Heaven Arriving on Earth


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Elmbrook Church 777 South Barker Road, Brookfield, WI 53045 www.elmbrook.org 262.786.7051 Series: Follow Me: A Journey Through the Gospel of Mark

February 8 & 9, 2014

Heaven Arriving on Earth Mark 1:14-39 Steve Sonderman, Pastor of Adult Discipleship

__________________________________________________________ Well, good morning, everyone, so glad that you're here with us today as we continue to worship together through song and now through the opening of the Word.

And in just a few minutes when

I'm done -- well, not a few minutes, in a little while -- we are going to have communion together as well.

So we have this wonderful service put together for all of us to enter into.

And what I would like you to do is I would like you to turn to Mark 1:14. our walk right through the Gospel of Mark. a big job ahead of us.

We're going to continue

We have the rest of the chapter today, so we got

So if you don't have your Bible, you can grab one of the pew Bibles.

It's page 812. I was thinking this week, I was thinking about my baseball coach. I played for the Brookfield Blues, and his name was Mr. Gallow.

When I was a young kid,

And if we took a called third

strike in a game, we had to run a lap around the field when the game was over. an error in the game, we had to run a lap.

If we made

If we missed a sign, we had to run a lap.

So I thought we should do something new at Elmbrook.

I was thinking that if you don't bring

your Bibles on Sunday morning, you should take a lap.

All right?

So you agree, I agree.

So

when we're done today, if you didn't bring your Bibles, just one lap around the building, that's all.

That'll take care of it.

All right?

But, seriously, we really want you to bring your Bibles.

If you don't have one, just take

one.

We have a bunch of new ones.

Last week, we went through 500 Bibles we gave away.

got them this week. one?

They're on the tables upstairs, downstairs.

We want you to have one.

We

Will you just please take

We want you to feel free to mark it up, underline it, make

notes, keep it open as we're talking so you can take notes in it and follow along.

All right?

Because we really want you to get into this and follow along with us as we go verse by verse through this incredible book. Today I'm just going to read the first couple verses, though. the entire chapter, verses 14 and 15. eight chapters of this book.

We're going to walk through

These two verses, now, are the key verses for the first

So if you just want to circle them, you want to underline them,

say "key passage, purpose of the first eight chapters”, write whatever you want.

This is key

here. "After John was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God. time has come,' he said, 'the kingdom of God is near.

'The

Repent and believe the good news.'"

Heavenly Father, we thank you so much that we have an opportunity now to pay our attention to your Word.

And as we open it and we study it and we get into it, Father, we ask that your

Holy Spirit would teach us and lead us into this truth.

So, Father, we give you this time,

we give you our lives, and we ask that you would do a mighty work in each one of us now. Jesus' name we pray these things.

In

Amen.

The year was 490 B.C. on the plains outside a small little town called Marathon. army was going to meet the invading Persian army in those plains.

And the Greek

This was a strategic battle.

Because if the invading Persian army won this battle, there was a good chance that the entire Greek empire would fall.

So knowing that they were outnumbered, knowing that they had -- that

they just -- the odds were against them, in the middle of the night, the Greek army did a surprise attack, and they went right into the camp of the Persian army, and they defeated them. A soldier by the name of Pheidippides -- now, if any of you young parents are looking for a name for your child, there it is. have that name.

Pheidippides.

Great.

No one else in kindergarten will

I guarantee it.

So the solider named Pheidippides, he volunteered to run from Marathon back to Athens to deliver the good news to his commanding officers. 22 miles from Marathon to Athens.

And so he took off, and through the night, he ran

He ran throughout the night.

And when he got to Athens,

he ran up to his superiors, and he announced to them, he said, "Good news. won.

We have conquered.

became a Greek hero.

We are free."

Victory has been

And he fell to the ground and he died.

He became a symbol of determination and endurance.

Pheidippides

And the marathon

race was born as a result of the run he had from Marathon to Athens. 490 years later the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, the Creator of the heaven and the earth, stepped onto the stage of human history, and he said, “Good news.” The waiting for God's intervention in the world is over.

The time has come.

All that God has said, all that God

has done in the past, has now come forward to Christ, and it's going to find its fulfillment in him.

And he says, "The kingdom of God is near.”

The rule and the reign of God in the hearts

of men is about to be established in the world. And when Jesus makes the pronouncement of the kingdom of God is near, he's announcing the decisive display of God's rule, and his power and authority is about to be unfurled into the world.

