August 2 "How To Avoid Ministry Embarrassment" (Mark 9:14-29)

Mark's Gospel, the ninth chapter.

My title this morning is How to Avoid Ministry Embarrassment.

How to Avoid Ministry Embarrassment.

So back when I was in youth group at Temple Church just across town, we had the Teens of Flame Athletic Conference and we played basketball and we played flag football.

Now, for those of you who don't know anything about flag football, you don't tackle each other, or at least you're not supposed to.

But all the guys on the field have two flags.

And whoever has the ball, if one of your opponents takes off either of your flags, then you're down.

That's where the play stops.

The ball is spotted there, and the next play begins.

Well, I've got the ball.

I don't know whether I had it as the quarterback, running back, but I've got the ball and I'm making my way.

And I don't remember now who we were playing.

I don't know if it was Belvoir or Parker's Chapel or Trinity or whomever.

But somebody in an attempt to pull my flags, I don't know whether they actually pulled my flags or not.

All I remember is they pulled my warm-up pants all the way down to my ankles.

No joke.

I am late.

I'm on the ground like that was embarrassing.

Jennifer, your sweet, dainty, loving, caring pastor's wife Jennifer.

Several years ago, she thinks she's expressing care and concern for somebody when she asked this lady how her pregnancy was going.

Yeah.

The lady said, Um, I'm not pregnant.

That's embarrassing.

Now, embarrassment is going to register in part based on how many people are around.

Uh, it was one thing for Jennifer to embarrass herself and ask this lady.

I don't think anybody else was around.

It's one thing for me to be on the little football field over at the old at Temple Church and have my breeches pulled down.

There were dozens and dozens of people who saw that.

We're about to see the disciples face incredible embarrassment.

And who knows how many hundreds are present when this embarrassment takes place.

So to set the stage, Jordan preached for me last Sunday, and he was preaching on the first 13 verses of Mark chapter 9.

Mark 9 · chapter mention

There is the transfiguration of Jesus.

There is almost as though Jesus gave those guys a sampling of what his glory would be like if he was not clothed in human flesh.

And though the scriptures don't explicitly state this, I'm of the opinion that the Lord must have allowed their eyes to be guarded because they weren't blinded by the glory and the glow of Jesus' glory.

Well, Moses and Elijah are also present.

And so you've got two of the most prominent, famous people in the Old Testament scriptures there with Jesus along with Peter, James, Peter, James, and John.

And Peter is so enjoying the moment, he suggests, why don't we build some tents and let's just hang out here for a while?

And Jesus said, no, no, no, that's not the purpose.

And so, next thing you know, um, Moses and Elijah are gone.

Jesus' glory fades.

It goes back into a veiled state because of his humanity, and down the mountain they come.

Man, sometimes you got to leave the mountaintop experiences of life and get back into the realities of life.

So as they come down the mountain, there's all this commotion, and we're about to read.

There's this debating going on, this arguing going on, and finger pointing and shouting and all this kind of stuff.

And center stage, center stage, we're gonna see a man, a father of a son.

And his son is demon-possessed.

His young son has an evil spirit living in him.

And as we will find out, the other disciples, the other nine, they attempted to cast him out and they failed.

Talk about embarrassment.

That's what we're going to read about in Mark's Gospel, chapter 9.

Look at verse 14.

And when they, that is Jesus, Peter, James, and John, they came to the disciples, they saw a great crowd arguing around them and scribes arguing with them.

That word arguing there talks about heckling, talks about being taunted, fingers pointed.

And so in my sanctified imagination, these scribes, these authorities of the law, who don't believe Jesus is the Messiah, they're saying, see, you're a bunch of powerless punks.

You're a bunch of imposters.

And can you imagine just how embarrassing that was?

There's a huge crowd, and these scribes are just calling them all sorts of names and debating with them, heckling them.

Verse 15, and immediately all the crowd, when they saw him, Jesus, were greatly amazed and ran up to him and greeted him.

And he asked them, What are you arguing about with them?

What are you arguing about?

