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
0.57LIKELY
Fear
0.14UNLIKELY
Joy
0.55LIKELY
Sadness
0.49UNLIKELY
Language Tone
Analytical
0.36UNLIKELY
Confident
0UNLIKELY
Tentative
0.23UNLIKELY
Social Tone
Openness
0.94LIKELY
Conscientiousness
0.58LIKELY
Extraversion
0.18UNLIKELY
Agreeableness
0.48UNLIKELY
Emotional Range
0.61LIKELY
Tone of specific sentences
Tones
Emotion
Language
Social Tendencies
Anger
< .5
.5 - .6
.6 - .7
.7 - .8
.8 - .9
> .9
What Light Does
We are to Walk as children of the Light ......
Eph 5.8
Let your light shine .......
matt 5.14-
We are to give off light....
The only christian most will ever see is us
In the previous section Paul stated we are not to be partakers with the children of darkness.
We are to walk as children of the light
Children look like the parents
Children have the characteristics of the parents
The light exposes darlenss
I Light Radiates (5:8–10)
A Convicting Distinction (5:8–14)
a.
Where Light Radiates (5:8–10)
(1) It Brings a Change of Character (5:8)
“Ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light.”
As children of God we cannot be partners in immorality because there can be no fellowship between light and darkness.
Light drives out the darkness.
light refuses to coexist with darkness.
Biblical morality is always a matter of black or white, light or darkness, truth or falsehood, good or bad, right or wrong.
There are no shades of gray.
Paul recognized that once we walked in darkness.
Some allowance perhaps can be made for the unsaved, but we are now children of light and there is no excuse for us to live immoral lives.
Professing Christians who live immoral lives prove by their behavior that their professions of faith were spurious.
When I was conducting meetings in a small town in Iowa some time ago, the brother who took me back and forth to the airport shared his testimony with me.
His story was that he attended an evangelistic service and although he did not understand what was happening to him, the Holy Spirit convicted him of sin.
A few days later the pastor and the evangelist visited him, and his conviction grew.
That night he and his girlfriend returned to the services being held at the church; he was drawn there by the new stirrings of God in his soul.
When the invitation was given, he turned to his girlfriend and said, “I’m going forward.
What about you?
I’ve got to get this matter settled.”
The girl, who had been raised a Catholic, had come into contact with the gospel some months before.
She had asked him at the time, “What does it mean when they say you have to be saved?”
His answer had been definite: “Don’t let it worry you.
That’s just their idea.
There’s nothing to it.”
But now he knew there was something to it after all.
“I’m going forward,” he said.
“What about you?”
“I’m coming too,” she answered.
That night they both accepted Christ.
They now had a new problem because they were living together as man and wife although they were not married.
No one said anything to them about their situation, but the Holy Spirit did.
They knew that they could no longer live in sin.
For the time being they decided not to break up their living arrangement, but to use separate bedrooms.
For a while they struggled with the complications of their situation.
“I began to devour the Bible,” he told me, “looking for some light on what we were doing.
I was soon convinced that we could not go on living as we were.”
They sought pastoral counseling, and within a week they were properly married in the sight of God and man.
When they were still in the darkness of their unregenerate state, they found it easy to come to terms with living in sin.
But once they were saved, the indwelling Holy Spirit made such accommodation impossible.
As children of light they knew instinctively from the inward voice of the Holy Spirit that living in sin was wholly incompatible with living for God.
(2) It Brings a Change of Conduct (5:9)
“The fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth.”
The phrase translated “fruit of the Spirit” here is sometimes translated “fruit of light.”
Paul repeatedly emphasized light and the word “light” occurs five times in Ephesians 5:8–14.
First John 1:5 tells us that “God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.”
If we are “children of light” (Ephesians 5:8), we will display the characteristics of light.
If we are children of God, we will display the character of God.
That character will be evident to our fellow men through our conduct.
God always acts according to His character.
He is good, He is righteous, and He is true.
Our conduct as Christians will reflect these moral qualities of goodness, righteousness, and truth.
We will not habitually be bad, wrong, or false.
The conduct of a Christian is the best evidence of his new birth and the best testimony to the unsaved of the regenerating power inherent in his new birth.
The English evangelist Tom Rees told a story about a man who was saved in one of his meetings.
The new convert had been a terrible drunkard and a domestic tyrant.
His craving for drink had reduced his family to abject poverty.
Although he had a roaring, godless camaraderie with his workmates and drinking buddies, he abused his wife and neglected his home.
Then he met Christ.
He immediately gave up alcohol.
He became a loving husband, a good provider, and a tender father.
His home showed evidence of the transformation the new birth had wrought.
Food appeared on the table, his wife and children were warmly clothed, and new comforts were added to the home from time to time.
His drinking companions did not like the change.
They missed the vile oaths, dirty stories, and ribald songs.
They found themselves confronted by a stranger—a man who went to church, sang hymns, read his Bible, gave his testimony, worked hard, and refused to drink with them or waste time on the job.
During his lunch hour this transformed man sat alone rather than listen to the filthy conversations of his former friends.
He would read his Bible, and the sight of the Bible infuriated his workmates.
They began to persecute him.
They attacked the Bible and ridiculed him for being foolish enough to believe it.
One of them tackled him with a Scripture passage that is a favorite of those who drink.
“Hey Bob,” he said, “how about that place in the Bible where Jesus was in somebody’s house and turned water into wine?
That’s a pretty tall story, wouldn’t you say?
You don’t believe that, do you?”
The converted drunkard had not been saved very long.
He was not a skilled apologist, but his answer was classic.
He said, “Fred, I don’t know anything about that.
I can’t say if Christ turned water into wine in that house, but I know that He has changed beer into furniture in my house.”
Where light radiates, it brings a change of character and a change of conduct.
(3) It Brings a Change of Criterion (5:10)
“Proving what is acceptable unto the Lord.”
Is this behavior acceptable to the Lord?
That question is the criterion for judging conduct.
The criterion is not personal preference, and whether or not the world approves does not matter.
The Christian judges conduct according to whether or not the Lord approves it.
It is not difficult to discover what is good, right, and true.
All we have to do is stand for a few minutes alongside the Lord Jesus.
< .5
.5 - .6
.6 - .7
.7 - .8
.8 - .9
> .9