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
0.1UNLIKELY
Disgust
0.09UNLIKELY
Fear
0.11UNLIKELY
Joy
0.61LIKELY
Sadness
0.48UNLIKELY
Language Tone
Analytical
0.61LIKELY
Confident
0UNLIKELY
Tentative
0.22UNLIKELY
Social Tone
Openness
0.55LIKELY
Conscientiousness
0.9LIKELY
Extraversion
0.08UNLIKELY
Agreeableness
0.68LIKELY
Emotional Range
0.63LIKELY

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
Pray
Introduction
We are at the end of our series on discipleship - the Essentials of discipleship.
And this week is perhaps one of the most important weeks in the series - because it’s about continuing with Jesus.
Because so often in life, we start things…and then we give up.
We’re so excited at the start, and then as time goes on we kinda lose interest.
This is something that can’t happen with our relationship with Jesus.
And to help us to see what that means, and kinda in order to wrap up the series, we’re looking at Colossians 1, which we read out earlier.
And, if you remember last week we looked at running a race - today we’re going to continue in a similar vein as we look at continuing in discipleship.
Pause
And to set the scene, I want you to think of someone whom you aim to please.
Maybe it’s your boss, maybe it’s your husband or wife…I know I’m playing catch up after last week when I said I was better than Kate at navigating a maze.
It appears fact doesn’t seem to matter when you slander your wife.
And so I’m doing whatever I can to please my wonderful darling wife.
At the same time, as I’m the assistant here, I’m also doing whatever I can to make Paul happy.
I wouldn’t want to let him down and of course all of you too…the point is there are people we try to please....Maybe it’s your parents, your spouse, your children.
What about God?
[Are we trying to please God?]
And when you think about people you know, isn’t it frustrating when people have awesome potential in them and they aren’t living up to that potential?
This is what Paul is saying to us in this part of his letter to the Colossians.
Paul’s prayer for the Colossians is that their lives reach the potential that Christ has granted them so that they become true disciples who walk in a manner pleasing to God.
And that’s what we should be wanting for ourselves, but not just for ourselves - for each other too.
When we pursue it for ourselves, that’s being a disciple, when we pursue it for others too, that’s being a disciple maker.
Pause
So, the big question is – since we know about what discipleship is… How can we keep it up?
How can we continue well on our journey of discipleship?
Now, I know it’s obvious when you look at me that I like my sports.
I’m very athletic as you can tell, and despite my natural athleticism, you all know that I can’t stand Football?
If you also can’t stand football, think of another team sport.
But in many ways, discipleship is like being in a team.
And in the football world, what happens at different intervals in the year is that players can transfer to another team.
And when we come to Christ - when we enter into this journey of discipleship, we too, have been transferred… transferred from the domain of darkness to the kingdom of Jesus Christ.
That’s the call that we looked at at the start of the series.
But how well do we appreciate this?
Paul says this in Colossians 1:13-14...
So we’ve been transferred from the domain of darkness to the kingdom of God’s beloved son through the work of that son, Jesus Christ.
In other words, Paul is reminding the Colossians what is already the case.
They HAVE BEEN transferred.
They are no longer in the dominion of darkness.
And it’s the same for us, if we have given our lives to Jesus Christ then we are already in the kingdom of God – we are disciples NOW.
Don’t forget what we said last week…Jesus doesn’t want converts, he wants disciples who learn from their teacher and want to please their teacher - walking in a manner that is pleasing to God...
So when we give our lives to Jesus, we become disciples.
We have been transferred from the domain of darkness, where we once lived and are now citizens of the Kingdom of God.
Think about it in terms of football...
Neymar, the Brazillian footballer (no relation) transfers to Paris Saint Germain, from Barcelona, for a record breaking £198 million pounds, which is a transfer fee that none of us could pay – certainly not on a minister’s salary.
But imagine if, rather than joining his new team, continued to train for his old team?
It would be scandalous, especially the amount that was paid.
If you’ve been transferred to a new team, you train and play for your new team.
The old team is in the past.
If you remember what Paul wrote which we saw last week, he said, he forgets what is behind and he focuses on what’s ahead.
And so it was with us – because we are born in sin…and as a result we were members of the darkness team, we were enemies of God, yet God in his grace sent his son Jesus Christ to pay the price for our sin on the cross, essentially paying the transfer fee from what Paul calls the domain of darkness into the kingdom of God through his death and resurrection.
Now in Neymar’s case, you could say he deserved the amount he was paid, because he WAS THAT good.
In our case, we AREN’T that good.
We are nowhere near THAT good for Jesus to pay the price to transfer us from the domain of darkness and into his kingdom.
Thankfully, he paid it anyway because of his grace.
Pause
But now that we are on this new team, we play for this new team, we train with this new team, we should be all about this new team.
And so there’s work to be done.
There’s a game to play, there’s an opponent to beat, there are goals to be scored – but while that is happening, there is also constant training to be done.
And this is how we CONTINUE in our discipleship...
Paul prays in verse 9:
And why does Paul pray this – verse 10:
So if we are to be able to please God by the way we walk – or the way we live.
If we are to bear fruit, if we are to increase in the knowledge of God we must first be filled with the knowledge of his will, which is what Paul prays for the Colossians.
Now one of the reasons Paul was writing this was because the Colossians were being heavily influenced by false teachers.
And so these influences were pulling the Colossians in many directions, which prompts Paul to explicitly say, “Colossians, the only knowledge that is worth knowing is the knowledge of God and his will.
Know that and you’ll walk in a manner worthy of the Lord fully pleasing him.”
In other words - we can easily get distracted in our journey of discipleship and we can start taking our eyes OFF Jesus and onto other things, even onto good things…but we need to keep our eyes firmly fixed on Jesus - that’s HIS WILL for us.
It’s our training.
You can’t join a football team and not be expected to train.
You can’t skip the training during the week and expect to play on match day.
Pause
It’s the same with disciples of Jesus.
We are disciples now – we’ve been transferred into God’s kingdom right here, right now, so we have to train, otherwise we will not play well.
We’re not going to bear fruit.
We’re going to fail as disciples.
We need this filling of the knowledge of God with all Spiritual wisdom and understating right now IF we are to walk in a manner worthy of God, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God.
Back to pleasing my wife....
If I want to please Kate and make her happy, I need to know what MAKES her happy and what makes her sad so that I can do the things that make her happy and stay away from the things that make her sad.
It requires me to KNOW her - and I get to KNOW her by spending time with her.
The more I spend time with her the more I want to strangle her.
No, the more I spend time with her, the more I know what she likes and what she doesn’t like.
And it’s the same with God – if we want to please God we need to know him.
Knowing God is the key to all of this.
But knowing him is a process.
It’s not a one-off thing – it’s ongoing.
So if you think of a footballer, or any sports person, they don’t just train once and that does them.
They train again and again and again.
They aren’t getting paid all that money just to play on match day.
For all sportspeople, training is continuous.
Which is why Paul in verse 9 says, they have not ceased to pray for the Colossians asking them for this filling.
Paul and Timothy are continually praying for this.
Discipleship is a continuous process.
And it’s a process not just to make disciples, not just to engage with culture…In fact that’s kinda secondary....The main focus of our lives as disciples is GETTING TO KNOW OUR SAVIOUR.
Pause
In school, we HAD to play rugby or hockey, and I never even tried to play.
I never bothered playing because I wasn’t interested in the game.
I just stood around talking to whoever was beside me who also wasn’t interested in the game.
Normally another geek like me.
Was I a member of the team?
< .5
.5 - .6
.6 - .7
.7 - .8
.8 - .9
> .9