The Gospel Of Mark - God Uses Ordinary People

So we are opening a new series this morning in the book of Mark.

And so I guess they said who should start the book of Mark?

I don't know what they did.

I don't know how they make these decisions.

I'm not usually there.

No.

So yeah.

So, um, the gospel of Mark, we're gonna go through the entire gospel of Mark this year and it's gonna be really good.

So we're gonna start right now in, uh, chapter one verse one.

Since that the, that's the first verse.

We're gonna start there.

So if you read along with me, the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the son of God, as it is written in Isaiah the prophet, behold, I send my messenger before your face who will prepare your way.

The voice of one crying in the wilderness, prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.

John appeared baptizing in the wilderness and proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.

And all of the country of Judea and all Jerusalem were going out to him and were being baptized by him in the river.

Jordan confessing their sins.

Now, John was clothed with camel's hair and wore a leather belt around his waist and ate locusts and wild honey.

And he preached saying after me comes he who is mightier than I, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie.

I have baptized you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.

In those days, Jesus came from Nazareth to gal of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan.

And when he came up out of the water, immediately he saw the heavens being torn open and the spirit descending on him like a dove.

And the voice came from heaven, you are my beloved son with you, I am well pleased.

And the spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness and he was in the wilderness 40 days being tempted by Satan.

And he was with the wild animals and the angels were ministering to him.

Now, after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God, saying, the time is fulfilled, the kingdom of God is at hand.

Repent and believe the gospel passing alongside the sea of Galilee.

He saw Simon and Andrew, the brother of Simon, casting a na into the sea for they were fishermen.

And Jesus said to them, follow me.

I will make you become fishers of men.

And immediately they left their nets and they followed him.

And going on a little farther, he saw James, the son of Zebedee and John, his brother, who were in their boat, mending the nets.

And immediately he called to them and they left their father's eeb in the boat with the hired servants and followed him.

Father, we're grateful to you for your word this morning.

And we understand that your word is alive and powerful and it's sharper than a two edge sword.

And it goes down into our souls and our spirits and it reveals our hearts and it does always what you send it forth to do.

So, Lord, we're asking you that you would help us this morning to hear what you want us to hear, God, you know, each of us and everything that's going through going on in our lives.

And you, you know where we are and what we need.

And so God, speak to us by your spirit, we pray in Jesus name, amen.

Amen.

Gospel of Mark.

Why would we study a gospel?

What's so important about a gospel?

Well, I'm glad you asked that question.

So if you'll just slip your shoes off right now and then put on your sandals and go back with me about 2000 years into first century Palestine.

We'll see why we need a gospel.

Okay?

So here you are in Palestine in the first century and you're living under the oppressive rule of a foreign country and you're in an uncertain place, uncertain day to day you'll know what's going on.

Always.

It's like things are strange cuz things are always kind of stirring and unstable there.

And your village might have been stirred up by a brief message that someone brought through about Jesus' life.

Maybe you heard a preacher, maybe it was one of the apostles, maybe it was even Paul or Peter himself that came and told you about Jesus and told you about his death for your sins.

And now God raised him from the dead and maybe your heart is really hungry and you'd love to know more, but you don't know more.

Well, the gospels are the more, yeah, the gospels give you that beyond the message that you heard.

And they show you the life and the teachings of Jesus.

See, from Jesus' death, maybe 30 or so ad to 60 ad you had living witnesses that were actually there, many eyewitnesses or people who knew eyewitnesses of Jesus and his works, and they were telling it orally.

So the gospel was communicated person to person orally.

But when it got to about the year 60 or beyond, you know, people started dying off who knew Jesus.

And so now a written testimony is needed, more permanent record is written and that's why the gospels are written.

So the gospels are a collection of the teachings of Jesus and the works of Jesus, but they're much more than that.

They're also prophecies that have been heard for ages that have been fulfilled and prophecies that are declared that are going to be fulfilled in the future.

So it's really fascinating to read through the gospels.

There's four of them because even though they're saying the same things, they're speaking to different audiences.

And so we get a really large picture of who Jesus is in the gospels, but we're studying the, the gospel of Mark.

And so, uh, what do we know about the gospel of Mark?

Well, we know the writer.

His name was Mark.

It's pretty actually.

His name was John Mark in some places, uh, it calls him John Mark.

And although he doesn't come right out to say this is, he was the one who wrote it.

It is unanimously test unanim.

