Well Pleased (Mark 1:1-11)

So before we actually jump into our text for this morning, I wanted to talk a little bit about what we're doing here this morning.

About why we're opening God's word and why we're studying it and why we're learning it and applying it.

Really basically what it is is this is a formal time of discipleship.

And discipleship's basically where we spend time together with a goal of becoming more like Jesus.

And I say this is formal because this is one person that's teaching many.

And here at Abide, there's three different types of discipleship that we really want to focus on.

The first is the formal, and it's this what we're doing right now, what we're about to do as we dive into scripture.

The second type is through our home groups, and that's a less formal setting where more participation, question, and answer, and things like that are encouraged.

And then the third type of discipleship that we really want to encourage and see is very important is more of the one-on-one times.

The times where you go and you ask somebody, hey, let's grab coffee this week, let's grab breakfast, let's grab a meal, or why don't you come over to our house and we're gonna have a meal together, you know, something like that.

And that's kind of the least formal type of discipleship.

So what we're doing here, home groups, and then the one-on-one stuff.

So we see those three things as key to helping each one of us to become more like Christ.

And that's the goal in discipleship is becoming more like Christ.

So this morning and every Sunday morning, here's what we're hoping for.

That you would first gain heart knowledge from what we're going through here today, of what God is doing and how much He loves us and how He wants to apply His Word specifically to each one of our lives.

So, really the self-application.

That's the first goal of what we're hoping to get out of here this morning.

And the second is that you would gain knowledge to then teach and help disciple somebody else with what you're learning here this morning.

So, my hope is as I'm teaching, as if somebody else is up here teaching, that we would look out and we would just see a bunch of people with their Bibles open that are underlining and circling and highlighting and writing notes in the margins of your Bible or in the margins of your app.

There's a lot of apps out there that are great.

The CSB is what we're gonna be in here this morning.

Uh, that's the Bible that we'll be using.

They have a great app where you can actually take notes uh in line of the text that you can retrieve later.

And just make sure it's an app that's gonna follow you to your next phone so that you don't lose these uh these notes as you go along.

So bring a Bible uh to write in.

And the idea is that the next time you come to the scripture, that you kind of remember everything that you learned here this morning.

The next time you're in a home group, the next time you're meeting somebody for coffee and going through something, that you're gonna look and be like, oh yeah, that's kind of the background.

Oh yeah, this is what this word means in Greek, you know, and stuff like that.

Things that are gonna help you to remember it and then also to teach it and in helping you disciple somebody else.

So we're gonna jump right in to Mark chapter 1, verse 1.

Mark 1:1

If you have a handout Bible, I don't know if anyone out that uh that's page 901 in that Bible.

So the first thing that I want to cover is that there's four gospels that we find uh in our Bible.

There's Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.

And each one is telling the good news.

That's what gospel means.

The good news of Jesus Christ.

And you might be asking, why are there four gospels of the same story of Jesus in his life and his ministry?

Well, Jewish storytelling and a lot of cultures that have oral history as a strong part of it, they're very different than the history books that we have and we see in our schools these days.

We tend to take one pass through one story, filling in all the monotonous details that we can with dates and events and facts, and it's just all laid out.

It's like, okay, memorize that.

But in this culture, in the Jewish culture, they would tell stories multiple times about the same events, and each pass through the story, they would fill in different details that they had left out the time before.

And that's why we see the same story told in multiple books of the Old Testament.

But we gain different details every time we see that story within the Old Testament.

And the Gospels are no different, it's four accounts telling of the same ministry and the same story of Jesus Christ, each filling in different parts of Jesus' story from four different perspectives.

So as we read through Mark, we'll borrow from other gospels to kind of help fill in some of the details of what we're going to be learning.

So let's start off by looking at the author.

We'll do a little intro to the book of Mark so you know who wrote it and kind of the historical context behind it.

So who was Mark?

Or more commonly, he was referred to in the New Testament as John Mark.

He was most likely a disciple of the apostle Peter.

And early church history tells us that he was Peter's scribe in Rome.

So he did a lot of the writing for Peter.

And Peter actually calls the same Mark in 1 Peter his son.

So we know that there was a very close relationship there.

And we see in the book of Acts that Peter hung out at Mark's family's house in Jerusalem.

Do you guys remember the story where the angel comes and helps Peter to escape from jail?

