FBC Sunday Evening Service

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Evening Fellowship Service

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All right, good evening. Hope you had a good afternoon, a nice quiet day. Did you get outside and enjoy the wind today?
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It's a nice warm day. Let's turn in our hymnals tonight to number 369.
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Be focusing this evening a little bit on discipleship, following Jesus, being available to Him for whatever.
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And 369, Living for Jesus, fits right into that.
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Let's stand, shall we as we sing? Living for Jesus, a life that is true.
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Striving to please Him in all that we do.
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Yielding allegiance, glad -hearted and free.
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This is the pathway of blessing for me.
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O Jesus, Lord and Savior, I give myself to Thee.
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For Thou in Thine atonement didst give
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Thyself for me. I, Master, my heart shall be
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Thy throne. My life I give henceforth to live.
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O Christ, for Thee alone. So on the second stanza, what we'll do is we'll sing the second stanza and skip the chorus, do the third.
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So we'll go second stanza and then right into third. All right, let's do that on the second. Living for Jesus, who died in my place.
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Bearing on Calvary my sin and disgrace.
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Such love constrains me to answer
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His call. His leading and give
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Him my all. Living for Jesus, wherever.
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Doing each duty in His holy name.
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To suffer affliction and loss.
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Taking each trial as part of my cross.
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O Jesus, Lord and Savior, I give myself to Thee.
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For Thou in Thine atonement didst give
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Thyself for me. I, Master, my heart shall be
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Thy throne. My life I give henceforth to live.
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O Christ, for Thee alone. At the last.
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Living for Jesus through earth's little one.
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My dearest treasure, the light of His smile.
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Lost ones He died to redeem. To find rest in Him.
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O Jesus, Lord and Savior, I give myself to Thee.
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For Thou in Thine atonement didst give
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Thyself for me. Master, my heart shall be
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Thy throne. My life I give henceforth to live.
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O Christ, for Thee alone. Let's look to the
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Lord in prayer this evening. Stan, would you please lead us? Amen.
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Thank you. You may be seated. Let's turn in our
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Bibles to Psalm 106. Psalm 106. And I want to read the first 12 verses of this psalm, and then we'll sing it.
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And then I also want to give opportunities for some testimonies tonight. If anybody has anything to share.
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Psalm 106. Follow along in your copy of Scripture.
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Verses 1 through 12. I was just looking to remind myself how long that is.
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It's a 48 -verse psalm. Okay, so we're going to read one -fourth of it. All right. Praise the
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Lord. O give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his mercy endures forever.
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Who can utter the mighty acts of the Lord? Who can declare all his praise? Blessed are those who keep justice, and he who does righteousness at all times.
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Remember me, O Lord, with the favor you have toward your people. O visit me with your salvation, that I may see the benefit of your chosen ones, that I may rejoice in the gladness of your nation, that I may glory with your inheritance.
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We have sinned with our fathers. We have committed iniquity. We have done wickedly. Our fathers in Egypt did not understand your wonders.
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They did not remember the multitude of your mercies, but rebelled by the sea, the Red Sea. Nevertheless, he saved them for his namesake, that he might make his mighty power known.
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He rebuked the Red Sea also, and it dried up. So he led them through the depths as through the wilderness.
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He saved them from the hand of him who hated them, and redeemed them from the hand of the enemy.
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The waters covered their enemies. There was not one of them left. Then they believed his words.
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They sang his praise. And let's sing his praise. So that would be in our
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Psalter, number 228. 228. And the title of this is,
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Give Thanks to God for He is Good. I think we know this tune.
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Kelly's looking like, I don't know. Maybe we do. It says at the bottom, the tune title, the tune name is
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How Can I Keep From Singing. We've sung that song before, but as I was trying to sing this in my head,
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I was like, it seems something's different about it. So, would you play it for us just so we can be sure of it?
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Okay, it is familiar. Familiar enough, I think, that we can sing it. Let's try it together. Give Thanks to God.
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Give thanks to God for He is good. His love endures forever.
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In word and song proclaim His ways, His power to do deliver.
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The righteous ones, the pure in heart, Have felt His grace and favor.
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Their lives are crowned with blessings round. The praises of their
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Savior. In desert paths our fathers strayed,
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They soon forgot your kindness. The eyes of faith that saw you saved,
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Grew dim and turned to blindness. They sought the sin of foreign gods,
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Their wickedness abounded. You broke their hearts and brought them low,
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With enemies surrounded. But when they cried, you pitied them,
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And saved them from their sadness. With bonds of love you drew them back,
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And filled their hearts with gladness. Rejoice, ye saints, in Israel's God, Your finest praises bringing,
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For He will lift your weary heads, And mouths with singing.
