Leaving the Good for the Better (Mark 6:30-32)

Turn to Mark chapter six this morning.

Verse 30, mark.

Chapter six.

And the apostles returned to Jesus and told him all that they had

done and taught, and he said to them, come away by yourselves to

a desolate place and rest a while.

For many were coming and

.Going, and they had no leisure even to eat, and they went away in the boat

to a desolate place by themselves.

This is the word of the Lord Amen.

. Guys, in , first John four, eight, John writes about God, God is love.

Not that God has love.

Or that God is loving at times or that God likes or that God, depending on

the circumstances and situations, will act loving or have love, but that God

in his very essence is love in the core of his being, the triune God,

the uncaused cause the eternal one.

Before the beginning of creation, before molecules and atoms, God is loved.

Before you were born, before you accepted him as savior in your heart and went down

to the altar or before, for the 30th time, you rededicated a previous rededication.

God is love.

Before He said, let there be light.

God is love.

Before angels were created to minister before his holy presence.

God is love.

It's of his very essence.

It's of his being.

Now, it's very important that we understand that as part of his essence,

because love needs an object, and if God has existed from eternity past,

there has to be an object to love.

There has to be that giving.

If that is your essence, then love has to be demonstrated.

over and over again.

It's like taking a breath, breathing in, and then breathing out like

we are breathing creatures.

We inhale and we exhale.

We try to stop that.

We die the same way.

God's essence is love, and so he receives love and then he puts love out.

So how does that work for an eternal being?

from time passed before there was even time,

think about that.

Never a beginning.

The father doted on the son said, man, you're amazing.

You're so great.

I love you.

And the son's like, no, dad, you're great.

I love you.

The spirit's like the sun.

He just loved you.

That's amazing.

I love you both.

And that rhythm and that dance.

It's existed from eternity past.

God is love.

That is the environment of the godhood.

Never selfish.

No.

Never envious each one out doing the other and showing honor and glory.

Father, I want to give you glory.

The son's like, I wanna reflect it back.

You get more glory.

The spirit's like you both get glory and they're all like group hugging in this

rhythm and in this dance for eternity.

Why did God make man?

Not because he lacked anything,

but cuz he said, let's widen the circle.

You were built in his image and what does that mean?

You were built?

To receive and to reflect his essence.

What is his essence?

God is love.

God is love.

You were built for it.

So he, in the same way as he dotes on the Father, he dotes on you.

And we were built in the cool of day walking in the guard and we were

to do back on him to be worshipers.

You are amazing.

God.

He's like, I made you in my image and you are very good.

That's what he said at the beginning of Christians.

It's very good.

The son's like, thank you father.

Like he, Ephesians one tells us that he gave us for the son, so that the

son might be glorified so that there might be worshipers of the son and then

the son is like, no, we can't stop.

I want the father to be glorified.

And so as we are even saved before the foundation of the world, it's to

bring us into this circle and into this rhythm of God being love, that

we might not only receive it, but that we might give it back to him.

And we might give it to others.

God is love.

It's a real love fest.

this idea, it's just people just think of loving all the time, do we?

Would any of us hate to be a part of that?

we crave it because that's what we've been built for.

To received and then to reflect that love back in that rhythm of outdoing

one another, to give glory to the father Romans tells us in Romans 1215

to outdo one another and showing honor.

do you understand?

He's literally saying you're part of a dance now, and the way that you stay

in this dance is you do what me and my father have been doing from eternity past.

God is love a love fest.

So Jesus even said, it's not your doctrinal thesis.

It's not your strength of belief.

It's not your, amount of miracles.

It's not, your martyrdom.

It's not, you giving everything you have to the poor that

proves that you're my disciples.

It's the love fest you have between each other that you let my love so invade.

Your lives and your hearts and your souls, and then that spills

over to everybody in here, that the world will say What is going on?

We have to hear the gospel to make sense of your lives, One of the most stunning,

shockingly clear things we learned from the Bible is that Almighty God, the

eternally divine, sovereign, the creator, and the sustainer of all things loves you.

really loves you, like mad about you.

this transcendent God really loves you.

He's crazy about you.

And we must never lose the breathtaking grandeur of this ever.

We must not even miss one note of his love song to us, the sweetest

symphony in the whole universe.

it is the song that plays whether you're out walking, we were just in Tahoe

and there's wind whistling through the trees, and you hear the bark kind

of bending under the weight of it.

That's the song that's playing.

Yeah.

That's the song that Creation wants to sing to us.

It's like you are the beloved.

What, like it's not just clapping for redemption.

It's saying, guys, don't you know who you are?

Don't you know that God has shown his favor upon you?

We remember in Ephesians one, and I hope this settles into your soul, Ephesians

one, four to five, even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ

to be holy and without fault in his eyes, God decided in advance to adopt us into

his own family by bringing us to himself.

Through Jesus Christ, this is what he wanted to do.

And it gave him great pleasure.

God didn't have to save you.

God saw you down through the corridor time and said, I want to save you.

I hope we know that.

But sitting in these seats in the specific time and place, he adores us.

He loves us.

Lavishly, mercifully, radically, fully, completely.

He's not holding anything back from you.

I hope we know that.

You have the full and complete love of God poured out in your

life, his face toward you.

And it is not hidden in the slightest bit.

There is no shadow in him.

There is no smirk on his face.

It is a smile above your life because of Jesus from the very beginning.

You've been built to, be with God, to know God, and for him to know you,

to be loved by God and to love God.

Nothing else in heaven.

Above or in earth below can make as bold of a claim as that.

God created and designed us to flourish and thrive and experience joy and

pleasure and satisfaction when we are with God closely and intimately.

