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
0.73LIKELY
Conscientiousness
0.56LIKELY
Extraversion
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Agreeableness
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Emotional Range
0.57LIKELY
Tone of specific sentences
Tones
Emotion
Language
Social Tendencies
Anger
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I love the sound of laughter.
Nothing beats a little kid, just learning how to laugh.
Who knew a good game of peak-a-boo could be the funnest thing ever.
Sometimes I hear a little kid laugh, and he starts to absolutely lose it.
I love that sound.
It’s pure joy to listen to, because you know the child is having a ball.
But it’s so
A laugh says something.
The context and the laugh tell you something about the person and how they feel.
There’s the “My Life Is Over” Laugh.
It’s a nervous laugh, where you most embarrassing secret is out.
You’re caught.
And you can’t help but nervously laugh, and hope the moment passes you by.
There’s the “No one gets it, and I’m the only one laughing” Laugh
This is a Kirkendall Trademark.
You’ve said something that you thought would be funny … only it’s incredibly insensitive, and no one gets it, and no one finds it funny.
So you laugh … alone, and everyone else rolls there eyes and hopes it passes by quickly.
There’s the “Courtesy Laugh”.
It’s very similar to the “No one gets it, and I’m the only one laughing” Laugh.
Only this time, people laugh with you, only so they don’t have to stare at you laughing all by yourself.
They do the Courtesy Laugh only to eliminate the terrible silence in the room, then it’s quickly over.
There’s the “Overdone Fake Laugh”
This is a mean version of the “Courtesy Laugh”.
You are letting everyone know it’s not funny, by obnoxiously opening your mouth as wide as you can, and loudly mocking whoever told the joke.
There’s the “Tear-Crying Belly Laugh”
My first memory of this was seeing Robin Hood: Men in Tights with my mom for my 13th birthday.
There’s this scene where Robin Hood and Little John having a duel with staffs.
Up till that point in my life, it was the funniest thing I’d ever seen.
I thought I was going to pass out in the theater.
My stomach hurt, I couldn’t take it.
In today’s text, we have two laughs, that each tell a different story.
Just as the laughs I just told you about say something about the person who’s laughing.
This is a mean version of the “Courtesy Laugh”.
The laughs that we will see today, tell us about the faith of the individuals who are laughing.
Let’s open Bibles to and read to the end of the chapter.
Here we read about the first laugh, the Joyful Laugh.
God again appears to Abraham.
Through our journey in Genesis, God has reiterated this single promise over and over again to Abraham.
The promise is that Abraham would be the father of a great nation.
It has been made explicitly clear that the child would be a an actual, biological child of Abraham.
But this time when God gives this promise to Abraham, He adds a detail we haven’t heard yet.
The child will not only come from Abraham, but Sarah will give birth to the child.
God will build a nation, not just from Abraham, but also from Sarah.
Just as nations will come from Abraham, now they can trace themselves back to Sarah as well.
Abraham hears this, and you see his response in verse 17, “Then Abraham fell on his face and laughed.”
This laugh says something about Abraham.
This was a good laugh.
This was a laugh of pure joy.
He saw the miracle of it all.
He’s 99 years old.
Sarah is 90.
And she’s going to bear a child?
He falls on his face and laughs.
When Abraham laughs, he’s not laughing out of disbelief.
He’s laughing out of joy, understanding that this is a blessing.
Why do I say that?
Because he falls on his face.
This is a position of reverence
The statement of falling on his face is a position of reverance, a position of worship.
It’s a position of worship.
It’s prostrating yourself before the Lord.
And while, he’s doing it, he’s laughing.
What a great first point to a sermon, the joyful laugh.
It’s good to find joy in Christ.
Our sin is real.
Our sin is offensive.
Our sin makes us enemies of God.
And yet, God has demonstrated His great love for us, by sending His Son to die for us.
And in this sacrifice, the justice of God is satisfied.
Our sins are paid for.
Peace is made with God.
The Great War is over!
That’s worth celebrating.
There’s that great picture from V-J Day, the day that the US had victory over Japan at the end of World War II.
It’s a picture of a sailor kissing a nurse on the streets of New York.
It’s a celebration.
The war is over.
It’s good for us to celebrate.
As much as we talk about our sin, we don’t talk enough about the peace.
Sometimes, we think that we need to be somber, and mourn.
Yes your sin is offensive to God.
But if it’s been paid for there is no condemnation.
Therefore, there’s no reason to sit and wallow.
Instead rejoice.
Be glad.
Celebrate.
It’s okay to have joy in your life, and it’s okay to have joy in your relationship with God.
One of my favorite books is called Desiring God by John Piper.
The subtitle of the book is controversial, Meditations of a Christian Hedonist.
It’s controversial because hedonism is bad.
It’s the love of pleasure.
John Piper’s goal is that we be Christian Hedonist, meaning that we get our pleasure from God, and that we actually pursue pleasure in God.
He takes the first statement from shorter catechism, which says, “What is the chief end of man?”
You are familiar with the answer being, “The chief end of man is to glorify and enjoy Him forever.”
He changes it to, “The chief end of man is to glorify God by enjoying Him forever.”
Do you enjoy God?
Then demonstrate it.
Abraham fell on his face and laughed.
A couple weeks ago, I went to a 2 year old’s birthday party.
It came time to giving him gifts.
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