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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Fear
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Openness
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Conscientiousness
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Extraversion
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Agreeableness
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I’d Be Thankful If...
This is Thanksgiving and then we’re moving right into Christmas.
We’ve lived long enough to have 20/20 hindsight and have it mean something.
I don’t know where it came from, Spanky and our Gang, or another famous Xmas movie.
We can look back w/ the benefit of perspective.
Sitting on Santa’s lap asking for pony then getting that pony on Christmas morning was like the ideal Christmas for a kid.
This is Thanksgiving and then we’re moving right into Christmas.
For the next 6 weeks the underlying focus of our lives is based on what we’ve received in our lives.
Thanksgiving: Be thankful for all that you have.
Christmas: Gifts given, and more importantly, received.
Yes, the gift of Jesus and salvation.
Yes, the gift of Jesus and salvation.
But, we all have to admit our relationships go a lot better when we receive good gifts from the people we expect to get good gifts from.
Right?
Brutal honest: We have more disappointed in our lives when we didn’t get something than we were when we didn’t give something.
When I was growing up, the metaphor for the perfect Xmas gift as a child was a Pony.
I don’t know where it came from, Spanky and our Gang, or another famous Xmas movie.
Sitting on Santa’s lap asking for pony then getting that pony on Christmas morning was like the ideal Christmas for a kid.
Then somebody did a commercial, somebody else did a sitcom episode about the rich kid who actually got a pony for Christmas.
At first everybody was jealous.
Then, the rich kid revealed what it was really like to have a pony.
Ponies are mean.
They bite.
They eat a lot.
And, then there’s the clean-up.
They don’t fetch, curl up in your lap, they’re not good pets.
Horses don’t attach emotionally the way dogs do.
Turns out, ponies are horrible Christmas gifts for most everyone.
But that’s Christmas.
It’s Thanksgiving.
Thanksgiving is an attitude.
What are we thankful for?
Why do we have such a hard time coming up w/ a long list of things we should be thankful for?
We’ve got a lot of things, but, do we have the things we really want?
It’s hard, if not impossible, to be thankful if we don’t have what we want.
The genuine attitude of Thanksgiving is fundamentally based on having what you really want.
Those things that come from Christmases past, birthdays, wedding days and anniversaries, careers, accomplishments, salaries and savings accounts.
Did you get what you want from your marriage?
From your family?
From your career?
Did you get what you wanted out of life so far?
Being thankful is based on getting what you want.
If you don’t have what you want it will be hard to be thankful this week; and every week.
I’d be thankful if I had what I want.
But, I don’t, so I’m not.
Or, so you have what you want?
If you do, then it will be easy to be thankful.
The obvious place to begin, then, is, what do you want?
What Do You Want?
Tricky question.
Tough question.
Most of us here are in the back half of our lives.
The older we get the less WHAT there is.
The younger we are the more WHAT there is.
When we are younger there are more things we want.
When we are older the more time we want.
It is a quantity of quality time w/ people we care about.
So “what” changes as we age and gain perspective.
"What” differs with age.
But, there is always a “what”.
What do you want?
Let’s explore a few things that might be high on your list.
I Want My Way
Would everybody just do what I tell them to do.
It will work out best for all of us....or will it?
We want it for ourselves.
But, we wouldn’t let our kids have their way, or our subordinates at work all have their way.
We all told them if they insist on getting their way there will be problems.
B/C everybody can’t have their way.
How many times when you insisted on getting your own way you ended up getting in your own way.
If you get your way you end up getting in your own way
We can push and bully and force our way down the throats of everybody else.
Up to a point, we can force our kids or grand kids to do things our way.
At that time you get your way, but the relationship is severely damaged you don’t get what you want now.
Maybe you were one of those children who were forced by your parents to do everything their way and now you struggle w/ your thoughts about that parent.
At that time you got your way, but in time the relationship was so damaged
At our church in Indiana we had crowding issues so I forced 2 adult classes to change hours.
I forced the change, got what I wanted, but lost the respect of just about every adult in those classes.
I got my way at that time but lost what I wanted, their desire to follow my lead.
First, I want my way.
But, if I get my way, I will get in my own way and I may lose my way.
Second, I want to do what I want to do.
There are things that we want.
But really, we want to do what we want to do.
We want to do what we want to do and we want everybody else to want to do what we want to do.
I Want to do What I Want to do
We want to do what we want to do and we want everybody else to want to do what we want to do.
But, if we do what we want to do we end up where we don’t want to be.
As adults, no one can force you to do anything.
We want to do what we want to do and we want everybody else to want to do what we want to do.
Parents, Grandparents, it helps for us to understand this and communicate it to our kids.
A transition is made
After a certain point, size, age, or whatever, no one can force you to do anything.
But, we can, however, keep you from doing things.
That’s what prisons do.
Jail is an adult “time-out” or “Getting grounded”
If you do just what you want to do then you will end up in a place you don’t want to be.
And, your options will be limited.
Jail’s not the only place you don’t want to be.
Hospitals are another place adults who did what they wanted to do were forced to take a time out.
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