My name is Zoe. Um, I go to I'm a freshman at Riley Youth, and I want to read Mark 1, 9 to 13. At that time, Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. Just as Jesus was coming out out of the water, he saw heaven being torn open and their spirits descending on him like a dove. And a voice came from heaven. You are my son, whom I love. With you I am well pleased. And once the spirit sent him out into the wilderness, and he was in the wilderness 40 days, being tempted by Satan. He was with the wild animals, and angels attended him. The stored of the Lord.

Thanks, be to God. Awesome. Zoe, thank you for that. Um it's good to be with you. My name is Lawrence. Uh, and we are in the Gospel of Mark, which is the New Testament. Uh, and if you're with us for the first time this year, you're right at the beginning of this stuff. We're still in the first chapter. We teach the Bible here, verse by verse. It's called expository teaching. Uh, in fact, a couple weeks ago, we did an overview of Mark and just some of how like the Bible works and this library that makes up this thing we call a book. Um, and we have some classes that we're actually providing. Some of them start today. You guys maybe got like a little handout for notes, and on this other side, it talks about the art and science of reading the Bible, introduction to the New Testament. These are just some great resources for those of you who are interested in just digging in a little deeper and understanding. Like I said, some of those kick off um tonight and even this week. And it's not too late to sign up. You can go check that stuff out. So we're only doing a couple verses today. Um, we're gonna hop right into it. So last week, where we stood with all this, is we stood with a guy named John the Baptist in the wilderness, dust in our lungs, sun on our necks, and his wild voice ringing over the rocks that had one line that was constantly on repeat, which was prepare the way, something greater is coming. And people walked for miles to hear him, to step into that river and to see if God had anything left to say. And then one day, what happened was during what looked like just another round of baptism, someone greater actually showed up. The Jordan River, for you to know, wasn't glamorous. It smelled like animals, it still does sweat and like second chances. If you go there, the water is the color of like bad coffee. But people were packed shoulder to shoulder, farmers with dirt still under their nails, soldiers with their hands that are never too far away from their swords, and there was religious people there trying to pretend they weren't nervous, and tax collectors at the time trying to pretend they weren't guilty of doing something. And confession and curiosity hung in the air. While John stood waist deep, half prophet, half wilderness scarecrow, dunking people, shouting about repentance. Now, every once in a while, I'm sure, he would look up the hill as if he expected someone to walk over the horizon. And this time, as we're going to see today, someone did. A man stepped out of the crowd and started walking down the bank. There was no spotlight, no choir, no halo, just the 30-year-old from Nazareth with carpenter's hands and a face that somehow looked like eternity and Tuesday afternoon at the same time. If you know what I'm saying. If you've ever had a big moment that was hijacked by a proud parent, you already know the vibe that we're heading towards right now. You know the one I'm talking about, where like you finally hit the shot or you get the promotion, or like you finish the degree and you're walking across the stage, and from the stands, what do you hear? That's my baby, right? You know what I'm talking about? Well, heaven is about to do that today, but just on a cosmic scale. See, John sees him, and I'm sure everything in him seizes up. Like the guy next in line is just standing there awkwardly as John is just staring past him. Just that's him. His heart has to be screaming. Like that's that's the one. In verse 9, it says, In those days, Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. So the picture is Jesus steps into the water. John blurts out exactly what everyone is thinking. We don't get to see it here, but the Gospel of Matthew gives us a little bit more insight into this conversation in this moment. It says, I need to be baptized by you. This is John saying to Jesus, and do you come to me? In other words, I'm the one who needs fixing here, not you. And then Jesus just smiles and says, Let it be so now. It's proper for us to fulfill all righteousness. Now, this is such a calm answer for such a wild moment, like fulfill all righteousness. This sounds churchy, but what Jesus is saying is this is the right way for the story to go. I'm not staying on the bank, I'm stepping into the same water as everyone else. He doesn't just hover over the mess, he wades into it. And so the Son of God, the one John has been announcing, the one prophet Saul in their dreams now stands before, shoulder to shoulder, alongside with sinners and cynics, with people who don't have their act together. And he lets John put his hand on his head and lower him under the surface of this muddy river. Now, if you're in the crowd, you might you might be like lean over and whisper, should he really be in there? Like, isn't that for people with issues? And that's exactly the point. That he's not ashamed to be found where people are repenting. He's not allergic to Uranize humanity. He's actually stepping into it. And Jesus goes under, and I'm sure for like a heartbeat, the whole world holds its breath. And when he comes up, water streaming from his hair, the sunlight catching every drop. And then Mark says, immediately he saw the heavens being torn open and the spirit descending on him like a dove. Now, the word torn here uh is violent. This isn't like uh the clouds kind of parted in a pretty way, right? It literally means the sky ripped. It's the same word that Mark will actually use later when he talks about the curtain in the temple tears from the top to the bottom as