I wanted to mention today something that the
Lord's been putting on my heart regarding ambition.
We can have a lot of different things
that we want to do in this life,
and it's good to ask what is our
ambition as Christians.
I'm going to turn to Mark chapter three.
You can turn there with me.
As you turn there, I'll just say I
was reading an article.
I feel you can learn a lot about
someone by seeing what their family says about
them.
As an example, I was reading an article
about a business person.
Some of us may know this business person
has a rocket company.
They're trying to go into outer space.
If you don't know anything about them, as
I didn't, you can see that they're trying
to go to outer space.
You know what I think?
I don't know about you, but what I
think is midlife crisis or contest among billionaires
or something like that.
I don't know.
What do billionaires spend money on?
I guess they buy rockets.
Yet, I was struck because as I was
reading this article with this person's family, one
of the things that they mentioned was that
it's not a new development actually for this
person.
It's a culmination of a lifelong dream.
They actually told the story about how when
this person was a valedictorian at their high
school back when they're 18 years old, you
know what their valedictorian speech was about when
they're 18 years old, meet me in outer
space.
That really surprised me because if you think
about it, you ask his family, hey, you
know, this guy's on the news.
He's just gone into outer space.
Are you surprised?
What does his family say?
They go, wow, he's lost his mind.
We have no idea where this came from.
No, they say, yeah, he's always wanted to
go to space.
Since he was 15, he's been talking about
he wanted to go to space.
Even though for us, we might look at
his life and imagine some reason, the truth
is he's always wanted to do it.
We can learn a lot about a person's
dreams from what their families say.
I've been thinking about Jesus.
What was his dream?
What did he long for?
You could say, what was Jesus' ambition?
I wanted to talk about ambition.
What was Jesus' ambition?
I got a little bit of a glimpse
of what it wasn't in Mark 3.
If you turn with me to Mark 3,
it says in verse 20, it says that
he and a crowd gathered.
What we know from before is that a
crowd, sorry, actually, if you want, look with
me at verse 9, Mark 3, 9.
He told his disciples that a boat should
stand ready for him because of the crowd
so that they would not crowd him.
He had healed many with the result that
all who had afflictions pressed around him in
order to touch him.
Whenever the unclean spirits saw him, they would
fall on the ground before him and shout,
you're the son of God.
He was earnestly warning them not to say
who he was.
Then in verse 20, it says he came
home and again, a crowd gathered to such
an extent, they couldn't even eat a meal.
Pause there for a second.
You can think about Jesus.
What is he thinking at this point?
Is he going, finally, you know, finally, the
crowds are acknowledging who I am.
I'm fulfilling my ministry.
I'm fulfilling my purpose.
I'm fulfilling my ambition.
Is that his attitude?
I can think maybe so, but it says
verse 21, when his own people or his
family, it says in the margin, when his
family heard this, they went out to take
custody of him because they were saying he's
lost his senses.
He's out of his mind.
So what does it mean that Jesus lost
his senses?
As far as his family can tell, this
isn't the person that we've always known.
He was not fulfilling some lifelong dream.
Unlike the billionaire whose family goes, yeah, that's
exactly what he always wanted to do.
When he does this thing that surprises us
all.
When we see Jesus doing this thing that
surprises everybody, his family goes, this was not
in the plan.
It appeared to be a departure from his
ambition for those who knew him best.
And it really struck me to see his
family's response, what it told me about Jesus.
And it's something that we've, that we often
talk about, but it's good to be aware
when he was doing amazing things that caused
crowds to gather, the people who knew him
best basically said, this isn't what he's always
wanted.
What is he always wanted?
If you turn with me, there's a verse,
John chapter eight, verse 29, that, that the
Lord put on my heart as I was
thinking, if his family saw this wasn't what
he had always wanted, what was it?
And in John chapter eight, verse 29, Jesus
says, he who sent me is with me
and he hasn't left me alone because I
always do the things that are pleasing to
him.
And I see here in John chapter eight,
that Jesus's desire was always to make his
father happy.
That's all he wanted to do.
It wasn't to gather crowds.
It wasn't to heal people.
It wasn't for demon eggs to fall on
the ground and say, you're the son of
God.
He just wanted to make his father happy.
And the amazing thing for us as disciples
is we can have that same ambition too.
And that's actually the word that the apostle
Paul uses.
If you turn to second Corinthians chapter five,
Jesus said, I always want to do the
things that are pleasing to my father.
That's the one thing that I want more
than anything.
And Paul in second Corinthians chapter five and
verse nine, he says the same thing.
