How Much the Lord has Done!

Hello, you're listening to Second City Sermons,

a ministry of Second City Church in Midtown Harrisburg.

This epiphany in Lent, we're back in the Gospels,

specifically the Gospel of Mark. We are seeing

the revelation of God in Jesus. Mark is showing

us the true King becomes a servant for us. He

says right at the heart, the Son of Man came

not to be served, but to serve and to give his

life as a ransom for many. And Mark is nearly

always asking his audience, what do you make

of that? So, what do you make of this good news?

We'd love to meet you and we hope you'll consider

coming and joining with us each Sunday morning

at 10 a .m. in the heart of Midtown Harrisburg.

You can find us online at secondcitychurch .org

and on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube. We hope

you enjoy this sermon. God bless. Lord, we thank

you for your word. We thank you for its breadth

and depth, its beauty, most of all how it reveals

you as the one who loves sinners, as the one

who comes to us in our need, who lifts us up

out of the miry clay, who sets our feet upon

the rock of Christ. And we gotta pray that even

this time this morning as we look at this text

that you would Give us a greater sense of your

great love for us, your great mercy for us. And

like this man long ago, we would have a greater

desire to be with you, to speak of you, to share

about you, and to live with you. Speak, we pray.

Amen. We are in Mark chapter 5 you just heard

Mark 5 · chapter mention

this text and this text of course comes immediately

after the crossing of the Sea of Galilee that's

where it begins heading over to town of the garrisons

the region of the garrisons actually people are

a little bit uncertain of exactly what town that

is though some most people believe now actually

that there was a town of a similar name right

in that area, the Decapolis, which means the

10 towns on the other side, which were Gentile

towns. And that that town was actually recently

discovered when they were redoing some road work

over there. Kind of interesting. Anyway, all

three of the synoptic gospels, the synoptic gospels

are Matthew, Mark, and Luke. They tell similar

stories, sort of in a similar chronology. They

all have these two stories together. The story

of Jesus crossing the sea with his disciples

in the midst of this crazy storm and simply speaking

and the wind and the waves do his bidding. And

then right next to it, this man possessed, overcome,

and Jesus just says, come out. Powerful words.

Which say Mark and Matthew and Luke are all putting

before us that Jesus is truly Lord and he's Lord

of all. He's Lord of the physical, and the psychical,

and the spiritual, and all of it. And he has

authority over all of the chaos. Lord of it.

But what are the responses? Well, one thing we

saw actually, we see in both texts, I'm gonna

get back to this, is fear. Both texts actually

have that as the response. One, though, is a

fear that leads to acceptance, and one to rejection.

One of the great stories in the Bible is the

story of the conversion of Paul from Saul to

Paul. Many of you know that Paul is the great

author of most of the New Testament, not most

of it, he wrote 13 of the 27 books of the New

Testament. Some people think Hebrews, I think

the argument is better that somebody else did,

but you know, Paul, this great missionary of

the faith, this one who went and He largely started

the Gentile church after this man, by the way,

he's the first Gentile missionary. And his conversion

story, actually it's told three separate times

in the book of Acts, and then it's told again

shortly in the book of Galatians. It actually

gets more words dedicated to it in the New Testament

than are dedicated to the stories of the resurrection.

Kind of strange. Here's the thing, before his

conversion, like I said, Paul's name was Saul,

and he was a leader of the Jewish religious community.

In Galatians 1, he actually says this, I was

advancing in Judaism beyond many of my own age

among my people, so extremely zealous was I for

the tradition of my fathers. He was a religious

leader, zealous. Yet, he also says right there

in Galatians 1, he says, He persecuted the church

of God violently and tried to destroy it. He

was violent. He was destructive. Destructive

violence. And in Acts chapter 26, when he's recounting

Acts 26 · chapter mention

the story of his conversion, he says that he

was convinced that I ought to do many things

in opposition, in opposing the name of Jesus

of Nazareth. So you'll probably know that he

locked up saints, right? He says actually he

cast his vote that some of the early Christians

would die. He's actually in the story right there

with the stoning of Stephen in Acts chapter seven.

