Jesus and Identity - Saddleback Weekend Service

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This is our God, this is who he is for He loves us This is our God, this is what he does He saves us He borne the cross, beat the grave Let heaven and earth proclaim This is our God, King Jesus He borne the cross, beat the grave Let heaven and earth proclaim This is our God, King Jesus Oh, this is our God Oh, King Jesus Is there no one for your great work? Who thought I'd find you at the lowest place? Who thought you'd fill me in the crowd? Who knew you'd make good on my mistakes? You're nothing like I thought you were, you're better What a God, what a God What a God, what a God That's who you are What a God, what a God What a God, what a God I thought you'd show before perfection Cause what kind of God looks for the lost? They say it's over for a sinner Although you say, no it's not, no it's not You say, no it's not, no it's not What a God, what a God What a God, what a God That's who you are What a God, what a God What a God, what a God So if the highest place I reach is at your feet Then I've done it all

If the best thing that I've seen is your glory Then I've seen it all Cause your love has changed my life Forever satisfying God You are my heaven Can we sing this together in the highest place? If the highest place I reach Then I've done it all If the best thing that I've seen Then I've seen it all Your love has changed my life Forever satisfying God You are my heaven If the only place, the only thing is here Then I've heard it all You reveal your heart and never see your head I still have it all No treasure of this life Could ever satisfy God You are my heaven You are my heaven You are my What a God, what a God What a God, what a God What a God, what a God What a God, what a God So if the highest place I reach If the highest place I reach is at your feet Then I've done it all If the best thing that I've seen is your glory

Then I've seen it all Cause your love has changed my life Forever satisfying God ♪ You are my everything ♪ ♪ If one will is the only thing you've made of me ♪ ♪ Then I've heard it all ♪ ♪ If I feel your heart and never see your end ♪ ♪ I still have it all ♪ ♪ No treasure of this life could ever satisfy God ♪ ♪ You are my everything ♪ ♪ You are my everything, God ♪ ♪ You are my everything ♪ Well, church, Romans 8.15 reads like this. 8.15 reads like this. The spirit you received does not make you slaves so that you live in fear again. Rather, the spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship and by him we cry, Abba Father. Now, that term Abba Father is simply communicating the intimacy of the relationship that we have with our Father. The God who created the entire universe loved you so much that he sent his son to pay the price you could not pay so that fear would never have control of your life, so that shame would never stop you from moving forward, so that your past would not define you, but you can stand and say, I am no longer a slave to fear.

And so today we're gonna lift this song up, but with that in your mind and in your heart, I want us to sing this with everything we've got and let's sing it loud. Can we do that, church? Come on, let's lift it up together. ♪ You unravel me with a melody ♪ ♪ You surround me with a song ♪ ♪ Of deliverance from my enemies ♪ ♪ Till all my fears are gone ♪ Come on, let's lift it together. ♪ I'm no longer a slave to fear ♪ ♪ Oh, I am a child of God ♪ ♪ I'm no longer a slave to fear ♪ ♪ But I am a child of God ♪ Come on, isn't that great news today? Let's sing this second verse with all our heart. ♪ Oh, from my mother's womb you have chosen me ♪ ♪ Love has taught my name ♪ ♪ I've been born again into your family ♪ ♪ Your blood has washed through my veins ♪ Come on, every voice, let's declare it. ♪ I'm no longer a slave to fear ♪ ♪ But I am a child of God ♪ ♪ I'm no longer a slave to fear ♪ ♪ Oh, but I am a child of God ♪ One more time, church. ♪ I'm no longer a slave to fear ♪ ♪ But I am a child of God ♪ ♪ Oh, I'm no longer a slave to fear ♪

♪ Oh, but I am a child of God ♪ Come on, let's declare it. ♪ Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh ♪ ♪ Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh ♪ ♪ No, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh ♪ ♪ Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh ♪ Oh, I could walk right through it My fears are drowned in perfect love You rescued me so I could stand and sing I am a child of God You split the sea You split the sea so I could walk right through it My fears are drowned in perfect love You rescued me so I could stand and sing I am a child of God Yes, I am I am a child altogether now I am a child of God Well, we have a God that sets us free from fear and sets us free from shame And we have a God that's calling us into a new identity as His beloved children And today as we gather together in worship, we get to celebrate Christ And we get to lift His name on high and praise Him for the love that He has for us Well, church family, welcome to Saddleback We're so glad that you're joining us today If we haven't had the chance to meet yet, my name is Carissa And I have the privilege of getting to work and serve with our online community team here at Saddleback And if you're checking out Saddleback for the very first time, we would love to get to know you and help you get connected Here at Saddleback, we believe church is more than just showing up on the weekends and watching service But it's doing life together and growing in our faith and encouraging one another And so whether it's jumping into one of our small groups or one of our prayer groups or joining one of our Zoom events