The vine and the branches.

John 15, four to five Abide in me and I in you as the branch cannot bear fruit

by itself unless it abides in the vine.

Neither can you unless you abide in me.

I am the vine.

You are the branches.

Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is.

That bears much fruit.

For apart from me, you can do nothing.

This is a picture of living intimately with God from one moment to the

next, and then the fruit comes.

This is the God of the Bible.

He's a God who wants to be with us closely, constantly, intimately,

and he's pursuing us to that end.

Every moment of the day, he's behold I stand at the door and knock.

Let's come in and let's eat some food.

I wanna feast with you.

I wanna come near to you.

He says, draw near to me and I'll draw near to you.

One of the sad things is that people who are around Jesus,

but never with Jesus, right?

Judas was one of the 12 who was around Jesus, but never with Jesus.

But every soul was built to be with God and is restless until it has him.

People wonder why people take drugs.

People wonder why people steal.

People wonder why.

People sleep around.

People wonder why people are greedy and rich and climb the corporate ladder.

People wonder why pastors abuse their authority.

It's all the bottom line, every single thing.

The root of it is every soul was built to God and it is restless until it has him.

We're all looking for fulfillment and something other than God.

God is the only one that can satisfy and we'll all testify He does.

He is the cup of cold water that when you drink it, you'll never thirst again.

Psalm 63, 1 says, oh God, you are my God.

I earnestly searched for you, my soul, thirst for you.

My whole body longs for you and is parched in where he land.

Where there is no water, Psalm 1 43, 6.

I lift my hands to you in prayer.

I thirst for you as a parched land thirst for rain.

Psalm 42, 1 to two is the Dear Longs for streams of water.

So I long for you.

Oh God.

I thirst for the God, the living God.

When can I go and stand before him?

And I love in the Old Testament, there's that question.

And now what does the New Testament say?

He says, inter wombly, you can come stand anytime.

In fact, he comes and stands inside your hearts.

Every soul longs to be with God.

And when we are with him closely and intimately, we say things like this.

Here's your testimony.

Here's when you know, here's the barometer.

Here's the thermometer that you throw in the pool and see if you can swim yet.

Psalm 63, 3.

Because your steadfast love is better than life, my lips will praise you

and that you can throw that into any circumstance in your life.

Your steadfast love is better than life.

My lips will praise you, and there are times where you don't want to throw it in.

There are times where you're bitter at God and you're angry or you are

confused and you don't understand.

But that is true of any circumstance in life and the circumstance

the Psalm was written out of was a terrible circumstance.

Psalm 1611, you make known to me the path of life and your presence.

There is fullness of joy at your right hand are pleasures forever.

More.

God is constantly pursuing us to this wonderful end.

Even this morning he's calling us.

In fact, the whole narrative of the Bible is about God going after us, isn't it?

You go back to the garden for a moment and what happens in the garden when

Adam and Eve sinned, the fall happens.

They believe the serpents lie.

God calls out to them?

Where are you physically?

God knows exactly where they're cuz he is God.

What God was asking was, where are you in relation to me?

Where are you in relation to me?

Why are you hiding?

Where are you in relation to me?

And I think God wants to ask us that question this morning.

Where are we in relation to God?

What comes between you and intimacy with Jesus?

And I don't really want to talk about the crazy things today.

We all, and I'll just put myself there, have turned it one time or another to

the pleasures of sin for a season to try to satiate the appetites of the

soul that longs for God with worthless things, the base things, sinful habits.

It's like drinking salt water.

, thinking that it's gonna quench our thirst.

We're only more thirsty.

This morning what I wanna focus on is a much more subtle

danger to intimacy with God

, and that's simply being busy, doing good things for God instead of being with God

or even just being busy.

I have found this true in my life, and this is probably

the greatest fight I fight.

One of the reasons I wanted to become a pastor, cuz I'd

have tons of time with God.

You get paid to study.

. It's amazing how much you can avoid God and intimacy with him,

with the Bible open on your lap

because you're looking to say good things about him instead of being with him.

It's just the truth.

it's easier for us to do stuff for Jesus than to be with Jesus.

It's easier to believe good things about God than to be with God.

And those things can be right things.

it's easier to be satisfied with right belief than it is to actually believe.

That leads us into the throne room of grace.

This whole thing's predicated on being in the rhythm and being in the dance.

The whole thing's about the divine dance and being with him, expanding

that circle of the Trinity and inviting us in and being part of

that divine community together.

Jesus says that we should serve one another even as he has served us.

He tells us that he's laid out in Ephesians two 10,

good works for us to walk in.

We are his poetry and he's created this amazing story.

He's already laid him out.

He's oh, you're gonna have such fun.

I've literally made your personality and gifted you, and I've led you through

circumstances that have shaped you and molded you so that you would, when you

walk into this work that I've got for you, you're the only one who can do it.

that's incredible.

What a story You are.

My poem.

You are unique.

I have made you this multifaceted being and it with idiosyncrasies,

likes, personality, all this stuff.

And I've created this thing that you are gonna thrive in.

I think so much time we're trying to wear Saul's armor.

I think we, we don't experience the joy, the work that God gave us because we're

trying to wear somebody else's work.

And it's just because, , we're after bringing glory to

ourselves by having success.

We want their success and then that will make me happy and maybe

that will bring glory to God.

We're just bringing glory to ourselves.

But we must see that Christian loving and living is to flow

from intimacy with Jesus.

The only thing, the vine and the branches fruit comes only through

being rooted and grafted in.

But at times we can find ourselves just doing Christianity, just

doing good things for God.

We're on autopilot.

