Stick to the purpose....

Mark 1:9–15 NIV

9 At that time Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. 10 Just as Jesus was coming up out of the water, he saw heaven being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. 11 And a voice came from heaven: “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.” 12 At once the Spirit sent him out into the wilderness, 13 and he was in the wilderness forty days, being tempted by Satan. He was with the wild animals, and angels attended him. 14 After John was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God. 15 “The time has come,” he said. “The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!”

The familiar story of Jesus being tempted in the wilderness. Mark leaves out many of the details which Luke and Matthew have in their gospels. But then it gives us a chance to focus on a key concept of this story. The idea that Jesus was tempted. "To tempt" means to try and convince someone to do something. It was a time when Jesus was presented with an option to deviate from God centred purpose to meet short term need, or gain power or engage in petty arguments with an adversary.

The Jesus plan

God had placed Jesus at the centre of a plan to rescue each and every one of us. A plan that would ultimately see evil defeated, and the relationship between God and us restored. Jesus had a purpose that satan would lose out on - one that the evil one would have loved to have diverted Jesus away from.

The

Your Plan.

Personalise

Each of us here has a God given purpose too. God knows why He made us, why he put us here. We are not here by accident. We were not born just because our parents decided to have children. We are not on the earth simply to exist from day to day. We are here because God has known us before the universe was made, He has called us to be his from the beginning, He has a reason for us to be alive and those who devote their lives to Him will know that reason. If we will spend time with Him we will know why He made us. Some of you will have a clear view on specific parts of your purposes in Christ. Other won’t but for all of us we know we have a part to play in this world and in the kingdom

If we will spend time with Him we will know why He made us. Some of us have a clear view on partso f our purposes in Christ.

The brevity of Marks version of the story helps us not to look at the detailed temptations that were put before Jesus but at the bigger story. How Jesus was tempted is not the important thing, what the aim of the temptation by satan was and the consequence are the nub of the story. The how is irrelevant what is at the heart of this account is the question of if Jesus would abandon his Purpose, his Fathers plan. Thank God he followed through, that these temptations did not knock him of course that he would ultimately lead to that hill just out side of Jerusalem and to our salvation.

Knocking people off of their purpose is the evil ones plan. What the temptations we have are or the failures that are placed in our path are not that relevant - how we let them affect our path, our purpose is the issue.

Lent is the time when we follow this journey of Jesus to the cross. We follow, as he is tempted, as the Devil tries to convince Jesus to steer away from this course of undeserved suffering and death. We see Jesus come through this period of temptation with His faith renewed.

As aside

Along the way, we see Jesus set his face to follow his fathers will at all cost, and we see those who would minister to him as he faces the cross of Calvary. Jesus knew he should follow the path set for Him by His Father. In that wilderness experience, he was able to show himself and his father that He could and would follow that path.

Knock you over at the first hurdle.

This passage shows the highs and lows of life. Jesus had been Baptised by John. He had come out of the water and immediately the Holy Spirit drove Jesus into the wilderness.Can you sense the major change in the emotion of the story? Jesus was living in the ecstasy of the Baptism; the clarity of his calling and purpose and then immediately he was in the wilderness experiencing the brokenness of this world.

This pattern seems to perpetuate life. The evil one loves to get us to fall at the fist hurdle.

We need to look at this story in the context of Jesus’ life. Jesus had been Baptized by John. He had come out of the water and immediately the Holy Spirit drove Jesus into the wilderness.Can you sense the major change in the emotion of the story? Jesus was living in the ecstasy of the Baptism and then immediately he was in the wilderness experiencing the brokenness of this world. In Mark’s gospel, we do not have the three acts of temptation that we find in the other gospels. All we know is that Jesus was tempted, that is it. And I think that is enough for us to know.

Young Christians - I always feel a little unease when people come to accept Christ as in Joy that I feel, I know that this life is not easy and those first steps as a christian can be a vulnerable time. That is why it is so important that new Christians are folded into the church, that we come alongside them in their walk

Say something about Pembroke.

Those with that - Start of specific Purposes - As people recognise their calling their purpose in Christ is another vulnerable time…

Our true purpose cannot be found except as we are connected to God because our purpose is given by Him. Christian Os Guinness said: “Answering the call of our Creator is ‘the ultimate why’ for living, the highest source of purpose in human existence. Apart from such a calling, all hope of discovering a purpose will end in disappointment…. Nothing short of God’s call can ground and fulfil the truest human desire for purpose.” - Do you realise the power that is there when we fulfil our God given Purpose - with the Holy Sprit with Gods anointing. - no wonder there is opposition.

