Sunday Service

In those days pieces, came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan and just as he was coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens torn apart in the spirit descending like a dove on him, and a voice Came From Heaven. You are my son, the Beloved with you? I am. Well pleased and the spirit immediately drove him out into the Wilderness. He was in the wilderness 40 days tempted by Satan and he was with the wild beasts and the angels waited on him. That's going to be the main focus for the message this morning, but I'd also like to read you. This blessing. This is from habakkuk chapter 3. Verses 17 through 19. Though, the Fig Tree does not blossom, and no fruit. Is on the vines, do the produce of the olive fails in the fields yield? No fruit. Do the Flock is cut off from the fold and there is no herd in the Stalls. Yet, I will rejoice in the Lord. I will exalt in the god of my salvation. God, the Lord is my strength, he makes my feet like the feet of a deer and makes me tread upon the Heights.

Let's pray Heavenly Father, we thank you this morning that we can come together to worship you and it just thank you for those words that were red from from your book. And what has been spoken through, generations, upon Generations set that we choose to serve you, we choose to give you glory and honor no matter what comes on in our lives that we will give you praise and be your servants and all that we do. Thank you and bless the rest of the service. In your name, we pray. Amen.

Let's sing. Couple songs, ever. Praise Chorus, book. Jesus your name is number 193 and then we'll turn the number to 57 and sings sole desire.

Name is power.

Play every captive Jesus. Jesus. Jesus, your name.

Every other band. You're the sole desire. You have my heart?

You are the sole desire here. I listen to your voice and then

You're the sole desire.

At this time some of the Sunday school kids have a song they like to share with you. So let's come up kids in the store song.

Barney.

Favorite games.

Yesterday.

Favorite.

Are kids going to Super church or you staying in here? I'm proving I don't know what's going on. It's okay to stay with me.

Our oldest kid, graduated high school last time. And now ironically, Christy is faced with an even older kid. That's not going anywhere that she still has to take care of. That would be me. I thought you would get that a lot sooner than having to explain it, but the first kid never leaves home if All goes well, okay. Well I want to last time I was here at talk to you about Donuts about your spiritual life and I don't know if you got anything out of that except maybe a couple extra pounds going away, maybe you left was just wanting a donut, I don't know. But I wanted to talk to you that day about your spiritual life. And today is same thing. I hope and pray that you do hear from the Lord during this time and it's about your in my spiritual life and I'm going to say we all through this message so that you don't feel condemned. If if that comes up, I mean I include myself in the whole message and I want to share with you about them, the idea of the of contentment With Jesus. And is it possible? Masterful electronic Wizards that you can put the first song that we sang that was just the chorus of devotion. I think it's the first song we sing that there's there's two two lines.

I think it was the first one.

There are no other slides that this one not the family of God, but sole desire. Not the first song sole desire. Just the slide that has two lines, that's it and just leave that up there. That's the only PowerPoint slide. Because if you can't take listening to me anymore, just ponder that ponder that phrase. You're the sole desire of my heart and see

