Why Jesus Wants You—But Do You Want Him?

CONSECRATE Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.  Jesus, I belong to you. I lift up my heart to you. I set my mind on you. I fix my eyes on you. I offer my body to you as a living sacrifice. Jesus, we belong to you.  Praying in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, amen.  HEAR Mark 3:13–15 NIV Jesus went up on a mountainside and called to him those he wanted, and they came to him. He appointed twelve that they might be with him and that he might send them out to preach and to have authority to drive out demons. CONSIDER As I was reading our chapter today (chapter 3), I noticed something I had never seen before. It stirred me so I decided to sub it in as our focus text from the chapter today. Here it is: Jesus went up on a mountainside and called to him those he wanted, . . .  Now, back up a few verses and we see this: Because of the crowd he told his disciples to have a small boat ready for him, to keep the people from crowding him. For he had healed many, so that those with diseases were pushing forward to touch him. (vv. 9–10) Then and now, there is a word that comes to mind describing the phenomenon Jesus experienced and experiences every single day. The word is need. We are in need. People carry enormous need of every imaginable dimension. Every Sunday in my little church in Gillett, Arkansas, we spend significant time in prayer. I open the floor and invite people to share prayer needs. People struggling with all manner of sickness need healing. People struggling with loss and grief need comfort. People struggling with finances need provision. Farmers struggling with drought need rain or with flooding need relief. Marriages in distress need resolution and peace. Mothers in anxiety and fathers in depression need deliverance.  All of this extraordinary and concentrated need, created a need for Jesus. He needed help to meet the need. Of course, these helpers would need Jesus's help to be able to help people like Jesus did. It brings me to another even more powerful word I spotted today in the text for the first time. See if you can spot it this time: Jesus went up on a mountainside and called to him those he wanted, . . .  The word is want. Jesus didn't call the people he needed to help him. He called the ones he wanted. So who did Jesus want and why did he want them? Here's my take. Jesus most wanted the ones who most wanted him. Jesus is glad to be needed and he will meet needs all day long. What he wants most, however, is to be wanted. Watch where the text goes: He appointed twelve that they might be with him and that he might send them out to preach and to have authority to drive out demons. Before he needed them to preach and drive out demons, he wanted some friends to "be with him." We all do. We want to be wanted. And while Jesus will always go where he is needed, I think it is safe to say he most wants to go where he's most wanted. I'll put a link in the P.S. today to a friend, Jon Tyson, who preached a sermon at one of our gatherings entitled, "The Unwanted God," which profoundly influenced me on this point. I want you to hear it.  Here's what I want to make sure you know today. Jesus wants you. He wants you to be with him. I am confident he is saying these two things to you personally today: I am your friend. I want you to be my friend. So every Sunday, as I close out our significant prayer time I close with these words that I will include as our prayer today.   PRAY Lord Jesus, you know how much we need you. We want to make sure you know how much we want you. We want you in our hearts. We want you in our homes. We want you in our churches. We want you in our town and in our cities and in our nation and in this world. We want you Jesus. We want you. Thank you for wanting us. Praying in your name, amen.