In God's Servant Training Program (Jake Enns)

Of the four gospels, Mark is the shortest gospel and when

starting a new series is important to to give you some

background, some reason for this series.

And so one might ask, so what's so special about the Gospel of

Mark that we need to do a sermon series on it?

The Gospel of Mark paints a portrait of Jesus that we are in

much need of learning in our time.

One of the things that we know about Jesus and we say it and

it's true and we want to dig into that, but that Jesus came

as a servant. He came as a savior, as a

teacher, a healer, but he came as a servant.

The message of servanthood is very important and it really

sticks out in Mark's gospel in our world today.

It is especially important because we are a people in our

world today where we expect to be served.

Just pause for a moment. When we came to church this

morning, did we come to serve or be served?

Maybe both. I hope both.

But the idea of I, what am I going to get out of it?

What's it going to do for me? How am I going to benefit from

this? Those are very real thoughts and

it's so much of life is like that.

Think about going to a restaurant.

A lot depends on the service, whether you like that place or

not. In so many areas, you go to a

repair shop, get your vehicle fixed, or somebody comes and

does work in your house. What kind of service are they

providing? How's the service?

Here's the thing, are we more concerned about the service we

give or are we more concerned about the service we get?

And we're increasingly becoming a self focused society.

We want our needs met. And I'm not saying it's wrong to

have our needs met. We need our needs met.

But there's something else that we often do not take into

consideration. It's when we think about

service. How am I serving?

Too often? We don't want to get involved.

That's too busy. And I want to ask a question and

just please don't raise your hands.

But when we came this morning, were these thoughts on our

minds. Don't raise your hands.

Who can I comfort in church today?

Who can I encourage a church this morning?

Who might I be able to pray with a church this morning?

Who can I show some support this morning?

How many of us came to church with that mindset?

Almost some of us, I think did. Did we all?

And before we dig into the gospel of Mark, there's some

things I want to say first, but I want to read one verse out of

Mark, chapter 10, verse 45. And Jesus says this, and Mark

Mark 10:45

wrote it down. For even the Son of Man did not

come to be served, but to serve and give his life a ransom for

many, to serve and then give his life.

Those are two things. As people, we find it harder to

serve than to be served. If there ever was one who

served, it was Jesus. If there ever was one who

deserved to be served, it was Jesus.

Jesus clearly portrays himself as one who served.

Mark shows us in great detail how Jesus served the people of

his time. In Mark's Gospel, we continually

find Jesus portrayed as the man who served others, even though

he was God's son. When we read the Gospels, we

find the writers do not tell the story of Jesus exactly in the

same manner. In the Gospel of Mark, for

instance, he portrays Jesus as the Messiah, the King of the

Jews. In Luke we find Jesus portrayed

as the Savior of the world. In the Gospel of John, we find

Jesus portrayed as the Son of God through whom we have life.

Mark does the same, except Mark really outlines the activities,

the work of Jesus himself. Mark, when he wrote the gospel,

he was not an apostle of Jesus. He never was an apostle of

Jesus. He came in after the fact.

He's mentioned a number of times in Scripture.

He's mentioned in Acts chapter 13 under the name of John or

Acts 13 · chapter mention

John Mark. Early on, this guy, young man

named John Mark, he traveled with Paul and Silas and part way

into the missionary journey, he turned and went back to

Jerusalem. What the reasons were, we're not

told. Then when Paul and Silas want to

go on a missionary, Paul and Barnabas, sorry, I messed that

up. Paul and Barnabas, when Paul and

Barnabas want to go on the second journey, Barnabas says,

well, let's take Mark along. We ain't taking Mark along.

And so Paul and Barnabas had a split and Paul went with with

Silas and then Barnabas took Mark.

Later on we find that Paul spoke well of Mark.

Maybe Mark matured or got some more courage or whatever may

have happened. Paul may have softened up a

little. We are not told, but Mark was a

very useful laborer in the church, and it's believed he may

have recorded this gospel as he heard it from the apostles.

