Luke The Orderly Account of Truth - The Power of Jesus' Preaching - Luke 4:31-44

We have been in a series called Luke The Orderly Account of Truth. In

this series, we've been going through the gospel account of Luke. The purpose

of this gospel account that Luke wrote down is that he had carefully investigated the

life and ministry of the Lord Jesus, and he had written it down for

this man named Theophilis, so that he would have certainty concerning the things as

it regarded Jesus and his faith. And by God's grace, we also get

to benefit from this account today and have our faith strengthened and have better certainty

about the things about who Jesus was and who Jesus is. As we are

just going to go verse by verse through the Gospel of Luke to learn about

Jesus. So what I'm going to do is I'm going to read today's text,

pray, and then we'll break it down. Verse five verse I'm good,

awesome if you would open with me to Luke chapter four. We're gonna

be looking at verses thirty one through forty four. And if you do not

have a bible, we have bibles in the back available for you. Please

go grab one. All right, you guys, ready to read it'll also

be here on the screen so you can follow along, says Then he went

down to Caprinaium, a town in Galilee, and on the Sabbath he taught

the people. They were amazed at his teaching because his words had authority.

In the synagogue there was a man possessed by a demon, an impure spirit.

He cried out at the top of his voice, go away, what

do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth, Have you come to destroy

us? I know who you are, the Holy One of God. Be

quiet, Jesus said, sternly, come out of him. Then the demon

threw the man down before them all and came out without injuring him. All

the people were amazed and said to each other, what words these are with

authority and power? He gives orders to impure spirits, and they come out,

and the news about him spread throughout the surrounding area. Jesus left the

synagogue and went to the home of Simon. Now, Simon's mother in law

was suffering from a high fever, and they asked Jesus to help her.

So he bent down over her and rebuked the fever, and it left her.

She got up at once and began to wait on them. At sunset,

the people brought to Jesus all who had various kinds of sickness, and

laying his hands on each one, he healed them. Moreover, demons came

out of many people, shouting, you are the son of God. But

he rebuked them and would not allow them to speak, because they knew he

was the Messiah. At daybreak, Jesus went out to a solitary place.

The people were looking for him, and when they came to where he was,

they tried to keep him from leaving them, but he said, I

must proclaim the good news of the Kingdom of God to the other towns,

also because that is why I was sent. And he kept on preaching in

the synagogues of Judea. Let's pray, Lord God. We asked that as

we've lifted up your name in song and in praise, as we've given you

glory for the great works that you've accomplished on our behalf, that those words

worked as a till in our hearts to prepare the soil of our hearts to

receive the word that you have, that we to receive it with joy,

and that it would plant deep roots into our lives and change them, or

God, that we would look more like you and we'd bear fruit because of

your word that has been spoken in the power that is behind that word.

So we thank you, Lord, We give you this time in all glory

in Jesus name. Everyone said, Amen, all right. Today's message is

titled the Power of Jesus's Preaching. The Power of Jesus's Preaching. Last week

we looked at Jesus. He's in this preach. He's kind of on this

like this preaching tour. He goes to Galilee. He starts going to the

different towns and preaching in their synagogues. And last week we saw Jesus go

to his own hometown of Nazareth. You guys, remember what we saw there.

He preached to his hometown and the response to the people is that they

hated it and they rejected him so much so to the point where they grabbed

Jesus and took him to the brow of a cliff to throw Jesus off the

cliff. But we saw them. Miraculously, Jesus had other plans. So

he gets away and he continues on his way, and this week we get

to see where he went next. After that, which is kind of cool.

Jesus didn't stop preaching and being like, all right, well, I

don't want that to happen again. That was kind of a mess. No,

He's like, all right, where next town? And so here we

see in Luke the uh Uh Luke chapter four, in the first two verses

we're gonna look at thirty one and thirty two, it says this, Then

he went down to Capernaum, a town in Galilee, and on the Sabbath

he taught the people. They were amazed at his teaching because his words had

authority. So Luke tells us that Jesus went down to Capernaum, another town

in the region of Galilee, and once again, on the sabbath, Jesus

went to the synagogue and taught the people there. Once again, we see

the same response that he's been getting from all the other places. As soon

as Jesus starts to preach and open his mouth, people are amazed. Maybe

they eventually go to reject him, look the town did beforehand. But in

other cases people are just blown away. They're like, these words are amazing.