Jesus dies on the cross. At the beginning of his ministry, and then at the end, something that once separated heaven and earth gets ripped open from God's side. It's as if God's saying, I'm done with staying distant. And then the spirit then descends like a dove, not like a hawk, not like a lightning bolt, like a dove. Where there's motion, but not panic. There's power, but not violence. And the sky tearing tells you, I think, that God's not tame, but the dove tells you he's still gentle. Now, if you know much of the Bible's backstory, your brain starts lighting up here in this moment. Because in Genesis, in the very beginning, it talks about how the spirit hovers over the waters at creation. Here the spirit hovers over the waters again. And in the flood, a dove comes back to Noah with an olive leaf, announcing that judgment is over and a new world is beginning. And here the dove rests on Jesus, announcing that a deeper, better new world is starting in him. And then comes this voice. It says, A voice from heaven came. With you I am well pleased. Now, if you grew up around church, it's easy just to treat that like a nice Bible verse. We're like, oh, that's really sweet. But this is heaven breaking a 400 years of silence to yell, that's my son. I love him and I'm proud of him. Like, that's my baby. That whole moment right here. And notice the timing. Up to this point, Jesus hasn't preached a sermon, he hasn't healed anyone, he hasn't cast out any demons, he hasn't walked in water, and he hasn't gone to the cross. Heaven is not responding to his performance. Heaven is announcing his identity. Before he does anything public, he hears this private word, beloved, son, I delight in you. That sentence is what most of us spend our entire life trying to earn. We chase versions of it, grades, promotions, relationships, follower counts. And we hope someone important will look at us and say, I see you, I choose you. We build our whole identity around trying to get people from people, trying to get from people the things that we get from them, what really just the father gives to his son for free. And here's the thing: if you belong to Jesus, that same sentence hangs over your life too. Not because you've earned it, but because you're in him. In fact, in the New Testament, uh, Paul writes to the Corinthians, he says in chapter five of the second letter he sent to them, when the father looks at him, he says you are in Christ. And so being in Christ, what that means is when the father looks at you and looks at him and says, beloved son, he's also looking through him to you. That's what really baptism is all about. It's not this spiritual hygiene. It's not like I took a shower for Jesus. What it is, is it's like adoption paperwork. It's God saying in front of everyone, this one's mine. This one belongs in my family. It's heaven putting your name on a list where our culture, and you know this, it says, perform and then what? You might belong. Where God says first belong, and then you'll learn to live like it. Now, if you're younger, this really cuts against almost everything that you've ever been told about identity. The story usually is like figure yourself out, um, brand yourself, express yourself, prove yourself, and essentially you are a never-ending self-project. But Jesus shows us another way that his identity is received, not achieved. He moves into this future from a place of already being loved, not trying to get loved. Now, can you imagine what would change if you really believed, like before you ever walked into work, before you ever opened Instagram, before you sat in a classroom or on a date, that the loudest, truest voice in the universe had already said over you, you are my beloved. I'm well pleased with you. I think some of you maybe have never even heard that from an earthly parent. You've heard do better. Maybe you've heard silence, criticism. You've heard like, why can't you just be more like friends? Heaven speaks a different sentence. Says, you are my beloved child. I am glad that you exist. And that doesn't mean that God is pleased with everything that we do, by the way. It just means he's pleased to call us his. It means that the starting line of the Christian life is not shame, it's sonship, it's daughterhood, it's belovedness. So in this moment at the Jordan, Jesus is modeling what we all need to have our identity settled before the attacks, before the busyness, before questions. And the waters of baptisms are where the Father says, This is who you are, and then everything else flows from there. So Jesus stands in the river, dripping. Uh, the echo of that voice, I'm sure, still vibrating his bones. The crowd is, you know, buzzing at the sun, people probably staring up to the sky, looking, wondering if it's going to rip again, others staring at him, trying to reconcile. Isn't this the guy from Nazareth, but the beloved son of God? I mean, if this was our movie right now, we were making this, this is where we'd roll inspirational music. We'd send him straight from the river to the stage, you know, book the tour, drop the merch, start the movement. This is great. Like what a start. But Mark says something different. He uses his favorite word, which we will continue to see. He says, immediately, the spirit drove him out into the wilderness. The same spirit who just descended like a dove, now shoves him out into the desert. Like, no pause, no post-baptism brunch, no like debris circle here. Like straight from you're my beloved son, who I'm well pleased to. Now go to a place where it will feel like I have forgotten you. It doesn't say that the devil drove him there into the wilderness. It says the spirit did, which is uncomfortable. Because it means not every hard place in your life is proof that God has left you. Sometimes it's proof that God is leading you. I mean, like, just think about it. The water is still drying on his skin. Like when suddenly the wind changes and his next step is not towards the throne, it's towards like a wasteland where heaven has just opened over him and now the horizon is about to swallow