The Gospel of Mark | Get To Work (April 22nd, 2018) - Mike Armstrong

Alright, awesome.

Well, hey, grab your Bibles, if you will, and uh we are in the Gospel of Mark, and so get it turned uh over there.

You see it all up on the screen.

We're gonna be like in Mark, kind of fish finishing out the first chapter there, starting uh in verse 14.

Now, do you think we're at the point yet as a country, uh as a people, where we can concede that spring is finally here?

It's like, yeah, exactly, like no, like nervous laughter.

We we just got so much scar tissue, right, about this.

And uh none of us are you know really excited and quite willing yet to bring that on.

Well, listen, um it's funny that I actually was literally gonna start the sermon this very way last week, and then ironically, the whole thing uh gets closed down because of freezing rain.

Uh kind of funny that way.

But listen, hey, with um with spring, uh springtime comes spring cleaning, doesn't it?

You know this around the house, and some of you are dreading this, and some of you though, you're kind of excited about it, don't you?

And you like to kind of get things ready and and you know kind of pull back the curtains for the first time in like eight or nine months and see some sunlight and and all of that.

And you know, maybe for you it's it's you know, cleaning out the garage.

I know that tends to be you know one of my big chores, and I actually I I like doing that.

I like pulling everything out of it and you know, kind of cleaning things up and putting away you know the shovels and getting the snow or the the uh the lawnmower ready and just sweeping everything out and putting it all back.

Maybe for you it's like a project in the backyard or you know, cleaning out your gutters.

We've got like pigeon problems around our house, and our gutters are full of terrible things uh that that pigeons leave there, and so I'm trying to figure out how do I do this?

And and so I mean, but it might be for you just like you know, deep clean around the house, inside the house.

It's carpet cleaning, it's you know, whatever that might be.

Well, listen, spring cleaning really just means getting yourself into that mindset, doesn't it?

Yeah, you know, you may not love it, but you kind of got I'm kind of the person I need to psych myself up.

You know, it's not exactly how I would love to spend my my Saturday usually, but I you know, sort of psych myself up, and then I kind of roll up my sleeves and it's about just kind of getting to work, right?

Like let's just get this done, let's get this over with here.

Okay, well, last time that we were together when we started out in in Mark chapter 1, verse 1, uh, we saw Jesus before he began his earthly ministry, didn't we?

Mark 1:1

Right?

Mark had given us a kind of a snapshot into his, first of all, his baptism, right?

Into his baptism, which which really served as sort of the passing of the torch, right, from John the Baptist and his ministry and all the prophecy uh of that uh to now now Jesus carrying the ball.

We saw, we saw, of course, you know, the Trinity in the baptism of Jesus.

We saw all three members of the Trinity present and their unity in that, in God's mission to save us.

And and then, of course, from there we saw Jesus, you know, and and how he goes, and he just he kind of has this showdown with Satan in the wilderness and just withstands everything that Satan throws at him.

Okay, now all of that, all of that served as the necessary preparation for Jesus to really get to work.

To really get some things done.

And uh that's what we're gonna see here uh this morning as we go through all of this.

Now, Jesus, his his earthly ministry as he begins this year, it wasn't at all characterized by some kind of like cavalier attitude, this, you know, I'm just I'm just kind of here to have a good time sort of, you know, mentality, or any laziness or uh aloofness.

It was none of that kind of approach, not at all.

Right?

He he came to get things done, didn't he?

He came to go after it.

He came to clean up the gutters, you know, so to speak, to take out the trash, you know.

He he came to take what had become worn out and broken and and and dirty and and turn those things, that's us, right, into something new and into something beautiful.

And so that's where we're going today as we look at these uh verses here, and and we're gonna really see that that Jesus got to work.

So, hey, are we too, right?

Are we are we on board with this?

Are we joining Jesus in the work that he uh is doing in our lives?

And so uh before we get to that, uh let's get let's pray, let's get our hearts uh ready for the Lord to move here.

Lord, we we praise you for your word.

We thank you for um how you came to rescue us, Lord.

We thank you for your pray, your your plan of redemption uh to save us from our brokenness, Lord.

We thank you that you got to work, and in that we see a model for us to follow for sure.

And so, God, help us as your church uh to continue to give over uh more and more of our of our hearts to you.

God, I pray that in the in the pride and in the fear sometimes and and in the selfishness, Lord, that that that gets us off track of where you would like us to be, Lord.

I pray that you would encourage us here today.

I pray that you would bring conviction and and and motivation to our hearts, Father, that we would see that that it is so, so worth it following you.

And so, God, help us, we pray.

We're needy.

We have outstretched hands, we are crying out to our Father here this morning.

So by your spirit, Lord, change us, make us new, glorify your name.

We pray this in your name.

Amen.

Amen.

So if you're uh you know a note taker or you like to follow along with these things, it's all on the screen, but you got notes there too.

It says this, okay.

First thing, Jesus got right to work.

He got right to work.

First of all, proclaiming the gospel with urgency, with urgency.

And then you see the question there for us have have I embraced this?

Right?

Have you, have we embraced this as an individual and as the church?

Now, take a look at this here in verse 14 as we begin there.

Follow along.

It says this, now after John was arrested, okay, this is John the Baptist, and we know that that Herod, uh, King Herod arrested him and ultimately uh had him beheaded as well.

