The Work Before the Work: Preparing for Public Ministry

Sep 13, 2026

Devotional

Day 1: The Kid in the Gym: When Preparation Feels Unseen

God often works in hidden seasons where no applause or spotlight exists. Just as Jesus spent years in obscurity before his ministry, our unseen moments of prayer, study, or service shape us for what’s ahead. The gym, the kitchen table, the late-night shifts—these are altars where faithfulness is forged. Trust that God sees your quiet obedience even when others don’t. What feels ordinary now is laying groundwork for extraordinary purpose. [46:18]

“The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. As it is written in Isaiah the prophet, ‘Behold, I send my messenger before your face, who will prepare your way, the voice of one crying in the wilderness: “Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.”’” (Mark 1:1–3, ESV)

Reflection: Where in your life does faithfulness feel unnoticed? How might God be using this season to prepare you for what’s next?

Day 2: John the Baptist: A Preview, Not the Main Event

John’s ministry thrived, yet he insisted, “I am not worthy.” His role was to point to Jesus, not himself. In a culture obsessed with personal branding, humility redirects glory to God. True greatness lies in stewarding our assignments without demanding recognition. Like John, we’re called to decrease so Christ can increase. [01:01:10]

“And he preached, saying, ‘After me comes he who is mightier than I, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. I have baptized you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.’” (Mark 1:7–8, ESV)

Reflection: Where might your desire for recognition compete with pointing others to Jesus? How can you practice “quiet stewardship” this week?

Day 3: Heaven Torn Open: When Identity Trumps Achievement

Before Jesus performed miracles, the Father declared, “You are my beloved Son.” His worth wasn’t earned through productivity but rooted in relationship. Our culture ties value to output, but God’s love precedes our labor. The torn heavens remind us: approval comes from above, not applause from crowds. [01:09:36]

“And when he came up out of the water, immediately he saw the heavens being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. And a voice came from heaven, ‘You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.’” (Mark 1:10–11, ESV)

Reflection: When have you confused productivity with purpose? How might resting in your identity as God’s child change your approach to today?

Day 4: Wilderness as Divine Classroom: Temptation’s Hidden Curriculum

The Spirit led Jesus into wilderness testing immediately after his baptism. Trials often follow spiritual highs, refining our dependence on God. Wilderness seasons aren’t punishment but preparation—where faith is pressure-tested and character deepened. Angels attended Jesus; God’s presence attends you. [01:13:04]

“The Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness. And he was in the wilderness forty days, being tempted by Satan. And he was with the wild animals, and the angels were ministering to him.” (Mark 1:12–13, ESV)

Reflection: What current “wilderness” feels isolating? How might God be using it to strengthen your spiritual resilience?

Day 5: Deposits Before Withdrawals: Trusting the Unseen Ledger

Like Captain Sully’s decades of training that saved lives in crisis, God uses unseen obedience to equip us for defining moments. Every prayer, Scripture meditation, and small act of integrity is a deposit. When tests come, we withdraw from accounts built in secret. Trust the process. [01:16:47]

“Then the devil left him, and behold, angels came and were ministering to him.” (Matthew 4:11, ESV)

Reflection: What past “deposits” of faithfulness has God used to sustain you recently? How can you invest in spiritual disciplines today for tomorrow’s challenges?

Sermon Summary

Mark opens the good news with no birth narrative, no genealogy, and no long runway. Mark starts with Jesus the Messiah, the Son of God, because the beginning of the good news hinges on who Jesus is. The phrase “in the beginning” reaches back to Genesis and announces that God is starting something new through the One He promised generations ago.

God’s promises stand behind both Jesus and John the Baptist. Isaiah, Exodus, and Malachi had already declared that a messenger would prepare the way, so John does not just show up out of nowhere. John comes as the forerunner, the opening act, calling people to get ready because the King has arrived.

John’s call is repentance. Repentance is not just saying the right words or confessing with the mouth. Repentance changes the mind, the actions, the attitudes, and the way “I love you” looks on Monday. The wilderness crowd comes confessing sins because nobody gets ready for God’s work while holding on to the old life.

John’s humility keeps the focus where it belongs. John has a vibrant ministry, a crowd, and people getting baptized, yet John says he is not worthy to untie Jesus’ sandals. John understands that every gift, title, opportunity, healing, and blessing is meant to point people to Jesus. John is only the preview, because Jesus is the main attraction.

Jesus’ baptism reveals humility from another direction. Jesus goes down clean and comes up clean, because He has no sin to repent of. Jesus enters the water to identify with broken people, human weakness, and the mess sin has made. Jesus demonstrates that greatness does not strut above people but walks with a limp of humility and grace.

