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
0.1UNLIKELY
Disgust
0.11UNLIKELY
Fear
0.11UNLIKELY
Joy
0.65LIKELY
Sadness
0.51LIKELY
Language Tone
Analytical
0.4UNLIKELY
Confident
0UNLIKELY
Tentative
0.58LIKELY
Social Tone
Openness
0.89LIKELY
Conscientiousness
0.57LIKELY
Extraversion
0.48UNLIKELY
Agreeableness
0.87LIKELY
Emotional Range
0.31UNLIKELY
Tone of specific sentences
Tones
Emotion
Language
Social Tendencies
Anger
< .5
.5 - .6
.6 - .7
.7 - .8
.8 - .9
> .9
\\ "Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart
be acceptable to you, O Lord, my strength and my redeemer."
Page #_
"For The Love Of God Is Contagious"
(Mark 7:31-36; Luke 5:12-15; 2 Corinthians 5:16-20)
*INTRODUCTION:*
A number of years ago, the computer magazine, PC World did a review of a book entitled The Policeman's Beard is Half Constructed, (Warner Books, New York, 1984).
It is a book that was written by a computer program called Racter (short for Raconteur) from Mindscape.
The software was developed to help people do brainstorming.
The book is filled with essays, poems, limericks, stories and conversations, all of which were written by the computer using this software.
Here's a couple of examples which Racter came up with:
/Enthralling surgeons will dance quickly with tripping stenographers.
They will sing and chant of their passion and their love and their desire.
They will yodel their dreams to the stenographers who will answer and respond:/ 'We ponder that hedges are like bushes.'
/Bill and Marcellis skipped speedily down the highway to Bill's cottage crooning,/ 'Get ready for an ongoing ambiguity.'
/ Instantly they recognized that winging doves were as appalling as their contracts, that sashaying brothers guided their hearts through angry dreams.
/
I don't have a clue about what any of that means.
Racter also came up with a number of questions to ponder: /"I'm afraid of idle tapeworms; what are you afraid of?"/
But one off the questions made me stop and think.
Racter asked:/ "Is having a soul contagious?"/ (1) Think about it!
I might have just laughed at the article and gone on to something else, except for one thing.
Shortly after reading the article, I was unwinding late one Sunday night, riding the airwaves and doing some channel surfing when I ran across a program I didn't even know existed.
The title of the program was "The American Atheist" and its host was Madeline Murray O'Hare.
I don't really remember what they were talking about, except that she thought everyone involved in religion was deluded.
I don't remember the exact words but basically she thought religion was a plague or a disease and should be stamped out.
At first I was appalled but I got to thinking about what she said.
She made some very good points about our involvement in certain areas, such as the Crusades, the Spanish Inquisition and things like that.
You can find a ton of examples of the things the church has done wrong in the name of God.
But for every thing that has been done wrong, there is at least a ton of things which have been done right.
And there is a boat load of people whose lives have been changed.
That's what the Church is all about, changing lives.
Ms.
O'hare was correct in another aspect as well.
She described religion as a disease.
I don't think it is a disease but it sure is catching.
The love of God is contagious.
It is contagious because lives are changed; people are changed; the old is made into something new; those who are thought to be worthless by the world find value and love through a relationship with God through Christ.
People find meaning, direction and purpose where before there was emptiness.
This is what keeps the Church going.
This is what keeps people coming and joining.
Having a soul might not be contagious but the love of God is.£
*I.
RESILIENT:*
* *One of the reasons the Love of God is contagious is that it is resilient.
It has the ability to be flexible and bend and withstand whatever is thrown against it.
It withstands the strain without breaking or being permanently damaged.
And in most cases it is strengthened rather than weakened.
When the resiliency of God's love fills us, then our lives are resilient as well.
We are able to withstand more.
We are able to bend more without breaking.
It's not us but the power and presence of God in us through the Holy Spirit.
And that's an important word to hear, especially since we live in a time of life when we never know when the next storm will hit.
Grandma and Grandpa were driving across Kansas on vacation with their five-year-old granddaughter.
They were enjoying the sights, especially the beautiful fields of corn.
The wind was blowing hard and Grandma commented:/ "Looks like the wind could blow the corn down."/
Their five-year-old granddaughter piped up,/ "Oh, no, it's planted deep, Grandma.
And you don't blow down when you're planted deep."/
(2)
* *They say, /"out of the mouths of babes."
/What a marvelous way of putting it.
/"You don't blow down when you're planted deep."/
The love of God fills us and allows us to be planted deep and to grow deep roots.
Others notice that and they come in search of what we have.
They see the resiliency of God's love and it's catching.
They see that God's love is contagious and resilient.
*II.
COMMUNICABLE:*
* A.
*Another aspect which makes God's love contagious is that it is communicable.
It's Good News so it's easy to spread.
It's easy to spread because it's not our message.
When we only talk about ourselves, we become boring, trite, egotistical and self-centered.
When we talk about ourselves we usually run out things to say after awhile.
When we talk about ourselves, we usually turn people off because they want to talk about themselves.
But this isn't about us.
This is not our message.
This is about God and God's love.
It's easy to tell someone they are loved.
Good News is always easy to share and talk about.
It's like giving someone a present.
I enjoy really giving gifts.
I get excited just thinking about it.
I like seeing the reaction on other people's faces when they open an unexpected present.
I believe the Good News of God's love is just that, a gift from God, an unexpected present that gives life and fills life with joy.
*B.
*One of the nick-names given to the early Methodists was /"The Enthusiasts."/
That nickname, just like the word /"Methodist"/ wasn't meant to be a compliment.
It was meant as a put down.
We were looked upon as being weirdos.
We were the fringe element of the faith.
We were called /"Methodists"/ because we were so methodical in our approach to the living of our faith.
We were labeled as radicals and /"enthusiasts"/ because we were so enthusiastic about our faith and enjoyed our faith so much.
But the word "enthusiasm" comes from two Greek words /"en"/ and /"theos,"/ meaning /"in God."/
Early Methodists were put down because they tried to live their lives /"en theos,"/ or /"in God./"
Just think about how much more joy there would be in the world if we all tried to live /"en theos"/ or /"in God"/ today.
I'm not sure who this guy is, but he has a name that's long enough that he should be important.
Edward George Earle Bulwer-Lytton said, /"Nothing is so contagious as enthusiasm; it moves stones, it charms brutes.
Enthusiasm is the genius of sincerity, and truth accomplishes no victories without it."/
Living our faith enthusiastically is one of the ways that the love of God is made contagious.
We communicate, through our lives, that God's love is real, that God's love has power, that God's love is not pie in the sky but is important and has effected a change in our lives.
The easiest way to spread the Good News of God's love is simply by living it enthusiastically.
< .5
.5 - .6
.6 - .7
.7 - .8
.8 - .9
> .9