But it says, after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee proclaiming the gospel of God.

All right, so picking up where John left off.

Okay, he that's that's what he was doing.

Now the gospel of God is what it says that he proclaimed.

Now, the gospel, of course, is it's a message.

Okay, it's a message, it means literally good news.

This is good news for a broken, lost, and dying world.

So he's proclaiming a message, but but listen, the gospel is also a person.

Okay, it's the person of Jesus Christ.

Jesus is the gospel.

So he is coming to proclaim himself.

Listen, I am here, I am God in the flesh.

I am coming for you.

Awesome.

Right, awesome stuff.

So it says, He came proclaiming the gospel of God.

Keep going, it says, and saying, the time is fulfilled.

If the gospel, or sorry, the kingdom of God is at hand.

Repent and believe in the gospel.

Now, as you read that, you kind of sense, you know, the urgency, right, in what Jesus' words uh are there.

Right?

He's like, listen, listen, the time has come.

Right, right.

Enough kind of waiting around, and you know, the time is upon us.

The prophecies about my arrival, they have been, they have been realized.

The kingdom is at hand.

It has come.

Again, it's come upon us.

It's, hey, listen, folks, it's time to get on board with this.

Okay, it's it's time to turn from sin.

It's time to repent of all of that foolishness and and and believe and understand that salvation is here, and then I'm it.

Right?

I am it.

And of course, he being that salvation is something that Jesus would kind of progressively reveal uh to people as time would go on.

Hey, listen, you can't you can't mistake the urgency here in his words.

All right.

Uh I mean it's he's on it.

And for me personally, I don't know about you, but for me personally, I find that so, you know, both kind of convicting and also motivating.

That's how I find it, because I'm the kind of person who uh I don't know how it comes across always, but I can be fairly laid back, right?

And and and I can, you know, um kind of understand that and tend to take the view, uh, the long view in life, you know, that God works according to his timing, and and that's sometimes and maybe even often not according to our timing.

We sort of want things now and yesterday, and the Lord takes you know more time to work things out in us, and you know, I tend to kind of understand that sanctification and our growth in life and all that's a lifelong process.

And it doesn't happen at the snap of our of our fingers, and you know, and we need to be patient with all of that, and and we need to be long-suffering through so many different things in life.

I kind of have this this view and this understanding in life.

I don't know about uh about you, um, but while all of that is is certainly true, okay, uh the the urgency with uh with which Christ got to work here in his ministry, right off uh right from the get-go here, um, is really uh I think a great and a stark reminder to us that uh that life is short.

Life is short.

Our life is but a mist or or a or a vapor as the scriptures are talking about.

Again, as we understand the long view, and many of us are thinking and planning towards the future and and it's retirement, and it's thinking, you know, providing for our children, and so that they might have, you know, we have an est egg and we're taking care of them and all that.

That stuff's not bad, okay?

But we have to also remember that the kingdom of God is at hand, right?

It's it's time to get going now.

And I sense like the Lord kind of lighting a fire, you know, under us here uh in all of this, okay?

We're not we're not guaranteed tomorrow.

I'm not trying to be morbid about any of that, but but that's just the reality.

For all of us here, eternity is just a breath away.

We don't know how much time we've got here.

And in the meantime, we've got a job to do.

Right?

We've got to go after this.

It's it's proclaimed the gospel with the same sense of urgency that Jesus himself models for us.

And so the question for us here is have I embraced the gospel message?

Have you embraced it?

Okay, and here's three things.

I mean, they're gonna be on the screen for us here, but have you embraced the gospel message?

First of all, not for myself, for yourself.

You know, and then the the the primary foundational question is, am I saved?

Have I embraced this this message of salvation?

Have I embraced the savior?

Have I recognized and understood that I've got sin in my life?

We all do.

And it's it's separating me from uh the God that loves me and created me.

All of my sin is abhorrent to God.

It's it ruins relationship.

The question is, am I saved?

Have I confess my sin?

Have I turned to my savior?

Have I realized and understood that when Jesus went to the cross, he wasn't just dying, he was dying for me, he was dying for you.

Have you embraced embraced Christ as Savior today?

I would encourage you to do that right now.

I would encourage you to do that this morning.

If you've got questions about that, don't put them off.

Talk to somebody.

Talk to the person that you came with today.

Talk to the person that invited you to church.

Ask them about this.

There's some urgency in this.

You are not promised tomorrow.

Salvation is important because eternity is real.

So if you embrace the gospel for yourself, secondly, have I embraced the gospel in its entirety.

In its entirety.

Now, it's very easy for us as people, but then again as as Christians as well, to have the pendulum sort of swing in kind of what we believe and what our focuses are on, and you know, our time and energy and all of that.

And I think some people and some churches and all of that, they're, you know, they focus on certain aspects of the gospel.

You know, they they might focus on the the God is love part, and it's all warm feelings, and it's all about how Jesus loves you, which is so true and so awesome and so great.

But sometimes it swings so far to the point that we we don't want to talk about the parts that make people feel uncomfortable.

We don't want to talk about hell.

We don't want to talk about sin and judgment and all of those things.

And so we try to just make it sort of this fluffy kind of story, but we're neglecting the whole reason Jesus came in the first place.

So that's one way the pendulum swings.

Other Christians, though, other churches, tend to swing the other way.

And it's all about damnation and condemnation, and it's hellfire and brimstone and repent, evildoer, and it's all of that.

