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
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Disgust
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Fear
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Joy
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Sadness
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Language Tone
Analytical
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Confident
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Tentative
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Social Tone
Openness
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Conscientiousness
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Extraversion
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Agreeableness
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Emotional Range
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Tone of specific sentences
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Anger
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*Spiritual Maturity – The Goal of our Faith* \\ \\
*Hebrews 5:11-6:3 (*/The Message)/
/11-14 //I have a lot more to say about this, /
[the writer had been explaining Christ’s Role
as Highpriest]
/but it is hard to get it across to you /
/since you've picked up this bad habit of not listening.
/
/By this time you ought to be teachers yourselves, /
/yet here I find you need someone to sit down with you /
/and go over the basics on God again, /
/starting from square one—baby's milk, /
/when you should have been on solid food long ago! /
/Milk is for beginners, /
/inexperienced in God's ways; /
/solid food is for the mature, /
/who have some practice in telling right from wrong.
/
/1-3 //So come on, /
/let's leave the preschool fingerpainting exercises on Christ /
/and get on with the grand work of art.
/
/Grow up in Christ.
/
/The basic foundational truths are in place: /
/turning your back on "salvation by self-help" /
/and turning in trust toward God; /
/baptismal instructions; /
/laying on of hands; /
/resurrection of the dead; /
/eternal judgment.
/
/God helping us, /
/we'll stay true to all that.
/
/But there's so much more.
/
/Let's get on with it!/
In the past months
our preaching has focused on God’s desire
to reconcile us to Himself
and to invite the Church
into partnership with God
to bring healing and hope into the world.
It is our conviction that God wants to raise us up
into mature and responsible followers of Jesus Christ.
And yet, we so often bring forth the marks
of a very immature Christian life.
Who do you think of
when you think about spiritually mature people?
What constitutes a spiritually mature person?
ILL.: [WASHED UP PERFECTION]
A man once came up to C. H. Spurgeon,
the great English Preacher,
at a Christian retreat,
and said that he had reached a state of spiritual perfection.
Without a word
Spurgeon picked up a pitcher of ice-cold water
and poured it on the man's head.
When the man became angry
and reacted like any normal person would
if cold water were poured on his head,
Spurgeon said,
"Well, now I know exactly
what spiritual perfection you've come to!"
In Philippians 3:12ff
Paul makes the confession
that he has not yet reached the goal of perfection in Christ.
But, he is determined to forget what is behind him
and set his heart on the goal that is before him.
That is also the theme
that we want to focus on today.
In the spiritual life,
As in other aspects of life,
If we don’t grow
We go backwards.
Today as we engage the topic of Spiritual Growth and Maturity
we encounter a text from the book of Hebrews
that holds up a mirror for us.
This is not an easy passage to preach on,
And still we want to see what we can get out of it.
When we look at much of what is happening in our world
we must say that the writer of Hebrews
makes an important point in this challenging passage.
He says, “Come on folks!
Grow up already!”
A week ago I attended a Seminar at CMU entitled,
“Talking about the tough stuff in congregational life”.
This was a hands on,
Practical course that looked at Dialogue in the congregation
About issues that can (and usually do) divide the church.
One thing that struck me
Is that our church is not unique.
Every congregation from a variety of different denominations
That was represented has to deal with “tough issues”.
One congregation was trying to figure out
How to deal with a stubborn staff member
Who would hijack the worship style of the church.
Another congregation was struggling to find a way through
On the issue of homosexuality.
And yet another, was looking for a way to relate
To their multi-faith neighbours.
Another church yet,
was dealing with conflict among members.
As I was interacting with these colleagues
It became clear to me that we are all in this together.
God has called His church
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