And the kingdom of God is not confined to a place, but rather it is the rule and the

reign of God in the hearts and the lives of men and women, boys and girls, and God is announcing through Jesus Christ that the plans I have for the world are not going to be thwarted.

My

purposes for the world are not going to be stopped. And what we have in this passage is we have heaven arriving on earth. we get a glimpse, just a little glimpse of King Jesus.

And in this passage,

We get a glimpse of his kingly rule

and his kingly power and his kingly authority in the lives and in the circumstances of individuals. And what we're going to do as we walk through this passage, story after story after story, we're going to see the authority and the power and the compassion of the King. to see his authority over lives.

And we're going

We're going to see his authority over demons.

to see his authority over sickness.

We're going

We're going to be reminded once again of what his kingdom

looks like and what he wants to do in your life and what he wants to do in my life.

So let's get going. of the disciples. lives.

Look at verse 16 through 20.

The first thing we see here is the calling

We get a picture, a glimpse, of the authority of the King over individual

Look what it says.

It says that Jesus was walking on the beach by Galilee, just walking

along on the beach. That's what Jesus does, doesn't he? of our lives. fishermen.

He just sort of walks into our lives, walks into the beaches

He has a nagging way of doing that.

These were not guys on vacation.

muskie just for the fun of it.

He interrupts these guys.

This was their job.

This was their career.

And Jesus has a nagging way of walking into our lives. your nets and follow me.

These are

These guys were not up in Eagle River fishing

It says an amazing thing.

He says, you know what, he says, drop That's exactly what they did.

they dropped their nets and began to follow this one called Jesus.

It says

What authority!

What

authority for them just to do that. That's what happened to me forty years ago. life completely.

Jesus just walked into my life, and he upset my

He says, “I want you to start following me,” and it reset the direction and

the course of my life.

And he's done that in your lives as well, hasn't he?

I want you to notice four things from this passage. that Jesus takes the initiative.

The first thing I want you to notice is

In the times of Jesus, all the great teachers, all the great

philosophers and the rabbis, they had many men that were following and they were students of them and they were learning.

The difference is the students would go to the rabbi, to the

teacher, the philosopher, and say, "Can I follow you?

Can I sit at your feet and learn from

you?" But not in the case of Jesus. is completely different.

Not in his Kingdom.

He says, no.

"I want you to follow me."

His kingdom is different.

Jesus went to them.

And it's still the same today, isn't it?

wide open, and he's saying to the world, “Come home.

His kingdom

He took the initiative.

He says,

Jesus, God has his arms

Come home to me.

I want to have a

relationship with you.” And that leads us to the second point. of Jesus is a call to Jesus.

The second thing we see in this passage is the call

The call to Jesus is to an exclusive attachment with him.

Jesus

was not calling the disciples to a philosophy or to a teaching or to a denomination or to a church.

Jesus was calling the disciples to himself, with the King of Kings or the Lord of

Lords, with the Creator of the heavens and earth. us, an intimate relationship with us.

He wants a relationship with each one of

That's his desire.

The call of Jesus on our lives is not just to attend church.

It's not just to religion.

The

call of Jesus is the call to Jesus into a relationship with Jesus, a relationship that is lived out in obedience to in a following after him.

That's what he desires.

He wants us to be in

a passionate pursuit of him, of loving him more tomorrow than we do today, following harder after him tomorrow than we do today.

It's a relationship that's going to grow and grow and

grow. I can still remember thirty-three years ago when I first started dating Colleen, and I have to admit it didn't start real well.

Our first date, you know, I asked her out, and I thought

I was, you know, a real good romantic-type guy. a dinner and a movie."

I said, "I would like to take you out for

She had one idea of what dinner and a movie were.

I had another idea

of what dinner and a movie were.

Dinner for me was frozen pizza at my house with my

twelve-year-old younger brother.

I thought that was a good night.

Brian enjoyed it.

And

then movie was, you know, seventy-nine cents at Ruby Isle to see Mary Poppins. When I said dinner and a movie, she's thinking one thing, I'm thinking another thing. that point on, she was a little scared. to really start pursuing. school.

So from

So I had to raise the bar a little bit, and I had

So I was living in Minneapolis, and she was in Madison going to

I was going to school up there.

So every weekend I would drive down.

For two years,

I just drove down to Madison to pursue her. And I would write letters, handwritten letters. and pages.

