Mark 1:29-39

As you know, the Kennedy’s love the mountains.  And in particular, we love to ski.  We have doing this sense we were poor youth pastors in Tulsa, Oklahoma 25 years ago.  We scraped every penny to make sure we could always go.  Well, it has become a family tradition that we all try to do at least once a season.

Because the girls grew up with it, they are really good.  And, I typically challenge them by taking them on harder slopes.  Now, I typically don’t tell them.  Usually Ellie will be the one to ask, and I just agree with her assessment.  

“Is this an easy run Dad?” 

“Sure.” 

Well, about 8 years ago, I pull my usual shenanigans and take them on a slope that is ungroomed and icy. 

Fun fact, its a run that I have been injured on before…so I knew it was pretty steep.

Well, Ellie kept struggling and fell a couple of times, and Clara and I were a hundred yards or so in front, so Ellie took her skis off and walked down to us.  She was mad and frustrated, and was overall, NOT IN A GOOD MOOD.

I send Clara down, and I am standing on the run with probably 300-400 yards to go with a 7 year old who is done with skiing and refusing to put her skis on.  So, how do I get myself down, holding her skis and her down.  

Just then, this lady skis up to me and says, “Are you ok?”

I explain that my wonderful daughter is just having a rough run.

The lady looks at me and says, “Well, do want me to take her down?”

I looked at the lady with a stunned look and asked in a very MANLY way, “Can you?”

I was VERY skeptical.

She said, “Of course.”

Now, Rachel is still about 100 yards away.  I have no idea what she was thinking as I handed my 7 year old daughter over to a stranger.

But this lady, grabbed Ellie, threw her on her back, grabbed Ellie’s skis and poles in her right hand and took off.

And, when I say took off, she went flying.  I could not get even close to her.  On the way down, this lady cut the corner, goes airborne with my daughter on her back.  Lands perfectly and skis towards the finish line. 

Clara was at the finish line and heard the buzz of a lady skiing with a girl on her back and saw the whole thing too.

I get down to the base, a little bit behind and winded, and here the buzz.  I ski up to the lady and one of her friends says:

“Lindsey, you should take a picture with her, she will remember this forever.”

As my lungs were burning, I looked at her, look at the friend who said this, and looked at her and exclaimed…

“Wait, are you Lindsey Vonn?”

She gave me that look that said, “Yes dummy.”

I felt quite embarrassed that I was doubting one of the greatest skiers on the planet who has won medals at the Olympics and by the way making a massive comeback and will be skiing in the olympics this year. And, in case you don’t believe, here is Lindsey Vonn with Ellie (SHOW PICTURE).

As a 50 year old man, I have tried to learn from the things that have happened to me in life, so what did I learn?

No matter how good you are…sometimes you need help to make it down this hill.

In Mark chapter 1 and starting in verse 21.  Jesus has called his first disciples and immediately starts to enter his public ministry.

Mark doesn’t write his Gospel like a slow walk through a museum. He writes it like a sprint. One scene crashes into the next, and you barely have time to catch your breath. And the reason is a single word he keeps using over and over again: “immediately.”

In the Greek, it’s the word euthys—and Mark uses it more than forty times. More than the rest of the New Testament combined. That’s not accidental. That’s intentional. Mark is shaping how we experience Jesus. He wants us to feel the urgency.

Jesus heals someone—immediately. He calls disciples—and they follow—immediately. He moves from town to town, synagogue to synagogue—immediately.

There’s no dawdling in Mark’s Gospel. No spiritual procrastination. No “I’ll get to it later.” Everything is happening now.

And here’s the point Mark is driving home: the kingdom of God does not arrive with a save-the-date card. It breaks in. It interrupts. It demands a response. Jesus operates with immediacy because the moment to repent, to follow, to trust, is not someday—it’s today.

In some passages, Mark stacks this word so tightly that the story almost feels overwhelming. Scene after scene, miracle after miracle, movement after movement. And that’s the point. Mark wants us to sense that Jesus is always moving forward. God’s kingdom is advancing. And if we hesitate—if we stall—if we wait until it feels more convenient—we risk being left standing still while Jesus keeps going.