Like I can't wait to have a Tesla.

the only reason though, is cuz I just want to put my seat back and hold onto my

steering wheel and just let it autopilot.

And I know that sounds dangerous.

I work with somebody who he says I've, he literally works the hours

he works cuz he sleeps on his drive to the next job with his Tesla.

I'm like, that's amazing.

. And where that's cool.

Where that's not cool.

Maybe that's scary.

. But where that's scary.

how often do we do that?

I'm off to the next thing, kicked back my hands on God, but

checked out, I'm not present with the presence and it's a fight.

That's the spiritual battle, I think.

But at times we can find ourselves just doing Christianity, just

doing good things for God.

Intimacy is never to be a means to an end.

Like we don't just, okay, I need to be with Jesus so that I'm

fruitful in doing things for Jesus.

Guys's intimacy is the end.

Fruit is the byproduct.

I don't, how do I say this, where it's not, it's like being

intimate as a married couple.

The byproduct of that is fruit, but it's not necessarily the focus.

Intimacy is the focus and the byproduct of that intimacy is children, right?

In the same way, like fruit is the byproduct of intimacy with Jesus.

That's the idea there.

It's not I'm going to you because I need this to happen.

the whole end.

The whole end.

Because guess what, in heaven missions will end, right?

What's left?

What you have now.

that's why eternal life, Jesus says, starts as soon as Jesus come and

invades your heart, and then shackles you and takes you outta the prison

of selfishness and death and the dominion of, all that you were before.

He says, eternal life begins now.

Heaven is now.

Why?

Because it's him.

He is heaven, he is eternal wife.

He and being with him, yes, we'll see him with an unveiled face.

Right now we see him from one degree of glory to the next.

We get a little glimpse, somebody shares something, a testimony, and we're like,

I see Jesus more and it's revealed.

But one day he's gonna lift that veil and it's gonna be like, holy moly.

so how does Jesus rescue the disciples?

From the busyness of life with all its demands because they face the

same stuff that we face nowadays.

And how might you rescue us this morning?

Now I have five points, but they're quick.

Come away.

Number one, number two, by yourselves.

Number three, yourselves Number four, to a desolate, place number five.

And rest a while.

Come away.

A little bit of background.

Verse 30.

The apostles returned to Jesus and told him all that they had done and taught.

The apostles stop.

Mark only uses that word two times in his gospel, so I think it's significant.

Most of the time.

He uses the word disciple.

It's very important that we see the other place that it's used and that's

in Mark three 14 to 15 and he appointed the 12 who mean also named Apostles.

This is so juicy guys, so that they might be with him and he

might send them out to preach and have authority to cast out demons.

So Jesus spends all night alone on a mountain in prayer

and he chooses his disciples.

What do you think that prayer was like that night?

Because you think the father's okay, here's the 12, and he is like,

you're gonna put a zealot with a tax collector.

No, but he all night in prayer and he gets this list of names.

I.

And he chose them to be with him, and then he sent them out

to preach and have authority over demons from the very beginning.

This is to be the priority.

He chose the disciples or the apostles to be with him and loving relationship before

he ever called them to work for him.

You guys hear that He called them that they might be with

him, and then he sent them out.

He chose the disciples to be with him in loving relationship before

he ever called them to work for him.

Before we attempt to work for the Lord, we must always, constantly be with the Lord.

Your primary calling.

Our primary calling.

My primary calling as a Christian is to be with Jesus.

I honestly think if we focused on that, everything else would take care of itself.

If you've worked around anybody who works at a barbecue place and they come and they

visit you, they smell like the barbecue.

Yes.

And they make you hungry.

You're just like the smoke and you're like, did you use cherry wood?

that is delicious.

and the thing is as you linger in the presence of God, that

environment goes with you.

That's effusive.

People sense it, they smell it.

It's not only what you say, it's what you do.

All of a sudden you'll see people in a whole different light as

you stand under the grace and the waterfall of that grace, and you

realize, I am saved by grace alone.

And you realize that grace is available and everyone in this world, whether

it's someone about to be executed at midnight, That same grace is for them.

Jesus bled for that person.

Like that Grace is for any, and it's not because of anything that I've done.

You start to look at people differently.

you linger.

That's what abide means.

It means to be at home with, to dwell, to linger, to kick back.

To spend some time with, you know, when you go and you drop off like a meal to

somebody because they've just had a baby or whatever, and you know what's going on.

So you kind of draw, oh good.

make small talk and then you're out.

But then when it's like, the game's on and they know you just

got a new projector and stuff.

And so when somebody takes their shoes off at the door, you're

like, oh, they're gonna abide.

They're gonna hang out here for a bit.

And they're gonna linger.

And that's what God's saying.

Don't bring me a meal.

Take your shoes off at the door.

kick back.

let's hang out.

That's abiding.

That's the difference.

Part of the amazing thing is that Jesus is on mission to seek and

save the loss and make the privilege of being part of that mission.

Again, Jesus could do it way better than us.

I think rocks could do it better than us, right?

If these don't speak, then the rocks will cry out and and they probably won't

cry out, crucify 'em, but anyways, but he invites us because we're part of that

dance, because we're part of that circle.

And if we're in that environment of love, love must have an output.

And not only does God love the output to him.

But God actually says as you read through first John, that output to him is also

in the same way output to somebody else.

And he says that it's not just output to him because the, that's not the

purest reflection of being in his image.

He says that being in his image because he's a dotting God who outdoes one

another and showing honor is then as we receive that, we do it to him.

But the thing that really glorifies him is when we do it to somebody

else, there's this environment of love that we've been created for that

we're in that when he says, that's why John can say, if you don't love

your brother, you don't know God.

What's he saying?

He's saying, you're not in the dance because.

