The Moral Perfection of Christ

Nancy: Through this series we're following along with a book by Oswald Sanders called  The Incomparable Christ. Today we come to the first chapter in that book, which is called, “The Moral Perfection of Christ.” What we're really talking about when we talk about his perfection is His beauty, His loveliness—the beauty of Christ.

He is the Model of all that is fair, all that is truly beautiful. He is the only “Perfect 10.” Everything about Him is in perfect symmetry, perfect balance, perfect proportion. He is the only one who does not need any enhancements. He could not be any more perfect than He is.

How different is that from us? We all need to be enhanced. Whether it's facial beauty, or character beauty, or moral beauty, we all have imperfections. Aren't we painfully aware of those? We look in the mirror and we see things we wish were different. Others see things in us they wish were different. But you look at Christ, and you will never see anything that needs to be different.

We see in the Gospels, as Oswald Sanders points out in his book, “the portrait of a Man, a real Man, who displays perfection at every stage of development and in every circumstance of life.” (The Incomparable Christ, p. 18). 

You get this thought in Psalm 45. It's a love-thought, a love poem that says . . . I think of the Messianic coming of Christ. "You are fairer than the sons of men." There's no one like you. You're incomparable. "Grace is poured upon Your lips; therefore God has blessed You forever” (Psalm 45:2, NKJV). 

Over the centuries there have been many song writers and hymn writers and poets who have tried to capture this portrait in words. I think of an old hymn that was written in 1700s that has been one of my favorites over the years. It says,

Majestic sweetness sits enthroned upon the Savior’s brow;
His head with radiant glories crowned, His lips with grace o'erflow.

Survey the beauties of His face, and on His glories dwell;
Think of the wonders of His grace, and all His triumphs tell.

No mortal can with Him compare among the sons of men;
Fairer is He than all the fair who fill the heav’nly train.

("Majestic Sweetness Sits Enthroned" by Samuel Stennett) 

He's more wonderful, more beautiful than any mortal, any human being. He is more fair and more wonderful than anyone in the angelic host in heaven.

The beauty of Christ is not so much physical as it is His graces, the graces of Christ. As a man—and we're going to be considering Christ's life and ministry here on the earth over these next weeks during the Lenten season leading up to the passion week of Christ—He possessed every grace, every virtue in perfect tension and balance. Not one is missing; not one is out of balance. He had no “flat areas” as we all do, no deficiencies. Sometimes you have a lot of one grace, but then you are kind of off in the counterpart of that.

Christ had them all in perfect tension, perfect balance, perfect symmetry. He kept the Law of God perfectly. It's not just that He avoided committing any sins, but He perfectly lived up to the standard of God’s law. He never fell short in any way.

There is a lot that can be gained for our lives by taking some time to contemplate the perfection of Christ, the loveliness of Christ, the beauty of Christ. I'm glad that Sanders started out his book in this first chapter not by going to the birth of Christ, but by going to the overarching loveliness, beauty, and perfection of Christ. There is no one like Him.

There is a wonderful passage in the Song of Songs, the Song of Solomon, in the Old Testament. The Song of Solomon is a love story. It's the poem about the king and his bride. It's a beautiful picture of human marriage. But you also realize in this book that you are seeing an unveiling of the splendor, the beauty, and the loveliness of the Lord Jesus Himself.

In this Song of Songs, as it's called, chapter 5, we have an account where the Bridegroom comes to His bride. He knocks on the door of her chamber. He asks her to open to Him. He wants to be with her, and He wants to spend time with her. But she makes excuses: She's tired. She's ready for bed. She doesn't feel like it.

He persists. She finally gets up to open the door for Him and then finds out He is gone. He's not there. She is distressed by this turn of events. She goes out and into the city and goes everywhere looking for Him, saying to people, “Have you found Him?” She goes then to the daughters of Jerusalem—these are friends of hers—and she says to them, “Do you know where my beloved is? Have you seen Him? Can you tell me where He's gone?”

Then in verse 9 of the Song of Songs, the daughters say to her, “What is your beloved more than another beloved, O fairest among women? What is your beloved more than another beloved, that you so charge us?” They're saying, “What's so special about Him that you miss Him so much? You know He's gone, but maybe there are others who are just like Him. Maybe you can find somebody else to replace Him.”

She begins to think about that, and beginning in verse 10, she responds to their question, “What is your beloved more than another beloved? What makes Him so special? What makes Him so unique?” She begins to describe her beloved to these daughters of Jerusalem.

She says in verse 10, “My beloved is white and ruddy, chief among ten thousand.” There is no one else like Him. Then over those next several verses, she gives a detailed description of His physical attributes, His characteristics, what it is that she admires about Him. She gives this detailed description.

