The Ministry of Jesus (Mark 1:21-34)

So last week we covered the first value that we're talking about.

These are things that we want to foster in our culture here at the church.

The first value being the word of God is the compass that directs everything that we do.

And the basis behind that is God has given us everything required for life and godliness and speaks to us through the Bible.

So that's the first value that we really want to foster here.

The second one, which is a new one for you here today, is we are spiritual gardeners.

And really what that means is we believe that followers of Christ are instrumental in the spiritual growth of each other as we become more like Jesus.

So this is really about discipleship.

It's really about service, about being spiritual gardeners, to help it help to plant the seeds, to cultivate, fertilize, weed, to water, and to encourage each other in the growth of becoming more like Jesus Christ.

So that is value number two.

And this morning I'm actually not going to be teaching.

That's why I am up from this microphone.

One of our elders, Ben here, is going to be bringing us the word in the Gospel of Mark, chapter one, here this morning.

And my goal is to have guest speakers.

It's not really guest speakers, one of our elders, but about once a month to surrender the, I wanted to say podium, but to surrender the music stand.

Because just realizing that there's more people here that have the gift of teaching than just me.

So Ben's going to be bringing us the message.

And I love these opportunities to kind of introduce new speakers because it's a great opportunity to embarrass people.

And they really can't do anything about it.

So I'm not going to embarrass them.

I don't want I want you to get a little glimpse in on Ben's sense of humor.

So he emailed me just with a wonderful heart of hey, is there anything specific that you want me to focus on as I'm going through this packet passage or things that you want me to mention?

So he shot me the email.

So I just shot him this email back and said, I was simply hoping that you would just throw together the best message human ears have heard since Jesus Christ.

Ben's response, ooh, ooh.

Can I call it the 10 steps to the perfect message?

That way people will know instantly whether the advice works or not.

Ben, take us away.

Thank you.

All right.

Thank you, sir.

Good morning.

Awesome.

I'm so glad you guys are here today.

And we got, like you said, we have the umbrellas and we have the shade and such.

And so this is awesome.

We are in Mark chapter 1.

Mark 1 · chapter mention

This should not be a surprise to those of you who have been with us each week.

So we're working our way through Mark chapter 1.

Mark 1 · chapter mention

Uh, for those of you who have one of the Bibles here, it's page 901.

So we're gonna go from there.

So please uh get that ready.

And uh I just we have a lot of ground to cover today.

So with that, I just want to cover one little bit of housekeeping here uh that pertains to the passage.

Are there any demon-possessed people who want to scream in the middle of the sermon?

Anything?

No?

Okay.

Kids don't count.

We're good with that.

So, yes, good.

So we got that out of the way, which is encouraging, so we can go from there.

So we are going to read the passage starting in verse 21 of Mark.

And so if you are able to stand, please do so out of respect for the reading of God's Word.

Awesome.

They went into Capernaum, and right away he entered the synagogue on the Sabbath and began to teach.

They were astonished at his teaching because he was teaching them as one who had authority and not like the scribes.

Just then a man with an unclean spirit was in their synagogue.

He cried out, What do you have to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth?

Have you come to destroy us?

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

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

And the unclean spirit threw him into convulsions, shouted with a loud voice, and came out of him.

And they were all amazed.

So they began to ask one another, What is this?

A new teaching with authority?

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

At once the news about him spread throughout the entire vicinity of Galilee.

As soon as they left the synagogue, they went into Simon and Andrew's house with James and John.

Simon's mother-in-law was lying in bed with a fever, and they told him about her at once.

So he went to her, took her by the hand, and raised her up.

The fever left her, and she began to serve them.

When evening came after the sun had set, they brought to him all who were sick and demon-possessed.

The whole town was assembled at the door, and he healed many who were sick with various diseases, and drove out many demons.

And he would not permit the demons to speak, because they knew him.

Alright, feel free to have a seat.

And as we do so, let's pray.

Lord, I thank you so much for today.

I thank you for the opportunity to gather in your name, for the opportunity to fellowship together, to sing and worship and musical worship, in ministry worship, in prayer worship, in children's ministry worship, in greeting worship, and in teaching worship.

And I ask, Lord, that you would be glorified today above all else.

In your name.

Amen.

Alright, so a little bit of context here that will make no sense at the beginning and will make sense at the end.