It's like, hey, yo, yo, yo, don't you remember that God came to us because of uh this little thing called love?

Right?

And so we get it, we get harsh about it sometimes, and we get judgmental, and we forget the other side of the equation.

Listen, have you embraced the gospel in its entirety?

We're not like cranky, miserable Christians who think we've got it all together and everybody else, you know, and we're harsh and judgmental.

No, it's not about that.

But it's also not the other way.

Lovey dovey, hate talking about sin.

Okay, if you embrace the gospel in its entirety, not just the parts that make me feel good or are easier to stomach or or whatever.

How about this one?

Have I embraced the gospel message?

That is the mandate to share it.

The mandate to share it.

Are you bold in your evangelism?

Right?

One of the things I see so much more clearly the more that I read the New Testament, I read the book of Acts, it's just the boldness of the of the New Testament church.

So bold, going through so much persecution, beaten, thrown in prison, hated, reviled, killed.

And they're like, Lord, give us more boldness to do more.

To say it more boldly.

Give us more courage, Lord.

Do we pray like that?

Do we have that heart?

Are we going after that?

There's a mandate there.

Have you embraced that?

Are you praying for that?

Are you asking the Lord to give you courage?

And not shrink back when I'm at family get-togethers or where when I'm with my work friends, or or when I'm with my neighbors, or whatever it may be, but no boldness to speak graciously, but honestly, truthfully, again, boldly.

All right, Jesus got right to work, there's no question about that.

And here's the second thing calling followers and building leaders.

Okay, calling followers and building leaders.

And the question for us is am I actually discipling?

Are you doing that?

Are we doing that as a church?

Okay, one of the things that you certainly can't miss as you read through the gospels, and we're gonna see it right here, is just the you know, the astonishing authority of Jesus.

You noticed that before?

Take a look at it in verse 16.

Look at this.

He says, It says, passing alongside the Sea of Galilee, he saw, that's Jesus, he saw Simon and Andrew, the brother of Simon, casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen.

And Jesus said to them, Follow me, and I will make you become fishers of men.

And immediately they left their nets and followed him.

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

And immediately he called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired servants and followed him.

Jesus just went after it, didn't he?

He wasn't wasting any time here, and he got to work, putting together his team.

That's what he did off the hop here.

Okay, first of all, his call to these to these men was follow me, right?

Follow me, rabbi, I am a rabbi, follow me as as my followers.

Now, again, there was there was obviously uh you know a certain force of authority uh that Jesus possessed, wasn't there?

You know, that just caused these men to just drop everything, literally, just drop everything and say, all right, we're done with this, we're just gonna go follow this guy now.

Right?

Like you know that like people don't just do that.

Right?

Picture yourself, right?

You're like what you know walking into your, you know, in your work or whatever, or you know, or at the office, and some guy just kind of walks in and you've never seen him before, you've never met him, and the guy's like, hey, follow me.

Yeah, like exactly.

Right?

You're gonna laugh.

You're gonna be like, no.

Like, let's get security in here.

Or pretty amazing to just kind of try and imagine what that situation would have been like for Jesus or and for for these men.

Right?

And and just the incredible, like the full authority of God Himself there, just calling these no-namers, right?

These fishermen who are in it for the long.

It was just a family business.

And they're like, they literally like left their father and the hired servants in the boat.

And just like, all right, we're like their lives were never the same after that.

Amazing, okay.

So so secondly, keep going here.

He builds these guys into leaders.

So it wasn't just about being followers, but but to become fishers of men, it says.

Okay, where they they take a leadership role by by owning the responsibility to now build into other people as well.

And of course, that you know, we know that that these are the guys that started the church.

Again, Acts, right?

You read that, and and it was Peter, and it was the it was these disciples who ended up you know being the pillars of the church and getting getting the gospel out there, and and and so many amazing things happened.

They took on such a tremendous responsibility and role by by getting to work themselves.

Right?

You you see them do that, and and what are they doing?

They're they're replicating in others what Jesus did with them.

That's what they're doing.

And so they they they followed Jesus, and they they became leaders over time, of course.

It didn't happen overnight, okay, and then they repeated the model by discipling and and just pouring into others.

Okay, it's not it's actually not rocket science.

Right?

It's it's not super complicated.

But again, the question is is that you?

Is that me?

Is that Harvest New Market, right?

Is that is that our is that our church?

Okay, because again, what's the mission of our church?

What's the mission?

You know this?

You know this?

Right?

You should.

We've talked about it quite a bit.

And if this isn't just like rolling off your tongue when we think about what is the mission of our church, what is the mission of your life?

Let me remind you our mission is to glorify God.

Okay, you've heard this through the fulfillment of the great commission.

That's kind of the short version of it.

Okay?

Glorify God through the fulfillment of the great commission.

Okay, the woods with the great commission.

Let's make disciples.

Okay, make disciples.

That that's it, right?

That's the assignment of the church.

The moment you put your faith in Jesus Christ, it's not about you, it's not about your kingdom, it's not about that, not primarily.

It's about discipleship.

It's why we're here, it's why we're gathered today.

It's hopefully why we were so bummed that we couldn't gather last week.

Right?

That that's it, that's the point.

And if that's not the actual mission of our church, if it's not more than just words that we say and something we have on a banner out in the lobby, okay, then we might as well just pack all this up, tear it down, shut it down.

