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#20241201 - Tend The Fire - Mark 9:14-29 · Calvary Church with Ed Taylor Podcast

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Welcome to the study of God's Word recorded live at Calvary
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Church in Aurora, Co. To learn more about the many
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resources available through Abounding Grace Media or to tune
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into our live stream services, visit us online at Calvary Co
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dot Church or download our free Calvary Church app.
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Now let's open our Bibles and study God's Word.
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So it's interesting, I picked Leviticus Chapter 6 because over
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the course of the last year, probably longer, but especially
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in the last year, the Lord has been challenging me personally
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with my personal loyalty to him. And I found that offensive at
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first. I didn't like that.
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And I also it hurt my feelings when I felt like he said that to
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me. So I tried to go back and back
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and back and be like, maybe I didn't hear that right, but I
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did. And the Lord is challenging me
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that He doesn't just want me to do ministry or to serve Him or
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to worship Him or be a part of what's going on, just in ways
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that I enjoy. But He wants to stretch me
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beyond that. And He wants me to be loyal to
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Him, not to what I want to do for Him.
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And so as we've been having this conversation back and forth, the
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Lord has also just given me a, a desire to do a little bit of
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study in church history. And so I've been looking at the
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early church. And as I've been reading through
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and listening to podcasts and doing different things on the
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early church, I'm always fascinated and struck by how
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much suffering they experienced. And for centuries, you know, 3
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centuries, they suffered and they suffered and they suffered.
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They met in alleyways, they met in catacombs, they met in
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people's houses in the back of businesses, wherever they could
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just go and whisper out the name of Jesus or offer him some kind
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of praise, they did that. And as they did that, the Lord
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gave them a deep unity. And he also taught them a lot
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about worship. And in that process, he made
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them extremely bold amidst colossal suffering.
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So in the middle of this, they relied on the Lord in an
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intimate way, and they were able to do ministry to a world that
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was very hostile to them, a world that did not appreciate
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Jesus, did not appreciate the claims that he made to be God.
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They didn't want them to gather together and meet together,
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that's for sure. And so in the middle of all of
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this happening, they had great success in spreading the gospel
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because they didn't kill the Romans.
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They loved them and they pursued the Lord in what he wanted to
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do, and they moved in power because they used the word of
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God not as a way or a weapon to end a conversation, but as a way
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to deepen it, to take them further.
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And so in the middle of this process, I'm reminded of the
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Apostle Paul saying that our face should have a certain type
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of smell, a certain kind of aroma.
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We should have a fragrance that is being offered.
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Now to some, they will deeply appreciate this and they will
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long to be around you just because they can't get enough of
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that, that scent. There's something different
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about this person. There's something going on in
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their life. They, they just, they're not
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like everyone else. For others, they'll catch a
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whiff of your faith or or a hint of it, and they'll immediately
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become hostile. It's repulsive to them.
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It's pungent. They don't want to be around it.
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They don't want you around. They don't want to be reminded
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that they're broken. They don't want to be reminded
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that they don't know what's going to happen to them when
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they die, which inevitably we will.
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And so as I was reading through this, I came across a story from
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2:50 AD. Now prior to 250 AD, the Roman
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Empire had persecution of believers, but it tended to be
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localized. If you found yourself living
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under a good governor, you might be in a more lenient area or
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region. Then it might go better for you.
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If you were under a harsh one and one that particularly hated
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Jesus, then it would be worse for you.
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But in 250, ADA, new emperor came to the Roman throne.
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His name was Decius. And so began a dark period in
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Roman history called the DC and Persecution.
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Now as the DC and persecution unfolded, it was the first
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empire wide persecution of Christians.
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There was no safe place. There was no quarter you.
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You couldn't go anywhere where you could escape being
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persecuted. If you threw your faith behind
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Jesus and you put your lot in with him, you would suffer.
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It was non negotiable. There's a story about a judge
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who was doing just this, carrying out the the DC and
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persecution. His name was Sabinas.
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And as Sabinas was doing this, he was interrogating an older
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man. And this man was very
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intimidated. And as Sabinas pressed him, as
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he reminded him of the consequences of following Jesus
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and tried to erode and shake him to the place to where he would
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falter and he would give up his faith, he would just let him
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walk out of the room, just deny Jesus.
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This man began to stumble. You could tell his voice was was
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quaking. He was afraid.
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He was started to back off with some of the claims.
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He started to to dodge some of the things that were happening.
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And as he was about to turn on his faith, turn on Jesus, what
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happened was out of the corner of the room, 4 Roman soldiers
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rushed the table. Obviously Sabinus was afraid,
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not really sure what was happening.
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And these Roman soldiers threw down their swords and declared
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their faith in Jesus as well. Because you see, they were
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believers in Jesus, and they couldn't stand the thought of a
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brother faltering. And so they came to his aid, and
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they declared their faith in Jesus, and they also sealed
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their fate as martyrs. There was an older man in the
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room named Theophilus who also got up and came over and boldly
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declared his faith in Jesus. And as they made this profession
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of faith, they strengthened this guy who is timid in his faith.
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And as I was listening to that and thinking about Leviticus 6,
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I realized I desire more and more to live that kind of life
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and ask hard questions along the way where I could be loyal to
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Jesus, I can be singularly focused on him and not being
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afraid of death. And so here at Calvary, we have
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a vision and you'll see it everywhere.