Whatever it may be, we would love to personally reach out to you and help you to get connected So you can let us know it's your first time joining us by clicking the link in the description if you're watching on YouTube Or we have a Saddleback app that you can actually download And when you download it, set your campus to online community and then open the notes section There you'll be able to access our weekly program and take a next step that way as well Well, we are super excited to get to know you and we can't wait to personally connect with you This weekend at Saddleback, we are launching a brand new message series called Jesus on the Move And man, I am super excited for this because we are taking a deep dive look at the book of Mark and the life of Jesus And what's great is that we're going to see Jesus on the move doing miracles, healing people, spreading the good news And it's an invitation to not just look at his life but to follow him as well So Pastor Andy is going to kick us off this weekend with a great message I'm super excited that you're here to hear it today as well But something else that we are celebrating this weekend is the launch of our Heyo Bible coloring book Many of you are familiar with our Heyo Bible that we released a few years ago And now we're releasing a coloring book so that this next generation, our kids and our students Are able to see and learn the stories of the Bible and come to life as they color and learn about them We're going to hear more about it in just a second But every student and every child that comes and checks in to our Saddleback Kids program in person this weekend at our campuses Is going to get a free copy of this Heyo Bible coloring book But we know for our online community, many of you can't come in person And so we want to give you an opportunity to get a free one as well So we're giving a giveaway five free Heyo Bible coloring books And this is how you have the opportunity to get one You simply just fill out a Next Steps form So if you go to the link in the description or if you open our Saddleback app Fill out a Next Steps form and we'll choose five people that we will be sending a Heyo Bible coloring book to as well Well church family, we're so glad that you're with us today Now let's check out a few more things that are happening in the life of our church Hey Saddleback, this weekend is such a fun one for our families Every child is receiving their very own Heyo coloring book

We created this resource to help you disciple your kids to know and love God's word It's engaging, it's super fun, and it helps continue the conversation about Jesus at home We're giving it away free today because we want every child to fall in love with the scriptures And discover how life-changing Jesus really is And speaking of Next Gen, summer camp registration is officially open This summer we have something for every single age group We have Summer Blast for kids entering kindergarten through fifth grade We have Junior High Camp at Thousand Pines, High School Camp at Biola University and college summer retreat in Indian Wells. Every single one of these experiences is designed for one purpose, that young people would know Jesus and grow in their faith. Last year, over 2,000 kids and students attended summer camp and 259 decided to follow Jesus for the very first time. That's why we do this. And yes, there are games and fun late nights. And yes, there are new friendships and unforgettable moments but most importantly, there are life-changing encounters with Jesus. And I just wanna say thank you, church, because of your generosity. Last year, we provided over 300 scholarships to families so their kids could attend camp. This year, hundreds of families are already hoping for that same opportunity. So if you'd like to help send a child or student to camp, you can give directly to the Camp Scholarship Fund at saddleback.com slash scholarship or in the Saddleback app by selecting the Camp and Scholarships option.

Because of your generosity, a kid or student could experience the moment that changes their life forever. And as always, you can give your regular tithes and offerings today through the app or by using one of these giving envelopes. And one more thing, if you're newer to Saddleback or ready to take your next step, we'd love to invite you to activate. It's happening next week at your campus. It's a simple one-hour experience where you'll discover who we are as a church and how you can get connected and start using your God-given gifts. You can see Activate's time and location in the Saddleback app or swing by the Hub at your campus right after this service. We are so grateful you're here today, church family. Now, let's hear from Pastor Andy. Hello, church family. It's so good to be together. And tonight we're gonna do something really special. This is the Lake Forest Campus. As you know, we've got other campuses that join us online. We have a campus all across Southern California, but sometimes it's good just to focus in on what God's doing here in our campus. And there's something really special that I wanna rejoice in with you

for our Lake Forest Campus. Many of you guys have seen Pastor Freddie Washington on this stage leading worship. His first time leading worship was a year ago at the return gathering. When he led us in worship, I just could see God's anointing on his life. And he started coming throughout the course of last year. You probably got more and more familiar with him. And then he's been in the role of leading us in worship now for several months. But we felt like it would be really good as a whole church to wrap our arms around him, to commission him and pray over him as the worship leader of Saddleback Church for all of our campuses. And so we're gonna do that tonight. And I'm gonna invite some of our elders and our pastors and Pastor Freddie to the stage. Will y'all give Pastor Freddie a warm welcome as he comes to the stage? Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. God, I love you. God, I love you better. Thank you. Love. Love. Love.

Well, Pastor Freddie, you see how much you are loved. Oh my goodness. Oh my goodness. I think you're favorite in the band. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Well, we love you. And we're so thankful to God for your ministry, for God's call on your life. It's very evident to everybody in our church family. You're anointed for this assignment, this season in our church family. And one of the things that I get to see behind the scenes is your love for God, not just on a stage, but many hours of praying together, conversations with you, your humility and passion for God. We're just very grateful for your yes and God's call on your life and the intersection of those two. And so we wanna bless you and pray over you and just commission you in this new season. So we're gonna join together and Pastor Tom's gonna start us off and Katie's gonna join us. And then, yes.