Now, I think there was probably a pregnant pause.

Who's going to answer?

And all of a sudden, the father steps forward and we hear him speak verse 17.

Someone in the crowd answered him.

Now, we're told in Matthew's gospel that this father fell on his knees before Jesus and he cried out, Teacher, I brought to you, I brought my son to you.

Luke's gospel tells us it's his only son.

I don't know if it's his only child.

Probably is.

It's his only boy, his only child, his only son.

For he has a spirit that makes him mute.

And whenever it seizes him, it throws him down and he foams and he grinds his teeth and he becomes rigid.

So I asked your disciples to cast it out, and they could not.

Folks, those are some of the saddest words you're going to read anywhere in the Bible.

God's men, empowered men, commissioned men.

In the name of Jesus, they asked the Spirit to come out, and it didn't.

They were unable.

Talk about embarrassing.

This young guy, this young boy.

He's having some seizures that might have caused some to think he had epilepsy.

But no, no, no.

There is more going on here.

We need more than a physical doctor, a doctor of physiological medicine to properly diagnose him.

And the father is right.

He's got a spirit in him.

It's an evil spirit, and he's wreaking havoc on his life.

And this demon has such control over him, he's taken away his ability to talk.

And so I couldn't help but wondering, preparing for today, I wonder how long it's been since he heard, since the father heard his son say, Daddy, I love you.

Daddy, I couldn't sleep.

Can I come into bed with you tonight?

I wonder how long it's been since maybe he heard his son say, Dad, I'm hungry.

Can we go get some ice cream?

I don't know.

With unknown frequency, this demon seizes the boy and causes him to foam at the mouth.

Can you imagine how much uh belittling has taken place in his little lifetime?

Man, what is that stuff coming out of your mouth?

We're gonna find out in a few moments that he's been thrown into fire.

Who knows how many scars he's got and burns that kids being kids and they can be so mean sometimes, belittled him.

Man, they were not able to cast out the demon.

What power failure.

Sometimes the power goes out at home.

And that's an inconvenience.

Depending upon the time of day, you can't see, you get your flashlights out, you light candles, etc.

If it's out long enough, you're going to become concerned about your food in the refrigerator or your freezer.

Inconvenience, not a big, big deal.

I'm sure Brian and others would say, boy, if the power were to go out at the hospital, and I know they've got backup generators and all of that, but if if all of that power were to go down, now we're talking about something on a potentially catastrophic scale.

But when there is a spiritual power outage, then eternal ramifications are at stake.

If this cannot be remedied, if this father takes his son home unable to have the demon cast out, that could have eternal consequences.

So let's just be sober-minded right up front, early on in my message.

The last thing in the world any of us should want is to be followers of Christ and to be powerless, unable to do that which God has called us to do in our lives.

So, folks, I would submit to you this truth.

To know Almighty God and then serve Him without His power is tragic, sinful, and inexcusable.

To know the Lord, to have His Spirit living within you, the Almighty, powerful Spirit of Almighty God, and then to have to know God and then not live life, do ministry, etc., without his power, that is sad, it is tragic, and it is inexcusable.

And yet, preachers behind pulpits all over the globe stand behind pulpits without God's power.

Churches open their doors without God's power.

Teachers teach without God's power.

Christians live their life without God's power.

Folks, you've got to get it in your head that all believers need the power of God on their life to live a victorious Christian life.

You need the full operation of God's Spirit in your life.

Not just occupancy, but dominance.

Him ruling in your life, calling the shots, leading you, enabling you to be the husband, the wife, the parent, the teenager, the college student that God's called you to be.

You need God's power to let your light shine.

Wherever it is that you're doing life, you need God's power.

And so to not have it, and some of you don't.

To not have God's power as a Christian, that's that's sad, it's tragic, and inexcusable.

Verse 19.

And he, Jesus, answered them, oh faithless generation, how long am I to be with you?

How long am I to bear with you?

Bring him to me.

And I can I can't you hear the exasperation?

Bring him to me.

Now, when Jesus says here, oh faithless generation, there's lament here.