Mark’s Gospel doesn’t give us space for comfortable spectatorship. It presses us to decide. Will we move when Jesus moves? Will we respond when he calls? Because in Mark’s telling of the story, delay is not neutral—it’s dangerous. The kingdom is already in motion. And the question is whether we will step into it… immediately.

And…

In Mark 1, Jesus is unstoppable.

He teaches with authority. He casts out demons. He heals the sick. Crowds gather. Momentum builds.

If Mark 1 were a ministry highlight reel, Jesus looks like the most powerful person to ever walk the earth.

And then Mark pauses the action.

No miracle. No sermon. No crowd.

Just this quiet line:

BIBLE VERSE

Mark 1:35

35 And rising very early in the morning, while it was still dark, he departed and went out to a desolate place, and there he prayed.

Mark is pulling back the curtain. He is showing us something important here.  While life is overwhelming, and sometimes it is so overwhelming, we get stuck.  We don’t know how to get to A to B…things are coming fast…we need something more than just human will or human endeavor…we need a power that comes from the outside that helps us overcome and get past the barrier…get past the noise…and get us down that hill.

Mark is helping us see where Jesus’ power resided. So notice what Mark is doing…

1. Jesus’ Power Was Not Self-Generated

Jesus’ ministry started with a 40 day fast and 40 days of prayer.  Nothing but him and his father.

Let’s be clear about something theologically:

Jesus is the Son of God. Jesus does possess divine authority. Jesus could have acted independently.

And yet—He didn’t.

Again and again in the Gospels, Jesus chooses dependence.

Mark tells us:

Very early – before productivity

While it was still dark – before clarity

A desolate place – before affirmation

He prayed – before He acted again

Jesus did not operate from raw ability alone. He operated from communion with God.

Power flows from proximity.

It always has and always will.  

Let me explain.  Ellie could not have made it down the mountain alone.  Let alone, she could not have cut the corner and went airborne. Only through the closeness of the expert was she going to overcome.

Again, Jesus is the Son of God. Jesus does possess divine authority. Jesus could have acted independently.

But he is modeling for us that the way to get break through…is not will power it is proximity.

There is this moment in the Gospel of Mark where Jesus finds his disciples unable to help a child convulsing in pain and mute.

Jesus approaches the child’s father and look what happens…

BIBLE VERSE

Mark 9:23-29

23 And Jesus said to him, “ ‘If you can’! All things are possible for one who believes.” 24 Immediately the father of the child cried out and said, “I believe; help my unbelief!” 25 And when Jesus saw that a crowd came running together, he rebuked the unclean spirit, saying to it, “You mute and deaf spirit, I command you, come out of him and never enter him again.” 26 And after crying out and convulsing him terribly, it came out, and the boy was like a corpse, so that most of them said, “He is dead.” 27 But Jesus took him by the hand and lifted him up, and he arose. 28 And when he had entered the house, his disciples asked him privately, “Why could we not cast it out?” 29 And he said to them, “This kind cannot be driven out by anything but prayer.” 

Notice what Jesus is saying…power comes from the outside of us and the only way to receive that power was proximity to the father.

Prayer is what brings you close to him.

But not only that…

2. Prayer Was Not a Break from It All—It Was the Engine of It All

What happened the night before?

BIBLE VERSE

Mark 1:29-34

29 And immediately he left the synagogue and entered the house of Simon and Andrew, with James and John. 30 Now Simon’s mother-in-law lay ill with a fever, and immediately they told him about her. 31 And he came and took her by the hand and lifted her up, and the fever left her, and she began to serve them. 32 That evening at sundown they brought to him all who were sick or oppressed by demons. 33 And the whole city was gathered together at the door. 34 And he healed many who were sick with various diseases, and cast out many demons. And he would not permit the demons to speak, because they knew him. 

Look…

Jesus teaches all day

Peter’s mother-in-law healed

The sick brought at sunset

Demons silenced

The city gathered at the door

If anyone deserved to sleep in, it was Jesus.