Then she finishes that in verse 16, where she says, “His mouth is most sweet, yes, he is altogether lovely. This is my beloved, and this is my friend, O daughters of Jerusalem!" (NKJV). 

John Flavel was a Puritan pastor in the 1600s who wrote a whole song on this verse of Song of Songs 5:16, "He is altogether lovely." He called the message “Christ Altogether Lovely.” He said,

Cast your eyes among all created beings, survey the universe: you will observe strength in one, beauty in a second, faithfulness in a third, wisdom in a fourth; but you shall find none excelling in them all as Christ does.

Bread has one quality, water another, raiment another, medicine another; but none has them all in itself as Christ does. He is bread to the hungry, water to the thirsty, a garment to the naked, healing to the wounded; and whatever a soul can desire is found in him. ² 

As this bride recounts to her friends the beauty and the uniqueness of her beloved, two things happen. As you move into chapter 6, you see this. First of all, the people that she's been talking to about her beloved, they want to know Him.

So chapter 6:1, the daughters of Jerusalem say to this bride, “Where has your beloved gone, O most beautiful among women? Where has your beloved turned, that we may seek him with you?”

When they hear this description, they think, “Wow, He really is unique. There really is no one else like Him. We want to know Him. We want to seek Him with you.”

Then as you turn to verse 2, you see something else that happens as she recounts the loveliness, the beauty, and the wonder of her beloved. The intimacy she once experienced but has lost is restored. She realizes that He really hasn't left, that He is still with her and that she can still have that relationship with Him.

So she says in verse 2, “My beloved has gone down to his garden to the beds of spices, to graze in the gardens and to gather lilies.” That's picturesque symbolic language in this love poem for saying, “My beloved has come to me.” He's gone down to His gardens.

And then she says in verse 3, “I am my beloved’s and my beloved is mine.” There is this precious, sweet, soul satisfaction of once again experiencing intimacy and oneness with the beloved from whom she thought she had been separated, from whom she thought she had lost that intimacy. So others want to know Him. Then the intimacy she once experienced is restored.

So as we think about the beauty and the loveliness of Christ, we tell ourselves about His wonders. We tell others, and they grow to want to know Him. We find that we ourselves enter into a more intimate experience of relationship with Him.

Now as we focus on the beauty and the wonder of Christ, we will come to realize that He is not only our Savior and our Lord—He is all that, and there is much about that that we'll talk about over these next weeks—but we also come to realize that He is also our most priceless treasure.

He is beautiful. He's not just right, He is good. He is lovely. He is perfect. There is nothing on this earth more desirable than Him. In having Christ, we have the most beautiful, the most lovely, the most wonderful thing, the most wonderful possession, the most wonderful relationship that a human being could ever have on this planet.

When we realize the treasure that Christ is, that will cause us to live our lives differently.

• We will not spend all of our lives in pursuit of things and people that can never fully satisfy.
• We will focus our attention and efforts on Christ.
• We will want to have undistracted devotion to Him.
• We will want to spend time with Him.

We won't have to have somebody tell us, “You need to have a quiet time. You need to read your Bible. You need to pray.” We will want to be with Him. We will want to know Him. We will want to say "no" to other things that are distractions in order to pursue Christ because we have come to see that He is lovely.

A reminder here that Christ is only lovely, fair, and beautiful to those whose eyes have been opened to see His beauty. Until the Holy Spirit opens our eyes to see who He is, until that point, our eyes are blind and Christ is undesirable to those who have never seen His beauty.

In fact, we read in Isaiah 53, which is an Old Testament prophetic passage about Christ the Messiah. It says,

He had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not (verses 2-3).

Now, how could people despise one who is so lovely, one who is so beautiful, one who is so perfect? How could we at times and at one point in our lives despise Him and have not esteemed Him? How could we have not cherished Him? How could we have ignored Him? How could so many people in this world still despise Him and not esteem Him and not consider Him lovely and beautiful? How could it be?

It's because at that point our eyes were not opened to know who He is. So many on this planet still have not had their eyes opened to see that He is beautiful. If He is not altogether lovely to you, if He is not your chief treasure, if you don't see Him as a priceless possession, if you don't wonder and marvel at his beauty and loveliness, then you need to ask yourself, “Do I really know Him? Have my eyes been opened to see who He really is?”

If the answer to that question is “no,” then let me encourage you to go to the Lord in prayer and say, “Lord, I want to know Him. Open my eyes to see Christ, to know Him, to see who He really is. Introduce Him to me. Help me to see Him, to know Him as He really is.”