Many of you, you're aware of the Psalms.

How often do the psalmists say, oh, oh my God, or oh whatever, whatever.

Oh, there's lament and there's there's some there's some frustration here.

I don't think he's saying, oh, faithless generation to the crowd.

I think he's looking eyeball to eyeball to nine men in particular.

Gosh, you've been with me for the better part of two years.

And it's not so much that he's upset that they didn't have the power to cast him out.

Evidently it was a faith problem.

Faithless, not completely void of faith, or they wouldn't have even made the attempt.

But oh, faithless men, how long am I gonna put up with you?

How long am I gonna have to bear with your episodes of faithlessness?

Verse 20.

Um they brought the boy to him, and when the spirit saw him, immediately it convulsed the boy, and he fell on the ground and rolled about, foaming at the mouth, evidently sensing his demonization of the boy is about to come to a screeching halt.

I mean, he's just getting one more, just fit of rage inside this boy.

Verse 21, Jesus asked the father, How long has this been happening to him?

He did not ask the question because he didn't know, he's not seeking information that he didn't already have.

I think Jesus is wanting to bring everybody in.

Everybody, because I in my imagination, I can just see people trying to look and trying to listen in to hear what's being said.

And so, how long?

And when the father answers, it's even worse than maybe we first thought.

And he, the father, said, from childhood.

From childhood.

I don't know how old the boy is.

I'm gonna just guess he's 12 or younger.

And so if he's 10 or he's 12, from childhood, I don't know when it started, but here's a young boy that's got a demon living within him that should cause every parent in this room to sit up and listen with sober-mindedness.

Folks, can I just remind you?

Every unsaved person is subject to Satan's control.

Every unsaved person is subject, vulnerable to Satan's control.

Now hold on.

I know that we do not have the outward, visible, obvious manifestations of demon possession in our country like I know takes place in some other places, darker places around the world.

America's becoming darker and darker by the day.

Um, but man, when I was in um Uganda this September, two years ago, boy, we would have a meal together and some of the nationals would tell stories.

I mean, it made the hair on my neck stand up.

Years before that, I was down in Haiti.

Some of the same kind of stories made the hair stand up on my neck.

But there's no evidence that this boy or his father did anything to just subject themselves to it.

It doesn't appear that they opened the door for it.

All we know is evidently with hellish desires, Satan commissions one of his demons, go fill him, go occupy him.

Now, before we move on, because right now this is very sobering, right?

Very sobering.

But I want to give you an incredibly encouraging, reassuring truth to counteract it.

If a little boy or girl can be filled with an evil spirit, then they can also be filled with the Holy Spirit.

And so I want you to know, I struggle, I have struggled for years.

I still don't have it fully resolved on when to baptize kids.

There's no magical age.

But then the question is, well, how young can somebody be to be truly saved?

Because anytime anybody gets saved, God's spirit comes to live within them.

If a boy, if a young boy or girl can be filled with an evil spirit, they can be filled with the Holy Spirit.

And my sweet Jennifer, her, she she would say that she got saved.

I think I can't remember if she said it was four or five.

Oh, come on, a four-year-old.

Hey, I believe it's possible, and this scripture I think gives me proof that it is possible for the Holy Spirit to come inside a young boy or a girl.

If an evil spirit can, then the Holy Spirit can.

Verse 22.

The Father continues, he gives a report, and it often cast him into fire and into water to destroy him.

Open fires were much more common.

Pretty much, we don't have open fires unless we're on a Boy Scout trip or we're camping out or whatever.

But open fires were more common then.

And a lot more wells were a part of that uh agrarian culture.

And so it seems as though every opportunity this demon had, there's a there's a there's a fire, and man, he would, he would seethe him, hoping he would fall right in it.

And evidently multiple times he did.

And so there's no telling what this little fella, what his body looked.

Can you imagine if he's still the age where dad's helping make sure he he bathes well?

Seeing all those scars, all the burns.

And notice the text says it did not try to throw him into fires or or into water just to make life miserable for him and to have to put more bandages on.

