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
0.08UNLIKELY
Disgust
0.06UNLIKELY
Fear
0.06UNLIKELY
Joy
0.71LIKELY
Sadness
0.16UNLIKELY
Language Tone
Analytical
0.54LIKELY
Confident
0UNLIKELY
Tentative
0.28UNLIKELY
Social Tone
Openness
0.68LIKELY
Conscientiousness
0.99LIKELY
Extraversion
0.36UNLIKELY
Agreeableness
0.99LIKELY
Emotional Range
0.78LIKELY
Tone of specific sentences
Tones
Emotion
Language
Social Tendencies
Anger
< .5
.5 - .6
.6 - .7
.7 - .8
.8 - .9
> .9
Introduction: Have you ever gotten a present that you didn’t like but you didn’t want to be rude, so you faked gratitude.
Still the voice of our parents probably still on repeat in our heads: “What do you say?”
Thank you.
Even thought it’s a fruit cake.
(Unless you are like my wife and you actually like Fruitcake)
But let’s be authentic: On the one hand thanksgiving and gratitude is a choice.
But it’s easier to fake thanksgiving than to be truly grateful.
True gratitude doesn’t need to be faked because it wells up inside of you and overflows.
Sometimes it’s a gift.
Other times it’s a kind word in the midst of a storm of life.
And let’s be honest some things that we aren’t initially grateful for wind up being lifesavers in the end.
You may have wanted the GI Joe aircraft carried that took up the entire room and took hours to put together, but those gloves and winter jacket comes in handy when the temperature takes a plunge.
Now, it’s one thing to be fake your gratitude, but how often do we simply ignore those we have to be grateful for.
How often do we thank our parents for loving and caring for us and making sure we have the things we need to be successful.
And let’s not forget to be grateful to God.
I was thinking recently about how often God steps in and saves us and we don’t even know it.
God is at work all around us and so often our eyes are closed to what He’s doing.
Someone once told me that God protects babies and idiots.
And I’m not baby anymore.
Sometimes we can look back over our lives and see, in hindsight, where God may have protected us.
If there is anyone we ought to be thanking, it’s the God of the universe.
And perhaps no one in the whole Bible is truly grateful as the Apostle Paul.
Transition to the Text: Turn with me in your Bibles to Ephesians 1:3-10.
Paul was someone who was truly grateful to God.
Paul knew that he didn’t deserve God’s blessings.
Remember Paul said in
Paul talks more about this in Ephesians 1:3-10.
Introduce:
Authentic Principle: Authentic Principle: Be truly grateful to God for His Blessings.
Read:
Authentic Principle: Be truly grateful to God for His Blessings.
1.
For choosing us.
(Ephesians 1:3-6)
Explanation:
We’ve talked about on many occasions Paul’s reaction to God choosing him.
Or as Paul talked about in 1 Timothy 1:12, he was appointed to “his service.”
He knew he didn’t deserve it, so his response to God’s grace in choosing a sinner like him was true and authentic gratitude that crescendoed into praise.
He again to the Ephesian church, we see it again:
Illustration: This idea of choosing brings back those memories from middle school when the kids on the playground are picking teams for basketball.
And, when you aren’t good at basketball like me, there is the fear that you’ll won’t get picked.
The team with the last pick doesn’t choose you.
They are stuck with you.
And you’re probably not getting the ball.
Some of us, for whatever reason, feel like God is stuck with us because we prayed a prayer.
Maybe we think of it as a magical formula.
But how does it change our attitude when we accept that God chose us....willingly....without compulsion…because He wanted us.
Application: When you are chosen, you act differently.
Get into the school you apply to.
Get that job you apply for.
Ask of lovely girl to marry you and she says yes.
Or on the other side of that where a handsome young man pops the question.
I’ve always been grateful to have been chosen.
Especially to God.
2. For saving us.
(Ephesians 1:7-8)
Explanation: Now Ephesians says God chose us before the foundation of the world.
One problem.
we were still going to have sin in our lives.
Sin separates us from a holy and righteous God.
So even if He chose us, He still needed to save us from our sin.
Now that wasn’t going to be easy.
Sin had drastically messed up our world and our humanity.
To make up for the mess Adam and Eve got us into was not going to be easy.
If it were we could do it on our own.
But we can’t.
Only a man could take our place.
Only a perfect man could take our place.
Only God is perfect.
Therefore, God would have to become man, live a perfect life, and willingly give himself for sinful people.
You might ask, why would God do that?
Especially when he didn’t have to?
Well simple.
He chose us and was determined to make it so we could be with him forever.
Illustration: There is perhaps nothing more distressing than being in need of saving.
Being in a situation that you can’t get out of on your own.
Needing help.
That’s a fearful situation.
Desperate and discouraging.
But perhaps even more we are told in this life to never depend on someone else.
We are told to rely on #1.
And many of us have are especially afraid to rely on a God who we can’t see.
For some reason we are predisposed to believe that God isn’t going to come through for us.
It’s true that God doesn’t always say yes to our requests.
Application: Perhaps the first thing to acknowledge is that we need saving.
Our sin separates us from God.
But thanks be to God that He provided a way for us to be saved from our sin…saved from ourselves.
Be truly grateful to the one who saved you.
And what is your response to God’s grace?
Faith.
Believe Him when He says you are saved.
That’s something to be truly grateful for.
3.
For sharing His plan with us.
(Ephesians 9-10)
Explanation: Paul has elsewhere told us that God saved him (and us) for a purpose.
God shared the mystery of his plan those he chose and those he saved.
We are not just saved for eternal life in the next life.
We are save to become partners in God’s plan for the world.
God has planned to unite all things in Jesus.
And our invitation is to be a part of God’s great plan to tell the world about how God has chosen us, adopted us, blessed us, redeemed us.
This is great news that we should want to be a part of.
< .5
.5 - .6
.6 - .7
.7 - .8
.8 - .9
> .9