And he gets out, and the first place that he goes is to the house of Mary, because he knew that there was going to be a meeting that was going on there.

He knocks on the gate, and then the servant, Rhoda, comes to the gate, and it says that she recognized his voice.

And she got so excited she forgot to let him in, turns back around into the meeting that was going on in the house, like, Peter's here, Peter's here.

And they're like, Oh, you're crazy.

Like, no, he's not, no, he's not.

And it turns out he was.

But think about it.

If the servant knew the voice of Peter, how much more should John Mark?

Because this is the house of Mary, and that Mary was John Mark's mother.

So we know that Peter was hanging out at their house.

If the servant knew the voice of Peter, think of how much more John Mark must have known the voice of Peter.

And then we also know that he was Barnabas' relative, and that he was an assistant or a helper to Paul and Barnabas on their missionary journey.

You may remember that Paul and Barnabas had that sharp disagreement.

You guys remember that?

That was over John Mark, the same author of this book that we're going through.

And it says that Paul and Barnabas parted ways.

It was such a sharp disagreement.

They're like, you know, we can't settle this.

We're just gonna have to go our different ways for a little while.

And then later we see that they patch things up.

2 Timothy 4.11 tells us that Paul actually asked for Mark to be sent to him because he could be a help in the ministry.

That's the same John Mark.

So the next question is why did he write this book in the first place?

Well, there's some evidence that Mark was the first gospel of the four written.

And some argue that Matthew and Luke actually used John Mark's gospel kind of as a template, and then they went in and they filled in their own details.

So this is a guy that's hanging out with Peter, the Apostle Peter, arguably the person that was closest to Jesus on earth.

So think about the stories and think about the insight that he's gaining from uh just hanging out with Peter and just being with him.

So he compiles these stories that he's hearing from Peter and he puts them in a form that we could hold today, that people could read and hear the stories of Jesus through this gospel that he wrote that he wrote about 2,000 years ago.

And the early church fathers agree that almost unanimously that the book of Mark was written in Rome specifically to the Romans, which is why we don't see Jesus' genealogy, and why we don't see some of the other Jewish traditions that are mentioned here like we do in the book of Matthew.

This is written for someone that doesn't know a ton about the Jewish culture or about Old Testament tradition.

So he wrote it specifically for that audience that wouldn't have that same familiarity as somebody that grew up in the Jewish culture.

And then the best estimate are that he wrote this roughly 20 to 30 years after Jesus' death, burial, and resurrection.

And it's estimated at that time.

I know a lot of random facts, but hopefully this will help us as we pick this apart and go through this for the weeks to come.

But in the Roman Empire at the time, they're they're guessing that 90 to 95% of the people were illiterate.

So this was actually written by Mark to be read aloud or to be acted out in a single evening.

They say it takes about two and a half hours to do that.

And that's interesting because as we go through this gospel, it's the fastest-paced gospel of the four, and it's also the shortest of the four.

And we're gonna see words like immediately or at once used over 41 times just in the next 16 chapters, where it says the Spirit immediately drove him into the wilderness, and immediately he left the synagogue.

So we're gonna see the kind of this fast pace and a lot of movement going on.

And another theme that we'll see in Mark is Jesus telling people, shh, when they figure out that he's the Messiah.

You know, he'll perform some miracle and somebody say, Oh, you're truly the Son of God, or you're the Messiah, and he'll say, Don't tell them.

You know, don't tell other people, just go about your way and don't tell others, because it's kind of thickening the plot of what's going on here in the book of Mark, because you realize, oh, Jesus is in danger.

Because there's people that are plotting to kill him and to come against him, and he needs to keep moving on, and he needs to make sure that other people don't find out too quickly and start to plot to kill him too quickly before his ministry is done on earth.

So Jesus is at risk and he's moving at a fast pace, and that's what we're gonna see through these 16 chapters.

So that's the background of Mark, a little intro to it, and now we're just gonna jump in.

So I'm gonna ask you, if you're able, to stand as we read Mark chapter 1, verses 1 through 11.

Mark 1:1–11

It says, The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, and it is as it is written in Isaiah the prophet, see, I am sending my messenger ahead of you.

He will prepare your way, a voice of one crying out in the wilderness, prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.

John came baptizing in the wilderness and proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.

The whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem were going out to him, and they were baptized by him in the Jordan River, confessing their sins.

