Following the Rhythms of Jesus

0:43 We are still in Mark chapter 1. We have not made it out of the first chapter yet. Turn in your Bibles to Mark 1, verses 35 to 39 this morning. You know, a lot of churches try to cover a whole book in like eight weeks or something, but here at Calvary, our vision is to help you learn your Bible, love your neighbor, and live in freedoms. That's why we crawl through it. We want to get everything we can out of the text and what God is speaking to us. So maybe next week we'll be done with chapter one, but who knows? We're not quite sure. I want to really quickly, too, before we dive in, just encourage you to come this Wednesday. You heard us talk about it in announcements, but Frank Turek is going to be with us in the house. He's an incredible apologist, and he's going to be delivering a great message on that topic. So this is your opportunity to invite skeptics, doubters, who have questions about Christianity and the Bible, because Frank's going to be tackling those.

1:39 And after the message, he's going to be doing a Q&A where your skeptics can ask any question they want. Frank's not scared of any question. He'll take them all. So skeptics, doubters are welcome. We encourage you to invite a friend out to that. Mark 1, 35 to 39. I've titled the message today, Following the Rhythms of Jesus. Following the Rhythms of Jesus. Hey, have you ever noticed how frustrating it is in life when something is out of rhythm? Anyone ever experienced this? When something's out of rhythm, something's not quite right, It's just missing it by a little bit, missing the mark. How frustrating that can be. I'll give you a few examples. Like when you're in worship and you're listening to the songs and you're trying to stay focused on the words that are being sung and you're clapping along to the song, but there's that one person, right? You know who I'm talking about.

2:34 That one person that they're clapping along to the song and they're confident, they're committed, but they're completely wrong. They just don't have the beat, right? It's like Steve Martin, kind of like a little, if you know that reference, we can be friends. But they're just slightly off. They're like a half second off and you want to pay attention to the worship, but all you can do is pay attention to their clapping. You're like, oh my gosh, why can't you get it? And then eventually you're clapping along to their beat and you're like, what happened? Now I'm doing what they were doing. You're like, yeah, Nate, I'm actually sitting next to that person today. Thanks for bringing it up. Or maybe you're like, actually, Nate, that's me. I'm that person. here's another example. Maybe you're trying to start a workout routine, right? And day one, you are locked in, man. Day one, you're like, I'm going to go get the shoes. I'm going to get the new gym outfit. So I look good in the gym, dripping, and I'm just going to get it all.

3:30 I got all the supplements. I have the plan. I'm in it. And the first day you're like, I'm going to do this for the rest of my life. And then day three, you're sore. You're tired. and then day five, you're ordering tacos at 10 p.m. sitting on the couch after binge watching Lord of the Ring movies all day, telling yourself, I'll start fresh on Monday. What happened? You got out of the rhythm. You fell out of rhythm. Or maybe it's your schedule. Things are just piling up. You can't seem to catch up. You can't seem to get your life back in order. Your phone's blowing up all day long. People need things from you. Kids are going to the ER. You've got bills stacked up. You're having issues at your job. And by the end of the day, you feel like you were busy all day, but you didn't actually do anything, especially what matters most. Anyone ever felt that way? Just like life is out of rhythm. Things are wrong. I don't know how to get back into rhythm. I don't know how to get my feet back under me. Here's the truth. When your rhythm is off, everything feels off.

4:45 When your rhythm is off, everything feels off. And have you been at a place in your life where everything just felt off? Everything just felt wonky. And you just felt like things weren't going the way that they should. When your rhythm feels off, everything feels off. Everything feels a little bit messed up. And I think a lot of us feel that way spiritually, whether we admit it or not. We just feel off. We don't feel in rhythm with the Lord, in rhythm with the Spirit. We're doing all these things. We're busy. We're going to church. We're going to events. We're doing all these things, but it just feels off. We're not in rhythm. We're busy, but not connected. We're active, but not aligned. We're doing things for God, but we're not really with God. The reality is your life moves at the rhythm you choose. You need to know that today. If you feel out of rhythm, your life moves at the rhythm you choose. And if you don't set your rhythm, the world will set your rhythm for you. This is so important. This is what we're talking about today. Your life moves at the rhythm you choose, which means if you feel out of rhythm today, guess what? You can choose a new rhythm. You can choose today to find a new rhythm and begin doing things differently. But if you don't set your rhythm, if you don't choose your rhythm, the world will choose it for you. Have you noticed this? If you're not making conscious decisions of the things you want to do, the way that you want to live, and you go back into the world, eventually the world just kind of sets your rhythm for you. And some people don't really live their life. Their life is just lived for them. And they just kind of go along monotonously into every single thing they have to do that day. And what happens is the world begins setting their pace, setting their rhythm, setting their agenda for them, and they have no say in the matter. And we end up becoming

6:52 like Paul saying, man, the things which I wanted to do today, I didn't do. And the things that I really didn't want to do. That's what I spent all my time doing because we've let the world set our rhythm for us. And here's the problem, Christian. We try to follow Jesus's results without adopting Jesus's rhythms. We try to follow Jesus's results without following or adopting Jesus's rhythms. But if we're serious about following Jesus and being Jesus' people, we won't just admire his power, we will adopt his pattern. So today I want to show you three rhythms from the life of Jesus. Rhythms that if you build into your life, I promise you, will change everything. If you're here today and you feel like you're just off rhythm, you feel like things just aren't quite right, If everything feels off to you, I promise you, if you write down and implement these three rhythms into your life, everything will change. Don't believe me, try it. Right? This is like an infomercial, money back guarantee. Write down these three rhythms, put them in practice over the next month, and watch how your life changes. And come back to me in a month and tell me all the changes that you've experienced if you put these three rhythms into place. I promise they will have an impact. So what do these rhythms actually look like? Here in Mark 1, 35 to 39, we get to see something incredibly personal. It's not just what Jesus did, it's how Jesus lived.