And yet, this person encounters Jesus. This one

who violently is trying to destroy others in

his zealous religiosity encounters Christ. He's

on the way to to get Christians all the way up

town. He says, in raging fury against them, I

persecuted them even to foreign cities. That's

what he talks about in Acts chapter 26. So he's

Acts 26 · chapter mention

on the way to Damascus and there he meets Jesus

and there he is entirely, entirely changed. Oddly

enough, in all the accounts actually, he recounts

how Jesus says, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting

me? that his sin was actually in the front to

Christ. That his work against Christians was

a work against Jesus. But right then and there

he meets Jesus. He's full of grace and compassion

as he always is. And to this man who had rejected

Christ and who had persecuted his people, he

gives a new name. He gives a new heart. He gives

a new life. And he gives a new mission. And it

is like this. A light switch goes off. goes on

and it is a changed, dramatically changed life.

No wonder it's told again and again. Well, okay,

so we have this story in Mark chapter five of

this demon possessed man. And I said right at

the beginning that it's put right alongside,

every time it's told, it's put right alongside

Jesus calming the storm. Even some of the language

is familiar as I mentioned. But here's this idea

that Jesus has power over all things, that he's

Lord of all, that the God who made creation also

is the God who is actually intent on recreating

not just creation largely, but the particularities

of individuals. And here's where I want us to

go this morning. I want us to see how this story

is actually in many ways a paradigm for Christian

conversion. In this little story, we see what

God does for us. in Christ. The power of Christ,

not just over the storms of creation, but over

the souls of humankind. So first, okay, I want

us to see the power of sin and Satan. Okay, first

I want to see the power of sin and Satan. Because

in a very real sense, this man was who you and

I were before you knew Jesus. Or, and this may

sound really harsh if you don't know Jesus yet,

this man is actually a picture of who you are

without Christ. Now, I'm aware that the Bible

doesn't actually pull back for us the curtain

behind the physical. There's actually not a ton

of stories of... demon possession in the Bible.

You know, you kind of have two sort of trenches

when you talk about demon possession. You have

some people, they're like, it's all over the

place. And some people are like, no, no, no,

don't talk about it. And there's this kind of,

you know, we kind of have to deal with it, even

though it's not kind of all over. It's actually

kind of interesting that even though the gospel

seemed to treat it as absolutely real, it's not

something you see all the time. But when you

do see it, like in this instance, I think it's

actually very instructive for us to kind of sit

with it and say, why is this being told to us

right now? One of the things that the Bible makes

pretty clear is that outside of the work of Jesus,

we're all this man, okay? We're under the power

of sin and Satan. And I want you to hear me out

because I bet there are some of you who may be

checking out church this morning. You're not

even sure what you think about the whole spiritual

realm, and you're here and you're like, whoa,

I came when they're talking about demon possession.

This feels a little, I don't know, this may be

a little extreme here. I wanna speak to that

a little bit. But I think there's a lot of you

here also who are just regular church attenders

and you actually wanna hear God's word and you

wanna receive it. But you also might think it's

a bit much for Peter, for this guy up here, the

pastor, to say, hey, you are like this man outside

of Christ. The power of sin and Satan is what

is actually controlling and destructive. Is that

a bit much, Peter? Tone it down a little bit.

So I wanna first address you churchy folk, okay?

I know who you are, you know who you are. The

regular folk. So later on in the gospel of Matthew,

in Mark chapter eight, the disciple Peter rebukes

Jesus. Here's what happened. Jesus says, he must

die and in three days he's gonna rise from the

grave. He must suffer and die is actually what

he says. He says he must suffer and die on the

third day, rise from the dead. And it's actually

really interesting. It doesn't just say Peter

rebukes him, but it says that Peter took him

aside. Imagine that, he's like, Jesus, I gotta

talk to you about that. You know, he takes Jesus'

side and he starts rebuking him. What are you

doing talking about suffering? And what is Jesus'

response to Peter? Yeah, I heard some of y 'all

mumbling that. Get behind me, Satan. He names

Peter. With an actual name of Satan when he's

actually going against the reality of who God

is in Christ and what that means He says get

behind me Satan for you are not setting your

minds on the things of God but on the things

of man that when we set our things mind on things

of man, there's actually a way in which we can

be called Satan Hey a little strange maybe It's

as though Jesus is saying it's his way, Satan's

way or my way. This way or that way, those are

your options. Outside of the power of Christ,

you are under the power of sin and Satan. John

chapter eight, so another eight chapter, but

in the gospel of John, Jesus, this time he's

talking to religious leaders who he often keeps

his most intense words for. But these were the

people that knew God. Their job was to study

the Bible. Their job in some ways was to look

for the Messiah. They were the religious leaders

who were looked up to for their teaching and

all that. And Jesus tells them this in John chapter

eight verse 42. If God were your father, you

would love me for I came from God and I'm here.

