 1. Sound the Alarm: Judgment is Coming!
\\ \\
Some of you may have heard of the pastor by the name of Will Willimon’s.
He served a little church in rural Georgia.
One Saturday he went to a funeral in a little country church that was not of his particular denominational flavor.
He had grown up in a big downtown church and had never been to a funeral like this one.
The casket was open, and the funeral consisted of a sermon by their preacher.
The preacher pounded on the pulpit and looked over at the casket.
He said, "It’s too late for ole Bob.
He might have wanted to get his life together.
He might have wanted to spend more time with his family.
He might have wanted to do that, but he’s dead now.
It is too late for him, but it is not too late for you.
There is still time for you.
You still can decide.
You are still alive.
It is not too late for you.
Today is the day of decision."
Then the preacher told how a Greyhound bus had run into a funeral procession once on the way to the cemetery, and how that could happen today.
He said, "You should decide today.
Today is the day to get your life together.
Too late for old Bob, but it’s not too late for you."
\\ \\
Willimon writes: “I was so angry at that preacher.
On the way home, I told my wife, "Have you ever seen anything as manipulative and insensitive to that poor family?
I found it disgusting."
She said, "I’ve never heard anything like that.
It was manipulative.
It was disgusting.
It was insensitive.
Worst of all, it was all true." [ii] \\ \\ \\
The Prophet Joel is an insensitive preacher at a funeral… He seems to be kicking an already discouraged people while they are down.
Chapter one is about a how a Swarm of locusts had swooped in and devastated their crops.
“Cry out to God,” Joel told the shell shocked people of the land.
“This plague should serve as a wake up call for us!”
And if that message wasn’t shrill enough, Joel follows it up with a prophetic horn blowing in chapter two.
\\ \\ /1 Blow the trumpet in Zion; sound the alarm on my holy hill.
Let all who live in the land tremble, for the day of the LORD is coming.
It is close at hand- 2 a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and blackness.
Like dawn spreading across the mountains a large and mighty army comes, such as never was of old nor ever will be in ages to come.
\\ Blow the Shofar!/
Another army is approaching… this one not of locust but men… who attack, very much like the locusts in chapter one, scaling walls and entering houses… and this too will be a “Day of the Lord.”
But we must admit, an army of locusts is far less frightening than a vicious invading army.
Verses 11 Reveals that this army has as its commander and chief: the Lord Himself!” \\ Joel concludes: “the day of the Lord is great; it is dreadful.
Who can endure it?”
\\ Quick: What do you think of when I say the word: “Joy?”
Perhaps images of puppies, Ocean Beach Walks and Mountain springs in the sun come to mind.
How about when I say the word: “Judgment?”
Maybe a slap on the wrist, the sound of a gavel or perhaps the slamming of a jail cell door.
We humans like joy… but judgment?
Not so much.
And so often Christians want to talk about the Joy and ignore the coming Judgment.
We want to be known as loving.
And that’s sweet… It is part of the responsibility of God’s church to warn that there are consequences to sin… one of which is a future judgment.
Timothy Keller in his marvelous book: “The Reason for God,” answers the skeptic’s question: “Because Christians think there are consequences to sin… including judgment… does that make them narrow minded?”
He uses this analogy: “Imagine two people arguing over the nature of a cookie.
Jack thinks the cookie is poison, and Jill thinks it is not.
Jack thinks Jill’s mistaken view of the cookie will send her to the hospital or the morgue.
Jill thinks Jack’s mistaken view of the cookie will keep him from having a fine dessert.
Is Jack more narrow-minded than Jill just because he thinks the consequences are more dire?
I don’t believe anyone would think so.
Christians, aren’t more narrow-minded because they think wrong thinking and wrong behavior have eternal effects.
[iii]
Sounding the alarm can be a very loving thing to do! “Don’t eat that cookie!” is a much better thing for us to exclaim than “Call an ambulance!”
So: Admonish the alcoholic …that if he doesn’t get treatment he will destroy his family.
Warn your children about the effects of drugs and alcohol.
Tell your neighbor that an affair is not a harmless thing, but something he or she will regret for rest of his or her life.
Warn your friend about the consequences of sex outside of marriage.
Tell everyone, that we have all sinned and fall short of standard set by a holy God.
Sound the alarm!
Judgment is coming!
"The worst industrial accident in history occurred on April 26, 1986, in the town of Chernobyl in north central Ukraine of the former Soviet Union.
It was caused by two electrical engineers who were playing around with one of the nuclear reactors.
They were conducting an unauthorized experiment trying to see how long a turbine would freewheel (or keep spinning) when the power was turned off.
To do this, they had to manually override 6 separate computer-driven alarm systems.
Each time the computer would warn, ’Stop!
Dangerous!
< .5
.5 - .6
.6 - .7
.7 - .8
.8 - .9
> .9