I say what fills in the blank. As you think about that through this message, I want to ask you to think about St. Mark Mark, who wrote the Gospel? He is a person of mystery, not unlike the Mary's in the New Testament, the scholars Drive each other crazy. Trying to figure out which there are certain marries, which Mary is Mary and which Mark is Mark. And so today, I've combines several of these projections of who Mark is. I want to tell you a story about him but I really want to ask you this question. What would cause someone to be so content? With Jesus. That they would face death. I mean every day as a follower of Jesus were invited to forgive where forgiveness isn't deserved and to love where there is no love and to serve where it's not our job, because that's how Jesus lived his life and Mark did that as well. And I just wanted to investigate where that motivation might have come from. because and 68 ad only a few years after writing the account of Jesus, as he learned it from the Apostle, Peter His mentor, Mark, the bishop of Alexandria Egypt laid dad. so, Around 6080, the earliest gospel that we have. His execution was religious and it was political, he continued to quote Jesus until the end. Who said, by saying that Jesus was the only way of Salvation and that was that was a big deal in Alexandria Egypt where they had the same multiple gods for thousands of years and when new religions came into town, sometimes those big religions would just say yeah, you can worship that God to just right over there just make some space over there. This will be the main God, but you can have some space to but that's not the news that Mark brought to Egypt, he brought the news that there is, there is a God, who says, I am the way and the truth and the life, and there is no other way and I ended up getting him kill. He was tied behind a team of horses and dragged through Alexandria until he could no longer speak of Jesus in this world. Mark received his reward and it wasn't just the counter crown of gold that we read about in Revelation. No, that was promised and I'm sure you received that but truly the treasure that Mark received was the presence of Christ. It had to be something greater than what you could touch that would ever in all of our Lives. It's got to be something more than we can hold or touch that drives us to do things beyond what seems reasonable or what makes sense. Something has to compel us from the inside out. The presence of Jesus. Long for all of his life minutes. Ultimately his death in this world but His life and words were never. Truly silence, were they? Because this day we still hear him. What marks executioners didn't know is that God would change the lives of people in the 21st century by calling, Mark to commit his witness to words in the gospel of Mark. In the seventh century to merchants of Venice, convinced a priest to entrust the body of Mark to them. And they got to the body when the serrations which were Muslim terrorists of that day were basically knocking down Christian cathedrals. And these two Venetian Merchants hid the body of Mark, again, hundreds of years later, but they hid the body of Mark under a cart full of cabbage and pork which the Muslim terrorists found appalling. And so, when they came to, the checkpoint to come Venice, they were allowed to go right through. And today, the body of as it is believed to be, is entombed at st. Mark's Cathedral in Venice.

Today. Throughout Venice. You can see the winged Lions, which represent Mark. He came to be symbolized by courage and power and he would say it definitely wasn't from his own, his own strength, but out of his love for Christ.

so let me ask you again, if you think about your sole desire and and these verses which are probably familiar to you, Because Jesus our savior said, these words whatsoever you ask in my name that will I do. John 14. 13th. If you shall ask anything in my name, I will do it. I've chosen you that whatsoever. You shall ask of the father in my name. He may give it to you. Verily verily, I say unto you whatsoever, ye shall ask. The father in my name, he will give it to you hitherto. You have asked nothing in my name. Ask and you shall receive. And your that your joy may be full.

I believe lots of us have to ask him down. It's the waiting that build so much character our that causes us the difficulty. And what would cause what would cause somebody to be willing to wait? Or to even die. If it weren't a genuine and counter with the love of Christ and importantly knowing how much Christ loves you. That to me is is going to be the punchline. We want to get to if we investigate. How did Mark come to the point of being willing to give his life away? Literally out of his love for God? And I believe it's because he was so overwhelmed with how much God loved him.

The wedding happens in a Wilderness. So if you look at the pictures of waiting in the Bible, God's people are, almost always found waiting, Somewhere In A wilderness David Who became King, David grew up in the wilderness. He grew up with so much time on his hands and inspired by God, that he wrote, poetry and songs, which he continued into his later years. Moses spent 40 years as a shepherd And Out Among the Sheep, he's found that there was not much to do with God except wait and maybe grow that the intimacy of their relationship and eventually God called him to do something after 40 years with the sheet. I just realized I may have 35 more years, but Sometimes it's and the Wilderness of Our Lives that we start wondering where is God? And I would suggest you that that is the perfect place to be. As time has shown to hear from God, is a place that maybe you would not have chosen. A desert of a relationship, a Wilderness, where something in a relationship has caused life to appear to leave or something. Maybe physical emotional pain, that has caused a Wilderness around you? You don't know what you will do. And you've asked and you've asked and still you wait? Or maybe you received an answer and it was no. But it's in that Wilderness that it can be a cherished time if you're able to start seeing the Wilderness from a different perspective. Instead of waiting on getting what it is, that Jesus was that you were going to get instead. Jesus says, I'm here.

And maybe maybe it's okay to just let, I'm in the pain amid. The Brokenness amid, the thing that you do not have the thing that you and I are waiting on it and how many, perhaps, maybe he's just waiting for us to covet him. To cherish that time with him, the time waiting on him.

