Of the four gospels, Mark is the shortest gospel and when
starting a new series is important to to give you some
background, some reason for this series.
And so one might ask, so what's so special about the Gospel of
Mark that we need to do a sermon series on it?
The Gospel of Mark paints a portrait of Jesus that we are in
much need of learning in our time.
One of the things that we know about Jesus and we say it and
it's true and we want to dig into that, but that Jesus came
as a servant. He came as a savior, as a
teacher, a healer, but he came as a servant.
The message of servanthood is very important and it really
sticks out in Mark's gospel in our world today.
It is especially important because we are a people in our
world today where we expect to be served.
Just pause for a moment. When we came to church this
morning, did we come to serve or be served?
Maybe both. I hope both.
But the idea of I, what am I going to get out of it?
What's it going to do for me? How am I going to benefit from
this? Those are very real thoughts and
it's so much of life is like that.
Think about going to a restaurant.
A lot depends on the service, whether you like that place or
not. In so many areas, you go to a
repair shop, get your vehicle fixed, or somebody comes and
does work in your house. What kind of service are they
providing? How's the service?
Here's the thing, are we more concerned about the service we
give or are we more concerned about the service we get?
And we're increasingly becoming a self focused society.
We want our needs met. And I'm not saying it's wrong to
have our needs met. We need our needs met.
But there's something else that we often do not take into
consideration. It's when we think about
service. How am I serving?
Too often? We don't want to get involved.
That's too busy. And I want to ask a question and
just please don't raise your hands.
But when we came this morning, were these thoughts on our
minds. Don't raise your hands.
Who can I comfort in church today?
Who can I encourage a church this morning?
Who might I be able to pray with a church this morning?
Who can I show some support this morning?
How many of us came to church with that mindset?
Almost some of us, I think did. Did we all?
And before we dig into the gospel of Mark, there's some
things I want to say first, but I want to read one verse out of
Mark, chapter 10, verse 45. And Jesus says this, and Mark
wrote it down. For even the Son of Man did not
come to be served, but to serve and give his life a ransom for
many, to serve and then give his life.
Those are two things. As people, we find it harder to
serve than to be served. If there ever was one who
served, it was Jesus. If there ever was one who
deserved to be served, it was Jesus.
Jesus clearly portrays himself as one who served.
Mark shows us in great detail how Jesus served the people of
his time. In Mark's Gospel, we continually
find Jesus portrayed as the man who served others, even though
he was God's son. When we read the Gospels, we
find the writers do not tell the story of Jesus exactly in the
same manner. In the Gospel of Mark, for
instance, he portrays Jesus as the Messiah, the King of the
Jews. In Luke we find Jesus portrayed
as the Savior of the world. In the Gospel of John, we find
Jesus portrayed as the Son of God through whom we have life.
Mark does the same, except Mark really outlines the activities,
the work of Jesus himself. Mark, when he wrote the gospel,
he was not an apostle of Jesus. He never was an apostle of
Jesus. He came in after the fact.
He's mentioned a number of times in Scripture.
He's mentioned in Acts chapter 13 under the name of John or
John Mark. Early on, this guy, young man
named John Mark, he traveled with Paul and Silas and part way
into the missionary journey, he turned and went back to
Jerusalem. What the reasons were, we're not
told. Then when Paul and Silas want to
go on a missionary, Paul and Barnabas, sorry, I messed that
up. Paul and Barnabas, when Paul and
Barnabas want to go on the second journey, Barnabas says,
well, let's take Mark along. We ain't taking Mark along.
And so Paul and Barnabas had a split and Paul went with with
Silas and then Barnabas took Mark.
Later on we find that Paul spoke well of Mark.
Maybe Mark matured or got some more courage or whatever may
have happened. Paul may have softened up a
little. We are not told, but Mark was a
very useful laborer in the church, and it's believed he may
have recorded this gospel as he heard it from the apostles.
And so we're not given all that information, but Mark wrote a
gospel of Jesus, and it's believed that he wrote it
approximately between 660 years and 70 years AD after the birth
of Christ. And that only would make it a
little more than about 30 years after Jesus was crucified.
