Sermon Tone Analysis

Gospel of Mark

Please stand for the reading of Gods Word

Todays section in scripture is a wild one.

These two events, some of the most well known of Jesus’ ministry, stories lasting millenia, took place in a time window of probably less then 12 hours.

As we saw last week, Jesus had sent out the twelve disciples to go and preach as well as drive out demons and anoint the sick and heal them.

Now, they’ve returned, reconnected with Jesus and are telling Him all about what has happened.

I can only imagine that they got back filled with excitement, a lot of “Jesus, you won’t believe what happened,”.

Remember, we saw earlire that they were preaching the Gospel, casting out demons and performing miracles.

I’d also be bold and assume that after the initial excitement of getting back and telling Jesus, they’re bodies are starting to remind them of how exhausted they are.

There were also a lot of people, as we see in this passage, coming and going from the place that they were, to the extent that they weren’t able to eat.

Doesn’t sound like an ideal situation for getting back to rest, recharge and share stories.

Jesus is aware of this, so he tells them in verse 31, “Come away by yourselves to a remote place and rest for a while.”

It’s almost like Jesus is saying, let’s go on a retreat.

Let’s go rest a while.

So little side note here if you never take a vacations, vacations are Biblical.

Get some rest.

When doing the work of the Lord, sometimes we need to slow down in addition to our normal sabbath days of rest.

back to the passage.

This retreat doesn’t exactly go as planned.

We read

The disciples weren’t the only people that were looking to be with Jesus.

----- more time explaining the passage Bring in Matthew 14 for the walking on water section-----

Anybody ever heard of Beiber fever?

No shame here.

I’m not asking if you’ve ever had Beiber fever, thats personal.

Just asking if you know what it is.

Beiber fever, for those that don’t know what it is, it is a fascinating madness found most commonly in tweens and teenage girls that are crazy about pop singer Justin Beiber.

These people are committed.

They wait in line for hours just to see this short, oddly dressed, scraggly haired canadian kid.

And when they see him, they lose their minds.

They go wild.

And for them, they feel like seeing their idol is giving meaning to their life.

If you dont’ know Beiber, think of N’sync from the 90’s, or New Kids on the Block before that.

Elvis Presley or the Beatles.

People were OBSESSED with them.

They bought the records, went to concerts, hung pictures and posters in their rooms and let their lives from fashion to opinions be shaped by these pop stars.

Clearly, pop idol obsession is not something specific to one generation.

The interesting thing about these people, often times younger people, is they are shamelessly willing to admit that there was something in their life that they need to complete them.

They need themselves some Justin Beiber in their life and they don’t care who knows it.

The rest of us are looking at them like, “uh, okay weirdos.”

It’s almost like, there is a desire for more inside them that leaves them feeling empty and purposeless unless they constantly worshipping their musical idol.

This idea that life requires purpose or we feel empty is pretty commonly agreed upon by most people in the world.

We might not all be expressing our feelings of emptiness with a Beiber fever like fervor.

I think though, there are two categories we can put most people into.

Those who know there’s an emptiness inside of us and are queitly doing things in life to address it, and those who will do anything without shame to get the thing that helps them deal with all the feelings of sadness, meaninglessness, depression, anger and any other negative feeling you can think of.

And these people are just the Beiber fans.

----- List some more things that other might think is weird to pursue to fill the hole inside of us.

Drug addicts.

Daredevils.

Workaholics.

Kid obssessed parents.

-----

You see, the only difference between us and all those teen girls and a couple weird moms with Beiber fever, workaholics at the office too much, addicts who just can’t stay away, is that they are more willing to shamelessly pursue whatever they are doing to address the gaping hole of incompleteness in their lives.

They are just more willing to admit the extent to which they believe their lives can’t be handled without their obsession.

Not saying they have it right.

Not at all.

And at their core, they know it too.

But they aren’t acting like they’re just okay without filling in that hole.

You see, there is something that makes us incomplete.

Something that will never be satisfied by food, fun, friendships, children, money, careers, sex, alcohol, drugs, celebrities, success, good vibes, doing good deeds.

Nothing.

Nothing can fulfill this desire.

And you want to know the crazy part, that hole inside of all those celebrity groupies, all the alcoholics, porn addicts, greedy business people.

That gaping hole inside of them, that seemingly never ending hole they are trying to fill through idols and desires.

It’s no bigger than the hole inside your soul.

In fact, that space in you, that empty hole filled with all the bad feelings in life inside you, is exactly the same shape and size as all those people you look at and go, “glad I’m not like them”.

The hole inside our souls is exactly the same as the hole of every bad, broken, lost, greedy, murdering and strung out person on earth.

As humans, we’re all the same in this way.

But for those of us who are believers in Jesus Christ, we know something about this hole in our souls.

And for those of you that don’t know, I’m excited to share it with you today.

This hole can be filled.

Completely, ridding us of all emptiness, sadness, evil and hate.

And it is filled by one thing, and one thing only.

A relationship with God.

The creator of the universe.

The one who came to earth as a man and died for our sins.

The creator of heaven.

And how does He fill that hole?

Through bringing us into relationship with Him through his Son and the power of the Holy Spirit.

Some of you are sitting here today shaking your head yes because that hole in your soul isn’t empty any more.

And praise God for that.

If you believe in Jesus and have given your life to Him, He is filling that space.

And He does that through bringing us into relationship with Him.

For those of you that are here today and you haven’t given your life to Christ, maybe you are hearing about Jesus for the first time.

Maybe you’ve known Him, but have been far and are considering finally giving your life to Him, or maybe you are trying to live life on your own or finding your own way in the world.

I want you to know today that Jesus came to this earth and died so that He might break the power of sin that keeps this space in your soul empty and is inviting you into relationship with Him.

See, sin is what keeps this space from being filled.

Sin is what keeps us separate from relationship with God.

But, there’s something that we have to realize about this emptiness inside of us.

The desire for more, the seemingly empty space we can’t fill in our souls doesn’t exist because of sin.

That empty space that drives us to pursuing money, fame, success, drugs, alcohol, sex, love, all of it.

That unfillable space is not a result of sin.

Yes.

Sin maintains its emptiness and is the obstacle to our relationship with our Lord, as sin is separation from God.

But the hole was there before sin.

It was there even before Adam and Eve ate from the tree of good and evil in the Garden.

You see.

As humans.

We were created for something more than ourselves.

A space, that if living separate from God, exists eternally empty.

The hole doesn’t exist because you were bad, or you made mistakes, or you haven’t found your purpose yet.