And that's how I keep you awake.

So when I was young, an early teenager, I worked in the music industry.

I lucked into it, basically.

And so it was a very interesting experience for a young teenager.

And I got the opportunity to work with a lot of musicians in the Bay Area and a lot of famous people.

No, I will not tell you who they are.

My wife doesn't know who they are.

So, anyway, having that said, I learned something very famous, very interesting about being famous.

The goal of celebrity is to promise accessibility and deliver none of it.

And here's what I mean by that: the goal of being a celebrity is to have your brand project that you are superhuman, almost like a demigod, that you are more than everyone else, and that makes you special.

And then your goal is to promise others that they can get their identity from you, and that they can have access to you, and therefore be a part of that and come under your wing.

However, you cannot deliver on that promise because at the end of the day, you're just a human being like everybody else, and they would find out that it is all smoke and mirrors.

And so that is the illusion of celebrity.

And we'll get back to that near the end of this message so that you can sit there this whole time going, why did he tell me that little bit of information?

So, the background of our passage, we see that they went into Capernaum and right away he entered the synagogue on the Sabbath and began to teach.

What's going on with that?

He enters the synagogue and begins to teach.

And so one of the passages that is not in the Gospel of Mark that gives us a little bit of context, right, pretty much right before what's happening here, is in Luke chapter 4.

Luke 4 · chapter mention

And so I'm going to read it really quick.

Please check up on me on your own time with that.

But Luke chapter 4, verses 16 and 17.

Luke 4:16

Jesus came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and as usual, he entered the synagogue on the Sabbath day and he stood up to read.

And the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him.

So this is normal behavior that we see happening here.

When he's going in, he's going to teach as was customary for a rabbi.

Last week we had really good information on rabbis and on following and information.

So if you have not heard that message, go back and listen to it on our awesome website or where any podcasts happen.

You're going to have lots of commercials for this church throughout because I like this church.

So with that, this is normal that he is entering the Sabbath and teaching.

And the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him.

So if he wasn't supposed to do this, they wouldn't have handed him the text to teach from.

That's kind of not just not a good idea to do, is that if you're someone is not supposed to be up here.

So like if somebody if I'm teaching and somebody just walks up and grabs a microphone, I'm not going to hand them my Bible.

That's just not good for him.

So this is normal behavior, what he is doing here in Capernaum.

Teaching on the synagogue at the synagogue on the Sabbath.

And so, what happens here?

They were astonished at his teaching because he was teaching them as one who had authority and not like the scribes.

So this is the first thing that we are going to be exploring this morning is his authority.

He was teaching as somebody who had authority and not like the scribes.

There's two different ways that we can take this passage.

One that's a little more unfortunate and one that is a little more healthy in that sense.

So here's the way that I would not take this passage.

He taught in the synagogue as one having authority and not as the scribes because the scribes were lame.

That's not what I don't believe that's what the passage is saying here.

And oftentimes I actually hear that taught quite a bit, actually, that it's just like he came in because they weren't doing their job.

And we get this weird illusion that somehow everything was going smoothly and perfectly until the Pharisees got there and screwed everything up.

And then Jesus had to be like, okay, fine, I'm coming down from heaven and I am going to set things right.

That's not the whole point of what's happening here.

Because Jesus arriving, that was his mission from day one, which we'll explore in a little bit.

But the reason why he taught as one having authority and not like the scribes is because he is one having authority.

And that is important because he is, in fact, God.

So it's hard to interpret these passages sometimes because we are here in 2021 looking backwards through thousands of years of history, through scripture, and through the cross at these passages, going, well, yeah, of course, it all makes sense.

Whereas the people in there are actually living in that moment, looking forward.

They have nothing but prophecies and teachings to look forward to as they are looking forward to the Messiah.

And so the issue is not just that they are dropping the ball in their job.

The issue is that God in the flesh had arrived in their synagogue in that day.

And so it's a very one of the most complex, intricate things in Scripture is the fact that Jesus is God and man.

And I'll tell you how that mixes out.

I have no idea.

There's mystery involved in that, how he can be God and how he can be man, but that's what we see in Scripture.

We see his humanity thus far throughout, which is good.

When we talked about the uh temptation in the wilderness, how he was tempted uh in every way, yet was without sin, how he was a high priest who could uh sympathize with us because of the weakness, how he relied on the Holy Spirit in that sense.