He did it to destroy him.

Verse 22.

The man says, but if you can do anything, have compassion on us and help us.

If it appears that the Father's confidence in what even Jesus can do has been dampened by the failure of the disciples.

Oh my goodness, sir, if Jesus can do anything, that's not the problem.

Jesus can do anything he chooses to do.

Jesus is the one who spoke the whole universe into existence.

Jesus is the one that told us raging storm, be still, and the waters were crystal clear, still.

Jesus is the one who could walk on those waters.

Jesus is the one who could turn that water into wine.

Jesus is the one who can raise the dead.

So when the man says, if you can do anything, oh dear sir, he can.

But listen to his plea for compassion.

God have compassion.

Help us.

Help us.

Verse 23.

And Jesus said to him, if you can, in other words, Jesus is patient, he's kind, but he's saying, Sir, you've asked the wrong question.

You've put an if on me when really it's not on me, it's on you.

Jesus said to him, if you can, I mean, Jesus, and Jesus said to him, if you can, all things are possible for the one who believes.

And so Jesus is saying, the problem's not with me.

I can.

The question is, do you believe that I can?

Because when a person believes, it says, All things are possible for one who believes.

Now, if you're relatively new to church, maybe this is the first time, and you're thinking, that sounds like a blank check.

Are you telling me, Jeff, that if you believe anything and everything's possible?

Yes and no.

Scripture interprets scripture.

If all you had was one verse of scripture, that's what that would sound like.

That if you have enough faith, all things are possible.

But now you got to take other scriptures, and other scriptures talk about the will of God, the wisdom of God, and God, the fact that God knows all things, and God all things are possible within God's will for the one who believes.

And it was within the will of God to get this demon out of this boy.

So we read on.

Verse 25.

No, no, verse 24.

Verse 24.

Immediately the father of the child cried out and said, I believe.

Help my unbelief.

I love the father's honesty.

He said, I believe.

His faith is it's weak, it's it's imperfect, but it's legit.

And Jesus does not rebuke him at all.

He does not say, Sorry, sorry, head on back home.

Insufficient faith.

I ain't got time for that.

No.

The man's just brutally honest.

And isn't that us so often?

We believe.

And then in the back of our minds, we're saying, Lord, help our unbelief.

Verse 25, and when Jesus saw that a crowd came running together, he rebuked the unclean spirit, saying to it, You mute and deaf spirit, I command you come out of him and never enter him again.

And after crying out and convulsing him terribly, it came out, and the boy was like a corpse, so that most of them said, He's dead.

Traumatized and exhausted by what the demon had done with his body, when the demon left, the boy just lay there motionless.

Some thought he was dead.

I personally don't think that he was actually dead, but nonetheless, with tenderness and compassion, Jesus kneels down, picks him up.

Verse 27.

Jesus took him by the hand, lifted him up, and he arose.

Now you talk about restoration.

Now he can go back home and he can play with his friends and he can flirt with the girls and think about getting married one day with no more fear of convulsions caused by a demon, no more fears of fire.

Now he can he can make s'mores with no fear of being cast into it.

Jesus has changed his life.

Verse 28.

And when he had entered the house, Jesus.

His disciples asked him privately.

I bet they did ask it privately.

It was embarrassing.

So after they got away from the crowd, went into this house, disciples asked him privately, why could we not cast it out?

The reasoning was, I mean, Lord, you commissioned us, you empowered us, we've done it before.

What happened this time?

They likely were casting this demon out like they had on other occasions.

But the demon didn't come out this time.

It was not because of a total lack of faith, because they wouldn't have tried it to start with.

But there's a littleness of faith, and we'll talk about that more in a moment.

Verse 29.

And he said to them, This kind cannot be driven out by anything but prayer.

Hold on to that.

I'll come back to it right toward the end.

Now, I want to spend the rest of our time having looked at this story and tried to just make it come to life.

I want to conclude with looking at three ways to avoid ministry embarrassment.