And so we're not given all that information, but Mark wrote a

gospel of Jesus, and it's believed that he wrote it

approximately between 660 years and 70 years AD after the birth

of Christ. And that only would make it a

little more than about 30 years after Jesus was crucified.

So it's a very early gospel. Some say it's the earliest

gospel, and that information may be correct.

We don't have reason to doubt it per SE, but one thing is also

sure is that the persecution had already started in the church at

the time. Also, the culture of the time

that Mark wrote this was the church was young, but it was

very healthy. It was very robust.

The church was spreading and putting roots down in all parts

of the empire in spite of opposition from the Jews in

different parts of the, of the of the empire and opposition

from the Romans as well. And as I mentioned, this is the

shortest gospel, but he writes in a very interesting manner.

If you read the gospel in the new King James, it's a often

times he uses the word immediately and immediately and

immediately. There's an urgency to it.

And also I think the ESV talked about and at once and at once

things happened. It's a very fast-paced gospel.

He covers a lot of events in a very short time.

But then toward the end, the 1st 10 chapters is kind of very,

very compact, very, very tightly packed.

But then from chapter 10 and onward, Chapter 11 to 16, he

stretches it out and there's this, this, the Passion Week

covers a long stretch. He really emphasizes that as

well. So our theme for the sermon

series will be Jesus, the servant son of God going forward

through these sermons. As far as the ordinary average

Jew was concerned, who knew about Jesus, He's a rabbi, a

Jewish rabbi. But Jesus didn't play by the

rules. Jesus did things that angered

the religious leaders. Jesus demonstrated A servant

heart and humility and loyalty to both God and people.

And the Jewish leaders were put to shame many a time and they

got angry at him. Our title this morning is in

God's Servant Training program. When we look over the earthly

journey of Jesus, there were serious challenges for him to

endure and to overcome. But one of the things in the

stories of all the Gospels is clear the earthly journey of

Jesus. It was never smooth.

It was never easy. It was never convenient or

comfortable. But we want ours to be something

for us to realize right out of the gate in the series is this.

If you're going to follow Jesus, you're going to do what God has

for you. You will be challenged.

It's not a question of if, just a question of timing.

So let's take our Bibles, turn to the Gospel of Mark and begin

reading out of chapter one, verse 1 to 13.

We'll read this in our Bibles, the beginning of the gospel of

Jesus Christ, the Son of God, as it is written in the prophets.

Behold, I send my messenger before your face, who will

prepare your way before you, the voice of one crying in the

wilderness. Prepare the way of the Lord,

make his path straight. John came baptizing in the

wilderness and preaching a baptism of repentance for the

remission of sins. Then all the land of Judea and

those from Jerusalem went out to him and were all baptized by him

in the Jordan River, confessing their sins.

Now John was clothed with camel's hair and with a leather

belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey.

And he preached, saying, There comes one after me who's

mightier than I, who sandals trap.

I'm not worthy to stoop down and loose.

I indeed baptize you with water, but He will baptize you with the

Holy Spirit. It came to pass in those days

that Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John

and the Jordan. And immediately coming up from

the water, he saw the heavens parting and the Spirit

descending upon him like a dove. Then a voice came from heaven.

You're my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.

Mark condenses the beginning of the story of Jesus really into a

small package. He bypasses the genealogy that

Matthew mentions. He bypasses the birth Bethlehem

of Jesus, the story of the shepherds, the wise men, the

flight into Egypt, the early years of Jesus, his journey to

Jerusalem as a boy. He bypasses all of that.

Mark's focus is on what Jesus did.

It's not wrong that he bypasses the other parts of the story.

Mark's calling, his focus was different and he looked at how

Jesus served and what he did. Mark begins with pointing that

Jesus was not just a random person starting out on his own.

He mentions that the coming of Jesus was a fulfillment of

prophecy. The Messiah had been prophesied.

The Jews had been told for centuries that one day a king

would come who would reign and rule as King David.

They knew the stories of their beloved King David, who in

centuries past have been a good king.

When the prophecies were made about a coming king, of course,

they had images in their minds what it would look like.