We also have as our ambition, whether we're
at home or absent, to be pleasing to
him.
So just like Jesus's desire and ambition was
to please his father, so also was the
apostle Paul's.
I just want to do what makes the
Lord happy.
And it's such an important question to know,
how do we please God?
If our ambition is not to do some
great outward thing necessarily, like Jesus's wasn't, but
is simply to please God, then the question
is, how do we do it?
Because we can have all sorts of ideas.
Just like we have wrong ideas about Jesus.
When we see the crowds gather, we think,
oh, that must have been what he really
wanted.
And that's not true.
We can, in our lives, we can have
all sorts of wrong ideas.
I've noticed, you know, we know we have
a rotation among myself and Bobby and Sandeep.
So you can kind of, you can kind
of look in the calendar and you can
know, okay, when am I going to be
next?
And you can think, okay, in the, you
know, in the time before I'm up to
show, I need more time to prepare.
And I can begin to think, you know,
what would please God is if I had
a really good message on Sunday, that would
be pleasing to God.
And then I can get fixated on that.
And the problem I've seen, and that seems
like a good thing.
It's like the crowds gathering and nothing wrong
with Jesus healing people.
Definitely.
That was great.
And I can see a good message.
I can, I can get fixated on it
wrongly as Jesus wasn't on healing.
I can get wrongly fixated on, I want
to have a good message.
And one of the things I've noticed is
I start to see everything else in my
life as in the way.
And looking at Jesus, life makes it so
much more clear to see how do I
please my father?
If his ambition was to please his father,
if Paul's ambition was to please the father,
if our ambition is to please the father,
is it having a good message?
And if it's having a good message, then
the barking dog and the interrupting kids and
the late night phone call from my boss.
And all of these things are in the
way.
And the reasons that I can't fulfill my
mission, the reasons I can't fulfill my purpose.
This is, this is my own.
This is how those things can appear to
me at times.
But look with me at Mark chapter one.
It's so helpful to look.
We've, we've often heard Jesus is our dictionary.
And what's amazing to see is in Mark
chapter one, in verse, in verse nine, it
says that Jesus came from Nazareth and Galilee,
and he was baptized by John and immediately
coming out of the water.
Remember what chapter are we in in Mark
children right now?
If you're reading with me, we're in Mark
chapter one.
Is this after Jesus's miracles or before?
It's before.
Is it after his sermons or before?
It's before.
It's before any miracle, before any sermon, before
anything that we think is worth noting.
Yet what, listen to what the father in
heaven said.
It says in verse 10, that immediately coming
up out of the water, Jesus saw the
heavens opening in the spirit, like a dove
descending upon him.
And a voice, the voice of God came
out of heaven saying to him, you are
my beloved son.
In you, I am well pleased.
Think of what that means.
How had Jesus pleased his father?
It wasn't a Sunday message.
It wasn't casting out demons or healing the
sick or making sure he's in a boat
so that he wasn't crowded.
That's not how Jesus pleased his father.
It was what?
How did he do it?
Does your heart long to know?
My heart longs to know.
And it's such an encouragement.
Think about where Jesus had come from.
Where had he been?
I think of two places where Jesus had
been.
He had been at work and at home.
Not in the ministry.
And what was the testimony of his father
in heaven after having spent 30 years at
work and at home?
You are my beloved son.
With you, I am well pleased.
He pleased his father at work.
He pleased his father at home.
Not in doing some things that we tend
to fixate on as the really great thing.
And I was just thinking about Jesus.
I just kind of allowed my imagination.
Brother Zac has said we've used our imagination
for lots of bad things in the past.
It's good to use our imagination for good
things now if we're Christians.
And I use my imagination to think about,
you know, I said that a barking dog
or, you know, a late night phone call
at work or something like that can be
in the way.
Think about what Jesus had dealt with.
Maybe people had to return things that he
made at the carpentry shop.
Maybe he had to go to the market
for supplies to buy wood and buy lumber
and buy nails and things like that.
Maybe he had to deal with vendors or
supply shortages like we're dealing with now.
Maybe people canceled orders.
Maybe he put things together and then someone
canceled an order.
Maybe he had to train apprentices who fumbled
around and who made mistakes.
He had little brothers we know.
You think his little brothers were perfect?
Maybe he had his thumb with a hand.
You think Jesus ever hit his thumb with
a hammer while he was working on wood?
Yeah, people are saying, yeah, children know.
Children or adults go, whoa, hang on.
But children go, yeah, because they've hit thumbs
too, of course.