8:31 And this is important to understand because we gave everybody at the beginning of this year these what would Jesus do bracelets because our theme for this year is Jesus people. We want to be Jesus people. And a lot of us want to look at what Jesus did, what would Jesus do, but I think probably a better question, and this should be a reminder as we wear it, is how did Jesus live? Because my goal is to look more like Jesus. And if I want to look more like Jesus, I need to not just look at what Jesus did, but how Jesus lived so that I can experience the same results. We get a glimpse at his daily rhythm. And Mark doesn't leave us guessing. He pulls back the curtain and he shows us a moment that most people would have missed. Because when we read the Gospels, we're drawn to the big moments, aren't we? When we read the Gospels, we're drawn to the resurrection and the crucifixion and the healings and feeding 5,000 and walking on water and the Sermon on the Mount.

9:27 These big moments. But here, Mark shows us a moment most of us miss. Not the crowds, not the miracles, not the spotlight, but the hidden place. The hidden place. The first rhythm we're going to see is the rhythm of solitude. Let's look, Mark chapter one, starting in verse 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. Now, this is such an important topic, but it's one so many of us miss. It's probably one that if you've read through Mark before, you just pass that verse and you're like, all right, take me to the next miracle. Where's the demons getting cast out? Where's the lepers getting healed? Move on to the next thing.

10:21 But this is critical and crucial. And this is the first rhythm and the most important rhythm that determines all the rest. If you miss this one, it doesn't matter if you get the next two. If you miss this one, you're never gonna find the secret sauce. It is the rhythm of solitude. in the morning, having risen a long while before daylight, he went out and departed to a solitary place. And there he prayed. Don't rush past that. This is the Son of God at the height of his ministry with more demand on his life than he has time. And the first thing that we see him do is he walks away. He walks away. He steps out of the noise. He steps away from the crowd. And he steps into silence. Because before Jesus ever faced people, he met with his father.

11:20 Before Jesus ever faced people, he met with his father. And here's what you need to catch. The power of Jesus in public was rooted in his intimacy with the father in private. The power of Jesus in public, in crowded places, was rooted in his intimacy with the Father in private places. And if you miss this, this is so important, if you miss this, you will end up spending the rest of your life trying to produce results that only come from relationship. And so many of us live life this way, where we try to produce righteousness. We try to produce results. Well, what do I need to do? What do I need to look like? Tell me where to go. Tell me what to read. Tell me how to look. What do Christians, what are we supposed to look like? And what can happen is we end up spending our entire life acting like a Christian instead of being a Christian. We spend our lives pretending to be a Christian instead of practicing being a Christian because it's performative. This is a word that the next generation loves to use, performative. You're so performative. And what it means is you're just pretending. You're just performing. It's not real. It's not authentic. It's just a performance. And many people live a performative Christian life, producing, trying to produce these results. But if they're not rooted in intimacy, it's not real. It has to be rooted in intimacy and relationship.

12:54 So if we're trying to follow Jesus, not just admire him, we need to start where he started. And where does he start? In a quiet place. First thing in the morning, before the sun's come up, talking to his father. And I wanna point out, this was not accidental. This wasn't an accident, this was intentional. It's not like Jesus was just having a bad night's sleep and he wakes up and he's like, oh man, I can't go back to sleep now. I better go pray. No, that's not what was happening. Keep in mind, the day before, Jesus just came off an incredible ministry moment. He healed people. He cast out demons. He traveled from one town to another. He had an incredible day of ministry. And it'd be easy for us to say, Jesus, take a break. Take a break. Sleep in. Take a personal day. Or maybe, Jesus, ride the momentum. You're popular now. People are talking about you. People want things from you. Ride the momentum. Strike while the iron's hot. But Jesus doesn't do either one of those things. Jesus intentionally gets up early in the morning, a long while before daylight, and he schedules time with the Father. Here's the principle. Jesus scheduled solitude. He scheduled solitude. Jesus didn't wait for a quiet moment.

14:21 He created one. Jesus didn't wait for time with the Father. Jesus made time for the Father. Remember what I said before, your life moves to the rhythm you choose. And if you wait for a quiet moment, you're never going to get one. If you wait for time with the Father, you're never going to find it. If you just think that magically you're going to wake up one day and you've been living a busy life and it's like, oh, I have an extra hour of day at exactly the time that I need to have time with the Lord. It's not going to happen. You have to schedule solitude. You have to make time for the Father. You have to find the quiet moments and invest in those and intentionally, not accidentally, invest yourself into intimacy with the Father. how often do we neglect our quiet time with the Lord because we say well I just don't have time I'm just too busy when things slow down then I'll do it but do things ever slow down all the years you've been saying that have things ever slowed down and go like no they've gotten faster they've gotten more busy I have less time than I did five years ago when I said that you have to schedule time planned neglect you have to neglect something in your life so you can invest it in the most important thing. That neglect might be your Netflix show in the evening that you love to watch every night. That neglect might be that extra hour of sleep that you wake up an hour earlier. That neglect might be something in your life that right now you're prioritizing over your time with the Father. Many people claim to have a relationship with God, but neglect to ever fellowship with him. Is that a relationship? No. It's performative. It's performative.