And again, don't think about this as just ministry like church ministry professionals who get paid because they're ordained and da-da-da-da-da.

No, just doing life, doing ministry, it applies.

Three ways to avoid ministry embarrassment.

Number one, you'd better respect your enemy.

You'd better respect your enemy.

Who's your Satan?

He is your adversary.

The scriptures tell us to put on the whole armor of God, every piece, so that you might be able to stand up against the walls, the schemes of the devil.

Folks, what I'd like to do is contrast Satan's desires with Jesus' desires.

There are certain desires that Satan has, they apply to every single human being.

And then I'm going to look at Jesus' desires, and I want to just see the stark contrast between them.

First, Satan's desires.

Satan desires to steal, kill, and destroy.

Now, I didn't just come up with those on my own.

I didn't do a survey of scripture to figure out that those things are true.

John 10, 10, Jesus explicitly stated it.

He's comparing himself as a good shepherd to the devil who wants to come into the sheepfold and steal, kill, and destroy.

Those are his desires.

Folks, Satan hates all people.

All people.

Lauren Justice is the latest in our church family to give birth to a child.

And Lauren, how uh Lauren and Davis, how old?

How old is your child now?

Is it like two weeks?

One week.

Okay, I'm ahead of myself.

Uh yeah, it was last Saturday I saw y'all or Friday, whatever it was.

One week old.

Satan hates that child.

Hates it.

He hates you.

He hates your children.

He hates your grandchildren.

He hates your spouse.

He hates your neighbors.

There's nobody in this room that he's not hate.

He so hates you that if indeed you're being attacked by thugs, Satan would join in.

He so hates you that if you were in a house fire and there was an opportunity for him to rescue you, he wouldn't do it.

He would pour gas on the fire.

If you were about to drown in your neighbor's pool, Satan, if he could, would hold your head under to make sure you drown.

He hates people.

The question then is why?

What causes the devil to have such hatred?

Why does he want to kill, steal, and destroy?

Because all people are made in the image of God.

And I'm telling you what, Satan despises Jesus, despises the whole Godhead.

And so whenever he sees a human being, he sees the image of God and he hates it and he wants to destroy it.

Who do you think is behind sex trafficking?

Satanists.

Who do you think is behind child pornography?

Satanists.

Who do you think is the motivator of child abuse?

Satanists.

Who do you think is rejoicing when your kids get hooked on drugs?

Satanist.

Who do you think is thrilled when one of your family members becomes an alcoholic?

Satanists.

Who do you think just rejoices when somebody that you know and love seemingly comes to the end of all hope and takes their life?

Satan's like, yeah.

Don't underestimate your enemy.

He hates you.

Jesus said he was a murderer from the very beginning.

The spirit that wants to take kids and have them mutilate their bodies in the name of transgenderism, that's an evil spirit.

It's an evil spirit.

Satan's temptations are always an attempt to destroy your life.

Will the temptation feel good?

Probably.

Will there be pain and agony from the guilt that comes on the backside of it?

Absolutely.

His goal is to destroy you.

Fourteen years old.

Fourteen.

Thomas Sullivan.

Studious, made good grades, well thought of by his teachers and his peers.

And then he probably got involved with the wrong crowd.

Next thing you know, he's got some interest in the occult.

Next thing you know, he's worshiping the devil.

And 14-year-old Thomas Sullivan stabbed his mother to death, tried to burn his home down with his dad and his brother inside, and then took his Boy Scout knife, cut his wrists and his throat, committed suicide.

To me, that is just a picture of what Satan wanted to do with this boy in our story and what he would love to do with you and any and every member of your family.

Jesus said he comes to steal, kill, and destroy.

But now let me share with you Jesus' desires.

For those of you who might not know, I would say that Jesus' desires are to heal, to save, and restore.

We know that Jesus has a desire to heal because of all the healings that we saw in Scripture.

Granted, not everybody gets healed in this lifetime because, man, the wages of sin is death.

We're all going to die.

But for those of us who die in Jesus, we will be forever healed of all the maladies that come with this life.

And Jesus longs to save.