You see, sometimes people have their own ideas how something

should be in their mind. And then when the anticipated

event happens, it's different than the anticipated, and they

have a different idea, and then it's different and they miss it,

sometimes completely. And even those who did not miss

it, like the disciples, they got it, they didn't miss it.

They still had the wrong idea about him as a Messiah.

And it was not that the people did not prepare.

They did prepare. They went to the Jordan to get

baptized, but who they were preparing for and who showed up

was not the same thing, not the same person.

You see, we just celebrated Easter last week, Easter Sunday.

And from the time that this event happened, what Mark writes

about to the time that Jesus was killed, that was about three

years. That's not very long, only about

3 years. Three years is very short time

and it may very well have been that the same people or some of

at least the same people that were at the Jordan getting

baptized and expecting Elijah to come or the the Messiah to come.

The very same people may have been in Jerusalem when he was

judged before Pilate and they shot a crucified crucified.

We don't know for sure, but it's possible these same people could

have been in both groups. And so here in the desert, John

the Baptist is sent by God to prepare the way for the coming

Messiah. And it's as if Mark is with very

broad brush strokes, paints and masterpiece portrait of how God

worked his purpose in this world through Jesus as the serving

servant. Notice the opening lines in the

beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

He introduces the gospel with these words in the beginning,

the beginning of the gospel. In his opening line, Mark

identifies Jesus, who he is, and this is Jesus gospel.

It's important that he begins with Jesus because it's about

Jesus and everything to that is to follow is to be about Jesus.

In this passage, right on the heels of his opening statement,

Mark anchors or fastens or grounds his proclamation of the

good news of Jesus on the prophecies of the past.

And he says in verse 2, as it is written in the prophets, Behold,

I send my messenger before you who will prepare your way before

you, the voice of one crying in the wilderness.

Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.

He's quoting Isaiah for the coming Messiah.

The way of the Lord needed to be prepared.

Mark is writing about a faith response to God.

It's not some physical construction equipment making

some roads in Judea. It's not what this is about.

Make his path straight. This is a a spiritual journey,

not a physical path in the nation and in the hearts of the

people. The paths were no longer

straight. They were no longer thinking

straight. They were not living straight

either. There were things that needed to

be lined up. He's talking about the path of

the hearts. They were not right before God.

We could say they were not aligned with God.

They had to be prepared. What is noteworthy also in this

passage is the reference to the wilderness.

We noticed the wilderness a number of times.

We will make reference to it a few times.

The voice is crying for change. That's one thing.

Where is he crying from? Not some resort, not some famous

place. He's crying from the wilderness.

Wilderness places are not easy places to live in or to be.

But you know what? That's often times the place

where good things happen. John the Baptist was a

wilderness guy. His message was important in

timely for the people of Israel, but for them to hear it, they

had to go into the wilderness. I believe this.

It is just as important from where a person wants help or

where a person is willing to go to for help, then that a person

wants help. Often times we want help, but

it's so conditional. I want help, but only on these,

this and this way. I have my, I have my, my, my

demands or my conditions on which I want help.

You don't go to the doctor and tell the doctor what to do.

You just go to the doctor and say, I'm sick, can you help me?

And the doctor will tell you what you got to do and you just

do it. Some people want help while

insisting on being in the place of convenience, No hardship, no

struggle. That's usually not a good thing.

But notice where the preparation takes place.

It takes place in the desert. God often uses desert places to

prepare people. In the Gospel of Mark, it's

where it all began, in the desert.

This is not the first passage in Scripture where a desert turned

to a training place. Imagine signing up for training

of some kind and you're told, by the way, you're going to be

eliminated. Everything will be eliminated

from you and the place you're going, you're the amenities of

life won't be there. Think of Moses, He was a Prince

in Egypt. One day he sees an Israel, an

Egyptian taskmaster beating up a Hebrew slave.

He kills the Egyptian. He's going to work some justice.

Egypt was a land of plenty and of wealth.

He took and killed the Egyptian. The next day Moses sees 2 Hebrew

men fighting. He tries to play peacemaker

again. Well, not again.