Are loving us. and,

That's the gift that comes in the wilderness so like every Sunday before every preacher pretty much every preacher everywhere, preaches the same sermon and just different God loves you. That's the message for today. And those of you that really need to go shopping and cook mom's lunch, you're free to go. And you can just ponder that if you want to hear the rest, I'm going to tell you or attempt to tell you why he loves you.

Contentment with God will Embrace us. And then we will find the waiting as something worth doing and Calvin Miller's book, which I alluded to that book, which I think is one of the best devotionals out there if you want to take a serious and deep look at your spiritual life, it's called into the depths of God. He claims burglars steal to become more complete, but the truth Miller says is contentment does not come from what is grabbed or nabbed? Contentment is not from what we grasp but from what grasps US

contentment is not what we can take but contentment and in the Christian Life this is true. Contentment is what grasps us. And if if anything is grasp I pray that you will come to know that. It is the very love of God, the very hand of God, and if you can't see that in your Wilderness, at the moment, it may just mean that you and I need to take some time to wait until we can see that God's loving us that he's pursuing us and that he's keeping his promises even though you and I

So today's message is the story of two, two men. too many become content with God Alone through their Wilderness has Scholars, who wrestled as a sad with the identity of this one, man, whose name is Mark. And so I've taken the different pictures of the scholars and I've quilt of them together. And what I hope is a story The story of Mark. And every now and then I'm going to share a text just it'll pop up in the middle of nowhere and I'm not going to read the text. I just wasn't it in if you want to go and see if you can follow the life of Mark through some of these passages. Walking back from the well with a heavy jar of water on his head, Mark can barely stand it. Really, he wanted to jump it over his head because it was so unseasonable e, warm that Passover. Then some men came up to him, who recognizes some of the Jesus Freaks who have been hanging out at his mom's house on a regular basis. The four pass out pass over. Jesus told his disciples to find a man carrying water and say, the teacher asked, where is my guest room where I may eat the Passover with my disciples, He will show you a large room upstairs. Furnished and ready make preparations for us there, Luke 14. Mom the Jesus Freaks are here. Don't say that shortly, the door flew open and then came the Disciples of Jesus filling the living room. And they came dropping their sleeping mats and shoulder bags, reaching for the fruit from his mother's table. Acts 12. Mary, the boy's mother smiled and loved it. When the Posse rolled in, she was the host of the rally meetings for her younger brother Barnabas. He was one of the Jesus Freaks to this boy. Mark, they were just freaks. But something about their commitment and Jesus care for them drooling in. They bugged him, but he was always curious about what had bonded them so much. What did caught the heart of his uncle Barnabas? Who was the most encouraging, loving, and kind person he had ever met? Mark can hear them singing upstairs and then like thunder, they all came down and hurt it, out of the house behind Jesus disappearing Into the Night. Sigh of relief. Mark said finally mom we can sleep, his mother was already asleep so the boy ran up on the roof, where there might be some moving air to cool, his teenage brain, he pushed ologies as disciples gear against the wall, in one corner on the roof. So we can roll out his sleeping mat. He fell asleep watching the moon rise over the hills.

The boy that woke. A warm midnight breeze on his brow. He looked around the roof and found, no one, the disciples and Jesus did not come back. They celebrated back, Passover, and then disappeared, The boy rolled over on one knee and raised up to look from the roof of his mother's house toward the most likely place. They would all go together. Indeed there from the Mount of Olives. He saw a hundred torches in the night. Gethsemane. Immediately ran down the stone stairs that were still warm from the hot Jerusalem Sun beating on them all day. Wearing only his linen pajama bottoms. He stepped into his sandals and ran out of the town in up, the familiar path. To the prayer place where Jesus always went.

There Were Soldiers everywhere with their swords out, Mark slipped in, and out of the ranks of onlookers, and Roman guard, and hopped up on a rock to see. At that moment, the betrayer had given them a sign saying. The one I will kiss is the man. Arrest him and lead him away under guard. There was a sudden attack is one of the disciples cut the ear off of the Pharisees servant, the guards step forward. Then like an ocean wave that freezes and mid brake Jesus spoke.