You can't, that love can't just stop at you.

If you're in the dance.

That love, that rhythm has to flow.

It has to come to you back to me, to you, back to somebody else.

That's why Jesus can say something like, if my words abide in you and you

abide in me, ask whatever you wish.

I don't know how many times that word wishes in the New Testament.

And I'll do it for you.

Why?

Because as you're in that rhythm, as you're in that dance, as you're in

that love, you're receiving his love.

Guess what?

What you're gonna be asking is that person is loved.

Does God answer loving a person?

A hundred times, yes.

But if we are the end, then that's not the rhythm.

The rhythm has to be, it's, have you ever played hot potato?

That's the rhythm.

If you have hold on the potato, you're out, you're burned, right?

Hot.

Potato's boom, back to you.

Boom, back to you.

Boom back.

That's the rhythm of the divine dance.

It does not end with us, but it flows through us.

That's why he can say so boldly, ask whatever you wish.

My words abiding you.

You abide in me.

Ask whatever you Why?

Because I'm in that dance.

And as I see someone with his eyes, if I see somebody on the corner, God,

would you love that person today?

And maybe it's me who you're calling to love him because I see him.

I think you're gonna start to see profound things.

You're gonna start to see miraculous answers to prayer.

Maybe the prayers were like so frustrated aren't being answered

because maybe we're the end.

they've been given amazing spiritual authority, so God includes them in

mission and they're stoked at God's work.

And in verse three, they come back and they report about their mission.

We see from the other gospels, they're like demons.

Were subject to our name.

We like, we had your power.

Jesus.

We're like, what?

You said we heal people, we did this, we did that.

And they were just blown away.

And he grounds them?

Rejoice.

Not that your counsel is subject to demons, but rejoice that your name's

written in the Lamb's book of life.

remember, it's not about what you do or the power you have, it's who you are.

That's what's amazing.

That's the miracle Jesus is telling him.

Because there's other people who have power in this world.

There's other people who look like counterfeits.

there's counterfeit things, and he's telling them what you do can't be

the measurement of your identity.

So verse 30, they come back and they report that, their mission

to Jesus, and they're asking Jesus We're being mightily used by God.

Ministry is going forward, the kingdom is advancing.

There's a revival.

Jesus, what's next?

Should we start a revival crusade?

Do you wanna send us back out?

Things are popping off and we must not miss what's going on right now In Jesus'

ministry, Jesus was at his most popular.

Crowds were flocking to him and despite his own hometown, rejecting him.

We were told in John in this context, John 1415, when the people saw the sign that

he had done, they said, this is indeed the prophet who is coming to the world.

Perceiving then that they were about to come and taken him

by force to make him king.

Jesus withdrew to the mountain by himself.

Things were never better in ministry wise.

He had crowds of people.

Around him and the ministry was growing, the crowds kept coming.

Word of mouth was off the charts.

People were coming from hundreds of miles away to see Jesus.

Just to hear him teach.

Though there were real difficulties and painful realities, cuz there always are.

John the Baptizer had just been beheaded and the needs were never ending.

Verse 31 says, for many were coming and going, and they

had no leisure even to eat.

That's how busy they were.

Jesus's amazing response to disciples and he said to them, come away by yourselves

to a desolate place and rest a while.

And we know that here, the crowds even interrupt this rest eventually.

But this concept was so important enough for Mark to record in his gospel and

was a regular rhythm of Jesus and was to become a regular rhythm as his disciples

in Mark 1 35 and rising very earlier in the very early in the morning while it

was still dark, he departed to speaking of Jesus and went out into a desolate place.

And there he prayed Luke five 15 to 16, but now even more, the report

about him went abroad and great crowds gathered to hear him, to be healed

of their infirmities, but Jesus would withdraw to a desolate place to pray.

Luke six 12 and these days he went out into the mountain to pray all night.

He continued in prayer to God.

If the son of God needed to pull away and be refreshed in the presence of

his father, how much more do we need to, Jesus's reaction is not the one

we would have expected or even wanted.

Maybe they were wanting to hear.

Well done now.

Good and faithful servant.

Now that you've been faithful over a little, I'll make you

ruler over much right now.

I'm gonna give you more.

You've been so great at ministry.

You've had such success.

Here's more ministry.

Disciples always wanted more.

James and John in Matthew's account, send their mom to ask Jesus for a favor.

when you come into your kingdom, can my boy sit at your right hand and your left

Jesus is like, you have no idea what you're talking about.

Can you drink the cup that I'm gonna drink?

We want more though.

But Jesus had a deal way of dealing with first things first.

What is Jesus doing here?

The moment must have felt so urgent.

People, crowds, people are sleeping in the fields.

They waiting to hear Jesus.

The next morning.

The ministry of Jesus is going forward, gaining traction, and the

disciples have seen some effectiveness.

It was crazy what Jesus said in this, the urgency of the moment.

He stopped.

All the momentum come, he said, come away.

What we find wonderful about Jesus is somewhat off-putting

when we read the gospels.

He is aware of the work of the kingdom, but he pursues it with

amazing patience, never in a hurry.

How often are we in a hurry?

Busy.

But Jesus always showed patience in the face of real urgency, patience of soul

am admits the demands of doing good things for God come away by yourselves

to the lonely place and rest a while.

He's not just after rest for their souls.

He's not just stopping the momentum.

He is not just looking to teach them a lesson, but he's saying,

I love you and I care about you more than what you do for me.

You are not just someone I use.

You are someone I love.

You're not just someone I saved to have a worker.

I saved you to have you.

I like you.

I want you to come away.

Where does just us and rest?

Jesus is always concerned more with us than what we can do for him.