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It's wind, disciple and send. And it's not just a catchy
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slogan. It's something that we very much
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hope people will fall in love with Jesus, that they will
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choose to grow in him and choose to go out and scatter wherever
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he would take them. We want our lives to be oriented
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around Jesus. So as we read Leviticus, what's
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interesting is it largely deals with worship, largely deals
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actually with God's presence among us and the way that God
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wants to interact with us and the way that he would like us to
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interact with him. And so as this is all being laid
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out, I want you to pick up with me in Leviticus chapter 6, verse
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8. And this is the law of the burnt
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offering. So then the Lord spoke to Moses,
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saying, command Aaron and his sons, saying, this is the law of
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the burnt offering. The burnt offering shall be upon
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the hearth, upon the altar all night until morning, and the
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fire of the altar should be kept burning on it.
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And the priest shall put upon, let's say, shall put on his
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linen garment and his linen trousers, and he shall put on
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his body and take up the ashes of the burnt offering which the
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fire has consumed on the altar. He shall put them beside the
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altar. And then he shall take off his
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garments and put on other garments, and carry the ashes
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outside the camp to a clean place.
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And the fire on the altar shall be kept burning on it.
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It shall not be put out, and the priest shall burn the wood on it
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every morning, and lay the burnt offering in order on it, and he
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shall burn on it the fat of the peace offering.
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A fire shall always be burning on the altar.
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It shall never go out. You see, as they worship the
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Lord, there's this continual process where somebody has to
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man the fire. We have to be engaged in the
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worship and what God is doing with him being in the room just
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as we are this morning, we're worshiping the Lord.
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God is in the room right now. It's not a mistake that He
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brought you in here. And so as they're engaged in
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this process that goes all throughout the night and then
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into the morning, what ends up happening is they would cut up
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the sacrifice. And when the fire would wane,
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they would throw fresh sacrifice onto the fire.
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It would keep the process going. It would keep it burning.
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And so they would offer sacrifices one at a time until
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they were emptied of themselves, and then they would take out the
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ashes, they would bring more, and they would begin the process
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again. And a lot of that looks like our
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lives with the Lord where we have to continually be engaged
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in what he's doing. We have to continually be a part
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of a process where God will stretch us.
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He will ask for different things from us at different points in
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our life for us to keep the fire going, for us to keep it fresh,
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vibrant, for us to be around what the Lord is wanting to do
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for that fragrance and that aroma to continue.
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You'll notice in verse 10 that it it says that he needs to put
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on his clothes the priest, and then he would take the ashes of
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the burnt offering which the fire consumed on the altar and
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put them down next to the altar. That's interesting.
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Most of us, we would see ashes as trash.
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We would dump it or toss it, get rid of it somehow just to remove
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it from the area. Because you see, if there are
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ashes on the altar, the fire is not going to burn very well,
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right? So you need to clear the ashes
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off, make space for a fresh fire.
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And as they're doing that, what's interesting is they treat
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the ashes, the memory of their worship to God as holy.
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You see, their ashes are not important because they're ashes.
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They're important because of where they are.
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They were offered to the Lord and worship, and so even the
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memory of what God had done in their worship time, even the
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memory of what God has done in your heart and your life should
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be treated and treasured with respect because of what the Lord
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has done. It was to be deposited into a
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clean place where there wasn't any garbage, no animal
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carcasses, nothing that would defile the ashes.
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And so as they took care of them, what we see is they are
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moving them to a new spot. And so I want to encourage us
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this morning that a lot of us have stories with the Lord.
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A lot of us have experiences. A lot of us have things that
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we're grateful for, things that were tough that He brought us
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through. But I will tell you that you
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can't live there. That cannot be where you peak or
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where you get stuck in your worship.
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You have to allow the Lord to do a fresh thing.
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And so often what that means is not getting stuck living in a
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loop of the past, but treating what the Lord has done with
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honour and also making space for him to do something new and
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fresh. New steps of faith.
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Because you see, ashes don't sustain a fire.
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What God did for you last year, 10 years ago, 20 years ago,
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that's great. It's part of your story.
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It's part of your story with Him.
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But it won't sustain you going forward.
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You can't just put your faith on cruise control and expect the
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fire to continue. It doesn't work like that.
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And so you need a fresh move of the Lord.
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And you read in verse 12 and it says that the fire should be
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kept burning on the altar. It shouldn't be put out.
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Verse 13 it says again, a fire shall always be burning on the
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altar. You can underline that word
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always. It should never go out.
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And part of the reason why this is so special is because three
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chapters later, as things are being laid out for how the Lord
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wants to be worshipped, fire would come from heaven in
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Leviticus 922 and it would consume the offering.
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And so the fire was meeting the sacrifice, and the fire was
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God's approval. It was God's personally
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reception, his personal reception of what the people
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could offer. It was his way of blessing it.
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And so it was very important that the fire didn't dwindle.
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Now, today, we don't have priests.
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We don't need priests. There's no barrier between US
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and the Lord. But we are the priesthood of
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believers if we have faith in Jesus.
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And so as we keep the fire that the Lord has, it's important for
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us to remember that the ever burning sacrifice going on was a
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token and a symbol of God's presence among his people.
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It was crucial that they kept the fire going.
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There was an author who wrote this, thought I very much
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appreciate it, and said in the end you always get a combination
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of two things, what you create and what you tolerate.
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The adventures you have with the Lord are the ones that you put
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on default and you don't have, but whatever that looks like is
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where you are. Luke chapter 12, verse 49, Jesus
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addresses fire himself. He says I've come to set the
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world on fire. I wish it were already burning.
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In the context of this passage, Jesus is hoping for his people
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that follow him, that they would live a life on fire, that they
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would live a life of passion, of fervor that wouldn't wane or
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sputter or dwindle or wherever else can happen.
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But Jesus said that he would first have to go to the cross.
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And when he went to the cross, we see in Acts chapter 2 that
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the Holy Spirit of God comes on Pentecost with tongues of fire
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and rests on his church. He rests on the people.
