Sermon Tone Analysis

Opening Prayer

Opening Prayer - Here we are Lord!

We come from the busyness of our daily lives from the hubbub of our work and play from the hue and cry of the world around us, we come to worship you.

In this hour, we long to meet you, to feel your presence surrounding us, loving us.

We long to settle into silence, laying aside our worries and our cares, aware of your presence around us, before us, behind us, within us.

Come, Lord Jesus.

Prayer before Offering

We thank You today for The blessings that you bestow upon us all.

Father, I pray for our congregation today.

Lord, may we all give with gladness and sincerity.

Father, no one ever gives a present to someone with reluctance and we should never give You what already belongs to You with reluctance either.

Bless these tithes and offerings this day.

We love You, Father!

Amen

Following Offering

Bless these tithes and offerings.

May the Father be the light that guides us, may the Son be the love that inspires us, and may the presence of the Holy Spirit be the power that empowers us.

Amen.

Message – Life in the fast lane –

You know you have a busy day ahead of you, so you set your alarm an hour early, "just in case."

But then you still freak out the minute it goes off out of fear that you overslept.

To make sure you don't wake anyone else up, you get dressed in the dark.

But then you realize you put your clothes on inside out.

You finally get the kids up, dressed, fed, packed for school -- and then on the way out the door, you realize you forgot to make their lunches.

You frantically dig money out of your purse and figure they can just buy lunch.

You get them to the bus stop on time, but then you realize you forgot to pack their homework.

You send them on their way, rush home to retrieve the homework, and figure you'll drop it at school on the way to your dentist appointment, which you've already rescheduled four times because of other conflicts.

You CAN'T miss this one.

But on the way to the appointment, you hit major traffic, and you walk in a good 20 minutes late.

And that forces you to reschedule yet again because you can't miss the open house in your kid's classroom.

You're beyond annoyed, and so is the receptionist.

After the classroom visit, you're feeling all sorts of awesome because you have exactly enough time to go grocery shopping, clean the house, and pay a few bills before the kids get home.

But then you realize kid number one has soccer and kid number two has ballet and OMG you have no idea where their uniforms are.

And you really don't have time to go through every single laundry basket in the house, so you take a detour over to the mall to buy new ones.

You can feel your blood pressure rising.

The mall is a zoo, so by the time you get the goods, you realize you won't make it home in time to meet the bus.

You drive to the school as fast as you can to pick up the kids.

You grab the kiddos and manage to get each of them to their respective activities with five minutes to spare.

Winning.

But then you get this sinking feeling that you're forgetting something.

OMG -- that's right!

The neighbors are coming for dinner, and you totally forgot to turn the oven on.

Now you have no roast to feed them.

And then you're all, "Oh, to heck with it.

Everybody loves pizza, right?"

When we think of Life In The Fast Lane we may think of people who live in a big city.

We may think of those in Hollywood.

We may not think about that for ourselves.

We live in rural Missouri in a small town.

We don’t live in the hustle and bustle of a large city.

Whether you live in a large city or in a small one we have an epidemic in our country of being over-scheduled.

We are yes people.

Yes, I will do this, Yes I will do that.

Yes Yes Yes.

We feel like we are going and going and doing and doing so much that while you are doing, you are not present, you are thinking about what you have to do next.

Am I wrong?

Have you ever been in service and as you listen to the message you find yourself and your thoughts wondering?

I hope the service does not run late,

I need to stop by the store,

I need to get home and get lunch on the table,

then I need to, Fill in the blank” 

Dare I ask have you ever pulled out a piece of paper and made a shopping list or to-do list while in service?

I am willing to admit it, I have.

I’m so busy at times that I am not truly present where I am because I’m present somewhere else.

Being busy seems to be the new norm.

We fill our schedules with activities, meetings, commitments.

We all know someone in our lives that never says no when asked to lead a committee, to head up an event, to lead a class.

You may be one of those people that feels like you can’t say no.

You feel like your letting someone down, you may feel you're letting God down, you may feel guilty.

This morning I am here to challenge you with a question.

Is it possible that every time you say YES you ARE saying NO? Let's ponder that for a moment.

I am sure all of us have said or heard: “There are just not enough hours in the day.”

“I don’t know where the time goes.”

Or “I’ll FIND the time”.

Robert Banks, The Tyranny of Time, When 24 Hours is Not Enough.

“With respect to time, Christians are a good deal worse off than many.

This is especially the case if they live in a large city, belong to the middle-classes, have managerial or professional positions, or combine outside employment with substantial household responsibilities.”

Christians and people raised in a Christian setting tend to take their work more seriously than others.

They also place a high value on family obligations.

And they are often at the forefront of community and charitable associations.

The upshot of this commitment to work, community, and family is, as my eldest son commented: ‘Christians are like trains – always on the move, always in a rush and always late’.

“

Remember my question, is it possible that every time you say YES you ARE saying NO?

In our reading today in Mark, we have the apostles who are eager to share with Jesus all the good works they have done in his name.

Have you ever been so excited to share with your closes family or friends your experience after a mission trip?

Or a vacation?

Jesus tells, them to “come away by yourselves to a desolate place and rest awhile.”

Instead of Jesus being in a rush to hear all their news, he tells them to go rest, take a deep breath.

Jesus is saying NO.

He wants the apostles to rest.

In our lives, the demands on our time are never-ending.

How many times are you approached and really feel overwhelmed but feel like you can’t say NO?  How can I say No?  So, you say YES, Yes Yes and the results of saying yes is you are overscheduled, overworked, and your relationships are suffering.

But that is the opposite of what you think you are doing when you say Yes.

Why do we feel we have to always say yes?

We like to feel needed.

We are concerned about what others may think of us if we say no.

We like feeling like the go-to person that can always be trusted to come through.

As I have asked you several times now, is it possible to ever say YES without also saying NO?

I am going to take it a step further, I believe you can NEVER say Yes without Saying NO.

And you can never say NO without saying Yes.

Ask yourself this question, when you say yes, I will be part of this committee, what are you saying NO to.