Then we need to remind ourselves that perfection is found only in Christ. It's not found in others or in self. If you look anywhere else to find perfection, to find beauty, to find unmitigated loveliness, to find flawlessness, you will be disappointed.

That's what leads to so much depression and discouragement in this world. It's that we have looked at things and people other than Christ to satisfy the deepest longings of our hearts. Look to anything—your husband, your home, your job, yourself—you will be disappointed. But look to Him, He will always exceed and surpass your highest hopes and expectations. Those who look to Him are never disappointed.

To realize that perfection is found only in Him is to come to the end of striving, the end of human effort to be perfect ourselves. We soon realize we can't be perfect. I meet a lot of Christian women who are trying really hard to be great Christian women.

They're getting discouraged and despairing in the process. Why? Because we can't be perfect. We don’t have that perfect ratio that we talked about.

• We don’t have it physically.
• We don’t have it spiritually.
• We don’t have it morally.
• We are failures desperately in need of a Savior.

So the call to the Christian life is not a call to “turn over a new leaf” or working at becoming a better person, but acknowledging our imperfection. To say, “I am flawed," and allowing the Spirit of Christ to transform us into His likeness as we gaze upon Him.

I woke up this morning feeling very sinful. Thinking about my day yesterday, I didn’t go out and commit these egregious acts of sin, but I woke up this morning thinking my lack of self-control, about different aspects of my responses, my spirit. This happens to me a lot at morning. Am I the only one? Okay, I’m not the only sinner in this room.

I woke up feeling so needy. Then I was reminded of what I was teaching on today. Only Christ is perfect. Christ is perfect. It was that great old-time preacher Robert Murray M'Cheyne who said, “For every look at yourself, take ten looks at Christ.”

Don't live in discouragement. Don't live in failure. Yes, recognize that we are failures. The point is not to convince each other you're a really good person. The point is to realize and remind each other you really are a failure. You are a sinner. You are imperfect; you are flawed. But look at Christ. He is perfect. As we consider and look at the moral perfection, the beauty of Christ, we will respect Him. We will worship Him. We will love Him more. We will want to know Him more intimately. We will want to tell others about Him, even as that bride did in the Song of Songs.

We become more and more like Him, then we will reflect His beauty, His moral perfection to others. As we reflect His beauty, others will desire Him. He will become desirable to them, and the earth will be filled with the glory of Christ.

Lord, how I pray that you would do that work in us; that you would display the beauty of Christ. His is the only perfect face.

So we worship you Lord Jesus. You are lovely. You are good. You are in perfect symmetry. You are in perfect balance, the golden ratio. It's yours. We love you. We ask that our lives may reflect and display your beauty to our world that so desperately needs to see the glory of who You are.

May our lives make others thirsty for you. May it point others to you. May they be drawn to say, “Yes, we love Him. We want to know Him, too.” I pray in Jesus' name, amen.

Scriptures for Meditation

• Isaiah 53:2-3—Jesus, despised and rejected ... we “esteemed Him not”
• Hebrews 9:14—Jesus was “without blemish,” so His blood is a perfect sacrifice for us.
• Hebrews 4:15; 1 Peter 2:22—Jesus was tempted, but did not commit sin.

Making It Personal

• Is Christ your most precious treasure? What about Him do you most value?
• Can you think of a person you have followed who disappointed you because of their sin? How can you be sure your expectations are in Christ alone?

Faith in Practice

Yesterday, I met with my college advisor. He was really nice and I could tell that he really cares about his job/students. He really stressed the importance of me looking at taking a language.

-_- Didn't I already fight this battle?! Not even a year ago I decided that taking a language wasn't for me. Furthermore, I picked up Child and Family Development because I love the topic and it would help me be a better wife and mother, what more could I want?!

Well, my advisor made some pretty good points. But then I wondered, was this a test? Was this me not following Psalms 1:1? I don't know. Then again, maybe God sent him my way because He wants me to hear this. Gar! I hate this processs!!

So I thought I had it all figured out, and now this! I left feeling so confused and dreading the decision in front of me what it was going to take to get there: I pictured myself in our office looking at each possible sinareo from writing out each class per semester to the list of pros and cons. I knew it was going to be mind-numbing. I also knew that I'd try to get advice, but ultimately I need to know what the answer was from God. But how much time do I have? I have to have this together pretty soon!

Walking out of the office I decided to put into practice the words of my pastor:
"We spend so much time saying 'shh! shh! I need to think!' but do we have say 'shh! shh! I need to hear.'"

My goal was to do just that: listen for His voice.

It wasn't easy. I went to the rec to walk off some of the stress and try to clear my head. I found myself trying to analyze the subject a couple times and had to focus myself back on Him.