But what's awesome here is we actually get to see what's so amazing about

his words why are these people so amazed? And it says because his words

had authority. Jesus's words had authority. Now, this week, I actually

had a really really tough time like trying to figure out how to get into

my message because I kept trying to just think of like other examples or illustrations

of people who spoke with authority, so and I kept coming up store but

I just couldn't think of it. So I turned to Google to see if

it can help me, And actually, something really funny happened because when you

type in people who spoke with authority, all the results are about Jesus.

I even made sure to log out because they're like, well, he's gonna

want the Jesus answer, you know, I made sure to log out instill

all of the results had to do with Jesus. Jesus really was the only

one to speak with authority in such a way that no one before him or

after and since have been able to top. And the thing that's cool is

that these people are getting a front row seat to this teaching. Another reason

that it would have been amazing to them is because the teaching that the Jewish

people were used to were from their their rabbis, maybe their scribes, which

are kind of the religious leaders, and the teaching consisted from the rabbis.

Usually how they're let me say this again, how the rabbis taught was basically

by quoting other rabbis so they would borrow authority. They'd be like, well,

I heard this other rabbi say about this, and I think what he

had to say is probably pretty accurate. Or I heard this other religious leader,

the scholar say this. When Jesus showed up, it was different.

Jesus like, let me tell you what I have to say about what God's

word says. It's very, very different. And even though we can think

of people who are in authority, maybe that's judges or police officers, maybe

government officials, religious leaders, teaches, bosses, maybe parents, what's interesting

is that when it comes to speaking with authority, the best that those people

have are borrowed authority. They are in something that has granted them that authority.

All the parents are like, oh what do you what are my children

hearing right now? What I'm saying is those people in those positions of authority

don't have authority within themselves. It's been given to them, which is exactly

what Scripture tells us in various places. We're gonna look at just a couple

quick places. Romans thirteen to one says this, let everyone be subject to

the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established.

The authorities that exist have been established by God. We're gonna explain this

in a second. We have some better understand understanding of this, because sometimes

we can hear versus like that and be like the Bible says that. Another

place that we see is Jesus when he's on trial before Pilot is having this

conversation with Pilot. It's actually kind of funny. John nineteen ten through eleven.

Do you refuse to speak to me? Pilot said, don't you realize

I have power either to free you or to crucify you. That word for

power is the word authority. It's the same Greek word, and if you're

reading the ESV will say authority. There that idea of power to authority go

hand in hand. He says, don't you realize I have the power or

the authority to free you or crucify you. He's saying that to Jesus,

and this is Jesus' response, Jesus answered, you would have no power over

me if it were not given to you from where above. Therefore, the

one who handed me over to you is guilty of a greater sin. Why

is this important to know? Why are we kind of setting up this idea

of authority, because ultimately we don't have any authority in and of ourselves.

If you're a parent, it's because God has given you that role and responsibility.

If you're a police officer, God has given the government authority to give

you authority, and so on. But what we're going to see today is

that Jesus truly has authority. He has ultimate authority. We all know people

who like to talk like they have authority, but maybe you don't actually have

the power or the authority to back that up. One of the best examples

I could think of is basically just the Internet. Anyone on the Internet.

Everyone talks so authoritative as soon as the topic comes in, Like I got

something to say about this, everyone should listen to me. But in real

life they wouldn't. They wouldn't be able to really back that up. I

call that keyboard confidence. But the next several verses, we're going to see

this authority in action, So we gotta pay close attention. You guys with

me, You're gonna We're gonna pay a close attention. Awesome. Let's look

at verses thirty three through thirty four, in Luke says, in the synagogue,

there was a man possessed by a demon, an impure spirit. He

cried out at the top of his voice, go away, or aha,

what do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to

destroy us? I know who you are, the Holy One of God.

So here Jesus is teaching in a synagogue, something kind of crazy happens.

There's this man whose demon possessed and cries out, go away, what do

you want to do with us? Have you come to destroy us? I

know who you are, the Holy One of God. And now there's a

weird sense in which this is incredible. He says, go away, what

do you want to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? I know who

you are. And last week, funny enough, Jesus was in Nazareth and

his own hometown didn't recognize him. His own hometown had no clue who he

was. But he goes to this different town. This demon stands up and

He's like, I know who you are. Have you come to destroy us?

Which is this fear filled question, have you come to destroy us?

Now? Today, we're not going into full depth on demons and demon possession.

