Daily Grace for the Daily Race

Daily Grace for the Daily Race

“Daily Grace for the Daily Race”
(Mark 1:35)
Fall Retreat: The Amazing Race

Rev. Todd A. Linn, PhD

Henderson’s First Baptist Church, Henderson

Open your Bibles to Mark, chapter 1 today.

Many of our folks are at our Fall Retreat this weekend and Michele and I were able to be there Friday and yesterday too. The theme of the weekend retreat is “The Amazing Race,” finding encouragement from the Word as we run the Christian race.

I really felt led to share with you this morning what I shared with the folks Friday evening. Not everyone could be on the retreat and this way we can all be on the same page and receive the same teaching and come back next week to Galatians. What I want to share is also applicable to our Galatians study because we’ve been talking about “walking in the Spirit,” maintaining a life of dependence upon Jesus Christ so as to not “fulfill the lust of the flesh.”

So I want to share with you how we can prepare each day for the race that is set before us. Remember how the writer of Hebrews describes Christian living as a race? He says in Hebrews 12:1-2: “…let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith…”

We’re all running the race. We want to be able to complete the race like Paul writes in 2 Timothy 4:7, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.”

Remember:

“Every morning in Africa, a gazelle wakes up. It knows it must run faster than the fastest lion or it will be killed. Every morning a lion wakes up. It knows it must outrun the slowest gazelle or it will starve to death. It doesn’t matter whether you’re a lion or gazelle. When the sun comes up, you’d better be running.”

Just as physical exercise is important to running a physical race, so spiritual training and spiritual discipline is necessary for running our spiritual race, running for Jesus is a matter of daily training. We are wise to train at the beginning of each day by having what we call our time of DQ—Daily Quiet Time.

If you have a Bible tonight, open to Mark chapter 1.
What we’re reading about this morning occurs after a busy day in Capernaum. Jesus is at Simon Peter’s house where He had healed Peter’s mother-in-law the day before. Someone said that’s the real reason Peter would later deny Christ, because He had healed his mother-in-law! Not true, but always fun to say.

Read Mark 1:35-39.

35 Now in the morning, having risen a long while before daylight, He went out and departed to a solitary place; and there He prayed.
36 And Simon and those who were with Him searched for Him.
37 When they found Him, they said to Him, “Everyone is looking for You.”
38 But He said to them, “Let us go into the next towns, that I may preach there also, because for this purpose I have come forth.”
39 And He was preaching in their synagogues throughout all Galilee, and casting out demons.

Pray.

I want to talk about “Daily Grace for the Daily Race” largely from verse 35, and we’ll talk about the importance of having a meaningful DQ, a daily quiet time with the Lord. 3 Words:

1) Priority

Despite an incredibly busy day of ministry Jesus made His QT a first order matter of business. It was a priority.

Mark’s Gospel conveys a matter of urgency. There’s an immediacy to it, a busyness to the life of Christ.

Of the 45 verses in chapter 1, 35 of them begin with a Greek word that is translated either “now” or “and.” You can see that in some of the more literal English translations. Mark is telling the story an it’s like, “Now this happened, and that happened, and then this, now that.” It’s just one moment after another. Especially right after the baptism of Jesus in verse 10: “And immediately coming up from the water,” verse 11: “Then a voice came,” verse 12: Immediately the Spirit, 13—And He was there, 14—Now after, 16—And as, 17—Then Jesus, 18—They immediately, 20—And immediately, and on it goes

Verse 32 at evening when the sun had set, they brought to Him all who were sick and those who were demon-possessed.
Verse 33 And the whole city was gathered together at the door…and he healed many of them and cast out demons…such activity! Exhausted. Tired. Yet, verse 35:

35 Now in the morning, having risen a long while before daylight, He went out and departed to a solitary place; and there He prayed.

The words here refer to “the last watch of the night from three to six A.M.”

Jesus could have slept-in. And why not? Revival had broken-out in Capernaum. But He is up early to spend time with God.

In fact the text suggests that Simon Peter and the other disciples did sleep-in that morning. Verse 36—“And Simon and those who were with Him searched for Him.” Simon gets up bleary-eyed, walks over and knocks on Jesus’ door to talk breakfast, and Jesus is not there. So they “searched for Him.” It conveys the idea of “hunting Him down.”

Verse 37—When they found Him, the said to Him, “Hey! (It doesn’t say ‘Hey,’ but that’s the sense here!) Hey, everyone’s looking for You!”

It’s like, “Hey, man! You are popular! Everyone’s looking for you. They heard about yesterday—people getting saved, healed, and demons being cast out. Revival! You’re the main event!”

I don’t know many of my preacher friends whose ego wouldn’t be flattered by that kind of fame. But Jesus is not distracted because He has spent time communing with God. He has been seeking God’s face so He knows what His next steps are. He’s not to stay where He is—where things are happening—but He’s got to move on now. He says in verse 38, “Let’s go somewhere else.” Paraphrase. Let’s go somewhere else. That’s why I’ve come. Let’s move.

There’s a strong suggestion here that Jesus knew what His next step would be largely because He had spent those early mornings in communion with the One True and Living God. Priority.

Spending time alone with God reveals His will for our lives. Jesus met first with God that He might be better prepared to meet next with men. God first. Everyone else second. Priority.

