Welcome to the podcast.
As I am trying something new, if you wonder why I have headphones on, I am trying to at some point this year start a podcast.
So I have my laptop here and trying to record this one so I can just test it and see how it goes.
But I wanted to share something. I want to try to do more of this this year.
Branch out a little bit more and dive into the technical part.
I am hoping my audio is picking up on the phone because this is my first time trying this like this.
I have a background and everything set up.
I have had something on my heart that typically I would have just typed something up but it could have been a long post.
So I wanted to do a quick video to touch on this.
It just hit me.
I have heard this for years, this verse, but here just in the past couple of years has it hit me differently for what it is saying.
I have been doing a new Bible reading plan this year.
I have already made it through the Gospel of Matthew and now I have started the Gospel of Mark.
I am also probably this week done with the book of Genesis.
I was reading Mark last night.
Mark chapter 1 and then Matthew 3 and then another other Gospel has mentioned the same thing.
I want to read it out of Mark 1 first.
Mark 111 and it is the Passion Translation.
It says, at the same time, a voice spoke from Heaven saying,
You are my Son, my cherished One, and my greatest delight is in You.
Matthew says it this way.
He says, then suddenly the voice of the Father shouted from the sky saying, This is my Son, the beloved, my greatest delight is in Him.
Matthew has him almost like he is talking to the crowd to let the people know my greatest delight is in this man, Jesus.
Mark writes it in a way that he is talking directly to Jesus.
What I find fascinating with this is Jesus hears his Father say this before any type of ministry has ever started.
He has not performed the first miracle.
He has not even went to start ministry.
He has no disciples yet, no apostles yet, no followers yet.
Yet his Father in this moment of being baptized by John says, This is my Son, the beloved One.
The Passion writes it, My greatest delight is in Him.
He gets all of this before He ever starts doing anything.
I think that is important.
I have read this before many times over the years, but it hit me differently in the past couple of years.
I read it in Matthew just a few weeks ago, a few days ago, and reading it in Mark again last night, it just struck a heart-port with me.
I find it fascinating that he gets this and immediately following the baptism, it says, the Holy Spirit led him to the wilderness.
To where we read at the end of the 40 days, he is tested by the devil.
You hear the enemy begin to quote things such as, If you are the Son of God.
If you are, then you can do this.
But Jesus, number one, he responds with the word.
But number two, he knew who he was.
He did not need to convince himself.
He did not need to convince the enemy of who he was.
He already knew who he was.
It is the same tactic, and I find this fascinating.
It is the same tactic that he used in the garden.
If you read Genesis 1, 26, and 27, this is the Passion Translation again.
It says, God said, Let us, Father, Son, Spirit, make a man and a woman in our image to be like us.
Then it says, God created man and woman and shaped them with his image inside them.
He created man and woman and shaped them with his image inside them.
In his own beautiful image, he created his masterpiece.
Yes, male and female, he created them.
But then if you go to Genesis 3, it is when the snake enters the scene.
And he says, Did God really tell you you must not eat fruit from any tree of the garden?
And he replies and says, No, we may eat the fruit of any tree in the garden, except the tree in the center of the garden.
God told us, Don't eat its fruit, or even touch it, or you'll die.
But the snake said, You certainly won't die.
God knows that the moment you eat it, your eyes will be open and catch this.
You will be like God.
Now, if you go back to Genesis 1, when Father, Son, and Spirit are having a conversation,
let us make man and woman in our image.
And God created them and shaped them with his image inside of them.
In this moment, when Eve was having a conversation about God just knows that you'll be like him when you eat this,
the image of God is already inside of Eve.
And so we need to understand as people and children of God that the image of God is already inside of us.
I'm looking at and studying right now, working on Ephesians chapter 1, where it begins to talk about every spiritual blessing is already inside of you.
You're not looking for anything more.
God's already placed everything you need for the current situation that you're facing inside of you.
Anything that you need.
If you think about it and go back through, again, I almost done with Genesis and read the story of, excuse me, that's not in Genesis.
I am crazy. I believe that's going to be in Exodus.
But you read the story, you know the story about Moses and his staff.
When God begins to lead the people of Israel and begins to talk to Moses about delivering his people from the hands of Pharaoh,
he asked Moses, what is in your hand?
And I've taught this to teenagers. I found this fascinating because if I'm Moses, I'm thinking it's a stick.
I have a staff, Lord. I have a stick with the Pharaoh with armies.
I have a stick.
I have a staff is all I have.
And that's all he needed.
Everything that you need.
Because see, here's the thing.
Before you go and do all the great things in God,
hear the words of when he speaks to Jesus.
This is my beloved son.
My greatest delight is in him.
You are his greatest delight.
This is my beloved daughter. My greatest delight is in her.
Everything you need is already inside of you.
And why?
Because you are his greatest delight.
Before you do all the things, you are already his greatest delight.
But you don't know what I've done. It doesn't matter.
You're already his greatest delight.
If we could just push past all the religion, all the gimmicks,
all the shame, all the guilt, all the condemnation
and understand that he is for you and not against you.
If we could ever let that get settled in us,
because I read this and I believe it,
but I don't know how much I believe it.
I'm kind of like to the point of,
God, I believe, but help my unbelief.
Because how would we really live if we believed
that I am his greatest delight?
That I am the beloved one?
That the image of God is already inside of me?
What would that do to you?
What would that do to the situation that you're in?
What would that do to those that you encounter?
What would that do to cancer when you're around it?
What would that do to the hopelessness when you're around it?
I think we have the need, I guess is the word I'm looking for,
to ask ourselves that question.
What would change in life, in my life, in your life,
in your circumstances, in our situations, in our whatever,
if we really believe that I am his greatest delight?
What would stand in your way in that moment?
What would make you feel like you couldn't do it?
What would make the next step, make the next move?
If God be for you, who could be against you?
There's something to ponder about, friends.
Think about it.
His greatest delight is in you.
The image of the Almighty is inside of you already.
You don't know what I've done, you know in my past, I don't care.
He said it to the woman who's caught in adultery,
go and send no more.
We've got to understand what all these words really mean.
Just think about it.
I hope to do more of these in the future.
Maybe do some different teachings and stuff of that nature.
My goal was hopefully at some point this year,
if I cleaned the Holy Spirit and tried to teach myself
and Google how to do this stuff,
I would like to start a podcast, do more inspirational videos.
I'm at 12 minutes already according to my phone.
Not so much as long, maybe just 60 second encouragement things sometimes,
but maybe also some stuff like this.
If you enjoyed this, if it meant something to you,
drop a comment, let me know, and we'll see how this goes.
I pray God blesses you.
May this thought just simmer inside of you, that He delights in you.
You are His greatest delight.
Don't forget that.
Be blessed.