Sermon Tone Analysis

It’s About Time

Intro

(after thanks and typical stuff) You know, I like to take different approaches to preaching.

There are some Pastors who think that only expository preaching is best - that is to say preaching line by line, or close to it, to allow the text to make the point.

Some think that a topical approach is best - that is when you choose a topic to preach about and then bring in text to support your idea.

Others use a textual approach - that is when you use a text as a jumping off point for an idea.

Now if you know me, you know that I tend to use all three, I mean why just commit to one, right?

But today, I wanted to use the last approach, textual.

And I want to do so because our offering last week dictated it!

You see, when I had you all leave something in that jar I did it intentionally.

I had a plan.

I wanted to see what the most common response was so that I could better minister to you as you start on this journey to commit more to God, to go all in with Him.

So I looked through them all.

And I was so proud.

I saw so many wonderful commitments.

I saw challenging ones, I saw exciting ones, especially from my own family.

I saw, church, God working in and through your lives in those little slips of paper.

And so I wanted to preach about it.

I chose the most common answer and then let God guide me to a text, and that is what we will look at today.

Now of all the responses put in that jar, most of them centered around two ideas: Prayer and Time.

And even of those that mentioned prayer, they generally said something like “time in prayer.”

And the more I looked, the more I realized, It’s all about time.

That is what I need to preach about.

So lets turn in Mark to chapter 13 and as you are turning, let me setup the text.

- BE SURE TO TALK ABOUT THE OFFERING LAST WEEK AND THE FACT THAT THIS SERMON IS BASED ON THOSE RESPONSES!!!!! include the context of chapter 13

Before we read it let me set it up a little bit.

This text follows immediately the text from last week.

Jesus walks out of the temple treasury, and as He came out of it, and the temple, one of His disciples; someone who evidently didn’t pay a lick of attention to everything that had been going on over the last 10 minutes, says -

Mark 13:

Look at those cool buildings!

Look at how nice they are!

Look at what all that money can buy!

So of course what does Jesus say?

In case you missed it, all that stuff doesn’t matter.

Not a bit of it.

And that is our context for today.

We don’t need stuff.

We need to better use what we have already been given.

So we pick it up in , verse 32.

Mark 13:

Pray

picture of a clock

Of all the things this text is about, it is about time.

You can hear it in Jesus’ tone throughout this story.

Here his own disciples, intrigued by the very idea of the end of time, get a short dissertation on time in general.

As I said, Jesus had left the temple and then spoke of it’s destruction.

And immediately Peter, James, and John what to know when!

Sounds like us doesn’t it?

I know it sounds like me, and especially my kids.

As I said in the opening, my wife gave me an especially uplifting and convicting slip in the offering jar last week.

You see, we have been praying about adoption.

And right there, when I was reading the slips, I see my beautiful wife’s handwritten message, “adopt a baby.”

Well that settles it, right?

So this past week, I start to break the news to Olivia.

I tell her we will be going to a meeting about the process, and it’s still early, we might not qualify, all that stuff.

I end it by letting her know it is a very long process.

It could take until this time next year.

Her response?

“But it could be next week too, right?”

When is it going to happen?

When can I expect this great thing?

I am sure you can relate.

When we get good news, the next question is almost always “when?”

When we are going to buy something we get is shipped overnight, or 2 day, right?

When we see the new Star Wars trailer, we want it to be out the next day!

That’s just the way we are.

And Jesus understands that.

So he describes for the disciples all that will happen, almost to appease their curiosity, and also to help protect them.

And through all the imagery He gives them, the overriding message remains crystal clear!

Pay attention to what is happening

Don’t get lost waiting for tomorrow.

Don’t sell right now for the future!

It’s all about time.

Time, it turns out, is the thing we want the most, but the thing we use the worst.

We really do.

For some reason, we all seem to be prone to act as if we have unlimited time, and because of that, we tend to miss the moments we are allowed experience.

Our call to worship even reminds us of that fact!

But we don’t number our days, do we?

No, we tend to instead go to great lengths to waste our days - to kill time.

“As if you could kill time without injuring eternity” ~ Henry David Thoreau

I remember when I was young we would drive between NC and Florida to visit family.

And I remember that ride, church; it was so long.

It took forever!

You remember that feeling?

And listen, I am old enough to have not had to wear a seat-belt at all!

I could roll around and play, and it still took forever!

Teach us to number our days aright, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.

Henry David Thoreau.

So how did I cope with that trip?

.

I slept.

I fell asleep knowing full well that if I could sleep long enough, the ride would only take a couple minutes!

I would be there almost immediately if only I could sleep.

“Stay awake,” Jesus says.

Stay awake.

Don’t go to sleep or you will miss the whole ride!

But that tendency remains in all our lives, especially in our day and age.

Sure we don’t fall asleep anymore, but we still kill time!

Now we do it with TV, or Internet, or what is likely the largest waste of our time...

[picture of a cell phone]

Yeah…our phones.