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.
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Anger
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Fear
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Analytical
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Openness
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Conscientiousness
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Extraversion
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What hijackers seize the controls of your mind?
I’d like you to personalize this.
What are the one, two, six, dozen things that tend to snag you?
What do you tend to worry about?
Maybe it’s not financial, or in addition to financial, there are other worries.
“Do I have any real friends?”
“What if I don’t make the team?
“What if I don’t make the team?
What if I forget my lines in the play?
What if someone else gets picked for that committee?
What if…?”
•“Will I ever find a husband or wife?”
•“If I do find one, will he or she be faithful to me?”
•“Am I worth marrying?”
•“Will I be able to have kids?”
•“If I have kids, how will they turn out?”
•“What about my health?
Some of my friends are dying of cancer.
It’s painful.
Is that going to be for me?
Will I be able to have the strength to go through that?
What if I get Alzheimer’s?
The thought of ending my life not even able to recognize the people I love: what about that?”On and on and on, your health, your money, your relationships, your achievements.
Any of those things can hijack the controls.
You worry, fret, and stew.
The fact is, these are all iffy.
You have good reasons to worry about those things.
None of them are sure.
Your health could go to the dogs.
The stock market could crash.
There could be no jobs.
The kids could turn out rotten.
You could end up lonely.
You could fail at something or get excluded.
These are all unsure by nature.
There is every reason in the world to worry about them.
Let me ask you to personalize: What do you worry about?But there’s a second personalizing question to ask yourself.
When all is said and done, why do you worry?
Why do you fret about these things in the first place?
Why do you obsess?
Why do you get your nose to the grindstone?
Why do you get preoccupied and driven, or throw panic attacks or brood, or whatever form your anxiety takes?The easy answer is to point your finger back towards what you are worrying about, and to think that explains it.
“I’m worried because I don’t know if I’m going to get a job.
I’m worried because I don’t have enough saved for retirement.
I’m worried because I have a family history of cancer.”
But Jesus doesn’t do that.
He explains our worries not by pointing to how uncertain life is, but by pointing to something in us.
Throughout this whole passage He says, “You worry because of something about you, not because of the things you worry about.”
That’s what He threw on the table in the interchange just before the passage we’re focusing on: “Guard yourself from every form of greed.”
Any quick search in Google or Amazon will confirm what we all already know; worry is harmful to our bodies.
Here are a few physical symptoms associated with worry:
Difficulty swallowing
Dizziness
Dry mouth
Fast heartbeat
Fatigue
Headaches
Muscle aches
Muscle tension
Nausea
Rapid breathing
Sweating
Trembling and twitching
You can almost get exhausted and anxious reading that list.
All of these can be experienced to varying degrees depending on how severe your worry is.
Most of you can probably identify many of these as you reflect on an anxiety-producing experience in your life.
Unfortunately, this is not the only way we are impacted by worry.
If not addressed, it can have a bigger impact on your overall health.
People who worry consistently are more prone to the following physical consequences:
Suppression of the immune system
Digestive disorders
Short-term memory loss
Premature coronary artery disease
Heart attack
In light of this, it is not surprising when we discover the original meanings of the words we use today to talk about worry and anxiety.
The English word “worry” comes from the Old English word meaning “strangle.”
The word “anxiety” is of Indo-Germanic origin referring to suffering from narrowing, tightening feelings in the chest or throat.
Statistics reveal that nearly 20% of people living in the United States will experience life debilitating anxiety annually.
That is nearly 65 million people!
In 2008, American physicians wrote more than 50 million prescriptions for anti-anxiety medications and more than 150 million prescriptions for antidepressants, many of which were used for anxiety-related conditions.
It is no over-statement to say that we have a problem of epidemic proportions.
Jesus lived at a time in human history that was very unpredictable and less safe than ours.
It was a world in which worry was epidemic, too.
In every instance where he encouraged people not to worry, he did so with compassion because he knew first-hand what it felt like to be a human being.
In , he spoke these encouraging words to anxious people, Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom.
Those simple words sum up all that Jesus said over and over again.
He commands them not to worry, but his command is one of encouragement, not shame.
Let’s consider these simple but profound phrases:
Do Not be Afraid
Jesus knows that worry is a serious problem.
He knows it is bad for you physically, as well as spiritually, and he gets right to the point because he loves you.
His commands are always for your good.
Whenever you are struggling with worry, it is connected to your relationship with God.
The word “worry” that Jesus uses means “a divided mind.”
Within the broader context of his teaching, Jesus says that worry happens when you try to love God and something in creation at the same time.
As soon as you do this, you have begun to put your hope and security in something other than God.
Anything else besides God is unstable (money, a relationship, a job, education, your own moral record, obedient children, your health).
Do you see why Jesus is so straightforward?
He cares for you.
He knows that you can’t serve two masters ().
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