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
0.06UNLIKELY
Disgust
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Fear
0.71LIKELY
Joy
0.56LIKELY
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
0.75LIKELY
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
Language
Social Tendencies
Anger
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(1)
We are prone to ignoring our fears; to waving it away.
We distract ourselves; we stay busy; we recite pious platitudes.
Whenever we feel our hearts palpitating in fear we say to ourselves,
In the back of our minds we think that being afraid is a sign of weakness.
And that fear itself is inherently sinful.
“I musn’t be afraid.”
“I shouldn’t be afraid.”
Nobody feels strong when they are afraid.
In fact, we feel week.
Nobody associates fear with faith.
We approximate fear to be a close ally of doubt, not faith.
Fear, we say, is inherently sinful.
A good test of our basic outlook on fear is to to straight to Gethsemane
What is your basic outlook on fear?
Perhaps this is why we question whether our Lord Jesus was ever afraid.
We get defensive when someone attributes fear to our Lord in the garden of Gethsemane.
We find it hard to accept that the simplest and most human explanation for Jesus’ action that night is sorrow and deep dread over his impending arrest, death, and the burden of the world’s sin on his soul.
We fail to see the telltale sign of sheer horror—feeling one is about to die and wanting loved ones to stay close by:
We spiritualize away the sheer horror Jesus feels when he sees not the Father’s face but His back, as he hangs dying on the cross.
That he’s going to die and be separated from the Father he loves with all his being for the rest of eternity.
Using the language of —a psalm steeped in the language of fear—Jesus cries out,
(2)
So follow Jesus to the psalms.
There we find something extraordinary.
There, fear is openly acknowledged and wre with before God.
Psalm 55:1
Fear is not inherently sinful that must be avoided at all costs.
Rather, fear offers opportunities unique in the life of faith.
Fear distorts our perception of reality.
It turns reality on its head.
It makes u feel weaker than we are. it makes our problems appear bigger and insurmountable than they actually are.
More alarmingly, it makes God weaker than he actually is.
Fear makes us feel weaker than we really are.
It makes our problems sem huge and unassailable.
It makes God seem weak and uncaring in the face of our troubles.
Fear makes our problems sem huge and unassailable.
“Fear reverses reality by making evil seem all-conquering, and God impotent.”
-The Cry of the Soul, 99.
Fear makes God seem uncaring, week, and impotent to help us in our times of trouble.
(3)
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