It's the unanimous testimony of early church history that it was Mark who wrote this.

And he probably wrote it because he was a companion of Peter's.

And he, it was mostly Peter's teaching that's been shaped and arranged by Mark.

It's probably the first one that was written.

But it's an urgent gospel.

It is fast.

I don't know if you noticed it, but there's no ge gene genealogy here.

You know, in the book of Matthew, in the book of Louv, you have really long genealogies like go, they go back generations and generations.

Well, mark does have a genealogy.

He has a really short one.

Jesus Christ, son of God,, that's bam, that's mark.

That is Mark.

Mark is like okay to the point.

I mean, this is it.

The word immediately appears 41 times in this book, in 16 chapters.

Immediately we, we read it four times in our little, did you notice that?

And immediately this happened and immediately this happened.

It's the action flick of the gospels.

Okay?

It's like the other gospels are like documentaries.

This one is like, well it's not a series of Instagram posts, but it's like, you know, it's like a bunch of vignettes.

It's like a, it's like the fast and furious of the gospels, right?

It's written to gentiles because there's very little reference to Jewish history.

There's no reference to Jewish law at all.

Uh, when he does mention something's Jewish, he's explaining it because the people he is writing to don't understand Jewish things.

So probably they say it was written to sol, to to Romans.

And so it was straight and clear and direct and simple and to the point, even a Roman soldier could understand it.

And I'm not saying anything about our military people here and your ability to understand things.

I'm just saying a Roman soldier could understand it, okay?

Even, even someone in a different culture could understand it.

So Mark is about action and it's about reaction.

It's about what Jesus did and what people did in response to it.

And so you also see this word astonished or amazed 20 times in the book, in 16 chapters.

And Jesus did this and the people were astonished, astonished at him.

There's so much to cover in this passage we read.

And about three weeks ago, I've already talked about the baptism and the temptation of Jesus, especially in a light of the fact that he was the beloved son of the Father.

And so if you wanna get, uh, the, that message, you can go back to that on the website.

But I wanna focus this morning on the fact that Mark is showing us Jesus launching his public ministry and calling others to be a part of that ministry.

Okay?

So he called him and we read later in chapter three, I think you see that he, it gives the full list of the, of the names of the disciples.

He called it, said that he called them to be with him and that they should go and preach.

And the order is very important.

Be with him first.

He's not really that interested in what you can do for him.

He's more interested in being with you.

He's more interested in relationship with you.

But outta that relationship, there will be a go in preaching that happens.

So from the very beginning, Jesus is not going to be doing this alone.

He's calling people, he's passing by and he's finding people and he's calling them.

And the odd thing is that in Mark's account, the disciples don't really re this account doesn't reflect well on the disciples, let's put it that way.

They're like, kind of like they lack faith.

They do awkward things.

It's like when you read them, it's like these guys, they were a piece of work, man.

and Jesus had to work and he had to be very patient with them.

They had very similar challenges in their faith and their actions and their reactions as we do very similar.

The extraordinary thing is that Jesus in inaugurating his kingdom on earth, calls and uses ordinary people.

God does extraordinary things through ordinary people.

God does extraordinary things through ordinary people.

Are there any ordinary people here this morning?

Some of you are not raising your hands.

.

Are there any ordinary people here this morning?

Okay, you're qualified.

Any extraordinary people here this morning?

I just wanna know my audience.

.

Okay?

I wanna make sure what direction this sermon needs to go.

Alright?

Okay.

Yeah.

And, okay, so we're all ordinary, we're all, we're all qualified, okay?

And I'm gonna do like a flyover of these men's lives this morning, okay?

Really quick look at, at their lives.

But I also want you to know that we could talk about the women who followed Jesus as well.

Amen.

That would be a great sermon as well.

But this passage just has these men that are listed.

And so we're gonna, we're gonna just talk about this, these guys here, okay?

So the first one is John the Baptist.

All right, John the Baptist is the first one is, and he's raised in an ordinary family.

Ordinary Jewish family, godly family.

But John is not like everybody else.

He is, uh, you know, growing up one of those kids that mm, he's just kind of different.

, I would say atypical, which means weird.

It's just a nicer way to say it.

He grew up though, and he became strong in spirit, but then he isolated himself.

He went away into the desert.

Unusual man dressed really funny, right?

Can God use a man who dresses funny, he, he ate, he ate a strange diet, right?

Thank God we're not eating that diet.