We're laying hands on them because in the Bible, that's what they did. It was saying, we affirm God's gifts in your life, God's spirit working through your life. We affirm it together as a church family. And I saw some of you stretching out your hands. You can do that because we're doing this together, not just us on stage. So let's pray together. Lord, thank you for your call on Pastor Freddie's life. Thank you for the gifts you have given him through your spirit that he is using in this church to make a difference. And Lord, as a church family, we pray that he would lead us into places of worship. You would use him to lead through his team even. Lord, you've told us to worship with joy. Let him lead us into places of joy as we sing. You've told us to worship when we have grief. I pray you'd use him to help us to grieve with you, even through song. Whatever the season, the ups and downs of life, any circumstance, God, you want us to sing a song that says that you're near to us. I pray that he, through his team and himself, would lead us. to those places. Father, I pray that your call upon his life would lead him to places where he is close to you, resting in you. And I pray that your call upon his life

would lead him to places where he is going out from that place to serve you, to love people that need to be loved, to let people know that there's hope in you. Lord Jesus, we are so, so grateful. And Freddie is evidence of your goodness and your faithfulness. Thank you for this appointment and this calling on his life. Thank you for bringing him here to this place, to this season, for such a time as this, to do your work, Lord. God, I pray that you would pour out your anointing on him, Lord, that you would anoint him with humility and courage and deep joy, that you would pour out your spirit and your favor upon him as he leads. Lord, I pray that you would draw close to him and that he would lead from an overflow of what you are doing in his heart. Lord, I pray your protection over him, over his home, over his family. Lord, will you guide him and walk with him and care for him in a way that only you can. And Lord, I pray that he would be reminded daily that you are his shepherd and in you he lacks nothing. Lord, I thank you for this great man of God. Thank you that he's not just one who stands on a stage and leads us into worship, but he's a lover of you. Thank you for the integrity of his heart. I think about the words of David,

it said he shepherded them with integrity of heart and skillful hands. And Lord, he's such a great example of both of those things. And I speak a blessing over him right now. I pray, Holy Spirit, that you'd pour out your power, your grace, your wisdom, your anointing on his life, Lord, that as he continues to lead us as a church into your presence with worship, Lord, that he would sense your favor. I pray that he would feel our love and our support from our team, from our church family as a whole. And Lord, that there would be many fruitful years of your faithfulness through his life with Saddleback. We bless him in the mighty name of Jesus, we pray. Amen, amen. We love you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. You may be seated. I wanna say welcome to all of our campuses and those of you who are joining us online. Today's a great day, so many wonderful things to celebrate what God is doing in our church. And I wanna take a quick minute to highlight two really awesome things that God has done for our church. This weekend, we have the launch of our new campus,

our new location of the South Bay Campus in LaMedia. It's a partnership between Bay Church and Saddleback Church and they're gonna be launching in their brand new building and we wanna show them some love. So all of our campuses, can we give it up for South Bay? We're praying for you as you launch this weekend. In addition to that, we've got another miracle to share with you. Many of you guys know that God opened a door for our church to have a building in Irvine, the Irvine South Campus. They've been doing some construction, but we kind of hit some delays related to occupancy and kind of some of the legalities with the city. We've been waiting for approval for months, praying for that and I'm happy to tell you that this week, the city approved for us to go ahead and start construction for the campus to move into their new auditorium and that's a huge win. We believe God's gonna use that campus in a powerful way to reach that part of our community and it's good to know, like when we gather together, we have campuses all over Southern California. Some of you may know somebody in those communities from Lomita to Irvine, any of our other campuses that you would say, go to church locally in your community because there's something that happens when you go to church in the community where you live. You can bring friends to church with you five minutes down the road instead of an hour down the road

and we believe our future as a church, our greatest strength is going to come with the strength of our campuses. So can we, one more time, show some love to all of our campuses outside of Lake Forth. We love you guys, we're praying for you and believing God has great things in store. And today, we're starting a brand new series. I've been very excited about this series. For months, we've been planning and preparing. We're gonna walk through a book of the Bible in three chunks this year, the Gospel of Mark and our message series is titled Jesus on the Move and what I love about this book of the Bible, it's one of the four accounts of the life of Jesus. Mark is, he's writing this book through the perspective of Peter. Many historians believe that Peter, one of the first three followers of Jesus, was the one that gave the words to Mark who wrote them down and it was one of the first of the four accounts of the life of Jesus. Now, as we go through this, we're gonna see. Several really significant things about this awesome book of the Bible. We're gonna see this book of the Bible moves really fast and 41 times the word is used Immediately over and over and over again like immediately Jesus went to that town immediately Jesus healed that person and it really does fit the personality of Peter that we'll see throughout the book I've always thought it to be funny though that Peter who translated to Mark who wrote it down Peter put all of his blunders in the gospel of Mark all the things that he shouldn't have done and shouldn't have said he was Certainly an extrovert