Okay?

So let's actually disciple.

Okay, let's do this.

This is what this is what Christ would have.

Got a couple more things for you on the screen you can write down.

Let's actually disciple.

Okay, first of all, sir, first off, by by surrendering to Christ.

Okay, surrendering to Christ.

Okay, it begins with us individually.

It's not like, oh yeah, church staff will be the ones to do all of that, and I'm just gonna kind of be along for the ride.

No, it's up to all of us.

It begins with us.

Surrendering ourselves and and our desires in life and and what we're most excited about, surrendering all of that to Jesus Christ.

Now you might be thinking, well, I did, I surrendered my life to Christ.

I was 12 or I was 15 or I was 21 and I surrendered my life.

I gave it to Jesus, done.

No, you're not.

You're not done.

You might be saved, which is awesome.

Okay, but but surrender is a daily thing.

Have you noticed that you've got these like fleshy desires that compete with what Jesus wants for you?

Have you noticed that?

Yeah, like every second of the day.

That's that's what I feel like.

And so it's surrendering, Lord.

Would you forgive me of uh of giving into these selfish desires?

Would you forgive me for being aloof when it comes to your plan and your mandate, your mission?

Lord, I'm surrendering back again to you, all of my life to you.

Our life is a life of surrender every single day, wholly, totally, completely.

Discipling begins when we first surrender ourselves to Jesus Christ.

If we don't do that, we'll never disciple.

We'll never do it.

Here's a second one by starting at home.

By starting at home.

Okay, if you're not discipling in your home.

Moms, dads, husbands, wives.

Okay, can I be particularly like go after the men here?

Okay, if you're not discipling in your homes, stop doing it here.

Stop.

If you're a small group leader, if you're serving in the church in some area, but we're not discipling in our homes with our spouse and our kids, we can't be doing it here.

We shouldn't be doing it here.

It begins there.

It's getting getting into the word with them.

It's modeling and leading as as Jesus Christ did.

It's spending time in prayer.

When you're with your kids, I get everyone's kind of at different stages and ages in life, and some of your kids have moved on, and some of you are really young, have young kids and all of that.

But it's it's it's talking to your kids.

If they're older, sending them text, letting them know that you're praying for them.

Hey, what can I be praying for you?

And it it's staying connected with them that way and discipling and making sure that you're leading well and all of that.

Hey, listen, if you're single, okay, if you're single, it's preparing yourself for all that.

If you have a desire to get married and have a family, that's great.

But listen, prepare yourself for that now.

Don't just pray for your spouse and that the Lord would give you a spouse that's that that's so perfect for you.

Pray that the Lord would get you ready for a spouse.

All right, pray for that.

Prepare yourself, get your heart ready.

Okay, it starts at home.

Okay, it's actually a disciple by serving.

Okay, serving.

And I'm not just talking about serving in a in a role at church.

I'm talking about having a servant leadership mentality.

Okay, I think I think sometimes when we think about being a leader, we think it needs to be some kind of upfront role.

It means we need to like start bossing people around and people kind of start to channel their inner like total hero.

And like, I need to I need to be this, and I need to tell that person what to do, and I need to you know kind of stick out my chest.

That's not what it's about.

That's not what Jesus came to do.

He was a servant leader, he came with like incredible, full, total humility.

Servant leadership, that's what it's about.

We're not looking for heroes, looking for a platform, that's for sure.

Okay, so let's actually disciple by serving, but also this by looking for opportunities.

Looking for opportunities.

Sometimes we're just not even looking.

Maybe that's because we're oblivious and we're so distracted by other things going on in life, or maybe it's because we sort of like not looking around.

We feel more comfortable just kind of doing my own thing and focusing on myself, or I'm ignoring you know the opportunities as I see them.

Okay, there's huge need out there.

There's huge need within these walls, right?

To disciple.

You know, if you're older and you're seasoned in the faith and you've got some humility and you've got some maturity and and you've got those things, keep an eye on people.

Watch for them, connect with them, make you know, start relationships up with them, get to know them, take them out for coffee, find out what the Lord's doing in their life.

Let's get to work.

Here's the last one by persevering.

Persevering.

Hey, listen, if we're gonna disciple, if there's gonna be any longevity in this, guess what?

You're gonna need to persevere through some garbage.

You really are.

And listen, a lot of that's gonna come out of your own heart.

You're gonna wanna quit.

You're gonna want to pack it in.

There's gonna be distractions.

There's gonna be excuses.

Well, you know, now I've kind of got this thing going in my life, and and so you kind of use that as a legitimate way of kind of getting out from under, you know, a discipleship type role and being involved.

And listen, persevere through all of that.

Don't start something and then bail on it.

It might be a role in the church, it might be some commitment that you've you've kind of got in your own family.

Persevere through this.

Listen, it's guaranteed you're gonna want to quit.

Everyone wants to.

You're gonna want to pack it in.

Perseverance is huge.

All right, let's go to the next thing here.

Jesus got right to work, dominating the enemy.

Hey, dominating the enemy.

And the question there is, am I prepared for battle?

Am I prepared for battle?

Verse 21.

Check that out.

It says, and they went into Capernaum, and immediately on the Sabbath he entered the synagogue and was teaching.

And they were astonished at his teaching, for he taught them as one who had authority.

There's that authority again, right?