16:10 And maybe this is the answer. Maybe you feel out of rhythm because you're not taking time to get alone and find the rhythm with the Father. When you get into a quiet place, a solitary place, and you speak to the Lord, it's incredible how you end up flowing into his rhythm, his slipstream. He speaks to you. He guides you. And you find that new rhythm. And you come out of that rhythm, that time with the Lord, and you're set. Your course is set. Your pace is set for the rest of the day because you've taken time to get alone with the Lord. We can end up becoming like Martha, frantically running around in circles, offering work instead of worship. Perspiration instead of inspiration. Instead of just sitting at his feet like Mary. Let me ask you this. Has anyone in here prior to your relationship with Christ struggled with addiction, alcohol, drugs, cigarettes, any kind of an addiction that you're like, man, it was this thing that you had to have?

17:13 If you have, then you'll understand this. You need to crave Jesus the way that you used to crave your addiction. We need to love Jesus at the level a heroin addict loves heroin. And you're like, wait a second, Nate, you just used Jesus and heroin in the same sentence. Does not compute. Let me explain. I heard Russell Brand do an interview recently, and Russell Brand has given his life to the Lord, and he's really passionate about Jesus now, but he did an interview talking about prior to Christ, he was a massive heroin addict, and he had to have heroin. And for a heroin addict or any other addict, that substance is a non-negotiable. And Russell Brand said, at the level I was a heroin addict, heroin was a non-negotiable. He said, it's not like I would wake up and say, maybe I'll have some heroin today. No, he would wake up and say, I gotta have it. I'm having the heroin.

18:05 He would make sacrifices to have the heroin. He would do whatever he had to do to have the heroin. He'd make sacrifices to have the heroin. We need to crave our time with the Lord like an addict craves their addiction. When we wake up, we shouldn't say, oh, maybe I'll have quiet time today. Maybe if I have time, I'll have some quiet time today. No, we should wake up in spiritual withdrawal saying, I'm having it. I gotta have my time with the Lord. I gotta have Jesus today. We need to do whatever we have to so we can get that time. We need to make sacrifices so that we can get that time. We need to neglect things in life so that we can get that time. And the very fact that Jesus rose early in the morning speaks to intentional sacrifice. the busiest man in history, prioritize being alone with the Father.

19:02 Jesus didn't start with ministry. He starts with intimacy. He doesn't start with activity. He starts with intimacy. And so many of us get this wrong. We come to Christ and we're so zealous. We're so excited. And the first question we ask isn't, how can I get intimate with the Lord? It's, what can I do? What can I get involved with? I wanna do all these things. How can I be as active as possible? And that's rooted in a good place. I want you to hear me saying that's rooted in a place of wanting to be involved with what God's involved with. But all that is is doing what Martha did. What activity can I do for you, Lord? What things can I do for you? Where Mary had intimacy. And this is why it's important. Activity will never lead to intimacy. But intimacy will always lead to activity. when you get with the Lord you get alone with him you begin to learn him his heart the things he likes he doesn't like activity will naturally flow out of that intimacy but if all you're doing is being active you'll never get to the quiet place and be intimate with the Lord and you'll end up sliding into a place where you're just trying to produce a righteous life rather than getting intimate with God and letting him create a righteous life within you. We can't get the cart before the horse. Jesus didn't start his day with activity. He started it with alignment.

20:33 And Christian, here's the principle for your life. You don't drift into intimacy with God. You design for it. I'll say that again because this is important. Write this down. You don't drift into intimacy with God, you design for it. If you wake up every day just saying, man, I hope I drift into intimacy with God. I hope that I drift into the perfect moment where the sun is shining and angels are singing, and I'm like, oh, this is the moment for me to be with God. You're not going to get it. You don't drift into intimacy. You design for it. You plan for it. You're intentional with it. It is not accidental. It is planned, and you invest in it by making sacrifices so that you can have that time with God. Same is true in a relationship with a significant other. If you're married, or you have a boyfriend, or a girlfriend, or you ever have, you know this. You don't drift into intimacy with your significant other, with your spouse. You design for it. And if you don't design for it, that intimacy is going to slowly drift away. You're going to drift away from intimacy. Now, when you first fall in love with somebody, you can have that infatuation phase where you drift towards them. But once you're with them, if you don't design and plan for it, say, we're going to have a date night this time of the week. We're going to go do this together.

21:49 If you don't plan for it, if you don't design for it, you drift away from it. Same is true in your walk with God. When you first came to Christ, perhaps you drifted towards him. You were drawn to him because of the message of hope, the gospel, and you drifted towards him. But once you're with him, if you don't design for, if you don't plan for it, eventually you will drift away from it. You need to design and plan your time with the Lord. And we see this pattern all through the Gospels. In Luke 5, 15 through 16, it says, News about him spread all the more so that crowds of people came to hear him and be healed of their sickness. But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed. Luke 6 12 through 13 says Jesus went to a mountainside to pray and he spent the night praying to God the whole night in Matthew 14 13 when Jesus gets the news that John the Baptist had been beheaded it says when Jesus heard he withdrew by boat privately to a solitary place and just before Jesus died and was crucified for our sins in Mark 14 32 it says Jesus said to his disciples, sit here while I pray. Why is this rhythm so important? Because your spiritual strength is built in hidden places, not crowded ones. Your spiritual strength is built in hidden places, not crowded ones. And again, we get this wrong because we're so performative as a culture that we see people doing things for God and we wanna be seen and we wanna see people.

