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Companionship is what makes every
journey enjoyable. Today, we continue our journey
with Jesus. Join Scott Paulin as we make
brief stops in the Gospel according to Mark. We trust you will enjoy
the journey. Please forgive me. We're journeying
with Jesus and we're walking through the gospel according
to Mark, and we have already studied this verse, but I can't
move on. I can't leave it yet. Not yet.
Would you permit me to have one more day with the same verse?
You know, this verse, as you meditate on it, seems to open
up more and more truth to us. I'm referring to Mark chapter
3 and verse number 14, where the Bible says, And he ordained
twelve, that they should be with him, and that he might send them
forth to preach. Two beautiful halves and two
parts to this verse and to life. First, there is being with him.
and then there is going out for Him. Sometimes I'm afraid we
get those out of order. We try to do something for the
Lord when we haven't spent time with Him. We try to get busy
for God when first we need to be still before the Lord. Could
I remind you of the divine order in the ministry of Jesus? His
first word, His first word to the disciples He called was,
Come. come. And his last word when he left
them at the end of his ministry was go. And the divine order
is you have to come before you can go. If you want to be used
of the Lord in the lives of other people, you first need to spend
time with the Lord Jesus. The Bible says of those early
apostles that others took knowledge of them that they had been with
Jesus. And so it brings me back again
to these two little words in the heart of verse 14, the heart
of the verse, the heart of the truth, the heart of the matter,
with Him. Can I talk to you for just a
moment today about the friendship of Christ? To me, it is awe-inspiring
to think that Jesus Christ would want to be with me. that He today
would want to spend time with a sinner like me. The Creator
God of the universe, the God who said, light, and there was
light, and it was very good, wants to speak to me today. The
God who holds the whole world in the palm of His hand wants
to hear my voice today, wants me to be with Him. He wants you
to be with Him. This is a revelation, I believe,
of the heart of Jesus and the friendship of Christ. There's
an intimacy wrapped up in these words that we need to discover.
As a matter of fact, I believe it connects to the end of the
chapter. At the end of the chapter, the
Bible says in verse 31, There came then His brethren and His
mother, and standing without, sent unto Him, calling Him, And
the multitude sat about him, and they said unto him, Behold,
thy mother and thy brethren without seek for thee. And he answered
them, saying, Who is my mother or my brethren? And he looked
round about on them which sat about him, and said, Behold,
my mother and my brethren. For whosoever shall do the will
of God, the same as my brother and my sister and my mother."
This is profound. He says to them, my connection
is not biological. My connection is not physical.
My connection with others is spiritual. And the greatest intimacy
is not the intimacy of family or friend. The greatest intimacy
is intimacy with God for spiritual purposes. He even speaks with
enthusiasm. Notice the exclamation point
in verse 34. Christ is excited. Behold, my
mother and my brethren. He's speaking to his followers
and about his true disciples. He says, those who do the will
of God, those are the ones who have real friendship and intimacy
and nearness to me. Would you like to be near Jesus
today? Would you like to be intimate with Christ? Would you like to
be closer to Him than you've ever been? Then you must do the
will of God. And what is the will of God?
The will of God is very simple, that you should be with Him and
that He then could send you forth to preach. That's the divine
order. It's found all through Scripture. In Isaiah chapter
6, Isaiah is with God. He gets a glimpse of the Lord
and then immediately the Lord says, now go and tell others.
It's just beautiful. God works in us and then He works
through us. So let's make some practical
applications. How do we develop and cultivate this friendship
with Christ? We know He's our friend. How
can we be a better friend to Him? We spend time with Him first. There must be time with Him.
You need to set a time every day to meet with Jesus. There
must be time when you go apart. Jesus is often going apart and
taking His disciples with Him. As a matter of fact, in verse
19, the Bible says they went into a house. and the multitude
cometh together again, so that they could not so much as eat
bread. And when his friends heard of it, they went out to lay hold
on him, for they said, he's beside himself." There was such a press
and pull of people that people thought, there's so much going
on here. And yet notice in the midst, even of all of that, Jesus
was spending time with his disciples. They were getting access to him
that no one else had. And I want to say to you, it
doesn't matter how busy you are. In fact, the busier you are,
the more you need the divine resources. The more you have
to get done, the more you need the power of Christ. You need
time with Him. Set an appointment to meet with
God every day. And might I say, guard it jealously. because the devil is going to
do everything he can to interrupt it. And others, knowingly or
unknowingly, will do everything they can to distract you from
it. And so you need to set a time every day. This is shocking to
me, but God wants to meet with us, and we are too busy for Him. Think of that. Too busy for God?
If you're too busy to spend time with Him today, you're just too
busy. Change your priorities. Rearrange your schedule. Make
time to be with Him. Then not only do you need a time
with Him, you need a place with Him. A quiet place, a place alone,
away from the fray and the distractions. Turn off the phone, turn off
the media. Get by yourself for a little while so you can give
God your undivided attention. Frequently in the Gospel records
you see Jesus going up into the mountains. He loved the mountains.
I love the mountains. And I think part of the reason
was, it was above everything else and it was away from everything
else. It took a little effort to get there, didn't it? When
Jesus came to town, He was always looking to see where the mountains
were because that's where He loved to go meet with His Father.
That's where He would often take the disciples. Friend, you need
to find you a mountain. Wherever that is geographically,
you need a place where you can meet with Him. And then not only
do you need time with Him and a place with Him, you need then
to have a conversation with Him. That's really what He's doing
here with the disciples. He's talking to them, and they're
talking to Him. And it's not some religious speech,
and it's not some formal thing, and it's not some thing for public
consumption. That's what too much of our devotions
turn into. No, it's very natural. It's just
being with Jesus. It's sharing your heart. It's
talking to Him in prayer. And then it is allowing Him to
speak to you through His Word and minister to your heart. I'm
telling you, that's where the power comes from. That's where
the blessing comes from. And so today, I want to challenge
you to begin right where you are, to spend some time with
Him. You know, everybody has to have
a starting place. I got saved as a boy at five.
I trusted Christ as my Savior, and I wanted to get baptized.
But I was scared to death of water. I wouldn't put my head
under water. It's very difficult to get baptized if you won't
be immersed, at least scripturally baptized. And so, my mother decided
to help me. She took me to the local YMCA,
and she hired a guy named Bill to give me swimming lessons.
I wasn't doing very well, and one day Bill took me down on
the far end of the pool that I'd never been to before. It
was beautiful down there. No one else was there, just me
and Bill. He had me stand there on the edge of the pool, those
huge boards towering overhead. And he said, do you like it down
here? And I said, oh yes, I like it very much. And then Bill did
something he shouldn't have done. He pushed me into the deep end
of the pool. Someone says, how did it turn
out? Well, I'm here talking about it. It wasn't Olympic, it wasn't
graceful, but I learned to keep my head above water and I learned
to swim. And I didn't learn it sitting on the side of the pool
watching others or listening to a lecture. I learned it when
I got in the water. Would you like to learn to walk
with Him today? You won't learn it by listening to me, and you
won't learn it by reading about others doing it. You'll learn
it by getting off of the side of the pool and into the water
yourself. Would you find a place, make a time, and begin today
to have a conversation with Him? Thank you for traveling with
us through God's Word. We would love to hear from you
and share additional resources for enjoying the journey. Visit
us online at scottpauley.org. May God bless you as you walk
with Christ today. you
The Friendship of Christ
Series Daily Bible Studies
| Sermon ID | 53124163865743 |
| Duration | 10:00 |
| Date | |
| Category | Podcast |
| Language | English |
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