Like, wow.

Okay, not as the scribes.

Okay, and immediately there was in their synagogue, check this out, a man with an unclean spirit, so a demon.

And he cried out, or the demons crying out, what have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth?

Have you come to destroy us?

I know who you are, the holy one of God.

Now, why does he call him that?

Why does he say that?

Have you ever wondered that?

Well, some would say that maybe it was, you know, it kind of reflected the belief back in that day that, you know, if you use the name of your spiritual opponent, you know, you could kind of gain the upper hand over him.

So a lot of people would kind of say that that's maybe what the demon was doing here, trying to actually defeat Jesus in some kind of lame, pathetic way.

Um, but anyways, keep going here.

Okay, but Jesus rebuked him, saying, Be silent and come out of him.

And the unclean spirit, convulsing him and crying out with a loud voice, came out of him.

And they were all amazed, yeah, I guess so.

Right?

So that they questioned among themselves, saying, What is this?

A new teaching with authority.

He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey him.

And at once his fame spread everywhere throughout all the surrounding region of Galilee.

Now, the the fact that as soon as Jesus was baptized, going back into what we talked about last week, as soon as he was done being baptized, he, you know, remember he went out into the wilderness and he had, you know, he kind of squares off against Satan there.

The fact of all of that, you know, tells us that Jesus came, a big part of why he came was to forcefully, and as we see here, even dramatically, okay, deal with the forces of evil.

That's what he came to do.

Okay, here we see it.

We're gonna see it even in the rest of the verses that we're gonna look at here this morning.

We see it through the rest of Mark's gospel as well.

Right?

Jesus came to just throw down.

Okay, he wasn't messing around with all of that.

He came to just convincingly dominate the enemy.

Now, well, I'm gonna kind of save the exhaustive, you know, really in-depth discussion that spiritual warfare requires, you know, and our role in all of that.

I'm gonna save all of that really, or most of it, for another time.

Um, and listen, we will get into all of that at some point.

Um, as you continue to come to church, you know, over the months and over the years, and as we cover more of the scriptures, you're gonna get you know more of a rounded picture of what the Bible teaches and all of that.

And so we want to stick to the text as we've got it here.

We'll get into the Ephesians 6s, we'll get into all that kind of stuff uh in due time and all of that.

But um, but listen, I at least want to touch on it, right?

And more from sort of a 30,000-foot level, if you will.

Because listen, the Christian life is war.

It's war.

You've heard me say that before.

You know, and and we've talked about how many of us, so many Christians, live with this peacetime mentality, and that we're supposed to somehow create through our, you know, through a lot of money and through lots of vacations and through weekends devoted to just us.

So we're trying to create paradise on earth here.

Okay, that's not what this earth is about.

Right?

Is that becoming clear the more we kind of go through all of this?

Right?

It's not about that, it's about mission.

It's about following Christ and discipleship and and all of that.

Okay?

Life is not paradise, it's not it's a battle.

Okay, Satan and and demons are very real, and they they have the mission uh of destroying you.

Okay, that's it, and they're not mailing it in.

Okay, they're not like nah, it's all good.

We can take some vacation from this.

No, they they want to crush you.

They want to crush me too.

Okay, so so a very, very, very important question for believers is this Am I prepared for battle?

Am I prepared for battle?

Here are fours four ways, okay?

Four ways we can be prepared for battle.

Okay, first of all, you gotta accept that warfare is real.

Right?

It's real.

This is on the screen.

Okay, now some believers, and uh, you know, I've talked to many over the years, who, you know, the idea, the concept of spiritual warfare and demons and and all of that is like that is heebie-jeebies, like I don't want to talk about that.

I just, you know, I watch horror movies growing up and I get rattled and scared easily, and and this whole thing with demons and stuff, that's I don't want to talk about that, I don't want to think about that.

So we kind of ignore it.

We've got to have, hmm-mm-mm-m, you know, leave it over to the side here.

Listen, you gotta accept that warfare is real.

The Bible talks about it.

Like it doesn't hide it, right?

And so we we can't either.

We don't we don't need to be scared about all of this.

We don't need to be weird out.

Listen, do we understand all of it?

No.

No, we really don't.

We don't have to be freaked out about it, because why?

God.

Right?

God is in control.

I've heard lots of people refer to Satan as like a he's a dog on a leash.

Yeah, he can he can nip, but but who's the one holding the leash?

It's the Lord.

The Lord is in control, and he can only go so far.

He only can do what God permits him to do.

Okay, so we gotta, on one hand, accept that warfare is real.

Here's another thing we can do as believers, just really simply.

Again, this is 30,000-foot-level stuff.

Okay, pray for protection.

Pray for protection.

Ephesians 6, that is a great spot.

I mentioned it earlier, but Ephesians 6, 10 to 18, that's the the armor of God, right?

Or a really great passage.

And I know some people that have, you know, they pray through that on basically a daily, uh daily basis, and just praying for protection from the me the from the enemy.

And Lord, protect protect my mind and my heart, and Lord, the sword of the spirit, and and all of those things.

I think that's fantastic.

You can totally pray through all of that and and just pray that the Lord would protect you from the enemy and He would give you courage and boldness and energy and passion for the mission, and that we wouldn't get sidetracked and put into the ditch by Satan and his forces.

Pray for protection, pray for your family, pray for your church.