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Just enough difference there to throw me. All right. Well, good. Testimonies tonight.
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Let me share a couple things. First of all, I learned today that one of my favorite professors from college passed away,
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Dr. Panosian. Maybe a couple of you would remember that he was here.
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He came here, oh, years ago now. Probably a dozen years. A pastor from Rockford had him speaking in his church, and he came down here to do a little history thing on one of the reformers that died at the stake.
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I can't remember which one. But he was a professor of history, and my freshman year, every freshman at Bob Jones took him for history of civilization class, and he was a really good teacher, and gave me a new appreciation for history.
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I went from taking a history class, history classes in Glenbard East Public School.
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The teacher of the last class I had, it was a U .S. history class, he was awful.
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I mean, he would come to class, I had 10 o 'clock in the morning class, and you could smell the booze on his breath.
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He was half crocked, it seemed like, half the time. I didn't get a cotton -picking thing out of his classes, and couldn't care less about history.
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I went from that situation to Dr. Panosian, and it was like history came alive.
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So I had him for that class, and then for church history, a year -long church history course in graduate school.
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So, really appreciated his ministry and his influence, and what a blessing he was.
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And then I do have to give thanks to the Lord for giving me a wonderful wife. Tomorrow is our 41st anniversary, and so, can you imagine what she's endured for the last four decades?
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Bless her heart. So thank the Lord for her. Somebody else. Word of testimony tonight.
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Yes, Roger. Congratulations.
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But for the grace of God.
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Yeah. The grace of God saves souls, saves marriages.
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Good. Praise the Lord for that. Yes, Stan. Oh, yeah.
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But you were more efficient than I, because you got it when the thing was just like this.
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You know, me, if I get the weeds, they're like... Yeah, go ahead. Okay.
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Amen. Amen. Good.
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Yes. Better half. All right.
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Amen. So, you know, we do this anniversary bike ride, and it's a mile for every year that we've been married, so this year we're supposed to do 41 miles.
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Jerry Klein came in this... Well, she actually sent us a card, and at the bottom of the card, she said, I think it's time to get electric bikes.
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So she asked us this morning if we got those electric bikes yet, and we said no, no, no, no, no, we got about 10 or 12 more years before we do that.
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Yes, Priscilla? Is that song 623?
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Okay. Well, I have another song picked out, but your dog, did you say?
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Your dog is sick? Olivia. It's Olivia, right? Yeah.
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And how old is your... Okay. 12 times 7, yeah, okay.
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84 years old. All right. Well, 399. Jesus, I, my cross, have taken.
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So before our message tonight, speaking of discipleship tonight, Priscilla likes the song
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Into My Heart, Into My Heart. That's kind of the beginning step of discipleship, isn't it?
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Let's sing 399. Stand, shall we? As we sing, Jesus, I, my cross, have taken.
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We'll sing just the first two stanzas. They go best with our emphasis this evening. 399.
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Jesus, I, my cross, have taken all to leave and follow thee.
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Destitute, despised, forsaken thou from hence my all shall be.
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Perish every fond ambition, all I've sought and hoped and known.
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Yet how rich is my condition. God and heaven are still my own.
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Let the world despise and leave me. They have left my
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Savior too. Human hearts and looks deceive me.
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And while thou shalt smile upon me, God of wisdom, love and might, foes may hate and friends may shun me.
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Show thy face and all is bright. You may be seated.
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Let's turn in our Bibles to Mark chapter 3. Mark chapter 3.
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Read verses 7 -12. Mark 3 verses 7 -12.
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It says, but Jesus withdrew with his disciples to the sea. Let's look at the context of that. Why did he withdraw with his disciples to the sea?
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Because, verse 6 says, the Pharisees went out and immediately plotted with the Herodians against him how they might destroy him.
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So, Jesus withdrew with his disciples to the sea, and a great multitude from Galilee followed him, and from Judea and Jerusalem and Idumea and beyond the
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Jordan, and those from Tyre and Sidon. A great multitude, when they heard how many things he was doing, came to him.
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So he told his disciples that a small boat should be kept ready for him because of the multitude, lest they should crush him.
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For he healed many, so that as many as had afflictions pressed about him to touch him.
