He Is Good | Mark 1:9-13 | Coleton Segars

Good to see y'all, everyone.

Thank y'all for being here today.

My name's Colton.

If I haven't had a chance to meet everyone in the room, but uh I get the privilege of pastoring here, so really grateful.

Uh we are in a series titled He is Good, and we're just rolling through the Gospel of Mark, um, not verse by verse, but it's close, um, which isn't on purpose, and it won't always be that way.

But this today, I think, is five or six verses, so win-win.

Um, but I'm gonna read the teaching text and then uh we'll get started.

This is Mark 1, verses 9 through 13.

Mark 1:9–13

It says, At that time, Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan.

Just as Jesus was coming up out of the water, he saw heaven being torn open and the spirit descending on him like a dove.

And a voice came from heaven, You are my son, whom I love.

With you I am well pleased.

And at once the Spirit sent him out into the wilderness, and he was in the wilderness forty days being tempted by Satan.

He was with the wild animals, and the angels attended him.

And let's say this part together.

Next slide.

This is the word of the Lord.

Thanks be to God.

There we go.

Feels better when we all say it.

Oh man.

Um, happy Mother's Day.

Uh, one of the things that my mom uh does with me and that Rainey does with me too, is um just every now and then just sends like Bible verses or different uh like my mom will like screenshot actual books out of pages and just flip the book and just send me.

Basically, I have the book just in image form.

But what she's doing is she is sharing with me just cool things that she's seen, either from the book that she's reading about Jesus or things she's seen in the text itself from the scriptures in Jesus.

And I say that because it feels like what I'm doing today.

I'm just gonna talk about three things that we see in this text that I think are brilliant, uh, that display the fact that God is good, that Jesus is good, but just three things that you just see in this passage, because there's probably a bunch, but I'm just gonna poke at three just so that we have those things to see.

So, what do we see in this passage, just rolling through it?

The first thing that we see is that God is answering a 700-year-old prayer.

Isaiah prayed 700 years before this event happened.

He prayed that this would happen.

Uh, so in Isaiah 64, he says, Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down, that the mountains would tremble before you, as when fire sets twigs ablaze and causes water to boil, come down to make your name known to your enemies and cause the nations to quake before you.

For when you did mighty things that we did not expect, you came down and the mountains trembled before you.

And so what he is referencing, rend the heavens and come down, that's what Mark is saying.

Just as Jesus was coming up out of the water in verse 10, he saw heaven being rended, being ripped open, torn open, and the spirit descending on him like a dove.

D.A.

Carson in his commentary on this says that heaven being torn open, it reveals that God has at last answered Isaiah's request through the descent of his spirit upon Jesus, whose mighty deeds, particularly that of casting out demons, regularly caused amazement and fear.

And so what I love about this is it took 700 years, but God did finally answer this prayer.

And I think this should be encouraging to us for a couple of reasons.

One, you're not the only person in the world who's ever prayed for something to happen, and it just took a long time for it to happen.

Like, and we don't, we none of us have prayed 700-year-old prayers yet.

Like, not yet.

Um, but like Isaiah is the second greatest prophet in the Old Testament, just second to Elijah.

Second greatest prophet, and like he prays a prayer and it's not being answered.

He's not seeing that thing happen.

He prays and nothing happens, he prays and nothing happens, it just stays unanswered.

Then he dies, and that prayer is still unanswered.

But what's beautiful about it is that in 700 years, God never forgot his prayer.

His prayer did ultimately end up changing the entire course of history, even though it didn't change his current and immediate situations and circumstances, which is what he actually wanted.

He wanted to see the world change.

These people are abandoning God and going into exile, and he's like, Would you please rin the heavens and come down?

And it doesn't change his immediate circumstances, it changes the world in a generation after him, many generations after him.

Um, and I think for us, sometimes we give up on prayer because it doesn't work at first.

Like it doesn't change our immediate circumstances, and so it feels like, well, if it's not working, why am I doing this?

Why pray if I'm not seeing anything happen?

Why continue to contend and to travail before the Lord asking for things in the city of Memphis that I'm just not seeing?

I pray and then I watch the news and it gets worse.

Like, what's happening?

And I think I get that because it's just easier to pray when you see things working.

But I think for us, one of the testimonies of this thing is that prayer is never neutral.

Like it seems to suggest that like your prayer doesn't just go and like, oh, it didn't happen and therefore it's gone.

