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
0.64LIKELY
Disgust
0.12UNLIKELY
Fear
0.13UNLIKELY
Joy
0.51LIKELY
Sadness
0.49UNLIKELY
Language Tone
Analytical
0.57LIKELY
Confident
0UNLIKELY
Tentative
0.49UNLIKELY
Social Tone
Openness
0.81LIKELY
Conscientiousness
0.72LIKELY
Extraversion
0.07UNLIKELY
Agreeableness
0.56LIKELY
Emotional Range
0.48UNLIKELY
Tone of specific sentences
Tones
Emotion
Language
Social Tendencies
Anger
< .5
.5 - .6
.6 - .7
.7 - .8
.8 - .9
> .9
Summer is here and for many kids they will experience the joy of catching fireflies!
Fireflies – they catch our attention because they light up in the dark!
They glow in short bursts, creating moments of light.
And it is fascinating!
If anyone has made a firefly ring, then you know that it’s their guts – what’s inside them – that makes them burn.
The same is true for us – we will burn with the same thing that is inside us!
What is in inside us?
Love of Christ, or Anger.
Anger is a problem we all face…
We all face anger.
There are plenty of wrong kinds of anger and only one kind of right anger.
Let’s talk about the anger that is not healthy for us:
First there is: RAGE, or anger without a cause.
Sometimes we just get angry and we don’t have any reason to be.
We have a bad day and we want to take it out on someone else.
We yell at the kids and kick the cat.
We are angry because things are not going the way we want them to.
We become short-tempered!
Proverbs 14:17 (NLT) - Short-tempered people do foolish things…
When we have a short fuse, we must control our rage.
You say, "Why, I just can’t control my temper.
It gets away from me."
But you can.
Have you ever found yourself engaged in a heated discussion with your voice getting louder & your words becoming more rapid?
Then the telephone rings & you say, "Hello."
Sure, you can control your temper.
If we have a short fuse, we’re going to do a lot of foolish things.
When we lose our temper we’ll say things we know we shouldn’t have said, & do things that we’re going to be sorry for later on.
Will Rogers said, "Whenever you fly into a rage, you seldom make a safe landing."
And he is right.
Then there is: WRATH – This is a common saying, “Don’t get mad, get even”.
But the problem is that we are incapable of handling the situation correctly.
I've never met anyone that laid a smack down and thought, "that was the right thing to do!" Wrath is anger that seeks revenge.
The problem with wrath, beside the fact that vengeance is supposed to be God's alone, is that wrath is always accompanied by an unforgiving spirit.
Wrath is always a sign that you don't forgive.
There is also: RESENTMENT – Resentment is anger when someone is holding a grudge.
It is an anger that the person suppresses over a long period of time and allows to quietly smolder down inside them.
It doesn't blowup, it clams up.
As it lays deep in a person and is nurtured.
Eventually it turns into self pity that turns to bitterness.
This bitterness just stays there, day after day after day.
One of the classic passages that deals with anger is found in Ephesians.
Ephesians 4:26-27 (ESV) - Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and give no opportunity to the devil.
You come home after someone at the office ticked you off.
You’re carrying a chip on your shoulder, just waiting for someone to knock it off.
Then your wife says something you don’t particularly appreciate, & soon heated words are being exchanged.
It really doesn’t amount too much, but you’re determined to get your way, & she is determined to get her way.
So the argument continues.
The sun goes down & nighttime comes.
Then in bed she faces that way & you face this way, & you both make very sure that you don’t touch each other.
Do you realize what has happened?
The Bible says that you have opened the door, & said, "Mr.
Devil, come right on in.
We’ll make you welcome here."
Rage, wrath, and resentment are dangerous!
We’ve got to remember that anger is just one letter short of danger.
OUR OPTIONS:
1. Suppress it – This is usually a form of denial.
Most usually, people who “stuff” their anger have seen or felt the destructive power of anger and being "gun shy" of it, they try to avoid it.
They just paint anger invisible and they think it's gone.
But is it?
You can not just simply hide anger, because anger will not be ignored.
It will bubble up until it becomes a boil!
Proverbs 19:19 (NIV) - A hot-tempered man must pay the penalty...
If you try to stuff it, it has been proven that you are more at risk for heart attacks, enhanced strokes, elevated blood pressure, migraines, tense muscles, an ulcers.
By suppressing anger, we think we bury it dead.
Actually, we are burying it alive.
It sooner or later rises from its grave in another form.
Nothing can take place in the body without it affecting everything else about us.
This should not be an option for us.
2. The other option is to Express it – but we must express it properly.
This is where our text today from James comes in.
Let’s read James 1:19-21.
READ
James tells us that we’ve got a choice: either allow our wrath to cancel out God’s goodness in our lives, OR follow what the Bible says and have our souls saved!
Which do you think is the better option?
In order for us to lay aside the rage, wrath, and resentment (This wickedness that can overflow in our lives), we must do three things to handle our anger properly:
First, LISTEN – be swift to hear
In other words, seek to hear God.
When you are angry, there is something that you don’t want to do – listen!
But when we are angry, we have to start hearing from God.
This is the exact moment when we need Him the most!
When we are in a situation where we are angry, we usually don’t want to hear two things: what the other person has to say, nor someone’s advice.
We especially don’t want someone to start quoting Scripture at us.
But this is exactly what we need!
We need to quickly turn to Scriptures and start hearing how God wants us to respond in grace, love, mercy, and forgiveness.
BUT, what usually happens is that we become so blind with rage that we miss the chance for God to work through His Scripture in our lives.
That’s why your first instinct might be to lash out, but James says, step back!
Be swift to hear what God can do in this situation.
What does listening produce?
Well, 1 John 1:1-4 is a perfect example of what can happen if we become swift to hear.
1 John 1:1-4 (NLT) - We proclaim to you the one who existed from the beginning, whom we have heard and seen.
We saw him with our own eyes and touched him with our own hands.
He is the Word of life.
This one who is life itself was revealed to us, and we have seen him.
And now we testify and proclaim to you that he is the one who is eternal life.
He was with the Father, and then he was revealed to us.
We proclaim to you what we ourselves have actually seen and heard so that you may have fellowship with us.
And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ.
We are writing these things so that you may fully share our joy.
< .5
.5 - .6
.6 - .7
.7 - .8
.8 - .9
> .9