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
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Disgust
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Fear
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Joy
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Sadness
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Language Tone
Analytical
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Confident
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Tentative
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Social Tone
Openness
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Conscientiousness
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Extraversion
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Agreeableness
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Emotional Range
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Tone of specific sentences
Tones
Emotion
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Anger
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*Luke 8:16-21*
v Last week we looked at the Parable of the Soils
Ø Different types of hearts
§ Hard
§ Shallow
§ Divided
§ And Good
Ø We looked in depth at the first three
§ Today I would like us to look at the Good heart
· Jesus says is that the good heart “produced a crop 100x that sown”
v In our text today, Jesus explains how that is accomplished
* *
*READ 8:16-21*
* *
v This section really explains what the good heart looks like
Ø And Jesus does so in a fairly dramatic way
§ In V. 19-21, Jesus’ family comes to see him
· He is told that they are there
¨ And he says a startling statement
Ø His family is not his flesh and blood, but
§ All those who “Hear God’s word and put it into practice”
v The evidence of a Good Heart is that…
Ø It Listens and it Does
Ø It Hears and it Acts
Ø It pays attention and then performs
v We tend to get all caught up in the acts
Ø But before we can do anything…
v The Good Heart Listens
Ø Jesus warns us in V. 18…
§ /“Therefore, consider carefully how you listen”/
Ø Famed preacher H. A. Ironside used to complain that people had all kinds of mouth gifts; preaching, evangelism, encouragement, but no one had the gift of listening
§ According to Jesus, how one listens to the word of God in all important
Dietrich Bonhoeffer ran an underground seminary during the oppressive years of Nazi Germany.
In his homiletics class, he always set aside his pencil and listened intently with his Bible open when the students preached, no matter how poor the sermon was.
He believed that the preaching of God’s word ought to be attended as if he were listening to the very words of God.
Ø There are a lot of “I don’t know why’s” in the Bible
§ I don’t know why God chose me to be saved
§ I don’t know why God chose Abraham
§ I don’t know why God chose Isaac instead of Ishmael
§ I don’t know why God chose us to be his voice of evangelism in the world
Ø But the one we are dealing with here today is…
§ I don’t know why God chose to speak to his people through the preached word
· But he did…
¨ The worship service centers around the preached word of God
Ø The sermon
Ø So how you listen to it is all important
v According to the Bible, there are 4 ways people listen to the sermon
Ø *Listen Hardly at All*
§ That is what* Isa 40:21* teaches us
· In Isaiah 40, The Israelites have once again fallen into idol worship
· So Isaiah decides to remind the people about who God is
¨ He says in v. 9 ~~ Here is your God…
Ø And then reminds them of what they have been taught about God
§ God is All-Powerful
· V.
15 ~~ Surely the nations are like a drop in the bucket
§ God is Immense
· /V.
12 ~~ Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, or with the breadth of his hand marked off the heavens?/
¨ *William Blake ~~ Ancient of Days*
§ God is all-knowing
· V.
13 ~~ Who has understood the mind of the Lord, or instructed him as his counselor?
· But the people have forgotten this and turned to idols
¨ *READ v. 18-20*
¨ So Isaiah sums it all up by saying…
Ø You must not have been listening at all asking rhetorically…
§ /Do you not know?
Have you not heard?
Has it not been told you from the beginning?
/
· The Israelites have had heard about God from childhood
¨ Yet Isaiah says…
Ø You know all about God.
Haven’t you heard about Him your whole life?
Don’t you know that there is only one God?
§ *Haven’t you been listening!”*
§ We have this same problem today
· People just don’t listen when they come to church
¨ They don’t pay attention when the sermon is being preached
· These are the ones that cannot remember what the sermon was about the next day
¨ They can tell you all about the Seinfeld episode last night
¨ They can describe in detail the plot of /Star Wars: The Revenge of the Sith/
¨ They can go on and on about the book they finished last week
¨ They can explain all about the news they heard of the radio
Ø But they cannot remember what the sermon was about
§ Or what text was preached on
· Or what one of the main points was
¨ It seems they were *hardly listening at al*l…
Ø I don’t want to place all of the blame on the listener
§ Many times it is the fault of the preacher
· Poor preparation, confusing illustrations, too many rabbit trails
¨ I have preach my share of “stinkers”
Ø But there is an admonishment here for the listener…
§ /V.
18 ~~ “Consider carefully how you listen”/
· You should listen to the Word of God as if your life depended on it
¨ Because it does!
§ Listen to the sermon like you are panning for gold
· *Describe Panning*
¨ Always looking, inspecting, examining
¨ Paying close attention or else something very valuable might slip by
¨ Picking up pieces to see if they are useful
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