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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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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I needed Saving
I don’t remember much of that day - most of it is a blur.
I remember it being cold.
I remember it snowing.
I remember being miserable.
It was winter and I was with the Boy Scouts troop 35 out of Johnson City.
We were doing a camporee or a Jamboree or something like that where troops from all over were gathered together at Davy Crockett Birthplace State Park.
I remember hating it.
I hated camping.
In a world where such a thing as a Chiropractic pillow and a temperpedic mattress exist it is beyond me why anyone would willingly choose to sleep on the cold hard ground.
But I went anyway.
I took my little gray sleeping bag and my dads old orange pup tent and in the cold wind I set up my little shelter from the storm that was about to blow through.
Little did I know, it would not be enough to help me.
The winter storm rolled through East Tennessee dumping snow on all of us as we slept.
Normally that wouldn’t be a problem, a little snow never hurt anyone right?
But that night as we slept and the wind howled and the snow came down the tree branches above our group began to bend under the ever increasing weight of the snow.
More and more came down until one of the branches just couldn’t bear the load any longer and it snapped.
And who do you think was under that particular bough of the tree in his little orange pup tent in his little gray sleeping bag?
Me - yeah, me.
The branch and snow came down and while thankfully the branch didn’t land on me, the snow did and it completely collapsed my little pup tent.
Now I was so exhausted that I mostly slept through this.
I remember vaguely wondering why my face was cold and wet, but I chalked it up to the fact that I was camping and that it just goes with the territory.
That’s how my mind works when I’m sleeping - I become much more pessimistic and sarcastic.
That’s why if you ever have the misfortune of talking to me before coffee in the morning I just apologize now.
I’m sorry for the things I say before coffee, when I’m still not fully awake I can say some terrible and mean things that I have to apologize for later.
It’s not pretty.
So all night long I lay under a pile of snow inside a thin little collapsed tent.
All the while my body heat is radiating out and the snow is slowly melting and refreezing all around me.
In the morning I vaguely remember wondering what happened.
I wondered why I was cold and wet and why everything felt frozen.
I wondered why my face was right against the fabric of my orange pup tent rather than staring up at it above me.
It took me a second to get my bearings but when I finally did and managed to dig my way out from my frozen crumpled mess of a tent.
I put the pieces together about what happened, but my head felt funny, my whole body felt funny.
I was dreadfully cold and I felt sleepy in a way that was very unfamiliar.
Our troop along with all the others made their way to the morning muster around the flagpoles for the start of the day.
I remember stumbling down the road to the ceremony.
I remember lifting my arm to salute the flag and snapping my legs and knees into their proper position for the salute, but just as my hand approached my brow, the world began to go dark.
I don’t remember what happened next.
I don’t remember slumping to the ground.
I don’t remember my friends trying to figure out what was wrong with me.
I vaguely recall them dragging me back to camp where the adults were but after that I was out for good.
A few hours later I recall waking up warm which was a nice feeling for once.
I was curled in a ball wrapped in blankets and I was in the back of an SUV.
I have no memory of how I got there or who put me there, but man oh man was I glad they did.
Come to find out I had a little bit of hypothermia, my core body temperature had dropped because of the cold and the melting and refreezing snow all around me for hours.
My body just finally decided it had had enough and when I saluted I went unconscious for a bit.
My fellow scouts delivered me from the morning muster and my scoutmaster took me and got me as dry and warm as he could raising my body temp and bringing some life back into my unconscious body.
I needed someone to deliver me, because I was totally incapable of helping myself - I was powerless.
Today all across the country preachers are preaching the Superbowl message of sermons - Resurrection Sunday.
The one Sunday a year where people can manage to drag family members out to church who don’t normally go to church.
Maybe you’re here because someone dragged you here.
And thousands of preachers across America have labored tirelessly for weeks now trying to come up with the right words to connect with you folks who don’t normally attend in hopes of somehow managing to get you to stay.
But you know what I’m not interested in the least if you stay.
I’m interested in if you know the Gospel.
And I know what you’re thinking.
Of course I know the gospel preacher man, I may not be here every Sunday or any Sunday except Easter but I know the Gospel.
Do you really?
Are you sure?
Well sure I’m sure.
I grew up in church.
Was born and raised in it.
Yeah that’s not what I asked.
I asked do you know the Gospel?
Well I know all about Jesus.
He did miracles.
He was a good teacher.
He was a nice guy who just loves everybody.
Yeah again I didn’t ask if you know ABOUT Jesus, I asked do you know the Gospel?
Have you ever even heard it?
Could you articulate it to me clearly?
Well of course I accepted Jesus into my heart at church camp.
Yeah that’s not what I asked.
Jesus doesn’t need your acceptance, He doesn’t want a one and done statement of “faith” that you can’t even remember a day, month, or year for - What I asked is do you know the Gospel?
And I know in the heart of the Bible belt that may seem a strange notion, especially to you who “grew up in church,” but I’ll be honest I worry most for those of you who did.
I was listening to a great preacher recently who was talking about the most recent bunch of baptisms his church had done and the testimonies - the stories of conversion that were shared.
And there were a few that were really dramatic and powerful, but for the most part he said that he was distraught because story after story was the same.
Men and women of all ages related how they had grown up in church, but had walked away from it.
They had either stopped attending or stopped believing and they just drifted away until later in life they finally for the first time encountered the real Gospel.
And like this preacher when I heard that I was distraught that so many could have so much contact with the church when they were younger and yet have no exposure whatsoever to the Gospel.
So this morning - that’s what you’re going to get.
If you have a Bible open to Col 1:13-23
If you’re like me and you grew up in church you probably heard the same message a lot.
You need to “accept” Jesus into your heart.
You need to “let” Jesus in and sit on the throne of your heart.
You need to say a prayer and then go take a bath in the baptistry because that’s what gets you “saved.”
But what if I told you all of that while well intentioned isn’t the Gospel?
What if I told you Jesus doesn’t need your acceptance?
What if I told you that the whole notion of “letting” God do anything is absurd?
What if I told you that a one and done prayer followed by a quick dunk in water doesn’t save you?
What if I told you that rather than you accepting Jesus to be saved, He needs to accept you?
What if I told you that you don’t let God in, He lets you in?
What if I told you that God isn’t interested in a set of words you said once as a kid, but rather that He’s interested in what you believe and what you’re doing with you life right now?
What if I told you that the water you got dunked in is meaningless if you don’t actually know the Gospel?
Colossians 1:13
I have bad news.
All around the country today everyone if proclaiming good news, but me I have bad news.
I have news so bad that it will make your head spin.
I have news so terrible that it is life altering.
I have news that when you hear it and understand it you will wail and weep as the prophets of old did.
Are you ready for it?
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