Maybe people were haggling with him over prices
at his carpentry shop.
Maybe he just had to sweat and work
in the sun and he was sweating and
exhausted.
Imagine if Jesus saw all of these things
as standing in the way to his purpose.
We know that after all these things, the
testimony of his father in heaven was, you
are well pleasing to me.
And I was just thinking, what a pity
if all the normal stuff that Jesus had
been going through, he had said, this is
it.
You know what my real purpose is, is
to heal a bunch of sick people.
I don't think it would have gone well
with him.
I think he was so concerned with being
pleasing to his father in whatever the father
appointed, whether it was a haggling customer or
a clumsy apprentice or a supply shortage or
a difficulty with a vendor at the marketplace.
Jesus saw all of it, not as in
the way, but as the appointed way.
And that's the thing that brings comfort to
my heart.
It was the means, all of the ordinary
things were the means by which the Lord
prepared him for his ministry.
But Jesus was pleasing to his father by
being faithful in that preparation time.
Not because he was faithful in his ministry,
but because he was faithful in secret.
What are the implications for all of us?
If we say our ambition is to please
the Lord, does that happen on Sunday morning
when we're sharing a message, Sunday afternoon?
No.
When does it happen?
When we're in the marketplace, when somebody's haggling,
when the dog's barking, when the boss is
calling.
Those are the times they aren't in the
way of pleasing God.
They're the way God has appointed to please
him.
That is an incredible comfort and encouragement to
me to see all of the stuff that
I'm tempted to resent or be frustrated by.
Because I go, if I could just get
rid of it, then I can really do
what God wants.
And you know what God says?
I want you to deal with the haggling
customer in a way that honors me.
And I want you to deal with the
interruption in a way that honors me.
This is not in the way, it is
my appointed way.
They don't keep me from pleasing God.
That's the encouragement to my heart.
None of the things that I think are
in the way actually keep me from pleasing
God.
They are the way that God has appointed
that I might please him.
Which brings us to our memory verse.
I was really blessed by what the memory
verse says.
If you turn there, Psalm 55, as we
heard a moment ago from Stanley, there's one,
he emphasized the second part of the verse.
I just wanted to emphasize the first part.
It says, cast your burden on the Lord
and he will sustain you.
And in my margin, your burden can also
be translated what he's given you.
Cast what he has given you on the
Lord and he will sustain you.
I can see my burden as this thing
that keeps me from what God wants for
me.
And I love seeing here in Psalm 55,
my burden is also what he's given me.
The haggling customer, it's what he's given me.
The barking dog, what he's given me.
The late night phone call, what he's given
me and what does he want me to
do?
He wants me to depend upon him, to
lean upon him with what he has appointed.
Trusting that what he's appointed isn't standing in
the way, it's the way he's appointed.
Cast what he has given you upon the
Lord and he will sustain you.
And here's what Jesus said.
Jesus said, don't let your heart be troubled
by these burdens that come.
Don't let your heart be troubled.
Jesus saw God's hand in everything that was
in his life.
What's the worst thing that we know that
happened in Jesus' life?
Children, what's the worst thing that happened in
Jesus' life?
It's in John chapter 18, if you want
to turn there.
But children, think about it.
What's the worst thing that happened in Jesus'
life?
It was when he was arrested, when he
was going to the cross.
And in John chapter 18 in verse 11,
when they come to arrest him, his friends
want to defend him.
Simon Peter, it says in verse 10, John
18 verse 10, Simon Peter took out a
sword and he cut off someone's ear.
But Jesus said, put the sword into the
sheath.
This terrible thing, this worst thing that's ever
happened to me.
You know what he says?
The cup which my father has given me,
shall I not drink it?
Cast your burden on the Lord.
Cast what he has given you upon him.
And Jesus didn't see a betrayer.
He didn't see a haggling customer.
He didn't see an interruption.
He saw his father's hand.
How did he see his father's hand in
that moment, in that worst moment?
Because he had been faithfully looking for his
father's hand in all of the time of
preparation.
In the sweating in the sun, when he
banged his thumb with a hammer, when he
had a customer haggle over price, he saw
his father's hand in everything.
And when the guards came to arrest him,
he says, this is the cup my father
has given me to drink.
That's what we have to do.
We have to see.
And what Jesus says in John chapter 14,
when he was going to depart from his
disciples, he says to them, don't let your
heart be troubled.
Don't let it.
And I like that word let.
You know, I've got a lot of dog
stories right now because we just got a
new puppy.