So it's a very early gospel. Some say it's the earliest
gospel, and that information may be correct.
We don't have reason to doubt it per SE, but one thing is also
sure is that the persecution had already started in the church at
the time. Also, the culture of the time
that Mark wrote this was the church was young, but it was
very healthy. It was very robust.
The church was spreading and putting roots down in all parts
of the empire in spite of opposition from the Jews in
different parts of the, of the of the empire and opposition
from the Romans as well. And as I mentioned, this is the
shortest gospel, but he writes in a very interesting manner.
If you read the gospel in the new King James, it's a often
times he uses the word immediately and immediately and
immediately. There's an urgency to it.
And also I think the ESV talked about and at once and at once
things happened. It's a very fast-paced gospel.
He covers a lot of events in a very short time.
But then toward the end, the 1st 10 chapters is kind of very,
very compact, very, very tightly packed.
But then from chapter 10 and onward, Chapter 11 to 16, he
stretches it out and there's this, this, the Passion Week
covers a long stretch. He really emphasizes that as
well. So our theme for the sermon
series will be Jesus, the servant son of God going forward
through these sermons. As far as the ordinary average
Jew was concerned, who knew about Jesus, He's a rabbi, a
Jewish rabbi. But Jesus didn't play by the
rules. Jesus did things that angered
the religious leaders. Jesus demonstrated A servant
heart and humility and loyalty to both God and people.
And the Jewish leaders were put to shame many a time and they
got angry at him. Our title this morning is in
God's Servant Training program. When we look over the earthly
journey of Jesus, there were serious challenges for him to
endure and to overcome. But one of the things in the
stories of all the Gospels is clear the earthly journey of
Jesus. It was never smooth.
It was never easy. It was never convenient or
comfortable. But we want ours to be something
for us to realize right out of the gate in the series is this.
If you're going to follow Jesus, you're going to do what God has
for you. You will be challenged.
It's not a question of if, just a question of timing.
So let's take our Bibles, turn to the Gospel of Mark and begin
reading out of chapter one, verse 1 to 13.
We'll read this in our Bibles, the beginning of the gospel of
Jesus Christ, the Son of God, as it is written in the prophets.
Behold, I send my messenger before your face, who will
prepare your way before you, the voice of one crying in the
wilderness. Prepare the way of the Lord,
make his path straight. John came baptizing in the
wilderness and preaching a baptism of repentance for the
remission of sins. Then all the land of Judea and
those from Jerusalem went out to him and were all baptized by him
in the Jordan River, confessing their sins.
Now John was clothed with camel's hair and with a leather
belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey.
And he preached, saying, There comes one after me who's
mightier than I, who sandals trap.
I'm not worthy to stoop down and loose.
I indeed baptize you with water, but He will baptize you with the
Holy Spirit. It came to pass in those days
that Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John
and the Jordan. And immediately coming up from
the water, he saw the heavens parting and the Spirit
descending upon him like a dove. Then a voice came from heaven.
You're my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.
Mark condenses the beginning of the story of Jesus really into a
small package. He bypasses the genealogy that
Matthew mentions. He bypasses the birth Bethlehem
of Jesus, the story of the shepherds, the wise men, the
flight into Egypt, the early years of Jesus, his journey to
Jerusalem as a boy. He bypasses all of that.
Mark's focus is on what Jesus did.
It's not wrong that he bypasses the other parts of the story.
Mark's calling, his focus was different and he looked at how
Jesus served and what he did. Mark begins with pointing that
Jesus was not just a random person starting out on his own.
He mentions that the coming of Jesus was a fulfillment of
prophecy. The Messiah had been prophesied.
The Jews had been told for centuries that one day a king
would come who would reign and rule as King David.
They knew the stories of their beloved King David, who in
centuries past have been a good king.
When the prophecies were made about a coming king, of course,
they had images in their minds what it would look like.