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He gives them his approval and he's creating Spirit filled
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witnesses for taking the gospel out into a very unfriendly
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environment. But they didn't have to be
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afraid. Now if you'll turn with me over
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to Mark Chapter 9, The Gospel of Mark Chapter 9.
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If you have a Bible from the back, you'll find it on page
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696. That's interesting.
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There's a correlation here between Leviticus 6 and Mark
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Chapter 9 because we will see that the disciples, the people
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that Jesus personally pastored, and he prepared them for
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ministry, He was getting them ready for life without him,
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although they didn't quite understand that part of it.
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Jesus was pouring into them, and as Jesus goes up the mountain
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for the Transfiguration with Peter and James and John, nine
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of them are left to take care of things, to hold down the Fort
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where they were at. Now, as these nine guys are
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there, what ends up happening is the fire that has been so
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vibrant within them, and Jesus has given them authority over
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sickness, authority over the demonic, authority over people's
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lives in the way of bringing the gospel to them.
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They find themselves in a place for not acting in that
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authority, their fires waning, they're discouraged, they're
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challenged, they're beat down. And so as we look at this, Mark
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Chapter 9 begins at an important difference in Jesus ministry.
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Prior to the 9th chapter of Mark, Jesus is extending an
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invitation. He's going to a lot of different
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groups. He's making sure that people can
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hear what he wants to do. Mark 9 begins a shift where
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Jesus begins having them count the cost.
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Are you certain you want to live this life?
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Do you want to follow me? It's not really what you think
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it's going to be. The rewarding part is accurate,
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but the suffering part in being joined to Christ in his
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sufferings. That's the part that causes
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people to waver and waffle. And so as as we begin this
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process, let's pick up in verse 14 of the 9th chapter of Mark
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and it's talking of Jesus here and it says and when he came to
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the disciples, he saw a great multitude around them and
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scribes disputing with them. Immediately when they saw him,
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all the people were greatly amazed and running to him
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greeted him and he asked the scribes, what are you discussing
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with them? Then one of the crowd answered
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and said, Teacher, I brought you my son, who has a mute spirit,
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and wherever it seizes him, it throws him down.
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He foams at the mouth, gnashes his teeth, and becomes rigid.
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And so I spoke to your disciples that they should cast it out,
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but they could not. So we'll pause here.
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If you're taking notes before we continue, I want to have you
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consider this, that we cannot rely on other people's fires to
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warm our spiritual lives. You see, what this man was
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seeking was the ministry of Jesus.
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What he found were people who could not offer what he was
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seeking. And there was a possibility or a
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temptation here to waffle altogether.
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He had some level of faith. That's why he's there.
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He'd heard stories. He knew Jesus was powerful.
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Jesus could do something. So there was a measure of faith
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that this man had. But in watching how it played
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out, it struggled. You had a hard time with this.
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And so if he too closely relied on somebody else to keep his
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fire, he would have a problem. It's not other people's jobs to
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keep your spiritual fire. You're not grandfathered in to a
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relationship with Jesus. God has no grandchildren.
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He only has children. You have to have a relationship
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with him personally. William Barkley, the Scottish
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theologian, wrote. It is fatally easy to think of
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Christianity as something to be discussed and not as something
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to be experienced. Sometimes it's easy to throw our
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faith on autopilot. Heard the story before I've
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experienced this, I've whatever it might be, but we have to
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remember as many times as we've been in a situation, it's still
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unique to that person. We still have a a duty to seek
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the Lord for that person and to offer them what he would give
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us. So we find ourselves in 14.
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Jesus has just done the Transfiguration.
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So for those of you who are not familiar, Jesus took his closest
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disciples, Peter, James, and John, up on top of the mountain
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and revealed himself in his true form in his glory to them.
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Now, as they watch this, they saw Jesus beyond his physical
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body. They saw who he is.
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Moses and Elijah were there. It's a powerful retreat,
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powerful mountaintop experience. And as they're up there having
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this experience, Peter says, you know what, we should just stay
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here. Like we should never go back
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down. There's no reason to leave the
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mountaintop. And Jesus is like, Peter, you're
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out of your mind. Like we have to go back and do
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ministry of this. We didn't come here to hide out.
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We came here to reach the lost. So Peter comes down, come down
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the mountain. And as they begin to approach
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what's going on, Jesus finds the 9 arguing, having a fight with
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the scribes, who it's going to be a fruitless argument anyway
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because these people are so religious, they carry the name
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of God and they don't even know his heart.
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And so they're arguing about form, technique.
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They're arguing about stuff that doesn't matter.
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They're trying to implode the ministry of Jesus through these
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men. And as this is happening, isn't
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it just like the enemy to sow chaos?
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He sees an opportunity. He sees these guys and where
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they're at, whatever state their fire's in, and he says, OK, move
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in. And so the scribes move in and
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there's a lot of chaos going on. They're seeking to exploit a man
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who's bringing a suffering child to Jesus.
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If they really had the heart of God, they would have been
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ministering to this family. They could care less about
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what's going on. They're trying to make a point
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here and publicly embarrass their enemies.
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They're like sharks and smell blood in the water.
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And they began to circle what the Lord is doing.
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What makes this harder is as Jesus approaches, he saw a great
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crowd. This wasn't just a private
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altercation. It's public.
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People have gathered around to watch whether or not Jesus and
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his ministry can back up and hold up what they say it can.
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So as this is playing out and and happening, the scribes are
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questioning probably about the Master, the teaching, miracles,
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their mission. They're insulting them, making
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fun of them because they failed. The dad came with weak faith.
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He was struggling already just to get there.