Can I even say selfishly, maybe, pray for me?

Pray for me each week because I'm getting up here.

Sometimes you just kind of sense it in different ways.

There's warfare.

I'm like tired or I'm kind of crabby a little bit, and I know that's really hard to imagine.

Right?

But pray for me, but pray for yourselves and each other, be praying for a church that the Lord would protect us from the enemy's advances and that the the Lord would have the upper hand and he would do a great work here.

Pray for protection.

And here's the third one when it comes to being ready for the battle.

Don't get carried away.

Okay, so the the first one's like, except that warfare is real.

This is sort of the other side of it.

Don't get carried away either.

And I think sometimes what happens is we kind of get off into like kind of a weird spot when it comes to warfare, don't we?

Some people do.

Right?

And pretty soon we're like, you know, you need to pray for all of your groceries before you bring them into the house because demons are attached to those, and you gotta be really careful.

Like, literally, I've heard people talk like this.

That's not in the Bible.

Like, I I don't know, I don't see that in there.

Or it's these really, really elaborate prayers.

You have to say it this way and that way, and and casting Satan out of people.

Like, don't.

Okay?

All these things are like the Bible doesn't lay that out for us.

Like, be careful.

Don't follow your emotions and your feelings into craziness, okay?

Now, again, there's a lot that we can say about all of that.

Some of you are like, please go on.

Don't get carried away.

I'll try not to either in this very moment.

Okay, that's the third one.

Don't get carried away.

Okay?

Stay focused, stay on the real mission here.

Let's make disciples.

Don't get sidetracked about all of this.

Right?

Jesus got right to work.

Life is a warfare battle that you and I are somehow caught up in.

Okay, so let's be prepared for this.

All right, let's be prepared.

Here's the fourth thing.

Okay, Jesus got right to work, we know that.

By caring for people well.

He really did.

He cared for people very well.

So the question is: do I help others as needs arise?

Are we helping each other?

Do we care for each other well?

Verse 29, take a look.

It says, and immediately, immediately he left the synagogue and entered the house of Simon and Andrew with James and John.

Okay, so he takes his kind of motley crew here, and he goes to the house of Simon and Andrew.

Now Simon's mother-in-law lay ill with a fever.

And immediately they told him about her, so it was a pretty serious fever, obviously.

And he came and he took her by the hand and lifted her up, and the fever left her, and she began to serve them.

That evening at sundown they brought to him all who were sick or oppressed by demons.

And the whole city was gathered together at the door.

Can you imagine that?

And he healed many who were sick with various diseases, and cast out many demons, and he would not permit the demons to speak because they knew him.

Like, no, demons, you're not gonna reveal my plan.

That's that's that's me to do.

I'm gonna do it in my timing.

Listen, it's undeniable as you look through this, as you read this here, that Jesus cared so deeply for people.

He cared about them, all of their needs.

It wasn't just about their spiritual need for salvation, which is obviously the overarching one, the main one.

It was it was major.

Okay, but it was about their physical needs too.

It was about their daily needs, their felt needs.

It was all about that.

He he cared for the entire person.

He cared about them mentally and economically, and he cared about their physical health and you know, all of that.

And again, that's just another amazing example to us as the church and as individuals about how we're to care for other people.

You know, we see more of this actually.

Jump down to verse 40, skip a bunch of verses.

We'll come back to that other stuff, don't worry.

Okay, verse 40 says this, and a leper came to him, imploring him, so guy with leprosy, and kneeling said to him, If you will, you can make me clean.

That's great faith.

Moved with pity, stretched out his hand and touched him, uh touched him and said to him, I will be clean.

And immediately the leprosy left him, and he was made clean.

And so Jesus, I mean, just see the compassion that he has for people who are hurting and broken, just crying out for savior, and they didn't even realize it.

And they they were suffering physically and and mentally in a lot of cases as well, in so many different ways.

And he's just so moved to care for them.

I love that.

And then this, keep going, says, and Jesus sternly charged him.

This is the man who was who was healed from leprosy, sternly charged him and sent him away at once and said to him, See to see that you say nothing to anyone, but go show yourself to the priest and offer for your cleansing what Moses commanded for a proof to them.

But he went out and began to talk freely about it.

So thanks for that, Jesus.

But I'm just gonna do my own thing.

Right?

And to spread the news so that so that Jesus could no longer openly enter a town, but was out in desolate places, and people were coming to him from every quarter.

He couldn't get away from them at this point.

His fame had spread, we already read about that, and people are just coming at him from from all angles here and bringing out their sick and their hurting and all of it.

Okay, so this man, his his joy at being healed.

I mean, could we permit him that?

Right?

His joy in his joy in being healed there, he it actually causes he disobeys.

He disobeys the Lord, and maybe we would do the same thing too, I don't know.

But of course, it made it all challenging for Jesus to minister effectively and and and and and people, and we see this as the scriptures go on here.

We see that people overfocused on the miracles and all the wondrous signs that were being done.

And and I sort of picture them coming like with their bag of popcorn, and they just wanted to like watch and be entertained here by what Jesus was doing.

And so there was like a massive part of the crowd uh for sure, uh, kind of came with that attitude.

Okay, and they again tended to miss the point that he was really there to address sin.

Okay, Jesus was becoming the biggest show on earth.

And it's important to note here that even so, even though people you know didn't see why he was really there, he still cared for them.