You see, sometimes people have their own ideas how something
should be in their mind. And then when the anticipated
event happens, it's different than the anticipated, and they
have a different idea, and then it's different and they miss it,
sometimes completely. And even those who did not miss
it, like the disciples, they got it, they didn't miss it.
They still had the wrong idea about him as a Messiah.
And it was not that the people did not prepare.
They did prepare. They went to the Jordan to get
baptized, but who they were preparing for and who showed up
was not the same thing, not the same person.
You see, we just celebrated Easter last week, Easter Sunday.
And from the time that this event happened, what Mark writes
about to the time that Jesus was killed, that was about three
years. That's not very long, only about
3 years. Three years is very short time
and it may very well have been that the same people or some of
at least the same people that were at the Jordan getting
baptized and expecting Elijah to come or the the Messiah to come.
The very same people may have been in Jerusalem when he was
judged before Pilate and they shot a crucified crucified.
We don't know for sure, but it's possible these same people could
have been in both groups. And so here in the desert, John
the Baptist is sent by God to prepare the way for the coming
Messiah. And it's as if Mark is with very
broad brush strokes, paints and masterpiece portrait of how God
worked his purpose in this world through Jesus as the serving
servant. Notice the opening lines in the
beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
He introduces the gospel with these words in the beginning,
the beginning of the gospel. In his opening line, Mark
identifies Jesus, who he is, and this is Jesus gospel.
It's important that he begins with Jesus because it's about
Jesus and everything to that is to follow is to be about Jesus.
In this passage, right on the heels of his opening statement,
Mark anchors or fastens or grounds his proclamation of the
good news of Jesus on the prophecies of the past.
And he says in verse 2, as it is written in the prophets, Behold,
I send my messenger before you who will prepare your way before
you, the voice of one crying in the wilderness.
Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.
He's quoting Isaiah for the coming Messiah.
The way of the Lord needed to be prepared.
Mark is writing about a faith response to God.
It's not some physical construction equipment making
some roads in Judea. It's not what this is about.
Make his path straight. This is a a spiritual journey,
not a physical path in the nation and in the hearts of the
people. The paths were no longer
straight. They were no longer thinking
straight. They were not living straight
either. There were things that needed to
be lined up. He's talking about the path of
the hearts. They were not right before God.
We could say they were not aligned with God.
They had to be prepared. What is noteworthy also in this
passage is the reference to the wilderness.
We noticed the wilderness a number of times.
We will make reference to it a few times.
The voice is crying for change. That's one thing.
Where is he crying from? Not some resort, not some famous
place. He's crying from the wilderness.
Wilderness places are not easy places to live in or to be.
But you know what? That's often times the place
where good things happen. John the Baptist was a
wilderness guy. His message was important in
timely for the people of Israel, but for them to hear it, they
had to go into the wilderness. I believe this.
It is just as important from where a person wants help or
where a person is willing to go to for help, then that a person
wants help. Often times we want help, but
it's so conditional. I want help, but only on these,
this and this way. I have my, I have my, my, my
demands or my conditions on which I want help.
You don't go to the doctor and tell the doctor what to do.
You just go to the doctor and say, I'm sick, can you help me?
And the doctor will tell you what you got to do and you just
do it. Some people want help while
insisting on being in the place of convenience, No hardship, no
struggle. That's usually not a good thing.
But notice where the preparation takes place.
It takes place in the desert. God often uses desert places to
prepare people. In the Gospel of Mark, it's
where it all began, in the desert.
This is not the first passage in Scripture where a desert turned
to a training place. Imagine signing up for training
of some kind and you're told, by the way, you're going to be
eliminated. Everything will be eliminated
from you and the place you're going, you're the amenities of
life won't be there. Think of Moses, He was a Prince
in Egypt. One day he sees an Israel, an
Egyptian taskmaster beating up a Hebrew slave.
He kills the Egyptian. He's going to work some justice.
Egypt was a land of plenty and of wealth.
He took and killed the Egyptian. The next day Moses sees 2 Hebrew
men fighting. He tries to play peacemaker
again. Well, not again.