He calms the storm like he had done from a boat once on the Sea of Galilee, He restored the man's ear. He restored, peace. Then Jesus surrendered himself to the unfrozen crashing wave of the Roman guard. Those who were with Jesus, Ran away.

All of them deserted him and fled.

A certain young man was following him wearing nothing but a linen cloth. They caught hold of him but he left the linen cloth and ran off naked. Mark 14. This is one of those cases where I believe this was truly Mark. There's a couple of places in the New Testament where the writer says a certain person. John says it, and I think this was Mark's modest way of saying, yeah, I ran away naked. Mark didn't stop running until he found the rest of his clothing by a sleeping mat on the roof back home. Now, the disciples were back. But not one slept.

Jesus was crucified. He died. Jesus, rose from the grave and ascended to heaven. The world put a. After all time before and started to live again toward the return of Jesus on that day. Time passed and the church in Jerusalem, decided to send Barnabas, and Paul on their first missionary journey. Mark went along with them acts 12 he went as far as purga in Greece and on the most dangerous road of the day, the equivalent of a gang-ridden street in South La Because his uncle Barnabas was being disrespected by the less than gentle Apostle, Paul. Or for some other reason, we don't know the young man named John Mark left the mission. Once again. He went home to his mother according to the preacher, John chrysostom, 300 years, later a historian of the church. But time passed and Mark grew up. He was invited by the Apostle, Peter to travel with him telling of the account of Jesus Barnabas wanted Mark to come on another mission with him himself, and Paul. The Paul said, no. Barnabas took a vacation from the Paul train and Mark continued working with Peter who he felt he could identify with but interesting. Lee, Paul must have later reconsidered. And was found writing from prison to the people of colossi with his coworker. mark, Later, Mark went to Egypt where the boy became the disciple, became the Elder, grew into the role of church, planter and subsequently, the bishop of the church at Alexandria. Content with the love of God, Mark gave all of his life away. Love and spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ. But contentment and martyrdom must be sisters. You find them together when you find people who are willing to die for Christ

Witnesses recorded that he gave his life to the work of helping. People know Jesus to the extent that he was quieted only by Death.

The truth has been declared by Jesus. I am the life. Martin you Jesus was the life and that this life is second, this is life. But Jesus is life.

Jesus was presented with the adversary to his ministry, after his baptism, in the text that I read earlier. I can only, I can only imagine that. Maybe that had something to do with Mark's team. The shortest in the earth, maybe it's but the shortest gospel, he skips the part about the miraculous virgin birth any jumps, right into the baptism of John and Jesus going out into the Wilderness. And he's like, yeah, that stuff was crazy. But let's just start right here because I can't get this out of my head and it changed the course of his life. And I wonder if that might be why he said that's important, but I'm going to let somebody else tell you that I want you to hear about this cuz everything in my life, is a domino from here. Any talks about this moment where Jesus is baptized, he comes up out of the water and hears you are my beloved Son and in you I am. Well pleased. There's nothing like hearing. I love you from a parent, how appropriate on Mother's Day to hear. I love you. It just kind of break things off and starts everything over in makes things new. When somebody like a mom or a dad tells a kid especially if they're in trouble. I love you because you know that trumps any trouble that has come before. Oh, wait a minute. I'm still loved. I'll be okay. So with I love you in his mind, Jesus is driven into the Wilderness for 40 days.

And his travel buddy, is the Devil Himself. Not my first choice if I was going to go spend forty days camping but My mother would say anytime camping. The devil is there that she didn't have a good experience. But Jesus in the wilderness with the devil to tempt him in person, could still hear those words. I love you when the adversary tempted, Jesus to take, whatever he wanted, including some River Rock.

At. and realize that, if he would, An acknowledged that the devil was now.