He was he was probably young when he started following Jesus and he did a lot of dumb things So there's two possibilities One he didn't realize that billions of people would read the Bible and read this story or two He wanted us to know that Jesus changed his life and can change ordinary lives like ours And I think it's probably somewhere in between the two and I want us to see this first verse Mark chapter 1 beginning in verse 1 We're gonna look at the life of Jesus how Jesus starts a movement that transforms the world And we're gonna see that he's a great teacher. He's a healer. He's a prophet, but he's way more than that He's God in human flesh that would die on a cross For the sins of the world and rise again from the dead and let's read this first verse aloud Mark chapter 1 Starting in verse 1 says this the beginning of the good news about Jesus the Messiah The Son of God now, I think you can do way better than that So I'm gonna read it one more time the beginning of the good news about Jesus the Messiah The Son of God now, I want to invite you if you have your notes to go ahead and pull them out We're gonna focus in on a few verses this today as we launch into this series But I want to just begin with that phrase that he used says good news about Jesus the Messiah The Son of God the original word that is used is where we get our English word evangelism and it's to pronounce a victory so he's saying that this is the beginning of the the pronouncement of good news of victory of the coming of Jesus the Messiah and he uses another phrase right here that's connected to the Beginning of the Bible. So in the beginning in Genesis chapter 1 the first verse of the Bible says in the beginning So he's bringing together this concept of a new era a new covenant a new Moment where God is splitting through in the Old Testament is done the New Testament The era of Jesus being with us God in human flesh is among us and the good news of Jesus is about to spread Now John the Baptist we looked at his story last week if you weren't with us and today We're gonna come to what happens right after John the Baptist prepares the way and then Jesus Approaches him and he's going to get baptized and I want you to notice these few verses Mark chapter 1 verse 9 through 15 And I'm gonna read them and I want you to see a few things in here. I want you to notice Jesus one what the Bible says about him what God the Father says about Jesus I want you to notice his step into the waters to be baptized and How the Father the Son and the Holy Spirit come together in this passage in a beautiful way now

I'm a little intimidated. I found out this week. We have somebody on our staff Jacob Wilson He oversees all of our teams He is writing his PhD on two verses in this passage of Scripture And I'm like I sat down and listened to him talk that brother has like 200 pages on two verses I'm like man, what am I going to do? Like you you should maybe teach this so he gave me some of his thoughts, but this is such a powerful passage of Scripture There's so much that's happening in these few verses Let me read them says this at the time Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee He was baptized by John in the Jordan and just as Jesus was coming up out of the water He saw heaven be torn open and the Spirit the Holy Spirit descending on him like a dove And a voice came from heaven and said you are my son whom I love and with you I am well pleased and Then at once the Spirit sent him out into the wilderness and he was in the wilderness for 40 days Being tempted by Satan. He was with the wild animals and the angels attended him and Afterwards John was put in prison Jesus then went into Galilee Proclaiming the good news of God the time has come He said the kingdom of God has come near repent and believe the good news this is the Word of God and You see the beginning of the ministry of Jesus and right here in these few verses is so much that mark and really that God Is weaving together about who Jesus was and Jesus is and what we're gonna see as we go through the book of Mark We're gonna see miracles. We're gonna see We're going to see the heart of God, and ultimately, we're going to see Jesus be crucified and rise again from the dead. And something happens when you read through a book of the Bible, when you get like a meta-narrative or a bigger picture, and then you zoom in on a day-to-day basis. And so we're going to do a little challenge over the next month that we're going to call the March Through Mark Challenge. You like that, don't you? March Through Mark. If you don't know what month it is, it's March.

So we're going to march through Mark together. And here's what I want to challenge you to do. I want to challenge you in this next month to give your focus to engaging the Bible and building that habit around the Gospel of Mark. So there's three parts of it. One is to engage the Bible six days a week, and there's a commitment I'm going to show you in just a moment. It's about 10 minutes a day, and that will get us through the Gospel of Mark two times in the month of March. It's to memorize one passage of the Bible per week, and then it's to pray for one life, one person who's disconnected from the heart of God every single day. And that's leading us up to Easter as a church. Now this March Through Mark Challenge, my prayer is that every person who's a part of our church does this. Even if you're new to faith, even if you've like just started coming this week, you will get so much out of just reading through the life of Jesus. So what our team has done is we put together a little kind of guide to go through, and you're going to see it come on the screen here. And that guide you can find in the app. There's a little spot at the top of the app that says I'm in, and if you click it, it literally will take you about 20 seconds. That guide will come to you by email, and then you can just print it off and journey through with us all throughout the month. So I'm going to invite you into that at the end of the message to make a commitment to do that. And my encouragement is as we go, we're going to see some pretty powerful things about Jesus. And this first passage, I want us to notice three very important truths about Jesus and the movement He's beginning. And the first thing I want us to see is that in this passage, Jesus' identity is revealed. So we start to see who He is.