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Now it's more damaged because these guys aren't able to
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perform in a certain way. But thankfully, Jesus came down
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the mountain, and so he's going to interact with Jesus and have
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a conversation with him. But what's unique about this
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case, if you pay attention to the wording, is that this little
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boy who had a demonic spirit inside of him terrorizing him,
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had a spirit that made him two things.
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One, mute. He couldn't speak.
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He couldn't articulate the pain he was in.
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He couldn't ask for help. He couldn't invite anybody in to
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the place where he was at. He was incredibly isolated.
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And then you also notice as we're going to read on, that the
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spirit made him deaf. He wasn't able to hear anybody
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offering him comfort, wasn't able to hear anybody offering
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him peace or trying to draw him out.
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And so because of this, it was an extremely difficult situation
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because Jewish exorcist that would deal with the demonic and
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deliverance type ministry believed that you had to get the
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name of a demon before you could cast it out.
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That was the only way to have control.
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Now, if this child can't speak and there's no way to really
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access what's going on, this kid for all intents and purposes,
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can just be written off, disregarded.
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Perhaps that's why they didn't even try.
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They saw this family as a lost cause.
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And so the religious spirit that they had was more focused on
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being right and embarrassing those they disagreed with than
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reaching the people that the Lord cared about.
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Peter's probably thinking, this is exactly why I wanted to stand
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the mountain. Thanks Jesus.
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You know, and sometimes God brings us into difficult
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situations right after we have a good one.
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And so as they're in the middle of this, the, the leaders are
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fighting, the Father's hurting, the little boy is possessed and
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he's cut off and the 9 are deflated.
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The fire that they have for Jesus probably looks more like a
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dumpster fire at this point. That's just, that's just bad.
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It's, it's not good, not a good aroma.
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Nothing good happening. And they were surprised by Jesus
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appearance. And so they ran to, to greet him
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for the disciples. They were probably relieved,
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even though they'd have to somehow explain what what
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happened. And they were probably
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embarrassed for the religious leaders.
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They were shocked because they picked this moment to embarrass
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them. When Jesus was out and here he
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comes for the Father. He probably didn't know what to
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think except he'd been let down. He sought out the ministry of
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the Lord and wasn't able to find what he was looking for.
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And So what you find is Jesus walks into everybody more or
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less in a state of crisis. And as Jesus comes into the
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story, he begins to ask the scribes, what are you guys
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talking about? Not that he didn't know, but
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just making a point that these guys are standing around
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chatting. They're selfish, they're
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calloused, and they're calculated and cunning and how
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they're doing their their work. But God would operate
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differently as a tender and caring shepherd.
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And so he says in verse 17, I teach, I brought you my son in
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Luke Chapter 9, which is a parallel passage to this, which
26:07
records it through a different eyewitness.
26:10
What the father says is that it's his only son, which would
26:15
complicate matters even more for him because in this culture,
26:20
everything, family name, wealth, anything that you had passed
26:23
through the sun that was essentially gone.
26:27
Those dreams, those hopes are gone, but he's still alive.
26:31
But he's basically just not able to interact with him in any
26:35
point in time because he's in so much bondage.
26:39
And so as they're here, the father is saying that the mute
26:45
spirit is in his son, that he was not able to communicate the
26:50
depth of pain he was in or why he was in it.
26:53
It was inarticulate as he's suffering and he's there.
26:58
It's very cruel to watch the enemy having stripped this kid
27:03
of his voice. Now, sometimes as we are engaged
27:09
in spiritual warfare, as we're going through seasons that are
27:12
difficult for us, we feel like the enemy robs us of even being
27:17
able to express where we're at, what's going on.
27:21
And it feels like he, he strips us of our dignity and he strips
27:25
us of our voice. And that's where the family is.
27:29
The dad had a voice, but he also really didn't know what to say.
27:33
And so they brought it to Jesus. You know, it's, it's interesting
27:38
as you read it, the Matthew 17, which is another parallel
27:41
passage, says that he came to Jesus kneeling on his knees in
27:47
the dirt, begging him, saying Lord, have mercy on my son
27:51
because you see, he is suffering severely.
27:58
Verse 18, he recounts, if you'll read with me, it says wherever
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it seizes him, it throws him down.
28:06
He foams at the mouth, gnashes his teeth and becomes rigid.
28:09
So I spoke to your disciples that they should cast it out,
28:12
but they could not. What's interesting is is you're
28:15
watching this the the spirit wants to destroy him, but
28:19
instead of just getting to it and finishing him, he's
28:22
relishing torturing him. From time to time we run into
28:26
people here who are demonized to have demonic type spirit inside
28:30
of them. And what's always crushing is
28:33
how the enemy seeks to play with them like a cat and mouse before
28:37
he finishes them off. And so in the middle of this,
28:41
the kids literally trapped in his own body as a hostage, his
28:45
dad recounts like, here's the problem.
28:48
It seizes him. Wherever it might be in public,
28:52
it might be at home, maybe it's a synagogue.
28:55
We can't control it. We don't we.
28:57
There's no controlling this. And what's happening.
29:00
It takes him in the original language, literally.
29:03
It grabs him. It takes control of him.
29:06
He loses his motor functions. It throws him.
29:10
He starts convulsing. He starts foaming at the mouth
29:13
like he's rabid. He is seized, tears him like
29:19
he's hemorrhaging and he gnashes his teeth because even though he
29:22
can't talk, he's in excessive pain.
29:25
It's cruel. It's disgusting to watch him
29:29
suffer like this. And so the dad says, I brought
29:34
them here to your guys and they couldn't help me.
29:39
Mark 6. They've been given that
29:40
authority 3 chapters before and they exercised it.
