Sermon Tone Analysis

Where is your heart?

Welcome to Snowblast 2022.

I can’t believe that we have made it here back to Baraboo, WI for Snowblast.

This year may be your first year or your 3rd year— thanks Covid!.

But no matter where you are— I am so glad that you all are here.

Of the next couple of days we are going to have a blast.

You are going to be feed a lot of information and I hope make decisions that will impact who you are and who you will become.

We are going to be diving into relationships, dating, marriage, sex, and everything in-between.

You are going to hear a lot of opinions and suggestions.

You are going to hear from leaders who all have different views of relationships, dating, marriage, sex and everything in-between.

I ask of you to open up your hearts, open up your minds and listen well.

Hear what the people around you are saying, ask questions, and be ready to be vulnerable, and honest with yourself and with others.

And as we kick off this retreat, I want us to be reminded of the most important relationship that is mentioned in the Bible.

And while marriage and singleness is mentioned from stories of Adam and Eve, to Paul speaking on singleness.

You could combine all of it and it would still only cover a fraction of what the Bible is truly about.

The vast majority of the Bible covers the importance of a relationship with God.

I know that may be crazy to think about when you are just bomb barded with that daily— it can be challenging to look past the noise of dating someone and rest in the importance of your relationship with God.

So this is where I want to camp out at tonight.

Because this is vital.

I say this with all the love I can possibly have— the relationship I care most about when it comes to each student in this room is your relationship with Jesus period.

I know we have lots of couples and that is great— My bigger question is not how is your two’s relationship— it is how are you doing following Jesus.

And if your answer is mediocre at best— or maybe it is nonexistent.

I’m just going to tell you that you should not be in a relationship.

If we can’t give the most important relationship the attention it needs or deserves how can we give somebody else that?

How can we give them the love they need when we are not experiencing that love in our own life.

I know this sounds harsh and I don’t mean for it to come across this way, but who we date while it is important, it is not the most critical relationship in your life— and it is not the relationship that God is most concerned with either.

Ben Stuart author of “single.dating.engaged.married”

states: “We have to be connected to the source of life if we are going to be a source of life.”

You have to be on board with God before you seek a guy or girl.

You have to meet your maker before you marry a mate.

And look I get it we all want to be loved, but do in order to love we must know how much we are loved.

So let’s look at this question:

How do you know you are loved by someone?

Let’s take it from the secular world.

what do you guys think?

You can’t see love?

You can’t hold it?

It doesn’t come in a little cup.

You can’t buy it.

Yet when we see it play out on a movie or on a show we get it.

We can feel it we can sense it.

It captivates us— we root for it!

We cry tears of joy or shout with glee when they come together to share a kiss.

When they both realize they are in love.

We get this.

But how do we know it’s love?

So we once again ask that age old question of what is love?

We can’t see it, he can hold it, we can’t buy— it seems like love is like the wind.

If love is invisible how do we see it and feel it?

Let look at it from the movie or show side of things.

We first see that love sends.

Love moves.

Love expresses itself in action.

You know that love is present because the lover initiates it.

In the movie the Princess Bride (one of my all time favs) the beautiful Princess Buttercup is captured and she declares to her captors, “I know that my Wesley will come for me.”

How does she know this?

Because they have True Love.

The princess knows that her lover always moves to be with the beloved.

and we can think of other movies when there is a damsel in distress and naturally the bad guys says no one is coming for you.

And they declare that someone is coming— their true love.

We see it when someone likes someone else and they move to get their number.

In order to get my wives phone number— we hid in her car, me and another dude.

and I took my phone and placed it under the seat.

I did not scare her but upon leaving the car— I didn’t have my phone so I asked her if she could call it.

She did.

But before I could text her— she texted me “hey punk.” and it is that simple phrase hey punk that began our journey together, and 14 years I am so glad that love sent.

Love initiates.

Love sparks up conversations.

Love breaks into songs.

Love writes poetry.

Love sends letters.

Love buys flowers.

Love crosses oceans.

I promise you that you will never see a young man coming to the realization that he loves a young woman return to playing a video game or a whatever they may have been doing.

No they will leave the game get off the couch and move?

Why?

Because love initiates.

Secondly love sacrifices.

Love gives all for the sake of the beloved.

In Titanic Jack rose to death in the icy waters of the Atlantic in order to save Rose from the sinking of the Titanic.

In frozen, Anna will throw herself in front of Han’s falling sword in order to save her sister Elsa.

Even Bruno Mars declares that he would catch a grenade for his love.

Even in Hollywood it is understand that true love will sacrifice itself for the beloved.

Lastly: Love stays.

Love delights in the presence of the beloved.

And love will stay, even when the staying is hard.

We declare this in our wedding vows: “I promise to love you for better of for worse, richer or poorer, in sickness and in health.”

Why do we say this?

Because we understand that true love willingly commits to stay with the beloved, even if life gets really complicated.

This is why in the movie the Notebook, Noah stays long hours in the nursing home to read to his love Allie even though she has Alzheimer’s disease and can’t remember who she is.

In 50 first dates Adam Sandler’s character will continue to romance Drew Barrymore’s character every day, even though her short-term memory loss means she forgets him every morning and he must start all over again.

True love stays even when it is hard.

True love stays.

Movies and novels and songs will continue to illustrate these attributes of love because we all know that when we see these activities, love is present.

Know I say all of this why?

You may be thinking what does this have to do with whether or not I feel loved by God?

Keep listening

We know that God is love.

For we know that God is love.

So let switch love sends to God sends.