Do you remember what that looked like?

Hundreds and hundreds of dollars on phone calls.

distance call then, it cost you a lot of money.

Pages

Because when you made a long

Long walks, long talks, time together.

Why?

Because I loved her, because I wanted to spend the rest of my life with her, and I was pursuing her.

And God says, “That's what I want in a relationship with you.

of my life with you.

I long for you.

I desire you.”

I want to spend the rest

And the call of Jesus is a call to Jesus.

And the third thing I want you to notice in this passage, Jesus says, "I will make you fishers of men."

I want you to circle the word "make" because that's exactly what God is doing.

is making all things new.

God is in the business of changing lives.

came to Jesus, he then took them, and he began to transform them.

God

And when those disciples He began to change them.

That's what he does in our lives as well. The moment we enter into that relationship with Jesus, the living God, Lord Jesus Christ comes to take up residence within us, and he begins to live out his life in and through us. called transformation.

It's

It's a lifelong process of taking our lives and making them more and

more into the image of the Lord Jesus Christ. As followers of Christ, we are to imitate Christ.

What Jesus desires for each one of our lives

is that our lives will be more marked by the culture of eternity than it is by the culture of the world in which we live.

So when you look at the disciples and you look in the gospels

and when you look in the Book of Acts, what you'll see is you will see men and women whose lives are marked by generosity and marked by servanthood and marked by justice and righteousness, marked by compassion, marked by love. Friends, every single day as you and I seek to become like Jesus, we have a choice to make, don't we?

The decision we have to make is, are we going to follow the well-worn paths of the

world, or are we going to follow the path, the lifestyle and values of Jesus? we have to make every single day. on a collision course.

It's a choice

Because the culture we live in and the ways of Christ are

Is your life marked more by Christ or by the culture?

It's a choice

we have to make. And the fourth thing I want you to notice about this passage is what Jesus asked the disciples to do, not only to follow him, but he said, "I want you to drop your nets and to follow." for these gentlemen, that was a big deal, wasn't it? This was not a vacation.

This was their career.

Because this was their career.

This was their source of income.

Now, Okay.

This was

their source of status. significance.

This was their source of security.

This was their source of

He says, “I want you to leave your career and I want you to follow me.”

Now, Jesus is not going ask all of us to leave our careers. has you right where he wants you.

That just wouldn't work.

God

But what he may ask you to do is to re-define your career.

So your career no longer is your source of identity, your source of security and significance and status, but rather, no matter where you work and no matter what you do, whether you're down in Wheaton or down over at GE or you're down at Rockwell or you're flipping burgers at Kopp’s or you're a nurse at Waukesha Memorial, it really doesn't make a difference because now we're going to do all that we do unto him.

The work that we do is Kingdom work because

it's done for the glory and for the honor of God. So our careers are now redefined because of our follower-ship of Jesus. all of us to drop our nets.

He is going to ask

He's going to ask all of us to let the nets go.

What is a net?

A net is anything that's going to hinder us, anything that slows us down from being a non-negotiated follower of Jesus.

That's what a net is.

What's hindering you from full devotion?

Maybe it's a secret sin, a secret sin of lust or

materialism or jealousy or greed or pride or gossip. Maybe it's some friends you hang around with at work or at school, and the people you're hanging around with are pulling you away from your devotion to Jesus.

Your stated goal in life is

to know Jesus and love Jesus and follow Jesus and become like Jesus, but those that you're hanging around with are actually pulling you right away, and they're living a life contrary to that, and they're having a greater influence on your life than Christ is.

For some of us,

we need to let go of some of those relationships because of the negative influence they're having on our lives. For others, it will be our possessions. might be our hobbies.

For others, it might be our money.

Not that we have to get rid of our hobbies.

rid of our money or possessions.

For others, it

Not that we have to get

For some of us maybe lowering our handicap is more important

than our following after Jesus. It's going to be different for every one of us. is the same anymore.

But heaven has arrived on earth and nothing

And God's desire is to rule and to reign in your life and in my life.

And is there anything in my life that's hindering my full devotion to him? Let's move on.

Jesus has demonstrated his authority over lives.

Now what we're going to see

is we're going to see is he’s going to demonstrate his authority over demons. notice what it says.

Look at verse twenty-one.

"Jesus went to Capernaum."

Now we're moving on.