John wore a camel hair hair garment with a leather belt around his waist, and ate locusts and wild honey.

He proclaimed, One who is more powerful than I am is coming after me.

I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the strap of his sandals.

I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.

In those days Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee, and was baptized in the Jordan by John.

As soon as he come came up out of the water, he saw the heavens being torn open, and the spirit descending on him like a dove.

And a voice came from heaven, You are my beloved son, with you I am well pleased.

Would you join me in prayer?

Lord, I thank you so much for this glorious day that we get to come and gather together.

Thank you for the beautiful weather that you've given us, Lord.

And I just thank you for each person that you've brought here.

Lord, you have a purpose here this morning for each one of us.

And I pray that we'd have hearts that are open and ears that are open and eyes that are open to the things that you want to do inside of each one of us here this morning.

Lord, as we as we go through this passage, Lord, I pray that you would show each one of us what it is that you want to show us here this morning, and that we would have hearts that are soft as clay, so that you can mold us and shape us to be more and more like you.

We pray these things in Jesus' name.

Amen.

You may be seated.

So before we we jump into verse one here, I want to ask you all a question.

And I'm gonna ask you this, and I don't want you to overthink it.

I just want you to give me your gut reaction.

Well, actually, don't give it to me.

Just make a note of it and keep it in your mind.

Because we're gonna answer this.

Uh I do like participation, by the way, so that's okay.

But we're gonna hopefully be able to answer this question here uh at the end.

But here's the question.

So, gut response, don't overthink it.

Is God pleased with you?

What's the first thing that stirred up inside of you?

Now I want you to take that and just kind of tuck it away, and we're gonna deal with that, the answer to that here at the end.

So, verse one the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

Now, as I mentioned earlier, gospel means good news, or all the good news of all that Christ has done for us, and specifically all that he has done for us individually.

Amen.

I don't know about you, but it seems like good news is really hard to come by today.

But we have a ton of it sitting in the Bible that we're holding in our hands here this morning.

If you look down at verses 14 and 15 of John chapter, I mean John, of Mark chapter 1, I'm gonna just gonna read that out loud.

Mark 1 · chapter mention

It says, Jesus went to Galilee proclaiming the good news of God.

The time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God has come near.

Repent and believe the good news.

So the word for good news here is the same Greek word that's used for gospel in verse 1.

So, circle it, underline it, make a note of it if you're gonna be doing that in your Bibles.

That's the same exact word.

So, gospel and good news.

We see it right in that first chapter, same exact word in the Greek.

And I point that out because you may hear somebody say, We need to spread the gospel.

And all that that means is that we need to tell others about the good news of Jesus Christ, which is exactly why this church is meeting here this morning, which is exactly why this church has come together to become a new church in this community, to spread the good news of Jesus Christ.

So Mark starts off his gospel and he doesn't waste any time sharing the good news.

He says it right there Jesus is the Son of God.

He doesn't work up all of this proof first and then hit you with this big statement at the end of chapter 16.

No, he starts off with that good news, and he's gonna spend the next 16 chapters telling us and proving through what Jesus has done that this is truly the good news, that Jesus is the Son of God.

Now, before we jump into verse 2, I want to preface it a little bit.

Mark's going to jump in and start talking about John the Baptist.

So we have this new character that just all of a sudden comes on the scene.

And to do that, we he first talks about two prophecies or foretellings of John the Baptist.

One from Malachi, which was written over 300 years before John the Baptist was born, and then one from the book of Isaiah, which was written 700 years before John was born.

So these are the prophecies of John, 300 and 700 years before he even came on the scene.

Verse 2, look at it with me.

As it is written in Isaiah the prophet, see, I am sending my messenger ahead of you.

He will prepare your way, a voice of one crying out in the wilderness, prepare the way for the Lord, make his paths straight.

Now you'll notice that only Isaiah is referenced here in verse 2.

And the thought is that the prophecy of John the Baptist was first developed by Isaiah, and then it was continued on through Malachi.

So only Isaiah is mentioned because he was the first one to develop that, and that's kind of the thought behind why that's the only one mentioned.

But the two quotes are from Malachi and from Isaiah.

But regardless, it's two different texts written several hundred years before the much awaited and much anticipated John the Baptist.

And he's here, he's finally on the scene.

They've been waiting for him, they've been anticipating this.

And you know why they were waiting and anticipating?