29:43
But this was different. This was unique.
29:46
There's something wrong here. And so as you hear, you can read
29:52
the constant wounding of this dad as he's reliving that this
29:57
has been going on. He aches for his son.
29:59
He's helpless to his bondage. He's in a downward spiral.
30:03
What can he do? And the source of his struggling
30:09
faith is his hurting child. That's what's getting at his
30:13
heart. That's what's causing his fire
30:15
to wane the most. So if you're taking notes with
30:19
me, I want you to consider the second thought.
30:22
Fire will burn crooked sticks the same as straight ones.
30:27
It just needs fresh kindling. You see this dad didn't know the
30:32
right questions to ask. He didn't have all the right
30:34
addresses of Scripture. He didn't have a doctorate in
30:37
theology. What he knows is his son is in
30:40
trouble. Jesus can do something about it.
30:44
I believe that he can do something about it.
30:47
So I'm going to go. His faith isn't polished.
30:50
It's not perfectly straight without any issue.
30:53
It's crooked, it's bent in places.
30:56
But God will meet him where he is as he takes a fresh step of
30:59
faith and God will receive that. So it's interesting if you pick
31:04
up with me in 19, Jesus handles it from here.
31:07
And he says he answered him and said, oh faithless generation,
31:12
how long will I be with you? How long will I bear with you?
31:16
Bring him to me. Then they brought him to him,
31:19
and when they saw him, immediately the Spirit
31:22
convulsed. He fell on the ground and
31:25
wallowed, foaming at the mouth. So he asked his father, how long
31:30
has this been happening to him? And he said from childhood.
31:34
And often he is thrown in both into the fire and into the water
31:38
to destroy him. But if you can do anything, have
31:42
compassion on us and help us pay attention to the word us.
31:49
Underline that this goes beyond speaking for his boy.
31:53
Now he's speaking for them collectively.
31:58
There's great damage that's been done to our family.
32:01
I feel this. I feel this as if I were him.
32:05
Maybe there are days that Dad wished he was him just so his
32:09
son could have some relief, but he can't trade places with him.
32:14
And so it goes on. In 23, it says Jesus said to
32:17
him, if you can believe, all things are possible to him who
32:20
believes. And immediately the father of
32:23
the child cried out and said with tears, Lord, I believe,
32:28
help my unbelief. What's interesting here is a lot
32:33
of us live out our faith in ways where we feel like we can't
32:36
express any questions we have. We can't express if we have
32:42
doubts. And So what happens is we think
32:45
we're the only ones and we think that we can't maybe say it out
32:50
loud. We don't want God to know.
32:51
We don't want to hurt his feelings.
32:53
We don't want to be pushed away from him.
32:56
And so we just keep it inside and we wrestle with these
32:58
doubts. But I will encourage you this
33:00
morning, We all have doubts. All of us have times that test
33:05
the limits of our relationship with the Lord, where we find
33:10
Him, where we find ourselves, where we find those that we care
33:13
about and we love. And so I would encourage you
33:18
this morning, faith isn't about a lack of doubt.
33:22
It's about challenging that doubt.
33:25
You have to press in. You have to push into the Lord.
33:29
You have to allow your questions to have answers.
33:32
And even if they don't, you have to trust the character of the
33:35
one who draws us. Amelia Earhart, who's a pilot,
33:40
said the most difficult thing is the decision to act.
33:44
The rest is merely tenacity. You have to make a decision on
33:48
what you're going to do and how you're going to live.
33:51
Verse 19, Jesus addresses the problem right away and he says
33:56
here's the deal for my people, my disciples who know better,
34:01
for the dad who's not really quite sure where he is, but he
34:05
has some faith and for the religious leaders who are here
34:09
acting as men of faith but clearly don't have any, he says
34:14
you're faithless. Jesus diagnosis the problem
34:19
right away. All of them were running a
34:23
deficit in faith. All of them were in a place
34:28
where they were in the wrong place.
34:30
But Jesus has compassion and he says, you know what?
34:33
Bring him to me. And so, and Jesus gives this
34:38
command and the demon knows his time is coming to an end for
34:43
torture. And he starts making use of his
34:46
ticking clock and he starts going after this kid and making
34:49
a spectacle, maybe causing intimidation or fear for those
34:54
who are around. It's interesting when Jesus says
34:57
that they're faithless, he never addresses that He's irritated at
35:03
the low condition he's in with leaving heaven, with putting up
35:06
with disease, poverty, people being cruel to each other,
35:11
people not recognizing what's important in life.
35:14
Jesus doesn't address that. What Jesus is annoyed by is how
35:19
long he should be with those that are faithless, those that
35:23
refuse to even try, those that refuse to trust him.
35:27
He's bothered by their unbelieving hearts, not for
35:32
those who try, but for those who don't.
35:36
Jesus was just up on the mountain with the
35:38
transfiguration, interacting with heaven.
35:41
He comes down the mountain to find a demon.
35:43
He interacts with this and defies hell.
35:46
The dominion in the rain and rule of Jesus Christ doesn't
35:49
have an end. He will go anywhere in the human
35:53
condition to draw people to him and to bring them out.
35:56
And he will go with power. And so as he does this, maybe
36:01
you're in a place this morning where you feel like you are
36:03
locked in to discouragement, to despair.
36:08
Maybe you feel like the flame that God had once put inside of
36:12
you that you were so passionate about Jesus, so excited to just
36:15
be in the room with him. It's flickered, it's been doused
36:20
a little bit. You're struggling.
36:24
And as we're in this place, I want to encourage you with John
36:27
chapter 6, verses 36 through 38 that says Jesus speaking.
36:32
But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe
36:37
all that the Father gives me will come to me.
