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
0.05UNLIKELY
Fear
0.1UNLIKELY
Joy
0.68LIKELY
Sadness
0.52LIKELY
Language Tone
Analytical
0.8LIKELY
Confident
0UNLIKELY
Tentative
0.6LIKELY
Social Tone
Openness
0.78LIKELY
Conscientiousness
0.9LIKELY
Extraversion
0.27UNLIKELY
Agreeableness
0.6LIKELY
Emotional Range
0.64LIKELY
Tone of specific sentences
Tones
Emotion
Language
Social Tendencies
Anger
< .5
.5 - .6
.6 - .7
.7 - .8
.8 - .9
> .9
Our Theme for 2023 is “Life in the Spirit”
It is more than just recognizing the work of the Holy Spirit.
It is understanding that we live in two realities - natural reality and spiritual reality.
Our vision at SCF is to “Encounter God’s Transforming Love.”
How do we do that?
(Four R’s)
Respond
Restore
Release
Relate
That describes who we are and what we are about.
We are reviewing the 4R’s just as a reminder of what we have committed to do as a church, but we will be doing so in light of our life in the Spirit.
We will be recalling the commitments that we made on our membership form.
If you want to see it, it is back on the information table.
If you want to learn more about membership, I have some membership packets here at the front.
I started the series by saying that we need to respond to God.
God reveals Himself through a divine encounter and we respond, by our worship, our actions, our obedience.
Then comes the second R- Restore.
Restore is represented by the stream that flows from the cross.
It brings life to dead places - it transforms our inner life and eventually our outer life!
Last week we talked about the third R- release.
The same power that transforms us will transform the world through us.
Believers who are transformed by the spirit become agents of spiritual transformation.
And finally, we have the fourth R - relate.
Our relationships in the church are covenant relationships in that we are joined to one another through our common union with Christ.
We talked a bit about this last week, that we are part of something bigger than ourselves.
And the connections that we have beyond ourselves are vitally important because spiritual life and vitality flow through those connections.
I remember Pastor Vic Dunning, who was Senior Pastor at Elverson Hopewell, but was an itinerant minister before that, used to talk about a “life flow” in the Spirit.
A “life flow” had to do with the quality of relationship in the church, the relationship of people to one another, to leadership and the relationship of leadership to other church leaders in the region and in the world.
The “life flow” of the Spirit was like the circulatory system of the Body of Christ.
Just as our veins deliver oxygen and vital nutrients to each part of the body.
Relationships are the means that God uses to deliver spiritual life and vitality.
Anywhere that a relationship is cut off, there is a loss of spiritual vitality and of blessing.
You wouldn’t amputate and arm or a leg because it does not function properly - only if it were a danger to the entire body.
Paul’s analogy of Christ’s body with many parts is designed to convince us that every part is somehow important.
And the body normally works to heal the parts that are suffering, not to isolate them.
Why then, are we so quick to cut off relationships, even in the church.
We avoid people we don’t like.
We refuse to talk to people with whom we disagree.
We don’t practice church discipline anymore because people usually leave as soon as there is a disagreement.
There is no point in bringing correction to someone who doesn’t value your input.
There is a vital spiritual function to relationships that is lost when we lose connection to each other.
The Spirit is the fluid that runs through our veins.
It’s a flow of life - just like the river of life.
Relating in the Spirit means that we protect spiritual unity, we respect the function of spiritual leadership and we work to build capacity through spiritual networking.
Spiritual unity.
We belong to each other.
The first thing that we need to understand is connection.
We are connected to one another by virtue of our connection to Christ.
In biblical language we call it covenant.
A more practical illustration is family.
You’re connected to your family - like it or not - blood is thicker than water.
That illustration isn’t as good as it used to be - because a lot of people cut themselves off from their family for various reasons.
America is one of the most independent societies in the world.
That’s a problem when it comes to explaining the gospel and the importance of the church.
Why do I need the church?
Well, because the church is like your spiritual family.
Why would I want a spiritual family, I don’t have any use for my natural family!
So let’s just use Paul’s body illustration.
If you were missing a hand or an eye - that would be a problem - right?
Why?
Because the parts of a body belong to each other.
They are connected in an interdependent relationship.
A hand can do what it does better because of the eye - its called “hand-eye coordination.”
The word belong in verses 15 & 16 means “to exist”
We do not exist apart from each other.
Or perhaps without each other, we might cease to exist.
Or, as in the case of family, we might never have existed.
Let’s get it out of our heads that we can ever live this life independently of other people.
You’re fooling yourself if you think you can go it alone.
We need each other - like your body parts need connection.
We belong to each other, and we belong together.
We complete each other.
Not only to we belong together, but it is absolutely necessary that we are different from each other.
Paul asks, “what if everyone were an eye?”
That’s sounds like a monster to me!
A mythical creature with many eyes may be able to see everything, but what can they do?
Especially if you poke them in the eye!
Our eyes and our ears work together to identify what we see.
Our hands are what we use to defend ourselves.
And with our feet we can run away!
The body analogy has a deeper meaning than just connection.
As self-centered people, we sometimes secretly wish that everyone should be like us.
OK- not everyone thinks that way - the rest of us secretly wish that we could be like someone else.
In marriage, the desire to be understood sometimes expresses itself this way.
Men an women are inherently different in the way that they think and communicate.
Sometimes a man wishes his wife could “hang out like one of the guys.”
Or a woman wishes that her husband would show the same kind of intuitive thoughtfulness that her girl friends do.
But God made us different for a reason.
We can benefit from being more like the other, but I will never be my wife’s girlfriend and she will never be “one of the guys.”
That would just be weird!
We like each other different!
It’s the same way in the church.
We have common beliefs, but we don’t all think the same.
We worship together, but everyone is having their own experience.
We do things together as a church, but we don’t all do the same thing - we each have parts that we contribute.
So why is this important?
We affect one another.
In an interdependent relationship, everything that we do affects other people.
And everything that they do affect us.
< .5
.5 - .6
.6 - .7
.7 - .8
.8 - .9
> .9