Because they knew when John the Baptist came that the Messiah, the long-awaited Messiah, was just around the corner.

That when they saw John the Baptist, here comes the Messiah.

So they were thrilled that John the Baptist is finally on the scene.

They had over 200 prophecies the Israelites did in the Old Testament.

Some estimate as high as 400 prophecies that were telling of the long-awaited Messiah.

And they had been a while since they'd had a prophet on the scene, about 300 years.

So they were just sitting there waiting, okay, God, when is this gonna happen?

And when is this gonna take place?

And then bam, all of a sudden, all these things start to kick into gear and start to come together.

Israel wanted their Messiah in such a bad way.

In such a bad way.

Because many thought that he was gonna be a political savior.

They thought the Messiah was gonna overthrow the Roman government that had currently been oppressing them and occupying their land.

Their prayers were probably something like, We want our country back.

Come, Messiah, come.

But the thing is, they weren't realizing that Jesus had something much bigger to conquer than the Roman government.

He had sin and death to come to conquer, and he did.

Now we're kind of getting ahead of ourselves here, so spoiler alert, Jesus came to be our spiritual savior and never once showed concern for politics in any of the Gospels.

He was only concerned, as you'll see, with the kingdom of God.

He came as a suffering servant.

If you want to see him as a warrior, wait till we get to Revelation.

But in the Gospels, we see Jesus as the Lamb, and in Revelation, we get to see Jesus as the Lion.

But back to John paving the way for the Messiah here in verse 4.

Look at it with me.

He says, John came baptizing in the wilderness and proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.

So here we get a glimpse of John's ministry and what he's doing now that he's on the scene.

He's baptizing.

And the Jewish community would be familiar with baptism.

We see ritual and ceremonial washings throughout all of the Old Testament.

And it wasn't about hygiene.

It was about a symbol of spiritual cleansing before we go into worship.

And later it was adapted by the Jewish leaders.

It wasn't in the Bible, but it was adapted by the Jewish leaders to require new converts to Judaism to be baptized into their faith.

So if somebody came to them and said, Hey, I want to become a part of your Jewish faith, they would say, Okay, first you've got to be circumcised, and then second you have to be baptized.

So the Jewish community would be familiar with baptism to some extent.

But all that to say, this is not a new concept for the Jewish community.

And then here comes John with the baptism of repentance.

And when we think of the word repentance, it's usually in regards to turning away from sin, right?

I was headed in this direction, in the wrong direction, but then I repented and I turned the other way and I started heading down the right path.

That's what we're usually talking about when we're talking about repentance.

And that's what we're gonna see here in verse 5.

People coming from all around to turn from their sin, from turn from going this way, realizing their need for that spiritual savior, turning this way and saying, Okay, from now on, I'm gonna head in this direction.

So let's look at verse five.

So as the whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem were going out to him, and they were baptized by him in the Jordan River, confessing their sins.

So a revival is taking place here.

People are coming from all over, either on foot or on animal, to repent and to be baptized in the middle of nowhere.

This is roughly 20 to 30 miles northeast of Jerusalem.

And so I looked on Google Maps just to kind of see what would that the equivalent would be for us?

That'd be for us to like walk to Pozo.

That's a long ways, right?

You will you have to really want to get to Pozo if you're gonna walk there, right?

That's what these people are doing.

God is stirring, and there's a revival taking place, and these people are like, we don't care.

We're gonna go out to the middle of nowhere and we're gonna hear what this John has to say, and we're gonna allow him to speak into our lives, and we're gonna repent and we're gonna turn our lives around.

Let's start walking, or let's let's get our camel, let's get our donkey, let's get out to Pozo, and let's go see what this guy has to say.

And even though these people don't know their Messiah yet, they're realizing how sinful they are, and they're recognizing their need for a savior, for a spiritual savior.

What John is doing is he's helping these people that were looking for a political savior realize that what they really needed was a spiritual savior.

What John is doing is helping these people that were looking for.

For um for other things, and they were looking, they were into idolatry, and Israel was just in a really bad place at this time, and he's helping them realize you're not going to find satisfaction, you're not gonna find your hope in any of these things.

You need your Messiah and you need to repent now.

And he's doing this to prepare the way.

He's helping these people realize this before the Messiah's on scene.

And that's how he's helping prepare the way for Jesus to come.