The Trinity appears at the Jordan River in a powerful way. The Father speaks from heaven, the Spirit descends like a dove, and the Son rises from the water. The Father calls Jesus beloved and well pleasing before Jesus performs a miracle, casts out a demon, or goes to the cross. God’s pleasure rests first on Jesus’ identity, not His public performance.

The Spirit then drives Jesus into the wilderness. The wilderness does not mean Jesus has left God’s will, because the same Spirit present at the baptism is present in the temptation. Temptation is real, life changes fast, and the enemy tries to take people out early before purpose has time to mature. Yet God attends to Jesus in the wilderness and uses hidden preparation for the public moment ahead. The work before the work matters because God often does His deepest work in private before He does His greatest work through a life in public.

Key Takeaways

1. God prepares before He promotes [00:48:39] God does not waste unseen seasons. Private prayer, hard lessons, quiet obedience, and hidden battles can become deposits in the bank of faith. Public pressure often reveals what God has already built in private. [48:39]
2. Repentance must reach Monday morning [00:57:43] Repentance changes more than religious language. John calls people to bring thoughts, motives, attitudes, and actions back under God’s rule. Confession without a changed direction turns grace into empty words. [57:43]
3. Every blessing should point to Jesus [01:02:14] John refuses to confuse a platform with ultimate importance. Gifts, accomplishments, and influence become dangerous when they turn attention toward self. Humility remembers that every opening act exists to prepare hearts for Jesus. [62:14]
4. Identity comes before public performance [01:10:39] The Father calls Jesus beloved before the visible works of ministry begin. God’s love is not a paycheck earned through exhausting performance. Children of God serve from an identity received in Christ, not for an identity they are trying to secure. [70:39]
5. The wilderness can develop God’s purpose [01:13:04] The Spirit leads Jesus into a place of testing, proving that hardship is not always evidence of divine absence. Temptation exposes the enemy’s desire to stop purpose early, but God remains present and sustaining. The same Spirit who anoints also keeps believers through the test.

## [73:04]

Youtube Chapters

[00:00] - Welcome
[42:09] - Beginning the Gospel of Mark
[43:43] - Reading Mark 1:1-13
[46:02] - The Work Before the Work
[47:27] - Why the Unseen Matters
[50:16] - Jesus, the Promised Messiah
[56:51] - John’s Call to Repentance
[60:17] - John the Baptist’s Humility
[64:26] - Jesus Identifies With Brokenness
[66:39] - The Trinity at Jesus’ Baptism
[71:20] - The Spirit Leads Into Wilderness
[75:37] - Hidden Preparation for Public Moments
[80:07] - Prayer for the Unseen Work
[85:05] - Invitation to Follow Jesus

Bible Study Guide

Bible Reading

Mark 1:1–13
“The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. As it is written in Isaiah the prophet, ‘Behold, I send my messenger before your face, who will prepare your way, the voice of one crying in the wilderness: “Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight,”’ John appeared, baptizing in the wilderness and proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. And all the country of Judea and all Jerusalem were going out to him and were being baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. Now John was clothed with camel's hair and wore a leather belt around his waist and ate locusts and wild honey. And he preached, saying, ‘After me comes he who is mightier than I, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. I have baptized you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.’ In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. And when he came up out of the water, immediately he saw the heavens being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. And a voice came from heaven, ‘You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.’ The Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness. And he was in the wilderness forty days, being tempted by Satan. And he was with the wild animals, and the angels were ministering to him.” [43:43]

Isaiah 40:3
“A voice cries: ‘In the wilderness prepare the way of the LORD; make straight in the desert a highway for our God.’” [44:11]

Malachi 3:1
“‘Behold, I send my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me. And the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple; and the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight, behold, he is coming, says the LORD of hosts.’” [53:54]

Exodus 23:20
“‘Behold, I send an angel before you to guard you on the way and to bring you to the place that I have prepared.’” [53:54]

Observation questions

What titles does Mark give Jesus in verse 1, and how do those titles shape the way readers understand everything that follows in the Gospel? [50:30]
What does John ask people to do as they come to the Jordan River, and what details show that their response involved more than simply hearing a message?
What differences does John name between his ministry and the ministry of the One coming after him? [01:01:11]
At Jesus’ baptism, what does each Person of the Trinity do: the Son, the Spirit, and the Father? What happens immediately after this moment? [01:11:36]

