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
0.12UNLIKELY
Disgust
0.11UNLIKELY
Fear
0.09UNLIKELY
Joy
0.65LIKELY
Sadness
0.2UNLIKELY
Language Tone
Analytical
0.77LIKELY
Confident
0UNLIKELY
Tentative
0.54LIKELY
Social Tone
Openness
0.79LIKELY
Conscientiousness
0.73LIKELY
Extraversion
0.13UNLIKELY
Agreeableness
0.79LIKELY
Emotional Range
0.58LIKELY
Tone of specific sentences
Tones
Emotion
Language
Social Tendencies
Anger
< .5
.5 - .6
.6 - .7
.7 - .8
.8 - .9
> .9
I love Dothan for a lot of reasons.
One is because it is very family oriented.
There is a lot for children and youth to be involved in.
Youth sports is a big in our area.
Your kids can play just about everything.
And since I wasn’t very good in sports growing up, I like many of you look forward to living out my dreams through my kids.
Nah, I’m just kidding…kind of.
I do enjoy watching my children in activities.
Noah has chosen to love soccer and AvaGrace has chosen to love dance.
I’m confident that they chose those because I know absolutely nothing about either of them.
I’ve got one more hope.
Maybe Keller will chose golf or baseball.
Recently I read that 3 out of 4 families that with school aged children in America has at least on child in an organized sport.
I think kids being involved in sports and other activities is very healthy for kids and families.
But I wonder if we are communicating that being good in sports equates to a meaningful life.
Or even if we might be saying just being successful in school or in a job, etc. equals a meaningful life.
It’s great to urge them to succeed and be the very best they can be.
But, if we are teaching them that success will lead to a meaningful, purposeful life; we are lying to them.
It’s great to urge them to succeed and be the very best they can be.
But, if we are teaching them that success will lead to a meaningful, purposeful life; we are lying to them.
The world is full of successful people who live meaningless lives.
One of the most successful people in the world is Tom Brady, the former quarterback for the New England Patriots.
He has played in 9 superbowls and won 6 of them.
Since this video he married the supermodel Gisele.
Here’s what he had to say about finding meaning in life.
(Show Video)
He was looking for something because he was not fulfilled.
Paul wants the believers in Ephesus to live with fulfillment.
And so, he starts by looking at those that don’t and mentions why they don’t.
Paul wants the believers in Ephesus to live with fulfillment.
And so, he starts by looking at those that don’t and mentions why they don’t.
Gentiles is the Bible’s word for unbelievers.
He says that their problem is the “futility of their minds.”
(v.17).
The word futility could also be translated “vanity” or “aimlessness.”
In other words, the way they think has set them on a path in life that will lead them to nowhere meaningful.
Why is that?
Paul says its because we can’t experience a really meaningful life unless we do it living in relationship with God.
For that reason, based on this text, realize that Dads who teach their children to follow Christ prepare them to live meaningful lives.
We often talk about knowing Christ and going to heaven.
That is true, but Christ didn’t come just to give us eternal life after we die.
But eternal life starts today.
Eternal life is not just the length of life, but it is the quality of life as well.
Lead them to become:
I.
A Completely New Creation in Christ
The primary problem for humanity according to Scripture is our hardness of heart toward God.
All the problems of aimlessness come due to hard heartedness toward God.
What that means is that we don’t naturally feel love in our heart toward God or the things of God, so we don’t naturally obeys God.
Earlier in Ephesians, Paul described the unbelievers heart as being, “dead in sin.” ()
That is a state they we come to this world in.
The result of this hard hearted, depraved state is that we are “darkened in their understanding.”
(v.18)
There is a moral ignorance that results from our separation and hardness to God.
+And so instead of understanding that we are here to know God and love God, we think that we have to make our own meaning and pursue pleasure everywhere we can find it in the world.
And so sometimes it looks like what Paul discusses here:
In society, we see this kind of rank immorality that results in all kind of corruptness in the world.
But the callousness toward God doesn’t always result in sensual types of sins.
That callousness may result in sin of making idols of success or sports or hobbies.
So what is the answer for a hardened heart that leads to a futile mind?
The answer is to learn Christ.
The answer to a hard heart and a futile mind is the gospel of Jesus.
Notice the emphasis on the role of the gospel on the mind.
Eph.
4:
What does this tell us about the gospel.
The gospel is something that has to be taught.
The gospel means “good news.”
News has to be told.
So Dads from a very young age tell your children about Jesus.
Make sure the basics of the gospel is the at the heart of the way they see life.
God made us to know and love and to glorify him.
But Adam and Eve brought sin into the world.
They were sinners, so we became sinners.
Our sin separates us from God in spiritual death.
But, God sent us a Savior who lived a perfect life and died our death on the cross.
And, he rose again to prove that anyone who places faith in Christ will be forgiven and have his life.
We be born again and live in new eternal life forever with God.
That is news that no one naturally knows.
You can’t find that news out by looking into creation or a crystal ball or any way else.
Christ must be taught, which means we must teach him.
Paul tells us that:
A. Christ is the substance.
(v.20)
You learned “Christ.”
First and foremost that means that you have been saved.
That you have repented from sin and place faith in Christ to save you.
It means that you know him and he knows you.
Charles Spurgeon once said:
“I may know all the doctrines of the Bible, but unless I know Christ, there is not one of them that can save me.” -Charles Spurgeon
Christ is the substance of our teaching.
B. Christ is the teacher.
(v.21)
This is not so clear in the ESV.
“assuming that you have heard about him...” (v.21)
But I don’t love that translation.
It’s tying it back to v.20.
But in the language of the NT, there is no “about” in the text.
It just reads, “assuming that you have heard him.”
The KJV and the NASB reflects this in its translation:
If so be that ye have heard him, and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus:
< .5
.5 - .6
.6 - .7
.7 - .8
.8 - .9
> .9