The previous day he killed the Egyptian, but he tries to play
peacemaker between these two guys.
One says, are you going to kill me like you did the Egyptian
yesterday? Moses terrified, he flees into
the desert. He makes the wilderness his home
as a as a shepherd and stays there for 40 years until one day
God called him and gave him a job.
He told Moses to bring the Israelites out of Egypt to the
land of Canaan. But guess what that wrote it too
LED through the desert. Moses had experience in the
desert by now and he led the people through the desert and
God guided them. They didn't do too well and we
know the story. They complained a lot.
Many of them died. In fact, all them aged 20 and 21
and older died except 240 long years.
Another case in the Bible is Elijah.
On one occasion he was depressed about life.
He had had a great victory over the prophets of Baal and he gets
threatened with death and he wants to die.
He goes to the desert and that's where God meets him.
You see, deserts have less distractions.
There's a there's an elimination process that happens when you go
to the desert. And sometimes God brings us to a
desert and we don't like it. It's uncomfortable.
It's it's, it's difficult. You see, deserts have
wilderness. Places have a way of helping
people sort out their priorities.
They can be dreaded places. But we must consider something
in our time. We have cell phones and services
usually almost worldwide, and we have fast transportation.
So deserts don't hold the same dread for us.
They would have been back in those days because we can
quickly get out of a desert. We can go in and get out.
We're we have these umbilical cords, technology, whatever you
want to call it, to get away. In those days, if you walked
into the desert, you were cut off, you were separated, and it
took time. There were lonely places of
isolation. So for us, a desert does not
have the same connotation that did for those people.
But here's John the Baptist, the man of the desert.
It tells us in the in the gospel, Luke, Mark that he's
baptizing in the wilderness. No doubt there was an area in
the desert where the Jordan River ran by.
Let's read that verse and verse 4.
And on John came baptizing in the wilderness and preaching a
baptism of repentance for the remission of sins.
Then all the land of Judea and those from Jerusalem went out to
him and were all baptized by Jordan, by him in the Jordan
River, confessing their sins. So in verse 4, baptizing in the
wilderness, apparently the Jordan River, As for a stretch,
runs to the desert. In this case, the crowds come
from everywhere. John did not go to them, having
meetings in their towns and villages.
We'll see later that Christ did the opposite.
He went to the people where they lived.
But John here prepares the way of the Lord in the desert, and
even Jesus came to the desert. We'll get there in a bit, but
God prepared the people for the Messiah and they came from all
over the place, going to the desert, confessing their sins,
and John would baptize them in the desert.
This was not a baptism that we practice today, a baptism for
repentance. Today we baptize people on the
confession of faith to demonstrate they've died to this
world, they've risen to, they're alive in Christ.
We baptize them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the
Holy Spirit. And that day it was John didn't
do that. And baptism were well known in
the time as well. And people would receive baptism
as a sign of having undergone change.
In this instance, they came to the Jordan confessing their sins
and receiving baptism. Mark does not spend a lot of
time on the story of the baptism.
The other gospel writers give more detail on this baptism than
Mark does. What is important for us to know
as people is that we need to be mindful that God is in the
people changing business. That's what this is all about.
God's not primarily interested in changing our circumstances as
He's interested in changing our hearts.
I'm not saying God never wants to change our circumstances.
We can pray for that. And if sometimes He wants to
change our circumstances, but first and foremost, he wants us
to change us to prepare us to make the way straight.
Our problem often is that we pray in asking God to change our
circumstances. And again, it's not wrong, but
too often that's where we stop. We need to be about God changing
our hearts first, changing us to be in a relationship with Him.
Often that training is difficult, and it happens often
times in a desert. And when I say desert here, I
don't mean necessarily we go to an isolated place where there's
nobody there, but everything falls away and it's just us and
God left. The preparation that was
happening to these people in the desert was happening for a
person. Yes, they were being baptized
for the remission of sins, but for what purpose?
To become ready for the one who was to come.
It says here describing John a bit.