Interpretation questions

Why would Mark begin the good news by identifying Jesus as the Messiah and Son of God rather than beginning with Jesus’ birth or family history? How does this keep Jesus at the center of the gospel? [50:36]
John calls people to repentance while preparing the way for Jesus. What does it mean for repentance to involve a changed mind, attitudes, actions, and direction—not only spoken confession? [57:43]
John has a growing ministry and a large crowd, yet he refuses to make himself the main attraction. What might John’s words about being unworthy to untie Jesus’ sandals reveal about healthy Christian influence and leadership? [01:01:49]
The Father declares His pleasure in Jesus before Jesus performs public miracles or begins His public ministry. What does this reveal about the difference between identity received from God and identity earned through performance? [01:10:39]

Application questions

What is one unseen part of life right now—prayer, caregiving, work, recovery, learning, or a private battle—that may feel unnoticed? How might God be using that season to prepare and strengthen faith? [48:39]
Where does repentance need to reach “Monday morning” this week? Is there a thought pattern, attitude, relationship, habit, or choice that needs to come back under God’s rule? [58:10]
When blessings, opportunities, titles, or accomplishments come, what helps keep attention pointed toward Jesus instead of toward self? What would that look like in a practical conversation this week? [01:02:21]
Is there an area where the pressure to perform has made it difficult to rest in being loved by God? How could remembering one’s identity as a child of God change the way that pressure is handled? [01:11:06]
Jesus entered the water to identify with broken people, even though He had no sin to repent of. Who might be easier to avoid or look down on than to walk alongside with humility and grace? [01:05:26]
What wilderness or temptation is currently making faith difficult? How does knowing that the Spirit led Jesus into the wilderness challenge the assumption that hardship always means God is absent? [01:13:04]
What spiritual deposits has God placed in a believer’s life through past prayers, Scripture, hardship, wise counsel, or previous victories? How might those deposits help meet the present moment with faith instead of fear? [01:17:03]

Sermon Clips

53s

#RepentanceInAction

“That repentance is not just saying I love you. It's what your I love you looks like on Monday. That repentance is not just confessing, but it's also how my life at the line up with God. It's a fascinating picture that he's calling them back to repentance because he wants to prepare them for what God is going to do. And the word says this, this is not an empty work. They flop out to the desert to hear John the Baptist's message. Not only that, but they come there confessing, and John starts baptizing people. John starts baptizing them because of their repentance to God. What a wonderful picture. They are preaching. He's preaching repentance, and they are responding.”

39s

#HumbleSavior

“He he baptizes God's son. Now mind you, the reason he baptizes them is a demonstration of the humility of Jesus. When Jesus didn't need to be baptized because he he had never sinned. He wasn't he wasn't he wasn't he was sinless. So he went down clean and came up clean. But he was baptized so that he could identify with our brokenness. He was baptized so he could identify with our problems. He was baptized so we could identify with our humanity. He didn't do it for himself. He did it for you.”

46s

#UnseenMatters

“We live on a world obsessed with what has seen. We we we we celebrate the championship, but we don't see the kid alone in the gym shooting free throws. We celebrate the promotion. We forget about the years when the employee was cleaning bathrooms, stocking shelves, working the register, and coming in early and standing late. We celebrate the harvest, but we don't see the seed. Right. We celebrate the birthday, but oh, if the years could talk and tell you all they had been through to get to that day. See, some of the most important thing that happen in your life are when nobody can ever see them. The unseen matters.”

51s

#LovedBeforeDoing

“Not only that, but he says, the one whom I love. What a term of affection and endurement. God looks at Jesus' son and says, I love you. Says, this is my beloved son, my one and only son. Then he says these words, with whom I am well pleased. He affirms and celebrates the joy that he has in his son, Jesus Christ. Wait a minute. Jesus hasn't cast out demons. He hasn't fed 5,000. He hasn't walked on water. He hasn't gone to the cross yet. Before he ever did anything, he was already pleased in him because he knew what was about to happen.”

53s

#JohnWasThePreview

“Look at this. John has a vibrant ministry here in the desert. Here he is preaching and God is blessing the work. People are flocking to come hear him preach. He's sharing the gospel. And as he shares it, people are getting baptized. But John makes it clear when it gets to verse verse eight. He says, I'm only here to point to somebody coming after me. You've been to movies before and when you arrive at the movie theater, before the main movie it starts, there's always previews. And the previews give you a snapshot of an upcoming movie. John says, listen, all I am is a preview of a better movie that's gonna come at a later day.”

