Mark 12:35-37

And amen. Please take out your copy of God's Word. Turn to the Gospel according to Mark, chapter 12.

Mark 12 · chapter mention

! Gospel of Mark, chapter 12. We're going to begin today in verse 35.

Mark 12 · chapter mention

And as Jesus taught in the temple, He said,

and for His glory and for our good, we would all do well to listen to it in order to believe its promises and obey its commands.

Let's pray together.

Father, we do praise You this day that You condescended to become an author,

that You used men who were carried along by the Spirit to pen words that have bearing for us today.

And so as we look at these three verses, this teaching of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ,

I pray that You will work a miracle in us, that You will, by Your Spirit, rightly apply the truth contained in these verses to our hearts.

Change us, Lord. Don't let us leave here looking like we did when we came in.

Make us more like Your Son so that His name will be exalted in the region we live in and in the nations.

And we pray this in the precious name of Christ. Amen.

So if we continue our verse-by-verse exposition of the Gospel according to Mark,

we are now in chapter 12, and this is Wednesday of the Passion Week.

We've been in Wednesday of the Passion Week for quite a mile.

We saw at the beginning of chapter 11 on Monday, Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem.

Tuesday, He takes over the temple by turning over the money-changers tables,

by stopping the court of Gentiles from being used as a thoroughfare.

And on Wednesday, He's kind of set up camp in the temple,

and He's been confronted by a number of groups of people,

the Pharisees with the Herodians, the Sadducees,

and then a scribe or a representative from the scribes.

And He's encountered these confrontations back to back to back.

Now, we kind of conclude those confrontations, which we did last week,

and you'll see in verse 34 of chapter 12, the very end, Mark records,

and after that, no one dared to ask Him any more questions.

These men, these religious leaders, the elite religious of that day,

were looking to make Him look like a fool,

and in turn, He had done the very same to them.

And so people have stopped asking Him questions.

They have recognized that this is a foolish thing to do.

Now, just in case you're wondering, as we've been in the text,

and I've repeatedly said it is Wednesday of the week,

and you're wondering when Wednesday will be over,

not until the end of chapter 13.

He'll be in the temple until the end of chapter 12,

and then He leaves the temple and continues to teach

some rather perplexing things in chapter 13,

which I am eager to dive into.

We find ourselves with these three incredibly important verses in front of us

as He turns now to teach those who are gathered,

specifically, in this case, the Pharisees.

How do we know this?

Because of a parallel text in Matthew.

Matthew 22, verse 41 and 42.

Matthew 22:41

Matthew records,

Now, while the Pharisees were gathered together,

Jesus asked them a question.

So Mark records Him just beginning to teach,

but Matthew records that He actually was asking the Pharisees a question.

Now, others would have been gathered around Him at this time,

so others certainly would have been hearing the teaching,

but He's aiming this question specifically at the Pharisees.

And I think at this point, the value to us in recognizing this

is to know that, by and large,

these men would reject Jesus,

these religious leaders of the day.

These men were apostate.

They were not worshipers of God.

They thought they worshipped God.

They thought they were worshipping the right God in the right way,

but in fact, they were worshipping Him wrongly.

They were outside the faith itself,

and they were leading Israel in the same way.

Jesus has harsh words for them all throughout the Gospels.

He calls them repeatedly hypocrites, snakes.

He calls them a brood of vipers.

But He has not excluded them from responding in faith with repentance.

Here He once again turns to encounter them,

as we can see in Matthew 22 in this parallel text.

Luke records for us about a man named Joseph of Arimathea.

Most of you are probably familiar that this is the man who owned the tomb

in which Jesus' body was laid.

In Luke 23, verse 50 and 51, Luke records,

Luke 23:50

Now there was a man named Joseph from the Jewish town of Arimathea.

He was a member of the council,

a good and righteous man who had not consented to their decision and action.

That was to crucify Christ.

And he was looking for the kingdom of God.

And so there were men numbered amongst these Pharisees and the Sadducees

and the scribes that did respond in faith to the call of Christ.

So here we see him doing that once again.

And he asks them this interesting question in Matthew.

What do you think about the Christ?

And followed with the question,

Whose son is He?

And they respond to Him,

this is in verse 42 of chapter 22 of Matthew,

the Son of David.

The Son of David.

So their understanding of who the Messiah was to be

is that He would be the Son of David.

And they were right in that.

But they didn't take it far enough.

They understood some of the Old Testament prophecy,

which we'll get to in just a moment.