Revelation says that our prayers sit as incense in the throne room before the Lord.

It is an incense before Him, they stay there forever.

That every prayer that we ever pray.

And so it's beautiful because it means that like prayer is not neutral.

It's always affecting something.

It's always shifting something, it's always doing that.

And so just because they don't happen right away doesn't mean that God won't, through your prayers, not just bless you, it's not happening right now, but it might be that your prayer would be used in a future generation to see things shifted and moved, even though it's not affecting you personally.

If you remember the Asbury outpouring in Kentucky, a lot of the people that showed up to that experience last year were saying, like, I've been praying for this for 50 years.

I've been praying for this thing to happen.

And it's like, man, they just never gave up.

And so they prayed for it to happen in their time when they were going to school there to see the Lord do mighty movements, and it just didn't happen while they were there at that college.

But then all of a sudden, their prayer that they've been praying shifted a generation back in 2023.

And like it's this beautiful thing that they're praying selflessly, not like I'm gonna stop praying because it's not working for me.

It's like, no, no, no.

He's gonna take that and hold on to it and not forget it and use it for a future generation.

So that should be encouraging to us.

The second thing it should be encouraging to us is because uh, when God eventually does answer this prayer, 700 years, even though it takes that, he answers it far better than Isaiah is actually praying for it to be answered.

And so for Isaiah, what he's praying for is what God did back in the Old Testament at Sinai.

And so he says, For when you did awesome things that we did not expect, you came down and the mountains trembled before you.

He's praying that God would do Sinai again.

Like, come down on Mount Sinai like you did before, and you gave the law and the mountains trembled and all those things.

And that's what he's praying for.

Would you do what you did in the past, but do it the exact same way?

And the issue with that prayer is, I mean, it's not like he's sinning and doing this, but if God had come down that way, God at that time was unapproachable.

People were not encouraged to draw near to him, because if they did draw near to him, they got killed by God's presence.

And so it was dangerous to get close to God.

And so what you see happening in this text is like Isaiah's prayer is being answered much later, but much better, because now God is coming down in the person of Jesus, and they're not encouraged to stay away, they're encouraged to draw near.

Like, get close to me, follow me.

And when they do get close to him, they're not killed because of their closeness, they're actually healed because of their closeness.

You see him giving this prayer to Isaiah and going, I know what you want, but I got something better that's coming, just wait for it.

And so he ends up answering the prayer much better than what Isaiah ever had in mind for him to be answered.

And so, yes, it took 700 years, but he did something much better.

Uh, I heard this story from Pete Gregg, and if you took the prayer course with us, you probably heard the story as well, but uh, about this woman in the sixth century called the uh Queen Bertha of Kent, which is just an awesome name for babies in the future.

Queen Bertha, something to think about.

Bertha needs to make a comeback.

But uh she was a Christian, right here.

She was a Christian.

Uh, but her husband, King Ethelbert, was a pagan, and so he was a pagan.

Uh but he loved his wife, and so what he did is he built her a prayer chapel on their land for the woman to go do her church stuff.

Okay?

Well, what she used the prayer chapel for was to pray every single day for him to come to faith.

Like that was constantly what she was praying for.

I want my husband, King Ethelbert, to come to faith, I want him to come to faith.

She did that for 17 years and nothing changed.

Like the man was as pagan as the day was long at the beginning to when he was 17 years.

But then in 597 A.D., a bunch of monks from Rome come to England and they preach the gospel.

Ethelbert turns to Jesus and comes to faith.

And it's this really beautiful story where 17 years of travailing and contending for one person that it ultimately shifts and changes his story.

But God did more through her prayer than just that.

What happened was as soon as he came to faith, the king came to faith, then all of a sudden a mission was launched from Kent that went into all of England.

And what happened is thousands of people began turning to Jesus and turning to faith because of this.

And so this woman was praying for this small, just one, give me one person, God.

Give me one.

And it's like thousands turned to him and started coming to faith.

And it was so significant that they ended up building uh the Canterbury Cathedral on the spot of the woman's prayer chapel.

Like that's what they built there.

And the point was it was like this was a massive movement of God that shifted and changed things.

And it was because one woman wasn't praying for the nation to come to faith, she was just praying for the king, my husband, to come to faith.

But God likes to do something more through our prayers, even though at times it takes a long time.