I came not of my own accord, but he sent me.

He says, you can choose to receive me or two

verses later, verse 44, he says this. You are

of your father, the devil. That's what he says.

You're either in Christ or you are of the father,

the devil. What she says then, and your will

is to do your father's desires. What I'm saying

is that the Bible does teach us that outside

of the power of Christ, we are under the power

of sin and Satan. The other text I wanted to

mention was what we heard in Ephesians that Gordon

read for us. There we read this, you heard this.

You were dead in your trespasses and sins and

what you once walked, following the course of

this world, following the prince of the power

of the air. You are following the prince of the

power of the air. Outside of Christ, you're under

the power of sin and Satan. That's what the scriptures

tell us. Okay, so here's what we see, right?

When we look at this man who the disciples of

Jesus come across when they make their way across

the Sea of Galilee, we're invited not just to

look at his state under this destructive power

of this sort of demon that's called Legion, but

we're not just supposed to look at his state,

but what I'm saying is that there's actually

an invitation to look at our state. We kind of

look and we think, oh, this is an extreme situation,

but if you look at these other texts, the idea

is that if you are outside of Christ, you're

under the power of Satan like this man was. Your

inclination is towards sin. The Bible teaches

us that unless we are subject to Christ's rule,

that he is our Lord, then we are subject to the

rule of Satan. Father, the devil. Prince. of

the power of the air. But I know what you're

saying. You're like, Peter, this dude is like

running around. He can't keep chains bound. He's

hanging out in the cemetery up off of Her Street,

which I go to occasionally when I'm looking for

mushrooms, but not like this guy does. Gosh,

I just gave away one of my mushroom spots on

a sermon. But what you're saying is that we don't

see demon possession like this, if at all. What

are you talking about? Well, let me say this.

The devil's more clever than that. The devil

doesn't really want to advertise very much. Do

you know that? Not like, hey, listen to what

I'm doing all the time, you know? Many of you

have recently read C .S. Lewis's book, The Screwtape

Letters, and you read in that book actually the

power of keeping people under the idea of just

materialism. Don't let them see what you're doing.

Put on a disguise or you're more powerful that

way. And we know actually that the rejection

of the belief in the supernatural actually does

do great harm to the work of Christ and actually

does great gain to the work of Satan. Atheistic

communism in the 20th century alone killed over

a hundred million people. Rejection of God. Think

of how destructive our ideas are under sin. Think

of how destructive the idea is if you only live

in the here and now. You must take what you can,

when you can, however you can. Live for the present.

Just the material world is all that exists. How

destructive can that be? Some of you know who

Samuel Rutherford is, the great 17th century

Scottish pastor and theologian. He wrote this,

I love a rumbling and raging devil rather than

a subtle devil. And she says a subtle devil is

far more difficult to fight against, to see.

That's so often what we have. Okay. So my argument

for you church folk is just simply, hey, the

scriptures and Jesus himself seems to say unless

you under Christ, you were under the power of

sin and Satan. But I kind of want to, I want

to try to give an argument for you who are not

so sure about God or not so sure about Jesus.

And you're certainly not so sure about this whole

talk about sin and Satan and stuff like that.

You were just wondering about the reality, the

existence of the spiritual at all. So this stuff

is a bit far. Well, I mentioned that in John

John 8 · chapter mention

chapter 8, Satan is called the father of all

lies. Well, the Bible begins actually with this

story in the Garden of Eden with Adam and Eve.

And this is perfect reality that's taking place.

Perfect communion between Adam and Eve. Their

fellowship is perfect. Their openness. They're

not ashamed of themselves. And they walk with

God. And then Satan comes in and he tells them

lies. And they actually buy into that lie. lie

in that sin, actually that listening to Satan

creates an estrangement from one another. What

actually happens is immediately they begin to

hide from each other and they begin to hide from

God. And then actually as the story builds, what

happens is death and actually societal conflicts

and all these other kinds of conflicts that come

out of this idea that they're listening to the

voice of Satan. What I want to suggest to you

is actually that part of what's taking place

in this story by this man being possessed is

destruction. And there's actually, this is what

the Bible tells us is sin is always accompanied

by destruction because Satan actually always

desires destruction. You may not believe in him,

but I bet you actually might, you might buy the

idea that sin and destruction always go together.