We're gonna have many opportunities to do that later in Luke. But there

are a couple bullet points that I do want to speak about before we move

on from here. And I think that there are a couple notes or things

that are worthy to know, and that is it's a demon. What is

a demon? That is it's a fallen angel who rebelled with Satan against God.

And it's this demon who knows that his days are numbered. Scripture tells

us that when Jesus comes back at the final Judgment, they will be thrown

into an eternal fire that has been prepared for them. It's been prepared for

them because of their rebellion. So that's why this demons like, is it

time? Is it time? Yet? If you come to destroy us?

This demon knows who Jesus is. Scripture tells us that even when the demons

believe that God has won and shudder, I heard RC. Sproll put it

this way, that it's not that demons don't know the truth. It's that

demons do know the truth and hate it. And thirdly, this is scary

at all. There are some things to consider. First, it seems that

at the time of Jesus all the forces of hell were unleashed to try and

stop his mission. This observation is made because neither in the Old Testament or

later in the New Testament is there as much demon possession as there is when

Jesus's earthly mission or ministry was going on. Everywhere Jesus went there seemed to

be people who were demon possessed. That's not to say that it does not

still happen today. I just think that there's an aspect in which it is

less widespread. And I also personally believe that if someone is demon possessed possessed

that in a world of atheism, strategically speaking, the demon's not trying to

step out of the limelight. That kind of proves the opposite. I also

do think that when with the rise of paganism in our culture, that it

is potential that we will start to see a rise of these demons feeling a

little bit more confident to step out. But all this to say, I

want it to be clear that for believers, we have absolutely nothing to worry

about. Sometimes we can read these stories and not want to go to sleep

at night or sleep with all the lights on. We have absolutely nothing to

worry about, and that is because believers cannot be demon possessed. Yeah,

amen, right, thank God? Right, Like that's literally amen. There

is not one instance in scripture of a believer who has a demon that needs

to be cast out, not one. It is only unbelievers that we see

who are possessed. And this is a very important thing to note because there

are ministries out there that are so called deliverance ministries whose entire foundation is that

of casting demons out of believers. Once again, I want to make it

clear the believers. Believers can never be internally possessed, but there is a

real aspect in which you can be externally oppressed. Okay, it's a very

important distinction. You can be externally oppressed but not internally possessed. And the

reason being is because as a believer, you already have a spirit living in

you, right, and if you forgot, it's the spirit of the Living

God. And I can assure you that the Holy Spirit does not bunk with

demons. There's no way, As I said, this is not what today's

message is about. I just thought it'd be helpful to address a couple of

those things before we moved on. So there's this demon. He cries out.

We see Jesus' response here. It's hardcore. Jesus says this verses thirty

five through thirty seven. Be quiet, Jesus said, sternly, come out

of him. Then the demon threw the man down before them all and came

out without injuring him. All the people were amazed and said to each other,

what words these are? With authority and power? He gives orders to

impure spirits, and they come out, and the news about him spread throughout

the surrounding area. So this demon starts to make a scene in the synagogue.

Immediately Jesus commands the demon to be quiet and come out of the man.

And guess what happens. The demon obeys. It's not because the demon

wanted to, It's because the demon had to chills. He had to.

Everyone around them is blown away, which makes sense that people are amaze and

say to oneder the what words are these? With authority and power? He

gives orders to the impure spirits and they listen to him and come out.

It's incredible. All he has to do is give the word, and even

demons listen to him. It says, news spreads about Jesus, which that

just makes sense. First Jesus shows up, speaks with authority, and then

turns around and shows that authority by commanding an evil spirit. Now we're gonna

get to our next verses. Luke four thirty eight through thirty nine says Jesus

left the synagogue and went to the home of Simon. Now, Simon's mother

in law was suffering from a high fever, and they asked Jesus to help

her. So he bent over her and rebuked the fever and it left her.

She got up at once and began to wait on them. So Jesus

leaves the synagogue and heads over to Simon's home. And this is Simon.

This is Simon, Peter the apostle Peter that we're going to become very well

acquainted with. His name is Simon, who is later referred to as Peter.

And here Luke kind of gives us these fun facts. We're kind of

getting like a day in the life of Jesus, kind of what what does

his Saturday look like? What does his Sabbath look like? And it starts

off with him going to synagogue and teaching, and now afterward he heads to

Simon's house, which is most likely where they would have just had their post

synagogue meal, that that was one of the things that they would do,

they'd go and share a meal afterwards. Also, we find out here that

Peter was married because we're going to see reference to his mother in law,

so it says that Simon's mother in law was suffering from a fever. And

something that's also cool here is that, unlike the other gospels, Luke,

who is a doctor, makes a really cool distinction. He says it was

a high fever, and the other gospels it just says it was a fever.

