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
0.49UNLIKELY
Disgust
0.12UNLIKELY
Fear
0.1UNLIKELY
Joy
0.55LIKELY
Sadness
0.5UNLIKELY
Language Tone
Analytical
0.67LIKELY
Confident
0UNLIKELY
Tentative
0UNLIKELY
Social Tone
Openness
0.83LIKELY
Conscientiousness
0.78LIKELY
Extraversion
0.31UNLIKELY
Agreeableness
0.68LIKELY
Emotional Range
0.79LIKELY

Tone of specific sentences

Tones
Emotion
Anger
Disgust
Fear
Joy
Sadness
Language
Analytical
Confident
Tentative
Social Tendencies
Openness
Conscientiousness
Extraversion
Agreeableness
Emotional Range
Anger
< .5
.5 - .6
.6 - .7
.7 - .8
.8 - .9
> .9
*THE PRACTICE OF THE CHURCH *
*Message Two: “God owns the Church”*
*Acts 20:28*
"*“Be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood.
" (Acts 20:28NASB95)*
We have spent several weeks studying the church, and the farther we go in our study the more I realize there is so much more to learn about the church.
To help us to learn more about the most important organization on earth, we are going to spend several weeks examining what the Scriptures teach about the Church.
We began to examine Acts 20:28 last week I said that there are three great truths, three very important truths in this verse that deserve our attention.
We looked at two of them last week, but we didn’t touch the third truth.
Today let me go back and flesh out the first two a little more and then we will unfold the third truth which is the underlying foundation for much of what we learned last week.
Let’s start this morning by starting with the second truth from last week.
That was recognition of the owner.
Acts 20:28 identifies the church as the “church of God”.
That terminology is used 11 times in the New Testament to describe the church.
God is the owner if you will of the church.
The implication of that truth is that as the owner of the church He has placed the Lord Jesus Christ as the head of the church.
Jesus Christ is the head of the church that means that He is the authority over the church.
And because He is the authority, the head of the church, He and He alone determines who is to lead His church.
Let’s look at our text verse again.
"*“Be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood.
" (Acts 20:28NASB95)*
Again Paul is talking to the elders of the church at Ephesus and he says to be on guard not only for yourself but for all of the flock, then Paul adds this important statement.
He says “among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers….”
That answers the question of how a man is put into the ministry.
A man who has not been called and selected by God has no right to assume that position.
We have far too many of what I like to call “Momma called” preachers and not enough God called preachers.
We have plenty of men who want to hold the office of a pastor who will not carry out the responsibilities of the pastor.
We have plenty of men who are looking for a life of ease, who think the ministry will allow them to play more golf, and have plenty of leisure time such men are not fit for the ministry.
Unfortunately we have more men assuming the office of a pastor who are in reality what the Bible calls a hireling.
One of the key words in verse 28 is the word “made”.
Paul says the Holy Spirit has “made” you overseers.
The word that is translated “made” is a word that means “to put or place in a particular location”.
The implication is that yes, God works through human means in selecting the leadership of a church, but ultimately it is the decision of the Holy Spirit in who is placed into leadership of the church.
The way that the Holy Spirit insures that the right man is placed in this most important position is through the prospective leader meeting the qualifications as they are laid out in the Scriptures.
A man may have the desire to be a leader in the church, but if they do not meet the qualifications, that is the means that the Holy Spirit uses to communicate with the church that regardless of how gifted he may appear, how charismatic his personality may be, and even how successful he may have been in the secular world he is disqualified from holding the position of pastor or elder in the church.
The tense of the verb “made” expresses the thought that the Holy Spirit did this for His own purposes.
It is because of this divine appointment that the man of God has the responsibility of the oversight of the church.
What are the responsibilities of the pastor~/shepherd of the church?
This verse like any verse must be kept in its proper context.
As I began to study this passage again this week the context of this verse really was intriguing to me.
This verse is set up for us in verses 17 and 18 of this same chapter.
Notice what they say
"*From Miletus he sent to Ephesus and called to him the elders of the church.
And when they had come to him, he said to them… "(Acts 20:17-18aNASB95)*
Who was it that sent to Ephesus for the elders of the church?
It was the Apostle Paul.
Paul was on his way to Jerusalem to attend the feast of Pentecost.
Why did Paul want to have a conversation with these church elders?
