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
0.15UNLIKELY
Disgust
0.14UNLIKELY
Fear
0.13UNLIKELY
Joy
0.51LIKELY
Sadness
0.47UNLIKELY
Language Tone
Analytical
0.84LIKELY
Confident
0UNLIKELY
Tentative
0.51LIKELY
Social Tone
Openness
0.86LIKELY
Conscientiousness
0.83LIKELY
Extraversion
0.46UNLIKELY
Agreeableness
0.77LIKELY
Emotional Range
0.68LIKELY

Tone of specific sentences

Tones
Emotion
Anger
Disgust
Fear
Joy
Sadness
Language
Analytical
Confident
Tentative
Social Tendencies
Openness
Conscientiousness
Extraversion
Agreeableness
Emotional Range
Anger
< .5
.5 - .6
.6 - .7
.7 - .8
.8 - .9
> .9
We Are What We Behold \\ How to resist the demons that accompany influence and savvy.
\\ A /Christianity Today/ editorial
*E*sther knew what was at stake in her decision.
No one approached King Xerxes without an invitation and lived to tell about it.
Not even her renowned beauty could spare Esther the same fate.
Yet who better to intervene?
Mordecai reminded her that God would save his people from Haman's plot one way or another.
So why not play a leading role in God's redemption story, Mordecai reasoned: "And who knows but that you have come to royal position for such a time as this?" (Esther 4:14).
Esther risked her life, and God saved the Jews.
Yet her relationship with Xerxes was a double-edged sword.
While her influence represented the Jews' best hope, it also caused her to pause, thinking she could survive Haman's plot as a member of the royal family.
In the same way, evangelicals have wrestled with our relationship to power.
When in a position of influence (and in our better moments), we leverage power to better the lives of our neighbors.
Cultural savvy enables us to successfully translate the gospel for a changing world.
But it's a double-edged sword—influence and savvy can also dull the gospel's transcendence.
We achieve a royal position, but soon we are using a worship service to Almighty God to hawk Justice Sunday III.
We worry that the culture has forgotten the meaning of Christmas, but we cancel Sunday worship because it's Christmas.
We fret because of our culture's biblical illiteracy, but sign up for the Sunday school class on our pet social-justice cause rather than the Bible or theology track.
In short, we complain that the church has sold out to culture, but we subconsciously give our allegiance to a political or social subculture and champion its agenda.
Scripture provides no systematic teaching for how we should relate to culture.
But it does tell us what's of first importance: "That Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures" (1 Cor.
15:3-4).
Scripture gives only one antidote for the temptation that cultural influence presents—worship of the living God.
We are what we gaze at.
"And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another" (2 Cor.
3:18, ESV).
The psalmist Asaph expressed a God-honoring attitude: "Whom have I in heaven but you?
And earth has nothing I desire besides you.
My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever" (Ps.
73:25-26).
We do not shun this world that our creator God sustains, and that means participating in one subculture or another to work for change.
But first things first: we must behold our heavenly Father in worship.
Worship, broadly conceived, comes in the form of many simple God-ward habits.
Keeping the Sabbath directs our hearts heavenward and sets us apart from a society whose busyness elbows God aside.
Sacrificial giving builds kingdom work and forces us to depend on the giver of all good things.
Reading God's Word—especially the Psalms—molds our minds for Christ-exalting worship.
As we share our faith and serve the poor, we submit our wants to the great high priest who gave his life for us and meets our needs.
Prayer and contemplation test our love—do we love God for his own sake, or do we love him for how he makes us feel?
None of these forms of worship is much concerned with influence or savvy.
Or if they are, it is influence and savvy of a very different sort.
< .5
.5 - .6
.6 - .7
.7 - .8
.8 - .9
> .9