We see him as a human in that.

Here we see him as God in the flesh, in the synagogue.

So he has unique and unparalleled authority in that sense.

And uh how do I what do I know with that?

Here's another instance that involves him being handed a scroll.

We're gonna scroll, move way ahead to Revelation 5.

I told you I was gonna skip way ahead.

I almost got to the maps and had to go backwards.

And in Revelation chapter 5, John is seeing a vision of heaven, and they say, Who is worthy to take the scroll and to loose its seals?

Revelation 5 · chapter mention

And nobody in heaven or on earth or under the earth was worthy, was found worthy to open the scroll and to take it.

Um in heaven, on earth, under the earth is just a colloquialism for saying, Nobody was worthy of that.

And John begins to weep.

And they say, Don't weep.

Behold, the lion of Judah is worthy to take the scroll.

And John looks, and what does he see?

He sees a slaughtered lamb.

And we are meant to look at those two images and see Jesus.

And Jesus takes the scroll, and the result is a full-on crazy worship session in heaven because he is worthy, he has the authority and the ability to take this scroll.

It's the same guy here, just mixed in with a man.

So I just we what we want to make sure that we don't separate so far to think that Jesus was just simply the one guy who took a run at perfection and happened to get through.

He's God.

So, with that, this is his deity on display.

And how do I know that?

Because the man with the unclean spirit freaks out that he's there.

By a show of hands, how many of you have been in a situation where a possessed person freaks out because you're there saying, please don't destroy me?

I'm really, really glad that nobody raised their hand.

This is unparalleled authority, that the unclean spirit, the enemy, is terrified about being destroyed.

And so, with that, we see his authority that is unique and unparalleled.

Next, we're going to look at his mission, and that is the rest of the Luke passage that I have not yet read.

When he is teaching in Luke chapter 4 in Nazareth, in his hometown.

Luke 4 · chapter mention

Unrolling the scroll, he found the place where it is written, The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor.

He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set free the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor.

Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down.

And all the eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fixed on him.

And he began by saying to them, Today as you listen, this scripture has been fulfilled.

So in that moment, as he was teaching in the synagogue in Luke 4, 17 through 21, there, he opens a passage in Isaiah that is a messianic scripture.

His audience would know it's referring to the Messiah.

Just a little housekeeping.

Messiah, Hebrew, Christ, Greek.

Same word, just different language, anointed one, Savior, English.

So with that, when I use the word Messiah, it's the Savior, the Christ.

And so he is reading about the mission of the Messiah.

And it's interesting how this parallels what we've read so far.

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me.

So Jesus being spirit-filled, and also you see the Spirit descending on him like a dove at his baptism.

He has anointed me to preach good news to the poor.

When he leaves the wilderness in temptation, what does he start doing?

Proclaiming the good news of the kingdom of God.

To proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind.

That sounds like setting free captives and healing to me.

And then to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor, to proclaim the kingdom of God.

So this is the messianic mission that Jesus is on.

And his audience would know when he reads that and says, this is fulfilled today, that what he is saying is that he is the Messiah.

And how do I know that?

Because they get a little offended by this.

Their response is like, because they're in Nazareth, where he grew up, and they're like, dude, we know your parents.

You're saying you're the Messiah.

We know your mom and dad.

Isn't this what?

And they get offended about that.

So he is, in no uncertain terms, in this Luke passage, proclaiming himself to be the Messiah.

And what is that mission?

He is bringing in the kingdom of God.

And part of that is unrolling, rolling back the effects of sin and death in the world.

So you may ask, why does he heal people?

What's the deal with that?

We'll talk about that in a little bit.

But here, what he is doing is rolling back the effects of sin and death that happen all the way back with Adam and Eve.

Telling possessed people they're set free.

Telling sick people they're not allowed to be sick anymore.

So, and that is a foreshadowing of what we'll talk about in a little bit.

So, here the demon, the man with the demon, freaks out, saying, What do you have to do with us?

Have you come to destroy us?

He's basically saying, Look, I don't know you.

You never saw me here.

Please don't destroy me.

And I know who you are, the Holy One of God.

He actually identifies Jesus better than the individuals who are there.

And Jesus rebukes him, saying, Be silent and come out of him.