36:39
And the one who comes to me, I will by no means cast out.
36:44
I will by no means cast out. Jesus pushes no one away who
36:49
comes to him sincerely. Verse 38 says, For I've come
36:54
down from heaven not to do my own will, but the will of him
36:56
who sent me. You see that Jesus is
36:59
challenging him. Give me the faith you have.
37:01
Let me see your boy. You're here.
37:03
The crooked stick will burn. It's OK.
37:07
And we learned from the word that the demon sought to take
37:11
his very life, but before it did so, it wanted to terrorize him.
37:18
But also the demon had not been successful in taking his life
37:21
yet. So the demon would pull him up
37:24
and throw him into the fire. He's probably scarred,
37:31
disfigured. It would take him by the water
37:35
where kids love to play, and it would try to drown him and make
37:39
any source of pleasure a source of terror in his life.
37:43
And so as he's experiencing this, he can't explain what's
37:46
going on. There's a lot of people that
37:49
come around Jesus who are in a similar place where something is
37:53
wrong is a something missing as a hole.
37:58
I don't know how to patch it. I don't know what to do with
38:01
this. I I'm not sure where to take it.
38:05
I I'm in pain. I can't articulate it.
38:07
I don't really know what all the source is or where it is.
38:11
But Jesus would still say to you compassionately, but with power,
38:17
bring them to me. Come to me.
38:21
We often estimate the power of the church by looking at the
38:24
leaders or traditions or denomination or association, or
38:29
how many members a church has, or how nice it's building is.
38:33
But none of those things are the source of power for the church.
38:37
They're just things. Jesus Christ is the source of
38:41
power for his church and the Spirit of God during ministry
38:45
among his people in his presence.
38:47
Being in the room is the power of God.
38:51
So they brought him to Jesus. They'd already tried it with his
38:54
people. They failed, but they thought,
38:55
hey, let's try it again. As soon as they did this, the
38:59
Spirit in him begins to make a spectacle, begins to convulse.
39:05
It begins to make the child lose any kind of dignity.
39:09
Maybe it had before as the child was standing there.
39:13
And so as this is happening, it's manifesting.
39:16
It falls on the ground. It's not able to stand.
39:20
And I want you to pay attention to something.
39:23
The enemy in the presence of Jesus is, yes, trying to
39:26
intimidate, but notice where it's at.
39:29
He's on the ground in the dirt, falling before Jesus.
39:34
And I will tell you, however irreverent the enemy might be in
39:38
your life, he will fall before Jesus.
39:42
And you need to remember that. You need to remind yourself of
39:46
who your God is. So as he's on the ground and
39:50
he's foaming and still Jesus does nothing.
39:52
He's having a conversation with the dad.
39:56
Jesus is super calm, uncomfortably calm.
40:00
Perhaps he's just chit chatting. Maybe those around are
40:07
wondering. Maybe Jesus say, can you see
40:10
what I see? Because it looks bad like what I
40:13
see is bad. And Jesus is just engaging the
40:16
Father. He's stocking his faith,
40:19
stocking the fire, building the expectation for this dad.
40:24
Maybe he's also allowing just the depth and the breadth of the
40:29
problem to be exposed so that when he conquers it, everybody
40:33
will give glory to a God who doesn't bow to anything.
40:38
He's matchless and unrivalled. He's powerful.
40:42
So as Jesus does this, he's not impressed.
40:45
He's talking with the dad. He asked how long this has been
40:47
going. The dad describes a lost
40:50
childhood, lost dreams. He's clearly discouraged.
40:54
The dad probably can't take his eyes off his son because he
40:58
cares for him deeply. It matters to him what's going
41:01
on, which is why it's interesting that it doesn't say.
41:05
But the dad's the only one mentioned who still has faith or
41:09
maybe has faith at all to bring his son to Jesus.
41:13
So as he's there in 22, he asked Jesus if he could do anything,
41:20
have compassion on us. I know he's a mess Jesus, but if
41:24
you have mercy, he's expressing a fragile faith that was weak at
41:29
1st and has been more damaged by his people.
41:33
Maybe feels like the discouragement is the ground
41:36
opening up and swallowing him and his son in this moment.
41:41
And as he's there, he recounts just the terror of the fire in
41:45
the water. And he asked him to have
41:48
compassion on him. And it's possible that you're in
41:52
a place this morning where you feel forgotten.
41:55
And I will tell you that you don't need to beg Jesus to care.
41:59
You don't need to beg God to be good.
42:02
You don't need to hope against hope that he's powerful or he
42:07
has the ability to take care of your situation because he does.
42:11
He's very calm. He has it under control.
42:13
He knows what he's doing. So he didn't know that Jesus
42:18
actually loved his son much more than he loved his Son.
42:23
Jesus was much more invested from the moment he left heaven,
42:26
and he's about to go to the cross and give up his life for
42:30
each person, including his son. He deeply loves his Son.
42:34
Jesus isn't neutral. He's not calloused.
42:37
He's not ambivalent towards the situation that the son is in and
42:43
he identifies with the father just like this father is
42:49
identifying with his son using terminology us.
42:53
But God can handle this. And so maybe this morning as I'm
42:57
talking, you have somebody on your mind that you can picture.
43:01
Maybe it's you, maybe it's a spouse or a child or friend or
43:07
something that you are trying to breathe out some kind of a
43:11
believing prayer. You hope the Lord can handle
43:15
what's going on and he can save you.
43:17
And I'll tell you, if you can breathe that out, God can work
43:20
in the situation. He responds to faith, even
43:24
crooked faith. And so as that's happening and
43:27
you're throwing that out, you might be wondering, Pastor, you
43:30
don't understand what I'm going through.