The previous day he killed the Egyptian, but he tries to play

peacemaker between these two guys.

One says, are you going to kill me like you did the Egyptian

yesterday? Moses terrified, he flees into

the desert. He makes the wilderness his home

as a as a shepherd and stays there for 40 years until one day

God called him and gave him a job.

He told Moses to bring the Israelites out of Egypt to the

land of Canaan. But guess what that wrote it too

LED through the desert. Moses had experience in the

desert by now and he led the people through the desert and

God guided them. They didn't do too well and we

know the story. They complained a lot.

Many of them died. In fact, all them aged 20 and 21

and older died except 240 long years.

Another case in the Bible is Elijah.

On one occasion he was depressed about life.

He had had a great victory over the prophets of Baal and he gets

threatened with death and he wants to die.

He goes to the desert and that's where God meets him.

You see, deserts have less distractions.

There's a there's an elimination process that happens when you go

to the desert. And sometimes God brings us to a

desert and we don't like it. It's uncomfortable.

It's it's, it's difficult. You see, deserts have

wilderness. Places have a way of helping

people sort out their priorities.

They can be dreaded places. But we must consider something

in our time. We have cell phones and services

usually almost worldwide, and we have fast transportation.

So deserts don't hold the same dread for us.

They would have been back in those days because we can

quickly get out of a desert. We can go in and get out.

We're we have these umbilical cords, technology, whatever you

want to call it, to get away. In those days, if you walked

into the desert, you were cut off, you were separated, and it

took time. There were lonely places of

isolation. So for us, a desert does not

have the same connotation that did for those people.

But here's John the Baptist, the man of the desert.

It tells us in the in the gospel, Luke, Mark that he's

baptizing in the wilderness. No doubt there was an area in

the desert where the Jordan River ran by.

Let's read that verse and verse 4.

And on John came baptizing in the wilderness and preaching a

baptism of repentance for the remission of sins.

Then all the land of Judea and those from Jerusalem went out to

him and were all baptized by Jordan, by him in the Jordan

River, confessing their sins. So in verse 4, baptizing in the

wilderness, apparently the Jordan River, As for a stretch,

runs to the desert. In this case, the crowds come

from everywhere. John did not go to them, having

meetings in their towns and villages.

We'll see later that Christ did the opposite.

He went to the people where they lived.

But John here prepares the way of the Lord in the desert, and

even Jesus came to the desert. We'll get there in a bit, but

God prepared the people for the Messiah and they came from all

over the place, going to the desert, confessing their sins,

and John would baptize them in the desert.

This was not a baptism that we practice today, a baptism for

repentance. Today we baptize people on the

confession of faith to demonstrate they've died to this

world, they've risen to, they're alive in Christ.

We baptize them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the

Holy Spirit. And that day it was John didn't

do that. And baptism were well known in

the time as well. And people would receive baptism

as a sign of having undergone change.

In this instance, they came to the Jordan confessing their sins

and receiving baptism. Mark does not spend a lot of

time on the story of the baptism.

The other gospel writers give more detail on this baptism than

Mark does. What is important for us to know

as people is that we need to be mindful that God is in the

people changing business. That's what this is all about.

God's not primarily interested in changing our circumstances as

He's interested in changing our hearts.

I'm not saying God never wants to change our circumstances.

We can pray for that. And if sometimes He wants to

change our circumstances, but first and foremost, he wants us

to change us to prepare us to make the way straight.

Our problem often is that we pray in asking God to change our

circumstances. And again, it's not wrong, but

too often that's where we stop. We need to be about God changing

our hearts first, changing us to be in a relationship with Him.

Often that training is difficult, and it happens often

times in a desert. And when I say desert here, I

don't mean necessarily we go to an isolated place where there's

nobody there, but everything falls away and it's just us and

God left. The preparation that was

happening to these people in the desert was happening for a

person. Yes, they were being baptized

for the remission of sins, but for what purpose?

To become ready for the one who was to come.

It says here describing John a bit.