And so we answered the prayer much later in her story, too, but much better.

David Mathis says this in his article on prayer.

He says, God loves to answer better than we ask.

What a vision.

I want that vision of prayer.

He loves to answer better than we ask.

Though we often don't know precisely how to pray, we do know that our Father loves to hear our requests and outdo them.

That's awesome.

We need that vision of prayer.

And I think that the testimony of this, the testimony of this particular thing that you see, of 700 years of nothing.

And then all of a sudden the Lord going, All right, I did not forget your prayer.

I've just been waiting for the proper time to blow the minds of people who actually will read this thing a long ago and then see it happening in their time.

I think we need that vision of prayer.

It's difficult for me to pray for the city of Memphis, and I do it every week with a group of men that have just, we've just agreed, and there's like, regardless of how discouraging it can be sometimes, we love this city and we want to see it come to faith.

We want to see it healed and we want to see it renewed and all these different things.

And so let's pray some impossible prayers that may not be something that we see in our generation, but maybe my kid will see it in his.

And then maybe the kids after that will see it in theirs.

And so I know it's hard and I know it's difficult to pray for people to come to faith and pray for family and friends and be like, God, please do something now.

Why don't you do it now?

I don't understand why you're not doing it now.

Why aren't you saving my kid now?

Why aren't you saving, like, why?

I know it can be difficult, but prayer isn't neutral.

It's always affecting something, it always is shifting something.

It never is just like bing, hits off the ceiling, and you're like, Well, that one didn't take.

It's never that.

There's always something there.

He loves to hear our requests and outdo them.

And so pray and don't give up on praying.

The second thing that we see is in verse 11.

And this is to me, y'all.

I'm gonna talk about this for a while.

The second thing that we see is how God sees us.

Verse 11.

A voice came from heaven.

You are my son, whom I love, with you I am well pleased.

Even though this is said about Jesus, the truth is that however God sees Jesus, however that he sees Jesus is how he sees those who are covered in Jesus' righteousness, regardless of your sin this today, the conversation and argument you got into on the way to church, whatever you did this past week, whatever you've done in your past, the way that God sees Jesus is how he sees those who are covered in the righteousness of Jesus.

N.

T.

Wright on his commentary on this passage says that the whole Christian gospel could be summed up in this point.

That when the living God looks at every believing Christian, he says to us what he said to Jesus on that day.

He sees us not as we are in ourselves, but as we are in Jesus.

It sometimes seems impossible, especially to people who have never had this kind of support from their earthly parents, but it's still true.

God looks at us and says, You are my dear, dear child.

I'm delighted with you.

You are his dear, dear child.

With you, he is well pleased.

And to me, and I think according to the scriptures, in your life, this is the most important thing that you could ever believe about the Bible.

Like if you will, if you will forget all of it, I mean don't, but like if you did forget all of it, just remember, if you could just believe this, and not just remember that it said it, but like if you believed it deeply, it would do more in your life than any other thing that you could believe in the scriptures that you were loved by God.

A lot of people would say, and I actually talked to some folks last week about this, like, no, the most important thing is that we're sinners.

And I was like, you're never coming to my house to hang out for dinner.

But that's what they would say.

Like, uh, you gotta know that they're sinners.

That's the most important thing.

And the interesting thing to me is like, then why does the Bible not begin that way and start with like in the beginning, they were all dying in their sin, burning in hell?

It doesn't start that way.

Instead, the scriptures begin with a loving God creating just for no other reason than he wants to show people his affection.

And so he creates a world out of love, gets it perfect.

No humans yet.

Get the space perfect, create a hospitable environment for these people that I love.

And then I will I will create humanity to live and have this amazing space to live with animals that love them and things to eat and stuff to see and beauty to behold.

He creates this really beautiful space for them.

And then he says he rejoices over them more than he rejoiced over anything else in all creation.

That's how the story begins.

And then all throughout the scriptures, once we chose sin, it is a love story of him pursuing us and chasing us down in sacrificial love, going, I will get my kids back, I will get my sons and daughters back.

All the scriptures are testifying to that.

And then it ends when it finally, everything will eventually be wrapped up and made new, and it ends in a marriage where God is married to his people, this loving marriage with his people, and it's not one of those marriages where they just stay together for the kids.

It's not that.

That's a bad marriage.

Fix that if that's yours.

Just something to think about.

