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
0.11UNLIKELY
Disgust
0.08UNLIKELY
Fear
0.13UNLIKELY
Joy
0.63LIKELY
Sadness
0.49UNLIKELY
Language Tone
Analytical
0.51LIKELY
Confident
0UNLIKELY
Tentative
0.49UNLIKELY
Social Tone
Openness
0.94LIKELY
Conscientiousness
0.79LIKELY
Extraversion
0.53LIKELY
Agreeableness
0.8LIKELY
Emotional Range
0.73LIKELY
Tone of specific sentences
Tones
Emotion
Language
Social Tendencies
Anger
< .5
.5 - .6
.6 - .7
.7 - .8
.8 - .9
> .9
[TITLE SLIDE]
We’re finishing up our entire series on Holy Things today.
We’ve talked through the Holy Things of God.
We’ve talked about living a holy life, and now we’re finishing with Practices of Holy People.
Our first practices were prayer, giving, and fasting.
We’re finishing today with fellowship.
Fellowship is a super churchy word.
And I don’t think many people really understand the fullness of what it means.
PAUSE
People ask me, “What does your church do for fellowship?”
Define fellowship
It’s such a weird question to me, because what they are asking is what do you do as a pastor to facilitate relationships in the church, as if the role of a pastor is to play matchmaker for the people who attend the church.
When someone asks, “What does your church do for fellowship?,” that’s church-code for, “Tell me about your potlucks, BBQ’s, and movie nights.”
“Tell me about the deep friendships that are formed in your Bible studies and small groups.”
“Tell me a sad story about the heartbreak when a relationship in the church has to be broken.”
Friendships are great and you will find those in the church—you ought to—but that’s not fellowship.
Sometimes it’s like, the biblical definition of pastor is one who prays for the church, proclaims the Word of God to the church, and plans events to make people act friendly.
Job description: Preacher and party-planner.
I think it’s that it has become so common-place for churches to be consumed with events and programs that most Christians can’t wrap their mind around a church that doesn’t have them.
But, again, the biblical program of the church is not potlucks, BBQ’s, and movie nights.
Honestly, small groups are not even part of the biblical program of the church.
Ancient small groups met—are you ready for this—nearly every day and without the pastor or other elder’s direct oversight.
When was the last time you invited people to your house to share a meal, to pray, and to talk about Jesus?
They did it nearly every day.
In fact, the author of the letter to the Hebrews exhorted his readers to,
In fact, the author of the letter to the Hebrews exhorted his readers to,
(CSB) — … watch out for one another to provoke love and good works, not neglecting to gather together.
That’s your job as the church.
You provoke each other to love.
You provoke each other to good works.
[TITLE SLIDE]
You get together at each other’s houses and when someone stops coming over, you get them on the phone and get into their lives and you hold them accountable.
Jami and I have people and families in this church that we do this with, but we can’t do that for everyone.
It’s your job to do it for each other.
And the author of Hebrews did not mean to gather together on Sunday morning as some have said.
This passage isn’t about church services.
He means to gather together as believers on a regular basis.
It’s like the disciple Luke observed of the first Christians in Jerusalem,
(CSB) — Every day they … broke bread from house to house.
They didn’t need a program for fellowship, because they understood what fellowship was and they knew that as a practice of Holy People, fellowship was to be a regular part of their day-to-day lives.
[TITLE SLIDE]
It was something they owned as individuals and it would have been completely foreign and bizarre to them if the apostles began organizing programatic fellowship for the church like we do today.
This idea that churches are social clubs and pastors are matchmakers is nothing less than American consumerism.
And I believe this subject can be well informed by a solid understanding of what fellowship really is, according to the scriptures, as the early church understood it.
Define fellowship
The idea of fellowship is usually developed from the New Testament word, koinonia, which is often translated as fellowship, communion, participation, or sharing.
But, the concept of fellowship stems back into the Hebrew mindset of the Old Testament times.
In the Hebrew mindset, fellowship was a bond.
Marriage was a fellowship, a bond that ought not to be broken.
Companionship like David had with Jonathon, King Saul’s son, was fellowship, a bond that could not be broken.
It’s no accident that Tolkien called the group of Elves, Dwarves, Humans, and Hobbits who were called to destroy the One Ring, the fellowship of the ring.
They made an unreachable covenant, a fellowship.
Even physical things, like the joining of links of a chain could be described as fellowship, because of their unbreakable bond.
Bond in Hebrew mindset
So, then you get to the New Testament and the Jewish Christians begin to use this word, fellowship—or koinonia—to describe relationships that Christians have.
Bond in Hebrew mindset
Marriage
Joining links of a chain
Companionship
Koinonia was Paul’s favorite word to describe a believer’s relationship with the risen Lord and the benefits of salvation which come through Him.
On the basis of faith, believers have fellowship with the Son ().
We share fellowship in the gospel (; ).
Paul probably meant that all believers participate together in the saving power and message of the good news.
Believers also share together a fellowship with the Holy Spirit (), which the apostle understood as a most important bond for unity in the life of the church ().
Fellowship was Paul’s favorite word to describe a Christian’s relationship to the risen Lord, Jesus Christ, and the benefits of salvation which come through Him.
(CSB) — God is faithful; you were called by him into fellowship with his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.
On the basis of faith, believers have fellowship, an unbreakable bond with Christ.
Bradley Chance, “Fellowship,” ed.
Chad Brand et al., Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary (Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers, 2003), 564.
We share fellowship in the gospel.
(CSB) — Now I do all this because of the gospel, so that I may share [have fellowship with you] in the blessings.
Here Paul says that the Gospel of Jesus results in an unbreakable bond of fellowship between believers and the blessings of the Gospel.
(CSB) — I give thanks to my God for every remembrance of you … because of your partnership [fellowship] in the gospel from the first day until now.
Paul gives thanks that the Philippian Christians are abiding by the bond of fellowship that comes from the Gospel.
Lord’s Supper
< .5
.5 - .6
.6 - .7
.7 - .8
.8 - .9
> .9