62s

#GoodNewsBeginsWithJesus

“Look at it right here in verse one. He he Mark, I want you to notice. He says, the beginning of the good news about Jesus the messiah. Now Mark is different than Luke and Matthew. I mean, he doesn't mention the birth narrative. No details about the shepherds or the genealogy of Jesus. No miraculous birth. No no shepherds. No childhood in Nazareth. He launches right in to the beginning of the earthly ministry of Jesus. Look at what text says. The beginning of Jesus. Notice this. Right? When you read those words, the beginning, that'll automatically call to mind Genesis one and one. In the beginning, in the beginning, God spoke. Right? I want you to know that Mark is helping us to understand that God is about to begin a new chapter when Jesus arrives on the earth. When he says in the beginning, he's reminding us that the beginning of the good news hinges on Jesus.”

41s

#IdentityInChrist

“His pleasure in Jesus was not based on his performance. His pleasure was based on his identity that he already knew who he was. And the same applies for you. But your when you become a child of God, his pleasure in you is not just based on what you do. His pleasure is based on who you are in Christ as his son and as his daughter. Jesus becomes Jesus is celebrated in this moment. And here is this moment, the beginning and the inauguration of his earthly ministry, the dawn of a new day. Jesus is the true king of the new people.”

42s

#TestingInGodsWill

“The very moment you were just celebrating what God had done and the very next day, light the light, the rug had been pulled out from underneath you. This is the reality of what's happening right here in this text. The text says the spirit drove him to the wilderness. That same spirit that was present, a blessing, the beginning of his ministry, Now sends him into the wilderness. It's a reminder, friends, that when you go into the wilderness or go into temptation, it doesn't mean that you are outside the will of God. You could be in the midst of temptation and be right in the center of the will of God.”

47s

#SameSpiritSustains

“Mark says, and the angels attended him. In other words, Mark says, he made it through the temptation, and God gave him what he needed in the midst of the temptation. The same spirit present at his baptism is the same spirit present in the temptation, and it's the same spirit that sustains him throughout his temptation. I want somebody to know today that when you go through times of testing, times of temptation, you are not by yourself, but the same spirit that anointed you, called you, delivered you, and baptized you is the same spirit that will get you through the test that you're going through right now.”

45s

#TemptationShowsUp

“You can leave church and just worship god and temptation shows up in your car. You you you can leave church, turn your phone off and turn it back on and temptation just sent you a text message. You can get a brand new job and temptation shows up on that new job. You you can you can have progress and be doing well in your life and temptation shows up the very next thing. It's a reminder, friends, that just because you've had a high moment doesn't mean a low moment can't be around the corner. Life changes fast.”

26s

#WildernessPreparesYou

“Just because you're going through trouble doesn't mean God has forgotten about you. It could mean that God sees so much in you that he knows that this temptation and this wilderness will not will not mess you up, but it will do develop you and make you better for the assignment god has for you down the road.”

41s

#RepentDaily

“Repentance is powerful for those that don't know him yet, but repentance is also powerful for those that know him as well. Do you understand, friends, that when you have a healthy life of repenting to god, it helps reset your heart every single day. I want you to understand, friends, that life in this world can easily pull you in a direction that makes you think that everything that you do is right. But repentance helps us to understand that we are all sinners. And except for the grace of God, we can't get right with God, except his grace be upon our lives.”

49s

#GrindBeforeGlory

“We often underestimate the value of the unseen. The kid alone in the gym shooting hundreds of free folds with no fans, no scoreboard, and no applause. The student who spends muff preparing for the SAT before anybody ever sees the score. The entry level employee who cleans bathrooms, stock shelves, and works to register before anyone gives them gives them a title. The entrepreneur working at their kitchen table before anyone knows the company's name. The caregiver organizing meals and medicine in the early morning before they go to work. The worker working multiple shifts to make ends meet.”

43s

#BaptizeWithTheSpirit

“John fully understands his assignment. John is committed to doing the work to which God has called him to. John goes this far. He says, listen. I know you've been baptized by by me, but my baptism was only with water. But the one that's coming after me, he's gonna baptize with the holy spirit. When he says baptize with the holy spirit, he's reminding them that Jesus is God because the holy spirit was only available through the power of God in the Old Testament. But now he's saying when Jesus comes, he also has access to direct the Holy Spirit as well.”

42s

#GodKeepsPromises

“Isaiah talked about it. Malachi talked about it. As Exodus talked about it. In other words, when you read these opening verses, it's a reminder that God keeps his promises. It's a reminder that when Jesus shows up and when John the Baptist shows up, they are only showing up because God already said it was going to happen. Friends, I want you to understand, friends, that the God that we serve has been at work since the beginning of creation, and he's still working today.”

Ask a question about this sermon

Concord Church Dallas This sermon · AI assistant

How do unseen seasons prepare for public ministry?

What does baptism reveal about Jesus' identity?

Why does God allow wilderness and temptation?