So let's take a stereotypical sin. What are the

stereotypical sins? One of them is drunkenness,

right? That's one of them. You go to church and

you're like, what is the pastor gonna preach

against? Sleeping around, not tithing, drinking

too much. Those are probably the stereotypical

sins. Talk about one of them for a second. I

mean, Christians do think that actually the abuse

of alcohol and over drinking is a sin, so that's

true. And I think most people would say, yeah,

Christians probably think that. So what happens

when you drink too much? You get a headache.

You don't show up to work as well. That's destructive

for your work habits probably. Oftentimes it's

related actually to hiding. We know that's the

case. So it's often related to lying. It often,

often leads to relational harm to the breakup

of relationships. So it creates relational distance.

It harms our work life. It harms our physical

well -being. What I'm saying is that this sin

actually leads to destruction, just like what

we're seeing in the text that we have before

us with this man who's possessed. He's leading

a destructive life. One study that I saw found

that an increase in alcohol consumption tends

to lead to a 20 percent higher divorce rate.

And that did say an increase of a leader within

a certain amount of time. Okay, but what I'm

suggesting, you can at least, even if you don't

buy the idea that this man is actually a picture

for us outside of Christ, you can at least say

that if you're going down a way that Christians

would say is sinful, then you're leading to destruction.

Okay, that's kind of my basic argument there.

I don't know if that was, if y 'all could follow

that very well. What I'm suggesting is that what

the Bible says is that the power of Satan and

sin is a destructive power. It hurts, it harms

yourself and others. And I don't think you necessarily

even have to agree with the idea of Satan and

sin to maybe buy into that kind of idea, that

way of thinking. And we see this really clearly

in this passage. Jesus and his disciples, they

make their way, right? And they see this man,

he's living among the tombs, which would have

meant automatically for them that he was unclean.

So they're living in a, this is a Gentile area.

And actually the name Gerasim, that's more of

a Greek name than a Jewish name. And so he's

living a destructive life. He's actually been

estranged from a community on some level. We

see that he's tried to be bound. They've tried

to bind him, most likely because he's actually

been very violent. So this demon possession has

actually led to the destruction relationally.

and probably physically towards others. And then

finally actually read that it's actually leading

him towards self -destruction. One of the things

that we read is that he cuts himself with stones.

So the picture you're supposed to get is the

destructive reality of the possession, this demon

possession of this man. The fact that this man

is under the power of Satan. Okay. Further, when

the demons are sent into the pigs, what happens

is that this destructive pattern is actually

over, is sort of shouted towards us again. What

do they do? They then run and they actually are

drowned, which some commentators think that this

is actually part of the way that Jesus is actually

destroying them. He's saying you're actually

going to be destroyed even though you don't want

to be. I'll say this, I know that that doesn't

sit very well with us, the death of all these

pigs. but they were an unclean animal for a Jewish

audience, right? And we're gonna get around to

why I think that's actually a significant part

of this story, okay? Anyway, my point here is

that this text tells us that sin and Satan lead

towards destruction and that you are either under

the power of sin and Satan and therefore you

are actually bent towards destruction or you

are under the power of Christ. And then so the

second move actually is not just the power of

sin and Satan and destruction, but the power

of Christ who always leads towards healing and

being whole. So we have this man, this man who

is possessed by Legion, which by the way, Legion

was the largest grouping in the Roman army. It

was typically four to 5 ,000 men, but the point

is a lot. And he's just wrecking havoc, right?

Breaking chains, living among the tombs, cutting

himself, living by himself, all this destruction.

And then almost, it's not a passing comment,

but it seems so simple. They find this man clothed

and in his right mind. Here's the man clothed

and in his right mind. What the Greek says, the

word there is SOFRONUNTE. This was a common idea

in ancient philosophy that related much more

than just right thinking. It's not just that

he had his right mind, but that his body was

actually working properly. He was working properly

relationally. That his whole being actually was

as it was meant to be. Being is controlled by

the relation of the parts to one another. and

all the parts were working together for the man

now. He was whole. He was healed. It wasn't just

correct thinking, but correct doing and thinking

and emoting and living with others and all of

it. One thing that I read said that it's difficult

to define the word soffroneo, which is the Lima

of this word, soffroneo, because it's not just

concerned with knowledge. By the way, that's

like the word sophistry, you know, the sophrine

-o. It's not just concerned with knowledge itself,

but with the knowledge of knowledge. It's just

this all -encompassing dynamic of whole and healthy

and right and full living, wise living, wisdom.