John was clothed with camel's hair and with a leather belt

around his waist. Nate, locust and wild honey.

And he preached saying, there comes one after me who's

mightier than I, who's sandal strap.

I'm not worthy to stoop down and loose.

I indeed baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the

Holy Spirit. John the Baptist had been

prepared. He was prepared.

Now he comes preparing the way he was prepared for the Messiah.

He lived in the desert, was ready when the Messiah came, he

was ready to meet him. I'm assuming that John spent a

lot of time in the desert. It's not just that he grew up to

be a man and just walk into the desert and then a few days later

did this. No, I believe it's safe to say

John was a man of the desert. This was his lifestyle.

This is who he was at this time. He was in his mid early 30s.

Humanly speaking from a from a fresh standpoint he was he was

related to Jesus. He was a cousin of Jesus, but

older than Jesus. In the prime of his life we

could say. It tells us how he wore his

clothing. Camels hair, garb of some kind,

leather belt around his waist. I wonder what his hair looked

like. I've seen people describe him in

pictures. Looks like a wild man.

The food he ate, a diet that I don't wouldn't want anyway.

Some art. Some artists portray him as a

man poor, just kind of very rough looking and just the way

he preached. He didn't have a long ministry,

a very short ministry, but just the way he preached Luke's

gospel. And let's look at some of these

passages. It says he said to the

multitudes. Now this is this is Mark leaves

this out, but Luke talks about it.

He says, then he said to the multitudes that came to be

baptized by him. Brood of Vipers, who warned you

to flee from the wrath to come? How's that first sermon opening?

I like the low German. It has a nice ring.

That's my mother tongue. But ye Schlang and Brozel, you

nest of snakes. That's when he starts his

sermon. He says, therefore bear fruits

worthy of repentance and do not begin to say to ourselves, we

have Abraham has her father. For I say to you that God is

able to raise up children to Abraham from from from these

stones. In other words, oh, we're from a

religious background. We're Mennonites or we're

whatever. No, don't use those.

He says, even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees,

therefore every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down

and thrown into the fire. So the people asked him saying,

what shall we do? Then he answered, Satan said to

them, he was too Tunis, let him give to let him give to him who

has none and he who has food to let him do likewise.

Then the tax collectors also came to be baptized, and they

said to him, Teacher, what shall we do?

And he said to them, Collect no more than what's appointed for

you. Likewise the soldiers asked him

saying, what shall we do? And he said to them, Do not

intimidate anyone or accuse false to be content with your

wages now, as the people were expectation and all reason in

their hearts about John, whether he was a Christ or not.

John answered saying to all, I indeed baptize you with water,

but one mighter than I is coming, whose sandals strap I'm

not worthy to lose to lose. He'll baptize you with Holy

Spirit and with fire. His winning fan is in his hand.

He will get thoroughly clean up his threshing floor and gather

the wheat and his barn. But the chaff he burned with

unquenchable fire, and with many other exhortations he preached

to the people. But Herod the Tetrarch being

rebuked by him concerning Herodias, his brother Philip's

wife, and for the all the evils which Herod had done, also added

to this above all that he shut John up in prison.

Talk about a successful ministry.

We do know that in between this he also did baptize Jesus.

John's life was not easy. First God prepared John, and

then he had John prepare the way for the Messiah.

We should not expect an easy preparation, the path of

redemption, the preparation, the fulfillment of God's plan, as

glorious and as good as it did not come easy.

God's plan came with a lot of hardship.

Not just that, God's plan does not promise an easy life, quite

the opposite. And during this time that John

was ministering and preaching and baptizing in the desert,

Jesus shows up, it says in verse 9.

It came to pass in those days that Jesus came from Nazareth of

Galilee and was baptized by John and the Jordan.

And immediately coming up from the water, he saw the heavens

parting and the Spirit descending among like a dove.

Then a voice from heaven came from heaven.

You're my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.

Even Jesus subjected himself to this preparation of service as

well. He's identified with humanity

and baptism. When Jesus was baptized, it was

not like the people that he got baptized for any sins he had

committed. There wasn't a repentance

baptism. He was baptized to identify with

humanity. He had nothing to repent of.

