Mark 1:35-39- "You had one job"

Apparently, the last batch of passports which were issued for Spanish citizens were stamped incorrectly.

Instead of having the letters PAO stamped on the inside cover, they had PA zero stamped on them instead.

Not a huge problem.

It just meant that thousands of Spanish people could not leave their country and go on holiday or business, because they didn’t have the official stamp of approval.

Now, anyone could mistake a letter O, for a zero, but still….

They had just one job, one stamp, on a passport.

If only they had just slowed down, double checked, triple checked, perhaps this mistake wouldn’t have happened.

Now obviously when we look at this passage that we have just read, it should encourage us, to slow down, pause, and pray…..and yes, it does, but before I get to the slow down, pause and pray, I also want to encourage you with this today….

It is OK to be busy…….

It is OK to be busy…….

God created us to work,

He created us to be creative: like He is

And so it is OK, in fact it is good to be busy with work

He created us to be relational: like He is

And so it is good to be busy with relationships

You see, before we get to this passage, where we see that Jesus slowed down, went to an isolated place to pray, we also observe that he had been super busy……

He had been rounding up a team for his mission, he had been preaching in the synagogues, he had been healing people, he had been casting out demons…..

Jesus was busy doing the work of his father and that was good.

Jesus was doing what his father sent him in to this world to do: to get in amongst the mess of the people and serve them. To show them the kingdom of God at work.

Friends, we must remember that God did not call us to be monks.

He didn’t call us to separate ourselves from the mess of this world, meditate in a corner, sing cum by ah and let the world pass us by.

No, he has called each one of us to get involved in the mess of people’s lives where he has placed us,and serve people he has put around us: He called each one of us to shine the light of Jesus in the dark part of the world where he has placed us, where ever we may be!

It is good to be busy doing the work of the Lord, whether that is at the school you work at, whether that is the factory, or the home you clean, or whatever, it is good to be busy for the work of the Lord.

Revelation 22, suggests that when we reach glory, when we get to heaven, we will still be doing the work of the Lord, whether that is some kind of ruling, or overseeing, whether that is work in worshipping him, or even work of judging the world or judging the angels (1 Cor 6:1-3) I don’t know…….but I do not we won’t be sitting around on clouds playing harps.

God created us to work and so being busy for God is good…..

However, we must be careful…and I am preaching to myself first and foremost, that we must also take time to recharge the batteries, and the best way to recharge our batteries, is to slow down and pray- just like Jesus did- often.

You, like me know that prayer is a vital, crucial part of our Christian walk and yet you, like me know we could be a lot better at building more consistent prayer patterns into our lives.

Jesus, the son of God, God in flesh, was always in prayer.

When Jesus was baptised, he was praying

When Jesus was transfigured, he was praying

Before he chose the 12 apostles he spent the night in prayer

He withdrew to a mountain to pray when others were seeking him as a military leader

When he was tempted the night before his crucifixion, he was praying

If Jesus needed to pray constantly, how much more do we need to pray?

Jesus expects us to pray daily, this is why we pray “Give us this day our daily bread”

So important is prayer, not only for the individual, but for the church family, that the apostles, as they were busy building the early church, set aside the vital tasks of waiting on tables so they could focus on preaching and prayer.

Just look at Acts 6:2-4 with me:

² And the twelve summoned the full number of the disciples and said, “It is not right that we should give up preaching the word of God to serve tables. ³ Therefore, brothers, pick out from among you seven men of good repute, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we will appoint to this duty. ⁴ But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word.”

Now, we Pressies, perhaps have focused on the preaching part well, perhaps…. but we can do much better when it comes to prayer.

Now, as much as we may baulk, at the fact that the apostles didn’t serve the tables, which meant helping out with the food supply for the widows, you would have noticed that the task of serving the tables wasn’t inferior to the task of preaching and prayer.

This is why they choose men who were full of the spirit.

Just like our committee of management, we don’t chose people who are good accountants or good builders, no we vote people in, who are full of the spirit, they are gospel driven people who want to see God’s kingdom grow. The committee is no way inferior to the elders, but they are a vital part of God’s family. The committee and elders work together, complimenting each other.

I think one reason why the apostles didn’t serve tables, is because they knew, they just couldn’t do everything.

It has only taken me 45 years to learn this…..but I, you, can’t do everything.

Even when Jesus was on this earth, he couldn’t do everything.

Well he could, but he chose not to!

When Jesus slipped away early in the morning to pray by himself, he left behind a bunch of people whom he had just healed and he left behind more people who wanted to be healed.

But instead of Jesus going back to Peter’s mother-in-law’s house, and continue healing, he went on to the next village to preach.

In order for Jesus to preach in the next town, he had to say NO to something that was really good too,he had to say No, to going back to Peter’s house, following up on the people he healed and probably healing more people.

Friends, as a follower of Christ, you may sometimes, or perhaps often have to say NO, to something really good, because:

1.        You simply can’t do everything.

2.        You might as well focus on doing one or two things well.

I want to encourage you today, to focus on those one or two things, one or two tasks that God has given you and drill down on those things, do them again and again and ask God to help you improve in those things.

If you don’t know what those one or two things are, ask someone who is close to you, or better yet pray and ask God to show you, or if worse comes to worse, come and see me and I will tell you which couple of things you can drill down on.

Finally, we see here that Jesus primarily didn’t come to heal the sick or cast our demons, but primarily Jesus came to preach.

Look at verses 35-38 with me again.

³⁵ And rising very early in the morning, while it was still dark, he departed and went out to a desolate place, and there he prayed. ³⁶ And Simon and those who were with him searched for him, ³⁷ and they found him and said to him, “Everyone is looking for you.” ³⁸ And he said to them, “Let us go on to the next towns, that I may preach there also, for that is why I came out”

Jesus wasn’t saying he came out of Peter’s house to preach.

No, he was saying that he came out of heaven to preach, He stepped off his throne in heaven and came to the mess of this world to preach to tell people the good news- the kingdom of God had arrived, the king was here.

Interestingly there is not one time in the gospels, where Jesus went into a town to heal or cast out demons. Jesus wasn’t a travelling healing or exorcism tour, NO, his purpose was to preach, the healing and exorcisms just accompanied his preaching.

In Romans 10 it tells us that faith comes through hearing the word of God, not through physical healing, not through exorcisms but through hearing the word of God.

No wonder Jesus drilled down on this preaching: the heart of God: is salvation.

That is why whatever we do, whatever business we are doing for the Lord, it must be with a heart to see people saved.

We all have this one job.

Let us pray.