This is the power of Christ. Here's this man,

destructive in every aspect, clothed. seated,

full, healed. Can you imagine how dramatic that

must have been? The people come upon him, the

herdsmen, the herdsmen of the pigs, right? It

says they actually go to the city's end of the

countryside. They're just telling everybody they

can't, this man destroyed my pigs and then they

all come and they see him and they go, oh, changed.

This is the guy that lived up by the tombs. This

is the guy that would cut himself I saw his arms

just torn up with blood This is the guy that

we tried to bind and he kept breaking the chains

and he is seated there whole and in his right

mind That's when it says actually they were afraid

just like the disciples on the Sea of Galilee

he speaks in the work and the waves calm and

Jesus speaks in this man healed. It was then

that they saw the great change that had come

over this man that they were so afraid. Christ

and his power over the waves and the wind and

he uses the same power to convert, to change,

to radically alter this man's entire life. Friends,

I'm just saying this is the power, this is the

story of conversion. This is the God who saves.

This is the power of Christ to change. And this

is your story if you are in Christ. I mean, Paul

will say, you're a new creation. The old is gone.

The news come. You were an old man. That old

way of being is entirely in the past. You have

new life. This is salvation. Once far off, once

enemies, brought near, friends. Once following

the prince of the power of the air, the spirit

at work and the sons of disobedience. But now,

by grace, we've been saved. This here, just this

little picture. is your story if you are in Christ.

New life. Good news of Christ for you. Jesus

brings those who were once given over to death

into destruction, into darkness, into his marvelous

light. This is the power of Christ. The truth

is that this story of conversion has happened

again and again and again and again throughout

the centuries. Think of Zacchaeus, that wee little

man. Let's see, he was the tax collector and

he was taking far more than he should have. In

fact, he says, I'm gonna repay fourfold because

I took so much, but I can do that. Changed, given

over to following Jesus, his destructive selfishness,

his greed. Now given over to following Christ.

His life was turned upside down for good, coming

incredibly generous. It's the story of the Philippian

jailer right there, right there in the jail,

giving his life to following Christ. Think of

Lydia also in Philippi. We don't know exactly

if she was living out of Griebus. She had built

this great purple empire. And now she's the one

who's welcoming the early church into her house.

And this wonderful woman given over to following

Jesus. This is the story of St. Augustine. Some

of you know his famous conversion. This is the

story of C .S. Lewis and Martin Luther and Martin

Lloyd Jones. This is the story of God's work

in the world, life of an individual, his power,

just as his power was over the wind and the waves,

the power over the human soul. to change. The

story of John Bunyan, John Wesley. Some of you

know the story of Etta Lineman. She studied under

Boltmann and for years was a teacher of theology

in German universities. Specifically, she was

a skeptic. She didn't believe it. She was very

open about not believing it. She was open about

it all being a big farce, even though she taught

the Bible and theology. God changed her. She

says this, and it's exactly what the man among

the tombs could have said. God immediately took

my life into his saving grasp and began to transform

it radically. My destructive addictions were

replaced by a hunger and a thirst for the word

and for fellowship with Christians. God has done

that time and time and time again. I hope he's

done it in your life. I hope you can say the

same thing. This was in the past. Now he has

given me a hunger and a thirst to be with him,

to be with fellow Christians, because this is

the story of conversion, the work of God saving

us out of our destruction into his saving life.

Now, here's what happens in Mark quite a bit

because Mark is the gospel that is most intent

on discipleship. Maybe you've caught this, I

think I've said this a couple of times this spring.

But one of the things that happens in Mark is

that he often leaves us with options. Jesus does

this quite a bit in the other gospels too, but

he does this most often in Mark. And the question

is, well, what do you do with it, church? Who

are you? Where are you? So here's the first big

option that Mark leaves us with in this text,

reject him. Because the truth of the matter is,

right, the gospel actually is deeply offensive.

The message of Jesus actually is very offensive.

The message of Jesus says, you don't have anything

in and of yourself that can earn your way to

God. In fact, you're controlled by the prince

of the power of the air. You're just like this

man who's bent towards destruction. So many people

don't want to hear that. Think about this, okay?

These herdsmen and the people that had gathered

around Jesus and this man sitting in his right

mind, what do they do? They beg Jesus to depart.

They don't want to come face to face with God

and Christ. They really actually, and this is

probably really what's going on with the pig

narrative, they don't want to have to come face

to face with what it will demand of their life.