I prayed for Him to speak to me and show me what HE  wanted. I repeated "trust in the LORD will all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. Acknowledge Him in all your ways and He will make your path straight."

When I tried to picture my future with both cases I saw child and family development with me playing outside with my kids in the front yard on a sunny day. It was awesome and we were all laughing and having fun together. But when I pictued sign language, I saw myself signing to the worship at church. This feeling came over me. Every muscel eased up and I actually smiled. It was a dumb looking smile I'm sure. Like when nerd gets kissed on the cheek by a cheerleader. But I knew then that that's the peace I was looking for.

It's so strange, you know. That's not who I am. I like to know where I'm going and get there. I'm a fret train, not a boat! And alas I feel like God's in the back with the rudder directing me to go to the left, and then the right. Leisurely, wisely, and considerately, but still enough to remind me that I'm not the one calling the shots.

It's so good for me. - for us right now. I've been asking God to direct me step by step and for me to follow Him. It's cool because I told myself that I could lean and trust God for the answer and it would be a good indicaiton of how I would be as a mom one day handling future stresses.

Well, I got home and told Nate everything - except the part about once I got to the rec. I wanted to see what he would say first. and he said sign! I was definitely expecting him to say "well, sign might be a good choice but I think you should do what you like and if C&FD makes you happy that sick with it" I totally lit up! I pray that God will be with us so that we can be in agreement and there have been a few times that we have been that have made me so happy! Once when we weren't and I had to back down on what I wanted, but I'm glad I did because like a week later something better came along!!

God is GOOD. SO good. Jesus, I pray that as I continue to look to the Father for answers You can help me obey. I love You both!

Morgan }|{

Catch up!

I know I haven't been blogging but these past two days with God have done SO much for me.

I'm realizing (by Nate and Pastor John's book,) that I don't see God rightly. I feel like He's kinda mean and will punish me if I don't measure up.

But now, I'm seeing Him as the loving Father who waits patiently for His son to come home. And He runs to him and embraces him because He loves him. Not only that, but He throws him a FEAST!

These past two chapters have been taking about how when we see God has He really is, we obey Him whole-heartedly because we love Him, and we trust him. And when we obey Him with a reverent heart, He comes close to us and manifests Himself in us and we become filled "with all the goodness of God."

I got out my guitar and song along with youtube wanting to worship Him for the revelations about Him that I was recieving. He has given us so much, not just because Nate and I are "doing what we were supposed to" but because He loves us. And we're trying to be with Him.

He's the best. I love Him.

Cultivating a Relationship with God

Leslie Basham: Nancy Leigh DeMoss knows that busy moms are always on the job.

Nancy Leigh DeMoss: You just wish there was one little place in the whole world that you could get away from the crowd. You say, “I know, I’ll go in the bathroom.” Right? And then these little fingers come under the door, and they go, “Mommy!” (Laughter)

Leslie: In whatever season of life you’re in, you know how challenging it is to get away and spend time alone with God.

This is Revive Our Hearts with the author of A Place of Quiet Rest, Nancy Leigh DeMoss.

Nancy covers a lot of topics on Revive Our Hearts, but she often says that if she could only speak on one topic, it’s the one we’re about to hear. Nancy delivered this message at Moody Bible Institute, and I hope it invites you to greater intimacy with God in this new year.

Nancy: I want to talk about the priority of a devotional life and then a bit about the purpose of a devotional life, a few thoughts on the practice of a devotional life, and then just wrapping up with a thought about the product. What’s the outcome of a personal daily devotional life?

What I’m going to do (I’m just telling you in advance) is to ask you to make a commitment that, as God reminds you and enables you, that every day for the next 30 days that you will take some time each day to spend alone with the Lord in His Word and in prayer. So let me just tell you, that’s coming. But in order to lead us to that point, I want to talk about the priority of a daily devotional life.

I’ve been so thrilled to see how God has caused the messages thus far to dovetail and to lead up to what’s on my heart this morning. The priority of a devotional life is illustrated beautifully in the lives of three biblical characters that we’ve heard about already this week.

Monday night Dr. Nyquist talked to us about David, the man after God’s own heart because he was a seeker of God’s heart.

I’ve been memorizing this week and meditating in Psalm chapter 27 where David talks about all of his enemies, his foes, his stresses, his pressures, all that’s going on in his life, and then in verse 4 he says, “One thing have I asked of the LORD.”

You think about all the things David could have asked God for, all the things David could have desired for God to do for him, but he said, “There’s one thing, if I had to reduce it to its irreducible minimum; if I could only ask God for one thing.” What would it be, David? “One thing have I asked of the LORD, that will I seek after”. . . that will I pursue, that will I be intentional about. What is it? “That I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD and to inquire in his temple.”