43:34
And you're right, I don't. I'm not you.
43:36
I'm not your situation. I have my own situations.
43:39
I've had to trust the Lord. And you might say it's kind of
43:43
ridiculous. What are you saying?
43:44
I'm just supposed to throw myself on Jesus?
43:47
And I'll say, yeah, you are. Because where else can you go?
43:54
There's nowhere else to go. You have to throw yourself on
43:57
Jesus. And I promise he'll be good.
44:00
And so he corrects the Father in this moment.
44:02
And he even in verse 23 says if the Father used if, if you could
44:09
have compassion on us as a word of doubt, Jesus uses it as a
44:13
Word of Faith. If you can believe, all things
44:17
are possible to him who believes.
44:19
You see, Pastor Ed tells us a lot that the job of a leader is
44:22
to define reality for people. Often people come in and they
44:26
say, well, this is my problem. And you can clearly see that's
44:28
not your problem. It is a problem, but it's a
44:31
symptom. It's not a source.
44:34
And so people will come to a pastor, they'll come to a
44:37
believer, and they'll say, hey, just make it go away, just fix
44:41
it. And what happens is a lot of
44:44
times what they want to do is they just want the pain.
44:47
They want some kind of comfort, some measure of peace so they
44:50
can go on like they were. And when you encounter Jesus, he
44:53
doesn't leave you like you were. If your only source of fire are
44:59
ashes that the Lord has done in your life years and years ago,
45:02
you're looking at it wrong. Your perspective is off.
45:07
You see this dad thought that the problem was God.
45:10
God was not the problem. People were the problem.
45:15
People were weak, not God. God's not weak.
45:18
And it says, if you can believe in verse 23, all things are
45:25
possible to him who believes. And so Jesus emboldens this
45:30
dad's faith, essentially challenging him.
45:32
Do you dare trust me? Do you dare to trust me with
45:36
this? And the dad responds, I believe,
45:40
help my unbelief. And as he's confessing this and
45:44
acknowledging his weakness, God is giving birth to something
45:48
inside of him. He says it with tears.
45:53
What Jesus is asking him to believe for is hard.
45:57
It's huge. It's something that frankly has
46:00
not been done in their family. And so because that's the case,
46:05
that the sons never lived in a place where he was healthier,
46:08
good, it challenges and stretches his faith.
46:13
It puts him in a wrestling match and a struggle with the Lord and
46:16
what he was calling him to do. There's a lot going on for this
46:20
dad. He's probably carrying a ton of
46:23
loneliness. He's trying to carry this
46:26
burden, figure out what's what. But he invites Jesus to fill in
46:29
the defects in his faith, the cracks, the fissures that have
46:33
opened up, and two remarkable things are happening here.
46:37
One, he's honestly owning the presence of his doubt to God,
46:45
not to somebody else, not in secret, not in his own heart.
46:48
He's talking to the Lord about his doubt.
46:51
The second remarkable thing here is that he trusted that if he
46:55
did that, and he can ask God and admit that he doubted, but admit
47:01
that he would follow him nonetheless, what would happen
47:06
was God would battle for him. And So what you witness is that
47:10
a sputtering faith has just been ignited.
47:15
All of a sudden there's some trust here for God's ability to
47:19
handle something. Potentially.
47:21
He's not all there, but he's willing to go there.
47:24
And the third thought, if you guys are taking notes, is that
47:28
fire must be tended and not taken for granted.
47:32
You can't walk away from a fire and expect it to be vibrant.
47:36
You can't leave it and expect to be warm.
47:39
You can't walk away from fire and expect to have light.
47:43
You have to be near the fire. You have to tend it, the Puritan
47:47
John Owen wrote. If the word does not dwell with
47:50
us or sorry, with power in US, it will not pass with power from
47:55
us. We have to raise our
47:57
expectations of who God is, of what he's capable of, and then
48:01
we have to take him at his word and he says he's someone.
48:07
And we need proper perspective for this.
48:10
And as believers, it's easy to lose perspective.
48:14
You know, in the 13th century, there was a man named Kublai
48:18
Khan. Kublai Khan was a grandson of
48:21
Genghis Khan who had conquered much of Asia, portions of Europe
48:26
and the Middle East. And so as the empire was
48:29
expanding and it was at its height, Kublai Khan meets
48:33
someone named Marco Polo and is intrigued by the claims of
48:39
Christ. That's interesting.
48:42
We worship this guy. I want to know more.
48:45
So he writes to the church in Europe and he asks them, please
48:49
send someone who can explain all this to me.
48:52
I don't get it. But if they can explain it, we
48:57
are willing to convert to Christianity.
49:01
It's a pretty bold claim. So Marco Polo goes back, the
49:05
church has completely lost focus of their mission, completely
49:10
lost their fire in perspective. They're locked in the middle of
49:13
a political fight for who's going to be in control of what
49:17
and what the buildings are going to look like and who's going to
49:19
have what power and position and all those things.
49:23
It took them 10 years to send two illiterate monks back to
49:28
Asia. At this point in time, this
49:31
empire that stretched from Korea to Hungary in Europe, 1/6 of the
49:37
of the Earth's landmass had converted to Islam.
49:42
And today we still see much of Central Asia, much of the Middle
49:46
East, portions of that area that were lost.
49:50
Not that there is not a persecuted church or a remnant
49:53
there, there is but a missed opportunity to carry the gospel
49:58
forward because the fire weighing in the perspective was
50:01
off. Verse 25 says when Jesus saw
50:06
that the people came running together, he rebuked the unclean
50:09
spirit, saying to a deaf and dumb spirit, I command you, come
50:13
out of him and enter him. No more than the spirit cried
50:17
out, convulsed him greatly, and came out of him, and he became
50:22
as one dead, so that many said He is dead but Jesus, I know I'm
50:28
not. But Jesus, it took him by the
50:31
hand and lifted him up, and he arose.