It's actually gonna change how they live They

won't just be living for economic gain and how

many pigs they can own All the rest they actually

have to give all of their life over to Jesus

Well a whole lot of people maybe you're one of

them you hear this and you say want that I'll

take the here and now. Thank you very much Too

offensive cost too much No, thanks. That's the

first big option. Reject Jesus. Reject it. But

the second option is actually the one that's

given the most attention here. And the second

option is actually to be changed by Christ. And

there's three ways that we see this change. I've

already alluded to them a little bit. Simply

you have a changed life. Meaning the pattern,

your way of being in the world, the things that

you do are different. This man is seated, not

thrashing about, he's not breaking chains, he's

actually changed. Like his way of being in the

world, his way he even acts with his body is

different. He is seated and he is with Jesus

and he is clothed, not naked any longer, and

he's in his right mind. Would you say he has

had a dramatically changed life? The old is old.

He is put on the new. He's no longer wrecking

havoc, thrashing about, hurting others. He's

not hurting himself. Interestingly, it says at

the end that he goes back to the towns of the

Decapolis, the very towns likely that rejected

him and bound him with the good news. He's a

changed life. The other thing I want to say is

that he has a changed heart. He desires to be

with Jesus. This is the language of the heart.

He actually wants to be with his Lord. Verse

18 says this, and he was getting, as he was getting

into the boat, as he, Jesus was getting into

the boat, the man who had been possessed with

demons begged him. That same word that, you know,

others begged him to leave. He says, I want to

be with you. Begged him to be with him, to be

with him. This man desires the Lord. You've changed

life, you've changed heart. And then you have

changed words. Jesus tells him, go home to your

friends and tell them how much the Lord has done

for you and how he has had mercy on you. And

immediately it says, he went away, he was obedient

and began to proclaim. In the Decapolis, which

is the very towns that probably bound him, like

I said. How much Jesus had done for him. It changed

words. And this is always what happens. This

is what happens when you come to Jesus. You can

either reject him or you can be changed by him.

And it will always change your life. It will

change your desire. You will long to be with

Jesus. And it will change your words. You will

not but be able to speak of him. Maybe some of

you saw this but Larry Sanger who was the inventor

of Wikipedia and For years wanted nothing to

do with Jesus In fact, he did his PhD in philosophy

and he said he ran in he ran in circles in the

atheistic circles of people that wanted nothing

to do with Jesus And yet on April 5th of this

year, he wrote out his testimony. He says this,

he says, it's finally time for me to confess

and explain fully and plainly that I am a Christian.

Actually, if you read it, he says, some of you

are gonna be really surprised by this. But it's

the same thing that Paul did. Let me tell you

all that the Lord has done for me. It's the same

thing this man did. It's the same thing that

Edda Lineman did, the same thing that St. Augustine

did and John Bunyan did. Friends, here is conversion.

Here's a new life. This life is offered to you

in Christ. It is. Part of what's happening here.

You come under the power of Christ, be changed.

Changed life and a changed heart, changed words.

There's the power of God on display, over the

winds and the waves, but also over Satan and

sin. And it is on offer to you. Will you come

to him? Will you be healed? Will you hear him

say, as Saul did so long ago on the road to Damascus,

turn? Why are you persecuting me? Come. See.

Have new life. Does Mark so often does he lays

these options before you and what will it be?

Lord We thank you for the dramatic change that

you gave this man and we thank you Lord that

you have done this in us God I pray that we would

be those who can see what you have done in us

and that will Gladly speak of it Lord. I pray

that we right now in this room would assess Can

we even say what you've done in our lives? Can

we say what is different about us because we

worship Jesus, we're part of his people? And

Lord, if we cannot, God, would you do a great

work in our lives, even right this instant? Would

you do the dramatic work that you did in this

man's life, saving him from his destructive ways?

God, and bring us to new life in Christ. Lord,

some of us, we've given our lives to you and

we can speak of that, but Lord, there are other

areas of our life that we need you to work dramatically

in. God, touch those areas now. And then Lord,

would you also give us opportunities to speak

maybe to one another, even today, of how you're

changing us, how you're shaping us, how you're

making us part of the new creation. Harkening

back to the day before the evil lies of Satan

were bought, lived into. God change us, please.

Convert us anew. For our prayers, Lord. Amen.

Thank you for listening to Second City Sermons

podcast. We hope this sermon has encouraged you

to worship God and to celebrate the gospel of

Jesus. Please consider subscribing to this podcast

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again for listening. God bless