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
0.07UNLIKELY
Disgust
0.07UNLIKELY
Fear
0.46UNLIKELY
Joy
0.59LIKELY
Sadness
0.2UNLIKELY
Language Tone
Analytical
0.55LIKELY
Confident
0UNLIKELY
Tentative
0.01UNLIKELY
Social Tone
Openness
0.77LIKELY
Conscientiousness
0.88LIKELY
Extraversion
0.21UNLIKELY
Agreeableness
0.81LIKELY
Emotional Range
0.72LIKELY
Tone of specific sentences
Tones
Emotion
Language
Social Tendencies
Anger
< .5
.5 - .6
.6 - .7
.7 - .8
.8 - .9
> .9
Introduction: Why do we pray?
I think that question is one that is often asked, mostly in a theoretical way.
I hear people ask if God knows everything and has a plan, why should we pray?
That is not something that is unimportant.
Something that should be discussed.
But that is is also not what I’m asking.
Why do we pray?
To what end is our prayers going to?
Is it for us?
Our comforts?
Our desires?
What do our prayers reflect about our outlook on life and on who God is?
Prayer is much more than just God being our genie in a bottle.
God calls us to pray, so that we would pray according to His will.
And His will is much more than the temporary things of this life.
His will is primarily concerned about the eternal things, things that have eternal value.
Paul for a second time prays towards this end, praying for the church.
This is his primary prayer list, and one that we should think about ourselves and apply to our own prayer lives as God’s people.
So, what do we pray for?
CTS: Because God is able and willing to accomplish His plan and purpose for His church, pray for the spiritual strength we need to glorify Him!
I. Pray Reverently (14-15)
A. The position of our prayer
Bowing was not the common way of prayer as much as it is now, but it communicated an act of great earnestness from the one praying.
Ezra prayed kneeling as he confessed the sins of the people.
Jesus kneeled in the garden as he was about to face his crucifixion.
Stephen kneeled as he faced his martyrdom.
Paul even prayed for the Ephesians elders in Acts 20:36 with kneeling.
This should remind us we are to be earnest in our prayers, reverent toward the one whom we pray to.
Do we have to kneel every time we pray?
No, but sometimes the physical act can move our minds to the spiritual.
Sometimes we might need to kneel, showing our submissiveness and humility.
Sometimes we lay prostrate, low as can be, because we understand our state before the Lord.
Regardless, the heart is the issue of our prayer.
Let us be earnest when approach throne of God in great expectation.
B. The audience of our prayer
The audience of our prayer is the Father himself, who is the source of all fatherhood in the world.
Every family in heaven and on earth is named by him.
But even more importantly, His own people, His spiritual heritage, the church, is named by Him.
He redeemed them by the blood of His own Son, and gave them new life, made them new creations, through His Son and the Spirit who indwells them.
This is our Father, the one who physically made us and the one who spiritually rebirthed us.
He has made us His own.
We can come to him with great earnestness and great expectation and confidence, as evident in the previous paragraph in verse 12.
II.
Pray Spiritually (16-19)
A. To be strengthened
To have power that comes from the Holy Spirit
Paul understood that first and foremost, in line with what he prayed and taught earlier, is that the spiritual state of people far outweighs their physical.
The desire of Paul for the church was two-fold.
First, it was that they would be spiritually strengthened by the Spirit.
He didn’t want brute force physical specimens to wage war against the pagans.
God could use the weakest of the bunch of Ephesians and do the greatest work of the Gospel.
I think about a preacher currently today named Daniel Ritchie.
He graduated from the College of Southeastern, the same campus that I went to as an MDiv student who was born with no arms.
Yet He is a powerful example of God’s grace as he preaches the Gospel.
His power comes not from his ability to move his arms.
As a matter of fact, its not how anyone’s physicality is able to get a message across.
It’s the power of the Gospel and the Holy Spirit that does its work in the hearts of people.
The church needs Holy Spirit strengthening.
Are we praying for that first and foremost in each other’s lives?
Is that the first thing on our prayer list for each other?
That Christ would dwell in our hearts through faith
That strengthening is vitally coupled with the indwelling of Christ, which is one and the same.
The Holy Spirit whom dwells in every believer, Jesus said He would send, but that we would abide in him and he in us through the Spirit.
But what does this mean?
Aren’t we already united with Christ at salvation?
Why would Paul pray this?
THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN UNION AND COMMUNION
As Jesus abides in us, our lives our then ordered around him.
He rearranges the furniture in the home and sets it properly.
He addresses the heart and transforms its desires and centers it upon His will, rooting it in the love that He has given us, that we would love God and love others.
B. To grasp Christ’s love
Illustration: When we would watch LOST together, after every episode and between every season, we would talk, theorize, and try to grasp what was going on.
Rooted and grounded in love
The botanical and construction of our lives is love.
Our strength derives from this love, and our foundation is this love.
The love of Christ, as we comprehend it, abide in it, and make it our foundation, compels us to love others as He loved us.
To comprehend in community the extent of Christ’s super-abundant love for us and for others
John Stott’s descriptors of this:
Broad enough to encompass all of mankind (Jews and Gentiles!)
Long enough to last for eternity
Deep enough to reach the most degraded sinner
High enough to exalt the sinner to heaven
C. To be filled with the fullness of God
That the church would be filled with all that makes God, well, God!.
His power.
His love.
His mercy.
His justice.
His wisdom.
His passion.
His will.
Jesus fulfilled this perfectly, and then he fills us, dwells with us in our hearts!
Application:
Church, do we toil and struggle with our own energy, or with the energy of God?
The power of the Holy Spirit.
Do we all live as though Christ is dwelling with us?
Is the love of Christ evident in you, while you are at home, at work, at church?
Is the love of Christ evident in us as a church?
Are we striving to comprehend the Gospel, the love of Christ, and growing?
Are we doing things out of the power of the Spirit or on our own?
< .5
.5 - .6
.6 - .7
.7 - .8
.8 - .9
> .9