Sermon Tone Analysis
Overall tone of the sermon
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Settling in...
You know that feeing you get when you try something for the first time, or when you meet someone and really hit it off, and then you’re like… This is what I’m going to invest in.
I’m going to spend all my time doing this… This is the coolest thing ever.
Last year, my son Cole caught the fishing bug.
I mean, that boy was on fire for fishing.
He worked, he got paid, he shopped (for fishing stuff), and he fished.
That was his summer.
Sometimes he played drums and rode his bike, but it was mostly all about fishing… and buying new stuff to fish with…
He has a tackle box full of what I only know to describe as ‘stuff’.
And he still loves fishing, but now his approach is much more …well… settled.
He might throw one lure on his line, jump in the kayak and take the bare minimum out with him.
The fire has cooled down to some burning embers… he has settled in to a comfortable routine.
If you’re married, or you’ve been dating someone for more than six months, you’re right there with me on this idea…
Are you still sending flowers every week?
Still buying cards for no reason?
Leaving little sticky notes around the house to remind them how much you love them?
Paul is writing to people who are pretty much in this place… there’s nothing necessarily wrong with being settled.
But sometimes complacency comes along with settling in.
The Letter...
There’s some scholarly controversy around this letter.
Did Paul write it?
Was its original audience the Ephesians?
To be honest, we can’t really know for sure, and for the purposes of our conversation today none of that debate will sway us one way or the other.
It’s likely that this epistle is what we’d call a “circular letter” - one passed from city to city, from body of believers to body of believers in the early church.
What I love about this letter, truly love about it, is that it could just as easily be written to any church today, by any leader in our connectional church.
Just as it is Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, it could be Pastor Kerry’s video greeting to Millville Church of the Nazarene.
And for the next few moments, we’re going to look at it exactly that way - as a letter directed straight to us… the men of this congregation.
The original recipients of this letter were not being called out in typical Paul fashion.
There was no egregious thing Paul was writing about and calling for correction.
The Ephesians were just “settled in”.
We see this confirmed in the letter to Ephesus in chapter 2 of the Revelation, where John is told to write,
Revelation 2:2–5 (NIV)
I know your deeds, your hard work and your perseverance.
I know that you cannot tolerate wicked people, that you have tested those who claim to be apostles but are not, and have found them false.
You have persevered and have endured hardships for my name, and have not grown weary.
Yet I hold this against you:
You have forsaken the love you had at first.
Consider how far you have fallen!
Repent and do the things you did at first.
If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place.
Paul’s Message to the Church
Ephesus was a worldly city.
A place where cultures, lifestyles, and religious beliefs intersected.
Maybe not a lot different than Millville.
We don’t have a temple dedicated to the goddess Artemus around the corner, but we have plenty of other things that could distract us from being the men God calls us to be.
So Paul writes this letter - and in the first three chapters, he blesses them, prays for them, reminds the church about the gifts of grace and unity in Christ that God has blessed them with.
Chapter 4, the passage we’re in today, marks a turning point in the letter.
Paul is drawing on the idea from earlier in the letter (Chapter 2, if you want to check it out later) that we are One in Christ and he’s kicking it up a notch.
He’s calling for that same unity in the church.
And while that topic alone could be the theme of a whole series of sermons, that’s not where we’re going today.
Because, in most things, this included, we need to craw before we walk.
Team Effort
When I play PlayStation - Call of Duty - with my son Ryan and our team loses the match, I’ll typically look at the virtual scoreboard.
To no one’s surprise, he’s usually at the top.
I’ve improved over time, but still, inevitably if I say anything about the match, his response is usually, “get good”.
He says that because the team winning depends on each member doing their part.
The same is true here - To really be good at unity in the church and our relationships with each other, we need to “get good” at our individual relationships with God.
This was reinforced for me this week in a bible study in Paul’s letter to the Galatians.
Galatians 6:4–5 (AMP)
But let every person carefully scrutinize and examine and test his own conduct and his own work.
He can then have the personal satisfaction and joy of doing something commendable [in itself alone] without [resorting to] boastful comparison with his neighbor.
For every person will have to bear (be equal to understanding and calmly receive) his own [little] load [of oppressive faults].
Back to Basics...
Paul (And Jesus Himself, through John, in the Revelation Letter) was calling the church back to basics.
To “First love”.
To maximum effort.
To unity and maturity.
Or maybe we should reverse that order to
Maturity and Unity
Listen again to Paul’s exhortation to the recipients of the letter:
Ephesians 4:1–3 (NIV)
As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received.
Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love.
Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.
Maturity, Then Unity
Humility, gentleness, patience, bearing with each other, love.
I see some of you squirming in your seats as I repeat those words.
Sure, they’re good for the early church, but come on Walt… you’re bringing all that soft talk into a men’s meeting?
I am.
Because Paul does.
And Paul does because Jesus does.
Remember, Paul is writing to the original boys’ club.
Look, I get it… As guys, we have our ways.
We have our built in routines, thought patterns, and ways of approaching life.
You could say we march to the beat of our own drums.
To bridge the language gap, let’s read the same three verses from The Message Paraphrase...
Ephesians 4:1–3 (The Message)
In light of all this, here’s what I want you to do.
While I’m locked up here, a prisoner for the Master, I want you to get out there and walk—better yet, run!—on the road God called you to travel.
I don’t want any of you sitting around on your hands.
I don’t want anyone strolling off, down some path that goes nowhere.
And mark that you do this with humility and discipline—not in fits and starts, but steadily, pouring yourselves out for each other in acts of love, alert at noticing differences and quick at mending fences.
Get on the Road...
The road God calls us to travel.
There’s something interesting about being on a path.
Once you’re on it, you’re not likely to just stand there.
A path demands to be traveled on - whether you feel like it or not.
That’s the start.
Get on the road and start moving.
Humility & Discipline
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