He would let him he would let him do that. A Jesus relationship with the father was too. And Jesus was content, hearing the voice of God more than eating. And he said he was content with the very words of God and that turning stones to bread wasn't of Interest. Adversary tempted, Jesus to believe that, the father didn't care if he was willing to allow Jesus to have pain in his life, 40 days in the desert, I doubt she was on a Velvet Lounge, like some medieval painting.

Secretly keeping him up. I imagine it was a wilderness. It was as awful as one might Imagine A wilderness would be no Coleman stove. No pop-up trailer. He was out there in the cold with the rabbits, the Bears, the Cougars. And whatever has been eating our chickens and that's where he was. And he was probably in so many different kinds of pain. Pick one. So Satan comes to him and says, if the father really loves you, do you think he would let you hurt like this? No.

But Jesus was content to suffer in God's presence rather than to despise the father for his painful circumstances. He was still overwhelmed with the love of God, to the extent that he was willing to wait and suffer, then blame God for his pain. Wealth adversary, according to Matthew and Luke said, he would bind all people to Jesus Will and Crush any that were unwilling to bow to him. Jesus only had to recognize him as the new King in the world. and then, and then if he would do that, The devil said I'll call off the Roman soldiers, the hammer, the nail, I'll take care of all of that stuff. You don't have to talk to rate that

because you just need to let me be in control and we'll get rid of this cross thing down the road.

A Jesus was content with the hammer and the nails. For no one could displace. The Treasure of his heavenly father who loved him.

So I see you've had some time to maybe Ponder, you're the sole desire of my heart. And you've considered. How much God loves you.

I hope that you sense that you're being grasp. This morning that you're being pulled. Into a bear hug from God. If not. Maybe you just need to find a place and find a time to regularly. Wait. When Jesus was tempted, he responded with the Psalms that were close to his heart, and on his mind that he had taken time to memorize. But he kept God's words and he kept God's presence close. Psalm 37:4 says take Delight in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart. Have you ever pondered that if you Delight in the Lord? I mean, think of what do you Delight in? I do think a lot of donuts, but

Usually the first thing people think of when you say, what do you Delight in the most of our first answers are family? Nothing more precious.

Budding relationship with God.

If you delight in God, won't you already have all that you could ever dream or want? If you feel that you have him and he has you This morning. This is my prayer for us is that as we Delight in the Lord we understand that he Delights in us. He Delights in you. He is responsible for making you just the way you are. And his expectation of you is Grand, he has a plan and a purpose for all of us that only we can carry out in this world but also,

this is may sound weird, but if you ever said to Jesus during your prayer time before you pull out your list, have you ever said Hey, what's up? What are you doing today? What's most important to you? What do you want me to hear? Where do you want me to go? What do you want me to do with this paycheck? 80 wanting to be in relationship with who is it? That doesn't know you that I know. That you might open the door that I could share about how much you love them. In your next prayer time. And in mine, what's a Skype what's on his mind? I guarantee you, one of the things you will hear if you hear nothing else, is I love you. Heavenly father, thank you for loving us so much. I can't imagine.

I can't imagine offering one of my children.

to be sacrificed for Sins of the world High. I don't know why. I can't put that into words but you loved us that much. Thank you for communicating to us in person how much you loved us. And Lord, I pray that you would open spiritual ears this morning that we can hear you continue to say over and over. I love you.

We love you Lord and thank you for the grace of this day. We pray in Jesus name. Amen.

let's sing that course again in closing, sole desire as 257 in the red, praise book of you won't want to follow their 257. Should we stand as we seen?

Here are the sole desire theme decks.

Lord, speak to me. I'm standing.

Heavenly Father, we we come this morning with gratitude in our hearts and gratefulness for your love for us and you're the way you shown your left to us and just help us to realize as we may be in a desert, in a Wilderness of waiting. That we would just use that time to drop closer to you and seek your will. Actually just to bask in the love that you have for us even during that Wilderness of waiting. Help us reach out to those who don't know you that needs your love and the touch of your hand in their lives. See what this dress is stay and help us to continue to serve you and just show your love. Pray, this in your name, a man. Praise God, from.

Related Media

Related Sermons