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
0.09UNLIKELY
Disgust
0.07UNLIKELY
Fear
0.1UNLIKELY
Joy
0.64LIKELY
Sadness
0.54LIKELY
Language Tone
Analytical
0.65LIKELY
Confident
0UNLIKELY
Tentative
0.42UNLIKELY
Social Tone
Openness
0.8LIKELY
Conscientiousness
0.83LIKELY
Extraversion
0.3UNLIKELY
Agreeableness
0.86LIKELY
Emotional Range
0.7LIKELY
Tone of specific sentences
Tones
Emotion
Language
Social Tendencies
Anger
< .5
.5 - .6
.6 - .7
.7 - .8
.8 - .9
> .9
Communion
Happy new year.
I hope you all enjoyed your celebrations, even if it was celebrating an East Coast new year and going to bed early (my favorite!)
We are a celebratory species.
We love to celebrate.
When we do, we do so with people, decor, meaningful meals.
(The holiday tree…)
When we talk about the Lord Supper, we use that same word.
We celebrate Communion.
We celebrate together
We celebrate a person
We celebrate an event
We celebrate in solemness
We celebrate in joy
Let’s take together today in celebration of Christ, his birth, and most importantly, his death and resurrection when give us life and lead us to be the church today.
1 cor
Chair Update
Chair Update: 17 more chairs were sponsored last week.
This puts us at 88 people who are being prayed for.
88 people who do not know Jesus who have a church coming along side them in prayer.
What will God do with those prayers?
I can’t wait to see what he does not only in the lives of those folks, but in our hearts as they are more greatly tuned to his kingdom.
Reminder that we will officially close the books on this push on the 20th, 2 more Sundays.
Then we will get out the prayer guides and really get to it.
Pray for Lost and Sermon
Introduction
Several years ago, Monica and I were foster parents.
A difficult but rewarding season of life.
In thinking about this morning’s text, my mind wandered to a conversation I had with our first foster son, he was 3 and came with his 8 month old sister to live with us for a few months.
I sat him down on his bed and said:
D, do you know who you are? Yes, I’m Dejavon.
Do you know who else you are? Confused look...
You are a big brother.
Do you know what that means?
It means you are a protector.
You are Jazzie’s defender.
You have a job to make her feel safe and loved.
No one else is her big brother.
And no one else is your little sister.
She depends on you to be big brother.
Can you do that?
Paul has been...
speaking profound truths about who we are in Christ for the first 2 chapters of Ephesians.
Culminating with the great truth of God building his church, he is preparing to shift into the practical side of things, in other words, what that means.
Here in chapter 3 we see an interesting thing happen.
He begins a prayer…then stops.
He realizes there he needs to make a point clear before he jumps to the practical.
He looks back and points to his own life as an outworking of the truths in the first 2 chapters of this letter.
Let me explain why I had that conversation with Dejavon
When they came into our home, we were warned that we were dealing with a violent and defiant boy.
Truthfully, he was a 3 year old desperately in need of boundaries and stability.
Nonetheless, when they moved in, we caught him coming up where his sister was sitting and pulling her leg so she would fall down.
He would bump into her in a hurtful way whenever possible.
When she would hear his voice, she would retract...
After telling him no a dozen times, we sat down for our chat.
The Ephesians
Needed to know who they were.
We all do.
Paul spent 2 chapters sitting them down on the bed and telling them what they needed to hear.
Now we get to this great transition piece.
Let’s read the text together before we break it down.
What we will see in this section is Paul applying the truths of 1-2 to himself.
Though some elements are unique to Paul, there are principles which we can take into our lives.
And the great part is, this entire section…is a rabbit trail…And you thought it was just me.
Paul’s Footsteps
This will make more sense next week, but as a sneak peek, here is verse 14:
See a similarity?
That dash at the end of verse 1 is the translators way of showing Paul was leaving off a thought which he would come back to.
In other words, verses 2-13 are a rabbit trail, a side note, a story worth telling.
Like the way my opening story makes more sense once you understand the context of my little meeting.
Paul’s story becomes the bridge between a theology of our identity in Christ to the practical outworking of what we are now through that new identity.
To give it some some context, when you take a CPR and First Aid class…Being certified is a part of your identity.
Being responsible to act in a moment of need is what you are.
When you become a pastor, teacher, or social worker, you are someone people look to for counsel.
Becoming a mandatory reporter, that is… is a part of what you are.
If in Christ you are Adopted, chosen, sealed, enlightened, alive from the dead, and a part of a larger and greater kingdom of God, then it follows that there will be responsibility and action on the other side.
Let’s look at some principles:
You can see that Paul built through 1 and 2 up to the idea of the unified kingdom, including Jew and Gentile as a peak of that new identity in Christ.
It matters to Paul that we see ourselves not according to our nationality, race, background, or other cultural identities, but as a part of a building being built by God.
In other words, the good news is that the gulf between the Jew and the Gentile is microscopic compared to the gulf between God and sinful, rebellious humanity…and Jesus overcame that gap.
How much more should those smaller gaps be overcome able through him.
Paul sees in his own life the way God, in Christ, overcame that gulf in his life, and now has given him insight into that mystery…now revealed.
So what did that change in Paul?
Footstep of Ministry
I finished my chat with Dejavon this way:
How should you treat her then?
We finished with a conversation about what it meant for him to have that identity.
What it meant for him to be big brother.
Paul will summarize the change in him, which is a principle for us in verse 7
In my early youth ministry positions, I really pushed hard against the title “youth minister”.
Though I didn’t have to fight here, I made sure we titled Caleb’s position, “youth pastor”.
Pastor is a role that involves leading…a group of ministers.
Truly, scripture doesn’t leave room for a follower of Jesus who does not by virtue of that fact, that they are a follower of Jesus, minister.
Let’s define that word a bit.
The first dictionary definition references clergy.
This is an unfortunate commentary on where the church (or the perception of the church) has gotten twisted.
Dig deeper into the word, or look at it’s other uses and a better picture forms for us.
Ambassador.
One who provides aid or assistance.
One who applies resources to another.
< .5
.5 - .6
.6 - .7
.7 - .8
.8 - .9
> .9