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
0.13UNLIKELY
Disgust
0.14UNLIKELY
Fear
0.12UNLIKELY
Joy
0.53LIKELY
Sadness
0.54LIKELY
Language Tone
Analytical
0.79LIKELY
Confident
0UNLIKELY
Tentative
0.58LIKELY
Social Tone
Openness
0.87LIKELY
Conscientiousness
0.87LIKELY
Extraversion
0.09UNLIKELY
Agreeableness
0.79LIKELY
Emotional Range
0.61LIKELY
Tone of specific sentences
Tones
Emotion
Language
Social Tendencies
Anger
< .5
.5 - .6
.6 - .7
.7 - .8
.8 - .9
> .9
Ephesians 1:15-23
! Introduction
Is the glass half empty or half full?
For the last few weeks we have looked at the fact that we have every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.
Therefore, we know that the cup isn’t half anything.
The cup is full, full to overflowing, yet how often we feel as if it is half empty.
What is it like in your relationship with God? Do you feel spiritually full?
Is your heart rejoicing over the wonder of what God has done for us?
I have to confess that I certainly don’t feel full all the time.
Sure there are moments when I am encouraged, but there are also moments when I have doubts and moments when I am discouraged and even times when I feel like giving up.
Often our spiritual life is shallow.
We are self centered, we do not grasp the eternal importance of what God is doing in the world and we do not give ourselves fully to God’s work.
If God is real, then surely the realization of all our spiritual blessings in Christ can be more of a reality in our lives.
There is a scene in Charles Dickens’, Oliver Twist, in which the orphan boy is sent by the rest of the hungry orphans to ask for more food.
He approaches the person in charge and asks, “Please, sir, I want some more.”
Is that our spiritual hunger?
Do we desire a greater understanding, a greater experience of the many spiritual blessings which are ours in Christ?
Ephesians 1:15-23 speaks to that desire for more and raises the desire, not to a strategy, but to a prayer.
This passage is another long sentence without a period and is in essence a prayer.
My desire is that we will experience the full cup of blessing that God has for us.
My prayer for all of us is that we will be deeply and completely impacted by the wonder and glory of the gospel.
!
I. Prayer Offered
Those whom Paul is talking to are people who have experienced Jesus.
They have a reputation of being people who have faith in Jesus.
They trust the truth about Jesus and they live by that trust as is demonstrated by their love for all the saints.
As soon as Paul knew that they were believers, he started praying for them regularly.
As his brothers and sisters, he cared about them and their spiritual life.
The prayer has two sides.
On the one side, he prays a prayer of thanksgiving.
He rejoices that God has been at work in them and that they have responded to that work.
The other side is that he also makes a request.
You know how we sometimes tell people, “I am thinking of you?” Paul says something similar when he says, “I remember you in my prayers.”
He recognizes that God has begun a good work in them and that they have responded to that work.
He prays that they will grow in their faith.
Do we give thanks and pray like that for each other?
!
II.
To Know Him More
Let us take a careful look not only at the content of his prayer, but also at the way in which he prays.
It tells us a lot about his attitude to God and how God works.
It encourages and teaches us how we ought to pray.
!! A. That God May
As he begins his prayer he addresses God with the words, “...the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory…” His address of God is much larger than, "Dear God.
In making the address of his prayer in this way, he is acknowledging a number of things about God.
He recognizes that He is God who has created the world and is the sovereign of it.
By mentioning Jesus, he recognizes the importance of the relationship between Father and Son and implies all that God has accomplished through Jesus.
The further mention of God as “the Father of glory” reminds us that God is glorious.
He is significant and impressive and filled with wonder.
This address demonstrates his confidence in the ability and love of God to answer his prayer.
It is also important to notice that he prays.
He does not chastise the Ephesians that they are not spiritual enough.
He doesn’t even give them a strategy for becoming more spiritual.
He prays that God will work in their lives.
And so should we pray for each other.
Sometimes we need to be encouraged and sometimes we need to be challenged, but always we need to realize that God is very interested in our spiritual growth and maturity and has promised to work in us.
Instead of becoming impatient with ourselves or others, we need to look to God and pray for each other.
!! B. Give Wisdom and Revelation
The phrase “give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation” also speaks not to the content of his prayer, but to the way in which the prayer will be answered.
He prays that they will have wisdom and revelation.
These two words tell us that the spiritual growth which he desires for them will come from God but also involves their participation.
On the one hand, he prays that they will have wisdom.
Wisdom will help us understand the best way to live and will help us know the path of righteousness.
Wisdom is doing things well.
Although wisdom is God given, it has an element of our participation.
Proverbs encourages us to seek wisdom.
We participate in wisdom by seeking it and desiring to follow the path of wisdom.
On the other hand, he also prays that they will have revelation.
Revelation involves no participation from us, but is entirely a matter of what God reveals.
There are some spiritual truths which cannot be discovered in any way other than that God makes them known.
Some things we can learn by study and discernment, some things only God can reveal.
Paul prays that God will allow them to experience both.
!! C. To Know Him
Paul’s prayer is that the spirit of wisdom and revelation which God provides will lead them to know God.
To know about someone is one thing, but to know someone is a much deeper, much closer relationship.
The word “know” is used in the Bible occasionally to speak of the intimacy of the sexual relationship.
Paul’s prayer is that they will come to know God in a very close and intimate way.
He prays that they will experience Him in such a way that they are comfortable with God and understand His ways and His plans.
We can know many things, but if we are to grow deeper in faith we must know God, not merely with intellectual perception, but in a close relationship.
!! D. Eyes of Your Heart Enlightened
You have probably heard the phrase “there is more to it than meets the eye.”
Some things are obvious to our physical eyes, but sometimes it takes more than our physical eyes to perceive a situation.
If we see someone crying, our eyes see the tears, but our heart perceives that something is wrong.
It is our heart that cares enough to enter into the situation and provide comfort.
Paul's prayer is that they will have this deeper seeing when he speaks about having “the eyes of your heart enlightened.”
Paul’s prayer then is that these believers, who know God and have entered into a relationship with Him and are walking in love, will grow deeper in their relationship with God.
It is a prayer for more.
A prayer for a deeper intimacy with God and a greater understanding of what He has done, what He does and who He is.
It is a prayer for a heart that is fully and meaningfully engaged with God and walking with Him in a deep trust.
!
III.
Enlightened Hearts May Know
Paul goes on to speak about the specific content of his prayer.
There are three things which he wants them to know and experience.
They are things which, if we know them with the eyes of our heart, will bring us into a deeper relationship with God.
!! A. Hope to Which He Has Called
Sometimes we lose hope.
For people who live with chronic illness there are times when the relentless presence of pain causes them to lose hope.
It is agonizing to go day after day knowing that the tomorrow will be just as difficult and painful as today.
Sometimes our jobs become so difficult that we don’t enjoy them, but we are trapped because we don’t know what else to do or where else to earn our living.
People lose hope when they don’t see a way out of a dead end job.
Whatever the situation of desperation may be, life can get to the place where it seems hopeless and there is nowhere to turn.
Paul’s prayer for the Ephesians, a prayer we can also pray, is that we will be able to see, with the eyes of our heart, that there is no hopeless situation.
< .5
.5 - .6
.6 - .7
.7 - .8
.8 - .9
> .9