Verse 6.

It says, John wore a camel hair garment with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey.

Man, I hope you can picture this.

This is a wild man that we're talking about right here.

Living in the wilderness, wearing camel hair and leather, eating wild locusts and honey.

I mean, can you believe what he's eating?

Wild honey is not even pasteurized.

So, no, I'm just kidding.

He's eating, he's eating locusts.

You know, those little bugs that look like grasshoppers?

You know, that's what he's eating.

Locusts were feared because of the destruction that they could cause when they came in swarms.

God used them as a plague in Egypt to get the Israelites out of Egypt.

They're a farmer's worst nightmare.

And here's John.

I eat locusts for breakfast.

You know what I mean?

He's like, he's a wild man.

But he's set apart by God, his sent prophet, to pave the way for the Messiah.

God sent him to help convict people of their spiritual oppression of sin in preparation for Jesus.

Let's look at verse 7 together.

He proclaimed, One who is more powerful than I am is coming after me.

I'm not worthy to stoop down and untie the strap of his sandals.

Which was the job of a servant, by the way.

John's making sure that he doesn't get confused with the Messiah.

He's letting them know there is someone so much greater than me that's coming, and I'm not even worthy to be his servant.

So, what are we learning about John?

He's an extremely humble man.

He's living day by day, eating what God provides, doing what God asks, and helping prepare hearts for Jesus Christ.

Man, I think that's a great prayer for all of us.

That we could all be found doing exactly what John's doing here.

Living day by day, eating what God provides, doing what God asks, and helping prepare hearts for Jesus Christ.

He was living in such a way that the cares of this world were not holding him down.

He wasn't worried about his house or his car or what was in his refrigerator or his retirement or his savings account.

He's just living day by day and asking God, okay, what do you have for me today?

And then being obedient to go and to do those things.

Verse 8.

He says, I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.

Now we talked about water baptism, but here's a totally new concept to everyone in Israel: the baptism of the Holy Spirit.

Now, the Holy Spirit is the third person of the Trinity.

There's God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit.

One God, three persons, or more accurately, three essences of the one God.

Now, up until this point in history, throughout the Old Testament and all of Israel, there were times where God would empower somebody with the Holy Spirit for a small amount of time or to accomplish a specific task.

But what John's telling them is that he's going to be available all the time.

And not just a sprinkling here or there, but you're going to be fully immersed.

You're going to be baptized in the Holy Spirit.

Now, in our home groups, we've been going through the book of Acts, and that's where we get to see when all of this happens on the day of Pentecost, after Jesus' death, burial, and resurrection.

We get to see the Holy Spirit come down and baptize the Christ followers.

And that same feeling that they had back in the book of Acts is available to each one of us here today.

Because Jesus has made us holy.

Now we can become temples or dwelling places of the Holy Spirit to live inside of each one of us.

Now, in verse 9, we're going to get to see Jesus being baptized.

So look at that with me.

It says, In those days, Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee and was baptized in the Jordan by John.

As soon as he came up out of the water, he saw the heavens being torn open, and the spirit descending on him like a dove.

And a voice came from heaven, You are my beloved son, with you I am well pleased.

So John gets to baptize the Messiah that he's been proclaiming all this time.

Now in Matthew's Gospel, in chapter 3, verses 13 through 15, we get to see a little bit more detail of this scene.

So I'm going to read that to you.

Matthew 3, 13 through 15.

It says, Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan to be baptized by him.

But John tried to stop him, saying, I need to be baptized by you, and yet you come to me?

Jesus answered him, Allow it for now, because this is the way for us to fulfill all righteousness.

Then John allowed him to be baptized.

So my first question when I come to this all the time is why did Jesus need to be baptized?

Remember, we talked about the word repentance, and John was doing the baptism of repentance.

And for Jesus, this wasn't turning from sin and heading in the right direction.

This was Jesus in an act of obedience saying, I'm headed in the right direction and I'm going to continue heading in the right direction.

It was his public declaration and his obedience to the Father and his solidarity that he's showing with man to follow through.

But he didn't have any sin in his life.

He was perfect.

So he didn't have to turn like we all do.

He was already headed that way and he just kept going.

Does that make sense?

Okay, good.

And in Matthew's account, Jesus says, allow it for now, because this is the way for us to fulfill all righteousness.

So Jesus is being an example of publicly declaring that he's living for God's purposes and that his life will continually head in that direction.