We are the hard ones that have a hard time saying, Jesus, I love you more than blank.

Because we get so much identity out of doing and that leads us into the next,

because often the way we feel loved and appreciated is to be needed and useful.

And it's hard for us to grasp that God loves us just because he loves us.

Is that hard for us?

Two, come away.

Jesus is creating a buffer, doing something that they didn't

know how to do for themselves.

Pascal once wrote that most of the disorders and evils in the

in life are a result of man's inability to sit still and think.

In an incredibly busy time, and Jesus and the disciples are in great

demand, and with a crowd pressing around, they're faced with endless

needs, and they had been learning how to face those needs with Jesus.

But now that.

I have to learn something else.

How to walk away from those needs with him.

That's hard.

That's hard to Sabbath.

In this day and age, we are an Antis Sabbath society.

Antis Sabbath culture, and I don't say Jesus is the fulfillment of the

Sabbath, but actually Jesus built into the rim, human nature, the need to rest.

He even built it into the soil.

Like people who try to get crops every year, the crops start to degrade.

The soil degrades.

They don't have enough nutrients in it, but when you let it rest,

you're gonna keep getting good crops.

It's kind of insane how he built it into the very nature of everything

in the universe, that rhythm of rest.

But we are an anti rests society.

We need more, and we have so much to keep us busy and going, we

forget that's like a part of life.

I think it's the West minster shorter catechism.

the chief end demand is to glorify God and enjoy him forever.

I like John Piper.

He changes one word.

The chief end demand is to glorify God by enjoying him forever.

I like that, that like he bids us to enjoy him and there's that rest of enjoyment

in Colossians, Whether you eat or drink.

Do all the glory.

it literally is saying enjoy everything in light of God and his gifts that

he's given, Worship as you eat.

Worship as you talk.

Thank the Lord for the friends that you have.

Thank the Lord that we have a car to drive somewhere.

That's an amazing thing.

thank the Lord for every blessing that we enjoy him, enjoy nature.

We're just up in Tahoe, just so freaking beautiful.

it all points to him, but it's hard for us.

To walk away from those needs, especially when those needs are urgent and

especially when those needs are about him.

Mary and Martha Martha's serving Jesus.

She's, that's, we're doing something good.

We're serving Jesus.

We're meeting Jesus's need.

And Mary's on her knees.

You lazy person, you four on the Enneagram who's just there, vibing and worshiping,

and not doing anything because you're having your moment, There you are.

And we're doing everything.

We're busy and Martha's fed up and she's like, Jesus, tell

her to get in the kitchen.

She's had enough time.

I've kept track of every minute.

and Jesus says, actually, she's found the better part.

Why are you so anxious?

This isn't gonna be taken away from her.

this is what it's all about, Martha.

This is food that, that meal can wait.

this is the bread of life right here.

this is where you're fed and everything flows outta this meal.

The meal you're gonna make is supposed to flow outta the meal

you have right now with me.

I think I've shared this, but a preacher said worship like

Marion, work like Martha.

And, I kind of think worship like Marion work like Mary Yeah.

Is the point of all three of her stories.

You've got her falling on her face, that Lazarus's tomb and her utter

pain, and then she's the one out of everybody who seems to get.

That he's going to the cross and she anoints him for

burial a couple days before.

he goes to the cross and he even says everywhere the gospel's told.

So I'm doing my part, that her story will be told.

so worship like Mary and work like Mary, keep him ever before you,

she gives away a life savings.

To annoy him for burial.

That's why it says in the gospels they scream the, and Judas is

like, I could have used all that money had he been stealing, out

of the giving purse or whatever.

and they're all like, what are you doing?

A drop is fine.

It's enough.

She says, no, everything I'm putting like a, it's so lavish, it's so over the top.

And Jesus says, stop what you're doing.

This will not be taken from her.

this is normal.

When you see me like so many churches are on about giving and tithing

and it's all this like arm bar.

it's ecclesiastical juujitsu to get people to give because I think we're not really

confident that God is actually a provider.

And so we've gotta, meet our quotas and, we've gotta have

this and we've gotta have that.

But so much of it is that instead of just presenting Jesus is the

most beautiful thing in the world.

How could you not?

You're like the guy in the field who got rid of everything to

have the pearl of great price.

Like I, it makes sense like.

How could I not have this?

How could I not give everything away to the one who was

rich and became poor for me?

How could I not touch lightly on the things of this world?

They're worthless.

They're gonna rust away.

They're gonna corrupt.

They're not my identity.

They don't define me.

He is the one worth anything if he asks me for it.

If he takes everything away though, helay me.

Yet, will I praise him that somebody who sees the majesty.

And the glory of King Jesus.

Oh, if we preached King Jesus, more and less about meeting our

budget, but we won't cuz it's just the pattern of humanity.

we grew up and we're, learned about the tithe and, we're pretty

faithful to do that all our lives, I think, or all our marriage.

but there's, you reach a point where you're just like, man, I wish I

could just give a little more and then nobody's Telling you like you

should increase from 10% to 11%.

how long have you been a Christian?

We've got this chart and formula, but just that like he peels your hands off of the

things of this world finger by finger.

When you stare at him.

You just, we don't need everything and we have everything.

This world's telling you you don't, you need a house, you

need two cars or you need

Cuz we're so wealthy.

sometimes I'm like, oh, we're outgrow the house we live in.

We're six kids and we have a mansion.

It's amazing.

And we love each other.

There's peace in the home.

There's so it's a sanctuary.

It's, there's an ac like the, we have running water and flushing toilets.

We have three toilets in the house.

What a gift.

I just think it's easy.

