Jan. 22, 2012 Mark 1: 14-20 Come and Follow Straightway. Let Straightway be your Slogan
Time for a math lesson; Rate of Speed=distance divided by time
Give an example: Walk to Jerusalem would be about 6000 miles, so how fast would we need to walk if we wanted to get their by Easter.
Rate of Speed= 6000/68 days from Feb 1st.= 88 miles per day….3.67 miles per hour
Doug: go ahead and get started now and you will have an extra couple weeks.
But suppose we all helped Doug… 100 people walked a little each day for Doug, then he would only have to walk – What? A little less than a mile each day. Or about 6 miles each week.
Now, some people will walk much more than that while others maybe can’t walk that much but the average will help the overall total. We work together.
I'd like to do this program in our church....tracking how much we walk each week by each person that would like to join in...give everyone a pedometer...it would help us to thing about carry the cross to Jerusalem. it would be a tool that people would ask us about... a witness tool.
Last Week: Remember - Come and See
Find ourselves in Mark-shortest of the Gospels _getting Jesus to the cross ASAP
• Tell the Story: Jesus tells the Good News
o Time has come
o Kingdom is near
o Repent
o Believe
• Andrew and Simon - Come & Follow Me
o At Once- Straightway they left nets
• James and John – w/o delay Jesus called-
o Straightway they left their father/workers
o Followed Jesus
Straightway! Mark 1:18 KJV
18 And straightway they forsook their nets, and followed him.
+ Mark loved this word… 19 out of 42 times in the entire Bible, trying to get to the point straightway.
Mark loves the word :"Straightway" ... I love this world straightway...there is no hesitation, no beguile, no personal prejudices...nothing but God. Straight from the heart.
Straightway can have several meanings but I want to talk about two of them.
1. Straightway can mean "time" --
Immediate, instantaneous, abrupt, urgent, in need of attention, on the spot… no delay…placed first.
or
A straight path… a “straight way” a straight line is always quicker. Distance or journey.
Matt 7:14 KJV Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.
Let's talk about Straightway in Time first:
The disciples left what they were doing straightway and they followed Jesus. They drop everything and left w/o packing a toothbrush.
How many times do we hesitate or make excuses why we can't "Straightway" make a decision for the Lord, to do something for the Lord, to be involved for the Lord.
Not Now: Emmaus, Bible Study, Sunday School, scripture reading, personal devotions, helping others, visiting the sick and shut-ins. These are all examples and manifestations of our faith and salvation in Christ.
Rationalize: that's the pastor's job, someone else will do it, I'll volunteer later, I don't have time, I don't like those people, I don't have the money, I can't do that...
Paul tells us w/o works we have no faith.- should me a person who has works and I'll show you a person who has faith.
No works-no salvation no works- no love of God no works- no hope
Let's talk about "Straightway" as distance or direction.
Our journey to heaven should be a straight course but sin takes us on detours or u-turns.
Go thru sin which is not a straight path, may have to return thru the muck and mire.
Illustration of home invasion with parishioner from Scott's church.
Couple are going out and as they leave, two teenagers see them. they wait for them to drive away and ten they break into their house. The woman had left her purse on the table so they grabbed that and ran. Once they opened the purse they saw her cell phone and she had been text messaging about go to a birthday party and they knew she would not return for quite a while. They went back and cleaned out the house, guns, rifles, laptop, (anything of value). When coulpe returned home, they were so upset and called the police... the state police came and brought in tracking dogs and the scent lead then right to the door of the two that had broken in...their scent lead the dogs right to them. What a surprise?
You leave a crooked path and sin causes you to go off course and to get back to the rigt path sometimes requires going back through the murk and mud.
1. Take a Map- can we go anywhere in a straight line? It is very difficult. GPS now helpful but still no straightway.
2. Completing a job! Never straightway!
a. Things get in the way, Weather, Time, Resources, Energy, Manpower, Finances.
3. Our first Loves
a. We want the straightway to their hearts
i. What did we do…constant thought, scheming ways to attract their attention immediately.
ii. Calls on the phone, letters, driving by their home, thinking about them constantly, always wanting to be around them.
Once we get what we seek, it loses some of the straightway attention? It loses its’ priority!
God in our life helps us maintain that focus on the straightway. We will not achieve the kingdom of God in this life.
We can’t let earthy life get in the way of the eternal straightway. Not family, not spouses, not money, not work, not jobs …God comes first.
When God comes first, all the other straight ways in our life fall along the God path. They fall right in synch.
Ok, let's go back to our formula that we learned in the beginning. But I'm giving you some Heavenly math here this morning: This higher math
Rate of Speed = Distance and time
This is some kind of algebra:
Rate of Speed or our Straightwayness = distance (How far are we from Christ) a split second but for today, let's say a second...Peter, John, James and Andrew dropped what they were doing in that moment, that second and follow Christ.
Divided By
Time ( the time we decide to do God's will, the time we spend thinking, talking, praying, reading, acting, feeling , all our senses for Christ.)
86400 seconds in a day...How we use each one of those seconds for Christ or for our self and this world. gives us our straightway rating or speed.
So in the course of a day we can be zero thoughts for Christ or somewhere between zero and a fraction of one because we can never be one on this earth. Never be w/o sin until we are totally one with him.
1/0 to 86400 can equal 0 to maybe .75 which would be 64800... .75 is really good. Closer to One the closer, the more mature in our faith, which will be reflected in our works, our love, our faith, our salavtion.
If Sunday for 2 hours gives us a Straightway-ness of .08 what the rest of the weekdays give us a closeness to Christ scale. How are we one with Christ?
That oneness is not just personal but it the same for the church...we are the church and our spiritual straightness with the Lord is a reflection of our maturity. The higher we are to one, the more mature.
Some Christians move really slow on the Straightway-ness scale...never really getting closer to Christ's heart while others are hitting 60 to 75 percent every day. It is the combination of your days and weeks, years that get your closer to the Lord. You know once you get the momentum going he is easier to maintain the straightway-ness rate.
Jesus spent his 3 years spreading the good news straightway. There was an urgency then and there is an urgency now.
Mark wrote the shortest gospel but maybe the most read- he was in a hurry to get Jesus to the cross.
When Christ calls, it is a calling by divine grace; whenever it comes, men and women are led “straightway” to obey it. I may call you as long as I please, yet you will not come to Christ for all my calling; but if Christ shall call you by his Spirit, you will come and come “straightway.”
When the command of Christ is applied to the soul with divine energy, there is an immediate
yielding of the heart to him, and his law is obeyed in the life. Judge yourselves therefore, whether the Word of God has come with power to you, or not; for if it has not come with almighty power, but you merely hear it as I speak it, you will say to me, as Felix said to Paul,
“Go thy way for this time; when I have a convenient season, I will call for thee.” Paul, you have almost persuaded.
I don't know if I got the message across this morning but here is the bottom line:
The greater the rate of speed ("Straightway"), greater the time (With Christ), the less distance between you and the Lord.
The greater the rate of speed ("Straightway"), greater the time (With the world), the less distance between you and Satan.
