December 18, 2023 | Miami, Florida, United States | Leonard Johnson, executive secretary, Inter-American Division
In Luke’s gospel Chapter 2, verse 43, w e find another I must passage. What do I mean by this? The last time I shared a nugget with you It was based on Luke chapter 2 verse 49, when Jesus said, I must be about my father’s business. But in verse 43, Jesus says to the people who sought to stay Him or to delay Him. Rather, Jesus said to them, I must preach the Kingdom of God to the other cities also, because for this purpose I have been sent.
I want to tell you today of the importance of being deliberate and intentional. If you are not deliberate and intentional, you will not fulfill your purpose. You will not accomplish that which God has called you to do.
There are so many distractions and they come in even ways that do not appear to be harmful. But if you’re not connected to Christ, you will miss out on what God would have you to do today? Look at the example here in Luke’s Gospel Chapter 4, verse 43. When I go back to verse 42, Jesus was preaching in this particular place and the people were so impressed.
Look at it in verse 42 now. “When it was day he departed and went into a deserted place and the crowd sought him and came to him and tried to keep him from leaving them.”
Everybody wanted Jesus to be with them, I would imagine, because they could benefit from his presence. He could feed thousands. He could raise people from the dead.
He could heal people. He was the total package and still is. But I find the response of Jesus very appropriate. He was not moved and inflated in terms of his ego by what people had to say. He simply said to them, “I must also preach the Kingdom of God to the other towns, to the other places.”
And you find this also in Mark’s Gospel, Chapter 1, beginning around verse 36. It was Silent Peter, one of his disciples, who came and said, “The people are looking for you.” But Jesus said, “I must go to the other towns because for this reason I have come. I have come to preach the Word of God, and I must do that which my father has assigned to me.”
I look at you today and I ask the question: What is your assignment? What is your mission? What is God given you to do today? I challenge you. Be about it. Get started if you haven’t already and nd be intentional that come what may, I am going to do the will of God.
And then Ellen White says in the book Desire of Ages (page 83). “It would be well for us to spend a thoughtful hour each day in contemplation of the life of Christ. We should take it point by point and let the imagination grasp each set. Especially the closing ones, as we thus dwell upon his great sacrifice for us. Our confidence in him will be more constant. Our love will be quickened. And we shall be more deeply imbued with his spirit. If we would be saved at last, we must learn the lesson of penitence and humiliation at the foot of the cross.
And so I say to you, Let nothing deter you go about and do the business, do the work, fulfill the mission that God has given you to do. I must preach. I must do my Father’s will.