We start to realize that this is not an ordinary guy. This is actually God in human flesh, and God the Father is going to speak about Him, and He says, this is my Son with whom I am well pleased. So the voice of the Father speaks out over Jesus. But I want you to notice, if you go back to this verse, verse 9, as it says that the Spirit descends on Him like a dove, and He says, you are my Son whom I love, with you I am well pleased. I want you to think about what happens right before this. If you read the Bible, the first few verses, you realize there's really nothing before this in the life or ministry of Jesus. Now we know Jesus was about 30 years old at this time, but none of His public ministry had started at this point. And this is really important, because there have been no miracles, there's been no teaching that we know of, there's been very little public ministry that Jesus has done, and the Father is going to speak out His affirmation before there's anything that Jesus accomplishes. And we're seeing His identity. We're seeing the Father say, you're my Son with whom I love, and I'm well pleased. And everything Jesus does flows out of who Jesus is. That's what we're going to see in this book. We're going to see everything He does flows out of His identity, His Sonship of the Heavenly Father. And I want you to notice this because it's important for us today. See, so often our way of living is that we live for identity rather than from identity. You hear me, right? Like we live in such a way that we think if we can somehow attain identity through, you know, the things that we accomplish, the job that we have, maybe it's certain relationships in our life, but we now stamp ourselves. Might even be things that you do, or things that you love that you say are true about you. Maybe you're a good guy, or maybe you say, I'm a cat lady, or something like that.

But we sometimes give ourselves identity. Did you know that actually I have an identity? I'm an ice skater. Did you guys know that? Did you know that? Yeah. I grew up in Michigan. We have a lake pretty close to my house. So I learned to ice skate at a really young age. So yesterday, my son invited me to go ice skating with him. He hadn't seen me ice skate in a really long period of time. Would you guys like to see a video of me ice skating? Okay, let me show it to you. Let's watch this. All right, let's skate. Nice carve. How many of you think that was real? Nobody raised their hand. Because it's not, it's fake. Thank you, AI, that was awesome. But isn't it true, like you now don't think of me as an ice skater, I'm really not an ice skater. But if I could do that, you would call me an ice skater because that's how we live. We think if we do certain sets of behaviors that that changes our identity of who we are. But the way the message of Jesus works and what the Father is doing here, the way that God works in our life is that he starts with identity

and then our behavior, our life follows as a result of that. So there's an invitation that Jesus is making of you today. And it's that you would receive your new identity as a son or a daughter of Most High God. That's the invitation. There are some of you today, you've lived your whole life with an image of God as being angry with you. You've lived your whole life with an image of religion being the thing that you have to go through to get to God. But I want you to see from the Bible, the voice of the heavenly Father spoken over Jesus. This is my son with whom I love and I am well pleased. Now, maybe in your mind, you're like, well, yeah, but Jesus is 30. He hadn't sinned up into that point and I do a lot of dumb things and that doesn't really mean that's true about me. But I want you to hear a couple other things that Jesus says. And these verses, friends, if you get them in your heart, they will radically change your life. Watch this, John 15, nine, Jesus is speaking and he says, as the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. The same eternal love that the perfect heavenly Father has for the perfect Son of God, God in human flesh, that perfect love is now applied to you when you put your trust in Jesus as a son or daughter of the Most High God. This is mind blowing, to think that God doesn't ask you

to achieve your way to Him or somehow perform so that you would hear His voice, I love you, my son or my daughter. And in John 17, verse 22, this same truth in another way says this, I've given them the glory you gave me so that they may be one as we are one. I am in them and you are in me and may they experience such perfect unity that the world will know that you sent me and that you love them as much as you love me. So the love that the Father has for the Son, the Son has for you and the love that the Father has for the Son, the Father has for you. Are you tracking? Like that depth of love, it is beyond comprehension but oh how it would change our lives in the way that we relate to God and the way that we relate to one another if we could receive a new identity. And there are some of you that you are struggling so much with your identity. There's so many internal battles that you feel questioning about yourself, maybe your sexual identity, maybe your gender identity, maybe it's not that, maybe it's a career that you're struggling and you wanna be more successful and there are all these things battling on the inside. Did you know the most important thing about you is what God says about you?

Is that God calls you a son, God calls you a daughter and he invites you into this massive family that he is building that's based upon perfect love displayed on a cross through Jesus, God the Son. And this beautiful invitation is for you today. I'm gonna give you an opportunity today if you've never put your trust in Jesus to receive from him and receive a new identity by faith in what he did on a cross for you. Others of you who are followers of Jesus, you may have already received a new identity but you're not living it, living as though it's true. And my encouragement for you is just every day, could you imagine if you woke up every day and you took this verse, put John 15, nine back on the screen for just a moment. Every day if you woke up every morning this week and you just said, as the Father has loved me, so have I loved you the same love that the Father has for Jesus, Jesus has for me. The same love the Father has for Jesus, Jesus has for me. That would change the way that we relate to God. So that invitation is available for all of us. There's another truth I want us to see and that's that in this moment, the kingdom of Jesus is being inaugurated. So there's a new era and when the heavens open, if you'll look back at this verse for a moment, it says that at the time as he came down and was baptized by John in the Jordan