John was clothed with camel's hair and with a leather belt
around his waist. Nate, locust and wild honey.
And he preached saying, there comes one after me who's
mightier than I, who's sandal strap.
I'm not worthy to stoop down and loose.
I indeed baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the
Holy Spirit. John the Baptist had been
prepared. He was prepared.
Now he comes preparing the way he was prepared for the Messiah.
He lived in the desert, was ready when the Messiah came, he
was ready to meet him. I'm assuming that John spent a
lot of time in the desert. It's not just that he grew up to
be a man and just walk into the desert and then a few days later
did this. No, I believe it's safe to say
John was a man of the desert. This was his lifestyle.
This is who he was at this time. He was in his mid early 30s.
Humanly speaking from a from a fresh standpoint he was he was
related to Jesus. He was a cousin of Jesus, but
older than Jesus. In the prime of his life we
could say. It tells us how he wore his
clothing. Camels hair, garb of some kind,
leather belt around his waist. I wonder what his hair looked
like. I've seen people describe him in
pictures. Looks like a wild man.
The food he ate, a diet that I don't wouldn't want anyway.
Some art. Some artists portray him as a
man poor, just kind of very rough looking and just the way
he preached. He didn't have a long ministry,
a very short ministry, but just the way he preached Luke's
gospel. And let's look at some of these
passages. It says he said to the
multitudes. Now this is this is Mark leaves
this out, but Luke talks about it.
He says, then he said to the multitudes that came to be
baptized by him. Brood of Vipers, who warned you
to flee from the wrath to come? How's that first sermon opening?
I like the low German. It has a nice ring.
That's my mother tongue. But ye Schlang and Brozel, you
nest of snakes. That's when he starts his
sermon. He says, therefore bear fruits
worthy of repentance and do not begin to say to ourselves, we
have Abraham has her father. For I say to you that God is
able to raise up children to Abraham from from from these
stones. In other words, oh, we're from a
religious background. We're Mennonites or we're
whatever. No, don't use those.
He says, even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees,
therefore every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down
and thrown into the fire. So the people asked him saying,
what shall we do? Then he answered, Satan said to
them, he was too Tunis, let him give to let him give to him who
has none and he who has food to let him do likewise.
Then the tax collectors also came to be baptized, and they
said to him, Teacher, what shall we do?
And he said to them, Collect no more than what's appointed for
you. Likewise the soldiers asked him
saying, what shall we do? And he said to them, Do not
intimidate anyone or accuse false to be content with your
wages now, as the people were expectation and all reason in
their hearts about John, whether he was a Christ or not.
John answered saying to all, I indeed baptize you with water,
but one mighter than I is coming, whose sandals strap I'm
not worthy to lose to lose. He'll baptize you with Holy
Spirit and with fire. His winning fan is in his hand.
He will get thoroughly clean up his threshing floor and gather
the wheat and his barn. But the chaff he burned with
unquenchable fire, and with many other exhortations he preached
to the people. But Herod the Tetrarch being
rebuked by him concerning Herodias, his brother Philip's
wife, and for the all the evils which Herod had done, also added
to this above all that he shut John up in prison.
Talk about a successful ministry.
We do know that in between this he also did baptize Jesus.
John's life was not easy. First God prepared John, and
then he had John prepare the way for the Messiah.
We should not expect an easy preparation, the path of
redemption, the preparation, the fulfillment of God's plan, as
glorious and as good as it did not come easy.
God's plan came with a lot of hardship.
Not just that, God's plan does not promise an easy life, quite
the opposite. And during this time that John
was ministering and preaching and baptizing in the desert,
Jesus shows up, it says in verse 9.
It came to pass in those days that Jesus came from Nazareth of
Galilee and was baptized by John and the Jordan.
And immediately coming up from the water, he saw the heavens
parting and the Spirit descending among like a dove.
Then a voice from heaven came from heaven.
You're my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.
Even Jesus subjected himself to this preparation of service as
well. He's identified with humanity
and baptism. When Jesus was baptized, it was
not like the people that he got baptized for any sins he had
committed. There wasn't a repentance
baptism. He was baptized to identify with
humanity. He had nothing to repent of.