It's in the Bible, but you, but it's, you don't have to eat it.

Uh, but he was in the desert until the day of his showing to Israel.

It says.

And so when he was shown to Israel, he came for a purpose.

It was to make the way for the king.

Okay?

So if the president came to town, it wouldn't just be the president, it would be a whole entourage and it would be people going before him and they would be going to the places where he's gonna go and securing the place.

They would make a way for the president.

That's what John did for Jesus.

This strange man was Jesus's entourage going forward, right?

Super strong core values, zealous for holiness.

He is set apart for God and he thinks you should be two.

Yeah.

And he won't back down.

He won't be quiet, he won't change his mind.

He's rugged, he's uncompromising and he has an unpopular message kind of guy.

You're not always comfortable being around.

Anybody know something like that?

You don't have to name names here, okay?

He was a line drawer, right?

Draw the line.

This is black, white heaven, hell hot, cold in out, nothing in between, right?

This is the way it is with John burning convictions.

And Jesus said he was a burning and shining light.

He did no miracles, but he had a mouth and he used that mouth and he had a heart full of conviction.

Maybe you've never experienced miracles by your own hand, but you got a mouth on you.

Can God use you?

He drew lines, put away your sin do right things.

His baptism was a baptism of repentance.

That means I'm going this way and now I'm changing and I'm turning and I'm going this way.

That's repentance.

It was a line.

So his, his baptism was a, a line of demarcation.

It was, this is the line, people are changing, they're coming.

So John came, he testified, he baptized Jesus and then he stepped down from his ministry.

He gave his ministry away.

He literally like gave Jesus his email list.

I don't know what you do, what you did back then.

He like, and he said he saw him one day and said, this is the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world and he has to increase and I have to decrease.

You should follow him.

He gave his ministry away and then he was arrested and he was arrested because he had convictions.

And he was, he had convictions about a Roman leader hared.

And that, uh, backfired on him in one way.

He spent its time in prison and the days dragged on in prison, his faith began to be shaken.

And he went from behold the lamb of God to are you, are you the one or should we look for someone else?

You imagine that this strong, powerful man, this po this witness becomes a doubter.

The one who comes to make the way, the one who's so sure in porting people to Jesus now has doubts in his heart.

Can God use a man who has doubts in his heart?

Jesus gave him two messages.

Tell John the blind sea, the deaf here, the lame are walking and the poor get the, the gospel preached to them.

And second, blessed is the man who's not offended in what I do.

I mean, we all can, can get, um, sidetracked.

We all can doubt when things don't go the way we think they should go.

Right?

They should.

This is what I'm expecting.

But that's not what happened at all.

We all can have doubts when that happens, right?

What are you gonna do when you have those doubts though?

Are you gonna continue?

Are you gonna believe?

Are you gonna trust that there's a, a plan bigger than you can understand?

That's what John did.

So can God use an oddball, a fiery?

Yeah.

, all you oddballs on here, praise God.

A fiery revolutionary is straightforward forward communicator.

A a in yourface person.

Yeah, he can, but he has to break him.

He has to take him through a process.

He has to sub be submitted.

Interesting that he was filled with the Holy Spirit from his mother's womb too, right?

He has to be filled with the spirit.

He has to go through a process where he's willing to say, you have to increase, I have to decrease.

Can God use a person who has doubts?

Yes.

If he's willing to submit himself to the uncertainty to things going away that I'm not, I didn't think it was supposed to go.

If there's humility there, there's one that comes after me that's really before me, that humility.

So maybe you're not sure God can use your doubting heart or your strong personality, but he can.

Next one.

Simon Peter man, Simon Peter needs a whole sermon by himself because he, he did a lot of things that were really encouraging to us because they were really kind of the wrong thing at the wrong time, right?

He was a fisherman by trade, you know, along with Andrew, his brother.

And it's interesting that, that when he, they were called, they were doing what, what does it say?

They were casting nets, right?

And that what they were doing in the physical, when, when they, when Jesus called them, that's exactly the same thing that both of them, them were doing in the spiritual, in their calling, their, their actual, uh, ministry calling Peter was a net caster.

When he had a chance at the day of Pentecost, after the spirit filled him, he was casting a net.

Thousands got saved.

The next chapter, he's a man gets healed and he casts a net and he pulls in these fish and thousands saved.

And then in Cornelius's family, a gentile family, he's going there, he's casting a net.

He's always doing that.

Simon's son of Jonas, Jesus called him.