23:31 So we see people doing a lot for God and we look at them and say, wow, look how spiritually strong they are. They must have such a great relationship with God. No doubt how people looked at Martha. Wow, look at all that Martha is doing for God. But she was not doing it from a place of overflow. She was doing it from a place of emptiness. And many people that we see that we think are spiritually strong might not actually be. They're doing it from a place of emptiness, not overflow, because your spiritual strength is built in the hidden places, not the crowded ones. It's in the hidden places that we talk to God and he builds and forms and fortifies our spiritual life and makes it strong. And then that strength is observed and cultivated in the crowded places, but it is built in the hidden places, which means that if you're not spending time in the hidden places with God, I hate to break it to you, but you are not spiritually strong.

24:30 You might think you are, but you are not. You're not. And all it's gonna take is one big storm, one big temptation, one big thing to come into your life and it's gonna knock down that house because it's been built on sand, not on the rock. You gotta build your house on the rock. You gotta find the strength and the strength is found in the hidden place with God. Jesus didn't minister from emptiness. He ministered from overflow. Solitude before strategy. Prayer before platform. Isolation over distraction. And if Jesus needed solitude in time with the Father, how much more do we? If Jesus, the Son of God, 100% God and 100% man, if he needed solitude in time with the Father, How much more do you think us finite, weak sheep need time with the Father? So much more.

25:28 This is why throughout this series we're doing these guided meditations. Because we want to give you time to get out into a quiet place in solitude, in a beautiful trail, in nature, without all the noise and chatter of life, so that you can talk to God, hear scriptures read over you, pray and speak to the Lord as you walk with him in the quiet place. We desperately, especially in our society today, need to find those moments, those quiet moments, but they're not going to come. They will be found. And if you're searching for them, you'll find them. But if you're not, you never are going to. Has anyone in here ever forgot to charge their phone at night? This is the worst, isn't it? Where you forget at night you're busy and you forget to plug it in, or maybe you thought you plugged it in, but it was unplugged from the wall, or you have one of those stupid magnetic chargers that never seems to sit right on your case.

26:23 And so you thought it was charging, but it wasn't. And then you wake up in the morning and maybe your alarm goes off if you're lucky, if you had enough charge the night before. But the second you pick up your phone and it's 7 a.m. and it says 20% battery, you're like, I'm doomed, right? What am I gonna do? What am I gonna do? How am I gonna get phone calls and texts? and how am I gonna spend hours scrolling on TikTok and Instagram? What am I gonna do? I've got 20% left. And you feel that impending doom and you try everything you can to stretch it and keep it alive all day, right? We have all the little tips and tricks. Like you bring your brightness all the way down to zero so you can't actually see anything. And you're like, what does that say? And then you bring it up and say, oh wait, no, I can't, I wanna lose my battery. Or you put it on low power mode, which I don't really even know what that does. or you close out all of your apps or maybe you turn your phone off and put it in your pocket and every 15 minutes you compulsively pull it out to turn it on to see if you got any texts.

27:21 Full on FOMO. You try everything you can to keep that battery alive all day long but eventually it dies. Why? Because you forgot to plug it in. And the same is true with your spiritual life. So many of us are waking up every morning at 20% and trudging along through life with our batteries getting lower and lower and lower. And then eventually midway through the day, you collapse and you say, I can't do it. I can't do it. You fall apart. Why? Because you've never plugged into the power source. You're not charging your spiritual batteries. You're running on empty. And eventually your spiritual batteries are going to die. Why? Because you're not plugging in. You need to plug in to the spiritual power source and charge your spiritual batteries.

28:17 And here's the lesson. Your depth with God determines your direction in life. So if you don't like the way your life is going, look to your depth with God. Look to the quiet places. Your public life will always reflect your private life. And if you skip the quiet place, you'll lose your clarity in the crowded place. Let's now see how this rhythm of solitude helped Jesus maintain clarity in the crowded place. The next rhythm we see is the rhythm of resistance. Look at verse 36 to 37. And Simon and those who were with him searched for him. And when they found him, they said, everyone is looking for you. So Jesus wakes up early in the morning, doesn't leave a post-it note, hey, going to be with God. He just leaves. He wakes up. He's out of there. and Peter and all the rest of the disciples wake up several hours later.

29:09 They're like, man, we thought we were getting a rest day. Where's Jesus? And so they start searching for him. Where did he go? Where did he go? And finally they find him and they say, Jesus, what gives? Everyone is looking for you. The word searched here is a strong one. It means to hunt down, to pursue urgently. Translation, where did you go? This is your moment. Things are blowing up. You're trending. Don't miss it. Jesus, you realize what happened yesterday? You healed all these people. You cast out demons. And now word is spreading all over the town. And people want you. They want your time. They want access. They want more miracles. They want more demons cast out. Everyone is looking for you. You know what that is? It's pressure. it's urgency and here's what's fascinating Peter's not wrong humanly speaking the crowds are real the needs are real the opportunity is real but here's the tension the disciples were measuring success by popularity not obedience Jesus we're successful we're popular Jesus isn't concerned about popularity he's concerned about his mission we're going to see that in a second. Our third point, he's concerned with his purpose. The disciples are concerned with popularity. But success is not found in popularity. It's found in obedience. The crowd will always try to define the direction of your life and tell you what you should be doing. Well, you should do this.

