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
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Anger
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How many of you have ever been given the silent treatment before?
Maybe you have prayed and nothing.
Maybe He is answering everyone else it seems but you...
Maybe someone you love was hurt or sick, and you would love to know why God allowed it to happen, but all you seem to get back from Him is silence.
Maybe someone you love was hurt or sick, and you would love to know why God allowed it to happen, but all you seem to get back from Him is silence.
TELL A PERSONAL STORY
Tell a personal story that illustrates the following ideas...
• Talk about a time when you felt a prayer hadn’t been answered or that God was silent.
• Build the tension and don’t resolve it.
• Keep it short.
You’ll come back to your story later to give
it a conclusion.
If you have ever felt that way about God, I’ve got some great news.
You are not alone.
Sometimes it feels like we are getting the silent treatment from our Heavenly Father, doesn’t it?
For most of us, this time of year—Christmas—generally brings happy things to mind.
Family, presents, peace, candy, vacation from school...good stuff.
But the first Christmas was nothing like that at all.
There was no anticipation of hope or happiness or joy or presents like we have today.
Actually, at this time a couple of thousand years ago, a lot people felt like God had completely let them down.
After the last writer finished writing Malachi, the last book of the Old Testament, God went silent.
In fact, 400 years after His last message to His people, God still hadn’t said a thing.
This list of names reflects their story of God speaking to them over years and years and years.
We might read this list and think, “Who are all these people?”
But the Jews would have read this list and recognized each and every one.
Matt
Joseph?
Mary?
Jesus?
The Messiah? (Messiah, by the way, means savior.)
This time, through Jesus.
The Messiah.
He’s here to save the whole world.”
Whoa.
You thought you were reading a boring list of names?
Nope!
Big news.
Big unexpected news.
God isn’t silent.
God is doing something brand new in the world and His name is Jesus.
Even when it seemed like He was absent, God was there.
Here’s what I love most about this history lesson from Matthew.
What looks like just a boring list of names is actually evidence that, even when it seemed like God was silent for 400 years, God was still working.
God has never been far from us!
He has been with us the whole time.
God had a plan all along
I love that!
“But when the time had fully come.”
It means God had a plan all along, and God was working—even during the years we thought He was silent.
we’ve all wondered at some point if God is really with us, haven’t we?
What if you believed that, even if God seemed silent, He was really working?
WRAP UP YOUR PERSONAL STORY
Complete your story by illustrating the following ideas...
• Share how God eventually came through for you and an- swered your prayer.
• Or, if God never clearly answered your prayer, empha- size how God revealed that He was still with you in the midst of it.
It’s about God sending His Son into the world after so many years of silence.
Because that’s what Christmas is all about: the unexpected news that God is with you.
Always.
How does knowing that God is with you help you when you feel like He is silent?
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