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
0.5UNLIKELY
Disgust
0.16UNLIKELY
Fear
0.15UNLIKELY
Joy
0.53LIKELY
Sadness
0.5LIKELY
Language Tone
Analytical
0.42UNLIKELY
Confident
0.06UNLIKELY
Tentative
0UNLIKELY
Social Tone
Openness
0.72LIKELY
Conscientiousness
0.93LIKELY
Extraversion
0.16UNLIKELY
Agreeableness
0.85LIKELY
Emotional Range
0.75LIKELY
Tone of specific sentences
Tones
Emotion
Language
Social Tendencies
Anger
< .5
.5 - .6
.6 - .7
.7 - .8
.8 - .9
> .9
2008-06-29 Ephesians 6:10-18 Are You Dressed Yet?
What a strange way to end the letter to the Ephesians, don’t you think?
Wouldn’t it make more sense to summarise everything that Paul’s said so far?
Maybe stress the importance of knowing who we are in Christ, the importance of our identity in Christ, that we have every spiritual blessing from Christ, that we’re seated in heaven with Christ.
Shouldn’t we expect a summary of the letter written for the saints, the children of God.
But Paul doesn’t give us that.
Instead, he gives us a charge, a command, a—you’d better do this or else—exhortation to put on some clothes, to get dressed!
To be prepared for the day.
And not just any day.
This isn’t a charged to get dressed for a wedding.
It isn’t a command to get dressed for work.
It isn’t an exhortation to get your play clothes on for the sandbox or the sand trap, depending on your age.
No, Paul is commanding us, in simple, straight-forward language, to put on God’s armour.
We have to get ready for battle.
Daily.
Whenever we get up; Drill Sergeant Apostle Paul yells at us through this letter, “Are you dressed yet?
Get your armour on!
Get going!”
Why?
Why must we put on this spiritual armour?
It is because Paul wants to draw our attention to reality.
Reality is a big buzz word these days.
Reality, authenticity, if you’re listening to stuff on Christian radio, if you’re aware of the emergent church movement, then, you’ve heard stuff like this already, there is a push for authenticity.
It is a Biblical concept.
Here, Paul encourages us to go for reality and authenticity.
Now, the real question is, are we prepared?
Are we dressed yet?
Are we looking at the true reality?
Perhaps you caught it in the reading, perhaps you already know where I’m heading.
Are you, are we, looking at true reality?
To help us open our eyes, we need to turn to the Old Testament, to 2 Kings 6:8-17.
“Now the king of Aram was at war with Israel.
After conferring with his officers, he said, “I will set up my camp in such and such a place.”
The man of God sent word to the king of Israel: “Beware of passing that place, because the Arameans are going down there.”
So the king of Israel checked on the place indicated by the man of God.
Time and again Elisha warned the king, so that he was on his guard in such places.
This enraged the king of Aram.
He summoned his officers and demanded of them, “Will you not tell me which of us is on the side of the king of Israel?”
“None of us, my lord the king,” said one of his officers, “but Elisha, the prophet who is in Israel, tells the king of Israel the very words you speak in your bedroom.”
“Go, find out where he is,” the king ordered, “so I can send men and capture him.”
The report came back: “He is in Dothan.”
Then he sent horses and chariots and a strong force there.
They went by night and surrounded the city.
When the servant of the man of God got up and went out early the next morning, an army with horses and chariots had surrounded the city.
“Oh, my lord, what shall we do?” the servant asked.
“Don’t be afraid,” the prophet answered.
“Those who are with us are more than those who are with them.”
And Elisha prayed, “O Lord, open his eyes so he may see.”
Then the Lord opened the servant’s eyes, and he looked and saw the hills full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha” (2 Kings 6:8-17).
So, maybe you’re sitting here this morning, and like me, you’re thinking, “I’ve got a pretty good grasp of the situation in the world.
I know what needs doing.
I know what I need to do.
But are our eyes open?
Are we truly seeing the same reality that Elisha saw, which Elisha’s servant saw?
Do we know what is really going on in the world?
Paul does give us the perfect conclusion to his letter!
Listen to what he says, “Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power.”
Paul has spent the letter explaining to us the power of the Lord.
It was this power, which raised Christ from the dead.
It was this power, which enabled Jesus to do miracles.
It was this power, which the disciples received in order to perform miracles.
Paul once preached so long that at midnight, a young lad fell out of a second story window and died.
Paul stopped preaching, went down, prayed that God’s power would bring him back to life, God did, and then Paul went back to preaching, and kept on preaching until the morning!
He was able to do this because He had the power of God in him!
We have the power of God in us.
We do, that’s why Paul says, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power.
In other words, don’t waste your time trying to fight on your own strength.
You can’t do it.
Your strength is from flesh and blood, but the foes we fight are not flesh and blood!
They are principalities and powers of darkness.
So, draw instead upon God for strength.
Pray!
When you’re in a tempting situation, pray, don’t delay!
And before you get up, before you get dressed physically, get dressed spiritually.
Now, we could, perhaps we should examine each article of God’s armour in its own sermon, but we’re not going to break it up over several weeks.
Instead, tighten your belts, be prepared to skip lunch and supper, I’m preaching through the night, and well, my parents named me for some reason.
No, seriously, this morning we’re simply going to hit the highlights.
The first thing we look at is context.
As Elisha’s servant realised, we too much realise that we’re not struggling against people, we’re struggling against foes we cannot see, and foes we, on our own, do not have the strength to conquer.
So, we need to stand on God’s strength, we need to exercise God’s strength.
Paul summarises his letter, through these articles of armour.
So that we can stand.
Now, this is not passive standing.
This is not being a strong wall that withstands enemy onslaught.
No, when we stand we stand out, we march, we walk, we step, we go, we follow!
We’re out in the thick of it.
We don’t wait for the campaign to come at us and corner us, no, like David, we run up to the battle lines and we advance, knowing that God has the victory and we have His strength.
But before we jump out into the battle, we put on God’s armour.
First: Buckle the belt of truth.
This instruction cannot possibly come at a more relevant, more important time.
People are debating, have always debated what truth is.
Even Pontius Pilate asked Jesus, “What is truth?”
But in God’s word, we have truth.
Jesus Christ is God’s Son.
Jesus Christ was born of a virgin.
Jesus Christ took on human flesh.
Jesus Christ lived a perfect life.
Jesus Christ fulfilled all the OT prophesies and commandments, perfectly.
Jesus Christ suffered.
Jesus Christ was judged, condemned, though innocent.
< .5
.5 - .6
.6 - .7
.7 - .8
.8 - .9
> .9