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
0.48UNLIKELY
Disgust
0.52LIKELY
Fear
0.11UNLIKELY
Joy
0.59LIKELY
Sadness
0.55LIKELY
Language Tone
Analytical
0.57LIKELY
Confident
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Tentative
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Social Tone
Openness
0.69LIKELY
Conscientiousness
0.59LIKELY
Extraversion
0.21UNLIKELY
Agreeableness
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Emotional Range
0.73LIKELY
Tone of specific sentences
Tones
Emotion
Language
Social Tendencies
Anger
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Good morning and welcome to Sunday school.
This morning I would like to begin our lesson with a small skit.
Dave plays a typical husband on a Sunday afternoon ready to spend a good portion of the day planted in front of the television enjoying sports.
I’m his wife returning from the grocery store.
Skit: /Man seated in easy chair, getting ready to watch TV, soda in one hand, bag of pretzels on lap, carefully adjusting the remote on the table next to him.
When he assesses that all is in order, he reclines the chair, puts on the TV.
The sound of a football game comes from the set./
Enter: /Woman carrying two bags of groceries, car keys in teeth.
Mumbles something towards man in chair, who obviously doesn’t hear her.
/
Woman: Jack, (/louder/) Jack, (/still louder/) Jack!
Man: Huh?
Woman: Honey, I’m home.
Man: That’s nice dear.
(/Takes a sip of soda/)
Woman: Didn’t you see me struggling with the groceries?
Man: Huh?
Woman: The groceries!
Man: Oh yeah, did you get peanuts?
(/Woman mumbles and puts the bags down.
Man shrugs his shoulders and changes channel to hockey game/.)
Woman: You’ll never guess whom I ran into at the store.
Man: Huh?
Woman: At the store, you’ll never guess whom I ran into at the store.
Man: (/Looks at audience/) I’ll bet it wasn’t Mr. Peanut.
Honey, I’m watching the game.
Woman: (Sits down next to him.)
Remember our old neighbor, Mrs. Simpson?
(/Man turns the volume up./)
Jack are you listening?
Man: Huh?
Woman: Jack, I’m talking to you.
Man: Uh huh.
(Woman throws her hands up in the air.)
Woman: She said that she won the lottery and doesn’t know what to do with the money.
Man: Uh huh.
(/Changes the channel again back to football.)/
/ /
Woman: She’s hosting a party this afternoon and invited us.
/(Man switches channel back to hockey/.)
She plans to give everyone at the party $10,000.00.
Man: Uh huh.
Woman: Are you listening to me?
Man: (/Without looking up/) Uh huh.
Woman: (/Frustrated, gets up and walks to door, puts on coat/) Well, if you’re not interested, I’ll just go myself, but I’m not sharing the money with you.
Man: That’s nice dear.
Woman: (/Leaves, door slams/)
Man: (/Yells after her/) Don’t forget the peanuts!
Now don’t raise your hands; but have you been there before?
Maybe you would substitute a teenager for the husband?
Or a computer for the television?
Or how about a video game controller for the TV remote?
It’s not easy to get the attention of some people.
The title of today’s class is */“Close encounters of the God Kind -- How does God get your attention?/”*
Let’s look at a couple *historical examples*.
Turn with me to Exodus 3:1.
We find Moses out in the fields of Midian taking care of his father-in-law’s sheep.
An average pastoral Biblical scene, right?
Not really.
Moses you remember had been adopted by Pharaoh’s daughter and raised in an Egyptian Palace.
He probably received a formal education along side of Pharaoh’s children.
He had eaten at the King’s table and no doubt had an appreciation for the finer things in life.
So how did he end up in the desert wandering about looking for grass to feed someone else’s sheep?
Exodus 2:11ff tells us that he had been observing the Israelite slaves laboring in the hot Egyptian sun some 40 years earlier, and saw an Egyptian foreman beating an Israelite slave.
In a rage he killed the Egyptian and buried his body in the sand.
When Pharaoh heard of the murder he tried to have Moses killed, but Moses fled to Midian.
There he met Zipporah his wife whose father Reuel had taken him in so many years ago.
We pick up our story at Mt. Horeb, Moses had brought the sheep here to graze.
As he wanders around something catches his eye.
It is a bush on fire, yet the fire is not consuming the bush.
Curious, Moses gets closer to investigate.
Can you imagine the things going through his mind?
Maybe this is a new type of firewood.
Or maybe I’ve been out in this sun too long.
I think I would have checked my glasses.
As he got closer he heard a voice.
Now if that didn’t freak him out, I’m sure when the voice called his name; that did.
Today we would be looking for a speaker or a camera or Alan Funt to jump out and say, “Smile, you’re on candid Camera.”
But these things didn’t exist back then.
So when Moses saw the bush that burned with fire yet was not consumed and heard a voice from within it call his name
Ex 3:4 Moses responded with a feeble, /"Here I am."/
With that the voice said,
5 "Do not come any closer.
Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground."
And Moses did just that.
He might have even fallen to his knees.
Then the voice said,
6 "I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob."
God had Moses’ undivided attention.
*Fast forward a few years to Numbers 22. *
The Israelites are in the desert at war with the Amorites.
They had soundly defeated Sihon and were on their way to Moab.
Balak the King of Moab realizes that this battle is more than flesh and armaments.
He discerns that there is a spiritual element in this and that the God of the Israelites was giving them victory.
So he summons Balaam a so called prophet of Israel to come in curse the people.
We are all familiar with the story.
On the way to the battle scene Balaam has a close encounter with God.
Riding on a donkey, Balaam’s journey is halted by an angel blocking the road.
Although he doesn’t see the angel at first, the animal does and attempts to leave the road.
Balaam beats the animal back onto the road to and drives it until it reaches a narrow path between two vineyards with walls on both sides.
Unable to get past the angel the animal presses itself up against one wall crushing Balaam’s foot.
He beats her again.
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