30:48 Well, you should go to this place. Well, look at this opportunity. You can't miss this opportunity. You need to do all these things. And sometimes we can be so distracted by all these things. Oh, Yeah, well, look at that. Look at that. Well, look at this opportunity. Look at this open door. Look at this ministry. And we get so distracted by all these things that we end up missing the number one thing we should be doing. We need to learn the rhythm of resistance, resisting all the noise from the crowd and focusing on what we should be doing. Over time, if you listen to those voices, it will subtly pull you away from God's direction. Understand this, not every opportunity is your assignment. Some people think it is. Some people think every opportunity is their assignment. Well, look at this great opportunity. And what ends up happening is you die the death of a thousand yeses. You say yes to everything, that then you get overwhelmed and you look at your plate and you look at your life and you're like, look at all these things that I'm doing.

31:49 I don't even know which one I'm supposed to be doing. Because I haven't spent time with the Father. I haven't been in those quiet places to hear from God to tell me what I'm supposed to be doing. I've just been listening to all the noise from the crowd. And now I don't even know what I'm doing. Look, the demands of life are endless. And people will always want more from you. And what Peter is doing without even realizing it is applying classic pressure tactics. People want access, Jesus. People want answers. People want immediacy. And Peter meant well. but even well-meaning people can pull you off mission. And if we're not careful, we can easily let urgency replace obedience. Look, the crowd will always define success by size but Jesus defines success by obedience. And if we listen to every voice telling us who we should be or what we should do, those external voices will quickly become internal confusion.

32:49 So we need to learn the rhythm of resistance to every voice telling us, You need to do this or you need to do that. And we need to tune our ears to listen to what God is telling us to do. We need to listen to his voice, to his words. And again, this is why I said before, you can't develop the second rhythm if you haven't first developed the first rhythm. If you don't have the rhythm of solitude, listening to the voice of God, to what he wants you to do, you're never gonna be able to develop the rhythm of resistance, saying no to the crowd because you don't know what you're supposed to do. You have to have that first rhythm so that you can develop that second rhythm. You have to learn how to filter voices so you don't get distracted from your true calling. Understand this, not every open door is your calling. Not every open door is your calling.

33:44 You need to learn how to close certain doors so you can go through the right ones. Because look, there's gonna come a point in life when there's a lot of open doors and you can't go through every single one, what are you gonna do? You have to have that rhythm of solitude so you can spread them out before the Lord and say, Lord, which one of these things is the thing that you want me to do? Which one of these things is the right thing to do? So you need to learn how to close open doors even when those open doors look really good. Even when those open doors are really appealing, not every open door is your calling. Just because something is good doesn't mean it's God. Even good things can distract you from the best thing. So we need to learn to differentiate between good opportunities and God's calling. Look, you will always have more opportunity than you have calling. Always, you'll have more opportunity.

34:39 You will always have more demand than you do calling. So learn to say no to the crowd so that you can say yes to God. Don't let people's urgency override God's clarity. So how did Jesus respond to this pressure and urgency? Well, he had the rhythm of solitude that led him to develop the rhythm of resistance. And that rhythm of resistance was powered by his rhythm of purpose. Jesus had clarity of purpose. And that's our third and final rhythm, the rhythm of purpose. So again, we develop the rhythm of solitude. We get alone with the Lord. That rhythm of solitude helps develop within us the rhythm of resistance. As we're hearing from God, we can tune out the voices of the world. And that rhythm of resistance will help us keep on track with the rhythm of purpose. Purpose. Look at verse 38 to 39. But he said to them, let's go into the next towns that I may preach there also. Because for this purpose, I have come forth. And he was preaching in their synagogues throughout all of Galilee and casting out demons.

35:52 So again, full story. This is just five verses. Jesus wakes up early in the morning before anyone else is awake and he just leaves. He doesn't tell the disciples where he's going. He doesn't leave a sticky note. He doesn't send a text message. He doesn't add it to the calendar app. He's just gone. What's he doing? He's getting alone with God. He's praying. The disciples wake up and frantically, they search for Jesus. When they find him, they say, Jesus, everyone is looking for you. And I love this. Jesus doesn't even answer their question. He doesn't even tell them, well, go tell the people this or tell them five minutes or tell them 10 minutes. It's, Jesus, everyone's looking for you. Oh, all right, let's leave. What? Yeah, let's go. But they're looking for you. Okay, let them look. Let's go. We gotta go somewhere else. We gotta move on. We've got things we still need to do. But Jesus, they want healings.

36:45 They want miracles. They want food. They want, they want, they want. Okay, let's go. Jesus comes from a thriving ministry moment where people were healed, demons were cast out. His fame was spreading. And what does he do? He just leaves. Why? Because Jesus was not driven by popularity, pressure, or platform. He was driven by purpose. And he knew that his purpose in that place was done. And he didn't need to stick around to get the accolades and to get the fame and to have him talked about. He had mission clarity and he was to be about his purpose. Look at the mission clarity of Jesus in verse 38. For this purpose I have come.

37:32 You know what that is? That is him staying in rhythm with the father's purpose rather than the crowd's pressure. And again, why is he able to answer this way? For this purpose I have come. He's staying in rhythm with the father's purpose by getting away into those quiet places. That rhythm of solitude is helping align his life with the rhythm of the purpose of the father so that he's able to clearly know this is what I'm supposed to be doing. Why? Because I've been alone with the father. I've been talking to dad. I've been talking about what's going on. I wish we could have heard the prayer that Jesus prayed for these hours and hours to his father. Jesus had the rhythm of solitude and that rhythm of solitude developed in him a rhythm of purpose where he was aligned with the father, not the crowd's pressure. And Jesus clearly defines his purpose in verse 38. What does he say his purpose is? That I may preach there also.