But it's a loving.

I love that that made you laugh, Sarah.

Thank you.

It's a loving, loving marriage.

That's what you see.

That's how it ends.

And the testimony that comes from the throne room.

Look, behold, God dwells with his people.

This loving union.

And so to tell me they're like, nah, the most important thing is that they're sinners.

I'm like, I think they need to begin with, like, hey, there was a time when all people knew was the love of God.

And we need to get back to that.

Paul prays for this.

The scriptures testify.

Paul prays, not, I need to, I need you to know that you're sinners.

He doesn't pray for that.

Ephesians 3, he says, I pray that you may have power.

He wants you to have special power in your inner being to grasp the height and depth and length and width of Christ's love.

So that you would be filled with the fullness of God.

His prayer is for him is something impossible to happen.

Like you need to have deep inner power to even hold the weight of his love for you.

John says that, see what great love, not guilt, see what great love the Father has lavished upon you, that you should be called sons and daughters of God, and that is what you are.

John 3.16 says, For God so loved the world that he gave his son.

It does not say, for God was so disgusted with the idiots of this planet that he sent his only son to criticize them and then die for them.

Not because he loved them, but because he couldn't stand up being around them anymore, and the sweet release of death was better than another second in their sinful presence.

That's not what it says.

It says something better than that.

But we live like this.

Like I couldn't possibly go before him in his presence and pray.

Look how disgusting I am.

It's like he has made you worthy.

He has made you redeemed.

I mean, you are now covered in this beautiful thing of you just covered in his son.

And so that's not John 3.16, even though you might meet some Christians that really believe and live this way.

They could quote John, for God's so loved, and then they live like, but he's so disgusted with me, certainly.

Like, man, that is not the truth.

You are his son, you are his daughter, in whom he is well pleased.

He loves you, he is well pleased with you.

We have to believe that he thinks this way about us.

If you don't believe this long term, if you don't work to actually sink this into your soul and allow it to like become something true in you, the whole Christianity thing kind of breaks down.

Because for one, you'll never think that Jesus is good.

You'll never look at his sacrifice with joy and honor and just worship and thanksgiving.

You'll never like it because it won't mean anything to you because God is still mad at you in your mind.

And so what you'll do is you'll spend your days in religion trying to do good things for God to finally make him like you, which, spoiler, he already likes you.

And so doing those good things isn't going to make him like you more.

He has already proven that to you.

But you'll do these good things in religion trying to make him like you.

You'll spend your days filled with shame that you don't measure up to this vision in your mind or the bar set in your mind that you think God has set for you.

You'll kill your joy thinking that God is constantly unhappy with you.

Like you're because you're constantly failing him, you'll think I just need to be doing more for God.

You'll see every hardship in your life as punishment from God rather than what the scriptures actually testify to those loved by God.

He is treating you as sons, he is treating you as children, he disciplines those he loves, he prunes those who are actually bearing fruits so that they bear more fruits, so that the Father is glorified.

Like all of the hardships in a Christian's life are not punishment.

You will walk through many of them, but it's because he loves you that you walk through those things.

Not because he is treating you as sons, he is treating you as daughters.

The way that we discipline our children that we love.

If honestly, if I'm at Chick-fil-A and some kids throwing food across the room, as long as it's not hitting me, I'm not disciplining that kid, not my kid.

Somebody else needs to discipline that kid.

But the Father sees us and we're his kids, and it's like, why is there discipline based on some of these things?

Because he loves you, because he hasn't been like, you know what, whatever, who cares?

You just live your truth and I'll do, you know, I'll do my thing.

He doesn't do that.

He disciplines those he loves.

If you don't believe that deep down that you're loved by God, you won't see his commands for your life as ways that he's trying to bless you.

You'll ultimately see his commands as something you you're supposed to do because it's right, and I'm a rule follower, and it's something I should do, but I don't really want to do it.

Actually, I think my way is better.

I think I can find fullness on my own.

So we'll see everything as like a have to just in order to be obedient, not I should probably follow him because he's commanding me out of love to experience more of his joy and peace and hope and goodness.

If we don't see him that way, we'll see his commands as like, fine, I'll do it, but I don't really want to.

If we don't see him as loving us, we won't go boldly before the throne of grace to obtain mercy and grace in our time of need.

We won't go boldly before him at all.

We'll always look at our prayers, and maybe I'll do this.