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And the unclean spirits, whenever they saw him, fell down before him and cried out, saying, You are the
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Son of God. But he sternly warned them that they should not make him known. That's a brief word of prayer.
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Our Father, it is a great privilege to be disciples of Jesus. I pray that you would remind us of that and what that is like tonight from this passage.
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We pray in Jesus' name. Amen. So, several years ago, I had a job, a role at a church as an assistant pastor.
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In that role, I was responsible for several departments in the church's ministry.
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And one of them was the maintenance staff. And one of the key guys on the maintenance staff, he came to me one day and he was very upset, very upset about some of the ways he was treated.
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The point of this is not how he was treated, but how he came to that ministry.
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He said, I got saved. He told me how many years earlier it was.
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And was coming to church here and became a member of the church. Baptized, became a member of the church, and was growing in the
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Lord. And just so eager to serve the Lord. He said,
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I was working for a secular job, a secular company, and he told me what it was.
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I'd been there several years. I was making pretty good money for that kind of work.
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But I really just wanted to serve the Lord. And I have all kinds of skills in the building trades and all phases of it.
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Plumbing, electrical, HVAC, all kinds of things. This guy could do just about anything in the building trades.
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And so he approached the pastor one day and asked would it be possible for him to be hired and be a part of the maintenance team.
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And long story short, he was. And he said, I was thrilled.
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I was just thrilled to be a part of the ministry. And I just looked at my job as ministry.
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I was serving the Lord. And I was just thrilled to be able to tinker on an air conditioning unit or fix a leaky faucet or something for the
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Lord. I was just eager and thrilled to be able to do anything for the
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Lord. And I wonder if that's not the attitude that the disciples had here in this particular passage.
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That they were just thrilled to be there. To be with Jesus. And were willing to do really anything
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He wanted them to do. Just happy to be there. And then I wondered is that our attitude?
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How much is that our attitude? How often is that our attitude? How often do we allow some other thing to crowd out that spirit?
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That attitude of I'm willing to do anything to serve the Lord. What I want us to see from this passage tonight is that the
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Savior can solve some really deep -seated great needs of a multitude of people.
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And yet there is a role for the lowliest disciple, if you will, to be played in that work that Jesus is doing.
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So let's look at this. Let's look at it first of all at the masses that come to Him and the needs of that mass of people.
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And notice in verses 7 and 8 how the multitude of people came from all over the place.
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Look at the list again. A multitude from Galilee. That's where Jesus was at the time.
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Galilee is a region in the land of Israel. A multitude from Galilee followed
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Him and from Judea. That was the region south of Galilee.
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So if you look on a map, maybe you have one in the back of your Bible, you could probably find these different places.
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But Galilee is a region. Judea is a region south of Galilee. People came from there.
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They came from Jerusalem. That's significant because Jerusalem is the capital city of Israel, even though Israel is now under Roman domination.
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They came from Edumea. Edumea is on the east side of the Jordan River. It's southeast side of the
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Jordan River. So that's about from where Jesus is. It could be as far as 150 miles away.
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So Edumea. And beyond the Jordan River. So it's like if you were at Capernaum and you just drew a line east, you would cross the
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Jordan River very quickly. And there were people who came from across the Jordan River.
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And those from Tyre and Sidon. Tyre and Sidon would be north and to the west of where Jesus was in Capernaum.
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So if you look at that on a map, at those different areas where people came from, it's like they came from all over the place.
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And they were all kinds of people. Those in Tyre and Sidon were probably
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Gentiles. And of course they were Jews. Those from Galilee and Jerusalem and Judea.
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Edumea was populated by the Edomites. Of course the Edumeans or the
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Edomites were cousins of the Jews. Those beyond Jordan were also probably
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Gentiles. So they came from all over the place. They had these different ethnic distinctions about them.
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And they were probably representing a wide variety. I don't know probably about it.
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They were representing a wide variety of occupations or if you will classes of people in society.
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Historically people are classified by the type of work they do. Some would have been in agriculture.
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Farmers. Some by the sea. Like in Tyre they would have been probably fishermen.
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Those around the Sea of Galilee would have been fishermen. Those on the other side of the
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Jordan very likely engaged in ranching if you will. Raising livestock.
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A whole bunch of people from a variety of backgrounds. With a variety of occupational backgrounds as well.
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Different ethnic backgrounds. But they all came with needs. They all came with desires.