38:35 See, Jesus didn't come to build a crowd. He came to proclaim the gospel. preaching the gospel not just meeting needs was the central mission and purpose of Jesus's ministry as a matter of fact did you know that Jesus would often tell people not to tell anyone about his miracles he'd perform a great miracle he'd heal somebody bring sight to the blind raise someone to life and he would say hey don't tell anyone about this and he would move on he would quickly leave and tell them, keep it a secret. Why? Because that's not why he came. Preaching was the driving force of his ministry, not miracles. The people wanted the miracles, but that's not why he was there. Why would he do them? Because he's compassionate, because he's caring, because he loves humanity. So he would see someone hurting and he would heal them. But that wasn't the reason he came. The reason he came was to seek and to save that which was lost. And throughout all of his ministry, although he would at time do other things, his mind was always focused on his purpose, on his mission to seek and to save that which was lost.

39:45 And everything else was just a distraction. And he was focused on his mission. Too many of us get caught up and spend our time in the distractions, not the mission. We get caught up in all the distractions, all the things that don't matter. And we miss out on what really matters. Jesus wanted to avoid becoming an exclusively political or miracle working figure. He wanted people to focus their attention on his message rather than on these spectacular acts. Healing drew the crowds, but preaching defined the mission. Miracles were the signs, the message was the substance. And the miracles were what the people wanted, but the message is what they truly needed. look at verse 39 and he was preaching in their synagogues throughout all of galilee so again jesus jesus everyone wants you all right let's leave well what are we going to go where what are we going to do we're going to do what i was sent to do we're going to go preach the gospel we're going to go cast out demons and that's exactly what he does he gets up he leaves the town he doesn't go back to the crowd and he goes and he preaches all through Galilee.

41:02 What does he do? He keeps moving. He leaves success behind so he can fulfill purpose ahead. Gosh, this is a hard principle, church. He leaves success behind so he can fulfill purpose ahead. He was having success. Ministry was happening and he leaves behind success to fulfill purpose ahead. How easy is it for us to get stuck in success and miss out on the purpose that God has ahead. And say, well, I'm successful. Things are working. And we get stuck. We stop looking ahead to what God still wants to do with our life to fulfill the purpose he has for us ahead. And we say, I'm good here. I'm successful. I'm comfortable. Things are working out. Why should I leave? Because God still has more for you. There's still more ahead for you.

41:56 and if you stop moving, you'll fall out of rhythm. If you stop moving and you just stay stuck, you're out of rhythm. You're no longer in the rhythm of God. Jesus came not just to save you. You are a Christian. It doesn't just mean you are saved. It also means you are sent. And Christian, following Jesus means having a forward-moving faith. And it is essential that we move with purpose, not pressure. This is why at Calvary, we're so passionate about helping you discover the plan and the purpose that God has for your life. It's why we do LifeTrack. We wanna help you live in the plan and the purpose that God has for you. Mark Twain said, the two most important days in your life are the day you were born and the day you find out why. Or you could say the day you were born and the day you finally discover what you were born to do.

42:51 Because once you discover your purpose, you can finally start walking in your calling. And the more in touch you are with your purpose and your calling, the easier it becomes to know what you should do, but also, and at times more importantly, what you shouldn't do. The things that are a waste of your time, the things that are pulling you off mission, the things that you end up working twice as hard at with half the results. There are a million things in life you could do, but the goal of life is to discover the few things that you should do so you can say no to the other 997,000 of those things. Sorry, 999,997 of those things. And this world wants to rob you and distract you from your purpose and get you focused on those million other things. But as Christians living in the rhythm of purpose, we need to stand up and say, no, I have a purpose and a plan in this life. I have a mission from God and I won't let anything, not even a good thing, distract me from that purpose. I'm focused. Last year, we looked at the life of Nehemiah. And I love Nehemiah because Nehemiah understood this principle better than anybody. Nehemiah had been given a mission and a purpose from God. And his enemies kept trying to distract him from that purpose and derail his mission. And you remember what his response was? Every time they tried to distract him, every time they tried to get his eyes on something else, he said, I'm doing a great work and I can't come down. I'm doing a great work and I can't come down. That's not pride. It's focus. It's spiritual grit. Nehemiah had a clear, singular aim in his life. He had his eyes fixed on his mission and he refused to be distracted or pulled away from it. Jesus, everyone is looking for you.

44:40 Okay, let's go to the next town. Our ambition, where we fix our eyes and our heart, it affects our entire life. And a single-minded ambition to serve God will give your life purpose and direction. Do you have double vision? Are you trying to simultaneously fix your eyes on Jesus and success? One eye on spiritual things and one eye on earthly things? Lot's trouble began when he began looking at Sodom and Gomorrah. He took his eyes off of spiritual things and placed them on worldly things. And maybe your issue with that first rhythm, you haven't developed a rhythm of solitude because anytime you get alone, your eyes on your phone and you're scrolling on social media for three hours in bed or your eyes on the TV watching the next movie or the next show that you're binging and you can't find that solitude because you're putting your eyes on things of the earth rather than on things above.

45:39 Fix your eyes on things above. Don't have double vision. Don't be double-minded. Jesus to Martha said, who had been going around in circles, you are troubled and agitated and worried about many things. Or simply, Martha, you're distracted. She didn't know what her ambition was. Mary, on the other hand, had singular purpose and aim. She was not distracted. Paul had this same singular aim, this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forth to those things that are before. David as well had this clear singular direction. He said, one thing I have desired of the Lord and that will I seek. Do you have purpose? Are you living in a rhythm of purpose? Or do you walk around every day saying, I don't really know what I'm supposed to be doing.