But when, when somebody says, don't let the
dog in the house, as I say, find
myself saying like 10 times a day right
now, don't let the dog in the house.
What are we saying about the dog?
He wants in, right?
Don't let it.
And what do you have to do?
You have to fight.
When Jesus says, don't let your heart be
troubled.
What is that telling us about our heart?
It wants to be troubled.
Do we need any, do we, do we
need anything else in the world for our
hearts to be troubled with all the things
that are already happening?
Our hearts naturally gravitate towards being troubled.
And Jesus said, don't let it fight it.
Look for the father's hand in all these
things and fight the temptation towards trouble.
And I found for myself that my heart
has a tendency towards troubledness.
And the Lord has just been saying to
me, don't go there.
Don't go there.
This thing that is, that is tempting you
towards being troubled doesn't stand in the way
of your pleasing me.
This thing that I have appointed that is
tempting you to being troubled is the means
by which I want you to please me.
And just like Jesus arrived at the waters
of baptism and the father could say, before
he'd ever done anything noteworthy, before he ever
got to the thing that he thought he's
supposed to be doing, or that we thought
he's supposed to be doing, his father says
he's well-pleasing.
And before we ever get to the thing
that we have in our minds as the
real, the great ambition to accomplish or perform,
when we're dealing with the interruption, we have
the opportunity to hear the father say, this
is my son.
This is my daughter.
I'm pleased with, not with how you're doing
the thing that you thought was the great
thing, with how you're dealing with what I've
appointed.
I'm pleased with you.
And the pressures that we experience are our
preparation for whatever the Lord has.
We don't need a lot more time.
For example, I find myself pressed for time
these days.
And I find myself wishing, I think I
mentioned that in men's Bible study the other
night.
I find myself wishing for more time, but
the Lord doesn't, says you don't need more
time.
You need to yield to my dealings with
you.
That's what you need.
You need to be faithful in what I
have appointed.
If you yield, you'll be prepared.
You think what you need is time to
prepare.
What you don't realize is by removing your
time is your preparation.
What a blessing when we can really see
the father's hand in everything.
He's saying, as it were, let me prepare
you.
You think you need to get prepared.
Let me prepare you.
Will you trust me in what I've appointed?
That if you will honor me in it,
and if you will look for my hand
in it, if you will cast what I've
given you back upon me, I'll sustain you.
And you'll be pleasing to me, whether you
ever do the thing that you thought was
going to be pleasing or not.
Last thing I'll say, just because this has
been a blessing to me.
I've got a coworker who, you know, I
don't think he's a Christian to my knowledge,
but anytime I've just gotten in touch with
him recently, and we've been coordinating on something,
for whatever reason, every time he text messages
me, he starts with, peace, Jeremy.
And then, hey, are you using this computer
right now?
You know, or whatever.
Peace, Jeremy.
Hey, do you need a key to this
room?
Peace, Jeremy.
And I thought at first, I just thought
I was just kind of being a cool
guy.
But then I was, as I was thinking
about this topic with the Lord and his
appointment, I thought, I see that in my
life too.
The Lord comes in and in various circumstances,
you know, the first thing he says, peace,
peace, Jeremy.
That's what he said to the disciples in
John chapter 20.
That's the last verse I wanted to mention.
They're all concerned.
Their Lord has left.
They don't know what to do.
And it says in John chapter 20, verse
19, that when it was evening on that
day, the first day of the week, the
doors were shut and the disciples were, because
of fear, they were shut.
Jesus came and stood in their midst.
And what did he say?
Peace be with you.
And then look at verse 26.
After eight days, the disciples were again inside,
again afraid.
And Thomas was with them.
And Jesus came, the doors having been shut.
And he stood in their midst and he
said, peace be with you.
Peace.
And in the midst of these troubling times,
in the midst of, you know, lots of
demands and those two places where Jesus was
prepared at work and at home, in those
two places where Jesus was pleasing to the
Lord at work and at home, when our
hearts are tending towards trouble, what does the
Lord want to say to us?
He wants to say peace.
I want to, I want to bring my
peace into this situation.
And I want you to be able to
rest.
I want you to be able to trust
in me before it's worked out, before you
get to whatever the good work you think
you need to do is.
Be at peace.
And I've been hearing the Lord say that
to me.
I've been hearing him call me to that.
I pray that, that, um, I want to,
I want to be willing.
I want to yield.
I want to see everything that the Lord
appoints as a blessed preparation, not as an
inconvenience, not as in the way, but as
the way he is appointed.
I pray the Lord would help me, help
us all.