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
0.14UNLIKELY
Joy
0.54LIKELY
Sadness
0.54LIKELY
Language Tone
Analytical
0.62LIKELY
Confident
0UNLIKELY
Tentative
0.07UNLIKELY
Social Tone
Openness
0.88LIKELY
Conscientiousness
0.84LIKELY
Extraversion
0.14UNLIKELY
Agreeableness
0.61LIKELY
Emotional Range
0.65LIKELY

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
Romans 8:1-17
 
!!!! Introduction
Last Sunday I had water poured on me a whole bunch of times.
Twice in the context of a game and several times randomly by some of you.
Thank-you for making me feel so welcome.
It was not really a strange thing to pour water on each other because it was a picnic.
Anyone walking by who didn’t know about church would have understood what was going on.
Last Sunday was for fun and fellowship and although I won’t soon forget it, it won’t really change my life or impact it in any significant way.
Today in church we are going to pour water again on 10 individuals who have asked us to do so.
To an outsider who doesn’t understand church, this may seem to be rather a strange thing.
The meaning of this act is powerful and has implications for life.
Those who have asked for water to be poured on them, are saying some powerful things about who they are, about their relationship to the God of the universe and about how they intend to live the rest of their life.
I think it is appropriate that we have baptism on this particular day because today is Pentecost Sunday.
On this day, we celebrate three things.
#.
Coming of the Spirit.
In the Old Testament, for example in Isaiah 32:15, God had promised a day when he would pour out his Spirit.
He speaks of mourning and destruction, “till the Spirit is poured upon us from on high, and the desert becomes a fertile field, and the fertile field seems like a forest.”
In Acts 2 that day came, and Peter explained that this promise of God was fulfilled as the Spirit was poured out on the believers.
Today is the day when we remember this great occasion and celebrate that since the day of Pentecost, God’s Spirit has been present with God’s people and has indwelt all those who belong to Him.
#.
First Christian Baptism
When the Spirit was poured out, many people were immediately drawn to Christ and became believers.
As a result, they were baptized with water.
This was the first Christian baptism and symbolized the washing away of their sins, their death to sin and resurrection to newness of life.
It also symbolized the fact that the Spirit of God had been poured into their life.
#.
Beginning of the Church
The third thing that happened, was that the church began.
Acts 2:41 says “about three thousand were added to their number that day.”
Since that day, God’s people have met and worshiped together and learned together.
As we are meeting to worship today, we are celebrating these things.
We are enacting Christian baptism as these ten young people are indicating that their sins are forgiven and they have begun life with Jesus.
They are becoming a part of this congregation.
To the 3000 who were added that day and the many who have been added since then, we are adding another ten.
And they are indicating that because they are Christians, God’s Spirit has been poured into their life.
In the message this morning, I want to focus on the symbol of the Holy Spirit being poured into the life of a believer.
When we become believers, God’s Spirit comes to live in us.
From then on we live by the Spirit.
It is a joy for me to do so because I believe that the Bible teaches us that the essence of the Christian life is a life lived in the Spirit.
It is not coincidental that things did not really take off for the early church until the Spirit was poured out.
Sometimes we have made becoming a Christian and living a Christian life too much a matter of what we do.
We need to be reminded that it is something that God does by His Spirit.
So let us think about the what it means to walk by the Spirit.
What does it mean to those of you who are being baptized today that God’s Spirit lives in you?
The primary text we will look at today is Romans 8:1-17.
From a study of this passage, I would like to suggest today that living by the Spirit means a complete change of direction, empowerment and belonging.
!
I.             A Change Of Direction
The Mary-Jane reservoir is created where the Mary-Jane creek is dammed up to supply water to the nearby town of Manitou.
At the dam side of the reservoir, the water is deep and quite a large body of water.
You can fish and boat and water ski there.
I have paddled my canoe on this reservoir and followed it up stream.
As you paddle along, the waterway gets narrower and narrower.
If you keep going, you get to the point where it is so narrow that you can’t turn around any more.
The only way out is that you have to turn around in your seat, and paddle out with a 1800 change of direction.
Walking by the Spirit involves a 1800 change of direction.
!! A.  From Sin To Righteousness
The first radical change of direction which the Spirit brings about in us is a change of direction from sin to righteousness.
The essence of sin is hostility to God as it says in Romans 8:7, “the sinful mind is hostile to God.”
The Bible tells us that we have all chosen to walk in that direction.
We have all chosen to walk in disobedience to God.
But God has set us on a radical new direction by His Spirit.
Romans 8:3, 4 says, “For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering.
And so he condemned sin in sinful man, in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit.”
When we believe that Jesus died on the cross for us, God sets us in a totally new direction.
Instead of walking in sin, we now walk in righteousness.
As a result, our lives are no more dedicated to sin, but we are now dedicated to living for what is right.
This is a change that we could not bring about in ourselves.
It has not come about because we have suddenly decided to live in the right way, it has come about by the power of the Spirit who lives in us.
There are two possibilities for every person on earth.
They can either live a life centered on themselves or they can live a life centred in God and empowered by Him.
The radical change that has occurred in us when we became Christians and were indwelt by the Spirit is that we have changed direction from sin to living a life centred in God.
!! B.  From Bondage To Freedom
Have you ever watched an illusionist get handcuffed, put in a strait jacket, put in a trunk and then into water?
If I was put in such a situation, I would be very scared because I would feel trapped.
But such a physical trap is not nearly as devastating as the trap of our own sinfulness and the consequences of our sinful actions.
When I met her, she began coming to our church because a friend invited her.
As I got to know her, I learned her story.
She had not grown up in a Christian home.
She and her husband had met and married.
He worked for the railway and she was a nurse.
Outwardly their life may have looked fairly stable, but in reality it was a shambles.
They both drank heavily and had a lot of struggles.
Conflict was a part of their daily life.
But this was not the person I got to know.
I got to know a person who did not drink any more.
A person who was a woman of prayer.
A person who was respected by all who knew her.
A person whose faith shone through in everything she did.
She was not shy about telling others that it was God’s Spirit who had released her from the bonds of alcohol, self centeredness, fear and conflict.
The glory of what God’s Spirit does in us when we become Christians is that He releases us from bondage and sets us free.
Romans 8:2 says, “through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death.”
!! C.  From Death To Life
In the Roadrunner cartoons, we often see Wile E. Coyote fall off cliffs, fall thousands of feet go poof, shake himself off and chase the roadrunner again.
That’s a cartoon, but many people think that that is the reality when it comes to the consequences of sin.
We will just fall, go poof and still be fine.
But just as surely as if you jump off a 1000 foot cliff, you will die, so certain is it that if you sin you will die.
Sin always leads to destruction and death.
A few years ago, we knew a girl who was in high school.
On a particular evening, she wanted to go to a social.
Her parents told her not to, but they were busy that evening and had gone away.
When her boyfriend showed up, they decided to take her dad’s truck and go to the party.
I don’t know how long they were there or how much drinking they did, but on the way home, she lost control of the truck and was injured to the point of entering into a coma.
< .5
.5 - .6
.6 - .7
.7 - .8
.8 - .9
> .9