Oh, she was sick with a fever. You're like, okay,

But here Luke is a doctor's like, it wasn't It wasn't something to shove

off. It was a high fever. And in those days that was a

big problem. And I don't know about you guys, but with me and

having children, I hate when my kids get fevers. It is the worst

thing. And one of the reasons is becase because I feel so powerless.

I can't do anything about it, and I wish at times that I could

just do what Jesus does. Here. He leans over her and rebukes the

fever. You guys know what happens. We just read it. The fever

listens and leaves her. It leaves her completely, So Jesus heals her immediately

and she is completely restored in an instant. Are you guys starting to see

the incredible nature of God's authority of Jesus's words. He can say something and

in an instant it happens. He can tell demons to leave and they flee.

He can tell sickness to go and it does. Jesus has authority over

all of it, and Jesus spoke with authority and actually had it. There

are people who can speak with authority and might have some power invested in them

to be able to do something about it and them themselves not get in trouble.

But here Jesus can walk up to a sickness and say get out of

the way, go and it listens. I also think what's really cool here

is that when the woman is healed, she gets them up immediately and starts

to serve Jesus. And for me, I think this is just like it's

like a little like a nugget of a picture of what happens when Jesus comes

into our lives as believers. Sometimes we go like, oh, man,

like I got healed, now I got to just kick it with Jesus.

And well, there's an aspect of that that's that's true. But here we

see Jesus transform her and heal so here radically from a high fever. If

you've ever been sick with a high fever, you know you're not You're not

trying to immediately get up and start doing anything doing things again. I'm not.

I'm gonna fall over even a couple days afterwards. But her life is

so radically transformed in this, in this healing that happens, that her only

reasonable response is to turn around and serve Jesus. Now, Lucas going to

give us a snapshot of what the rest of the day looks like after this

happened. It says in verses forty through forty one, at sunset, the

people brought to Jesus all who had various kinds of sickness, and laying his

hands on each one, he healed them. Moreover, demons came out of

many people shouting, you are the son of God, but he rebuked them.

It would not allow them to speak because they knew he was the Messiah.

So once these miracles of casting out the demon in the synagogue, healing

Simon's mother in law or by Jesus, news quickly spreads, and everyone,

reasonably so starts bringing all the sick, demon bessessed people that they know to

come see Jesus. Jesus lays his hands on them, and he heals them.

Jesus casts out demons and then commands the demons to be silent, says,

get and be quiet. Jesus, with his authority, can rebuke sickness

and evil spirits. That is authority, and that is power. And sometimes

we think we're like, well, I got authority. I can tell someone,

I can tell one coworker what to do with work. And here's Jesus

commanding impeer spirits and sickness. And something I wanted to know is that it

might seem odd that Jesus was telling the demons to be quiet about their confession

of who he was. I'm trying to process this. One of the ways

that I was thinking about this was that it seems that Jesus, in his

best judgment, got at best to not have the announcement of who he was

be out of the mouths of demons. The way I kind of thought about

this is that even if an evil spirit had only good things to say about

who you were, you're probably not putting them down as a reference on your

resume, right, demon one, I'm supposed to call him, you know

what I mean? Like that's that would look a little sketch. Something else

to note about these miracles is that when Jesus is performing these miracles of casting

out demons and healing people, it happens instantly. It happens instantly. This

is extremely extremely important theause, Like I said, there's a lot of ministries

out there that claim to have he or deliverance ministries, and I do believe

I need to hear me. I do believe that God still heals and delivers

people today. Praise God his own power, his own authority. But I

do have to say that we need to see when it comes to these ministries

or people who claim to have the same authority as Jesus, the same power

as Jesus. We need to look at the fruit. We need to look

at what they're doing. You're saying you're doing what Jesus doing. Let's see

it, because most of these people claim to do what Jesus did, but

it never looks like what Jesus did. It never looks like what Jesus did.

People post videos of them commanding a demon for twenty five minutes to come

out for it finally to listen to them, or they'll spend twenty five minutes

to a half hour commanding minor back pain to be gone. And that is

not what Jesus did. Hear me. Did Jesus heal those who were demon

possessed and maybe even some minor back pain? Of course he did, of

course he did. But he did it in an instant. He said go

and it listened. And if you look at the people that Jesus gave the

authority to to do that, that's what happened. It was gone. People's

shadows were healing people. They weren't even trying at that point. They're just

like, let me just get to the shaddle, and people were getting healed.