So he is named after Jonah, or his father was, he's the son of Jonah.

Do you think he got any jokes like big fish jokes when he was fishing?

, you think somebody like, he probably never, never heard the end of that, did he?

Jesus called him a rock and Jesus made him into a person that the early church depended on, constantly relied on, constantly return returned to.

But that wasn't an easy transformation.

It wasn't a straight line.

It was a circle.

It was an up and down thing.

Peter is called in the middle of, you know, a desperate situation with under Roman rule.

And Jesus calls him and, and then he's like, okay, he's, he's following Jesus.

He's casting out demons.

Things are going incredibly well.

And then suddenly he comes back and Jesus says, actually, it's not about casting out demons, it's not about the power that you have here.

It's really about your names written in heaven.

It's really about your relationship with me.

And so he had to adjust that.

And then he went back out and he's preaching, he's healing the sick and he's casting out demons again.

And one demonn can't, won't come out.

And he comes back and Jesus said, okay, I lesson number two, you have to sometimes pray and fast for these to come out.

There's another step here.

And he's learning.

And he is learning.

And he, one time, one day is called by Jesus to come out, get on the water.

He actually does it.

He actually has the audacity to get outta the water and walk on the water.

And then he takes his eyes off of Jesus and on the ways, and he is begins to sink.

He learns that lesson.

His life is full of ups and downs.

And then he goes to the mountain transfiguration and he sees things that the others didn't get to see.

Only those, those three inner circle guys got to see.

And so he's looking at the like the glory, the heavenly glory of Jesus on earth.

And he's like saying stuff that is just silly.

He just says silly things.

And the voice of God from heaven says, Peter, let me adjust you.

Okay?

He gets rebuked from heaven.

Have you, has anybody gotten rebuked from heaven?

Like I've actual voice from heaven.

Okay, all right, good.

It's wanna know my audience here, make sure, all right.

And then Jesus' ministry is gaining momentum.

But then Jesus speaks of his crucifixion and Peter says, no way Peter rebukes Jesus.

Jesus rebukes Peter triumphal injury.

Everything is great.

It's going just like it's planned.

Arrest, denial, denial, denial.

Can God use a person who talks a big talk?

But when it comes down to it is scared?

Yeah, he really can.

How about a person who thinks he knows it all?

.

Yeah, he can.

There's a process of humiliation though of humbling that God takes us through when he is emptied of his pride and he's filled with his Holy Spirit, then the day of Pentecost, when he's in a place where he felt like, I can't, everything is over and I'm just going fishing again.

And then God uses him again.

The day of Pentecost, this loudmouth guy who's always opening his mouth at the wrong time.

Now God says, okay loudmouth, I need you right now.

Step forward and just open your mouth.

Yeah, God can use that.

And then he goes on, there's powerful miracles.

He, he goes to jail, he gets broken outta jail by angels.

And then he has a sheet left down from heaven.

This vision, he's seeing visions and it shows him his prejudiced heart.

Can God use a person who's had a prejudice pass?

Yeah, maybe you're not sure God can use you because mistakes in your past haunt you.

You made decisions that weren't good or you've been prejudiced in the past.

God can do it.

And then you've got Andrew, Andrew, his brother, who was a disciple of John the Baptists.

You know, oh no, not another one of those guys.

But Andrew was not another one of those guys.

He was not like John at all.

And he wasn't like his brother Peter at all.

It, he really didn't seem to be a rash person or a person who's like against the world or he was actually nice.

He was a connector.

He actually was always meeting people and winning them over and taking them to Jesus.

It's like he was, Jesus took him from working with nets to being a networker.

He's said, bring these people to Jesus.

He brought his brother, Simon Peter to Jesus.

We found the man who's a messiah.

He brought the man, the boy who was uh, had the, the fish into Lowe's.

He's brought him to Jesus.

And then he and Philip brought all these God-fearing Gentiles to Jesus.

They wanted to see Jesus.

He's always bringing them to Jesus.

Always connected with people.

Maybe you're not sure God can use you because you're not a fiery prophet.

You're not a person who's out front and always loud spoken.

No, you're too nice.

God can use you too.

He will, he can use people like you to network and get people to Jesus.

Then there's James, James and you know, for an important biblical figure, we don't know much about James.

It doesn't say that much about James, but we know he was a brother of John, right?

We know he was part of the inner circle.

James and John and Peter got called away to take, uh, Jesus took them away into places and they saw things that others didn't see.

