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
0.14UNLIKELY
Disgust
0.09UNLIKELY
Fear
0.21UNLIKELY
Joy
0.15UNLIKELY
Sadness
0.6LIKELY
Language Tone
Analytical
0.57LIKELY
Confident
0UNLIKELY
Tentative
0.31UNLIKELY
Social Tone
Openness
0.7LIKELY
Conscientiousness
0.52LIKELY
Extraversion
0.01UNLIKELY
Agreeableness
0.29UNLIKELY
Emotional Range
0.48UNLIKELY
Tone of specific sentences
Tones
Emotion
Language
Social Tendencies
Anger
< .5
.5 - .6
.6 - .7
.7 - .8
.8 - .9
> .9
!! Dry Bones, Dead Dreams
Ezekiel 37:1-37:14 (NIV, NIRV, TNIV, KJV
Ezekiel, in our Old Testament lesson, stands on the battlefield.
The battle is over, and his side lost.
The battle has been over long enough for the smoke to have cleared and the vultures to have done their work.
\\ \\ All that is left is a valley full of bones.
Dry bones.
\\ \\ It is a scene of hopelessness and despair and failure.
Israel is a nation that has been defeated and its people live in exile.
There is no hope left for that nation, and all that is left to be seen of Israel’s army is a battlefield of defeat long past, and a valley of dry bones.
\\ \\ You know, there is nothing quite like a dream that has died.
\\ \\ In Ezekiel, the dream that has died is that Israel would be a nation, free from exile.
All that is left of the dream is dry bone.
Or as the old spiritual would say, "DEM bones, dem bones, dem dry bones."
\\ \\ We all have had dreams that have died and have turned into Dem Dry Bones.
\\ \\ I can’t remember all of the words of that old spiritual, but you probably recall the one I am talking about.
"Dem bones dem bones dem dry bones, so sing the word of the Lord."
\\ \\ That music has a lighthearted feeling about it.
Rather comic feeling.
But there is nothing lighthearted or comic about failure, or defeat, or dreams that die.
\\ \\ I think that the most frustrated in life s experiences.
\\ \\ We can’t go through life without knowing the feeling of failure.
We can’t even get out of school without knowing that feeling.
\\ \\ I remember very clearly how I felt in high school when I took Geometry.
Geometry is the only class that I ever took in school that I failed.
And I don’t mean that I barely failed, I failed miserably.
From day one, I never passed a single test in that class.
What was so frustrating was not only the failure, but knowing half way through the year that I had no hope of passing.
My hope of a passing grade was as dry as dem dry bones.
And I had to sit there day after day in a class in which I had no hope.
\\ \\ I’ve had worse failures, involving more important things that geometry, but I think what makes geometry stand out in my mind is that I was so aware of how hopeless the situation was.
Life normally does not give you a report card every six weeks to tell you how hopeless things really are.
\\ \\ Now failure is a part of life.
There is nothing wrong with failure.
It happens.
And some things were not meant to be.
We cannot succeed at EVERY thing.
\\ \\ One of the good things about young children playing baseball is that it teaches them how to handle failure.
\\ \\ In baseball, no one bats a .1000,
which is a perfect record, having a hit for every time you go to bat.
\\ \\ Actually, I had an uncle who was a professional baseball player.
In his last season, he batted .1000.
Of course, he only went to bat once, and he just so happened to have had a hit that one time at bat.
Most players in most seasons go to bat many times, and there will always be times when they don t get a hit.
A batting average of .250 is good, which means that 25% percent of the time that you go to bat, you get a hit.
In other words, having three failures for every one success is a good, acceptable performance.
\\ \\ You cannot succeed at everything.
There will be failures.
And yet, there are some dreams that we have that we do not want to see dry up in failure.
Some dreams do not deserve to become dem dry bones in the valleys of our lives.
\\ \\ For some, it is the dream of having children.
\\ \\ For others it is to have a stronger, healthier family.
\\ \\ For others, it is the dream of being effective at work.
\\ \\ For others, it is the dream of being sober after years of alcoholism.
\\ \\ For others, it is the dream of self acceptance.
\\ \\ For others, it may involve a more global concern, such as protecting the environment or helping feed the poor or bring about world peace.
\\ \\ There are all sorts of dreams that we have for our lives.
And while failure is a part of life, some dreams are such that we do not want to see them lay lifeless like a pile of dem dry bones.
\\ \\ In Ezekiel, our Old Testament lesson for this morning, there is a dream that \\ \\ lies dead.
It is the dream of a national homeland for Israel, a restoration of the nation of Israel.
\\ \\ That dream is dead, and to emphasize that fact, Ezekiel visits the army of Israel -- the only army being one of dead soldiers, unburied bodies that are in fact nothing but dem bones, dem dry bones.
\\ \\ How to handle failure is an important lesson to learn.
It is important to know how to handle defeat, because there will be times of defeat.
But that is not the lesson that concerns Ezekiel.
For Ezekiel, the concern is how does one handle failure, when you know deep in your heart that this particular failure is not acceptable?
How do you handle defeat when you know that this particular defeat is something you need to overcome, not accept and yield to. \\ \\ In a marriage, for example, one might need to learn to accept divorce.
The wife who is abused cannot change the violent behavior of her husband.
The husband who cannot change the adulterous lifestyle of his wife.
For some, the marriage is over, dry and lifeless.
For others, however, a marriage may be rocky, but divorce remains unacceptable in the hope of somehow restoring life to their dry marriage.
\\ \\ Or, one might have to accept the loss of a particular job.
You ve finally gotten your dream job with the company you ve always wanted to work for.
But they go out of business.
Or they downsize.
\\ \\ Some failures need to be accepted, no matter how painful.
No matter how much you would want it to be different, there is nothing YOU can do.
Things are out of YOUR hands.
\\ \\ But what do you do is a failure that should not be accepted?
\\ \\ Divorce is not always the only option, or even an acceptable one.
The loss of one job should not mean the loss of a career.
\\ \\ Some dreams need to die.
But what do you do when you honestly believe that yours is a dream that should live?
\\ \\ Ezekiel gives us some simple steps for situations such as that.
\\ \\ The first step is to accept reality.
\\ \\ Poor old Ezekiel goes out to look at his nation’s army and he sees nothing but dem dry bones.
\\ \\ If you can’t wake up to the reality that you have failed, or that your dream has died, or that life hasn’t shaped up the way that you wanted it to -- then you are not going to make any progress.
\\ \\ Face facts.
Accept reality.
\\ \\ A parent dreams that a child will grow and mature.
Every day there is evidence, tell-tell signs that the child is using drugs.
Money on the parents dresser is missing.
Changes in the child’s behavior is evident.
Items used in drug abuse are found in the house.
\\ \\ And yet, it is easier not to face those facts.
That is a hard reality to accept.
\\ \\ But until it is accepted, and faced, the matter most certainly simply gets worse.
\\ \\ Or the marriage that is in trouble.
The evidence is there.
The conversations that no longer take place.
The intimacy that has disappeared.
< .5
.5 - .6
.6 - .7
.7 - .8
.8 - .9
> .9