Start of specific Purposes

As we recognise God’s call on our lives, as we move into the Purpose on us, the enemy is bound to take a pop at us, to try and rob us of the beauty of recognising our reason for existence.

As I get older, some would say wiser, I’ll stick with older - I am starting to understand that a little bit of resistance is sometime as good an indicator that you are moving in Gods will as, is recognising God’s Favour.

As Christians we sometimes express that we should push on doors and if they open that is often God’s path for you and that is true but sometimes you have to put your back into that push on the door. Sometimes you have the right door, but the enemy is trying their hardest to keep it closed. To make you fail at the first hurdle

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Changes in Season - transition are another place that this is true, this is why we pray for our youth as they transition from life stage to lifestage, from school to school, to college or university. It is why we need to pray for our country and for our leaders.

A broken world

I’ve mentioned enemy opposition quite a lot this morning - does that mean that satan is always trying to trip us up or has assigned a little demon to whisper temptations in our ears - No I don’t think so. The reality is that the enemy does not have to tempt us individually, he allows the sinfulness of this world to tempt us.

A story in Traditional Jewish Folklore about the devil says: "The Evil Spirit once came dejected before God and wailed, "Almighty God -- I want you to know that I am bored -- bored to tears! I go around doing nothing all day long. There isn’t a stitch of work for me to do!"

"I can’t understand you," replied God. There’s plenty of work to be done only you’ve got to have more initiative. Why don’t you try to lead people into sin? That’s your job!"

"Lead people into sin!" muttered the Evil Spirit contemptuously. "Why Lord, even before I can get a chance to say a blessed word to anyone he has already gone and sinned."

What is the big Plan

God has given us through Jesus two commandments to follow that define our ‘big purpose’ they overlay specific callings, if you are sitting there thinking I don’t know my purpose then this is it, I think God has a specific personal purpose for each of us a tactical purpose of how we serve, but this is the strategic plan

Mark 12:28–31 NLT

28 One of the teachers of religious law was standing there listening to the debate. He realized that Jesus had answered well, so he asked, “Of all the commandments, which is the most important?” 29 Jesus replied, “The most important commandment is this: ‘Listen, O Israel! The Lord our God is the one and only Lord. 30 And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength.’ 31 The second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ No other commandment is greater than these.”

Mark 12:28 NIV

28 One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, “Of all the commandments, which is the most important?”

Our commandments are in a sense easier than what Jesus was told to do by God. We are to love God and love our neighbour. But we find that to be very difficult in this world of brokenness. We are generally tempted not by the devil to break these commandment, more often that not I think it is the brokenness of this world and our self that causes us issues.

Temptation is a pretty common experience and our batting average for resisting it is not always impressive. We often do the tempting ourselves.

Bumper sticker: "Lead me not into temptation, I can find it myself."

I do not believe that God brings temptations into our lives, but temptations are part of living in a world that is not fully redeemed. So all around us are things that would lead us away from believing in God with our whole heart and loving our neighbour as ourselves.

"I can’t understand you," replied God. There’s plenty of work to be done only you’ve got to have more initiative. Why don’t you try to lead people into sin? That’s your job!"

"Lead people into sin!" muttered the Evil Spirit contemptuously. "Why Lord, even before I can get a chance to say a blessed word to anyone he has already gone and sinned."

I do not believe that God brings temptations into our lives, but temptations are part of living in a world that is not fully redeemed. So all around us are things that would lead us away from believing in God with our whole heart and loving our neighbor as our selves.

The temptations of this world are all around us. We are as Luther says, "Saint and sinner at the same." Saint because of the saving power of Christ, and sinner, because we don’t always do what is required of us by God. We don’t love God with our whole heart or our neighbour as ourselves. We seem to drop the ball frequently but I am please to say that God’s grace is infinitely bigger than the mistakes I make. Just as we see Jesus come through his period of temptation with His faith renewed the same is true for us.

James 4:7–8 NIV

7 Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8 Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.

7Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you.

It’s a great place to be when you know you have won the battle on temptation.

1The temptations of this world are all around us. We are as Luther says, "Saint and sinner at the same." Saint because of the saving power of Christ, and sinner, because we don’t always do what is required of us by God. We don’t love God with our whole heart or our neighbor as ourselves. I do not believe that God brings temptations into our lives, but temptations are part of living in a world that is not fully redeemed. So all around us are things that would lead us away from believing in God with our whole heart and loving our neighbor as our selves.Bumper sticker: "Lead me not into temptation, I can find it myself."Temptation is a pretty common experience and our batting average for resisting it is not always impressive.