I want you to

In verse 21, it says,

I want you to underline, circle the word ‘Capernaum’ there and

right next to it I want you to write the word ‘headquarters’ because this now becomes the staging area for a lot of Jesus' activity. We know that he was from Nazareth, but he's been booted out of Nazareth because a prophet is not welcome in his own town.

Now he sort of makes Capernaum the staging area, his beachhead,

for a lot of his activity in life. does a good Jewish male do?

It says he was in Capernaum and it was the Sabbath.

He goes to the synagogue.

That's what he does.

What

I just love what it says in the Gospel of Luke in a cross-reference where it's describing the same situation.

Luke says, "And Jesus went to the synagogue as was his custom."

a part of his life.

It was a part of what Jesus did.

It was just

It was a part of what any Jewish male

did on the Sabbath. When the Sabbath came, you didn't have to wonder, "Now, I wonder where Jesus is. where my buddy is.

Is he at the ballpark?

Is he at the shopping mall? synagogue. do.

Is he at the golf course?

I wonder where Jesus is."

I wonder

Is he sleeping in today?

Well, it's a Sabbath.

He's at the

It wasn't a decision of emotion or how I'm feeling or if I have anything else to

No, Jesus just went because that's what you do.

Well, that's too convicting.

Let's move

on. What it says -- then it says what? happens in the synagogues. they were amazed.

He began to teach in the synagogue because that's what

It was the place of teaching.

They were amazed at his teaching.

Jesus began to teach and it says

He was teaching as one who had authority.

The word ‘authority’ means the author. Well, of course he's speaking with authority.

I hope they're amazed.

This is the Son of God.

It is the Living Word who is speaking of the written Word, and he is speaking life into their lives.

It's as if this whole crowd of people are sitting there, and they're listening to Jesus

teach and they're going, "Hmm, this guy isn't bad. here.

It's like this guy wrote the thing."

He almost knows what he's talking about

I mean, he's got authority.

He's amazing them.

And in the middle of it, in the middle of the teaching, as he's speaking life into their lives and they are starting to get it, all of a sudden there's a man in the corner and there's an evil spirit in him. Jesus of Nazareth? of God."

All of a sudden the evil spirit speaks up, "What do you want with us, Have you come to destroy us?

This wasn't the man speaking.

I know who you are.

This was the evil spirit within the man speaking.

And isn't it interesting that this evil spirit knew who Jesus was? he knew exactly what was about to happen.

You are the Holy One

He knew why he came and

See, the disciples were a little fuzzy on Jesus.

They were a little confused on who he really was, but not the evil spirit. knew exactly who he was.

He said, "I know of your humanity.

You are Jesus of Nazareth.

know of your divinity, you are the Holy One of God, and I know why you came. the works of Satan.

The evil spirit

You came to destroy us, didn't you?"

And he knows exactly what's about to take place.

That evil spirit knew that in just a few

moments there was going to be a confrontation of epic proportions. Lord of the Rings, D-Day, or Packers/Bears. the kingdom of darkness.

I'm not talking Star Wars,

I am talking the kingdom of light confronting

I'm talking a conflict between God Almighty and the forces of evil.

And Jesus looks at the man knowing that the man -- the evil spirit was with them. "Quiet.

Come out of him."

He says,

And there was a screech, there was a yell, and the spirit leaves.

We need to see the absolute authority of God over demons in this passage. absolute authority and power of Christ in this passage. comprehend.

I

You came to destroy

We need to see the

And this might be hard for us to

It might be hard for us to wrap our brains around because we live in a highly

intellectual, scientific, anti-supernatural world here in the West.

You need to know there

is a battle raging in the heavenlies, between the kingdom of light and the kingdom of darkness, and the battle is real.

If you go to other places around the world, you go to Indonesia and you go to the Philippines and you go to parts of India and parts of Africa, parts of Asia, this stuff is going on and it is real.

If you talk to any of our missionaries who are working in those places, they will

tell you the stories of this type of stuff happening. I can still remember about twenty years ago when I was on a mission trip to the Philippines, and I was asked by the leaders to enter into one of these confrontations and a team of us prepared ourselves.

We went into a room, and I will just tell you it was real.

it was powerful.

And it was dark.

And

And it was the kingdom of light invading the kingdom of darkness and the

place shook. And Paul says in Ephesians 6:12, he says our battle is not against flesh and blood. the rulers. realms.

It's against the authorities.

The battle is real, friends.

is for your marriage. is for your faith. for your mind. out.