just as Jesus was coming out of the water, he saw heaven being torn open and the Holy Spirit descended on him like a dove. Now this is beautiful because the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, the triune God are all there in one verse. They're together. And this inauguration is the heavens have been split. That word is like a ripping of the heavens. So the spiritual realms and the physical realm come together in this moment. And as the heavens are ripped, the Spirit of God descends on Jesus like a dove. Now, it's good for us to recognize the Holy Spirit doesn't always come like a dove. Like in Acts chapter 2, the Bible says that the Spirit comes with a mighty rushing wind as the Spirit comes through the upper room. So you can't contain God. That's the bottom line. God will do what God wants to do. And in this moment, the Spirit descends like a dove. Now, Jesus is going to be led and propelled by the Holy Spirit as he does his ministry. And in this moment, this is like a commissioning upon Jesus to say there's a new season. There's a new era that has come. And I think of it like this. Back in 22, when Queen Elizabeth passed away, she had been the queen for 70 years. I want you to think about that for just a second. In Great Britain, over 85% of people had only known Queen Elizabeth as their queen. And then comes her son, and there's going to be this coronation of her son. And when a new king comes or a new leader comes, you don't always know what that new kingdom is going to be like. And friends, this is exactly what's happening in Iran right now. There's this turnover, and there are people desperately crying out for freedom.

And we need to pray for that nation and pray for the freedom of those people and pray for God's protection over those in that area. But that switch and that turn comes with all kinds of questions. And when Jesus comes, there is a new kingdom being established. The old kingdom, the old way of doing things are gone. And now his kingdom is not a temporary earthly kingdom. It's a kingdom that is eternal. It's being inaugurated with the coming of Jesus, the Messiah. So this new kingdom is going to be displayed all throughout the Gospel of Mark, and we're going to see what that kingdom is like. We're going to see it's a kingdom of love. We're going to see that it's a kingdom of power. We're going to see it's a kingdom that welcomes outsiders and embraces those who are lonely and goes after those who are hurting. And it's a kingdom that infects or invades into every nation, tribe, and tongue with the goodness and the greatness of God. And this is the moment. The heavens are split. It's the same word that's used at the end of the Gospel of Mark when the curtains are torn. And the Bible says from top to bottom the curtains are torn where the inner sanctum, where the holy of holies, where the Shekinah glory of God dwelt, and the outer courts of the temple. When that curtain was torn, it was a ripping. So the heavens were ripped and the curtain was ripped, and it was God making a way so that his kingdom could come on earth as it is in heaven. So the kingdom of God is being inaugurated, and then he invites you into it. He invites me into it. And his invitation is now to follow him into a new mission inside of a family business. So God is a father with sons and daughters building a family business.

And I love that picture because if you want in on the family business, all you have to do is just say, yeah, I want to sign up and be a part of the thing you're doing here on planet earth. And our natural tendency is to build our own business, our own thing. And what Jesus comes along and says is actually there's a bigger purpose for your life, and we're going to talk about that next week, that he comes along and calls you into following him and a life that makes a difference on the world around us. And that invitation, I want you to see a couple of things that are so clear that Jesus speaks about of what he's doing. In John 10, he's speaking of what he's trying to accomplish. He says, I have come that they might have life and have it to the full. So he's introducing life in its fullest, abundant life for humanity. So anybody that signs up for this mission of his family business now gets in on bringing this kind of life to every pocket of planet earth. And you know, the best way to get out of your misery is to contribute to somebody else's joy and peace. And sometimes we live in our own misery because we're trying to do our own thing when there's an invitation from God to lift our vision to realize there is this eternal kingdom that God is building that you and I as ordinary people can get in on, that the fullness of life he's coming to bring. In Luke 19 10, it says like this, for the son of man came to seek and to save the lost. And Jesus is speaking, I'm going after people who don't know the heart of God. I'm on a mission. And in fact, many times people would be confused because he would leave those who were found to go after those who were lost. And he would even give illustrations like I'm a shepherd who goes after one lost sheep instead of coddling 99 sheep who are found. And the truth is, God's eyes are constantly drawn to those who are disconnected, who are hurting, who are lonely, and he's looking for people that he can bless that will be on mission with him.

So if you want more of God's blessing and anointing on your life, if you want more of his hand of favor on your family, get on mission with what God is trying to accomplish here on planet earth. That the more my eyes are lifted beyond just my own needs but to the needs of others and what God's trying to do. That's where the favor, that's true for us as a church. You know since 1980 we've had this deep heart in our founding pastor Rick Warren and his wife Kay and many others at the beginning that said we want to be about reaching people far from God. I believe that's one of the reasons why God keeps pouring out his grace on Saddleback. To say we believe that God's changed our lives and we're so thankful and we want to know him more and we want to live with him and in his presence but we don't believe it stops with us. We believe that there's a world around us that needs the hope that we've experienced and we're not going to stop until everybody in our community, everybody in our region has the opportunity to hear this good news about Jesus. My invitation to you and I believe Jesus' invitation to you is to step into mission of the family business. You know by the way, this is why we do Activate because a lot of people just come in and leave and they go to church and maybe you like the service and you like the worship and you kind of like the preaching and then you're out and the truth is that this is a family. We want you in the family. We don't want you just as an attender. We want you to be a part of what God's doing here and Activate is the very first step. It's the starting point to get into the life of the church and if you've never done that I want to encourage you. All of our campuses next weekend are doing Activate and you can sign up for that today through the app but I want to encourage you that step to get engaged into the life of the church with a group and team. We want everybody as a part of a small group and on a team in our church and we believe

