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
Anger
Disgust
Fear
Joy
Sadness
Language
Analytical
Confident
Tentative
Social Tendencies
Openness
Conscientiousness
Extraversion
Agreeableness
Emotional Range
Anger
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INTRO: As many of you know, I have been under the weather lately.
Like most men, when I’m sick I face it with all of the fortitude and strength of a baby faun caught in the jaws of a mighty wolf.
Yep, I’m just gonna lay there and let the predator devour me in all of my pathetic weakness, giving in to the overwhelming enemy of sickness that women seem to be able to work through, but us men crumble under the weight of it like Superman wearing kryptonite underwear.
We’re powerless!
In fact, the only strength we can muster is the strength to push the buttons on the TV remote.
On a good day we can summon the ability to make our kids bring us stuff.
But usually, TV watching is all we have the energy for.
So I was in this very sad state recently and I found myself watching Fixer Upper, the show with Chip and Joanna Gaines where they take the worst house in the best neighborhood and transform it into someone’s dream house!
It’s a good show, and it’s interesting to see the houses transformed from drab or dilapidated to amazing!
There's one part of the show that makes me giggle every time, though.
It’s when, during the intro to the show’s concept that Joanna Gaines says,...
There's one part of the show that makes me giggle every time, though.
It’s when, during the intro to the show’s concept that Joanna Gaines says,...
“Do you have the guts to take on a fixer upper?”
Now, normally, and for most people, the answer would be “NO!
I am not going to gut his house and try to rebuild it!”
Because, for most people the ability just isn’t there.
I have some ability in this area, but still, I would consider this a daunting task.
But, if I had a house and Chip and Joanna Gaines and their team came and were going to fix it up, then…YES!
Let’s do this !
And that’s what tickles me a bit about the question Joanna asks in the show’s intro, “Do you have the guts to take on a fixer upper?”
It’s not like the people in this show who get the house in the end are doing the work.
So if I could buy a dilapidated house in a great neighborhood and have Chip and Joanna Gaines and their team come do all the work, what kind of guts would that take?
NONE!
The work’s being done for me!
They do the work, I reap the benefit!
No guts required!
I like that deal.
And if everyone could do it THAT WAY, then everyone would do it, perhaps!
EVERYONE would have the guts the take on a fixer upper!
Today, I want you to know that taking on your Christian walk is like that, too.
We think we need the guts, or the tools, or the know-how to tackle it.
But God is saying “It’s MY guts, My tools, My work that is going to get you through this, not your own efforts!”
When facing this life, God says,...
Isaiah 41
Yet, we face this life as Christians and STILL continue in our opinions that it’s too hard!
Why do we have to be the moral ones in an immoral world?
Its too hard!
People are going to question my faith; they’re going to mock me and make me feel stupid for following Jesus!
Why should I live according to Jesus’ words when the wicked prosper?
Why should I miss out on all the fun?!
Despite the fact that God is with us, that scripture tells us...
Philippians 4
…we still insist it’s sooooo hard to live for Christ!
I made fun of Joanna Gaines’ question “Do you have the guts to take on a fixer upper?”
But I guess there is still a moment when whoever is going to lean on them for their dream home has to do just that, lean on them for the results.
So let me concede this...
You do need the guts to lean on God for the content and the results of your life!
So, Christians, have some guts to face this world because you have been given the answers to the questions that EVERYONE has about this life.
But in order to help your fellow human being find these answer, you’ve got to have the guts to seek them with your God and Savior.
Do you have the guts?
1. Do you have the guts give your entire self to Him?
We humans have a problem surrendering ourselves to anyone or anything, don’t we?
But it’s not hard at all to prove that we are more than willing to surrender ourselves completely in many ways
We surrender ourselves completely when we...
…fly on airplanes.
We walk onto that plane and plop down in the seat and lean back and completely surrender our entire selves to the physics of flight and the pilots.
We don’t get to see the pilot’s license, nor test his abilities in any way; we have trusted (surrendered) that to someone else.
…have surgery.
I have only had one real surgery, a knee scrape to repair a meniscus tear a few years ago.
I had to completely surrender myself to those nurses and the doctor.
I didn’t get to test him first, and I didn’t get to try him out against other doctors/surgeons.
I just had to lay there and submit; I do thank God for the drugs that made it painless, by the way.
…fall in love (if you’re doing it right).
Some people have a great issue with this one because they’ve been hurt and they can’t seem to give in to that possibility again.
But in order to do love right, you have to surrender 100%.
How would it work ?
There’s no condition where you are sorta in love, sorta committed, sorta surrendered.
Do you have the guts to follow Him?
If you’re married, I don’t know anyone’s mate who says, you know, I would like about 80% of your loyalty
That does not work with people and...
Sorta surrendered does not work with God!
He is God.
He is Lord.
Don’t start trying to convince yourself that you can sort of partly surrender.
That doesn’t work.
If you are going to call yourself a Christian, if you’re going to come to church every week, have the guts to surrender it all to Him!
Give yourself as a living sacrifice!
Do you have the guts to surrender your ALL to him?
2. Do you have the guts to follow Him?
So often we find people at our altars because they have had an emotional experience in a worship service, or at an event.
I’m not even suggesting here today that the experience wasn’t real.
Of course there is emotion involved in all this; we’re talking about life-change.
But what about after that initial decision?
What happens after the “altar experience?”
The altar-call is an interesting development in the history of the Christian church.
I may at times sound like I am for it, and at other times against it today.
I guess I can tolerate it because the Bible does speak of having an experience with Jesus, a moment in time, although it does not describe, nor promote anything like what we have in the modern church called an altar call.
So there it is; the Bible doesn’t describe, nor prescribe it, but we use it as a means to help people mark that moment in time when they saw/realized their need for Christ.
Charles Finney, an American Presbyterian preacher who led what is called the second Great Awakening in the United States, which ran from the late 18th through the early 19th centuries, developed what are called by church historians “new measures,” and among these was the altar call; a way to quantify the work of the Holy Spirit.
Incidentally, I will still use this tool of the modern church to help people mark that moment in their lives.
Although there is no Biblical model for it, I do not see it as being antithetical to scripture.
Let us just agree today that there is an experience, or a revelation, or an epiphany, or again a moment in time when we see our need for Jesus in our lives - whatever we want to call it - and from that moment/experience/epiphany/revelation there is the question of...
Now what?!
The answer is,
NOW WHAT?
NOW YOU HAVE TO HAVE THE GUTS TO FOLLOW HIM!
Do you have the guts to stay with Him in the worst of times?
When the world, and your friends and family around you are telling how ridiculous this is, are you going to have the guts to stay on course?
Free will means you have the choice to be gutless.
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