Isn't that cool?

They didn't get it totally, but he still went after their needs, their physical needs too.

Now, as uh as people and individuals and as the church, again, we we sort of tend to get out of whack with this a little bit, I think.

You know, we became we we tend to become all about taking care of physical needs, and it becomes very, very horizontal in terms of our ministry and and and our mentality.

And we sort of forget about worship and making sure that our doctrine's solid and and the word of God being at the center, and you know, we forget about all of that, and and sometimes we we you know we neglect the spiritual needs that people have and their need to be reconciled with God.

Or we focus only on the spiritual needs and making sure that we you know we're preaching and we're praying and you know, we're doing all of those things, but but you know, we we kind of neglect that people are are seriously suffering and and people are really hurting in ways that we in many cases have the ability to address.

We have the the time, we have the the resources to to really be a blessing to people, but but again, sometimes we get kind of out of whack with that.

Now, if I was to kind of take a shot at this here, I would say that our church, you know, which again tends to prioritize things like the word of God, right?

And and worship and and prayer and evangelism, those are our four pillars, and you know, making disciples and and and and strong doctrine and the word of God and you know, all of those things.

I, you know, again, if I had to take a shot at it, I would say probably if we were gonna be weak in an area, maybe that would be in just caring for people.

Maybe.

Maybe.

So I think we need to really keep an eye on that as we go here as a church and making sure that we're looking out for people and and and being encouraging and praying for them, but maybe providing them a meal if they've been in the hospital and they're coming home to an empty fridge, or you know, all kinds of different ways that we can help people.

Okay.

If you're wondering here, like, well, how do we do this?

Well, here are five ways that we can become, I think, well-rounded in our care for each other.

I think that's what we're trying to go for here.

Again, we're pendulum swingers, right?

We want to be well-rounded here.

We want to care for people in a in an in more of a total way and be more like Christ in that way.

Well, here's the first one here.

Pray for a heart that cares.

Pray for a heart that cares.

I think the number one reason that the church and and we you know don't care for people or for don't care for people's needs very well is because we don't care.

We don't care.

It's not that we don't see it sometimes.

We see it there, but we're like, meh, someone else will do it.

You know, or some government-assisted program will help, or whatever.

Those things are all helpful.

But listen, let's be the church, let's go after this.

Let's let's let's pray for a heart that actually cares.

Our hearts can be so cold sometimes.

Have you noticed that of yourself?

It can be so insensitive to the fact that people are really hurting.

And sometimes it takes us going through suffering to kind of wake us up to that and make us realize, oh yeah, there are people and I'm one of them.

Okay, so let's pray, let's let's nurture hearts that love people and care for them.

Here's a second one.

To actually meet the physical and tangible needs.

Okay, again, this isn't like uh there's nothing genius about what I just what that what that says there.

It's like let's just let's just do it.

Right?

Let's just let's just get to get to get to work.

Right?

And and if if you can't, if like you legitimately can't, you know, help that person in the way that they need, maybe it's getting them connected to somebody who can.

Right?

Setting setting that up.

Okay, connect them with somebody you can who can help them out.

Okay, maybe they need to talk to the pastor, but uh I'll tell you, and in a lot of cases, they don't.

They can just talk to somebody else, and and and somebody else can do them as well.

And I've been so blessed to see uh so many of you do such a great job of this.

I think it's been really cool.

Here's the third one invest in the spiritual needs.

Okay?

Invest.

That requires time and energy and effort in the spiritual needs.

Don't just ignore it.

You see somebody, somebody's struggling, you see somebody with, you know, it needs a bit of an attitude adjustment, we all do.

You know, somebody who's you know struggling or hurting in some ways, you know, again, don't just assume somebody else will do it.

Ask that person, hey, how you doing?

You seem a little off today or lately.

Is there any way I can be praying for you or helping you, or you got anybody to talk to in your life?

Invest in those spiritual needs and take somebody under your wing and just show them love.

Here's the the fourth one here.

Be weary for the sake of people.

Be weary for the sake of people.

Maybe this is the biggest one for you.

You're like, uh we don't like being weary, do we?

Tired.

We invest a lot of energy as as humanity in looking good, feeling good, rest, all of that.

And I'm not saying rest isn't important.

I'm really not.

God gave us a Sabbath and downtime for a reason.

But listen, caring for people, it is draining.

It is.

I'm not I can't stand here and be like, hey, just you know, pour into people and it'll be nothing but like warm, fuzzy glowing in your in your heart about all of that.

No, it's it's tough.

Right?

It is.

But listen, it's worth it.

It's amazing to get a front row to seeing the Lord change people.

That shouldn't just be my privilege, that should be yours as well.

Because you're investing in them and you're caring for them and you're pouring yourself out and you're willing to let your schedule and your calendar kind of you know go through a paper shredder a little bit because people are are in need and and need to care for them.

Here's the fifth one.

Don't expect payback.

Don't expect that people are gonna be able to pay you back.

They might not be able to or listen.

They might refuse to.

So don't expect payback.

I think a lot of us, we keep the score.

Well, I did this for that person, and when I was struggling, they where were they?

They didn't meet my needs.

They didn't help me out.

We act like that.

I mean, that's that exposes some dark things in our heart, don't you think?

You ever fallen into that before?

Listen, don't expect payback.

It's serves selflessly.