him. And that's where we'll pick it up. He walks away from the river and now towards the rocks. Now, if you have ever gone from a spiritual high straight into a week that felt like it was trying to kill you, you already understand this next scene. Like one moment, right? You're convinced God is close. And then suddenly the next, you're wondering if you imagine the whole thing. Well, Mark says he was in the wilderness for 40 days, being tempted by Satan. And he was with the wild animals, and the angels were ministering to him. So just so you understand, the Judean wilderness is not a place you go for like a scenic hike. Been there. Haven't done that on purpose, right? It's jagged limestone, it's these hills, deep ravines, and heat that if you're there in the summer, literally sucks the moisture out of you. During the day, the sun can cook you. And if you've ever been to the desert, you know at night the cold can cut you. There is no river here, no crowd, no applause, just rocks, shadows, and your own thoughts. And Jesus goes there led by the Spirit, not lost, not drifting, led for 40 days. Now, what's important to understand is that number is loaded. A new world after 40 days of the flood with Noah. Israel wandered for 40 years until coming into a new promise because they didn't trust God. Moses was up on a mountain for 40 days to receive these commandments to bring about something new. Elijah ran for 40 days. Even Jesus was on this earth after he'd risen for 40 days. Every time, 40 days is a time of testing and transformation. Where Israel had failed, Jesus will be faithful. Where humanity kept failing the test, Jesus will pass on our behalf. And Mark doesn't give us all the details here, but Matthew and Luke let us actually listen in on the temptation. See, what happens is that the enemy waits right here until Jesus is hungry, weak, and alone. Just so you guys know, that's how temptation works. It doesn't knock when you're full and surrounded. Just a warning to you, my friends, and a reminder. It shows up when you are depleted and isolated. So here's the first temptation, and that if we open this a little broader, we see the first temptation was when he's hungry, he tells Jesus, turn these stones into bread. In other words, use your power to fix your discomfort. If the Father really loves you, he wouldn't let you be hungry, right? So just solve this your own way. So the temptation here is actually comfort, and the shortcut is satisfaction. And Jesus then answers, Man shall not live on bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God. In other words, I'd rather be hungry in the will of God than full outside of it. My deepest life doesn't come from getting what I want, it comes from trusting what he says. And then what happens is the devil takes them to the pinnacle of the temple in Jerusalem in this vision, and he says, throw yourself down. God will send angels to catch you, make a scene, prove that you are who you say you are. Now, this is the temptation of clout, the shortcut to validation. You know, show off, go viral, jump and let everyone see how anointed you are. If you're really the Son, doesn't God have to back you up, right? And so Jesus responds, you shall not put the Lord your God to the test. Essentially, he refuses to turn his relationship with the Father into a stunt. Love doesn't man demand constant proof, it rests in what's already been spoken at the river. And then finally, the devil shows him the kingdom of the world. He says, Here's the kingdom of the world. I'll give you all of this if you just bow down to me. You don't have to go to the cross. No suffering, just power, influence, results. Sound familiar? This is the temptation of control, the shortcut to impact. And Jesus says, Be gone, Satan. For it is written, you shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve. No compromise. No bargain. No, like, uh, well, maybe just like a little bow. He will not trade intimacy with the father for authority from heaven. So here's what you have. If you just look at these temptations real quickly. You have bread, which is comfort, you have make a spectacle, which is clout, and then you have power, which is control. I think that you could sum up almost every temptation that you and I face under those three. You're like, fix this yourself instead of trusting God. Make people notice you instead of being faithful in the hidden place. Grab influence without going through the path of sacrifice. And Jesus says no to every shortcut so that he can say yes to the Father's will. And that yes will eventually lead him to another lonely place on a hill outside of the city with nails and his wrists. In the wilderness, he has not. Just a moral example. He is our representative. He is winning where we have lost our on our best days. He is walking through our test so that his victory can count for us. And then Mark adds this detail that no one else does in their gospels. He says he was with the wild animals and angels were ministering to him. Now, if you think about this, this is such an eerie picture, right? Hyenas cackling in the distant, jackals lurking, maybe lions. This is always scary when you think about when you're on a hike or something, maybe leopards. It's like, you know, when you go into a swimming pool and you swim at night, you for some reason think sharks exist in swimming pools, right? Like it just, it's eerie, right? But the second Adam is now standing in a broken Eden, surrounded by a creation that has learned to fear humans and to make humans afraid. But they don't touch him. The one through whom all things were made now stands in the middle of this hostile environment and unharmed until his hour truly comes. Where creation recognizes its king even when people don't. And so while the beast prowl, it says angels serve. We don't know how. Maybe they brought food in the evenings or water. I mean, this is like an Elijah moment where God says, you know, take a nap, I'll give you some bread and some water, chill out. Maybe they strengthened his body when he was shaking. Maybe they just reminded