For This Purpose
Notes
Transcript
Doxology:
This is My Bible. It is God’s Holy Word. It is a lamp unto my feet, a light unto my path, and I will hide its words within my heart that I might not sin against God. Amen!
Scripture Reference: Mark 1:35-38
Good morning church family! It is so good to see you today! I hope you all have had a good wonderful week in the Lord. Are you excited to worship our Heavenly Father today? Amen!
Context
Context
It has been a few weeks since we have been in the Gospels, so let me give me a quick recap of where we are.
Jesus has started His ministry. He has already begun to make quiet the name for Himself through miracles and even His teaching. We were able to see that when He spoke, He spoke with authority, unlike the other religious leaders of His day. This astonished the people and caused them to really take notice.
We have also seen that one attempt has already been made on His life. He has come proclaiming the Gospel, the Good News that He is the prophesied Messiah that everyone has been waiting on, and some did not like this message.
Nonetheless, Jesus is alive and well and is continuing His ministry. He has moved His base of operations, at least for the time being to Capernaum, to which He has called some of His disciples to join Him on His journey. They have since been travelling with Jesus and helping as they could along way.
29 Now as soon as they had come out of the synagogue, they entered the house of Simon and Andrew, with James and John.
30 But Simon’s wife’s mother lay sick with a fever, and they told Him about her at once.
31 So He came and took her by the hand and lifted her up, and immediately the fever left her. And she served them.
32 At evening, when the sun had set, they brought to Him all who were sick and those who were demon-possessed.
33 And the whole city was gathered together at the door.
34 Then He healed many who were sick with various diseases, and cast out many demons; and He did not allow the demons to speak, because they knew Him.
35 Now in the morning, having risen a long while before daylight, He went out and departed to a solitary place; and there He prayed.
36 And Simon and those who were with Him searched for Him.
37 When they found Him, they said to Him, “Everyone is looking for You.”
38 But He said to them, “Let us go into the next towns, that I may preach there also, because for this purpose I have come forth.”
Let’s Pray!
Content
Content
For This Purpose..... God Created Me
For This Purpose..... God Created Me
As you study each passage of Scripture, what you want to do is find the central theme. You read it carefully, a few times even, and you ask the question, “What is the main point of this passage?”
Now sometimes there are several takeaways from a given text, but there should always be a main thing. If we fail to do this, then we can honestly make the Bible say whatever we want. That is dangerous and confusing for everyone, so we must make sure to put in the work to see exactly what God is trying to say with each Scripture.
This is done by analyzing the text....in other words, we break it down. We ask the who, what, when, where, why, and how questions. We make sure that we do not forget to read the passages before and after the text we are now looking at, because whatever this text says must also fit in with the context of the surrounding text. We look to see who all is involved, what these people are doing, what their purpose is in this text, and how it fits in with the overall message that God is trying to convey. All of these things lead us to the message that God wants us to hear.
In this text, the main concept that God wants us to get is that of spending personal time with Him in prayer. We read in verse 35 that Jesus gets alone to pray.
35 Now in the morning, having risen a long while before daylight, He went out and departed to a solitary place; and there He prayed.
Building up to that, we see in verse 29 that Jesus leaves the synagogue. He has been teaching the Word of God. We do not know how long He was there, but I think its safe to say that their services were normally longer than what we are used to today.
As soon as they leave their it tells us that they went to Simon’s house, and upon arrival, it is stated that Peter’s mother-in-law lay sick with a fever. Jesus heals her right away, she gets up and begins to serve them.
After this, it says that Jesus is brought “ALL” who were sick and demon-possessed and He healed many of them. After this He went to bed. Could you imagine how tired He must have been? He had to be exhausted.
Jesus was a busy man. Everywhere He went, people surrounded Him. Everywhere He went, people were brought unto Him for healing and restoration. Even in this text, when Jesus takes a moment to get alone, they come looking for Him.
But with everything He had going on, there was one thing He always made time for, and that was prayer. He always made sure to spend time in prayer with the Father. He knew and understood how vital it was to His life and ministry. He needed that personal time with God.
Because He was so busy and people were always around Him, He gets up early in the morning, before daybreak it says, and finds a secluded place to go and pray. I think this is a good lesson for us. Every day should start and end with prayer. Every day.
Now let me be clear. There are times that we have the opportunity to give God ample amounts of time in prayer and there are times that we don’t. This is going to look differently for each person, based on your schedule. You may not be a morning person, so it may be better for you to give yourself to prayer in the evenings and vice-versa. But even if you don’t have the time to give God a lot of time, be sure to give God some time every morning and every evening. Also be sure to find a time to give God unhindered, uninterrupted, unhurried time in prayer.