Jesus served a lot without getting any thanks, without getting any payback.

And the payback that he got was actually death.

All right, let's remember that.

It might not always go well for us.

Don't expect payback, but but again, understand that it's worth it.

And it's our mission.

And the Lord's in control.

Okay, last thing here.

We'll go quickly.

Jesus got right to work, prioritizing preaching and prayer.

Prioritizing preaching in prayer.

And so again, for us, it's you know, do we do you and I do we give them the proper emphasis?

Do we emphasize them properly in our life?

Verse 35.

I said we'd come back to this section.

It says, and rising very early in the morning while it was still dark, he departed and went out to a desolate place, and there he prayed.

And Simon and those who were with him searched for him, and they found him and said to him, Everyone is looking for you.

And he said to them, Let us go on to the next towns, that I may preach there also.

For that is why I came out.

And he went, he went throughout all Galilee, preaching in their synagogues and casting out demons.

Listen, for all of Jesus' busyness, all the demand on his time and on his energy and his attention, all that, listen, Jesus never neglected time with his father.

He didn't.

Neither did it distract him from his mission to preach the gospel.

You know, and I think for us, you know, you know, many of us maybe carry this sense somewhere sort of in the back, you know, of our of our minds here, you know, that time spent in prayer and in preaching the gospel, kind of meaning evangelism, I think, in this sense.

Okay, most of us are never going to be up here on the platform preaching, but you are in the sense of evangelizing, you're preaching the gospel in that way, and that's a mandate for sure.

But I think we easily kind of carry this, you know, I really believe as Christians, this misguided notion and belief that every time that we pray, or every time that we evangelize or you know, get into the scriptures or or or or whatever, we kind of have this, again, this misguided notion, this belief that the heavens should just open wide and and the Lord will just like pour down his spirit in this like kind of felt, you know, dramatic, you know, way where He touches our lives in some transformational, you know, intense, experiential way.

And we we sort of bring that expectation every time we get up in the morning and read the scriptures.

And when that doesn't happen, how do we feel?

We feel discouraged.

We feel like, well, I'm I'm doing it wrong, or my relationship with God isn't that good, or maybe he's not all that powerful.

And listen, when we have an unrealistic expectation of what prayer and evangelism and time in the word and all of that really is, and the priority we've got to give that, the emphasis we've got to give all of that, we have an unrealistic expectation and all of that, it doesn't help us, it only hurts us.

Okay, expecting that kind of experience every time, again, it's more harmful.

I mean, while while Christ certainly enjoyed this perfect and and very much unhindered fellowship with his father, you know, and when he prayed and all of that, you know, we we are, you know, we bring our brokenness and we bring our sin into that equation, and it gets a little bit more messy and all of that, which which really means that our growth and our maturity in prayer and and in evangelism, you know, it comes by by nothing short of just old-fashioned work.

We just gotta work, which which most of the time, do we understand it?

It doesn't feel exciting.

You spend time in prayer, it's not always flashy.

Why do you think we struggle to pray?

Because it's not flashy.

You know, worship and singing is a little bit more flashy than all of that, but prayer is more difficult.

Right?

There's no not often fuzzy feelings in all of that.

And so we we just need to absorb the fact that it's it's just hard work, it's roll up the sleeve, it's more of that spring cleaning mentality.

Like I just gotta do this.

It'll be beneficial to me.

Putting forth the effort that it takes to carve out time in my calendar, in my day.

It's fighting through the distractions, however they may come.

It's pushing through those dry spells in the scriptures and and through all of it, right?

It's making a priority regardless of how it feels.

Meaning that for us, for the maybe the thousandth time in your lifetime, it's recommitting yet again to the Lord that by his grace, no, we're gonna give these things the proper proper emphasis.

I'm gonna commit to prayer.

Where I've let it kind of slide in my life.

I'm I'm I'm gonna I'm gonna readdress that and go back after it, make sure that that's that's solid.

Where I've gotten, you know, I've allowed fear to rule in the area of evangelism and preaching the gospel to people.

I'm I'm I'm gonna pray for boldness.

And I'm gonna I'm gonna take steps of courage here this week to do this.

Okay, I know that it's gonna be work.

I know that's not gonna be fireworks every time, but I'm gonna do it.

I'm gonna shore up these areas where I've let them slip.

Again, Jesus got right to work, which is not only just a great model for us, but it's also our motivation.

Man, if Jesus needed this, how much more so do you and I?

We need it.

I must spend time with Jesus daily.

I feel that all the time.

I miss a day, I'm like, like I feel dry and I sense my need, and you know, I hate that.

And I must nurture a desire to share the gospel with my neighbors and proclaim it and and evangelize and be bold for Christ.

Yeah, it's gonna be work, it's gonna be hard, but but but neglecting these things, you know, leads to kind of this life of God's at work over here doing all these things, and some some people are involved, but but I'm sort of over here on the sidelines, just kind of living this sort of oblivious life, thinking that that this is what it's really all about.

All the while I'm missing out on what life's really all about.

And I miss out on uniting with God in the work that He's doing.

I want to pray for us.

I want to pray for us in this, I want to pray for myself in this as well.

Right?

We need the Lord Jesus Christ.

We don't need to be discouraged in this.

Remember and understand.

Jesus is so gracious, He is so good, so willing to forgive, so wants to transform our heart and give us these new desires and bring us more on board with his mission.