He was going to carry what we're forced to carry.

He was going to wear the badge of broken humanity.

He became one of us fully at his birth, but especially at his

baptism. He identified with us and he

went to the desert to do it. He entered our broken world of

sin. When he did this.

He identified with us at every level, yet without sin.

When he came up out of the water, it tells us that God

said, this is my beloved Son and whom I'm well pleased.

God was pleased with Jesus as a man.

For Jesus to take this step, He was entering and engaging a

world riddled with pain and sin and darkness and brokenness, and

he would experience it. For Jesus, the baptism and the

approval of the Father was not the finish line.

However, that was the starting line of ministry.

You see, too often in life you have the idea that once you

leave the starting line canal, it's going to be easy.

Going from here on in, it's going to be easy.

It's not like that. And how many experiences don't

we have that attest to this? For instance, a young guy

becomes a follower of Jesus. He's grateful that God has

helped him overcome some addictions.

He's repented. Satan is now now gone, so to

speak. And only to find out, wait a

minute, now it gets hard. It does.

One thing that I often think about when I work with young

couples is they, they love each other.

They're madly in love, passionately in love, and they

want to get married. And they do get married only to

figure out, wait a minute, I married someone with problems

and I have problems and he married some of those problems

and, and they both have problems.

It's uphill. There's many cases where people

just don't anticipate that the preparation time is somehow, ah,

whatever, we'll get there. We'll, we'll take care of that

when it comes. No, no, no, no, we have to do it

as it comes. We can't short circuit this.

There are many cases people just don't anticipate any preparation

time. What would happen after, after

this? And I didn't put verse 12 on my

slides here, so just read verse 12 with me.

Immediately after, the Spirit drove him into the wilderness,

and he was there in the wilderness 40 days tempted by

Satan, and he was with the wild beast, and the angels minister

to him. Jesus was driven to the desert,

and Jesus received his training in the desert.

And Matthew goes into great detail of what this looked like

just because Jesus got baptized but wasn't me.

Now he's prepared, He's finished.

That's when classes commenced was driven into the desert and

there's three specific temptations that Matthew loosed

and I want to read those Matthew chapter 4 verse one to four my

Matthew 4 · chapter mention

my spelling is incorrected. Then Jesus was led up by the

spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.

And when he had passed it, 40 days and 40 nights afterward, he

was hungry. Now when the tempter came to

him, he said, If you're the Son of God, command these stones to

become bread. But he answered and said, It is

written, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word

that proceeds from the mouth of God.

Then the devil took him up into the holy city, set him up on the

pinnacle of the temple, and said to him, If you're the Son of

God, throw yourself down, for it's written, He shall give his

angels charge over you, and in the hands they shall bear you

up, lest you dash your foot against the stone.

Then Jesus said, It's written, you shall not tempt the Lord

your God. Again the devil took him up on

an exceedingly high mountain, showed him all the kingdoms of

the world and their glory, and said to him, All these things

I'll give you, if you will fall down and worship me.

Then Jesus said to him, Away with you Satan, for it's

written, you shall worship the Lord your God, and him only

shall you serve. Then the devil left him, and

behold, angels came and ministered to him.

So Mark leaves that out. But see, here's the temptation

of Jesus that he experienced in the desert that Mark describes.

So Jesus had the power. He had the need too.

He needed to food. He was hungry.

After 40 days, Satan says well turn stones to bread.

But Jesus will never compromise his loyalty to God, even even

for a good 'cause if it meant pleasing Satan, we just need to

be real. Would we have faulted Jesus for

turning some stones to bread to satisfy his hunger?

Well, he had the power of his stones, but Jesus countered that

temptation because it meant compromising his relationship

with God. We must learn that relationship

with God consists of things beyond the realities of this

life. Well, there's another

temptation, and that was for Jesus to show off.

Show the world who you are. Show the Jews who you are.

Jump off the temple. You won't get hurt.

