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
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Anger
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I remember my first love.
I was in 4th grade I think.
During lunch, me and my friends would talk about games, toys, and the girls in our class.
It was a small class so we had to talk quietly because they were just down there.
But we would each talk about the one that we thought was cutest and the one that we all agreed on was Laurie.
We all wanted her to be our girlfriend, to get her was a high reach…but as you know my wife, reaching high is something I’ve always tried to do.
At some point, she became my friend Kenny's girl, all the girls wanted him to be their boyfriend…he was awesome.
Heck even I wanted him to be my boyfriend…Not like that…They were a perfect couple, but eventually they broke up, as happens all the time in elementary school love affairs right.
This was my opportunity.
Right during science class I wrote the note.
Will you be my girlfriend?
Check yes or no.
I put myself out there, and you know what…she didn’t bother returning the note.
If I was like Jim Carey in Dumb and Dumber...
I would have said, so you're saying I have a chance… but instead I knew I had no chance.
I knew I had been rejected.
Rebound relationships never work anyway.
But instead of licking my wounds and trying again.
I did the opposite.
I reacted.
I told stories about her, I lied, I made stuff up.
I tried to save my pride.
I was hurt and embarrassed so I tried to hurt and embarrass her too.
You might say, that was pretty normal.
Maybe so for a 5th grader.
But not for an adult.
The sad part is, for much of my life this was my reaction when I was hurt by someone, or wronged by someone, including my wife and family.
When someone cuts me off in traffic, when someone goes through the express lane with 20 items when the limit is 12; when someone takes advantage of me financially.
When I’m wronged I am tempted to react in one of four ways:
1. Retaliate against the person or persons so as to hurt them in return.
This action can range from speaking sarcasm, to expressing anger, to violence, or even to murder.
2. Gossip by telling others about what “they” did to you, when the others do not need to know.
We tell anyone who will listen to us tell how bad they are and how we are such a victim.
3. Withdraw from my relationship with this person or the group.
I simply abandon the relationship.
WE see this in divorces, changing churches, jobs, friendships, etc.
4. Curse the offender in my thoughts or in maybe in my prayers, asking God to work negatively against them or by telling others of my feelings of them.
These are reactions to emotions.
My feelings cause me to hurt others because the rule of life is that
Hurting people hurt people.
For many years I lived out of the hurt that others had brought into my life and because I was hurt, I chose to hurt others.
It was what I knew.
Fight fire with fire.
React.
Do you ever find yourself needlessly hurting people with your words when they have wronged you?
What if there was a way we could disconnect our behaviour from our feelings.
What if we could treat people like children of God even when they act like spawns of satan.
I mean we are responsible for how we act, aren’t we - just as they are responsible for how they act.
Our world is all about pointing fingers of blame, accusing others; what if we broke that pattern.
So how do we love those who are hard to love?
What would that look like?
That’s what we are going to discover today.
New Testament Challenge
Last week, Michelle invited you to sign up for the Challenge.
Some of you did, some of you didn’t.
It’s not too late to jump in.
I believe that for many of us, the Christian faith is like putting together a puzzle.
We have an idea what it’s supposed to look like, but man is it hard to find the right piece when we need it.
In this series, I want us to get familiar with what the life is supposed to look like so the pieces are in place BEFORE we need them…wouldn’t that be great.
Like today’s look at Radical Love.
Imagine you going through life when you come across one of those people who need a special kind of love and BAM, there it is.
Radical Love just falls into place.
No need to hunt for the piece.
That’s what the challenge is all about, it has 4 elements.
2. I will strive to attend each Sunday service over these next 9 weeks.
3. I will allow God to speak into my life through His word and the messages over these next 9 weeks.
4. I will seek to take any steps, by the power of the Holy Spirit, that the Lord reveals to me over these next 9 weeks.
It’s not too late for you to jump in though.
In fact, our small group bible studies that I am a part, will meet this week to discuss the first week’s readings.
Next week I hope you can come back to join us for a special treat.
A local son, Ed Pickering, from North Point Marina is coming to share with us.
Ed and his wife Amy run a nonprofit that is doing amazing work in Siera Leone, and I have asked him to come and share with us how the New Testament challenged them to Generosity.
Today we are looking at Jesus’s challenge to radical love.
It’s radical, because the love that Jesus talked a lot about was the Greek word was agape.
ἀγαπε
Agape is just one of the three words in the Greek that gets translated LOVE.
Others are Eros, sexual love which isn’t in the NT.
Phileō is the natural affection, with more feeling than reason, understood as brotherly love.
Another is storgē is the familial love.
But by far most often used in the NT is agape.
Defined as to love the undeserving, despite disappointment and rejection.
Not a love of attraction or charm, but one of principal.
It’s the love of John 13:
These loves here are verbs, actions, not feelings.
In fact agape has nothing to do with how we feel.
This is what makes it radical love.
Radical Love
Agape love is showing love for those who don’t deserve it just as you would those who do.
That’s why it’s radical.
Normally we love people when we feel like it.... your friends, family, kids, church members, etc.
But Jesus though calls us to Agape love which is about a decision, it’s about choosing to show love.
It was covered in our readings this week.
A passage all about love, but you didn’t hear about feelings.
This love is disconnected from our feelings.
Jesus describes what radical love looks like?
The first thing that jumps out in this passage is that:
A Radical love chooses to Respond to evil Peacefully
Earlier in the text from Matthew 5, Jesus said, if someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also.
Now this may not sound like love, but it sure is radical.
It’s choosing to respond, not react.
When we make this choice, one of two things can happen.
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