Um, but we do know some things if you read the scripture because he was a fisherman, but it wasn't just that he was, it was a family business, okay?

Successful family business.

It was his 70, it was James and John.

And we know it's successful because they had their own boat and also they had hired servants.

Okay?

So he had employees under him.

He was running a business.

So probably somewhat well off unlearned, probably not educated, not much school, but natural leadership skills had a good future.

But he saw Jesus as more important than that future.

And he left it.

And he also not only could run a business, he was a pillar in the church.

God took that natural ability and he made him a pillar in the church and used his management skills to help run and organize and lead the early church.

We know that from the book of Acts, he was also among the disciples who were lacking in faith.

He was imperfect.

How can God take, IM imperfect people and make them pillars of the church.

What's the difference?

Well, in one place it says they took note that they had been with Jesus.

That's the difference.

He had been with Jesus and Jesus changed him into a pillar of the church.

Maybe you're not sure God can use you cuz you don't have a great education.

You just got natural business skills.

You got, you got, um, you're, you, you're a craftsman, whatever it is.

But Jesus thought differently.

He called those kinds of people.

And if you surrender those skills to him, you don't know what he's gonna do through that.

And then there's John.

John, what was John doing when Jesus called him?

He wasn't casting a net.

What was he doing?

He was mending the nets.

He was always a net mender.

He was always fixing broken things.

The thing he was doing in the natural is what he also did in his ministry.

He, he was fixing broken doctrine.

He was fixing broken churches.

He was fixing relationships.

He's one of those persons who can see a problem and run into it, not run from it, but run into it because he thinks he can see a way to fix it.

He was a restorer.

Two warring parties or people who are thinking incorrectly bringing order back.

His, his first chapter of his gospel is directly addressing the heresy that was in the church.

He's bringing people back in line.

He's mending the nets so the nets can hold the fish.

But he wasn't always that way because originally he was a son of thunder with his, with his brother James, right?

They were the two that were like, we're gonna call down fire on the people.

Okay?

He's a fire caller How can God use a fire caller?

How?

And then he ends up being the disciple of love.

He ends up saying more about love in his letters than any of the other apostles said in theirs.

Let us love one another.

For love is from God.

How do you become a lover when you're a a fire caller?

, how do you do that?

Well, you experienced the love of Jesus.

He's also called the disciple that Jesus loved.

And we know that he was the ze disciple that laid hisself on Jesus' breast.

He was the closest one.

He was so secure in the love of Jesus for him that he could become a lover of people.

We love him because he first loved us.

John said he became a lover because he knew the lover.

Well, maybe you're not sure God can use your, your ability to be a peacemaker or turn you from a fighter into a lover.

But he can.

He can.

But I wanna end today looking at the life of John Mark, the one that's not really listed here, but who's doing the writing.

And the first mission we have of him is in connection with his mother, who was named Mary.

A lot of people named Mary at that time who had a house in Jerusalem that served as a meeting place for the believers.

So she owned a house so probably was well to do so.

He maybe was at from a well-to-do family.

He may have been the man who was mentioned who ran away from the scene when Jesus was arrested.

Some scholars and historians think he was the one.

You remember there was a man that was wearing only a linen garment when he left.

As he ran it, fell off of him and said that he ran away naked.

If that's true, then he's the kind of guy who would run away from a situation like that in fear.

But we also see him as Paul and Barnabas's helpers on their missionary journey.

So he left everything and followed them.

And were was going on this missionary journey with Paul and Barnabas and then he left them and deserted them and went back to Jerusalem.

We don't know why we have, we have no idea.

Traveling's tough.

Maybe it was just too hard.

Maybe it was more difficult than he thought.

Maybe there were conflicts.

Maybe the comforts of home we're calling him and he, he wanted to go back to that, that nice house in Jerusalem.

Too much on him physically too much on him spiritually or mentally.

He maybe something happened he didn't agree with.

We don't know for sure, but we just know that he left and Paul was so angry that he left.

You can't depend on this guy.

When Barnabas wanted to bring him on the second journey, Paul said, no way, I don't have time.

This is dead weight and there's no way we can't do this.

You know?

And so actually that, um, that became, uh, his refusal was like the thing that broke up their working relationship.

Paul and Barnabas separated.

Barnabas took Mark, Paul took Silas.

We never hear anything else in the book of Acts about Barnabas and Mark again, but they did go and do some work.