It's against

It's against the evil forces in the heavenly

The battle is for your life and for my life.

The battle is for your family.

It's for your friendships.

The battle

The battle is for your identity.

The battle is for your heart.

It

The battle is

The battle is for you because what Satan wants to do is he wants to take you

He wants to paralyze you.

And it's real.

And it's everywhere you look.

And that's why Paul says in Ephesians 6, he says when you get up, he says, put on the full armor of God.

When you get up in the morning, don't go into battle without your uniform.

gird yourself, prepare yourself for the battle you're going to enter into.

Rather

Because when you

hit the streets, when you go to school, when you go to work, the bullets are going to be flying. They're going to be flying everywhere. One of the best things we can do to battle the temptations and to battle the bullets when they're flying, friends, is to know the truth.

We need to know the truth of God.

Just like we saw

last week when Jesus went into the desert to be tempted, three times the evil one came after Jesus, and each time the evil one tempted him, what did he do? is written.

He said, "It is written.

It

It is written."

Jesus took the Word, and he threw it right at him.

We need to know the Word.

And so when

those lies come our way, when those temptations come our way, we can use the Word to battle them off, to hold it off. When the lie that comes our way, when we hear it whispering in our ear that says, "It's okay to get a divorce it you're not happy, if you're miserable." that's wrong. is okay.

We need to know the truth that

When you hear the lie, the whisper in your ear, guys, that says, "Pornography

It really doesn't hurt anyone.

It's really not being unfaithful.

we need to know the truth and we need to say, "Be quiet."

Just go ahead,”

When we hear the lie that says,

"Being a virgin until you're married is stupid," we need to know the truth and say, "Quiet. That's wrong." Because every day the whispers, the temptations, they come our way. we're able to throw the Book at the evil one.

As we know the truth,

In our passage today, we see Jesus the King,

his authority over our lives, his authority over demons, and now it moves on. on to sickness, his authority over sickness.

Now it moves

Look what it says here.

It moves on now to our passage.

It says -- it moves now to Simon

Peter's home, and it says Jesus and his buddies went to Simon Peter's home. mother-in-law is sick.

And we have a change here.

Peter's

The change from something that's very

dramatic, casting out an evil spirit, to something more simple, just the healing of a person with a fever.

We go from a very public situation to a very private situation.

And it says that Jesus then walks into the home, and I just love what it says. It says Jesus went to her, he held her hand, and he pulled her up. her hand, and he pulled her up.

It says the fever left her.

she got up and she served Jesus. and we serve.

It's so simple.

He went to her, he held

What was her response?

That's the response of God's work in our life.

It says

We get up

We get up and we serve.

Once again we see in our passage here today, we see the kingly authority, the power of King Jesus, but now we also see the compassion of the King.

Not only do we see the compassion of

the King, we see a picture of what God wants to do in the world today.

He wants to rescue

those that are in darkness and bring them into the light, and he wants to take those, he wants to bring restoration into our lives. It's rescue and restoration.

He wants to bring wholeness.

And that's exactly what he's doing.

Now, we need to see in this his authority over sickness. heals in many ways today.

And what I want to say is that God

Sometimes he heals physically like he does in this passage.

Sometimes he heals relationally. healing is spiritual.

He wants to bring health.

Sometimes the healing is emotional.

And sometimes the

Jesus chooses how he wants to heal, when he wants to heal, and who he

wants to heal. And it will look different in every one of our lives, but this is what we know, we know that at the end of time, at the resurrection of the dead, in Revelation 21, there will come a time when he will wipe away every tear. more death.

There will be no more disease, no more sickness, and no

At that time, we will all be healed completely, and we will all be whole.

But

in the meantime, as we battle sickness, we battle disease, Jesus has a desire to reach into our lives and to bring healing to us.

And that healing will look different for each one of

us. Let me leave you with two applications. take very seriously James 5:14.

No. 1, our elders at this church, the men and women,

And in that verse it says if any of you are sick, that you

should call on the elders, and they will come and they will anoint you and pray for you. is a ministry that goes on behind the surface here all the time.

It

Our elders going to homes,

gathering here in rooms with family and friends, and praying over people and anointing them. If you want that ministry in your life, call our office and the elders will come and they will arrange for that to happen because that's what they love to do. The second thing I want to mention is that we want to enter into prayer with you and for you, that we know that on a morning like today, there are hundreds and hundreds of you in this room who are experiencing great amounts of pain and hurt and discouragement. financially, emotionally, relationally.