But Mark shows us something radical:

Jesus steps away from the crowds to remain faithful to His calling…which was communion with God.

This is what we see in the Trinity before creation….father, son, spirit communing together.

And listen, our first calling is not to our vocation.  As believers, our first calling is to relationship with him.

Later, the disciples find Him and say:

BIBLE VERSE

Mark 1:36-37

36 And Simon and those who were with him searched for him, 37 and they found him and said to him, “Everyone is looking for you.” 

His disciples were on a high from the day before.  Remember they were just called by him and probably had their own delusions of grandeur, they did not want to stop the ministry train.

In their mindset, This is working. The crowd is growing. The demand is real.

Jesus responds not with urgency—but clarity.

BIBLE VERSE

Mark 1:38-39

38 And he said to them, “Let us go on to the next towns, that I may preach there also, for that is why I came out.” 39 And he went throughout all Galilee, preaching in their synagogues and casting out demons. 

Write this down…

Prayer anchored Him.

Prayer clarified Him.

Prayer guarded Him from being driven by demand instead of direction.

Now, make it personal…

Prayer anchors us.

Prayer clarifies us.

Prayer guards us from being driven by demand instead of direction.

Without the power of God flowing through our lives, it is impossible to consistently make it down the hill.

When Rachel skies, she is a skiing metaphor, because if you get close enough to her, you can literally saying….JESUS JESUS JESUS all the way down the hill.  She’s always praying so she doesn’t crash.

Its the same principle.  

But I want you to notice that…

3. Jesus’ Authority Flowed from Alignment, Not Ambition

Now, I have admitted before that prayer is not my strong suit. And I think the reason for this is I feel that a lot of my prayers tend to be about my own ambition and not alignment to him and his will.

Notice what prayer did not do.

Prayer did not:

Make Jesus more impressive

Make Him more popular

Make life easier

Prayer did:

Align Him with the Father’s will

Strengthen His resolve

Guard His mission

Jesus doesn’t stay where He’s most wanted—He goes where He’s goes where he is most needed.

That takes power.

And that power was forged in solitude.

So, if Jesus is our model in this regard, God’s power is the source for you to overcome and help others overcome as well.

4. The Pattern of Jesus Is the Invitation of Jesus

Here’s the uncomfortable question:

If the sinless Son of God needed intentional, solitary prayer… What makes us think we can live without it?

We often pray:

When we’re desperate

When we’re overwhelmed

When we’re out of options

Jesus prayed:

When things were working

When crowds were growing

When power was flowing

Prayer wasn’t a last resort. It was His first priority.

And…

5. The Same Power Is Available—But the Same Pattern Is Required

We often want:

Jesus’ authority without His obedience

Jesus’ power without His practice

Jesus’ impact without His intimacy

But the power of God is not detached from the presence of God.

The same Spirit who empowered Jesus now dwells in believers.

Look at how Paul says it:

BIBLE VERSE

Romans 8:11

11 If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.

Importantly, this is not merely a future promise detached from present experience. Beyond promising a future event, the Spirit’s indwelling represents a present reality experienced now in the here and now.

BUT…

Power flows to those who make space for God.

Its being in proximity to him that gives you the power to overcome and to keep moving.

On the mountain before Ellie was skied down by an Olympian, she was ready to quit, turn in her skis, and give up the sport altogether.  

But once she was carried down the hill, it brought energy back into her body and she skied the rest of the day and funny enough, we kept bumping into Lindsey all over the mountain.  Every time she saw Ellie, she would encourage to keep it up, calling her name, and it gave Ellie to get down mountain after mountain after mountain.

If you feel powerless:

Don’t start with strategy—start with prayer.

If you feel burned out:

Don’t quit—withdraw and find the source of your strength.

If you feel unclear:

Don’t rush—be still.

And I promise you…the more you do it, the more power you will gain and the more mountains you will crush.

EMPHASIZE:

PRE SERVICE PRAYER

ELDERS AT THE END