But they didn't understand the completion of it.

In fact, the prevailing understanding of this day,

of who the Messiah would be,

would be an earthly man that would come

and He would conquer and reign in an earthly fashion.

He would come in a military way.

In fact, these religious leaders were positioning themselves

to be part of that leadership structure.

When He came and overthrew Rome,

they wanted to be first in line to have power

and to have prestige.

But instead, the Messiah comes

as a servant from a lowly town,

the son of a carpenter.

One who comes and lays down His life and dies.

Certainly reigns, but not in the way they thought.

They thought He was merely,

the Messiah was merely going to be a man

who would come to reign on earth.

But Jesus, rightly, is a son of David,

the Messiah.

Old Testament prophecy.

2 Samuel 7, verses 12 and 13.

2 Samuel 7:12

God speaking to David said,

When your days are fulfilled,

and you lie down with your fathers,

I will raise up your offspring after you

who shall come from your body,

and I will establish His kingdom.

He shall build a house for My name,

and I will establish the throne of His kingdom forever.

You see it in there?

Son of David, the Messiah.

Psalm 89, verses 1-4.

Psalms 89:1–4

This is the psalm of a man named Ethan.

He writes,

I will sing of the steadfast love of the Lord forever.

With My mouth I will make known

Your faithfulness to all generations.

For I said,

Steadfast love will be built up forever in the heavens.

You will establish Your faithfulness.

You have said,

that is, God has said,

I have made a covenant with My chosen one.

I have sworn to David My servant.

I will establish Your offspring forever,

and build Your throne for all generations.

And there are many other messianic prophecies

that speak in the same way.

That Jesus would, in fact,

be a descendant of David.

The people who encountered Jesus in His day

understood this not too long ago.

You'll recall in Mark 10, verses 47-48,

Mark 10:47–48

the healing of blind Bartimaeus.

And in those verses,

look at how Jesus is approached.

Verse 47 says,

And when He heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth,

this is blind Bartimaeus,

He hears that it's Jesus of Nazareth,

He began to cry out and say,

Jesus, Son of David,

have mercy on Me.

Verse 48,

And many rebuked Him,

telling Him to be silent,

but He cried out all the more,

Son of David,

have mercy on Me.

There's many other encounters

in the very same way

where people recognized

that Jesus was,

as the Messiah,

the Son of David,

that He was in the lineage of David.

Matthew takes great effort

to establish this

in chapter 1

of his Gospel account.

Matthew 1, verse 1,

Matthew 1:1

the book of the genealogy

of Jesus Christ,

the Son of David,

the Son of Abraham,

working to establish

that the Old Testament

Messianic prophecy

is fulfilled

in the person of Jesus.

Verse 17 of chapter 1 of Matthew,

So all the generations

from Abraham to David

were 14 generations,

and from David to the deportation

to Babylon,

14 generations,

and from the deportation

to Babylon

to the Christ,

14 generations.

And He, at length,

in those 15 verses in between,

establishes that Jesus

is in fact

in the lineage of David.

So they were right

in that understanding,

but they did not

take it far enough.

And this is the point

that Jesus is making

in our text today

when He quotes from

Psalm 110, 1,

that He is the Messiah

and He is to be worshipped

as Lord.

Not merely a man

that would come and rule

as a king,

but He was to be worshipped

as God.

In the Old Testament,

God gives Himself

the name Lord.

In Hebrew,

the English pronunciation

being Yahweh.

In fact,

Lordship is an

Old Testament theme.

Over and over,

we are told that God

performs His mighty deeds

so that people

will know

that He is the Lord.

Whether that's

His people Israel

or those outside,

those who will be

destroyed,

who are not His people,

we see this as a theme

established again

and again

and again.

Let's look at some examples.

And I just encourage you

to be an active listener.

Don't turn.

Listen.

And write these down

if you'd like to look

at these references later.

Exodus 14, 4.

God says,

And I will harden

and I will harden

Pharaoh's heart

and he will pursue them

and I will get glory

over Pharaoh

and all his hosts

and the Egyptians

shall know

that I am

the Lord.

And they did so.

Deuteronomy 4,

35

To you it was shown

that you might know

that the Lord

is God.

There is no other

besides Him.

1 Kings

20, 13

in a prayer

to be delivered

from a king of Assyria.

And behold,

a prophet came near

to Ahab king of Israel

and said,

Thus says the Lord,

Have you seen

all this great multitude?

