(1) Do you know that three months from today is Christmas Eve? (2) And yes, three months tomorrow is Christmas!
When I realized this, I did some research and came across this humorous and poignant story about two things that go together – Christmas and Kids.
(3) ‘A group of first graders decided that they were going to produce their very own Christmas program and so they produced their own updated nativity story.
All the major characters were there – Joseph, the shepherds, the wise men from afar… but where was Mary?
Shortly after the production began, there was heard from behind some bales of straw moaning and groaning – Mary was in labor!
A doctor with a white coat and a black bag was then ushered onto the stage and disappeared with Joseph behind the bales of straw. After a few moments, the doctor emerged from behind the bales of straw with a jubilant smile on his face and holding a baby in his arms.
He then announced to the audience, ‘It’s a GOD!’
It’s a GOD! It’s Emmanuel! It’s ‘God with us!’ It’s Jesus!
(4) This morning we conclude our September series with Jesus as the last of four Biblical examples of what it means to have (or, in the case of Judas, not have) a heart for God.
(5) The first person we studied in our series was Joseph who had an obedient heart for the Lord.
(6) The second person we studied was Judas who, we learned, had a misguided heart for the Lord.
(7) Then last week we studied David who had a pursuing heart for God.
Throughout our series we have been asked, ‘Do you have a heart for God?’ ‘Do you have a passion for God?’ Not for the church or the Christian life or Christian culture but for the Lord Himself?
Again, as we begin this sermon, I ask each of us this morning, ‘Do we have a passion for the Lord?’
In our main text for this morning, we clearly see that total heart; the total passion Jesus had for God the Father. We also feel it because we have been in situations (not has severe as this one however) that has tested our resolve to follow the Lord.
Jesus throughout his earthly ministry demonstrated this total heart for God in two key ways.
(8) He first demonstrated His total heart by (a) His resistance to compromise.
We read of this in Matthew 4:1-13 where Jesus resists the temptations of Satan to compromise Himself and His mission. The temptations that He faced, we face as well.
(b) There is the temptation for instant gratification. Granted, Jesus was in desperate need of food after 40 days of going without it. Yet to take the ‘shortcut’ Satan was offering would have demonstrated a lack of faith in God the Father to provide for a very legitimate need. All of us have legitimate needs for things like food, clothing, shelter, and relationships. Yet when we attempt to obtain them right now in our impatience or anxiety we often make choices that we later regret.
(c) There is the temptation to worship the wrong thing. In the second sermon of this series, we studied the tragic situation of Judas. Part of Judas’ problem is that he wanted to be powerful and he was hoping that Jesus would exercise that power to change things for the better and enable Judas to become powerful. Jesus was not seduced at this point to worship the wrong thing and He would not give in to the temptation to run away or do what many had hoped that he would do in securing the Kingdom of Israel at the critical point He had reached in our main text. We can choose many idols to worship – but in doing so we compromise our heart for the Lord.
(d) There is the temptation to test God’s limits. The final temptation to test the Lord’s limits is tragically demonstrated in the life of Israel’s first king, Saul.
He was smart, intelligent, and very capable. But he also compromised his mission as we read in 1 Samuel 15 when he failed to do what God had told him to do regarding a captured king and his people. Samuel delivers the awful news to Saul in verses 22 and 23, ‘“What is more pleasing to the Lord: your burnt offerings and sacrifices or your obedience to his voice? Obedience is far better than sacrifice. Listening to him is much better than offering the fat of rams. Rebellion is as bad as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as bad as worshiping idols. So because you have rejected the word of the Lord, he has rejected you from being king.”
His failure to obey and stay within the mission he had been give tested God’s limits and finally causes the Lord to withdrawal his favor from Saul as king.
Jesus did not test God’s limits. He knew that to do so would open the way for further testing and probable failure.
‘Now, Jim wait a minute. Jesus was the Son of God; Jesus was perfect because He was God!’ And you are right, He was perfect!
But Jesus was also human as we read in Hebrews 4:14-16, ‘…we have a great High Priest who has gone to heaven, Jesus the Son of God. Let us cling to him and never stop trusting him. This High Priest of ours understands our weaknesses, for he faced all of the same temptations we do, yet he did not sin. So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it.’
In resisting compromise and temptation, Jesus stood strong and that kept His heart totally focused on and for God.
(9) The second key way that Jesus kept His total focus on the Father was by maintaining His relationship with the Father. How did He do that?
(a) First, and this is very important,… He never forgot whose He was!
Now, say with me… I am somebody! Say with me now, Whose somebody am I?
Whose are you? You are the Lord’s! Say with me, ‘I am the Lord’s!’
Peter’s great affirmation as recorded in the Matthew 16:16 says it all! “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”
Jesus never forgot whose He was. He knew that He was God’s.
