Agendas

Mark‬ ‭9‬:‭30‬-‭32

“They left that place and passed through Galilee. Jesus did not want anyone to know where they were, because he was teaching his disciples. He said to them, “The Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men. They will kill him, and after three days he will rise.” But they did not understand what he meant and were afraid to ask him about it.”

‭‭Mark‬ ‭9‬:‭30‬-‭32‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Despite Jesus investment in teaching His disciples personally, they didn't understand that He must die and that God would raise Him from death. I can't fault them too much for that lack of understanding. Jesus challenged them to believe the impossible before they had seen God perform it.

From their learned expectations and because of their training, they assumed that the Messiah would be a conquering redeemer restoring the kingdom of Israel. With all the powerful displays they had seen from Jesus, we can understand that it must have been hard for them even to imagine anyone having power over Jesus, much less being able to kill him.

Sometimes we allow our understanding of Jesus to block our full understanding of who Jesus is and the power Jesus has. Let's ask God to remove the blindness from our own eyes!

Now this is not a very large passage of scripture. It’s one that it would be easy to pass by. But I believe that the importance of the lesson it teaches us is out of proportion to its size. It’s a lesson that we must learn if we would be genuine followers of Jesus Christ.

Let me put it to you simply. Jesus has an agenda. He has some things that He wishes to accomplished, and He has a specific plan for how those values and priorities are to be brought to pass. And if we want to truly follow Him, then we must learn to embrace His agenda as our own. His priorities must become our priorities, and His plan of action must become our plan of action.

And the problem for most of us here today, most of us who profess to be His followers, is that we have not yet whole-heartedly embraced His agenda as our own. We have our own agendas instead and our own agendas are what are most important to us. The attitude for many of us is that we don’t mind being connected to Jesus, just as long as He doesn’t get in the way of our own agenda.

I suppose every one of us has encountered a conflict of agendas many times in life. Husbands and wives we know all about it, don’t we? You might have a day available, and you begin to make plans for how you’ll use that day. You’re excited about your plans and are eager to get to them. But then, you find out that your spouse or unbeknownst to you, had a completely different agenda for the day. Ever had that happen? One of you wanted to do one thing, and the other had their heart set on something else.

Or it often happens at work. You have a set of tasks that you know you need to get done, and you have the day arranged in order to get those things accomplished. But when you show up to work, you find that someone else’s agenda is there waiting for you. It’s the collision of the agendas.

Well, those are relatively minor conflicts and we can usually work them out with a little bit of patient compromise. But that can’t be done with Jesus and His followers. As our Lord and Master, He refuses to allow for there to be a compromise between His agenda and our own.

You have an agenda for your life. That agenda may or may not include God’s plan and His agenda. If God’s agenda for your life is not your agenda for your life then you will be wrestling with God all your life. Your life will wear you out. Once you understand God’s agenda and embrace it and give up your personal agenda then you can experience the peace that surpasses all understanding and the abundant life God wants you to have!!!

Father thank You for this day and the strength to walk in it. Lord open the windows of heaven and shine down Your abundant blessings upon my friend and family today. Lord we confess that what we want from You sometimes blinds us to what we need from You and what you long to teach us. Lord remove our blindness and gently correct us so that we can know and live your truth. Lord, let us always live out a life that serves people. Let us have a heart that serves no matter what. Daddy we love You amen. Be a blessing. Love ya !