Behold,

I will give it

into your hands

this day

and you shall know

that I am

the Lord.

Psalm 83, 18.

Again,

some deliverance

from enemies.

Verse 18,

That they may know

that you alone

whose name is the Lord

are the most high

over all the earth.

Again,

Isaiah 37, 20.

So now,

O Lord our God,

save us from His hand

that all the kingdoms

of the earth

may know

that you alone

are the Lord.

Ezekiel 6, 7.

Last one.

And the slain

shall fall in your midst

and you shall know

that I am the Lord.

So this is a theme

that's established

all throughout

the Old Testament

that God is Lord.

That is,

that He is to be worshipped

with all that we have.

That He is to set

direction for us.

We are to lay aside

our self-direction

and pick up His.

That we are to follow Him

with everything

that we are.

But it doesn't end there.

Lordship is also a theme

in the New Testament.

In fact,

the New Testament Greek

word for Lord

is applied regularly

to Jesus Christ.

A couple of examples.

1 Corinthians 12, 3.

Therefore,

I want you to understand

that no one speaking

in the Spirit of God

ever says,

Jesus is accursed.

And no one can say,

Jesus is Lord,

except in the Holy Spirit.

Philippians 2,

Philippians 2:10

verse 10 and 11.

So that the name of Jesus,

every knee should bow

in heaven and on earth

and under the earth,

and every tongue confess

that Jesus Christ

is Lord

to the glory of God,

the Father.

John 20, 28.

This is after Thomas

touches the risen Christ's side.

Thomas answered Him,

my Lord

and my God.

In fact,

I would argue

that the great theme

of the Bible

is the Lordship

of Jesus Christ.

That the redemption

of our souls

is ultimately

about bringing us

back into a relationship

with Him

and changing our hearts

so that we can

worship Him

as the Lord of all.

These men

failed,

by and large,

not only to recognize

that the Messiah

was not merely

the Son of David,

but that He is,

in fact,

Lord.

And so Jesus

gives them

a little sermon.

Did you know

that Jesus

was an expeditional preacher?

I bet

that you guys

wouldn't mind

if my sermons

were as short

as His this morning.

Jesus quotes

from Psalm 110,

1.

Now this is

a massively

important psalm.

In fact,

it's quoted

more than any other psalm

in the New Testament.

I'm going to read to you

Psalm 110,

Psalms 110:1–4

verses 1-4.

It just sets

a little more

context for us.

Remember

that these men

in the hearing of Jesus

would have

fully understood

this psalm

and beyond it.

They just didn't get

the implications

of it.

They had wrongly

applied this psalm

and Jesus corrects

their thinking

in this way.

So I'm going to read to you

Psalm 110,

Psalms 110:1–4

verses 1-4.

The Lord says

to my Lord,

sit at my right hand

until I make

your enemies

your footstool.

This is what Jesus

quotes.

Verse 2,

So this is a little

broader context.

text.

And just as a bit

of a side note,

let me just show you

some of the places

that this is quoted

elsewhere in the New Testament.

Peter quotes from this psalm

in his sermon

on the day of Pentecost

in Acts 2,

34-35.

Paul quotes from this psalm

in his explanation

of Jesus' resurrection

and subsequent reign

in 1 Corinthians 15,

1 Corinthians 15:27–28

verses 27-28.

The writer of Hebrews

quotes from this psalm

a number of times

in making his case

that Jesus is superior

to angels

in Hebrews 1-13

and in teaching

Jesus' supremacy

over the present priesthood

in Hebrews 5-6,

7-17,

and 7-21.

That is,

that Jesus is

a priest

king.

This is something

that was forbidden

all throughout

the Old Testament

and the only other character

we see in the pages

of Scripture

that was both

a priest and a king

is a rather obscure character.

One who is a priest king

over the city of Shalom

whose name was Melchizedek.

And he shows up

after Abraham's first

battle conquest.

Abraham gives to him

a tenth of all the spoils.

There's a prayer prayed

over Abraham

and he leaves

and he doesn't show up again

until the pages of Hebrews

under the inspiration

of the Spirit.

So we see this priest king

in this function

and then we see Jesus

functioning in this way.

Some, I think, wrongly

have said that was

Jesus himself

in Abraham's day.

It doesn't really matter.

The point being

that Jesus now

makes propitiation,

makes sacrifice

on our behalf

the perfect sacrifice for us,

stands in the gap

between us and God

and also rules over us

as Lord.

And this is what this psalm means.