You always look at your prayers like, ah, that's too big.

I don't deserve him to bless me that much.

That's too big.

Or we'll do it the other way.

That's too small.

I shouldn't, you know, ask God for something so small.

That's too trivial, that's stupid.

Then our prayers sound something like, Lord, we really like you to do this medium thing.

Uh, but you don't have to if you don't want if it's too big or too small, and honestly, it's stupid.

I mean, you're not stupid, I'm stupid, I'm sorry.

Your will be done, amen.

And it's like, what'd you pray for?

Like, we don't even, I couldn't answer that if I wanted to.

Like, I don't even know how to do that.

And yet, to go boldly.

Why can we go boldly?

Because we're sons and we're daughters.

I honestly, uh no one else could do this, and please don't try it.

But if my son busted in here from the kids' room and was like, Dad, he's the only one that would get attention from me right away.

Everybody else would be like, Zach, security, swarm.

But he's the only one who would be like, come on, just real quick, let's do it real fast.

Because he has access to me because he's my son.

You have access because you're sons and daughters.

He is not looking at you and like, oh, you're here again.

What do you need this time?

It is not that.

It's like, you're here again.

I'm so glad.

A time, any time in your presence is wonderful for me.

You gotta believe he loves you.

If you don't believe that he loves you, that he delights in you, you're basically calling him a liar.

And you would never do that.

Like if you're a Christian, you're like, I love God, his word's true, it's inerrant.

He's a liar, though.

Like you'd never say that out loud.

But I think in this capacity we live it this way.

Because the gospel testifies to the fact that because of Jesus, you now deserve everything that Jesus deserves.

Paul puts it this way because you are his children, God sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts.

The Spirit who calls out, Abba, Father.

So you are no longer a slave, but God's child.

And since you are his child, God has also made you an heir, an heir to the throne room of great, an heir to the inheritance that Jesus deserves.

Everything that Jesus is worthy of, he has made you worthy of those things.

Everything that he deserves, he has made you deserving of those things.

Derek Prince talks about what Jesus has done for us and how he makes us worthy, and he says this.

He says, Jesus was punished that we might be forgiven.

Jesus was wounded, that we might be healed.

Jesus was made sin with our sinfulness, that we might be made righteous with his righteousness.

Jesus died our death that we may share in his life, became poor with our poverty, that we might inherit his riches, bore our shame that we might share in his glory, endured our rejection that we might experience the acceptance of sons and daughters of God.

Jesus became a curse that we Might walk in blessing.

And so for you to say, I don't deserve blessing, is to put away the sacrifice of Jesus.

It's true that you don't in and of yourselves, but he doesn't see you that way anymore.

You deserve everything that the Father wants to give because you've experienced everything that Jesus has done for you.

And so to say, like, oh, I'm not worthy of that is actually not to diminish yourself, but it's to diminish Jesus and his sacrifice.

So don't do that.

Don't put away the sacrifice that has lifted you and elevated you into this wonderful space, where now you are worthy of the things he's worthy for, where you are deserving of the things that he is deserving.

He has made you worthy.

So the Father is able to say to you, if you are in Christ, you are my son, whom I love.

With you, I am well pleased.

You are my daughter, whom I love.

With you, I am well pleased.

This is what he says of you.

And it needs to be the loudest voice in your head every single day.

To me, it is one of the most important things that you could get sunk in.

Honestly, if it was the most important thing that you were a sinner, you'd figure that out somewhere because you screw your life up well enough.

You'd be like, I think something's wrong in here.

I think something's really broken.

What's difficult is to feel loved by the people in your life and by the God who you cannot see or hear.

We have to actually allow this to sink into our hearts.

All right.

He loves you.

Got it?

He loves you.

All right.

The last thing that we see in this passage is that Mark is seeking to identify Jesus as the true Israel.

Seeking to identify Jesus as the true and better Israel.

In these verses, Mark is recalling subtly what the nation of Israel's experience was in the Old Testament.

So it's almost a picture-to-picture image.

So go to the first slide here.

And so the nation of Israel, Israel passed through the baptismal waters of the Red Sea.

It's Exodus 14.

Paul talks about it in 1 Corinthians 10.

They were baptized into Moses in the sea.

Then Israel was given the Spirit.

Isaiah talks about how they were given the Spirit to lead them and to guide them, but they quenched the Spirit.