After all it's written, you won't dash your foot against the

stone. Again, Jesus rebuked him.

We must learn that we are here for God's purpose, not for

ourselves or to impress people. There was a third temptation.

Third temptation was for Jesus to worship Satan, give him.

So Satan would give him all the kingdoms of the world.

And of course we know Jesus was God in human flesh.

And from a from a theological standpoint or biblical

standpoint, Jesus would not do that.

But as a man, this was a temptation, a very real

temptation to take the shortcut. Again, Satan rebuked, Jesus

rebuked, Satan tempt. And this temptation again

faltered. We must know it's never right to

take a path in life where the focus shifts away from God to

self. You see, when Jesus got

baptized, he'd experienced God's approval.

The Father had blessed him. I said, this is my son, whom I'm

well pleased. He was led into the desert, and

there the temptations began to fight, to battle, to conquer,

and to win. And then when he came out, he

was ready for his journey of servanthood to humanity.

Let's think about this for a moment.

He didn't walk this earthly path for himself.

He experienced what He experienced on our behalf.

He experienced what He experienced so He would know

what it's like to go through it. He went through this training

school for our sake. We know He paid a huge price as

a creator of the world. He stepped down.

He took on flesh. Join us in our in in His

creation and in its fallen nature, all for the sake of

redeeming us and wanting a relationship with us.

And he came freely and he served freely and he did it and loved

because he wants a relationship with us.

So for us, if we want to be in relationship with him, it will

take a journey. That journey will not always be

easy. And it yes, we'll take the

desert and the desert lessons are not easy.

Takes humility, takes patience, steadfastness, perseverance,

endurance. Just As for Jesus, it took a

journey into humility. So to take a journey into

humility for us as well. And it's often painful.

We do ourselves no service, but trying to create for us the

perfect life on earth. It doesn't exist.

Anyone who thinks so is not being honest.

Satan tried to convince Jesus, create yourself a path.

He, you know, turn stones to bread, jump off a temple and

worship me and all those things and you'll have it easy.

Jesus died on the cross. He offered himself.

He came to serve. And if we receive him, we will

not just be set free from sin, which we will, and it's great,

but there's a calling that comes with it.

So how are we doing in God's training school of preparation?

How are we doing? You know in class sometimes you

get cheat cheats and shortcuts and those kinds of things and

that may work in school, but not in our relationship with Jesus.

In the end we have to walk the course.

God sent his Son as a servant. God sends you and I as servants

as well. So this week you may have

opportunity to serve, maybe in your marriage, maybe serve your

spouse, maybe in school, serving a fellow classmate, maybe at

your job, serving that not so pleasant Co worker, maybe to go

about town shopping back again to mark chapter 1045.

For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve

and give his life a ransom for many.

Where do we get off track and think it's about us?

Where do we get off track and say, well, they're not meeting

my needs? Really.

Is that what it's about? Is that where we're at?

They're not meeting my needs. Wow, we do well to remember the

lesson of Jesus. He did not come to be served.

He came to serve and how much more we his creation.

And here's the thing, when we serve in humility and

sacrificially serve in loyalty and devotion, we will experience

the blessing we have coming, not because we served because the

relationship is is intact. And then we will be served.

We will, we will. Out of the service that we

provide, we'll experience the joy and the peace that we

thought would come if we got others to serve us.

God stands this whole picture on its head.

So may we serve with love, humility, loyalty, commitment,

and devotion to Jesus Christ. And when we do so, the joy and

the peace will be ours. Let's pray, but we're thankful

that You walk this earth, that You gave us a path to walk, and

You want this path to be a straight one.

It may not be easy, but it's the right one.

Lord, it seems often times we need to learn some lessons

repeatedly. We may need to read desert

experiences multiple times for us to learn this.

So help us to learn well, to serve well.

I pray you will grant us Your mercy as we seek to be faithful

in hard times. Lord, help us to trust you in

easy times, to help us, Lord, to remain humble.

Help us, Lord, to serve you with loyalty and devotion and

commitment. Learning we pray.

Amen.