I do not believe that God brings temptations into our lives, but temptations are part of living in a world that is not fully redeemed. So all around us are things that would lead us away from believing in God with our whole heart and loving our neighbor as our selves.Bumper sticker: "Lead me not into temptation, I can find it myself."Temptation is a pretty common experience and our batting average for resisting it is not always impressive.

How do we keep focused on the core purpose.

Bumper sticker: "Lead me not into temptation, I can find it myself."Temptation is a pretty common experience and our batting average for resisting it is not always impressive.

Keeping our focus on the purpose of our lives, on the path that is a head is not always easy. At lent we often give up something to help remove these distractions, these temptations. Sometime we need to do that to remove the source of distraction. Sometimes we just need to head the warning.

Car seat belt - Warning.

We Christians know deep down inside what is right. We even know that the right thing is the best thing for us. And God coaches us from the inside with His "bleeper," the Holy Spirit, to help us resist temptation. But we often choose to ignore the bleeper and look for a way to shut it off. We ignore God’s signal and follow our own, even though experience shows us that things get messed up when we do not listen to Him.

Sometimes we make other things God like. We put our emphasis into making money, having power, being famous. Now those things in and of themselves are not wrong, but they are temptations when they lead us away from God.

There is a story that tells this point well:Many years ago a king had one beautiful daughter. She had many offers of marriage, but she couldn’t make up her mind. A romantic girl, she wanted a man who would love her more than he loved anything else.

Finally, she devised a way to test the love of her suitors. An announcement was made and sent throughout the kingdom that on a certain day, there would be a race.

The winner of the race would marry the princess. The race was open to every man in the kingdom, regardless of his position. All that was required was that the man had to profess to love the princess more than he loved anything else.

On the chosen day, men rich and poor gathered for the race. Each professed wholehearted love for the princess. They gathered at the starting line, prepared to run the course of many miles that had been marked for the race. Each man was told that the princess waited at the finish line. Whoever reached her first could take her as his bride.Just before the race was to begin, an announcement was made.

The king, they were reminded, was a wealthy man with treasures gathered from all over the world. Not wanting any man to run in vain, it was announced, the king had liberally scattered some of his finest treasures along the course. Each runner was welcome to take as many as he liked.The race was begun. Almost immediately, the runners began to come across great gems and bags of gold. There were necklaces and pendants and jewel encrusted cups and swords and knives. One by one, the runners, princes and paupers alike, turned aside to fill their pockets and carry off what treasures they could. Blinded by the immediate promise of wealth, they forgot the princess and all their professions of love.

All except one. He pressed on, ignoring what to him were trinkets when compared to incomparable beauty of the princess and the prospect of gaining her hand in marriage, finally crossing the finish line.

That is the way temptation works. It places things in our path meant to blind our eyes to the kind of life God wants us to live. It distracts us from our core purpose and God’s specific purposes for our lives.

1

With God’s grace we cover over the mistakes we have made, and with the Holy spirit, we can learn to avoid temptation, we can learn to walk away from those things that would be gods in our life. With the help of the Holy Spirit and fruits that He helps us develop - like having some Self control, we can keep our focus on Him and the love we have for Him.

With God’s grace, we can turn to loving our neighbour. We can learn to love someone else instead of loving ourselves.

Ending

The whole passage tells us

Mark 1:12–13 NIV

12 At once the Spirit sent him out into the wilderness, 13 and he was in the wilderness forty days, being tempted by Satan. He was with the wild animals, and angels attended him.

It is brief, it does not dwell on the things that Jesus is tempted with - and neither should we dwell on the temptations we have had. Those mistakes of the past are gone - are covered by a grace that is sufficient for you to pick yourself up, dust yourself down and move on to the purpose that God has placed on your life. Resist the devil, take charge of your life and recognise your place as a planned, called and valued member of God’s family.

2 Thessalonians 2:13 NIV

13 But we ought always to thank God for you, brothers and sisters loved by the Lord, because God chose you as firstfruits to be saved through the sanctifying work of the Spirit and through belief in the truth.

Prayer.

Almighty God, whose Son Jesus Christ fasted forty days in the wilderness, and was tempted as we are, yet without sin: give us grace to discipline ourselves in obedience to your Spirit; and, as you know our weakness, so may we know your power to save; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who is alive and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.