David says, “With all that’s going on around me, all the crises in my life—the crises in my government, the crises with the opposition, the political decisions that need to be made—the one thing that matters most to me is that I can live in the presence of God. I can look upon His beauty, gaze upon Him. I can live in His presence. I can look upon His beauty, and I can learn from Him every day of my life.” That’s the one thing, David, a man of one consuming passion that drove his life.

What’s your passion? What’s the one thing that you desire from God above all others? Would it be what David said in Psalm 27:4?

Last night Pastor Jobe took us to Exodus 33. I was actually thinking of speaking on this text, and I’m glad I listened in last night to hear that he took us in such a powerful way to that picture of Moses in Exodus 33, how Moses had that regular habit of leaving the camp, going out to the Tent of Meeting to meet with the Lord. We heard about the effect that had on Moses’ life.

Then yesterday morning Pastor Ford, speaking about Mary of Bethany, took us to John 12 where she gave that extravagant offering of worship to the Lord. He referenced that wonderful passage in Luke chapter 10 where Mary and Martha had Jesus over for dinner. Remember how Mary sat at the Lord’s feet listening to His Word?

The priority of cultivating an intimate relationship with Jesus Christ by spending time in His presence, listening to His Word.

Now, the contrast in that passage—and you know the story—is the sister Martha, who, unlike Mary, as the Scripture tells us, is distracted with much serving.

Now, I just have to tell you, I far more often find myself in Martha’s shoes than in Mary’s—distracted with much serving. Busyness. Doing good things. Serving the Lord. Spending so much time in the work of the ministry that we don’t have time for the Lord of the ministry.

Ministry itself, tasks in the ministry can actually keep us from seeking God’s heart. Now, they don’t have to, but they can. So Jesus says to Martha, “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things” (Luke 10:41). 

Think about your to-do list, your agenda, all the things on your list, and at the end of the day, you say, “Boy, I just didn’t even get to those things at all.”

“Martha, Martha, you are troubled and anxious about many things, but one thing is needful.”

David said, “One thing have I asked of the Lord.”

Jesus says to Martha, “One thing is absolutely necessary. If you don’t get anything else done on your to-do list today, will it be this one thing? One thing is needful.”

What is that thing? It’s what Mary has chosen—to sit at the feet of Jesus and listen to Him, to commune with Him. He says, “Mary has chosen that good portion, [that one needful thing] which will not be taken away from her” (verses 41-42). This requires a conscious, deliberate choice.

I’ve found, and I’m sure you have, too, that if I just try and fit God into my day, He’s going to get crowded out. What I need to do is plant Him in the middle of my day, first in my day, core central in my day, and then let everything else fill its way in. “Mary has chosen that good part.”

Our churches and our ministries, so many of them, are filled with stressed-out servants, busy people who need to get to the feet of Jesus and sit and listen to His Word.

I’m so thankful for the example of this principle that I had in my life of a dad, Art DeMoss, whose first priority at the beginning of each day was to seek the Lord in that quiet time—call it devotions, quiet time, holy hour. I don’t really care what you call it. I do care that you get it.

My dad became a Christian in his mid-20s. He was not from a godly background. He had been a wild profligate rebel, and in his mid-20s the gospel of Christ was presented to him, and God rescued him from himself, brought him to Christ. It was a dramatic conversion, and his life was totally transformed . . . which is the way I think it’s supposed to be with all of us.

Then somebody challenged my dad in his first year as a Christian to begin giving to God the first hour of every day in the Word and in prayer. My dad took that challenge, and he kept that commitment every single day for the rest of his life until 28 years later when he went home to be with the Lord.

Now, he started a business later on, when we were little, and he was a very busy man. He traveled a lot. He had a lot going on in his life, but nothing to him was more important, nothing was more important than that time in the morning of seeking the Lord. He was a man of ritual, a man of habit. It wasn’t a legalistic thing for him. It was a delight, but he didn’t vary his routine much, if at all.

He had a little kneeling pad (I don’t know how many of those he wore out over the years) that he’d pull out from under his desk, and that’s where he would kneel. We kids knew that before we were up in the morning, our dad had been up on his knees praying for us and for many, many, many others who were on his prayer list—people who needed Christ; marriages that needed put back together.

We knew that he was going to be in this Book reading two chapters from the Old Testament, one chapter from the New, five chapters from the Psalms, and one from the Proverbs. That was his practice. That’s not “the right practice,” but it was one that kept him in the whole counsel of God, seeking God for wisdom every single day of his life.