Israel is called God's firstborn son in Exodus 4.

Israel was tested in the wilderness for 40 years.

Israel went to the mountain to receive God's law.

Israel was called the vine of God.

Israel was then sent into exile from God due to disobedience.

And then notice Jesus' story.

Spirit was given, Mark 1.10.

Jesus is called God's Son, Mark 1, 11.

Then Jesus is tested in the wilderness 40 days, not 40 years, but 40 days to mirror the image.

And then in Matthew 5, Jesus goes up on the mountain where he gives his sermon and he gives the new law.

You have heard the old law, you've heard it said.

I now say unto you, he gives the law.

And then Jesus is called the true vine in John 50.

He says it, I'm the true vine.

And then Jesus chose to go into exile due to obedience to God.

Israel was sent into exile away from God, but Jesus chooses to be obedient to God and chooses exile and says, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

And the whole thing is Mark trying to do this beautiful thing of showing, like, where Israel failed to do what they were supposed to do.

The nation failed.

Now we have a true and better Israelite who is doing the things and fulfilling the law for all people.

And so what he's seeking to do is to show us that Jesus is the true Israel.

Here's why this matters to us.

The nation of Israel was meant and supposed to reveal who God was and make him known to the world.

That's what they were supposed to do.

They were going to be the space where it's like look at this nation.

Look how great they are.

Look at it.

It's amazing.

Their God must be incredible.

That was the idea.

And they couldn't do it.

They chose to worship the world's gods and chose to abandon Yahweh.

They couldn't do it.

And so Jesus being the true Israel he says Paul says he is the image of the invisible God.

He mirrors God perfectly he is so when you when you hear his voice when when Jesus says it's like if you have seen me you have seen the Father he does it perfectly.

And so his voice and his space and what he does if you're wondering what is God like Jesus reveals all that God is and what he's like.

And so it'd be like what's God like it's like just look at Jesus's life.

That's what he's like.

He does it perfectly he is the way to see God.

He is the truth of who God is and he is life itself so that you can experience what God is actually like in um in Genesis where Adam is disobedient with God about the tree.

Disobedient like don't eat from that tree and he's disobedient about the tree in the garden disobedient about the tree.

And then you see Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane and he's obedient about the tree.

He's like I need you to go to the tree and die on the tree.

And so you have a garden and you have a tree and you have obedience or disobedience and you have a garden and you have a tree and you have obedience from Jesus.

And so he is just showing all of these different things that's happening in the scriptures like Jesus is the true and better Adam he is the true and better Israel.

He is the true and better Moses who gives the law he is he is all of these things.

And so if you're looking for something real and true Jesus is the only way to experience that.

Israel was also supposed to be the nation of Israel was supposed to be the conduit through which God blessed the world Genesis 12 all the nations will be blessed through your offspring Abraham.

Your offspring will be Israel they failed and they couldn't do it.

And so the nations stopped experiencing blessing from Israel and Israel stopped experiencing the blessing of God because they weren't faithful to those things.

But then Jesus comes in and Paul says in Galatians 3 that he is now he is the offspring of Abraham.

He is the seed of Abraham that the world of the nations will be blessed through him.

Now anyone Jew or Gentile can experience the blessing of God and the richness of God and all those things.

Anybody can experience it if they look to him for it not the nation but the person.

And so Jesus is the true and better Israelite.

And that's huge it's huge.

I mean the fact that you don't have to be Jewish in order to experience the blessing of God it's huge for Mark's audience because he's writing to Roman Christians in Rome.

And so he's writing to them and being like hey just so you know don't be nervous just because you're not Jewish or because you're apart from the Jewish nation or you're not near the temple don't worry about any of that stuff.

Like Jesus is who you need to look for.

He is who you need to look to you will experience the blessings of God by looking to Jesus not the nation of Israel.

That has all shifted and become who Jesus is now Mark is showing us that if you want to know God, if you want to experience the richness and blessing of everything that's been promised to us from God you won't find that anywhere else.

Not the nation of Israel not the Jerusalem temple not in that holy land you won't find it there.

You will find it in the person and work of Jesus and the message is the same for us the only space the only space from the beginning to get to know God and to experience the goodness of God was to be obedient.

Crush it.

Make sure you nail it and then you'll experience the goodness of God and what Jesus has done is he's like hey actually I'll just take that on and I'll deserve every blessing.