We have a tendency to forget whose we are! We slip here, slide over there, and just plain fall down up yonder!
We seek after this and after that, and then forget where we are, and then find ourselves where we don’t want to be!
Jesus didn’t! And because He didn’t… He kept His heart and passion focused on God and… this is equally important… everything He did flowed out from that identity.
(b) He also maintained His relationship with the Father by staying on His mission.
We have a clear indication of this as we read in Luke 4:42-44, ‘Early the next morning Jesus went out into the wilderness. The crowds searched everywhere for him, and when they finally found him, they begged him not to leave them. But he replied, “I must preach the Good News of the Kingdom of God in other places, too, because that is why I was sent.” So he continued to travel around, preaching in synagogues throughout Judea.’
His mission was preaching the Good News and it was also dying on the cross for our sins. Our main text for this morning makes that clear. Nothing else, not even the deep and breaking needs of the people, kept Jesus from His mission.
(c) Finally, Jesus kept His total heart for the Lord by completing the mission He had been given.
“My Father! If it is possible, let this cup of suffering be taken away from me. Yet I want your will, not mine.”
How often do we pray ‘your will be done’ and mean it? For Jesus however, it was more than a prayer, it was His mission. He just did not pray ‘your will be done,’ He lived ‘your will be done!’
In the challenge and the stress of facing a cruel and certain death, Jesus did struggle in completing His mission in this manner. He did agonize over the situation. Yet He did not give up that mission. He prayed and He lived ‘your will be done.’
What is your mission in life? What have you been created to do?
It is more than 12-hour days of work and homework and housework. It is more than getting up and caring for sick and hurting family. It is more than just going from Sunday to Saturday to Sunday to Saturday.
On October 8th we are going to start a 40 Days of Purpose series with several guest speakers to share with us and they will help us to understand that our purpose, our mission is more than just existing, than just getting by. Our mission and purpose is to become the children of God that we were created to be and that God has always intended the human race to be and to help others do the same.
This mission is huge! It is bigger than each of us! It is a life-changing mission! Our mission can be summarized in the Great Commandment to love God and neighbor and the Great Commission to make disciples, in other words, passionate followers of Christ.
What has become your mission at this point in life? Simply hanging on? Getting to retirement? Having more and more things?
(10) Are you satisfied with your current mission? People and the Devil would love to give us more and more missions so that we simply would just keep going in circles. But, if we are going to have a passion for the Lord, we need to discern and focus on what the Lord has for us to do. There are many agendas out there than can be distracting and ultimately move us in a different direction from what the Lord wants. Some of those agendas are very good agendas. Some are not.
Another challenge is that we are wired differently for the same overall purpose. Paul reminds us of that in 1 Corinthians 12. Yet we struggle here as well because, to paraphrase Paul, those who are ‘eyes’ have a tendency to think we all need to be ‘eyes’ and those who are ‘feet’ think that being ‘feet’ is where it is at!
But we need to remember what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 12:27, ‘Now all of you together are Christ’s body, and each one of you is a separate and necessary part of it.’
Jesus stayed focus on His mission because He chose, and kept choosing, to follow the Father. His heart, His passion was one of a total heart for the Lord.
One of my favorite films is ‘Chariots of Fire,’ based on the true story of Eric Liddell who was an Olympic athlete for England 80 years ago. He was a runner and won a gold medal at the 1924 Olympic Games in Paris.
At one point in the movie, his sister Jenny chides him for his running believing that running is a meaningless activity and the preparation for the ministry is more important. His response is one of those memorable movie lines, ‘But when I run, I feel His pleasure.’ Liddell would go on to be a missionary to China who died 20 years later in a prison camp during World War 2.
I think that Joseph felt God’s pleasure as he obeyed even in difficult circumstances. I think that David felt God’s pleasure as he pursued and found God throughout his life. I think that Jesus felt the Father’s pleasure in His total pursuit of the Father’s plan hard though it was to follow that plan to completion. I think that Judas missed it all because he had the wrong agenda.
What about you? What is your agenda? Are you living as well as praying ‘your will, not my will be done?’ Do you feel the pleasure of God in your life? Do you wish to feel the pleasure of God in your life?
You can. But what is required is to let go and pray and live ‘your will be done.’ What is holding you back? Pride? Fear? Disappointment? Bitterness? Resentment?
You cannot let those things stop you because you will be (if you are not already) miserable. How is your heart for the Lord this morning?
What is the Holy Spirit saying to you this morning? Are you willing to obey it? The altar is open for prayer. Amen.
Power Points for this sermon are available by e-mailing me at pastorjim46755@yahoo.com and asking for ‘092406slides’ Please note that all slides for a particular presentation may not be available.