He so longs to save.

He went up the Via de la Rosa and died for your sins.

God's wrath was poured out on him so he could be just in forgiving you of your sins.

Oh, and Jesus wants to restore.

It's very likely that there are some relationships and all kinds of stuff represented by this group of people this morning.

And Jesus wants to restore.

He'd love an opportunity if you'd give it to him to have your marriage restored.

He'd love nothing, few things more than to maybe see your relationship with your adult children restored, your relationship with your grandkids restored.

Jesus is all about that.

He's always wanting that kind of thing to happen.

Now, before we move on, I want you to respect your enemy and know that he seeks to destroy.

But let me give you this ray of hope.

If you do know Jesus and the Holy Spirit lives within you, guess what?

Greater is he who is in you than he who is in the world.

Secondly, a second way to avoid ministry embarrassment, trust God's promises.

Trust God's promises.

Like the disciples, perhaps Jesus would say to you, How long am I going to put up with you and your faithlessness?

You've been saved for how long?

You know the Bible how well?

You know how many verses?

Why do you still not believe?

Why do you still not trust?

Now, in human relationships, it takes time to build trust, right?

I mean, that's always going to be the case.

But boy, over the course of time, I mean, Jennifer and I, 41 years of marriage, there's such trust between her.

Do you have any idea how much I'm concerned about what she's going to do if I'm on a mission trip to Uganda?

Not an air bit.

I trust her.

But you know what?

Trust that's built up over years can end within seconds.

Because people betray you.

They lie.

They're not true to the word.

And if we're not careful, we'll take some of those experiences and take them into our relationship with the Lord.

Folks, don't do that.

As one writer put it, it is always reasonable and rational to trust God.

And nothing is more irrational than to not trust him.

It's not even possible for the Lord to not keep his promises.

It's not even possible.

He never has, never will.

You can trust him.

So when you read your Bible and you find out promises are made to you, I will never ever leave you or forsake you.

I will make my grace sufficient for you.

Trust those promises.

Lean in to what Jesus has said and it's true.

Oh, and by the way, so um how possible is it for you to please God without faith?

Zero.

Hebrews 11, 6, without faith, it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.

So, folks, I'm just I'm urging you, don't be like the faithless disciples.

Believe that he is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that you can ask or think.

Believe that according to 2 Corinthians 12, 9, Christ's power, Christ's power can be made available in our times of weakness.

And then thirdly, a third way to avoid ministry embarrassment, depend on God's help.

Depend on God's help.

Back in verse 29, in response to the disciples' question as to why they couldn't cast out the demon, Jesus said, This kind cannot be cast out by anything but prayer.

So, in light of their previous commissioning and in light of their previous successes, it's a little bit surprising that they should fail on this occasion.

I mean, about a year earlier, Jesus commissioned them and sent them out and said, I want you to proclaim the kingdom of God is at hand, and I want you to cast out demons.

Mark 6.13, we looked at it a few weeks ago, tells us they cast out many demons, but not this time.

Not this time.

Folks, spiritual victories won yesterday do nothing to give you victory today.

I'm confident.

I know.

I know that there have been any number of times.

I'm not suggesting it's that way every time.

But I know there have been times when I've stood right there and the power of God was on me.

I know that.

That doesn't mean it's going to be on me today.

It didn't mean it's going to be on me next week or the next week or the next week.

So I'm afraid that sometimes if we're not real, real careful, we will having experienced God's power, having experienced successes, depend on the process rather than the person.

Depend on the process and how we've always done it instead of being utterly dependent upon God.

Just utterly dependent upon God to help me be the person that He wants me to be.

The disciples were like Samson with his hair cut off.

You know the story?

The source of Samson's power was from God.

The symbol of it was his long hair.

And next thing you know, he's revealed the secret.

His hair is cut off, and next thing you know, he gets up.

I mean, he goes out to fight like he has on all the other occasions, trusting the process, and wham! He's as weak as water.

He's a puny weakling.

And the Philistines grab hold of him, imprison him, poked out both of his eyes.