And the unclean spirit threw him into convulsions, shouted out with a loud voice, and came out of him.

This was not a subtle moment.

This was a moment that, like, you know, the one person who slipped off to the restroom at that point and came back is like, I was gone for two minutes, and what is what is happening here?

And it is interesting that their response is that number one, they're amazed.

Number two, they say, What is this?

A new teaching with authority.

And number three, he commands even the unclean spirits and they obey him.

And at once, the news about him spreads throughout the entire vicinity of Galilee.

So Jesus has just gone viral in that sense, as the one who just commanded a demon out of somebody and it obeyed without a fight, and basically said, just please don't kill me.

So he has unparalleled authority.

He is carrying out the mission of the kingdom, setting captives free.

And so then we see what happens next, because he just became one of the most notable people in Galilee.

Okay.

It was mentioned briefly last week, Galilee, those little areas that we talked about, Judea, Samaria, Galilee.

And Galilee is not the you know star place in that area, of course, but he's suddenly the most notable person in Galilee.

What does he do?

He goes into a house to tend to Peter's mother-in-law.

That's that's that's not like you know, if you talk to somebody in marketing, that's not the next step to what you do, how you capitalize on that momentum, is to go into a house and deal with one of your followers, mother-in-law.

So when they left the synagogue, they went to Simon and Andrew's house with James and John.

Simon's mother-in-law was lying in bed with a fever.

They told him about her at once.

What was she sick with?

I have no idea.

I mean, for the longest time, when a lot for a million different illnesses manifested in a fever, and so that was usually what we considered what killed somebody was the fever.

And so she is sick with a fever, whatever else is going on, I do not know in that sense.

And Jesus went to her, took her by the hand, and raised her up.

The fever left her, and she began to serve them.

And once again, we're looking back through thousands of years, through interpretation of that, through the scriptures, through the cross, and we go, well, yeah, that's what he does.

That was what he was supposed to do in this passage.

But for those people who are in that moment, living this out in real time, this is not normal behavior that he would be entering a private place of one of his followers, touching a sick person and healing her.

And yet, this is what Jesus is doing.

This is access to the authority and the ministry that is Jesus.

Unlike the illusion of celebrity that I mentioned at the very beginning, Jesus here is the real deal, and he allows access to his followers, and to his followers' loved ones.

He goes into their houses and touches those who are sick.

So, what happens next?

Evening came after the sun had set.

They brought to him all who were sick and demon-possessed.

The whole town was assembled at the door, and he healed many who were sick with various diseases and drove out many demons.

And he would not permit the demons to speak because they knew him.

So, once again, cast out a demon in the synagogue and the Perdium.

News goes out.

He goes into a house and heals mom-in-law, and all the town flocks to him with their sick and their demon-possessed people to be healed.

We have to do a little bit of deconstruction here because it is possible, not saying it's true, I'm saying it's possible, that many of your impressions of the painting in your head that you see of Jesus' ministry is a man in a white robe with a blue sash.

Why is it always blue?

I do not know.

Probably because, of course, it matches his eyes as a good Israeli boy.

And sitting on a hillside.

With flowers, speaking to crowds, sitting there quietly looking at him while he pets a lamb.

I have yet to see this in a painting where it is now dark, they're at a house, and all of the sick and demon-possessed people come to him.

But this is the first big crowd that we see Jesus in the book of Mark have.

Is a crowd full of the town folk, the sick people, and demon-possessed people.

I would venture to say it was not quiet.

It was probably not like full of like all the little air fresheners tucked behind the fake potted trees.

It's quite a scene for the man who just demonstrated absolute authority over demons, who just told a sick person they're not allowed to be sick anymore.

And yet here he is in his first big crowd with sick people, with demon-possessed people, and the whole town gathered there.

Whatever Peter's mother-in-law was thinking when she woke up that morning, this was probably not it.

That was going to be her evening.

And so that uh not gonna lie, there's a part of me that stresses out, like you wouldn't believe, thinking like, oh hey, there's a thousand people in my front yard.

Okay, cool.

Um so he wouldn't allow the demons to speak because they knew him.

At the synagogue, he tells them, be quiet and come out of him.

Here, the demon-possessed people speak, and he said he would not let them speak because they knew him.

This is interesting to me.