It's such a beautiful psalm

speaking of the coming Christ.

And Jesus very simply says to them

using really basic logic,

verse 37,

if David himself calls him Lord,

how is he merely his son?

This is the way

to understand this.

How is he just his son?

Just a son of flesh,

right?

That would come and rule

in the way that David ruled.

He would rule in a much more

mighty way

as a priest king.

David recognized

the coming Messiah

as his Lord.

This is the pressing point

that Jesus is making.

David got it.

He got that the coming Messiah,

the one that would be

prophesied to be

one day of his lineage,

was the coming Lord.

What you believe

about Jesus

is the most important thing

about you.

What we believe

to be true about Jesus

is the absolute most

important thing

about us.

There are many

erroneous understandings

of who Jesus was

or is,

depending on the understanding.

Muslims believe

that he was a prophet,

a real man.

He existed.

He was a prophet.

He had wise things

to say from God,

but he was merely

a predecessor of Muhammad.

Jehovah's Witnesses

believe that he was

not God incarnate,

but a created being.

In fact,

they believe that he was

Michael the Archangel

before he was recreated

as a perfect man.

Mormons,

those known of

the Church of Jesus Christ

of Latter-day Saints,

believe that Jesus

was a, again,

created being,

a man who became

a God,

and therefore they believe

that the same can be true

of them.

Many evangelicals

believe that Jesus

is their homeboy

to their everlasting shame.

And evangelicals

also want to separate

the recognition

of Jesus as Savior

from their devotion

to Jesus as Lord.

Two separate things.

And I say to you

that the two

are inextricable.

They cannot be separated.

If Jesus is,

in fact,

your Savior,

then he is,

in fact,

your Lord.

Now,

in Romans chapter 10,

Romans 10 · chapter mention

some of this

misunderstanding,

verses 9 and 10,

upon a simple reading

of it,

Paul writes,

now in this

is in the midst,

remember,

of him talking about

God's sovereign purpose

over saving a people,

his elective purposes,

that he has moved

the gospel from beyond

the Israelites

to the Gentiles,

but yet he's still

including Jewish people

in this.

Paul says,

chapter 10,

verse 9,

because if you confess

with your mouth

that Jesus is Lord

and believe in your heart

that God raised him

from the dead,

you will be saved.

And then verse 10,

for with the heart

one believes

and is justified,

and with the mouth

one confesses

and is saved.

And so they want to say

that simply making

a profession

is salvific.

Simply saying

that I believe

that Jesus is Lord

is in and of itself

salvific.

But if you really look

at these words,

the word believe,

every time it's used

in the New Testament,

it's one Greek word,

and it's written

in the indicative mood,

which means that

the writer's portraying

something as actual,

something that's actually

carrying out

and having real effect

versus intended.

So we may believe,

I think most of you

have probably flown

on planes,

but for those of you

who haven't,

I'm sure you believe

that planes do fly.

You've seen them fly.

But it's not really

a belief in this verb's sense

until you get on the plane

and let it take off.

If you didn't believe

you'd get back

off the plane,

at least I hope you would,

unless you're just a fool.

But it has real effect.

It's working things out

in your life.

There's a result

of the belief,

something that is tangible,

something that can be measured.

But people try to pull them apart,

and I think this often happens

because of our experience

in American evangelical Christianity.

Many of you have had

this experience.

You come to faith.

You believe you come to faith.

Maybe you do.

Maybe you don't.

This is a big wrestling

in your mind.

But you come to faith

at a very early age.

You're taught the gospel

in church and at home

at a very, very early age.

And you give some response.

You give some opportunity

to respond to the gospel.

But then what happens

is the church shelters you

for decades.

pulls you in

and protects you

from the world

and maybe teaches you

some things about being moral,

like be obedient like Abraham

or be brave like David,

but doesn't really press you out

into the world

and see that as a Christian,

you are automatically

given a mission

in this world.

So there's an equipping period

of 15 to 25 years.

Someday you'll be grown up enough

in your faith

to begin to work with God

in the world.

This is a great shame.

What does it take

to be equipped to share

the good news of Jesus Christ?

If you're a believer,

you have it.

The Spirit of God

and the gospel,

which I hope you know

because you responded to it

in faith.

You have this equipping,

but we sit around

on our hands

just waiting

and waiting

and waiting.

And so there's a fear

for many evangelicals

that we're going to tend

towards a works-based salvation

if we're saying to people

in these settings

that there must be

something tangible.

There has to be fruit.