What a pitiful, pathetic mess.

Sad, tragic, and inexcusable.

But his hair grew back.

His hair grew back.

And the Lord restored.

And he had power once again.

And the disciples would realize they needed to pray.

And they would pray more faithfully.

And you just turn over the pages, you get into Acts, and man, every time we turn around, they're praying, praying, praying, praying, praying.

And boy, God's working, and they're casting out demons, and they're preaching with power.

And um that's that's what the Lord wants us to do.

You and I must learn to fight on your knees.

Fight on your knees.

May the Lord help us to realize that prayer and the dependency upon God that it represents is a necessity, not a luxury.

It's a necessity, not a luxury.

Um, could it be that this is why prayer is one of the most difficult of all the spiritual disciplines?

Could this be why you struggle to pray like you know you're supposed to?

And why maybe some of you don't?

Is this why, guys, you're having a hard time grabbing a hold of your wife's hand and saying, Sweetheart, let's let's pray together?

Because if you're not doing that, you should be.

I didn't do it for a long time.

I'm telling you, if we are not utterly dependent upon the Lord in every area of our life, our lives will not be what they could have been.

Prayerlessness equals powerlessness.

So we've I'm sure we've all seen it.

Um college basketball, even high school, pros for sure.

I mean, go up, powerful dunk, yeah, flex.

Running back takes the ball, knocks off two defenders, gets the first down, scores the touchdown.

Oh, and by the way, the women do it too.

Uh WNBA, you know, uh and one, make a shot, get fouled, ball goes in, yeah.

We, I don't believe one of us would ever do that literally.

However, thirty plus years of pastoral ministry, who knows how many hundreds, thousands of sermons I've preached.

Who knows how many times some of you have taught God's word.

Your standards and your convictions seemingly are higher than somebody else's.

Oh, I'm faithful.

I'm faithful.

God forbid that we any of us think that in and of ourselves we've got anything to offer the Lord.

Without him, we can do nothing.

Utter dependency upon the Lord.

To do everything, to do everything, to do your job, to raise your kids, to flesh out your marriage, to do whatever service you do for the Lord, you need his power.

So instead of even thinking about flexing, why don't we bend?

Why don't we bend our knees?

I would some of you you know we do this from time to time.

If you're able and you'd like to, would you consider just getting on your knees right there where you are and let that be a visual, postural, if you if it is such a word, let your posture symbolize just your dependence.

I'd like for us just to close our service praying.

I'd like for you to take your kids, your grandkids, your spouse, your friends, take them to Jesus.

They might not be demon-possessed, but they need you to be dependent upon him on their behalf.

So if you're able and interested, let's just get on our knees.

I'm gonna lead us in prayer, and I'm gonna give you some time to pray as well.

Whichever way you want to do it.

Father, as many of us have gotten on our knees, and some they might not be on their knees, but all their heart is bent toward you.

They have assumed a humble position before you, Lord.

And we've been we've been taught some incredible truths from your word this morning.

Oh, we are hated.

Our enemy is real, and we need to respect him.

But Lord, even as we respect him, may we be reminded that greater is he who's in us as believers than he who's in the world.

And Lord, would you please forgive us for our faithlessness at times?

Forgive us, Lord, when we go about life, acting as if you're not on the throne, acting as if your power is limited, acting as if we don't need you.

Forgive us, Lord.

And Father, as we bow, um, we're just exercising dependency on you, Lord.

I know, I know, Lord, that some of us have kids or grandkids.

We've got siblings, you might have a spouse, they're so far from you.

And Lord, we know that our own hearts are prone to wonder, prone to leave the God that we say that we love.

Oh Lord, I need you.

That's why I asked Brian and the praise team to sing that last hymn.

I need you every hour, Lord.

Every hour we need you.

Oh Lord, maybe not live another second of our lives without utter dependency upon you.

Lord, I pray that we will let our light shine.

That we will have power on our life, not to impress, but to point people to the source of our power, the Lord Jesus.

In His name we pray.

Amen.

Amen.