Preston in the mold of this world.

and all of a sudden we're not working for his kingdom, we're working for ours.

Cuz we're trying to look like the neighbor or the coworker next to us

. We'll be busy our whole life.

Yeah.

Chasing mist and shadow.

Yeah.

your day will be full today chasing mist and shadow.

It's just there.

It's everywhere.

And he just bids you to come and have a meal with him.

And as you feast and you're full.

See what happens.

our culture is one of busyness.

What do we say when we greet someone?

How are you busy?

It's our default.

It's normal for our culture.

We feel bad if we don't say busy, cuz we're like, oh man, I had a good week.

We'll even lie about it a little bit, Or we'll try to prove,

no, this is how busy I was.

I do that all the time.

I catch myself sometimes Matt asks me and I'm like, I'm

thinking while I'm telling him.

I'm like, am I that busy?

There's, that is a difficulty.

We find ourselves busy and doing good things for God so that we're not with God.

We are just not beset by busyness.

We are addicted to busyness.

We'll even lie to be perceived as busy.

The needs are ever ending, and that will never change.

Being busy makes us feel important.

Who doesn't want to be needed?

We want to be needed.

We like to feel as if we're in demand, No, that's true.

Oh my gosh.

I love feeling I'm in demand.

Everybody's pulling my attention and I'm like, that's so hard.

So many people wanna meet with me.

so many texts.

They can't even answer them in demand.

so Jesus is going to do the disciples for the disciples and teach them that

they're absolutely not indispensable.

One of the great lessons.

Sorry guys.

You're not indispensable to the ministry here.

No.

You're not indispensable to my mission.

I could.

I don't need you guys.

You get to join me.

I love using you.

I love sending you out, but I saved you to be with me.

I prayed all night on the mountain and there were 12 names my father gave me.

Yeah.

Which is just like the beginning of the creation of the world

before the foundation of the world.

God gave him your name, the father said, here's one for you.

So who puts a stop to all the fruitful ministry?

It's not any one of them.

They're not indispensable, but Jesus puts a stop to it.

But Jesus, the the ministry's off the hook right now.

People are getting saved and healed and he says, come away.

Jesus is doing for them what they would never do for themselves.

And sometimes he has to do that to us in hard ways.

He's teaching them in a healthy way to minister to the needs and not

be crushed by the endless demands.

He wants to keep them from the addiction to busyness and feeling

indispensable and from feeling important.

So he says to them, step away from all the good that you're doing.

For me and be with me.

Come away.

These last couple points are shorter by yourselves.

He's really saying, let's not just give you some space, but

let's deal with your identity.

You are in demand and doing big things and part of something big,

and people want you and people need you, but I want you to think about

who you are when you're by yourself.

When I take you away from people.

Who need you and everything that keeps you busy, who are you really?

And how does that make you feel?

No needs, no people, no big deals.

Who are you now and how does that make you feel?

Are you okay when nobody needs you?

Are you okay when you're not in the midst of important things and places and people?

When you're simply by yourself, wow, that's so hard for me.

Who are you when you, when you can't do anything and what is your value?

What are you worth?

Because we are a culture that sets the value of worth according to

what we have done and what we can do and what we will do, especially

if you're three on the Enneagram.

Jesus is giving them a tremendous gift by calling them to be by themselves.

At this moment, he's trying to give them the freedom from needing to

be seen and needing to produce.

The only thing that frees us from the need to be seen and the need to produce

is to know that we are the beloved of God and that our identity is already settled.

First John three.

One, behold, what manner of love is this?

And again, John is like, Thinking about this writing.

Behold, what manner of love the fathers bestowed on us that we

should be called the children of God.

He's literally, writing in bold.

probably behold, fills the one page of the scroll.

He's just like, what in the world is going on?

Where are the children of God?

What is happening?

You're the beloved of God.

Before anyone else ever saw us or we ever did anything that

we are the beloved of God.

He wants us to know that you think of Jesus and John the baptizer.

Jesus goes to get baptized.

Jesus has done no public ministry and what a voice comes from the heavens,

A spirit descending like a devil is.

He comes out of the water.

This is my beloved son and whom I'm well pleased.

His identity is a settled issue at that moment.

He hasn't done anything yet.

He hasn't done the ministry yet.

He hasn't even successfully gone through temptation, which he's

about to do, but his identity is settled before he ever does a thing.

This is my beloved son and whom I'm well pleased, his identity is settled.

If our identity is unsettled, then we draw our identity and self-worth from

what we do and how much we are needed, and then we become a slave to people's needs

rather than a beloved son or daughter.

It's much like a birthday.

You think about your birthday, I don't know how many of you like birthdays?

I don't know, getting older.

Do you like birthdays?

See, I didn't consider myself old right there.

I'm old.

I still like birthdays.

the day on which your sheer existence is celebrated is your birthday,

but think about it, you don't get any credit for your role in it.

You didn't will it into existence.

You didn't work hard.

No credit for that event at all.

You were never less competent on that day.

Your birth you were dumber, slower.

And Slimier than any other day.

In fact, you know what's amazing?

If you live to a hundred, you get a card from the president of the

United States congratulating you.

What do you do to get that?

What do you do to get that?

Oh, that's great.

No, just don't die.

That's it.

That's it.

It is grace celebration for who you are and not what you've accomplished, and

that's why the Christ, Christian life is likened to the new birth being born again.

You didn't will it into existence.

It was out of the loving community of the father that brought you life.

New life, not a anything you did or willed.

And so that is your identity, beloved son and daughter, before you did anything,

you were cherished, you were adored.

we've got Nathaniel taking the trash out now and he does some vacuuming

and I just taught him how to weed eat.

but he doesn't do a very good job yet.

