Sermon Tone Analysis

I want to invite you to stand up on your feet right now, if you wouldn't mind.

It's one of those gloomy Saturday mornings.

I don't know if you know that our windows are tinted, so it makes it even darker and gloomier…one of those days.

I want you to take your arms out and just stretch them like this…up high, really high, in the back.

I want you to repeat after me.

I want you to say, "Yes!"

I want you to say, "Amen, brother!"

I want you to say, "Come on now!"

I want some of you to say, "Preach!"

Some of you say, "Yes, I will!"

All of you say, "Yes, I will!"

I want you to say, "Take it home now!"

I want some of you to say, "Thank You, Jesus!" Alright, you're going to be ready for today.

Sit on down…get you started.

I grew up in a very religious home.

We had family worship every morning and every night.

Every year my father would buy six Morning Watches, one for each member of the family and then one for a guest in case they were visiting our home.

I began memorizing Bible texts early on.

My faith in Jesus was strong, and I believed that Jesus was coming back very, very soon.

My prayers every night were that Jesus would come back soon and take me home.

I dreamed about heaven.

I spent hours dreaming about my first hours in heaven…what I would do, who I would look for, where I would go.

I pictured in my mind Jesus coming out of the clouds of heaven and saving the entire human race.

It was overwhelming for a seven year old.

Somehow along the way I began reading some books and attending some meetings which made the second coming of Jesus very frightening.

It seemed too complicated.

It was filled with graphs and charts and world events and disasters and judgments and calamities and behavior and consequences, and my childhood dream of seeing Jesus again was marred with anxiety and fear.

I questioned my own worthiness and whether or not I was ready and worthy to receive the gift of forgiveness and salvation.

(This is where you say, "Come on now!")

A couple of months ago, I began thinking about my childhood dreams, and I wondered why I had stopped dreaming those dreams of Jesus' second coming.

I stopped thinking about His coming and His return.

I stopped thinking about His coming and how it had overshadowed the conversations that I had as a child.

What I did, now, a few weeks ago, was just sit in silence and listen to the conversations that were taking place around me.

I took a step backwards, and I listened carefully to my circle, my friends, my church members, my leaders, my administrators, the books that I was reading, the journals that I was getting.

There was silence on this topic.

It seemed that we were more preoccupied with the present…with the now.

It seemed like we were worried about jobs and kids and education and travel and vacations and property and investments and finances and retirement.

If we did have conversations regarding religion it was petty and it was minor things…arguing over small issues and references in the Bible.

But as I listened carefully to my friends and to our church members, the questions were very mundane, and it was things like, "Is brown the new black?

Is Taco Bell better than Don Pablo's?

Is it wrong to pierce ears or not to pierce ears?

Should I get a tattoo or not get a tattoo?

Ocean City or Rehoboth?

St. Martin or Jamaica?

Public schools or private schools?

What happened?

Where did this conversation…when did this conversation of Jesus' coming, His imminent return, become silenced?

Do we still share that same hope, or have we completely lost interest?

Do we talk about it anymore?

Do we talk about it at home?

Do we long for that?

Do we hear other people talk about that?

The very name is in our denomination, The Seventh Day Adventists.

Adventists refers to the Advent, the second coming, the return of Jesus.

I remember growing up, and my dad has this hymn book and a CD or tape or eight-track that went along with this song.

There was a very popular song that in the 1960s through the 1990s that…it was a song called We Have This Hope.

By show of hands, how many of you know that song We Have This Hope?

We have this hope that burns within our hearts,

Hope in the coming of the Lord.

We have this faith that Christ alone imparts,

Faith in the promise of His Word.

We believe the time is here,

When the nations far and near (Organ!)

Shall awake and shout and sing (Everybody!)

Hallelujah!

Christ is King!

Does that hope still exist in our hearts?

Do we still think about the second coming of Jesus anymore, or are we just living our lives just trying to get ahead of our relationships?

Our lives, our ambition, our thoughts, our deeds, our relationships, our lifestyles, our commitments, our vocation, our church, our worship, our prayers, our faith, would be lived out completely differently, in a different fashion, if our hearts were truly living out the faith and hope of Jesus Christ and His second coming.

John 14:1-3, the verse that I never hear anymore says, /"Do not let your hearts be troubled; trust in God, trust also in Me.

In my Father's house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you.

I'm coming back to prepare a place for you.

And when I come back and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you and be with you and there you may also be with me."/

There's room for all of us.

So today what I want to share with you are four questions that we need to be asking ourselves as we prepare for the second coming of Jesus.

The first question that we want to ask is, 'How should I wait for Him?' 'How should I wait?' A few weeks ago my wife and I were talking on the telephone, and she was working down in Silver Spring, and I said, "Hey, why don't we have lunch together?"

We rarely have lunch together when she is working.

So she said, "Great idea!

I actually have a pretty open afternoon.

Let's meet together."

So I drove down to Silver Spring off 29 and turned left at Chipotle which is off Cherry Hill Road.

As I walked into Chipotle, into the restaurant, as soon as I opened up the door I saw a friend of mine named Kathy.

I walked over to Kathy, and I said, "Hey, how's it going?"

She said, "I'm on a date with my husband.

I called him, and he had the afternoon off, and we're meeting here…no kids; it's going to be awesome.

We have at least an hour together."

I said, "Me too!

Rej is coming as well, and we're going to be having an hour together…no kids; it's going to be awesome."

So we got our food.

She sat down, her husband came, and they were sitting around.

About half an hour later, I was still waiting.

As I watched Kathy and her husband eating and talking and laughing and holding hands, I could tell that they were looking over at me and feeling bad for me as I sat at my booth eating my Chipotle, waiting for my wife to arrive.

I began to feel anxious and a little surprised, and my eyes were fixated on the doors…all of the doors…the back door, the front door, the windows overlooking the parking lot in anticipation for my wife.

(She wants to make clear today that she is usually prompt.)

Another 15 minutes later, Rej walked in, and I immediately stood up feeling relieved that she had made it in.

What happens when you are waiting for somebody?

Your body language changes.

Your sense of anticipation increases.

There is a sense of urgency.

This kind of demeanor is the kind of demeanor that we should have while we're waiting on God.