Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

This weather reminds me of a country love song by Alan Jackson: “Woops, slipped and fell in love”.

Where he compares falling in love to several things like

A bald tire running on an icy road

A steep hill underneath a foot of snow

A greased pig fallen off a pickup truck

Whoops, I slipped and fell in love

A bald tire running on an icy road

A steep hill underneath a foot of snow

A greased pig fallen off a pickup truck

Whoops, I slipped and fell in love

I hope that you're feeling the way that I feel

It's just like flying but you're standing still

The birds and the bees are sure powerful stuff

Whoops, I slipped and fell in love

Anyone here this morning who can think back to a time when you “fell in love” like this? maybe it was a little less “Country Swing” in your experience but have you ever “fallen in love” like this.

It seemed like something that was as much out of your control as gravity itself.

You just fell head over heals for someone and you were not even sure how it happened.

“Yee Haw”

I am pretty excited about the text that we are going to study this morning because it is something that I can quickly relate to.

It is the story of a man who fell head over heals over a girl named “Rachel”.

That is my story.

I remember the moment when I was on the ground looking up as I had fallen, head over heals for this Wisconsin girl…it took Rachel a little longer to see it, but eventually she came around too.

So I love to tell you stories about my life and I thought I would share just a little of it with you, at least from my perspective.

If you want the truth you can talk to Rachel…but I had come to the point in my life where I was done with women.

I had more than my share of “falling” for the wrong girl and I was done.

So I bought a 4 wheel drive Jeep and got a job working and living at a Boy’s Ranch in the deep woods of Wisconsin.

I figured I was safe from even the possibilitiy or romantic entanglements and I could just work on my relationship with God and use my ministry skills in the lives of these young teenage boys.

... I had come to the point in my life where I was done with women.

I had more than my share of “falling” for the wrong girl and I was done.

So I bought a 4 wheel drive Jeep and got a job working and living at a Boy’s Ranch in the deep woods of Wisconsin.

I figured I was safe from even the possibility or romantic entanglements and I could just work on my relationship with God and use my ministry skills in the lives of these young teenage boys.

... I had come to the point in my life where I was done with women.

I had more than my share of “falling” for the wrong girl and I was done.

So I bought a 4 wheel drive Jeep and got a job working and living at a Boy’s Ranch in the deep woods of Wisconsin.

I figured I was safe from even the possibilitiy or romantic entanglements and I could just work on my relationship with God and use my ministry skills in the lives of these young teenage boys.

Well it appears that God had different plans.

For many months, I only two things about this girl named Rachel Wielgus

She was way out of my league, and as such she was already being pursued by some other guy and he appeared to be the “don juan” of the campus.

So I wasn’t even hoping for anything there.

She lived off ranch.

I had just moved up here to the woods and after a couple months I began to see my need to connect with people off the ranch… so I figured that she might be able to point me to a young adult Bible study or something.

Well Rachel was there to do an internship for her Social Work degree and that meant that she wasn’t there everyday so I asked the Social Worker in our house to get me her phone number so that I could see if she could hook me up with a small group or something.

Remember she was, and still is way out of my league.

So the social worker in our house, his name is Rob, came up to me and gave me her number and told me that I had to call her right away.

I was like, Why? Well he said I had to call her because when he asked for her number but didn’t think I wanted him to tell her why, so he didn’t tell her and it got really awkward, “I am married and have kids and I am asking this young college girl for her phone number so you can’t wait to call her - it has to be right now!

So there was no room for me to get cold feet or anything, but I really didn’t have any expectations.

Then I called her up and got to know her a little, and I realized that we were really starting to hit it off.

So I asked her if the next time that she came to the Ranch she might want to go on a hike with.

I didn’t know it at the time, but that was the right question because anyone who knows Rachel knows that the woods is her happy place, so hiking is one of her favorite things to do.

So anyway, I called her up and got to know her a little, still thinking not in my league, and we really started hitting it off.