Just kidding.

We just love him because we love him.

He's our beloved.

Does he contribute Yes.

To the trash in his diaper pail?

Yeah.

But he's our beloved.

so come away.

By yourselves.

Because it's plural and we miss this.

Every time I've heard this or read the scripture, I think of my individual faith,

but he calls them together to be with him.

We need community so bad when I drive, to Sacramento or come home from

Sacramento or somewhere up there where I'm working Woodland or whatever.

Sometimes I drive by myself and I'm stuck in traffic.

It's rush hour.

I've worked long, just to get the job done.

It's four 30 or five and I'm just sitting there and it's still frustrating

and I'm slowly moving and it's inching forward and inching forward.

But there's this one lane that's flying and it's just, boom.

It's the carpooling.

What is the one difference?

That they have to what I have, there was somebody else.

I think that's so emblematic of our Christian journey.

We are, every time I do this solo, I am in traffic and it's

inching and inching energy.

There's growth.

God won't deny us that.

Yes, but man, you jump in a car with somebody else,

you're flying down the lane.

You are flying down the lane.

The Trinity beloved, first John four, seven, and eight.

Let us love one another for love is of God and whoever loves has

been born of God and knows God.

Anyone who does not love does not know God because God is love.

Again.

We already talked about this, the rhythm of the dance, right?

So that this community that God has been us for we're to be as we receive the love,

reflecting that love back to him and that love flowing through us to somebody else.

That is just the dance that we're involved in.

That is the rhythm that is to be.

the whole point of this John 1334 to 35, a new commandment I give

to you that you love one another.

Just as I have loved you.

Not just love, but as I've loved you.

Okay?

Thanks.

Lord.

You are also to love one another.

By this, all people will know that you're disciples.

If you have love for one another.

It's not a new command, it's an old command.

We were told to love one another.

And Leviticus 1918.

So what does he mean?

It's a new command.

He means it's new in quality because he just defined it in a new way.

New in quality.

It's not just love and how you wanna read your love into it

or how you feel at the moment.

The thing about Agape is that it's a decision to do good for the

other person despite what you feel.

It's not about feelings.

Agape isn't.

It's a decision to act for one's good, even if they're not good.

That's the kinda level of love he's talking about because that's what he,

while we were enemies, Christ died for us.

Love is, I have loved you.

Other religions teach us to love, but it's new in quality.

He fill the definition full into the brim.

This love is so far above.

Anything else.

And we know that, and we'll get that to the gospel, as we get to the gospel.

we're just as love and honored as if we had done all the wonderful

deeds that Jesus has done, all the love and compassion, the

truth and the faithfulness.

First Corinthians 13.

If I speak with tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I

am a noisy gong or a clanging sel.

And in Corinth, that was actually the pagan call to worship.

So he's saying if you can literally speak with the tongues of angels,

but you're lacking this agape love, to me it's pagan worship.

Okay?

And if I have prophetic powers and understand all mysteries

and all knowledge, how many of us are working to that end?

Or theologians or people searching.

If I have all faith so as to remove mountains, that's a

good one, but have not love.

I am nothing if I give away all I have and deliver up my body.

To be burned but have not love.

I gain nothing.

It's not the act, but the attitude that Jesus is after because that

validates the act or gives value to it.

Love is patient.

Love is kind.

Love does not envy or boast.

It's not.

Arrogant or rude.

It does not insist on its own way.

It's not irritable or resentful.

It does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth.

Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all

things, endures all things.

Love never ends.

As for prophecies though will pass away.

As for tongues, they will cease, says for knowledge, it will pass away.

And you have to read that as that's aeb that Jesus has for you.

Yes.

First and foremost, if you realize he's barred all things

in your life, he's patient.

Me and my wife were just talking and we're like, man, so many of the youth

are saying, how could God do this?

And how could, allow suffering if he could end it?

how could God allow evil and injustice if he's really good?

me and my wife say now that we're older, in the faith we're like, how is God so

patient with man and man's free will and how they use that free will too, abuse

one another and climb over each other and murder and kill and just whole countries

that kill a certain group of people.

it's insane.

His patience and his forbearance And his grace.

Josh Preaching: Trinitarian love, love one another with brotherly affection,

outdo one another and showing love.

And so the one another, as you can start to see as that Trinitarian dance.

Ways to dance with someone else as you dance with the Trinity John 1335.

By this, all people will know that you're my disciples.

If you have love for one another.

Called away with Jesus in community, the carpool lane.

This is not a solo thing we're doing.

We're called away with Jesus.

We're bad at it.

I'm bad at it.

I want to get better.

Please.

Jesus, help me.

I wanna ride with people in the carpool lane.

I want to tell people during the week what Jesus is doing in my life, or what

I don't think he is and how I need help.

How I need prayer.

I need to hear those stories of what God's doing in your life.

Like it, I wanna be in the carpool lane.

I've lived too long in traffic.

It's time to have somebody hop in the ride.

To a lonely place, come away by yourselves, to a lonely place.

The discipline of solitude is key discipline for

anyone who'd seek after God.

And all this means, and I think I'll just go through this quick, is disconnect.

Put your phone down for a while.

So I'm famous for listening to an audio book.

Okay.

While I'm studying the Bible and playing Call of Duty in between rounds with

the news on, just ask my, she's like, how do you even get anything done?

I'm like, I'm a multitasker.

She's you're not a multitasker calling me out.

yesterday we're coming back from Tahoe and Mario's I don't have anything to do.

And I'm like, But I'm listening to podcasts and stuff and I

was like, fine, take my phone.

And I was like, itchy.

And I was like, oh, what the do?

I gotta look out the window, I'm like, what?