46:33 I have no idea what I'm called to do or what I was put on this earth for. If the devil can't destroy you, he'll distract you. If he can't destroy you, he'll distract you. Why? Because you're no longer a threat. Sure, you're going to heaven. Sure, you come to church, but you're distracted by all these other things. You're not living in your purpose, which means that you can't be a threat to the enemy or to the kingdom of darkness. The second you stop becoming distracted and awaken to your purpose, you're a threat to the enemy. You're a threat to hell. what we often think is opportunity God calls a distraction and just because someone wants your attention doesn't mean they deserve your time no is a complete sentence start using it learn to stop meeting and start preaching to stop meeting and start building to stop meeting and start going learn to say no strategically even to seemingly good invitations Don't abandon your calling just to entertain critics.

47:44 Maintain your margin for what matters most. Remember, if you don't set your rhythm, the world will set it for you. So if you're sick of the rhythm that you've been living in, change it. Set a new rhythm. Make new decisions. When the crowd wants to rob you and distract you from your purpose in life, say, no, I'm doing a great work. I can't come down. I'm about my father's business and I don't have time to sit around and argue with you about politics or theology. There's people that need preaching and demons that need casting. I'm busy. I'm out of here. Well, everyone's looking for you. Great, I'm going to the next place. That's not rude. That's not prideful. It's focus and purpose. We need to constantly be asking ourselves with everything in life, is this request building me up or is it tearing me down? Is this request pulling me away from my purpose or is it advancing my purpose?

48:41 Because without purpose and direction, you can throw it all away. Drifting in and out of relationships, in and out of church, in and out of jobs, just floating through life with no purpose or direction. Robert D. Abraham said, some men die by shrapnel, some go down in flames, but most men perish inch by inch playing little games. use the tool to use the tool to use the tool to use the tool to use the tool to use the tool to use the tool to use the tool to use the tool to gain finding the rhythm of solitude, getting alone with the Lord, letting him direct our paths and aligning our will with his will, developing the rhythm of resistance, resisting the pull of all the world, telling you what you need to do. It's easy to do it when you know what you're supposed to do and when God's talking to you and then living in the purpose that he's given you.

49:57 This is what it means to follow the rhythms of Jesus. This is what it means to live life in rhythm with him. The joy and the peace that is found there. Purpose is vital. It's an anchor in a storm, a base in a battle, a finish line in a race. Let's wrap this up. Here's the invitation of the text. This is the invitation to you today if you choose to accept it. If you want the life of Jesus, you have to adopt the lifestyle of Jesus. So here's the question. Do you want the life of Jesus, then adopt his lifestyle. Adopt his rhythms. Remember, you choose the rhythm you live your life to. If you want the life of Jesus, start living your life in his rhythms. Following Jesus means living sent, not settled. That might mean stepping away when everyone else is rushing in.

50:55 That might mean listening to God when everyone else is talking. Moving forward when everyone else wants you to stay comfortable because the same Jesus who withdrew to pray is the same Jesus who now sends you to go. And you have to choose, am I going to live my life in his rhythm or not? As we close, I just want to point out, it's impossible to follow the rhythms of Jesus without first accepting the salvation of Jesus. And perhaps your issue with feeling like everything's out of rhythm, everything's just a little bit off, is because you haven't invited the Lord into your life to direct your rhythms and your path. You're missing the most important step. You can't live in rhythm if you haven't first received his salvation. Jesus wasn't just sent to preach. He was sent to save. Jesus didn't just go to the next towns. He ultimately went to the cross for you. And today, the question isn't, are you following his example? It's, have you received his salvation? Because without him living in your heart, it's impossible to follow his rhythms.

51:57 Remember what I said at the beginning? When your rhythm is off, everything feels off. So my question as we close is, are you here today and everything's just felt off to you for a while? Everything feels off. You just can't get your feet back under you. Maybe you once said a prayer to receive Jesus Christ a long time ago, but you're not walking with him. As a matter of fact, when you look at your life, you're like, man, I'm just trying to produce these results, but I'm missing the most important part. I'm missing intimacy with the Father. I'm just busy, but I'm not actually with God. You feel out of rhythm. Today, I'm gonna give you an opportunity to get your life back in rhythm, to rededicate your life to him, to say, Lord, put me back into your rhythm. Lord, I wanna get close with you. I wanna be intimate with you. And if you're here today and you've never received Jesus Christ, you've been trying your entire life to find things that will make you happy, make you satisfied, put you in rhythm.

52:54 None of it's working. Today's the day to try the one thing that will work and that's to live in the rhythm of Jesus. Follow the rhythms of Jesus, receive him into your heart and you can finally get things back in order. Maybe everything's felt off to you for a while. Maybe you feel busy but not connected, active but not aligned. Your life moves to the rhythm you choose. So today, choose a new rhythm.

53:22 And here's the problem. We try to follow Jesus' results without adopting his rhythms. Adopt his rhythms. Lord, we thank you for your word. We thank you for your rhythms, Lord. Rhythms that produce joy, produce peace, produce purpose. A rhythm of solitude, getting alone and being with you. A rhythm of resistance that as we are alone with you, it becomes easier for us to resist the pull of the crowd because you've given us a rhythm of purpose, knowing why it is we're here on this earth. Help us to have those. And Lord, I pray for anyone in here today who they just feel off. They came in today and Lord, they're doing. They're doing, they're doing, they're doing. They're doing so much, that's the problem. They're doing, they're not being. They're not being with you. They don't have intimacy with you. They're trying to produce these results, but they're missing the missing ingredient, which is you.