But we do hear something about Mark later on.

Something happened to John Mark and God wasn't finished with him yet.

And later in, in Paul's letter to the Colossians, he says about Mark, if he comes to you, welcome him.

And then in first, in second Timothy, in the last chapter we have of Paul's writings, we, we read this, get mark and bring him with you because he's helpful to me in the ministry there was a reconciliation.

Something happened to this fearful guy, the guy who made commitments and didn't keep him.

The quitter.

When things got tough, he couldn't handle it, couldn't pay the price.

But God wasn't finished with him yet.

So maybe you're not sure God can use you because you've allowed fear to lead you or to put your hand to the plow and then take your hand off the plow and turn back.

Can God use a fearful quitter?

Yes.

Well, he used him to write this book that we're reading this book we're gonna study for the next many weeks.

He used him to write an account of his son.

God trusted him.

Not only Paul trusted him.

In the end, God trusted him enough to write these words to us.

God uses ordinary people.

This is the gospel of Christ.

He takes broken things and he stoops down and he lifts us up.

That's the gospel.

And he trusts flawed men and women to bring a message about his son.

And after very difficult times, every one of these men could testify that God stoops down and lifted them up and they lived out the gospel message that they preached.

They lived it out in the pain and in the restoration of their lives.

And you have never gone too far.

You have never gone too far that the hand of the Lord can't reach you and pull you back and draw you near that you would be with him and then send you with a message to people who are around you.

God does extraordinary things through ordinary people.

But I kind of hear some of you say, and Mark, that's all fine, that's great, but you don't really understand.

I I could never be used by God.

I'm just too broken.

I've just had too many things happen to me.

Can I just tell you a story of a friend of mine who was in town this week?

Buddy Walker, he's a friend of, of many of us.

And buddy and I were talking about this story this week and he gave me permission to tell you this story cuz it's really powerful.

So buddy dedicated his life to God at a very early age.

He went as a, as a teenager to, uh, the mission field.

And uh, he was, he went on a, a short-term mission trip that ended up being six years long because God called him to stay and he couldn't.

He just, he wanted to stay there and he learned, uh, Spanish and he's, he's ministered in Latin American countries.

And you know, he had a ministry, uh, he pastor to church, he got married, they had several children and then there was an extremely painful event when his wife left him and committed adultery and just shattered the world.

He said, mark, I wasn't broken, I was shattered.

Shattered.

They tried, went to counseling, they tried to to work it out, what she wouldn't do.

And she continued and her own faithfulness.

And, and here's buddy left a minister divorced now cuz she left him shattered.

Felt like everything was over, no kind of ministry, my life, my family, my personal goals, everything shattered.

So he got on a plane and he was going to Colorado Springs to go to a, a retreat center for pastors and missionaries who are shattered.

And he sat next to that lady, you know, sometimes God sits, sits you next to people, right?

And he said she was a mouthy lady.

She just would not shut up.

She just kept talking and kept talking and pushing and asking questions.

Uh, what do you do?

I don't really wanna talk about anything right now.

What do I do?

I'm, I sit here and mourn.

I sit here and cry.

This is what I do.

I'm a pastor, why are you going to Colorado Springs?

So there's a retreat center for broken pastors,, why are you broken?

She wouldn't shut up.

Why are you broken?

?

And he ended up telling her the whole story, what happened to you?

This is what happened to me.

You know, before the end of the flight, the lady looked at him and he's feeling like he could never be used.

And she said, you know, I'm not a Christian, but if I ever became a Christian, I would want a pastor like you.

How does she say that?

Because Broken people can be trusted.

Sometimes broken means you're broken open and God can feel you and God can show himself to you.

And they're little small windows that people from the outside can see God through.

And you can draw people to this man of sorrows whose hands are outstretched to you.

And there's hope.

Broken people are safe places they can be.

So he got to Colorado Springs and he told his story and the counselor, he said, I'll never forget what the counselor said to me.

The counselor said, after hearing my story, you know what?

In our world when things get broken, we throw them away.

But in the kingdom of God, when things get broken, they become more valuable.

This is a biblical worldview.

God uses broken people.

What else has he gotta work with?

Right?

He uses ordinary people.

And that's every one of us.

Whatever, whatever it is in your mind that says, God can't use me, God's bigger than that.

He's way bigger than that.

All you have to do is open up and receive that.

And this is what we read, the very first words we read this morning, the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the son of God.