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And the desires expressed in verse 10. He healed many so that as many as had afflictions pressed about him to touch him.
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They came to Jesus. A multitude of people came to Jesus because they wanted Jesus to meet their needs.
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Their physical very real needs. I think even in looking at that big picture of what's going on here.
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There's a lesson to be learned. And that is it doesn't matter who you are. It doesn't matter what your background is.
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Racially. Ethnically. Socio -economically. It doesn't matter where you're from.
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Jesus cares for people. And he cares for you. And he has time for you.
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Because that's exactly the point of all this. That Jesus is taking the time for these different individuals.
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So they came to meet Jesus. I want you to turn to Luke chapter 6. Luke 6 is the parallel passage to this event.
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And Luke gives us a couple of other details that I just wanted to highlight. Luke 6 verses 17 through 19.
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Tell us essentially the same thing but a few other details. So look at verse 17. It says,
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They came to hear him.
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They came to Jesus because they wanted to hear him. So there wasn't just the
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I don't mean this in a negative way. Let's put it this way.
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Self -centered desire to have their problems solved. There was that.
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We'll see that in a minute. But they came to hear him. They wanted to hear what he had to say. They'd heard about him and now they wanted to hear him for themselves.
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So they wanted to hear him. But they also look at verse 19. They wanted to touch him.
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The whole multitude sought to touch him. But why did they want to touch him?
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Have you ever seen some of the silliness of people who become big fans of some celebrity and they get the privilege of going to see that celebrity at a concert or an engagement where that person is, if it's a politician or whatever.
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They get all excited. We're going to go see a sporting event. And then when the thing's over, they say,
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I can't believe it. I actually got to shake hands with so -and -so. I'm never going to wash my hand for the rest of my life.
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I touched so -and -so. Big deal. The guy probably has
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COVID germs on his hand. You're going to wash that off? Get rid of that stuff. They weren't interested in touching
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Jesus because he was a celebrity. They wanted to touch him because, as the verse goes on to say, power came from him.
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They wanted to touch him to tap into that power. I think that King James has it, virtue.
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But it's actually the word, the Greek word, dunamis, the dynamite word.
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It's speaking of his power. They wanted to touch him to tap into his power.
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And, of course, many of this multitude came to Jesus because they wanted to be healed by him.
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See this in the last part of verse 17. They came to hear him and be healed of their diseases.
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Be healed of their diseases. Now, back in our text in Mark chapter 3, there are a couple of different kinds of afflictions that are concerning people in this multitude.
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Some of them wanted to be healed of physical infirmities, as verse 10 tells us. He healed many so that as many as had afflictions, they pressed about him to touch him.
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They had afflictions. Again, I think that King James says they were at plagues.
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The Greek word is descriptive. It communicates the idea of whippings.
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They were so afflicted by their physical infirmities, it's like they were whipped.
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They were beaten down by these physical afflictions. I would suggest that that is a good picture representation of sin and its consequences.
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The afflictions of the physical infirmities here have so afflicted, weighed down, burdened down the people that they can't get released from it.
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They want to be delivered from these physical infirmities. But they also wanted to be delivered from and healed from spiritual afflictions.
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This comes out in verse 11. It says the unclean spirits. In this multitude of people, there were unclean spirits.
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When they saw Jesus, they fell down before him and they cried out, you are the Son of God. The people who were possessed by these unclean spirits, they had no control over what was said from coming out of their mouth.
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They had no control even over their body. If the unclean spirit, the demonic spirit within them compelled them to get down on their knees, they got down on their knees.
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We see this in many places in the gospel records as those who were demon possessed came before Jesus and they had no power.
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The human being had no power and control over their own body. But they sought, these people, they sought release.
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They came to Jesus because they knew that there were times when these unclean spirits took control of them and they wanted to be released from that bondage.
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They could find no other way of release. I would suggest this is a good picture of the control that Satan has over the sinner.
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That the sinner cannot break away from that satanic control.
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No, maybe not expressed, control not expressed like this. But every sinner, every sinner outside of Christ is under the control of, the dominion of, the wicked one.
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Well, they come to Jesus and it is the need of the multitude that comes face to face with the sufficiency of the
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Savior. The sufficiency of the Savior. What's interesting here is how in the beginning of verse 7
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Jesus withdraws from the area and He goes with His disciples to the sea.
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He wants to get away from this place where the Pharisees and the Herodians are wanting to destroy
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Him. He withdraws. He withdraws, but He doesn't withdraw to the point where He refuses to be found of those who will seek
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Him. That's always true of Jesus. Seek and you will find.