54:22 Lord, I pray that you would draw them to you and help them to establish a new rhythm in their life so they would adopt your rhythms. And if that's you and you're here today and you say, man, Nate, that's me, I feel off. Things just feel off. They felt off for a while. I just can't get my feet back under me. I just can't figure it out invite Jesus into your life right now adopt his rhythms and watch I promise you watch as your life changes drastically and incredibly so if that's you and you want to give your life to Jesus this morning either for the first time you want to try something new or you want to rededicate your life to him and you're saying Nate I want to reestablish these rhythms in my life I don't want it to just be performative. I wanna actually have intimacy with God.

55:16 If that's you, either one, would you just raise your hand up as our eyes are closed and our heads are bowed? You're saying, Nate, pray for me. I wanna invite Jesus into my life. I want new rhythms. Just raise it up so I can see it. If God is speaking to you right now, amen, I see your hand back to the left. Just raise it up. If he's drawing you, respond to that. Right here in the center, I see your hand. Put it up high, over here to the right, towards the back, right over here to my right. Over there. Anyone else? Raise it up high so I can see it. If I'm missing you, wave at me. Right over here to the left. I see your hand and your hand over here to the left. If you're in the balcony or you're in the family room, you raise it up and I'll try to see it. If you're in the amphitheater, you raise it up and a pastor will acknowledge you. Amen. Back here to my left, about midway through. Anyone else? Just raise it up. Back here to the far right. I see you. God is speaking to you right now. You be sensitive to that.

56:07 That is the Holy Spirit trying to bring into your life repentance and fruit and rhythm. Over here to my left, over here in the center. Raise it up. There's hands all over. I can't see them all. So what I'm going to do is right now as we're praying, in a second I'm going to ask you to do something bold. We're going to remain seated, but on the count of three, I'm going to count down and I want you to stand to your feet. You're like, whoa, wasn't ready for this, Nate. I was all about the hand up when no one's looking. but you want me to actually stand up? I do and here's why. If you can't stand up for Jesus in a room full of people that love him, how are you gonna do it out there in a world that hates him? You need new rhythms. The problem you have, the reason you're here is because you've been living by the rhythms of the world and you need new rhythms, rhythms of boldness, rhythms of faith, rhythms of repentance.

57:01 And as you begin to invite Jesus into your life, you're going to experience a change. So on the count of three, I'm going to count down. Everyone who raised their hand or those who are still thinking about it, I want you to stand to your feet and we're going to cheer you along. Are you ready? Are you ready to put feet to your faith? Three, two, one. Stand up. Come on. Stand up. Amen. Come on. Stand up.

57:28 Yes. You stand up. Come on, anyone else? You want to stand up. You want new rhythms. Let this be the moment where your faith is solidified. Stay standing for just a second. Stay standing. All those who are standing, what I want you to do now is you're going to come down here to the front. I'm going to lead you in a prayer to accept Jesus Christ. All over this room, if you're in the amphitheater, the balcony, the family room, everyone can we stand to our feet to help them make their way. and as they do, let's cheer them along and give them a round of applause. You come right here to the front. I'm going to lead you in a prayer to receive Jesus Christ. This is your moment. This is your moment. God is calling you. Start walking in his rhythm. Start listening to his voice. As he draws near to you, draw near to him.

58:24 Come on, come forward. You stood up. You put your hand up. You come forward. Thank you. If you saw someone raise up their hand, why don't you encourage them to say, hey, if you want me to go up there with you, I'll go up there with you. You come right now. Amen.

59:00 I'm going to wait just one second longer. I'm going to give you this final choral. We're not going to sing through this song again, but I want to give you one last opportunity. because I think there's somebody in here who really needs to do this still. And I don't know what's keeping you from making this decision. You're thinking, well, hey, the person I'm with, they think I'm a Christian. Great, you've been performing for them. Good job, good acting. Why don't you make it real? Because guess what? It doesn't matter what they think. They didn't die for your sins. Jesus died for your sins. They can't get you to heaven. Only Jesus can get you to heaven. So stop performing for them and start living for Christ. Stop worrying about what they think and worry about what Jesus thinks. You say, well, I know I need to do it, but not yet. I'll do it later on. Come on. Let's give those who are coming forward a round of applause.

59:52 I know I need to do it, but not yet. I'll do it later. I'll do it next week. Look, you're not promised next week. You're not promised tomorrow, but you are promised right now. You're promised this moment. And so if you don't know that you're gonna go to heaven, you leave here knowing. if you don't know that when you die, Jesus is going to say, well done, good and faithful servant. You leave here with that knowledge. You leave here with that confidence. You leave here with that new rhythm and that new path. Anyone else right now? Here's your moment. I'm about to pray with those who came forward. Anyone else? Amen. I'm going to come down here with you guys.

1:00:33 Let's gather in together. We're going to say a prayer right now. I'm going to lead you in a prayer, asking Jesus to come into your life, to change your life, and help you living in a new way. There's nothing magical about this prayer, but there is something spiritual about it. The Bible says that if you call upon the name of the Lord, and if you publicly with your lips declare that he died and rose again, that you will be saved. And so as you say these words, recognize that you're inviting Jesus into your heart and he is saving you and he is calling you to live differently. So as I say this prayer, I want you to say it out loud after me. We're all gonna say it with him. Say, Lord, I know that I'm a sinner.

1:01:16 I know that I've done so many things that have hurt you. I know that I've done so many things that have hurt you. But Lord, I believe you died for those things. And I believe you rose from the dead. So Lord, I invite you into my life. Forgive me of my sins. I turn from my old life and I turn to you. Fill me with your Holy Spirit.