What Mark is writing here is the beginning, just like Paul said.

And when, or like Luke said, when he wrote acts, he said, um, I wrote to you before all the things that Jesus began to say and do, but now I'm telling you the things he's continuing to do through his church.

This is the beginning of the gospel, But we're still involved in it.

We are still broken, people restored, made whole that God wants to use to do miracles in the people around us.

So what's required of us?

Surrender.

That's all.

Just Surrender.

Give what you have to him.

That's it.

So I wanna pray and I want to end by singing psm maybe let's, we can stand together thinking what, what is the response to this?

I think there needs to be a response.

And I know, uh, I know what's going on in my life.

I don't know what's going on in your life, but the Lord does.

And he knows exactly what you need to hear, exactly how he wants to heal you and use you.

So let me, let me pray and then we'll sing together.

Father, oh, here we are just broken and ordinary people.

Some of us shattered, but we're filled with an extraordinary Holy Spirit and you called us to be your disciples, to be with you Lord.

And then also you stoop down and you lift us up and you restore us and you turn us to yourself and then you turn us to outward to continue your ministry through us.

Father, I ask you to help us to believe it.

Yes.

Now you use ordinary people, help us believe it God And give us faith and give us grace and empower us to walk in that Lord.

And I know really Lord, all you want is someone to be available.

And as you walked by, you passed by those disciples that day and you called them, Lord, I know you're passing by here this morning and you're calling us too.

And many of us have heard your call and responded, and maybe some of us have never responded this morning.

Lord, we're hearing your voice And We just wanna say, here we are, God, we surrender.

Jesus, let's sing.

Save your.

Maybe I can encourage you.

Just one more story about, uh, A few weeks ago, uh, I was looking through a tote at my house at some old journals I had.

Cause I've, I usually write in a journals, you know, through the year.

But I hadn't realized I had written journals back from the eighties and I first got saved.

I was, I was writing things and so I found something I didn't, I didn't even know I still had it.

I found an old, old journal when I first was say I was like 20 in my twenties, like early twenties, like around around 20 years old actually.

And I, I was reading my 20 year old self, okay, it is awesome.

It's humbling, it's beautiful and yeah, not so, but, uh, what was amazing, and I wanted to say this as an encouragement to you because what I was seeing was there was so many things that were in my 20 year old self and that my 20 year old self was dealing with that I am currently dealing with as well.

Because I had just, um, left a really, uh, good job.

Le following what I felt was the lead of this Holy Spirit to go back to school in a totally different career path.

Um, I had not met Melissa yet.

I didn't know if I would ever be married.

I was yielding that to God, purity and my mind and body were really important to me then.

And, um, I'm reading this 20 year old guy writing this stuff about, about all this and trusting God, and I'm just gonna have to trust God and I'm just gonna have to trust God.

And, and here am I almost 40 years later and I'm very much in the same place.

I don't know exactly what my future looks like, even in terms of where my income's gonna come.

I don't know if I'm ever gonna be married again.

Purity is important right now.

Holiness, pressing into God, all this like, God, I'm, I'm 20 years old again except I got one thing my 20 year old self didn't have.

And that's 40 years of experience knowing that if you will give Jesus your Future, He will do something far more than you ever imagined with it.

I got that right now.

My 20 year old self didn't know that you have no idea how good his plans are for you.

So now I have to wrap myself around those promises again, it's always a walk of faith, brothers and sisters.

It doesn't matter how old you get, it's always a walk of faith, right?

It's always stepping out and trusting him.

But sometimes you can trust a little easier because he's trustworthy.

He's proven himself trustworthy, right?

So I'm gonna encourage you, if you haven't given yourself to Jesus yet, if you're afraid or you don't know what your future is like if you're young and you don't know if trusting him is a good thing, if he's trustworthy, I'm just telling you he's trustworthy more than you know.

He's trustworthy.

And if you're in a place where you're broken and you feel like you're circling back around, I wanna encourage you.

He's trustworthy.

He's worth everything we can give him.

So I wanna pray a prayer over you that we're gonna have prayer team, I'll be down here as well praying for you.

Please don't go if you need prayer without receiving prayer.

But I want to pray this benediction over you from Hebrews chapter 13, cuz I thought this was appropriate this morning.

Hebrews 13 · chapter mention

Now, the God of peace that brought again from the dead, our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you perfect in every good work to do His will working in you.

That which is well pleasing in his sight through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever.

Amen.