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Knock and it will be open to you. Ask and you shall receive. So even though Jesus withdraws physically here from the threatening situation,
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He doesn't withdraw to the point where He refuses to be found of those who really want to seek
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Him. People came to Him, they sought Him, and they found Him. He is willing to be found.
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And in the finding they find a Savior who cares for their needy souls.
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He cares for the needy seeker. Notice in verse 9 how
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Jesus stayed to help. He told His disciples that the multitude comes and He doesn't withdraw.
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He doesn't say, oh no, here comes the multitude, let's get out of here. No. He stays to help. He told His disciples a small boat should be kept ready for Him because of the multitude lest they should crush
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Him. There's the threat of Him being mobbed by the press of the multitude.
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But He doesn't let that threat compel Him to leave and to leave them in their need.
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He stays to help. And He could have taken this ship that He told the disciples, this small boat,
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He could have taken that small boat to escape. Let's get in this boat, let's cross over to the other side and get away from all these people.
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He doesn't do that. He stays to help. Now contrast that, by the way, with what you know about our modern day faith healers, right?
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Have you seen any of those exposés on the faith healers? The Kathryn Kuhlmans and the
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Oral Robertses and all those guys. How they will advertise their healing crusade.
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Kathryn Kuhlman was very famous for this. Benny Hinn. Benny Hinn is another one. Very famous for their healing crusades.
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They would announce there's going to be this crusade, this healing. Come be healed of your afflictions. What power from God will do to you?
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And the exposés show that the front people are very careful to weed out the afflicted.
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Those who are clearly afflicted. Paralyzed from the waist down in their wheelchairs.
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They're not allowed to have any access to the stage. Only those who can stand up so that they can get pushed down.
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They're allowed up there. That kind of thing. But then, when it's over, it's over.
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Exit. Benny Hinn. Stage right even, as the old cartoon used to go. And off he goes.
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And here is this line of people who are weeping because they wanted to get healed.
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They thought he could heal them. And off he goes. This isn't Jesus. And that's one reason why you know those guys are a bunch of frauds.
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If they were real, they'd go down to the hospital ward. And they'd be healing people left and right. They would never take off when there were still people to be healed.
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Jesus never did. He stayed. He stayed to help. And in staying to help, verse 10 tells us that He healed those who were infirm.
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He healed many so that the afflows who had afflictions pressed about Him to touch Him. He healed the infirm.
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And in verses 11 and 12, He delivered the captured unclean spirits.
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He told them to be quiet. He warned them, verse 12, not to make Him known. He delivered the captured.
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Now, how does this apply to our day and age? I think the application would be that Jesus is waiting and willing to help.
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The genuine seeker who seeks after the Lord Jesus will find Him ready and willing to help.
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And I would not draw the parallel here specifically as a one -to -one.
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Like, okay, I've got a sore knee. Jesus, heal me of my sore knee. No, again, remember the physical afflictions, they illustrate the power of sin, the destroying power, the painful power of sin.
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Jesus will forgive the sins that cause us so much grief and so much pain.
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He delivers from the bondage that Satan has over the life of the sinner.
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And He will deliver from that grip. He cares for the needy seeker.
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Now, where does the disciple fit into all this? They're not doing any of the healing.
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Where does the disciple fit in all this? The only place you see the disciples is in verse 7 and then in verse 9.
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Jesus withdrew with His disciples and in verse 9 He told His disciples. I think there's a three -fold role of the disciples that comes out in this passage.
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And it's not a premier role. It's not a headliner role.
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It's not a marquee role. It's a very simple three -part role.
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One is identification. The role of the disciples is to identify with Jesus.
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Verse 7 says that Jesus withdrew with His disciples.
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And I think that's significant on a couple of levels because in verse 6, remember, you've got these religious leaders, the
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Pharisees. They're the ones who were supposed to be the ones you look up to, the ones you follow if you were serious about Judaism.
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If you were serious about the faith, follow the Pharisees. Become a Pharisee. The Pharisees, though, were forsaken by the disciples.
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They turned away from that legalistic, formalistic, extracurricular religion that was created by the
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Pharisees. Out of fear, they could have sided with the majority.
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People do that all the time. The Pharisees held a great deal of sway over people.
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Remember times where, a couple times where they threatened people with expulsion from the synagogue if they didn't do thus and so?