All of it should come to me but instead of receiving every blessing I will actually take the curse so that you can experience the blessing.

This is what he's done.

It's just this wonderful switch.

And so he gives us all those things.

And now we can draw near.

We can know God if you want to know him better look to Jesus.

You want to experience more of the richness of what God's like look to Jesus.

He is the true vine apart from him you can do nothing and experience nothing.

Look to him all right a few things just as way of implication for us things that I think that we should do based on what we've seen.

So we've seen that God answers a 700 year old prayer and prayer always affects it's never stagnant and it is never neutral.

We have seen how he sees us and the way that he views us that he loves us that we are his children whom he loves with us he is well pleased.

And we have seen that Jesus is a true Israel.

A few things from that one don't grow old and bitter grow old and faithful.

You can't help growing old it happens right like that's that's tough.

Paul says though outwardly we are wasting away even Paul testifies they're like you're going to waste away outwardly you can fight it but it's coming but my encouragement to you is don't grow old and bitter grow old and faithful.

It is super easy to look at the world right now and every generation has done this and been like it's just worse than it's ever been it's like how does every generation say the exact same thing it's easy to look at the world in the state of things and to lose hope.

But Isaiah in his old age watched his own nation far worse than ours watched his own nation abandon God and then actually be enslaved in exile leave their land completely he watched that happen and notice that his prayer he's not praying for the good old days.

He's not like Lord I just wish we had that president I mean that King David wish we had that King David guy and he was so great.

Would you just send us David again the way that some of us pray for Reagan don't do that.

That's not what he prays okay that's not what he's praying.

He doesn't pray for a political leader.

He's like I don't need a man.

I need God that's what I need.

And so he he looks at the state of the world he doesn't grow pessimistic like just let it burn God that's make the bed line it just do it.

It's not that it's like man we need you to come and do work among us.

He prays for God to come not a political leader.

He prays that God would do it again.

He prays that God would rin the heavens and come down, revive us again.

Do those impossible things that you did before.

Do them again in our time don't grow old and bitter.

It's so easy to just prophesy just hate and destruction into the world and be like it's all going to burn.

Isaiah's going, it can be renewed.

It can be revived.

And I think as Paul's saying like man though outwardly we waste away inwardly I'm being renewed day by day.

There's something that's supposed to happen in us that we don't grow old and crusty and old and bitter it's not that we grow old but faithful.

Psalm 145 says that one generation commends the works of the Lord to another it does not say one generation complains to another generation about the previous generation to another that's not what it says.

We commend the works of the Lord to one another.

So don't grow old and bitter I tell you keep praying I tell you who does this really well is Tommy Danner.

He's not in here so I can talk about him.

Tommy Danner does this right I'm going to talk about him being old but he knows he's old Tommy's like 65.

He's old but he leads our little kids in worship like just strumming his guitar and leading our little kids in worship.

Like he does this he's pouring his life out on a on a brand new generation and pouring songs out and being goofy in the name of Jesus to a brand new generation so that the gospel will come to bear in their time when they grow up into a space where it's like well now you are the new pastors you are the new missionaries you're the new business people you're the people who will be like actually supporting and doing this thing.

And he is giving his life 31 kids last week or something like that and the man's just strumming on his guitar.

He's just doing this thing.

Hug Tommy hug your mothers today first but then hug Tommy.

He does great great work but he does this so well he has not grown old and bitter he has grown old and faithful what can I do with the time I still have left to bless God and bless a generation I'm going to pass it on.

I'm going to commend the works of the Lord to another do that thing.

Don't grow old and bitter there's enough bitterness in the world and it's not a fruit of the spirit don't do that.

The fruit is delicious not bitter.

All right second believe that you are his child whom he loves with you he is proud he is well pleased.

You have to believe his word again you would never call him a liar to his face but if you live like you are not loved if you continue to say I'm so undeserving of blessing I don't I don't even know how I don't I think he hates me you're you're doing it by your life you would never say it outright because you know it'd be wrong.

But we live that way.

So remove the words from your vocabulary that you are unworthy and undeserving.

Jesus has made you worthy and deserving I read this quote the other day about people who can't take compliments and y'all ever met those people who are like I like your hair no it's stupid I'm like okay well never mind maybe I'm stupid but this is a real thing.

If you ever compliment somebody and they're just like he did it like did he?