Let me explain why this is so important:
Creation: King, Kingdom, and purpose of relationship.
Patriarchs of the Faith and Covenants: Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, David
all meant to bring the cycle full-circle and be restored.
Adam - 2, Noah- 8, Abraham - Multi-generational family, Moses - Nation, David - Kingdom
Jesus is the piece that has been prophesied to complete this mission all along. We can see the promise of Christ’s Kingdom fulfillment in every one of the covenants that God made with every one of these men. Ultimately it is restored in Jesus.
Jesus’ mission was to proclaim the love of God towards mankind and His desire to fellowship with them. We were created for this purpose - to commune with God.
He has moved heaven and earth so that we might enjoy that fellowship.
He sacrificed His own Son at Calvary that we might enjoy that fellowship.
To not lean into the fellowship is to miss the greatest desire of God for our lives. He wants us to spend time with Him.
If we get everything else right....and miss this, we have missed it all. If we only get this one thing right, it will transform our lives for the better.
Prayer is the avenue in which mankind has direct access to God. It is our means of communicating with Him; it is our means of hearing from Him; it is our means of growing in our relationship with Him.
For this purpose we were created.....to spend time with our creator who loves us unconditionally.
For This Purpose..... God Commands Me
For This Purpose..... God Commands Me
It is because of this intended purpose of spending personal time with God, that He actually commands it.
In the OT, there was a day set aside, the sabbath, in which every person was to refrain from their worldly responsibilities, and rest. It was a time not only of rest, but also for reflection and remembrance. It was a time set aside for the worship of God.
8 “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.
9 Six days you shall labor and do all your work,
10 but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates.
11 For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.
It was a day dedicated unto the Lord. He commanded His people to reverence this day because He knew they needed a day of focus, a day to think on what He had done, a day to spend time apart from the world and with Him.
In the NT, this concept is continued, but in different terms. We longer have a Sabbath, but a Lord’s day. The word sabbath is used only 60 times in the entire NT and most of those times are simply a general mentioning: “They were in the synagogue on the Sabbath,” or “On the sabbath day,” etc.
What we do find is verses like this:
10 And behold, there was a man who had a withered hand. And they asked Him, saying, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?”—that they might accuse Him.
11 Then He said to them, “What man is there among you who has one sheep, and if it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will not lay hold of it and lift it out?
12 Of how much more value then is a man than a sheep? Therefore it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.”
15 The Lord then answered him and said, “Hypocrite! Does not each one of you on the Sabbath loose his ox or donkey from the stall, and lead it away to water it?
16 So ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has bound—think of it—for eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath?”
22 Moses therefore gave you circumcision (not that it is from Moses, but from the fathers), and you circumcise a man on the Sabbath.
23 If a man receives circumcision on the Sabbath, so that the law of Moses should not be broken, are you angry with Me because I made a man completely well on the Sabbath?
Every time we see the sabbath spoken of in the Gospels, it is the religious leaders challenging Jesus on what He is doing on the sabbath.
27 And He said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath.
28 Therefore the Son of Man is also Lord of the Sabbath.”
The sabbath was made for man because God knew we needed it. He knew that we needed at least one day a week in which we focused primarily on the things of God.
But Christ came to restore the Kingdom of God. He came to restore that which was in the beginning. In the beginning, they communed with God daily. Christ came so that we might treat every day as a sabbath.
28 Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
29 Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.
30 For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”
1 Therefore, since a promise remains of entering His rest, let us fear lest any of you seem to have come short of it.
2 For indeed the gospel was preached to us as well as to them; but the word which they heard did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in those who heard it.
3 For we who have believed do enter that rest, as He has said: “So I swore in My wrath, ‘They shall not enter My rest,’ ” although the works were finished from the foundation of the world.
4 For He has spoken in a certain place of the seventh day in this way: “And God rested on the seventh day from all His works”;
5 and again in this place: “They shall not enter My rest.”
6 Since therefore it remains that some must enter it, and those to whom it was first preached did not enter because of disobedience,
7 again He designates a certain day, saying in David, “Today,” after such a long time, as it has been said: “Today, if you will hear His voice, Do not harden your hearts.”
8 For if Joshua had given them rest, then He would not afterward have spoken of another day.
9 There remains therefore a rest for the people of God.
10 For he who has entered His rest has himself also ceased from his works as God did from His.
11 Let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest, lest anyone fall according to the same example of disobedience.
As Christians we are not to spend one day a week in communion with God, but every day. The sabbath has not lost its vigor in the NT, but rather has been magnified in Christ. Every day is to be a day of leaning in to God. Every day is a day to be spent in communion with Him.
Some of you may struggle with this. What do you mean that we no longer have a sabbath? Is there a single verse that actually shows this? Yes! Let me show you....