Some of the greatest men of God have been those who got up early to meet with God before meeting with others. The Scottish Pastor and Poet Robert Murray McCheyne:

I ought to pray before seeing anyone. Often when I sleep long, or meet with others early, it is eleven or twelve o’clock before I begin secret prayer. This is a wretched system. It is unscriptural. Christ arose before day and went into a solitary place…My conscience feels guilty, my soul unfed, my lamp not trimmed. Then, when in secret prayer, the soul is often out of tune. I feel far better to begin with God—to see His face first—to get my soul near Him before it is near another.

Have you heard this poem about meeting God in the morning?

I met God in the morning, when the day was at its best
And His presence came like sunrise, like a glory in my breast.
All day long the presence lingered; all day long He stayed with me;
And we sailed in perfect calmness o’er every troubled sea.
Other ships were blown and battered, other ships were sore distressed,
But the winds that seemed to drive them, brought to me a peace and rest.
Then I thought of other mornings, with a keen remorse of mind,
When I too had loosed the moorings with the Presence left behind.
So, I think I know the secret, learned from many a troubled way;
You must seek Him in the morning if you want Him through the day.

DQ is a matter of Priority. Second word:

2) Place

Early in the morning, Jesus walks out of Simon’s house, departs and goes to a solitary place for His DQ. The word is literally “deserted.”

The importance of a place. A regular place. We often say, “Well, I pray all the time—walking, sitting, throughout the day, you know.” And we should. But there is no substitute for having a place to which we go—getting away from our routine—to have a meaningful DQ. Jesus did that here in the text. In fact, this seems to be His usual practice, having someplace to which He could go to be alone with God.

Matthew 6:6, “But you, when you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly.”

Do you have a regular place to which you go?

3 Words: Priority, Place, number 3:

3) Passion

“and there He prayed.”

The grammar of the original Greek suggests something of the manner in which Jesus prayed. The verb is in the imperfect tense, imperfect conveys a continual action, unending. Greek Scholar AT Robertson says this pictures Jesus as “praying through the early morning hours.”

So unlike the hurried way I find myself sometimes entering my prayer closet—my eye keeps looking at the clock, thinking I can squeeze in a minute or two here.

Jesus’ DQ was a matter of passion. He expected to spend time with the Father, unhurried, uninterrupted time.

G. Campbell Morgan, who preceded Martyn Lloyd-Jones as pastor of Westminster Chapel in London, said this about the verb translated “He prayed.” He says it:

…reveals the deliberate purposefulness of Jesus. The word ‘praying’ here connotes far more than asking. It suggests the going forward in desire to God, not for God’s gifts only, but for God. It is the word for true worship, the word that describes the soul moving out toward God, desiring Him, and all He has to give.

This is not a prayer just to pray, but a prayer to get to know someone better, to spend time with that person, be with that person, to know more of that person. Passion.

You can tell where your passion is by how you spend your time. The measure of our passion will be found largely by the time we spend. I have a passion for my wife. I want to see her more than in passing—just a quick hello or goodbye. I want to spend time with her, be with her, love her.

And we’re to love our Lord more than we love anyone or anything else. And the measure of our passion for Him will be found largely in the time we spend with Him. QT. Priority. Place. Passion.

DQ Slideshow; having a meaningful, daily quiet time with the Lord

Concluding Slides…

Some of you will recall the movie, “The Straight Story.” It’s a movie based on a true story that happened in the early 90s. 1994 to be exact.

In that year newspapers reported the events of a 73-year-old man by the name of Alvin Straight. Alvin was a farmer who lived in Laurens, Iowa. And he had a brother, an older brother named Lyle who lived several hundred miles away in Mt. Zion, Wisconsin. The two had gotten sideways with one another, something had come between them and —though they loved one another—they had not spoken much in some time.

And one day, Alvin’s brother suffered a stroke. This moved Alvin and he began thinking about his brother. And he decided he needed to go and see his brother. But Alvin had some obstacles to overcome. First of all, his own health wasn’t so good. His eyesight was poor, and he didn’t have a driver’s license. He had arthritis, bad hips, and he walked with two canes. No busses ran out to his brother’s. And on top of everything else, Alvin was a proud man and was determined to do things his own way.

Alvin loved his brother. He was devoted to his brother. So devoted, that he went outside and built a homemade trailer and then went into town and bought a 30-year-old tractor lawn mower and hooked it up to his trailer (picture from the movie; here he is trying out downtown Laurens).

So one morning, after he placed his two walking canes behind himself in that trailer, he climbed aboard a1966 John Deere tractor lawn mower and began making the long, arduous journey from Laurens Iowa to Mt. Zion Wisconsin (next pic)…at a pace of just 5 miles per hour (click through next three pics)

(sunset pic) At a pace of just 5 miles an hour, he drove for six weeks, the 350 mile journey from Laurens Iowa to Mt. Zion Wisconsin…(final pic) where he met Lyle at his home and spent some quality time with his brother (let it stay there for awhile and then silently click final slide which reads: When you’re really devoted to someone, you’ll find a way to spend time with him.

Commitment prayer.

Let’s respond now by singing to Jesus. If you need to to be saved, or you want to be baptized, or join the church, I invite you to come forward as we sing. I’ll be up front here and can meet with you after the service.

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