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
0.07UNLIKELY
Fear
0.12UNLIKELY
Joy
0.63LIKELY
Sadness
0.56LIKELY
Language Tone
Analytical
0.53LIKELY
Confident
0UNLIKELY
Tentative
0.01UNLIKELY
Social Tone
Openness
0.49UNLIKELY
Conscientiousness
0.94LIKELY
Extraversion
0.35UNLIKELY
Agreeableness
0.75LIKELY
Emotional Range
0.68LIKELY
Tone of specific sentences
Tones
Emotion
Language
Social Tendencies
Anger
< .5
.5 - .6
.6 - .7
.7 - .8
.8 - .9
> .9
It is a common thing for churches to do some kind of vision Sunday during the month of January to set the spiritual tone for the year.
I sometimes do this, and sometimes I don’t.
This year, God impressed it upon my heart to set a vision and a focus for 2023.
Why?
Why do we need a Sunday to set a vision and renew our focus?
Because it is so easy to abandon “the love you had at first.”
Or you to depart from your first love!
First in terms of degree.
What ought to be the first or supreme love in our lives.
We believers, who are still in these mortal bodies, still having the presence of sin within our whole person, have a tendency to wander!
Prone to wander, Lord I feel it, prone to leave the God I love.
And what happens when we depart from our primary or first love?
What is the direct consequence of this?
V. 5- Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the WORKS you did at first.
Or do the FIRST WORKS.
When the priority of our love is in order- we have a proper first love, or supreme love- in other words God is the object of our first love, what happens to our works?
We do the FIRST WORKS!
What happens when we depart or abandon our first love?
Our works suffer.
We stop doing the works of first priority.
What does that mean for us a church?
We get derailed!
We start majoring on secondary or tertiary or even later “ary’s.”
Not that those things are unimportant, but they are NOT FIRST WORKS!
We say it this way to make it simple-
We want to make the main thing the MAIN THING.
When we have our love sorted out- when we make God the protos love the first degree love the chief love- then we do the supremely important works- and they become our focus!
We love the Lord with all our heart, might, soul, strength- this is the first and greatest commandment and the second is like unto it- we love our neighbor as our self.
What do I mean?
What does it look like when a church gets its focus off the main thing?
COVID- mask mandates, opinions of elected officials, the jab.
What happened to churches that made these things the main thing?
What are the pitfalls going to be in 2023?
What will derail us this year?
Recession?
Busyness?
Self-centeredness?
What does it look like when a church gets its focus on the main thing?
Good News about the good news testimony time, Alyssa.
Can’t share that testimony because of livestream.
If you know you know!
Dear Alyssa with tears in her eyes shared a gospel story.
She became focused on loving people, on spiritual new birth, and my heart swelled within me.
And then one of you led us in corporate pray for a gospel need.
And in that moment what happened to the focus of our church?
What I want to do this morning is to set our vision for 2023.
And then to elevate one spiritual discipline that I want us to focus on for the year.
What is the vision of Faith in 2023?
Why do we exist as a church?
What is our mission’s statement?
It is everywhere in this church.
It’s on the TV as you walk in the door, it’s on the screens every service, it’s on our website, I talk about it regularly.
Do you know it?
Faith Baptist Church exists to EQUIP and INSPIRE people to KNOW and BECOME like JESUS for the GLORY of GOD
Equip- teaching ministry, bring to bear the authority of the Word of God in people’s lives.
We have many different ways we do this at Faith, but a significant one is through the ministry of making disciples.
Inspire- our example, not just what we teach, not just what we say, but what we do.
We want to be an example for other people to imitate!
Know Jesus- Why this language?
Become like Jesus- Why this goal?
For the glory of God- this is our bottom- this underpins everything we do as a church, we are primarily doxoligical in our methodology.
How are we going to move our mission statement forward in 2023?
Last year we spent a considerable amount of time praying, and planning, and writing a 10 year vision statement.
We set forward 5 primary spiritual growth goals for how we want this church to grow over the next decade!
Do you remember them?
They are on the screens every service.
Disciple Making Culture; 2. Ministry Training Program; 3. Community Engagement; 4. Church Planting; 5. Global Missions
Here is our Vision folks!
This is how we want to grow in 2023.
We have already set out a plan, we have prayed over that plan, now we need to start taking baby steps of obedience in faith towards accomplishing that plan.
How?
1. Disciple-Making Culture
Why do we make this our priority?
Why is this the main thing in our church?
Matthew 28:18 (ESV)
18 And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.
Because Jesus, my Savior, my first love, commanded me with ALL AUTHORITY to do it.
What is our primary commission?
Matthew 28:19 (ESV)
19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
This is the primary command Jesus gives us.
To make disciples.
All of us- the expectation if Jesus commanded it of us is that we should all be able to make at least one disciple in our lifetime.
How do we carry out this command?
Matthew 28:19–20 (ESV)
19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.
And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
We make disciples by going- into our communities
We make disciples by baptizing- This assumes faith in Christ, then baptism is the first step of obedience and also the entry marker of being a disciple of Jesus.
We make disciples by teaching- teaching what?
ALL that Jesus has commanded us!
To observe all that that He has commanded us.
Takes a lifetime.
Follow ONE—Win ONE—Lead One
My heart is burdened for the middle statement.
WIN ONE.
Friends we need to see spiritual new birth.
That is the hallmark of a healthy church.
We must be able to spiritual reproduce ourselves in our community.
This needs to be our vision for 2023.
< .5
.5 - .6
.6 - .7
.7 - .8
.8 - .9
> .9