He was going to carry what we're forced to carry.
He was going to wear the badge of broken humanity.
He became one of us fully at his birth, but especially at his
baptism. He identified with us and he
went to the desert to do it. He entered our broken world of
sin. When he did this.
He identified with us at every level, yet without sin.
When he came up out of the water, it tells us that God
said, this is my beloved Son and whom I'm well pleased.
God was pleased with Jesus as a man.
For Jesus to take this step, He was entering and engaging a
world riddled with pain and sin and darkness and brokenness, and
he would experience it. For Jesus, the baptism and the
approval of the Father was not the finish line.
However, that was the starting line of ministry.
You see, too often in life you have the idea that once you
leave the starting line canal, it's going to be easy.
Going from here on in, it's going to be easy.
It's not like that. And how many experiences don't
we have that attest to this? For instance, a young guy
becomes a follower of Jesus. He's grateful that God has
helped him overcome some addictions.
He's repented. Satan is now now gone, so to
speak. And only to find out, wait a
minute, now it gets hard. It does.
One thing that I often think about when I work with young
couples is they, they love each other.
They're madly in love, passionately in love, and they
want to get married. And they do get married only to
figure out, wait a minute, I married someone with problems
and I have problems and he married some of those problems
and, and they both have problems.
It's uphill. There's many cases where people
just don't anticipate that the preparation time is somehow, ah,
whatever, we'll get there. We'll, we'll take care of that
when it comes. No, no, no, no, we have to do it
as it comes. We can't short circuit this.
There are many cases people just don't anticipate any preparation
time. What would happen after, after
this? And I didn't put verse 12 on my
slides here, so just read verse 12 with me.
Immediately after, the Spirit drove him into the wilderness,
and he was there in the wilderness 40 days tempted by
Satan, and he was with the wild beast, and the angels minister
to him. Jesus was driven to the desert,
and Jesus received his training in the desert.
And Matthew goes into great detail of what this looked like
just because Jesus got baptized but wasn't me.
Now he's prepared, He's finished.
That's when classes commenced was driven into the desert and
there's three specific temptations that Matthew loosed
and I want to read those Matthew chapter 4 verse one to four my
my spelling is incorrected. Then Jesus was led up by the
spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.
And when he had passed it, 40 days and 40 nights afterward, he
was hungry. Now when the tempter came to
him, he said, If you're the Son of God, command these stones to
become bread. But he answered and said, It is
written, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word
that proceeds from the mouth of God.
Then the devil took him up into the holy city, set him up on the
pinnacle of the temple, and said to him, If you're the Son of
God, throw yourself down, for it's written, He shall give his
angels charge over you, and in the hands they shall bear you
up, lest you dash your foot against the stone.
Then Jesus said, It's written, you shall not tempt the Lord
your God. Again the devil took him up on
an exceedingly high mountain, showed him all the kingdoms of
the world and their glory, and said to him, All these things
I'll give you, if you will fall down and worship me.
Then Jesus said to him, Away with you Satan, for it's
written, you shall worship the Lord your God, and him only
shall you serve. Then the devil left him, and
behold, angels came and ministered to him.
So Mark leaves that out. But see, here's the temptation
of Jesus that he experienced in the desert that Mark describes.
So Jesus had the power. He had the need too.
He needed to food. He was hungry.
After 40 days, Satan says well turn stones to bread.
But Jesus will never compromise his loyalty to God, even even
for a good 'cause if it meant pleasing Satan, we just need to
be real. Would we have faulted Jesus for
turning some stones to bread to satisfy his hunger?
Well, he had the power of his stones, but Jesus countered that
temptation because it meant compromising his relationship
with God. We must learn that relationship
with God consists of things beyond the realities of this
life. Well, there's another
temptation, and that was for Jesus to show off.
Show the world who you are. Show the Jews who you are.
Jump off the temple. You won't get hurt.