The closing verses of Acts 20 tell us that Paul knew and they knew that they would never see each other again.
So he has one final discipleship lesson to impart to them.
"*When he had said these things, he knelt down and prayed with them all.
And they began to weep aloud and embraced Paul, and repeatedly kissed him, grieving especially over the word which he had spoken, that they would not see his face again.
And they were accompanying him to the ship."
(Acts 20:36-38NASB95)*
This was going to be the last time that Paul was going to have the opportunity to see these elders, these men of God.
Men that he had probably shared the gospel with and has been privileged to see them come to faith in Christ; men that he had personally trained and discipled and had brought them to a place of spiritual maturity.
They had grown spiritually that were now the elders, the pastors, the shepherds, the leaders of the church at Ephesus.
This was going to be his last face to face discipleship lesson with these men.
His words to them are very important for anyone who aspires to leadership in the church.
These are not the only words from Paul on the subject of leadership in the church.
For instance he doesn’t deal with the qualifications for leadership in the church, he has already written extensively about that particularly in I Timothy chapter three and in Titus chapter one.
These men have already met the qualifications of being an elder, so here in this final conversation with them he goes into detail about the responsibilities of their position, and the one who is responsible for them having their position.
If you aspire to be in leadership in the church someday these words from Paul are for you.
If you are a member of a church these words are for you.
This is the Apostle Paul’s Pastors School.
Paul details some very important duties of the pastor, the shepherd of the church.
First of all the Pastor is to pay attention to his own spiritual health and well being.
The pastor cannot give what he does not possess.
The pastor is to be a spiritual well out of which the members of the church can come and drop their dry and empty buckets into time and time and time again and they not come up empty or with stale, stagnant water.
The pastor needs to be an effervescent source of living water.
The pastor’s spiritual condition should be source of refreshment for those he ministers too.
Therefore the pastor must pay special attention to his own devotional life.
The pastor must discipline himself to spend quality time in prayer.
The pastor must discipline himself to spend quality time in the Scriptures.
The pastor needs to spend time in meditation and reflection.
I would like to thank you as a church because you have afforded me the opportunity of being able to spend time in prayer, reading the Scriptures, and for meditation and reflection.
I strive to use that time wisely and to pay close attention to my own spiritual condition.
I don’t know of another occupation that has a higher casualty rate than the ministry.
Donald Whitney who has written much quality material on the spiritual disciplines writes in a sermon titled *THE ALMOST INEVITABLE RUIN OF EVERY MINISTER . . .
AND HOW TO AVOID IT.*
* *
/“Once when a Southern Baptist denominational executive was on the Midwestern Seminary campus in the late 1990s, he asserted that statistics show that for every twenty men who enter the ministry, by the time those men reach age sixty-five, only one will still be in the ministry.
/
/ /
/Despite all the commitment with which they began the race, despite all the investment of time and money to prepare, despite the years spent in service, despite the cost of retooling and redirecting their lives, nearly all will leave the ministry.
Some will opt out for health reasons.
Some will wash out in their private lives.
Some will bow out, realizing they had misread the call of God.
Some will bail out because the stress is so great.
Some will be forced out by their churches.
Some will walk out from sheer frustration and a sense of failure.
And if you haven't given serious thought to leaving the ministry, you haven't been in it very long.”/
Hence the reason for Paul’s point of instruction for the pastor.
In his letter to another young pastor by the name of Timothy he wrote.
"*Until I come, give attention to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation and teaching.
Do not neglect the spiritual gift within you, which was bestowed on you through prophetic utterance with the laying on of hands by the presbytery.
Take pains with these things; be absorbed in them, so that your progress will be evident to all.
Pay close attention to yourself and to your teaching; persevere in these things, for as you do this you will ensure salvation both for yourself and for those who hear you."
(1 Timothy 4:13-16NASB95)*
Notice carefully verse 16 “Pay close attention to yourself and to your teaching; persevere in these things,(the things mentioned above) for as you do this you will ensure salvation both for yourself and for those who hear you.”
Paul says to Timothy, and to the pastors at Ephesus, and to every man who has been placed into the ministry by the Holy Spirit to pay attention first of all to your own spiritual condition.
Donald Whitney goes on to point out some things in the pastors life that can keep him from pay close attention to his spiritual condition.
He writes…
< .5
.5 - .6
.6 - .7
.7 - .8
.8 - .9
> .9