So I asked her if she wanted to go on a hike in the woods, and that was the right question because anyone who knows Rachel knows that

So the day of the hike as “friends” came and she had this window between a couple of meetings that she was supposed to sit in on and we headed out into the woods together.

We just kept walking and talking and I was really getting excited because this girl seemed awesome.

We talked about everything, our families, our relationship with God, college life, our dreams for the future and then after a while I looked around and realized I had no idea where we were.

We had hiked out on this trail and then for fun we went off trail some and I had no idea how to get back.

She was supposed to be back for a meeting in about 2 hours and I had family that was rolling into town for a visit.

But we were lost.

We wandered around the woods for a lot time until we found a railroad track and then a road and when we finally made it back it was a more than a 5 hours hike!

In my mind, I just knew that whatever thoughts I had about this ending with us being more than just “friends” were hopeless now.

I figured I would be lucky if we would leave the woods that day even being “just friends”.

When I finally realized how late we were going to be and that there was no way she would make her appointment for her internship, I apoligized profusely.

And that is when she said “That’s ok, I guess this is just what God had for me today!”

And that is when I knew, I am all in with this girl.

So when I finally realized how late we were going to be and that there was no way she would make her appointment for her internship, she said, “That’s ok, I guess this is just what God had for me today!”

And that is when I knew, I am all in with this girl.

I was on the ground looking up as I had fallen for her...It took Rachel a little longer to see it, but eventually she came around too.

I was on the ground looking up as I had fallen, head over heals for this Wisconsin girl…it took Rachel a little longer to see it, but eventually she came around too.

Tension

If took Rachel a little longer to see it, but eventually she came around too.

As I look back at that initial experience and the “falling in love” months that followed I am blessed by the gift that it was.

The many swirling feelings and emotions were so fun and exciting and sometimes even painful.

Do you remember the butterflies in your stomach that hurt whenever you aren’t with them.

Experiences like these are gifts from God.

In fact, the entire book of Song of Solomon is dedicated to this.

It is poem after poem of a man and woman expressing how they have extravagantly fallen head over heals in love.

God created these emotions.

He designed this whole plan of romantic engagement and He is pleased when we enjoy them…in their proper season and with the right person.

A quick disclaimer here, especially for the parents among us who are giving me death stares right now because of the conversation that they are having at home with their teenage son or daughter...

As much as Song of Solomon declares the glories of falling in love, the book of Proverbs cautions us to use this gift wisely.

Many times in the book of Proverbs we are cautioned to “not awaken love too quickly”.

It has got to be at the right time.

If you start entangling the emotional effect of “falling in love” way to early and with the wrong person it doesn’t end beautifully, only painfully.

I remember a lot of pain over falling for the wrong person at the wrong time.

As I look back at that experience I am blessed by the gift that it was.

The many swirling feelings and emotions were so fun and exciting.

It was and is a gift from God.

The entire book of Song of Solomon is dedicated to this.

It is poem after poem of a man and woman expressing how they have fallen head over heals in love.

God has designed this.

He has given it to us as a gift.

I have no doubt that Adam and Eve experienced this very thing, and I beleive that God wants us all to experience some level of it.

That is why the same parents who like to tell the story of how they fell in love, also caution their teenagers to not be in a hurry toward it.

It is right, fitting and Biblical counsel to be patient with the entanglements of falling in love.

So parents, continue to lead your kids well in this…understanding that someday, in the right time and with the right person, this falling in love thing will be a beautiful story for them to tell their children.

The thing about “falling in love” is that it always involves two people.

Unless it’s a different country song and it might be about a 4 wheel drive truck, but typically it is two people.

And so when this flurry or emotions happens we have to remember that it is not just our “feelings” that we bring into this new form of a relationship but everything else we have as well.

And of course any parent of a teenager is looking at me with dagger eyes right now

Parents of teens - don’t awaken love too quickly - but that doesn’t mean it is a bad thing.