No matter what was on the schedule, no matter how late he’d come in the night before . . . although I’ll tell you this: A devotional habit in the morning really begins the night before, and my dad was religious about getting to bed the night before.We’d laugh about how we’d have company at the house, and at 10 o’clock he would exit. No matter what was going on, he’d say, “You all turn out the lights and lock the door when you leave.” (Laughter) Because he had an appointment in the morning.

By the way, it’s also a reason that the whole time we were growing up we didn’t have a television in our home. Poor, deprived DeMoss kids. The biggest reason (there were other reasons) but the biggest reason was he didn’t want himself or us frittering away nighttime hours that would be keeping us from having a heart and a hunger and the alertness to get up and meet God in the morning.

Let me just say, by the way, to those of you who are parents: My parents made a lot of mistakes; they’d be the first to say that. But there’s something very powerful about your children knowing that you are meeting with the Lord at the start of every day to seek Him.

I have in my mind’s eye . . . My dad has now been with the Lord for more than 30 years. I never knew him as an adult. But when I get ready to hit my day running . . . I wish I could say I had the same record he did about the daily devotional life. I don’t have anywhere close to that. But when I get ready to hit my day running, to hit my email, to hit the tasks of the day, I have this indelible image imprinted on my heart of a dad who was up first thing in the morning to seek the Lord, and I’m so thankful for that example and that image.

Now, I want to take us today to another example of the priority of a devotional life, and none greater than the Lord Jesus Himself. So let me ask you if you’d turn in your Bible to the gospel of Mark, chapter 1.

David and Moses, we’ve looked at their examples, but both of those spiritual giants pointed to Christ—Christ the greater Moses; Christ the son of David, the greater David.

I want us to look at a day in the life of the Lord Jesus because there are a lot of us in this room today and listening on the radio or over the Internet who are thinking, “I just don’t have time in my day to do one more thing, and you’re just piling one more responsibility on me.”

If you’re going to be spiritual, let me just say, this is not a spiritual good-luck charm, like your day will go better if you have a devotional time. We’re talking about relationship here and how you cultivate relationship with the God of the universe.

For those of us who think we are so busy, I want us to look at this single day in the life of the Lord Jesus, who, by the way, when you think about a long to-do list . . . Think about the fact that Jesus was given three years to accomplish the eternal plan of redemption. Now somehow I don’t think my agenda is more important or more difficult or challenging or demanding than His, and I think my days are so full. But I want us to look at just a day in the life of the Lord Jesus, beginning in verse 21 of Mark 1.

They went into Capernaum, and immediately on the Sabbath he entered the synagogue and was teaching. And they were astonished at his teaching, for he taught them as one who had authority, and not as the scribes (verses 21-22).

Now some of you are involved in teaching the Word, ministering the Word. You teach a Sunday school class, you lead a small group in your Bible study, you’re involved in one-on-one discipleship, you’re imparting the Word of God to others. Hundreds of you here are students who are studying to do that, Lord willing, for the rest of your lives. Let me just say I know, as a woman who is teaching the Word to other women on a consistent basis, that it takes something out of you to do what Jesus did here.

You’re giving, and you’re not just giving on the spot. There’s the preparation. I’ve been laboring over this message since last March, April, or May, whenever it was that Ed Cannon called me and said, “Will you speak at Founder’s Week?” There’s always in your heart this kind of churning, this, “What does God want me to share?”

There’s this preparation; there’s time in the Word; there’s not only this preparing your notes, but there’s this preparing your heart and asking God to make your life consistent with what you’re about to pour out. There’s this giving out in the moment of giving out the Word, and then afterwards the ministering to people.

There’s this whole process there when you’re teaching the Word that involves being depleted, giving out to others, and Jesus knows about what that is like.

Verse 23:

And immediately there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit. And he cried out, "What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are—the Holy One of God." But Jesus rebuked him, saying, "Be silent, and come out of him!" And the unclean spirit, convulsing him and crying out with a loud voice, came out of him. And they were all amazed, so that they questioned among themselves, saying, "What is this? A new teaching with authority! He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey him” (verses 23-28). 

As you read the Scriptures, wherever Jesus went, Hell reared its ugly head. And by the power of God and the anointing of the Holy Spirit on and in and through Jesus’ life, Hell was shattered wherever Jesus went.

You say, “Well, I’m not involved in exorcisms and all of that.” Well, according to my Bible, Ephesians chapter 6 and other passages, we’re all in a spiritual battle and Satan is alive and well, and there are enemy forces always seeking to undo, to stop the progress of the gospel in and through our lives.

Day after day we are involved in that warfare, in dependence upon the name of Christ and the power of His Holy Spirit, and that takes something out of you. This is not just like an ordinary, every day Sunday service. There’s stuff going on here. This is battle, and we are sent into battle.