that when you join God's family business in that way and you give your life away, that's where the fullness of life comes. Now one of the other things that we talk about in addition to that is all of us having one life, one person we're praying for every day. We're asking God to change their life, to use us, to impact them. Last week on this stage one of our students stood here and said last year God put a girl on my heart. Her name is Miranda, shared her story. You might remember it and she said God put Addie on my heart and all year long I prayed for Addie that she would come to know the love of Jesus and at the return gathering when there was an invitation to respond she said yes and I got to baptize my friend who was far from God and is now a follower of Jesus. Now her yes, Miranda's yes, led to Addie's life being changed for all eternity. Imagine if that becomes your story, that on Easter Sunday there's somebody in a seat next to you that God uses you to impact their life for all eternity. One life. I believe that if every follower of Jesus, if everybody who's a part of our church has said I'm going to pray for one person, I'm going to invest in one person and bring them to church, bring them to follow Jesus, there's so much movement that we would experience as a result. So will you give God your yes to the movement of His kingdom, His business here on planet Earth? Now one other really important thing, next weekend I'm going to continue this journey through the teachings of Jesus and there are two words that Jesus gives that everything boils down to. We're going to see next weekend. And when we look at that I'm going to give an opportunity for anyone who's never made a decision to follow Jesus to take that step. I'm going to encourage you if there's somebody in your life like that to bring them next weekend as we journey through continuing to go through the stories of Jesus.

And I want to focus then now on this third truth that we see in the passage and it's this. Jesus' obedience is proven in this passage. So we start to see all throughout the gospel, we start to see the separation between Jesus and the rest of us ordinary human beings. We start to see He's fully God, He's fully human, and in the combination of being fully God and fully human, He faced all the challenges that we face, yet He was without sin. And I want you to notice how as the Spirit of God leads Him into the wilderness, He was in the wilderness for 40 days being tempted by Satan. Not just by a demon, but by Satan himself. It says He was with the wild animals and the angels attended to Him. And in that moment, Jesus, He passed every test. So the Father, the Holy Spirit, He sent, the Father's voice comes, the Spirit sends Him into the wilderness, and for 40 days He's tempted by the enemy. In every test that comes, you see in Matthew 3, Jesus passes it. a resounding yes to obey the voice of the Father, he comes forth out of the wilderness victorious. And because of that, now he offers us help in our wilderness. He's able to help us in those moments where we're weak, and the moments where we're empty, and the moments where life feels dry. Maybe you feel far from God, and the invitation is to turn to him in those seasons of wilderness. And I want you to notice Hebrews 4.14 says this. It says, therefore, since we have a great high priest, speaking of Jesus, who has ascended into heaven, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess.

For we do not have a high priest who's unable to empathize with our weakness, but we have one who's been tempted in every way, just as we are, yet he did not sin. This is good news. Jesus never made a mistake. He never sinned. He never erred against the Father's perfect will. And as a result, he's now able to help us in our moment of weakness. And in Hebrews 4.16, it says, now you can approach God's throne of grace with confidence so that we can receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need. And there are some of you today listening to my voice, you are in a deep time of need. Maybe you got a medical report that you didn't expect this last week. Maybe you found out something really bad about your spouse. Maybe you're walking through it with your work. And in the midst of the wilderness, there's an invitation to turn to Jesus who's able to help you in your wilderness. He's right there. You may feel all alone. You may feel like there's no life around you, but the perfect Son of God who endured the wilderness is able to walk through it with you. And I wonder today, if that's you, if you might turn to Him and say,

Jesus, I need your help in this wilderness. I need your grace. And to come to Him with confidence. See, this beautiful picture of the water's opening, the sky's opening, the water's parting as Jesus goes down, and then the wilderness gives us this complete picture of Jesus fulfilling all that the Bible was pointing towards. Jesus becomes the fulfillment of the perfect plan of the Father. And now He's going to make a way all throughout this book leading to a cross, to an empty tomb that sinners like you and I can be forgiven and stand holy and righteous before a living God. Today, I wonder which of those invitations stands out the most to you as the one that God has given to you today. So I wanna ask you, if you will, to pull your notes out one more time. And I want you to see these three invitations. One is to receive your new identity as a son or a daughter of God. Two is to follow Him into a new mission in the family business. And three is to turn to Him for help in your weakness. I want you to star in your notes which of these is most your invitation today. And as you star, I wanna just lead us through a time of response to say, what is it, God, that you want me to do

with that invitation today? So for some of you, perhaps that identity piece is the one that God is speaking to you today. And my encouragement to you is to lean into that. You might memorize some of these verses and just get them in your heart and your mind. You might just put on play a song that says, you know, I am no longer a slave to fear. I am a child of God. And just get that in your heart and your mind over and over again, that that identity would be the thing that anchors your life. That invitation is available for us today. And there are some of you, one of the best ways to identify with Jesus is to go public with your faith in him through baptism. And simply going into the waters is that identity change of recognizing my old way of life has gone and my new way of life has come in Jesus. And when you go into the baptism waters, it's not what saves you, but it is an outward profession of an internal decision. And if you've never taken that step to publicly identify with Jesus through baptism, you can take that step. And your local campus pastor will tell you some of our campuses, you can do it right now after the service today, you can take that step to get baptized.