If you're going to be

a good tree,

there has to be fruit.

Is this not scriptural?

So what they want to do

is say,

you can just say

that you're a good tree

and that's good enough

for us.

Jesus is your Savior

if you say you're a good tree.

And at some point

in your life,

embrace Him as your Lord

and begin to bear fruit.

We cannot separate

the two things, beloved.

They cannot be

separated apart.

There's this great emphasis

in our time

placed on conversion

at the neglect

of discipleship.

The Great Commission

is for us to go

and make disciples.

There's this great emphasis

on growing in breadth

and not being concerned

at all about growing

in depth.

If you're going

to follow Jesus,

you cannot simply

follow Him

to the end of an aisle

and stop there.

It does not work

that way.

And this is what Jesus

is saying

to the Pharisees.

They were going

through the religious motions.

Some of them

were the right motions.

Just done

with the wrong

motivation.

Right?

We are to

empty

ourselves.

ourselves.

Self-determining.

We no longer

worship us.

We now worship

Jesus

as Lord.

This isn't new

at this point

in the text.

He said this before.

Turn back to Mark

Mark 8 · chapter mention

chapter 8.

beginning of verse 34.

And calling the crowd

to Him

with His disciples,

He said to them,

If anyone

would come after Me,

follow Me,

Be My disciple.

Let Him deny Himself

and take up His cross

and follow Me.

Oh, you can meditate

on this for your

entire life.

Verse 35,

For whoever would

save his life

will lose it.

But whoever loses

his life for My sake

and the Gospels

will save it.

Empty ourselves

and follow Jesus

to go wherever

He goes.

And beloved,

there is so

much example

given to us

of the way

in which Jesus

functioned

and the places

in which He went

that we have

plenty of growing

to do

in this regard.

Listen to Paul's

exhortation

in 2 Corinthians 13.5.

Examine yourselves

to see whether

you are in the faith.

Test yourselves.

Or do you not

realize this

about yourselves

that Jesus Christ

is in you?

Unless indeed

you fail

to meet the test.

What is this test

that we're being

exhorted to do?

I have sat

under many,

many preachers

that want to make

this test

the remembering

of a date

and an activity,

an action.

Tell me that's not

works-based.

Right?

Write it down.

Oh, write it down

in the front of your Bible

so if you ever have

a doubt,

you can look

at that page

and then you'll know

that you're found

in Christ.

That you've declared

yourself a good tree.

Phariseeism.

This is a message

from the devil.

Air conditioning.

Right?

On a train ride

to hell.

This is not good

for people to hear.

What is the test?

The test is fruit.

And we're exhorted

to do it.

Now hear me,

the works do not

save us.

But the works

are the evidence

of God's salvific work

in our hearts.

If I asked you

this morning,

how do you know

this morning

that you're alive?

None of you would say,

because I have a birth date.

Let me share my birth date

with you.

You would give some evidence

to that fact.

Well, I'm standing

in front of you.

Look, I'm doing the things

that living people do.

Right?

Descartes would have said,

I think, therefore,

I am.

Right?

None of you would go,

well, I have a birth date.

So, of course,

I'm alive.

This is foolishness

and this is what is happening

in our churches.

Turn to 1 John 3.

The great effort

of John's first letter

is to give us

a lens by which

to hold our lives up to,

to compare to.

How do we test ourselves?

How do we know?

How do we know?

1 John 3,

beginning in verse 4.

Everyone who makes

a practice of sinning

also practices lawlessness.

Sin is lawlessness.

You know that He appeared

in order to take away sins

and in Him there is no sin.

This is Christ.

Verse 6.

No one who abides in Him

keeps on sinning.

No one who keeps on sinning

has either seen Him

or known Him.

Little children,

let no one deceive you.

Whoever practices righteousness

is righteous

as He is righteous.

Whoever makes a practice

of sinning

is of the devil

for the devil

has been sinning

from the beginning.

The reason the Son of God

appeared was to destroy

the works of the devil.

No one born of God

makes a practice

of sinning.

For God's seed

abides in Him

and He cannot keep on sinning

because He has been

born of God.

By this it is evident

who are the children of God

and who are the children

of the devil.

Whoever does not

practice righteousness

is not of God

nor is the one

who does not love

his brother.

We are all indicted

by these words,

are we not?

So we need to wrestle

with this a little bit.

Right?

All of you who are perfect,

raise your hand.

No one, right?

None of us, right?

We have been set free

from sin

and yet we continue

to sin.