Some of you who are parents, some of you moms, you say, “Yes, I don’t even have to leave my house, and there’s a battle going on. I’ve got all these little kids, and it’s just so tough.” Life is tough, and there’s an enemy who is always seeking to destroy and to defile. So there’s that giving out, that expenditure in the battle.

Then, verse 28:

And at once his fame spread everywhere throughout all the surrounding region of Galilee.

So all of a sudden Jesus is front page, headline news. Everybody’s talking about Him. Everybody wants Him to come to their event and speak. Everybody wants Him to sign their copy of His Book. Everybody wants a piece out of Him.

For those who think they’d like that kind of popularity and fame, chances are you’ve never had it, because it’s exhausting. People all the time wanting something from you.

You see that as you get into verse 29 and following:

And immediately he left the synagogue and entered the house of [His good friend] Simon and Andrew, with James and John.

You think, “Whew!” Finally, a chance to let your hair down. You’ve had a long day of ministry; finally you get to relax at home, kick your feet up, pick up a copy of the newspaper or magazine, whatever, check your email . . . look what happens.

Verse 30:

Now Simon’s mother-in-law lay ill with a fever, and immediately they told him about her.

There’s still someone with a need, and who are they going to look to? The one they know can meet the need, the Lord Jesus. So, as you would expect, in verse 31,

He came and took her by the hand and lifted her up, and the fever left her, and she began to serve them.

“Whew! Now I can just let down.” Right? Look at the next verse:

That evening at sundown [same day] they brought to him all who were sick or oppressed by demons. [The crowd is knocking at the door.] And the whole city was gathered together at the door (verses 32-33).

Now, I don’t know how many people were in that city, but it sounds like a lot to me. Do you ever feel like the whole city is gathered at your door?

I mean, you’re an R.A. here on campus, and you’re trying to get your studies done and trying to seek the Lord and trying to do the ministry God’s called you to, and there’s always somebody knocking at your door. “I want help.” And it’s not just normal daytime hours. You can’t just say, “Okay, these are the hours you can have a crisis.” (Laughter) It’s the middle of the night.

Again, some of you are moms, and that’s who I’m usually ministering to. You moms know. You just wish there was like one little place in the whole world where you could get away from the crowd. You say, “I know, I’ll go in the bathroom.” Right? And then these little fingers come under the door, and they go, “Mommy!” You want to say, “My name’s not Mommy anymore. Go find another mommy.” (Laughter)

The whole city—there’s always someone with a need. If you haven’t experienced it yet, if you’re going to be in ministry, you will experience that, especially if God is using you. People are going to want help. People are needy. It’s a fallen, broken world, and the whole city is gathered at the door—same day. It’s not like Jesus is fresh and first thing in the morning. He’s been serving all day.

He healed many who were sick with various diseases, and cast out many demons. And he would not permit the demons to speak, because they knew him (verse 34).

Now, as I read about this day, I think about my own days. My tendency in days like this is to get frenzied and frazzled and really tired of the crowds. I say, “How did Jesus do it? How did He keep His cool? How did He not start to resent these people?”

I’ll just be honest with you: There are times at the end of a long day or a long weekend of ministry when I just want all the people to go away. I’m basically an introvert. When you’re on the platform, people don’t usually think of you that way, but crowds drain me. There are times . . . I’m not proud of this; I’m not bragging about it. I’m just telling you, there are times when I can start to resent the very people the Lord sent me to serve.

Now nobody will come up and talk to me afterwards because you’re afraid I’ll resent you! (Laughter)

I look at Jesus, and I say, “How did He do it?”

You say, “He was God.”

Well, He was God, of course, but He was serving as a man to show us how we as humans filled with His grace and His Holy Spirit could serve like Him.

I think the very next verse, verse 35, gives us the key. Are you ready?

Very early in the morning, while it was still dark Jesus got up.

Now, there’s more, but let me just stop there for a moment. I can just tell you that after a day like Jesus just had, that full of giving out and spending and pouring out in ministry, there’s only one thing I want to do very early the next morning while it’s still dark, and that is spelled S-L-E-E-P. (Laughter) Keep those curtains down. I like breakfast. It’s my favorite meal of the day . . . if I can have it at 11. (Laughter)

But “very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus gets up,” and what does He do? He left the house and went off to a solitary place where He prayed—communion with His Heavenly Father.

Leslie: Nancy Leigh DeMoss has been giving a message called, Discovering the Joy of Daily Devotions. We’ll hear more tomorrow, but we did have to cut several minutes out of that message to fit our time slot on the radio.