But my call, and I believe God's call today is to receive that new identity. Now, as we think about this invitation around extending the family business, I wanna encourage you to write down that name of the person that God is calling you to love and to pray and to serve. And then finally, with the help in the wilderness, I'm just gonna give us that opportunity to turn to him and to receive his grace into our lives in a time of need. So I'm gonna give us a moment to pray. And I just wanna remind you that Mark challenge, you're gonna see it, just one more moment. It's gonna come on the screen. And you can grab that through your app. You can download that. That'll take about 30 seconds. And that will be a way that you can say, yes, I want to go through Mark all throughout the month of March. And then that step will journey together. We'll pray. We'll send you some prompts. We'll remind you that we're with you in the journey. And we'll see what God does in our heart as we memorize, as we pray, and as we read through the gospel of Mark. So as we do, I just want to pray over us, and I'd like to invite you just to close your eyes and bow your head for a moment with me. And just to empty your hands, and let's just make a little space right now for us to hear from God, for us to posture our hearts before Him today. And you might just ask Him, Lord, what is it that you're asking of me in this moment

right now? What is the invitation that you want me to respond to? Just let the Holy Spirit just search your heart right now. What is the thing that you're asking of me? And for some of you, maybe there's some voices that you need to just separate from today. Others of you, maybe there's just a truth that you've heard today that you just need to reinforce. Some of you, He's prompting you to get baptized today. Others of you, maybe He's just saying, I want to let you know I'm with you in the wilderness. Some of you just ask Him today to renew your heart for people who are disconnected from Him. Just put in me a greater longing to reach those who don't know you. Oh, Lord, I thank you that you are with us, Holy Spirit, that you are moving, that your power and your presence is greater than what we can comprehend. Spirit of the living God, we invite you to have your way in us. We thank you that the same Spirit that was poured out onto Jesus in His ministry is the Spirit that is available to us today, and we want more. We want more of your presence, God. We want more of you, Jesus, in our lives, not just lip service. We want more of your wisdom, more of your ways, God, leading us and guiding us. And as we're praying these things, some of you just recognize you don't know that you have a relationship with God, and right now can be that day, that moment that you seal it in your heart, that you say, I'm in, I'm going to follow Jesus. If that's you right now, nobody looking around, between you and God, just say, dear Jesus, I believe that you died on a cross for my sin. I believe that you rose again from the dead. I want to hand my life over to you right now in this moment. Just tell Him, I'm giving you my life. Please cleanse me from my sin, my past. Thank you for new life.

And you're just turning your life over to God in this moment. Now with nobody looking around today, if that's your prayer, if you're putting your trust in Jesus for the forgiveness of your sin, at all of our campuses on a count of three, I want to invite you to just slip your hands up today to say, that's my prayer today. I'm putting my trust in Jesus for the forgiveness of my sins. I'm choosing to follow Him today. On a count of three. One, two, three. Just slip them up. Just keep them up for just a moment. Anybody else? Keep them up. All of our campuses. God, we thank you right now for people that are surrendering their heart to you, choosing to follow you as the Lord of their life. In the mighty name of Jesus, we pray, amen, amen, amen. If you just prayed that prayer, I want to celebrate with you. I would love to know if you'll text DECISION to 83000 just to let me know that you've made that decision. We're going to seal this moment with one last song. I want to invite you to sing with your whole heart that your identity has shifted. You're no longer a slave to fear. Come on, stand with me. Let's just cry out, declare it, that we're children of God. Sing together. I'm no longer a slave to fear. I'm no longer a slave to fear. But I am a child of God. I'm no longer a slave to fear. But I am a child of God.

But I am a child of God. Come on, let's lift it up. I'm no longer a slave to fear. But I am a child of God. I'm no longer a slave to fear. But I am a child to you. Oh, oh, oh, oh. ♪ Oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh, oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh, oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh ♪ You split the sea so I could walk right through it ♪ My knees are drowning perfect love ♪ You rescued me so I could stand and sing ♪ I am a child of God ♪ Oh, yes, I am ♪ I am a child of God ♪ Yes, I am ♪ I am a child of God Well, what a great way to kick off this Jesus on the Move series together. I'm so excited that we're walking through the Book of Mark together. And just like Pastor Andy said, if you made a decision for the very first time today to follow Jesus and declare Him as your Lord and as your Savior, gosh, we want to know about it so we can be praying for you and walking alongside you as you start this journey with Jesus. And if there's another next step that you might want to take in getting baptized or maybe joining a small group or needing prayer, we also want to know about it so someone from our team can personally reach out to you and be praying for you. So you can let us know any of those next steps by clicking the link in the description or you can open the Saddleback app and let us know that way as well. Also, we want to invite you to join us for March Through Mark as we're reading the Book of Mark as a church family. So make sure you go to the Saddleback app and download that reading guide

so we can be doing this together as a church. We're so glad that you're here with us today in Saddleback. We are excited to see you again next weekend.