50:36
See, Jesus announces, this is the end of terror for you.
50:39
It's over. And the demon responds
50:42
accordingly by shrieking, convulsing, and submitting to
50:47
the will of God against its will.
50:49
Because God is greater and stronger.
50:52
And the closer that the life and power of Jesus gets, the more
50:55
the enemy will fight you for that.
50:57
But he will not win. You see, Jesus in that moment
51:01
was confronting the powers of hell, but he was the Lord of
51:05
life, the healer, the matchless and unrivalled one, the great
51:09
Physician, the one who knows no difficulty.
51:12
He's the friend of sinners, and he's there combating hell for
51:18
this kid who can't advocate for himself and building up the
51:22
faith in the fire of his dad. Now the kid was in a bad spot
51:27
for sure, but he was in a better spot than he thought because he
51:29
was with Jesus, and Jesus was able to handle what he was going
51:33
to do. And at once, with the touch of
51:36
Christ, the cure was done. And Jesus lifts him up and saves
51:42
him, brings him out when everybody else didn't think he
51:45
could rise again because they thought he was dead.
51:48
Jesus takes care of it and calls him forward.
51:53
This morning I want you to consider what the disciples will
51:58
ask Jesus privately in verse 28 in their shame.
52:03
It says when he had come into the house, his disciples asked
52:07
him privately, why could we not cast it out?
52:11
They knew that they'd had experienced, they knew they had
52:14
a Commission. They'd been down that road
52:16
before. They knew that they had some
52:18
clout being next to the Master, but they were unable to do what
52:23
needed to be done. And so Jesus answers them.
52:27
He says this kind come out by nothing but prayer and fasting.
52:34
Jesus doesn't say it's because you're unworthy, it's because
52:37
you've fallen out of favor with me.
52:39
It's because I don't care anymore.
52:41
He says actually when you want to do deeper ministry, you need
52:46
more intimacy with me. It's an invitation for him to
52:49
draw them closer. And maybe they were afraid of
52:55
this and that optics. Who knows.
52:56
But the whole thing centered on their lack of faith.
52:59
And if they had their faith, no demon or power of hell could
53:02
stand against the church. It just can't happen.
53:06
Pastor Ed tells us a lot. Big doors turn on small hinges,
53:11
and that's true. A little bit of faith will shift
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something in your life drastically.
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Intimacy with the Lord fuels. Faith will be a source that's
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powerful for that flame inside of you.
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And so as I invite the pastors and the worship team to come
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back and we wind down for this morning, I think that the Lord's
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intent for each of us is that we would have a fresh encounter
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with Him, that He can stretch our faith to keep us from
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getting mechanical. But He doesn't want to break us.
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He doesn't snuff out a smoldering Wick.
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He doesn't break off that bruised Reed, but instead he
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came to heal what's wrong. He came to heal what's broken
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and out of place. And you know, it's interesting
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that Jesus doesn't tell them the problem is because of the demon
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or the problem is the case of the child, because I've never
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dealt with this before. He doesn't say the problem is
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because of the devil. You see, the enemy makes himself
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big in our life, but that's not the issue.
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The issue is whether or not we can trust God to take us beyond
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what we see and what we believe and what we know.
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And you can, you know, it's super important as a church that
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we don't market or peddle Jesus to people.
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We try to get people to sign up or we play a numbers game or
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whatever it might be. That's not the point.
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We don't market Jesus to people. We introduce people to him, and
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maybe you don't know him this morning and you need a touch
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like that. And even if you have a little
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bit of belief that Jesus can do that for you, I want to invite
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you to accept him. I want to invite you to consider
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laying down your life, as broken as it may be, and resting in
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full dependence upon the strength and power of heaven
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upon Jesus Christ. Hebrews chapter 12 verses 1 and
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2 says. Therefore, since we also have
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such a great cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let's rid
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ourselves of every obstacle and a sin which so easily entangles
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us. Let's run with endurance, the
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race that's set before us, looking only at Jesus, the
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originator and perfector of the faith, who for the joy set
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before him endured the Christ of the cross, despising the shame
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Jesus would face a ton of shame. He hated it.
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He hated what it did to him, what it does to people.
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But now he is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.
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If you would like to receive this Jesus and begin to follow
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him and invite God into your life, you believe that he is
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God, that he he lived among regular people because he loved
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us and he went to the cross and died in our place.
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Not that we could ask him to do it, but he did it anyway.
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We were still his enemies. And you believe that he rose
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from the dead and he stands powerful not just over the
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Kingdom of darkness, but over death itself.
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Then here's what I would ask you to believe.
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Romans 10/9 through 11 says if you openly declare that Jesus is
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the Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from
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the dead, you will be saved. You will be saved.
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You will be saved. It continues.
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For it is by believing in your heart that you are made right
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with God, and it is by openly declaring your faith that you
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are saved. As the Scripture tells us,
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anyone who trusts in him will never be put to shame.
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Never be put to shame. There's no shame in Jesus.
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There's only freedom. If you need him this morning,
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the pastures will be at the front.
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I invite you to come forward and to receive him.
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Thank you. We pray that you've been
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encouraged by this Bible study, delivered live from the
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sanctuary of Calvary Church. For prayer, call us at 87730
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Grace that's 877-304-7223. To listen to this message in its
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integrity or to join us for our live stream services, visit us
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online at Calvary Co dot Church or download our free Calvary
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Church app. Be blessed as you worship Jesus
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this week.