I say this because, like I said earlier, there's a lot of

people who talk like they have authority but don't have the real authority to back

it up. And we as believers, this isn't just a pastor's job,

but as believers, it's our job to be diligent and discerning so that we're

not duped into following a fake authority. Does that make sense. Now,

we're going to get to our last couple of verses, and I need the

band to come up. We're looking at verses forty two through forty four.

Says this. At daybreak, Jesus went out to a solitary place. The

people were looking for him, and when they came to where he was,

they tried to keep him from leaving them, but he said, I must

proclaim the good news of the Kingdom of God to the other towns, also

because that is why I was sent, And he kept on preaching the synagogues

of Judea. So, after a long day of healing people casting out demons,

it seems that either all of that events went far into the night until

daytime broke or Jesus eventually was able to break away go get some rest.

And here we're seeing that early in the morning, Jesus breaks off to a

solitary place, and we know because of the Gospel of Mark that he broke

off to go pray. So he breaks off, he goes and prays.

Everyone else wakes up and they're like, where's the guy, where's the guy

who's healing people. Eventually they find Jesus and then they do something. It's

only reasonable. They're like, can you not ever leave? Because I might

get sick next week, my brother might break his arm. It would be

really great to keep you around. But Jesus had a bigger plan, a

plan that wasn't just his. Jesus tells the people that he must preach the

good news of the Kingdom of God to other towns also, and that the

reason he needs to do so is because that's why he was sent. He

was sent, that is God, the Son, the God Man, Jesus

Christ, who had all authority, is doing the will of the Father and

was submitting himself to God the Father's authority. Jesus was sent to proclaim the

good news of the Kingdom of God. And as we're gonna see later in

the series, we're gonna get to learn all about the Kingdom of God that

is being proclaimed and all the different parables and examples that Jesus gives but in

short, it was that God's kingdom was coming and that the king had arrived.

The end of this verse here says Jesus. Then just when did that?

Said? I got a job to do, so I'm going to do

that job. And he went around continuing to preach in the synagogue of Judea,

and Judea being more of the reference to the broader area of just everywhere

else that that Israel was at. So today we have seen that Jesus spoke

with authority and actually had the power to put that authority into action. He

taught in the synagogue, he cast out demons, he healed the sick,

and ended with him continuing on with him with his ministry of preaching. It

started with preaching and it's ended with preaching. And this is something that's very

important for us to notice. Jesus's ministry was not that of sharing the good

news that he can cast out demons. It wasn't the good news of him

being able to heal sick. Jesus makes it very clear what his mission was.

So I think a fair question is like, so what about these miracles

then, because they happen, what do we make of these amazing miracles?

That Jesus performed if his main point was to preach the good news. Well,

Jesus actually tells us the purpose and the purpose of these miracles. In

Luke eleven twenty, which we'll get to eventually, there's this scene where he's

casting out demons and the religious leaders are like, you can only cast out

demons because you are following a demon. They thought they got him, and

Jesus saying, house divided against self can't stand. He goes to all this

stuff, but at the end he makes a point and he says this because

he's saying, that's ridiculous. I'm not casting out demons by the power of

the devil, he says, But if I drive out demons by the finger

of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you. Jesus says

that if he is driving out demons by the power of God, then that

is a testimony that God's kingdom has arrived, which is what Jesus is already

preaching. That's what he's proclaiming. He says, it's arrived, it's arrived,

and people be like, I don't know about that, and he's like,

well, it's arrived. It's happened it's arrived. I'm here. These

miracles ultimately are the fluorescent signs that are flashed the words the Kingdom has arrived.

And as amazing as these signs are, we are going to have issues

as believers. They have issues if they never look at what those signs are

pointing to. The signs are pointing to Jesus. That is the preacher king

who is here to proclaim that his kingdom has come. And Jesus warns us

of miss missing this. Actually, in Matthew seven one through twenty three says

this. Not everyone who says to me, Lord Lord, will enter the

Kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does miracles. That's not what

that says. It says, but only the one who does the will of

my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day,

Lord Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your

name drive out demons, and in your name performed many miracles? Then I

will tell them plainly, I never knew you. Away from me, you

evildoers. Jesus says here, it's not the one who's caught up in doing

all the miracles who know him. That is not the sign that they know

him. But it's those who are doing the will of the Father that know

Jesus. Why because Jesus like, if you're gonna be about what I'm about,

why I'm about what he's about, They're gonna be about me, You're

gonna be about him. When Jesus tells us what that looks like. When

he brought the good news of the kingdom, he says this in Mark one

fifteen. It's a great summation. He says this. The time has come.