So one of my favorite Bible commentators, David Guzick, he puts it this way He says, Jesus didn't have to be baptized.

He also didn't have to die on a cross in our place.

He did both things to express his solidarity with fallen man.

So Jesus gets baptized.

And then what do we see?

The heavens open up.

The Spirit descends upon him like a dove.

And this is one of those verses that you should also circle, highlight, underline, do what you're gonna do.

Because this is one of the verses where we get to see all three persons of the Trinity acting together at once.

Jesus the Son gets baptized, the Holy Spirit descends, and God speaks.

And that's important because there's all kinds of weird theology about the Holy Spirit and when they worked and were available and all that kind of stuff.

But this, we get to see all three persons of the Holy Spirit working together at one time.

And then what does God say?

And this is what I really want to focus on here this morning, and then we'll be done.

What does God say?

You are my beloved son, with you I am well pleased.

So, who here, and you can raise your hands on this one, would be well pleased to have perfect children.

Yeah, I think we're oh yeah, yeah.

Two hands.

Now, hear me out here, because I want to connect some dots here.

God sent Jesus to live a perfect life on earth, to die the death that each one of us deserve on the cross for our sins, and then to raise him from the grave three days later, proving that he defeated sin and death.

Now, hear me out here as we put this all together.

Our sin, our rebellion against God, was why we deserve death.

But God loves us so much that he sent his son Jesus Christ to die in our place so that we could be in relationship with him.

And Scripture tells us that if we confess with our mouth and believe in our heart that Jesus is Lord, that we will be saved.

And then in 1 Corinthians 1 30, it says that Jesus has come to become our righteousness, to become our sanctification and to become our redemption.

That means that his righteousness is now ours.

So when God looks at us, who does he see?

Or what does he see?

He sees his son and he sees the works of Jesus Christ.

He doesn't see our failures, he sees the works of Jesus Christ.

Now I want you to look back at verse 11.

And let's answer that question that we asked in the beginning here this morning.

Where God said, You are my beloved son, with you I am well pleased.

Well, guess what?

When God looks at you, he sees Jesus.

And you know what he wants to tell you.

With you, I am well pleased.

Now don't raise your hand, but how many of you actually believe that?

That God is well pleased with you.

It took me a long time in my Christian walk till I understood this and came to a place where I actually believe that about God and his perspective toward me.

And I know that I'm not alone in that.

That's a hard thing for us to grasp.

We often try to muddy this all up with works, don't we?

Well, what can I do to make God pleased with me?

Well, maybe if I did a little more, then God would finally be pleased with me.

Maybe if I prayed a little more, maybe if I read my Bible a little more, maybe if I serve the poor a little more, then God would finally be pleased with me.

And don't get me wrong, those are great things.

Do them.

I'm not telling you not to.

But we can't coerce God through works into a state of being more pleased with us.

Because he can't be more pleased with Jesus.

We are one with Jesus when we give our lives to him.

And God is well pleased with Jesus and therefore with us.

You know, I hear a term that often comes up when I'm doing counseling with various people.

And that term is I feel like I totally disappointed God today.

Or I feel like God is so disappointed in me.

So I'll ask them, are you a follower of Jesus Christ?

Are you abiding in Christ?

And they'll say, Yes.

And I'll say, Well, then you're wrong.

Jesus is well pleased with you.

No, but you don't understand.

I've sinned so bad.

You know, I went four weeks, or I went a year, or I went five years without dealing with the sin, and then I just totally failed, and I and I fell into that sin again, and I know that God is so disappointed in me.

So I'll ask him again, are you a follower of Christ?

And I'll say, Yes.

Like, then you're wrong.

He is well pleased.

And just to be clear, what I'm not saying is do whatever you want in God's please.

I'm not teaching some sort of cheap grace here.

That's not it at all.

But I want to give you an illustration to help you kind of understand what I am trying to say here.

So, regardless of what phase of life you're in, pretend this is you, okay?

An angel shows up one day and tells you, in one year, you're gonna have the option, you need to give me the answer right now.

But in one year, you could have a son.

And you're gonna choose right now whether you want to have that son or not.

And you're gonna love that child with all of your heart, and you're gonna experience love like you've never experienced before.

And you're gonna love being a parent.

