The Solution to Life: Mark 6:45-56
You may have noticed life can get complicated! If you haven't noticed that yet, you will. Life's complications can be emotional, financial, spiritual, family related, mental, physical and they can be about loss to you!
t We need solutions to life's complications! Let me offer three solutions that lead to one solution today!
t First, in Mark 6:4546 we see Jesus is our solution in prayer.
t Jesus just fed 15 or 20,000 people with five biscuits and two sardines. Immediately after dismissing the crowds, He made His disciples get into the boat and go across the lake to Bethsaida.
tnotice the next thing Jesus does. He goes into the hills to pray. He was getting off by Himself to spend time in prayer. If God in human form, Jesus needed to spend time in prayer, certainly we need to spend time in prayer.
t Jesus went off into the hills to spend time alone in prayer. Do you find ways to get alone to spend time in prayer? If you don't, you should!
t Look at Mark 1:38, “Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed.” (NIV)
t Jesus got up early in the morning to get off by Himself and pray. We should get off alone for prayer in the morning!
In today's text, it was evening and Mark 6:46 says, “After leaving them, he went into the hills to pray.” (NIV)
t Jesus got alone for prayer in the evening. If it was good enough for Jesus it's good enough for you and me!
t Listen to Luke 5:16, “But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed.” (NIV) It was the practice of Jesus, the Lord to get away to lonely places for prayer often! Is it the frequent practice of our lives to get away alone for prayer? If it isn't now, it should become the frequent practice of life for all of us!
t Luke 6:12, “One of those days Jesus went out into the hills to pray, and spent the night praying to God.” (NIV)
t When Jesus came back from that night in prayer, He chose the 12 apostles. He was preparing for a deeply significant decision by spending a night in prayer!
t Remember prepare rhymes with prayer! When something of deep significance is coming up, prepare for it by spending significant time in prayer. It's what Jesus did and He never did the wrong thing.
t In Luke 22:41-42 Jesus is on the Mount of Olives with His disciples. He knows He's facing the cross in the next several hours. So, what does He do? “(41) He withdrew about a stone's throw beyond them, knelt down and prayed, (42) Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.” (NIV)
t Facing the toughest time in His life, knowing He was headed for the cross, He prayed asking God to remove the cup of suffering He was facing, but surrendering to the Father's will!
t We will face tough times in life, as we do it's imperative to face them in prayer, always willing to surrender to God's will.
t Jesus is our solution in prayer! How does that work? Follow His example, pray morning and evening, get away for extended times in prayer and face fears in prayer! Pray like Jesus prayed!
t I have watched a video of Denzel Washington giving the commencement address to the University of Pennsylvania from several years ago. He told them this, “put your slippers under the bed so when you get up you have to get on your knees…. And pray!”
t Denzel was calling the graduates of a secular university to prayer. Jesus calls us to prayer, and His call to prayer is our solution to life and its complications.
t Jesus is our solution to life when we pray like He prayed!
t Second, in Mark 6:4752, Jesus is the solution to fear.
t Remember Jesus sent the disciples ahead of him in the boat to go to the other side of the lake to Bethsaida. He went to pray alone in the hills.
t When evening came Jesus could see the disciples straining at the oars. A storm had probably come along and blown them off course. They were fighting the wind on their way across the lake to Bethsaida. At the fourth watch, which is between 3 and 6 a.m. Jesus walked out to ON to the lake.
t Jesus is about to pass them on the lake, and they saw Him walking on the water and thought He was a ghost. How did the disciples respond? They started crying out! They were hollering in fear!
tso, Jesus spoke to them saying,” Take courage! it is I. Don't be afraid.” (Mark 6:50C NIV) Next, Jesus acted on behalf of the disciples. He crawled in the boat with them, and the wind died down and they were all amazed!
t Have you been in a fearful place in life? They come along. I left full time ministry in 2005 after 30 years. I was 56 years old. It was scary to face that uncertainty.
t God led me into automobile sales for 13 years and 4 months at Sanderson Ford in Glendale, Ariz. That was a great fit, but I didn't know that in January of 2005.
t We decided we should leave Arizona and move back to Porterville in 2018. I got a job at a Ford dealership and figured on a smooth transition.
t To make a long story short, that plan blew up after 4 and ½ months and at the age of 69 I found myself unemployed. Scary is a gooda word.
t Both changes involved times when I was hollering out in fear. But Jesus calls out, “Don't be afraid, It is I.” Now, Jesus has led me to a place where I sell funeral and cremation insurance out of a great place in Porterville and have another career coming together.
t How does that work? Well, think of the boat as your life. When Jesus crawls in the boat, He's inside your life in the person of the Holy Spirit and the storm calms down.
t With Jesus sitting in the boat, you can claim 1 Peter 5:6-7, “(6) Humble yourselves, therefore, under God's mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. (7) Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.” (NIV)
One of the greatest of life's complexities is that of fear. Live life with Jesus in the boat and He's the solution to fear.
t Third in Mark 6:5356, Jesus is the solution to life's pain.
tthe disciples and Jesus cross the lake again and land at Gennesaret. As soon as they got out of the boat people recognized Jesus and started bringing people to him who were sick.
t From all over the towns and villages they brought people to Jesus and everyone who touched, even His garment was healed. Jesus was their solution to pain, and Jesus is our solution to pain.
t Our pain is why Jesus came. Isaiah 54:4A, “Surely he took our infirmities and carried our sorrows,” (NIV) More than 700 years before Jesus was born the prophet made it clear He would take our infirmities on Himself and carry our sorrows.
t Does that mean Jesus will always heal our physical illness? If that was the case no one would ever get sick and die, and all of us will get sick and die some day.
t I have figured out carrying our illness and pain doesn't always mean He heals us. Let me give you an example.
t For several years I've had back pain. The X-rays show my back is a bit sideways, and one hip bone is a little lower than the other. For about a decade I've been treated for back, hip, and other pain related to the area.
thave I brought it to Jesus for healing? Yes! Did He make the pain go away? No! But He carries it and has helped me cope and live with it.
twhy did all the people touched by Jesus at the tail end of Mark chapter 6 receive healing and I don't? A lot of the healing done by Jesus was to authenticate His message to that culture and in that time. We have the record of that authentication in the New Testament documents! It's authenticated!
this promise was always He would take our infirmities and carry our sorrows! He can do that without removing the illness or pain. His promise is to carry what hurts us, and He does!
t I've lost a younger brother and sister, along with a sister-in-law to cancer. They were all committed Christ-followers. Their illness took their physical lives. Was Jesus the solution to their pain? Yes, He carried it all the way into His presence!
t Back when I pastored a church in Porterville I had a 12-foot aluminum fishing boat. It had a fivehorsepower motor, and I would go bass fishing with my kids at Success Lake!
t When everyone left for college, I sold the boat.
t I could pull the boat down to the lake, launch the boat in the water, but without me getting in and running the show nothing worked and nothing happened.
t I was the functional solution to the boat running!
t Your life is the boat and Jesus is the solution to it functioning. You have to invite Him in and surrender the boat to Jesus' direction, then He becomes the solution.
t Get Jesus in the boat and surrender control to Him and He will be the solution in prayer, to fear and to pain.
Tom West works in advanced funeral and cremation planning with Myers Funeral Service in Porterville, CA. You can reach Tom on his cell number at 602.758.1168. You can see Tom’s messages on his Youtube channel at Life in the God Lane.