After all it's written, you won't dash your foot against the
stone. Again, Jesus rebuked him.
We must learn that we are here for God's purpose, not for
ourselves or to impress people. There was a third temptation.
Third temptation was for Jesus to worship Satan, give him.
So Satan would give him all the kingdoms of the world.
And of course we know Jesus was God in human flesh.
And from a from a theological standpoint or biblical
standpoint, Jesus would not do that.
But as a man, this was a temptation, a very real
temptation to take the shortcut. Again, Satan rebuked, Jesus
rebuked, Satan tempt. And this temptation again
faltered. We must know it's never right to
take a path in life where the focus shifts away from God to
self. You see, when Jesus got
baptized, he'd experienced God's approval.
The Father had blessed him. I said, this is my son, whom I'm
well pleased. He was led into the desert, and
there the temptations began to fight, to battle, to conquer,
and to win. And then when he came out, he
was ready for his journey of servanthood to humanity.
Let's think about this for a moment.
He didn't walk this earthly path for himself.
He experienced what He experienced on our behalf.
He experienced what He experienced so He would know
what it's like to go through it. He went through this training
school for our sake. We know He paid a huge price as
a creator of the world. He stepped down.
He took on flesh. Join us in our in in His
creation and in its fallen nature, all for the sake of
redeeming us and wanting a relationship with us.
And he came freely and he served freely and he did it and loved
because he wants a relationship with us.
So for us, if we want to be in relationship with him, it will
take a journey. That journey will not always be
easy. And it yes, we'll take the
desert and the desert lessons are not easy.
Takes humility, takes patience, steadfastness, perseverance,
endurance. Just As for Jesus, it took a
journey into humility. So to take a journey into
humility for us as well. And it's often painful.
We do ourselves no service, but trying to create for us the
perfect life on earth. It doesn't exist.
Anyone who thinks so is not being honest.
Satan tried to convince Jesus, create yourself a path.
He, you know, turn stones to bread, jump off a temple and
worship me and all those things and you'll have it easy.
Jesus died on the cross. He offered himself.
He came to serve. And if we receive him, we will
not just be set free from sin, which we will, and it's great,
but there's a calling that comes with it.
So how are we doing in God's training school of preparation?
How are we doing? You know in class sometimes you
get cheat cheats and shortcuts and those kinds of things and
that may work in school, but not in our relationship with Jesus.
In the end we have to walk the course.
God sent his Son as a servant. God sends you and I as servants
as well. So this week you may have
opportunity to serve, maybe in your marriage, maybe serve your
spouse, maybe in school, serving a fellow classmate, maybe at
your job, serving that not so pleasant Co worker, maybe to go
about town shopping back again to mark chapter 1045.
For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve
and give his life a ransom for many.
Where do we get off track and think it's about us?
Where do we get off track and say, well, they're not meeting
my needs? Really.
Is that what it's about? Is that where we're at?
They're not meeting my needs. Wow, we do well to remember the
lesson of Jesus. He did not come to be served.
He came to serve and how much more we his creation.
And here's the thing, when we serve in humility and
sacrificially serve in loyalty and devotion, we will experience
the blessing we have coming, not because we served because the
relationship is is intact. And then we will be served.
We will, we will. Out of the service that we
provide, we'll experience the joy and the peace that we
thought would come if we got others to serve us.
God stands this whole picture on its head.
So may we serve with love, humility, loyalty, commitment,
and devotion to Jesus Christ. And when we do so, the joy and
the peace will be ours. Let's pray, but we're thankful
that You walk this earth, that You gave us a path to walk, and
You want this path to be a straight one.
It may not be easy, but it's the right one.
Lord, it seems often times we need to learn some lessons
repeatedly. We may need to read desert
experiences multiple times for us to learn this.
So help us to learn well, to serve well.
I pray you will grant us Your mercy as we seek to be faithful
in hard times. Lord, help us to trust you in
easy times, to help us, Lord, to remain humble.
Help us, Lord, to serve you with loyalty and devotion and
commitment. Learning we pray.
Amen.