I give you my theory on what's going on here.

If you were going to set up your political kingdom, the best press you could get is your enemies.

Because that will instill fear in everyone.

If your enemies are afraid of you, that's that's more publicity than you can buy in that sense.

Jesus is not setting up an earthly political kingdom at this point.

He is here on mission, rolling back sin and death, but he is not setting up his own kingdom on earth at this moment.

There's that, I don't even know if this is true, but there's always that legend of like, you know, throughout medieval history and back, that like after a conquest you always leave one alive to tell the story.

That's kind of the whole idea as a would be if you would allow these demons to be his press.

And yet he does not allow them to be his press agents of fear, of domination, and of authority.

Because that's not his mission here.

His kingdom and his mission, all of this authority is used not to set up shop like his people would assume, but rather to give himself for others.

To spend himself on others, to pour himself out on others, that God in the flesh at this moment is spending time with the sick, with the possessed, not allowing the demons to be his press people, as he is on mission, in full authority, rolling back the effects of sin and death, he is giving himself on their behalf.

And this is a teaser, ultimately, of his mission.

Because here's the weird thing.

Peter's mother-in-law is gonna die at some point, off camera here.

You know, the demon-possessed person is also going to die.

This is not the ultimate thing, and the ultimate um mission here is to temporarily heal someone to make them a little bit more comfortable for the next X amount of years until they actually die.

Rather, as he is demonstrating his authority and his mission in unrolling and unraveling sin and death, this is pointing ahead to the Messiah's mission of doing so ultimately on the cross.

So when we see these healings, and when we see these demon-possessed people being set free, it's like a teaser and a foreshadowing of what's to come.

He's demonstrating his authority to set these people free to his audience who would recognize that, and then pointing ahead to the cross where he is going to do that for all who would believe in him.

And so that is the beautiful thing in this, is that he comes to earth in full command on mission to spend himself, to make himself ceremonially unclean, touching sick people, to heal the possessed people, to set them free, ultimately to allow himself to be destroyed by his own creation, so that the righteous would take on the punishment of sin and death, and therefore that judgment be annulled.

And that's just the beautiful thing that we see in here is that this isn't just a party trick that he's just going to say, Hey, look how cool I am.

It's going somewhere so that they would believe that Jesus is the Christ.

That's what's interesting.

There's a little bit of a complex situation there, because other times in the gospel, people are like, hey, I want to see a sign.

He's like, nah.

Nope, that's not gonna happen.

And also, oh, you need is you won't believe unless you see a sign.

What's the deal with that?

Ultimately, the signs and the healings are not the ultimate goal.

They would be if he was setting up a kingdom on earth, but he's not.

He's moving ahead in this authority, in this mission, to spend himself, to give himself for others on the cross.

That's a beautiful thing.

That's a cool thing to see that this is the mission of the Messiah, and this is something that the people would understand.

This is not, that's why I say his authority is unparalleled.

This is not normal behavior.

So it's not like the scribes were the problem here.

They weren't getting it right, and God's like, can someone fix this, please?

Can someone go down there and fix this problem?

Israel was just fine until the Pharisees came along and then they broke it.

No.

We all broke it.

And that's why the Messiah is here.

And so it's something to chew on as we read through these passages.

One of the uh best quotes I've heard from uh Tim Keller is that the best way to become a Pharisee is to hate Pharisees.

So we'll let that sink in for a bit as we move quickly on.

And with that, it is amazing that he is here saying, I am the one you are looking for to the people here of Israel.

And this is a teaser of what his ultimate mission is.

So, what do we do with that?

What do we do with the application for this?

Because there's one, there's an interesting thing when you say, hey, God is Jesus is unlike anybody else in that he is God and human, and you go, so what does that mean from for me?

That's that's cool, but like, okay.

Um, we're not Jesus.

It turns out.

If you are, if you think that you are Jesus, one of the other elders would love to talk to you afterwards.

So, we're not him.

However, he did promise us a promise, and that promise is the Holy Spirit.

The same spirit from the very beginning that fills him, the same spirit that works throughout all of these things, setting people free, is available to us as followers of Jesus.

That was a promise, an indwelling, a down payment, and a guarantee.

And that is a beautiful thing.