But if you choose to have this son, when they're five, in an act of complete rebellion and defiance, they're going to set your curtains on fire and burn down half your house before the fire department can do anything about it.

So you need to choose do you want the sun or not?

And just know there's nothing that you can do to keep your house from being burned down.

You say, well, that's a bummer about the house, but I want that kid.

We can go through that.

We can make sure that we have better fire insurance, we can store our expensive stuff, you know, somewhere else.

But give me that sun, because I still want that sun.

So in a year, you get that sun.

And then year five comes, and you're just kind of sitting there, like, okay, this is the year.

Like, any moment our house is gonna go up on in flames.

And then it happens.

Somehow they figured out how to light your curtains on fire, the whole house goes up in flames.

By the time the fire department gets there, it's a mess.

They get it out, half the house is gone.

You're dealing with the cleanup, with the insurance, with with all the junk that's gonna happen, you know, the huge disruption to your life.

But it happens.

But I have a question for you.

When that day comes, are you gonna be disappointed in that child?

I don't think so, because you knew it was coming, right?

You knew it would be hard, you knew it would be a mess, you knew it would take a lot of work, but you knew it was coming.

You're not gonna sit the child down and say, I can't believe you did that, would you?

Because you knew it was coming.

You're not gonna tell them, I'm so disappointed in you, because you already knew it was coming.

You know, in a way, I think I'd kind of be relieved if that was my kid.

Because, like, oh, okay, that's done.

Now we can just move on with the rest of our lives, you know.

I say all of that because God knows the beginning from the end.

When we accept Jesus, we're a child of God.

He is our Father.

And get this, he knew exactly what he was getting when he welcomed each one of us into his family.

There's no surprises for him.

He knew about the fires that we were gonna light and the curtains that we were gonna set on fire.

And he wanted us anyway.

When we think God is disappointed in us, I honestly believe that he's actually glad it's over with.

Okay, now we can move on with the rest of your life.

We can we can clean up this mess and we're we're just gonna move on from here.

Or, okay, you know, you just did this sin again, but you're only gonna do it five more times, and then you're gonna be done, and then we can move on with the rest of our lives again.

I really think that's the fatherly perspective that he has towards us.

He's well pleased for you with you, and he's rooting for you.

And he knows exactly what he signed up for when he welcomed you into his family.

And you may be thinking, Chris, if you keep preaching sermons like this, sin is gonna abound.

No, it won't.

If we live in an abiding relationship with Jesus Christ, knowing that God is pleased with us, we're gonna hate sin and we're gonna hate what it does to us.

It's by loving God and knowing his love that doing good things actually starts coming naturally, and those desires start to come naturally out of us.

It's out of an overflow of our love for him.

Now, if you have believed in your heart and confessed with your mouth that Jesus Christ is Lord, if you're in that abiding relationship with Jesus Christ, I want you to hear me right now.

God is pleased with you.

Now it's just a matter of us believing in.

And if you haven't come into that abiding relationship with Jesus Christ, if you haven't asked for the forgiveness of your sin, my question to you is why not?

The God of the universe, the ancient of days, desires each one of us and wants us to be his sons and his daughters.

And all we need to do is confess with our mouth and believe in our heart that Jesus Christ is Lord, and we can have that relationship with the God of the universe.

So if you haven't, I would love to speak with you afterward.

Just come up and I would love to tell you more about it, answer any of your questions, and pray with you and tell you how to come into that relationship.

Or any of the servants that you see around here today would love to have that conversation with you.

But um, please come up and and and do that.

Let's pray.

God, I thank you so much for this relationship that you desire with us.

But I thank you for the work of Jesus Christ and all that he did on the cross to save us, to bring us into this relationship.

God, I thank you that your heart for us is that you are well pleased.

Not because of anything that we've done, but because of Jesus Christ, your perfect son with whom you are well pleased.

And I thank you that we get to be one with him in this relationship.

But Lord, help us to believe it and to start living like that, to not live in guilt and in shame, but to grow closer and closer to you on a daily basis to the point where we end up hating sin and hating what it does to us.

Lord, in our heart is to serve you and to honor you just because we love you so much.

And that would be an overflow and a full expression of all that you've done for us.

Lord, again, I thank you for each person that you brought here today.

Lord, I thank you for what you're doing in each one of us.

Lord, mold us and change us and make us more like you.

We pray.

We pray these things in Jesus' name.

Amen.