We don't want you to leave here by yourself.

want you to leave without us helping you and walking with you. that burden alone.

You've hit the wall We don't

No one should have to carry

That's why we have men and women up front, down here, and up in the balcony.

When the service is over, you can come, and we can pray with you and for you. you to feel like, “Well, it's not big enough or they really don't care.” That's why we're here. other's burdens.

Yes, we do care.

This is what the church is; it's the body of Christ.

We pray for one another, and we walk with one another.

We don't want We carry each

We want to enter

into that. Please, today, in the coming weeks, feel free to come down after the service, tell us what's going on, give us a call so we can pray with you and pray for you. of who we are. works.

It has been and will continue to be.

Prayer works.

We want that to be a part

I will just tell you it works.

It really

There is something about people praying for you that gives you energy

and strength, and you feel the touch of God in the midst of that. Because just two weeks ago, two weeks ago today, my mother died very suddenly. hundreds and hundreds of cards and notes and texts and phone calls. my office and praying for me.

And I received

People just coming into

People saying, "We're praying for you."

I can tell you there

is no way humanly possible I could bury my mom on Friday and then lead No Regrets on Saturday and stand up here this weekend.

It's not possible.

But God's grace is sufficient.

And the

prayers of this congregation have held me up. And I want every one of you to experience that.

No matter what you're going through, I want

you to know what it is when the body of Christ comes around you and lifts you up and prays for you.

It may not take away the pain.

just like that.

It may not take away the hurt.

You may not be healed

You have the body around you, they're with you, and they're going to pray

for you. And as the story continues, it says that after Jesus left the home, the sun set. the sun set, it says that all the people began to bring their friends to Jesus. incredible? synagogue.

It's an incredible passage. He cast out a demon.

And when Isn't this

He was there early in the morning teaching in the

He goes to a home, and he heals someone who is sick.

all of a sudden it's nighttime, and they're bringing the crowds to Jesus.

Now

What does he do?

He reaches out with the kingly compassion, he reaches out with his ministry of restoration, his ministry of healing, his ministry of restoring and making people whole.

He continues to

minister into their life. That's what he's doing today. reach out into the world.

He's continuing to reach out, and he uses you and uses me to

You and I as the hands and feet of Jesus, reaching out into people's

circumstances, into their families, and into their lives, and all that's going on with their world. Where there is guilt, he offers forgiveness. Where there's a hurt, he offers healing. reconciliation.

Where there's an addiction, he offers freedom.

Where there's conflict, he offers peace and

Where there's grief, he offers hope.

That's what Jesus does.

He did it then,

and he's doing it today. And as the crowds of people come here and as you interact with the crowds at work and home, we move out, and we enter into people's lives, and we offer his forgiveness, his peace, his compassion, and his touch.

As our passage continues, we get to verse 35. amazing.

I want you to underline this.

through 38.

In verse 35, all of a sudden it says something

Let me just finish here on this section, verse 35

Because what happens is it says, “Very early in the morning, while it was still

dark, Jesus got up, he went off to a lonely place, and he prayed.” Now, you might just read that verse and go, “It's no big deal.” you need to understand is the context.

He got up and he prayed.

What

That this verse happens in the context of right after

the busiest day recorded in the Scriptures of Jesus' life.

He has just spent the entire day

in ministry. If there ever was a day when Jesus would say, you know what? Let's just go to Bedside Baptist today. it.

All right?

I am just going to sleep in today.

Let's just take it easy.

He doesn't do

Because Jesus understood the busier he was in life, the more important it was that he

be with his Father.

The secret to his public ministry was the private life of Jesus.

And what we see in this passage is a reminder that for Jesus, life was prayer. part of his life. and in public.

It was his life.

He prayed in the common and in the crisis, in private

When Jesus was critiqued and criticized, he prayed.

in spirit and body, he prayed. to make, he prayed.

It wasn't a

When Jesus was tempted, he prayed.

When Jesus was fatigued When Jesus had decisions

When Jesus was going to the cross, he prayed.

He started his life in

prayer, he ended his life in prayer, and everything else was a life of prayer. What we see here, once again, is this wonderful picture of the rhythm of life that Jesus had. The moments of isolation were just or more important than the times of involvement.