him silently, like the voice at the river was real. But here's the deal hell attacks you. That's an amen moment, right? But heaven assists you. And most of the time, you and I are only aware of that first part, that hell attacks. We we sense the push of temptation and the weight of discouragement, but we don't see the invisible care of God. We don't, we don't see how many times He has sustained us, how many times uh the things just didn't take us out. And Jesus walks out of the wilderness thinner, tired, but unbroken. Luke says that he came back in the power of the spirit. This same spirit who filled him at the water was now uh forging him in the desert. That's literally the pattern right here. It's affirmation, then adversity, then authority. First, the father says, You are my beloved. Then life says, Are you sure? And then if you hold on to what God said in the river, you come out of the desert with a different kind of strength: affirmation, adversity, and then authority. And some of you are there right now. You've had moments by the water, you know, worship times, breakthroughs, flashes when you knew God was real and you felt him so near, but like lately it's felt more like rocks in silence, where you wonder if, like, did something go wrong? Did God just move on? Maybe I misheard him. What if you didn't? What if the spirit led you here? Not to abandon you, but to deepen you. The wilderness does not change what God said at the river. I think what it does is it actually reveals what you believe. If you're in your 20s, this whole decade can feel like this one long wilderness, right? Questions about calling, money doesn't seem to stretch, friendships start to shift, prayers just feel like they bounce. You know, you you scroll through everyone else's highlight reels and you think, like, did I miss my road? You know, why does everyone else seem to be walking into purpose? Well, I'm just stuck here with wild animals of anxiety and doubt. Or maybe you're not in your 20s and you're like, no, that actually sounds like me too, right? Well, Mark One is here to tell you that the wilderness is not always a detour. Sometimes it's actually the road. I mean, nobody posts day 37 of God rewiring my character. No filter, still hungry, right? But that's where depth is built. That's where superficial faith goes to die and real trust is actually born. Jesus didn't leave the wilderness bitter. He didn't come out saying, like, I tried God and it didn't work. He came out with words burning in his chest. The time is fulfilled, the kingdom of God is at hand. And his testing turned into a message, and his pain turned into a proclamation. And if you let him, he will do the same with you. So, what do we do with a story like this? Well, just a couple things. First, some of us need to go back to the water, not physically necessarily, but in our minds, in our prayers. We need to start to hear God again as He in what He's already said about us. You are not just your worst mistake, that you are not just your lowest season, that you are not just your current confusion. If you are in Christ, you are beloved, you are adopted, you are His. And you might not feel that right now, but I'm telling you right now, feelings come and go, especially in the wilderness. But the Father's sentence over you is not changing every time your emotions do. Second, some of us need to reframe the wilderness that we're currently in. The enemy will always try to interpret your desert as abandonment. You know, like, see, God left. See, I told you, you're all alone. See, the story of Jesus says the opposite. If the spirit led him there, then the spirit was still with him there. You might not hear like fresh words in the season that you're in. You might uh just have to live on the last one that you actually heard. But that doesn't mean that nothing is happening. It's the same thing like when you go to the gym or work out, muscles grow under stretched tension, not comfort. It's hard for us to remember that. It's not fun, but it's the truth. Third, some of us need to stop reaching for shortcuts, like comfort, clout, control, because there will always be easier ways to feel full, to feel seen, to feel powerful. They will always ask you to bow to something other than God, and they will always cost you more than they give. The Jesus way is slower. It walks from water to wilderness and whatever comes next without changing you and who gets there. And then finally, all of us need to see that this is not just a story about us trying harder. This is a story about Jesus going first, where he stepped into our baptism so he could stand in our temptation, so that he could lead us through our deserts. It's not like he's this distant coach yelling instructions from the comfort of heaven. He is the king with dust in his hair and sand in his sandals, who knew exactly what the heat and hunger and loneliness actually felt like. So I just want to speak this over you as we close, just kind of like a blessing. May you remember what was declared over the water when life drags you into the wilderness. May you believe that your belovedness does not evaporate in the heat. And may the same spirit who descended like a dove on Jesus give you strength when the days feel endless and the nights feel empty. And may you sense even faintly that angels still minister in hidden ways, through the encouragement you didn't expect, the peace you can't explain, and the fact plainly that you're still here. May you treat this wilderness not as proof that God has left, but evidence that He is forming you. May you refuse the cheap shortcuts of comfort and clout and control, and instead choose the slow, solid way of trust. And when you finally walk out of this season, and friends, you will. May you carry a quiet authority that comes from the adopted ones who have heard the Father's voice, survived the enemy's lies, and discovered that God was faithful in both places. The king who stepped into the Jordan still walks into dry places and calls them holy. And may you find him there. Amen. Will you stand as we respond in worship?