Is he the one that cleaned my house him?

Okay.

The quote says this people only accept compliments or love one third of the time and deflect or reject it the other two thirds of the time.

Oftentimes people don't receive compliments or love well because it doesn't match their inner narrative of themselves.

Don't allow your word to be more true in your life than his word.

You would never say that your word is inerrant and without error or without flaw you would say that about the scriptures.

And so if you believe that about the scriptures don't allow your inner words and inner narrative to be more consuming than his words or his narrative of you.

He has changed your narrative allow him to change the narrative in your heart and in your mind.

Don't allow your words to be the most powerful thing in the loudest voice in your head or in your heart.

Allow his word because his are perfect and yours are flawed and so allow his to be the most important words to you.

Receive his love.

If you need help ask the Spirit Paul says the spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children.

If you need his help pray that pray that prayer spirit help me testify that I am his son, his daughter I don't feel it right now.

I would practice I'm a big one on you're shaped by what you practice and you you become what you do often.

And so I would just stand in the mirror and be like I am God's son whom he loves with me he is well pleased until you can feel it or believe it.

Have people in your life ask you, who are you man?

Like I am God's son whom he loves with me he is well pleased and if you're a woman obviously traded over there.

But do that thing.

Put post-it notes in your car to remind you wherever you feel down the most at work or wherever or wherever you sin the most in your house like just stick it there.

Who am I after I've sinned?

You are still his son you are still his daughter whom he loves.

With you he is well pleased and it's like how could he be?

Because it's not based on you.

It's based on what someone else did for you.

With you he is well pleased.

Okay and the last thing if you want peace and joy in your own heart peace and joy in your own heart commit to knowing more about Jesus the true and better Israel than you do about what's going on in national Israel right now.

If you want peace and joy in your own heart commit to spending more time with Jesus the true and better Israel than you do watching the news of national Israel.

I would read them again but I think it's pretty clear.

Spend more time with him than you do with anything else out there.

We're meant to be shaped by Jesus himself not what's going on in Gaza or what's going on in Israel or what's going on between the Palestinians and the Hamas and all that like we're meant to be shaped by him and to spend more time with him and to know more about him than we know about what's going on there.

If you can quote me what CNN or Fox News said but you can't quote me some of the scriptures about Jesus the true Israel I'm not going to shame you or anything but let's let's like get to work and like let's do this thing.

You need to know more about the true Israel because blessing comes from him not from the news about them.

It doesn't come that way.

I'm not saying be uninformed I'm just saying if you give an hour to watching news or clicking reels or X or Twitter or whatever it's called now whatever you do spend more time on the scriptures.

Get to know Jesus the true and better Israel life comes from him not from anywhere else he is the pearl of great price he is the treasure hidden in the field that's available to everyone but only found by those who seek him he is those things and you will find everything that your heart desires from him and nothing else.

Happy Mother's Day y'all let me pray Jesus all of this is yours.

Revelation says that from you are all things and to you are all things you deserve the glory the honor the praise the strength the power everything and so we have this space in this text where you are seeking to speak to us and remind us to stay encouraged to keep praying.

You are doing work beyond our imagination and you love to hear our requests and outdo them.

You love us more than we can even possibly fathom and we need special divine power to even contain the weight of it.

And God you are doing much more in the world than what we can see with our eyes and hear with our ears on the news or anywhere else.

And so do that thing shift our hearts change us mold us into people that reflect you so well that become so like you that your peace is our peace your love our love your joy our joy that we look random in a world filled with the same thing and we'll only do that by you your spirit working within us so I pray that you would do that in Jesus' name.

Amen we're going to take communion we have this beautiful thing he was he was cursed on a tree so that we could actually eat the blessings of bread and cup and all those things so we get to do that.

So if you helped us set up communion please come and stand here.

As always we encourage you to receive communion with gratitude.

It is a celebration of the fact that you didn't have to die for your own sins.

Somebody took that on and so if you're sitting in your own sin right now and it's still weighing you down just know that that's already been taken from you it's just hard for you to let go of.

And so you can receive the the gift of giving that to him again and be like take that one too I'm still thinking about that.

I'm still dealing with shame and guilt over those things.

Give those things to him.

But come take communion then make your way back to your seats and we will commune together and eat the bread and drink the juice and then we will continue with our worship service.

Come as you feel led