The great struggle

of Paul

in Romans chapter 7.

Romans 7 · chapter mention

This body of death

that he carries around

that draws him

into the things

that he doesn't

want to do.

And this is the nature

of Christian living.

This ebb and flow

of righteousness.

Seasons even

that we go through

in our Christian lives.

And so John

is not saying to us

that if you sin

you are not found

in Christ.

There's a status,

right,

that is given to us

by our faith

in him.

But the general

trajectory of our living

should be towards

righteousness.

righteousness.

I don't know if

everyone in the room

can see the bald

cypresses outside.

Do you see this orange

tree that's blocking

that entire window

right there?

There's two of them

on either side

of the sidewalk.

And these are really,

really neat trees

called bald cypresses.

And most of the year

they're very green

and beautiful.

They're a deciduous

pine tree

and they turn

this beautiful orange

color for like a week

and they drop

all of the needles.

Likely,

next week

there will be not

a single needle

on either of those

two trees

and they'll all be

all over the ground

desperately needing

to be cleaned up

from the sidewalk

down there.

A really fascinating

tree.

A good portion

of the year

these trees look dead.

Totally lifeless.

If you didn't know

what they were

you would definitely

cut them down.

You'd go,

this looks kind of

like a pine tree

with no needles on it.

It's definitely dead.

Our lives are that way

at times.

No real experience

of the presence of God

in our lives.

We just seem to love

sin so much

appearing dead.

I've been coming

to this building now

for quite a few years

and I can tell you

that the general trajectory

of these trees

is that they're alive.

Every year

when they look dead

I know that they're not dead

because they continue

to grow

and year by year by year

they get a little bit bigger

and they encroach

on the building

a little bit more

and a few more branches

have to be pruned off of them

so that we can walk

down the sidewalk

and the roots

continue to advance

across the playground

and pop up

from time to time

across the playground

like I know

that they're alive

because of the general

presence of life

in those trees.

So John's not saying

to us that we have

to be perfect

in every way

but that we should be

generally hating sin

and generally

loving righteousness.

if this isn't true of you

then you are not

found in Christ.

You have not

recognized Him

as Lord.

You've added Him

as a slip of paper

of fire insurance policy

that you folded up

and you stuck

in your back pocket

which is of no value

to you whatsoever.

If your heart

has not been changed

if you have not

been propelled

by the work

in your heart

of the Holy Spirit

to follow Him

to worship Him

as Lord

then you are not

found in Him.

Repent

and believe.

Repent and believe.

Pray that He would

do a work

in your life

like that.

And for those of us

who have recognized

Him as Lord

but yet deal with

the day-to-day

how do we continue

to submit ourselves

to Him as Lord?

I have to say

that that very question

which I know

none of you asked

but I posed it to you

as well

demands the point

that I'm making.

Those of us

who are found

in Christ

who call Him

Savior and Lord

should know

how to follow Him.

He has spoken

to us

by His

Word.

This is the way

in which we came

to Him

by the work

of the Spirit

in our lives

that we would

continue in that

and that we would

go to His Word

to know Him.

This is the way

in which we continue

to submit to Him.

Young people

so many of you

want to know

the will of God

for your life

but it has really

nothing to do

with Lordship

and submitting

yourself to Him

day by day

week by week.

It's really just

because you want

answers

and it is your hope

that if it's God's answer

that it's going to be

a good one

that's going to work

out favorable

for you.

Self-serving

in that way.

You don't submit

yourselves daily

to the Lord

and say

what would you

have me do

in this day?

What major

should I have?

Who should I marry?

Where should I live?

Where should I invest

in church?

Who should I be

sharing the Gospel

with?

Your search

serves your ends

and not His.

Many of you

want to know

the will of God

but you don't

know your Bible

and He has revealed

His will to us

in the Scriptures.

Our Lord

has written us

a book.

We should know it.

Why do we neglect

this so much?

Recognize

that there is a battle

a war being waged

within you

to get you away

from this book.

To hear God speak

day by day

by day

and submit yourself

to what He would

have you do.

Practice

the revealed

will of God.

All that other stuff

the petty stuff

who you'll marry

where you'll work

where you'll live

where you'll go to church

will all sort out

in the end.

Submit yourself

to the Lordship

of Jesus Christ.

Stop being

self-determining

and then always

submit

to Him.

This is what it means

to be a Christian,

to be

a disciple

of our Savior

and Lord

Jesus Christ.

Let's pray together.

Let's pray together.