And then I was like, I sat with my thoughts for two hours

and I was like, disconnect.

It doesn't mean that we have to drive to the beach and spend a day.

In fact, I've done that multiple times.

I used to get paid to like have a day where I just go

away Not super fruitful for me.

Everybody's different if Andrea did that, she'd be like, angels would

be like flying her through the valley, And she'd just be like, woo.

but what it means is, it means giving place, not through the noise.

There are times when the army's around us and God says, stand still

and see the salvation of the Lord.

That's, that is life.

But there are times where we get to go and hide in a cave and we

realize God's not in the whirlwind.

He's not in the fire, but he's in the still small voice.

And those two things are equally important and it needs to be like something we

fight for in our life because, There's never been a generation or time and a

place that is as distracted as we are.

You know, it used to be that you had to plan a trip to go see the chariot races.

You had to plan it like six months out.

It would take you two months to get there and it take you two months to get back.

Now we can just turn it on instantly.

Instant gratification.

It just so it's just.

Disconnect to a lonely place.

Jesus would go away to a lonely place, to a desolate place.

No distraction, nothing vying for our attention.

Just disconnect is what he's saying.

God is calling us to be radically present to him and to one another, to disconnect.

It can be hard to come away to a lonely place because it's in the lonely places

where we're faced with who we really are.

I think sometimes we like being so distracted because when we

aren't distracted, at least for me, I've gotta sit with myself.

I've gotta wrestle.

Remember Jacob sent everybody away on a head to wait for his brother Esau,

and that's when the angel of the Lord came and wrestled with him all night.

Yeah, that's what it feels like.

It feels like when you get into that lonely place, the Joel Lord's

gonna come do some wrestling.

He's gonna do some, juujitsu to you.

he might pull things out of, socket, but then you're able to lean on him.

The rest of your days.

Jesus is in the lonely places.

He's in the solitude.

When we come face to face with our mess, he's there in our deepest places of pain.

Those times where it feels like our pain is all we have, he is there.

He shows us a little bit of the depth of who we are and that desperately,

need for our souls to be restored.

He leads me besides still waters.

He restores my soul.

And rest a while.

Rest is not a bad thing.

Rest is a God thing.

when we respond to Christ's call and our minds and our bodies call

be still and know that I'm God.

That He is God, and that we are not rest teaches us that we have limits.

To live in a way that we don't have limits is delusional and it's destructive.

We have a hard time saying we need rest.

I do.

this is, I'm preaching to my heart this whole thing.

What we see is they need me I've been often quoted in the past, is

saying, I'll sleep when I'm dead.

probably not the healthiest view on life.

Lots of demands and people need you come away to a lonely place.

There's, here's the thing, there is enough time in the day to

do what God requires of you.

Yes.

Do you believe that?

Yes.

Do you think God's like, You don't have enough time.

What are you gonna do?

What are you gonna choose?

You know, he gives you enough time in the day.

The goal of our coming away and resting is, you're the goal.

Enjoying you.

Knowing you for who you are as the goal.

So we are created to be with God.

because of sin.

We couldn't be with him any longer.

But our heart's hungered and panted for him, but there isn't anything we could do.

There's no way we could get to him no matter how thirsty we are.

And they will call his name Emmanuel, which means God with us.

God came and pursued us to make a way where there was no way,

and that way was the cross.

The father called the son to go to a lonely place, the loneliest place in

the history of the world not to rest and refresh, but to experience cosmic

unrest, he became the sin substitute.

It took away all our sin and unrest upon himself so that we could experience the

rest of being with him, so that we could be brought back into the divine dance.

What are the barriers of you getting alone to a lonely place with Jesus?

I'm not talking about expanding your quiet time.

I'm not just talking about the first 45 minutes of your day, but the next

23 hours and 15 minutes of the day.

Cuz it's not this weird like, okay, check in.

God's not a piece of the pie.

He's the whole pie.

He's not, okay.

I got this for God and I've got this for my family and I've got.

Man, you don't have enough pie to do it.

But if he's the whole pie, if he's with you all through the day, if your

thoughts are with him, if you're in that fellowship with him, how many moments of

my life today can I fill with conscience awareness and surrender to God's presence?

We must surrender our day so we are experiencing deep contentment and joy and

confidence in our everyday life with God.

Where are you as the opening question said.

In relation to me.

Adam, where are you?

Eve, where are you?

Have we left our first love by becoming so busy with doing good things for him.

He's calling you today.

Come away with me by yourselves to a lonely place and rest a while.

Let me pray for us.

Father, we thank you so much.

We thank you for your son.

We thank you for Sidney and him in our place.

We thank you that Lord, you want us.

Thank you that you've laid out good works for us to walk in.

We can't wait to walk in him and your power and with the right attitudes because

Lord, as we in you, we'll bear fruit, love, peace, patience, faithfulness,

joy, self-control, all these things.

Lord,

rescue us from the.

Sway and the course of this world,

may we be marked with just a boldness that we, your beloved, that we're

loved, no matter our circumstance and situation, Lord as you pour

that out into our lives, may that.

May we share that dance with others?

Thank you for helping me this week just by this text, Lord, and my wrestle and my

struggle with loving difficult individuals cuz I was a difficult individual.

I still am.

Thank you for rescuing me every day by your grace.

Thank you that you're so patient and long suffering.

Thank you that there's nothing I do that you recoil back at because

you've already paid for it all.

You are good.

You are the treasure, you are the prize.

You are our feast.

You are our food.

You are our sustenance.

You are our living water.

You are our joy.

You are our delight.

You are the pleasures at our right hand forevermore.

Thank you.

In Jesus name, amen.