And as

we go through the Gospel of Luke, what we're going to see is this rhythm of times of isolation with the Father, times of community with the disciples, times of involvement with the crowds. And it's a wonderful rhythm to build into your life as well, times of isolation with the Father, in your life group, community group for encouragement and support, and then moving out in ministry to the crowds. Let me leave you with four applications.

No. 1, you need a time to pray.

What's best for you? In the morning? At night? At noon? God attention.

Find a time to pray.

When are you most alert, able to give

Find a time to pray.

Second, find a place to pray.

He withdrew.

He withdrew to a lonely place.

It says the sod

was his praying mat, the darkness was his bolted door, the hill was his chamber. 6:6 Jesus says, go into your closet and close the door to talk to your Father.

In Matthew You need to

have a place where you can go and close the door, where we can shut out the world and shut ourselves up to God. No. 3, use the Bible.

Find that place away from the distractions. Use the Bible.

wonderful things to pray.

If you're not sure what to pray, the Scriptures are

I regularly pray through the Psalms.

prayers of Daniel, prayers of Paul.

The Bible is our prayer book.

I use the prayers of David, Use those prayers.

You're

not sure what to pray, pray the Scriptures. The fourth thing, prayer with others. partner.

You don't have to do this by yourself.

Get a prayer

When you're in your life group on Wednesday night or Tuesday morning, whenever you

meet, pray together as a group and pray for one another as a group.

I think you've heard me mention it before that twenty-two years ago, Colleen and I joined a prayer group.

Three other couples, we meet every month once a month for twenty-two years now.

We meet on a Sunday night.

We take time just praying for each other's family, for our children,

for our marriages, and for what we're doing in life. of strength, it's a source of encouragement.

To have that prayer support is a source

And I know that every single week my kids are

being prayed for not just by Colleen and I but other couples here in the congregation that we've joined, we've locked arms with.

We need to be praying with other people.

I can just hear Jesus, he's off by himself. day yesterday.

Good day.

they take root? big day today.

He's talking to the Father saying, “Father, busy

Could you take those seeds that I planted, could you just make sure

Could you just help them to grow up and to flourish?

And Father, I got a

The crowds are going to come and could you just help me to know where to go

and what to do and what to say?

Father, I need your wisdom.

I need your guidance.

I can't

do this alone.” And just in the midst of all that conversation and in verse 36 the disciples just -- they come running in, banging the drums and cymbals and everything. We got things to do, places to go, people to meet. time, buddy.

Come on.

"Jesus, come on buddy, let's go.

Get off your knees.

Disciples say to Jesus, "Hey, listen, Jesus, the numbers are up. I mean, it is up and to the right. a tent.

You're wasting your

Let's go."

Really good.

The charts look really good.

As a matter of fact, we're thinking of building

We're going to build a tent and just invite everyone to come.

All right?

Let's -- we

need to cash in on your popularity right now." Jesus says, “Just listen a minute. tents.

You need to understand why I came.

I didn't come to be a miracle worker.

I didn't come to build

I didn't come just to make people feel good.

I didn't come just to take away a little pain and give a little relief, just a little Jesus-salve on the hurt.

No,” he says, “you need to know why I came.”

Jesus said, “The reason I came was to be the good news. The Kingdom of God is near.

Heaven has arrived on earth.

The time is now.

The time has come.

And the reason I've come is to rule

and to reign in the hearts of men and women, boys and girls, here and around the world. guys, we're going to pick it up.

We're going to drop the tent.

to village,” he says, “town to town, city to city.

So,

We're going to go from village

We're going to proclaim the good news.

We're going to proclaim that the kingdom of God is here, that the kingdom of light is going to invade the kingdom of darkness, and we're going to make a difference all over the world.” Jesus says, “Come on, guys, we're moving on.”

He calls us to do the same thing.

Not to pitch

another tent, not to draw a crowd, not to be a miracle worker, but rather to preach the good news, the good news that Jesus has come and heaven has arrived on earth.

Wherever we go, this

week and next, we bring the kingdom of light into the kingdom of darkness.

Let God do his

work, let God do what he does best, rule and reign in the lives of people. Heavenly Father, thank you for this morning. Thank you for his power. today.

Thank you for this passage.

Thank you for his authority.

Thank you for Jesus.

Thank you that he rules and reigns

Thank you that he desires to be intimately involved in the affairs of mankind today.

And Father, I pray as we now transition into a time of remembrance, a time of looking back

at the cross, Father, you would take our hearts and our minds heavenward. Amen.

In Jesus' name.