13 And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses,
14 having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.
15 Having disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it.
16 So let no one judge you in food or in drink, or regarding a festival or a new moon or sabbaths,
17 which are a shadow of things to come, but the substance is of Christ.
The sabbath, along with the festivals, new moons, and even the clean/unclean meats, were all shadows of things to come. This means that they were given by God to those before Christ to point forward to a time when things were made whole. Christ is the substance of those things. He is the reason these things existed. He is our sabbath. He is our rest.
So in the NT, we are commanded to know Christ and to know Him intimately, for it is He who brings rest to our souls and it is He who brings focus into our life.
For this purpose we are commanded......to spend time with our creator who loves us unconditionally.
For This Purpose..... God Commissions Me
For This Purpose..... God Commissions Me
Notice with me what Jesus says after spending time with God in prayer:
37 When they found Him, they said to Him, “Everyone is looking for You.”
38 But He said to them, “Let us go into the next towns, that I may preach there also, because for this purpose I have come forth.”
The disciples show up and tell Jesus, “Hey, everyone has been looking for you. They’re waiting on you back at the house.”
No doubt, everyone consisted of more people who were in need of healing, restoration, etc.
Jesus says, “Let us go into the next towns, that I may preach there also, because for this purpose I have come forth.”
Jesus is saying, “I have done enough here that these people know I come from God. They have seen enough to know that God loves them. They have witnessed enough to know who they can turn to for help. But my purpose is not to set up shop in just one town and proclaim the good news of God. My purpose is to share it with as many as possible.”
Life is tough. Ministry can be tough. Jesus has just been presented with the opportunity to heal more people, just like He did the night before, but he says instead, “No. I need to go elsewhere.”
Now some people would say that Jesus is being rude. These people desperately need your help. They are hurting just like the ones before. They need you just like the ones before. Why would you turn them away? Because it did line not line up with His purpose. He was on a timeline that far surpassed anything they could understand and even that we might today understand. He had to be sure that He was always where He needed to be, when He needed to be there.
We have read enough to know that Jesus never went anywhere by happens chance. There was always purpose and meaning in everything that He did. It was not that these other people in these other towns were more deserving than the people here in this city. It was not that these people had upset Him in some way that He decided to leave and go elsewhere. It wasn’t anything like that. It was simply based upon the fact that after spending time with God in prayer, He knew that it was time to move on to another city. God wanted Him to use His ability elsewhere. This is not wrong of Him.
In life, we are given endless opportunities to serve and be a blessing to others. As a church, there are endless amounts of ministries, centers, and non-profit organizations that we could be giving to and could be blessing. The reality for us is no different than it was for Jesus, at least while He was in the flesh. He could not be everywhere at once. He had to choose when to stay and when to go. We have to choose which ministries we will help, but that means that we must also choose which ones we are not going to help. The reality is that we cannot help them all. We can not be involved in every single ministry and every single program. This is upsets some people along the way, but it is unavoidable.
So what do we do? We do exactly what Jesus did. We pray. We pray to God and ask for guidance in our lives. In our personal lives, what ministries at the church does God want me to be a part of right now? What ministries does God want me to contribute to right now? When we get an answer, we have to go with God, and say “No” to other things. Let me tell you that is OK for you to say “No” if God is not leading you into something. Matter of fact, it is the right response you should make if God is leading you elsewhere. You can’t do everything. You can’t be everywhere. You have a family at home that needs your attention, and if you do too much for too long, you will get burned out. God does not want this for you, for your family, or for the church.
As a church, we must pray. What is God calling us into right now? What ministries does God want us to support right now? What ministries does God want us to be involved in right now? Whenever He provides an answer, we must go with that and learn to say “No” to the others. It is not because they are not worth the time and effort. It is not because they don’t matter. It is simply because God needs our time and resources to be spent elsewhere at the moment. That’s it. It is not personal, it is spiritual.
Prayer is the means in which God commissions us in life. It is how we receive direction from Him. It is how we receive instruction in our lives as to where we need to be and what exactly we need to be a part of. This is necessary in order for us to remain in His will.
John 15 speaks to this:
4 Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me.
5 “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.
6 If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned.
7 If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you.
8 By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples.
9 “As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love.
10 If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love.
11 “These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full.
We are to abide in Christ. We are to spend time building our personal relationship with Him, and through this personal one-on-one time, we will receive His instruction and we will be profitable for the Kingdom.
Remember that our goal is to spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ to as many as possible. We will accomplish this to the best of our ability when each of us are moving and operating under the leadership and guidance of God, and this will only come when each of us are seeking a personal relationship with Him daily.
We were created for this purpose.
Commitment
Commitment
20 Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me.