And that's why we see in the book of Acts that very human people who are very much not Jesus are following his mission to proclaim the good news, to heal the sick, to set free captives, and proclaim his kingdom, because it is the work of the Holy Spirit within them.

And that same Holy Spirit, if you are followed by Jesus, lives within you.

Isn't that amazing?

Shameless plug.

We're going through the book of Acts in our home groups.

So if you are not in a home group, you're missing out because you're getting the rest of the story there.

So definitely talk to one of us if you want to get plugged into a home group.

So, point number one, be encouraged because the same spirit that is at work there lives in you because Jesus gave it to his followers.

And that is amazing because it is not us who have that ability.

That would be really discouraging if it was.

It is not the Christian, the follower of God, who has the power and the authority and the ability to make that happen.

It is the Spirit who works within us, and he lives in you, so that should be encouraged.

So there's the good news.

So here's the tough love part.

What would happen if our mission looked like his mission?

What would happen if, as followers of Jesus, we were primarily on mission to give ourselves for others?

What if we were on mission by the whole power of the Holy Spirit?

To reach out to the needy, to reach out to the lost, to reach out to the broken, to bring them to Jesus, to proclaim his kingdom, to proclaim his good news.

What if we were known as Jesus was for giving ourselves rather than being known for our own kingdoms?

Our protests, our boycotts, our legislation.

There's a little bit of prosperity, gospel, hidden in that if we're not careful.

Our goal is not to make life as a follower of Christ.

Our goal is not to make the most comfortable place for us as possible.

Because Jesus is our shepherd, and he is a good shepherd, and he takes care of us.

Our goal is to spend and be spent for others.

Point number three on that.

Would you be okay and would I be okay with a church that looked like this crowd?

Sick people?

Demon-possessed people?

It's messy.

It's loud.

It's weird.

It's a whole lot of weird.

Whole lot of weird.

Would we be okay with that?

What would that take?

What would that look like for us to go after the broken and bring them to Jesus?

Because here's the secret.

We're broken too.

But Jesus has made us whole.

And so wouldn't we want to bring them to him?

It's often said how ludicrous is it is that the synagogue scribes didn't even know that a demon-possessed person was in their synagogue.

Where else is he supposed to be?

Isn't it the best place for him to be?

That's where he met Jesus.

And so, this is my challenge as I look at this passage and I see Jesus, all authority, full of mission, giving himself for others for the purpose of bringing them to Jesus.

What does that look like for me?

It's a lot to chew on, pray for.

This has been a very convicting couple of weeks, let me tell you.

So, and then finally, for those who hear this who are not followers of Jesus, what do you take from this?

That you fit in with Jesus.

Isn't that encouraging?

That it he is, if he has no problem being surrounded by the untouchables of that society, the sick and the possessed, surely he has a space for you.

Surely there's room for you.

Because we are all in need of Jesus' touch to make us whole.

I love how in Isaiah 53 he says, all we like sheep have gone astray.

We've turned each to our own way, but the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

He's a shepherd who goes after his sheep, and we're sheep.

It's not really that encouraging and uplifting, but it's good to be a sheep in that sense.

He's not bothered by you.

He's not offended by you, or what you do, or what you think, or what you say, or what you don't say.

He is he came for this.

This was his mission.

This is why God came to earth and dwelt among men and women, humankind, in the flesh.

If you want to know more about that, please talk to one of us.

Whoever hears this, hit up the website.

We'd love to talk to you guys about what that looks like and how to follow Jesus in that sense.

Because the reality of it is we all need a savior.

There's no like the good there's no good guy and bad guy in this story except Jesus.

And the only difference is that I have been uh set free by his blood and have been healed and restored to him by his sacrifice and not anything that I've done.

And that's a beautiful thing.

Does that make sense?

Awesome.

Let's pray.

Lord, I thank you so much for your love.

I thank you that with all of the authority in heaven and on earth and under the earth, limitless ability, you chose to give yourself as a ransom payment.

That we could be set free.

That your mission is not just setting up a better system of what existed, but rather to revolutionize that in this crux of human history that you are the Messiah, the one we've been, that they have been waiting for, the one we have been waiting for.

I thank you so much for that gift.

I ask that you'll be glorified, that we would be encouraged by the gift of your spirit, that we would be challenged to reach out, and that we would know unhindered and unfiltered your love above all things.

Be glorified in your name.

Amen.