To hear the entire message without interruption, just order the CD at ReviveOurHearts.com. Look for the series, Discovering the Joy of Daily Devotions.

Today’s program is possible thanks to listeners like Carol.

Carol: I am almost 64 years old, an avid listener of Christian radio.

Leslie: She’s part of an important group called the Ministry Partner team. She was motivated after listening to Nancy as a regular listener for a while.

Carol: I just felt that her ministry had so challenged me personally. You just want to be a part of that. When you’re blessed by a ministry, you need to help support the ministry rather than being a spectator only or a listener only, a participant. Of course, you feel that what you do is so miniscule compared to the need, but everyone can do something regardless of how small you feel it is. There’s just nothing else like it out there. It’s unique.

1 John 3

I really like this chapter. I just have to figure out how to blog about it.

So far this is what I picked up on today:

1. I really need to have more of a compassionate heart. Not be so stingy and give more without hesitation.

2. I need to trust God more. With full confidence. I have no reason not too.

3. I need to obey His commands fully.

1 John 1:5-10

1:5 "God is light" = God is the Revealer of His holiness. Both aspects of the divine nature figure in the discussion of sin and fellowship in 1 John 1:6-10. As Light, God both exposes man's sin and condemns it. If anyone walks in darkness he is hiding form the truth which the Light reveals.

1:6 - A Christian cannot truly claim communion with Him while living in darkness because He is Light. Christians sometimes feign (pretend to be affected by) spirituality while engaging in acts of disobedience.

1:7 - There can be only one sphere of real communion with God - the light itself. "with one another" isn't between other Christians, but between ourselves and God. If Christians live in the light where God is, there there is mutual fellowship between Himself and them. - The light is the fundamental reality which they share: True communion with God is living in the sphere where one's experience is illumined by the truth of what God is. It is ti love open to His revelation of Himself in Jesus Christ. - This entails believers acknowledging whatever the light reveals is wrong in their lives.

- John talks about walking IN the light, not ACCORDING TO the light because that would rewuire sinless perfection and would make fellowship with God impossible. To walk IN it, however, suggests openness and responsiveness to the light.

- Believers who walk in the light 1) have fellowship with God and 2) are being cleansed from every sin. So long as there is true openness to the light, our failures are under the cleansing power of Christ's blood shed for us.

1:8 - The heart is full of depravity. The Truth may be "in" us as a controlling, motivating influence, but until heaven, this claim will always be false. We should always be ready and willing to confess whatever sins/failures that God's light exposes.

1:9 - "Our" is not in the Greek txt. Paraphrased, it should be more like "If we confess our sins, He will forgive the sins we confess and moreover will even cleanse us from all unrighteousness."
- Each Christian is responsible to acknowledge (the meaning of confess cf 2:23 and 4:3) whatever the light makes him aware of,and when he does so a complete and perfect cleansing is granted him.
- He is Faithful = forgiveness is assured.
- He is just = it does not go against His character.

Rethinking

I'm used to rewriting my commentary on here, but the past 3 days it's been the part I dread the most. I like reading it for info, but reposting it doesn't make too much sense and I think has taken the spirit out of the letter sotospeak.

I don't really know what to do now to be honest. I think I'll still read it, and still write anything I connect with, but for the most part, I want to focus on my RELATIONSHIP with Jesus.

That being said, in 1st John I'm on chapter 2 and it seems . . . . weird. I LOVE the beginning verse about Jesus interceeding for us. And the ones about not loving the world, but I don't really care for the rest.

I'm still fixated on what it means/would look like to "be in the light" like Jesus was. I want cummunion with God and I know if I love Him I have to keep His commands. My commentary also said a lot of it is confessing sin when the light exposses it. Which I did this morning. I know of one in paticular that I'm somewhat ashamed of at the moment but trying to make right. *Sigh*

I want to fall in love with Jesus. Knowing the background/history is cool and defnintely benifical, but I don't want that to be my goal. I want to talk with Him, walk with Him, sing to Him, enjoy being with Him. I want my life on earth to be as close as what it must have been like to be in the Garden as possible. - minus the fall of humanity that is ; )

There's such a hussle and bussle to our everyday lives. Right now it's school, working out, homework, dinner, chores, trying to spend time with Nate, tv shows, facebook. I don't want to exclude any of those, but I do want to invite Jesus into each of them. I'm still learning how our relationship works. I talk to Him a lot more and I'm not going to worry about talking to much (not listening) b/c I beleive I listen when I obey what I know He's telling me.

Anyway, 2nd john seems somewhat dry (Sorry God!:( ) beyond the verses I said I liked. We'll see if my heart/head will change on that.