He said, the Kingdom of God has come near. Okay, So

what am I supposed to do about that? Says Repent and believe the good

news. Repent and believe the good news. Jesus' mission wasn't to show that

he could just do miracles. That wasn't the point, but that everyone should

repent of their sin and rebellion towards God and believe the good news that the

Kingdom of God had come in the Christ. And Jesus taught this with authority,

and then proved his authority by working these miracles. There were evidences,

there were signs, And if you don't know Christ personally, the message is

the same for you. The message from the one true authority, the author

of life himself, says, repent and believe. The good news, not

good news, is that Jesus Christ came and lived the perfect life that you

could not live, that you have not lived, that you will not live.

He died the death that you deserve to die for your sin, but

by God's power, was raised to new life after three days in the tomb,

and now is ascended in heaven and sits on the throne where he rules.

And our hope and our belief is and we know that He will come

again one day to judge the living and the dead at the time that has

been appointed. The message is repent of your rebellion towards his authority. Listen

to his words, submit yourself to him, and believe on Jesus Christ for

your salvation. And now, believers, if you've already submitted yourself to Jesus

and his authority, then I want to remind you of what that means.

I need that reminder to take a look at your life. What's the authority

that most rules you, What's the authority that you listen to, What's the

authority that drives you, what's the authority that you submit yourself to what has

authority over you? You may say Christ is your authority, but do you

act like it? Do you live like it? Because when Christ spoke,

fevers and demons obeyed. When Christ speaks to us, do you we call

him Lord? Lord? Do we say that God is our authority? And

then not live like it? And this is what James actually has to say

about this. James two fourteen through nineteen says this, what good is it?

My brothers and sisters? If someone claims to have faith but has no

deeds, can such faith save them? Suppose a brother or a sister is

without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to them, go

in peace, keep warm and well fed, but does nothing about their physical

needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself,

if it is not accompanied by action, is dead. But someone will

say you have faith five deeds. Show me your faith without deeds, and

I will show you my faith by my deeds. You believe that there is

one God good, Even the demons believe that. In shudder. The demons

know the truth, and they shudder because of it. They know they're in

trouble. They don't have any hope, they don't have any salvation. They

know that they're just instruction is coming. So when they're reminded of that truth,

they shudder. That's a proper response. But for us as believers,

when our Lord speaks, what is our response? Jesus spoke in his life

lined up with what he said, and we as believers need to consider the

areas of our life that we have not yielded to the authority of Christ yet.

And then once we've identified those areas, not just been like, well

that's good mental note to take, do something about it, submit them to

the Lord. And you say, okay, that's easy to say, well

what does that look like? Well, what does he have to say about

that area of your life? And are you doing it? And you don't

do this to be saved, But we do it just like the woman who

is healed and immediately goes like, I'm how can I serve you? God

radically changes our lives. We go how do I live for you? That

could be our time that we need to submit to Him that we like to

waste on our phones instead of in his word or in his presence with him.

It can be our finances and resources that we waste on things that will

perish, rather than on His purposes that will endure forever. It could be

our gifts that we keep to ourselves and don't use to serve God and bless

others, which is the reason He gave them to us in the first place.

If Jesus is our authority, it should be clear to everyone around us

who we serve, who governs and has the final word in your life.

And as God is revealing those areas of your life right now, be grateful.

It's a good thing. Sometimes you're gonna be like, well, that's

this is I don't not like how I'm feeling right now. But it's a

good thing. He's telling you the truth. He's revealing the areas in your

life that you have not yet submitted to Him. And we should praise him

for that, because we can repent of that sin and then ask Him for

the strength and joy to submit to him. Then we forget to do that.

Sometimes, Lord, help me obey you. Lord, help me obey

you with joy, so we can be submitted to His word and serve him.

Well. I think all in the hopes that we can rejoice with Paul

and say this in Romans sixteen seventeen or six seventeen. But thanks be to

God that though you used to be slaves to sin, you have come to

obey from your heart the pattern of teaching that has now claimed your allegiance.

Amen. Would you guys please stand to your feet,