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That's the kind of power they had over people. But the disciple of Jesus will so identify with Jesus that they will turn away from that kind of man -made religion.
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And turning away from that religion, they instead choose a relationship with Christ. They allow themselves and will call themselves disciples of Jesus.
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And what that means is that you follow Him and you learn from Him.
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You follow Him and you learn from Him. I think in our modern
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American church, we've almost distorted discipleship.
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What I mean by that is this. Discipleship is almost...
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I've seen it expressed like you come to faith in Christ, you trust
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Christ as your Savior, you get baptized, and you're now a Christian. Now you need to choose to be a disciple of Jesus.
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No. You became a disciple of Jesus when you repented of your sin and you trusted in Jesus.
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You became a disciple of Jesus. So the modern description goes like this.
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You have to choose to become a disciple. And then you get into this discipleship program.
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You have somebody disciple you and you get into a discipleship program. I'm not dismissing the value of early on in the
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Christian life, getting with somebody and learning the basics of the Christian faith. But we want to be careful here that we don't limit discipleship to a course and a period of time where you're sitting under the tutelage of a mentor who teaches you the basic doctrines of the
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Christian faith. And you get through that thing and you say, okay, I've done with the discipleship program. No, look.
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Discipleship is a lifelong thing. As long as you're breathing. If you're a follower of Jesus, you're a disciple.
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And you're a disciple from the time you trust him as your Savior until the time he takes you home to glory. It's a lifelong thing where you are following him and you are learning of him.
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So have you identified with Christ? The role of the disciple is identification.
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A second role that is hinted at here in this passage is the role of proclamation.
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The last part of verse 8 says that this great multitude came to Jesus when they heard how many things he was doing that came to him.
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Now, not all of the disciples of Jesus are here right now.
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We think of the disciples. We think of the next section in our text, in our
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Bibles here in Mark 3 is the 12 apostles.
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And we often think, well, the 12 apostles, Peter, Andrew, James, John, Philip, Bartholomew, Thomas, etc.
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These are the disciples. They were disciples. But there was a multitude of disciples, people who were following Jesus.
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Not all of the disciples of Jesus were with him all of the time. So there were disciples, followers of Jesus, who had learned of Jesus and who were learning of Jesus.
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They just weren't with him all the time. They had their homes they went to. They'd come for a while.
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They'd listen. They'd learn. But then they'd have to go back and do their life, their responsibilities of life.
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The point is that they then proclaimed Jesus. They let others know.
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This is who Jesus is and this is what Jesus has done. They announced to others the person and work of Christ.
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And that announcement, just in announcing what Jesus has done and who
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Jesus is, that announcing influenced others to follow Christ.
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It's like Jesus said, if I am lifted up, I will draw all men to me. And, of course, he was speaking ultimately about the cross.
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But the role of the disciple, of every disciple, is to lift up Jesus and let him be known for who he is, proclaiming him.
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I would suggest in that that the whole matter of evangelism is not as complicated as we tend to make it out to be.
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I've shared with you before about the different evangelism programs that are designed these days.
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You go through this thing and it can be a very complicated system. I didn't attend the classes.
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Chris did. Again, in that same church where the maintenance guy was excited about serving for a while, had one of those kind of classes.
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And it was a 13 -week long evangelism training program.
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And it was very detailed. And you had to memorize a very complex outline that you were supposed to go through with someone you were wanting to win to Jesus.
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And did you finally go all the way through that? Or did you just finally say, I had enough of it.
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I can't do it. I just can't do it. And that was the conclusion of many, many people who started that program.
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I just can't do this. I can't remember all this stuff. I can't memorize all this stuff. I got a job to do every day.
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I just can't do this. And their conclusion was, I can't win anybody to Christ.
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I can't evangelize. Well, what did the disciples do?
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They just went and told who Jesus was and what Jesus could do. And I say that's the simplest form of evangelism that there is.
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Tell others about who Jesus is and what Jesus has done, even for you.
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Identification, proclamation, and then thirdly, the role of the disciple is subordination.
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Subordination. And I get this in both of these verses, 7 and 9.
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And notice how the disciples are always in the background. Jesus withdrew with His disciples to the sea.
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The multitude came to see Jesus. They didn't come to see the disciples. They came to see
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Jesus. These disciples, they didn't demand a spotlight. They didn't say, wait a minute, how come everybody's coming to see
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Him? How come they're not coming and asking me my opinion about things? Why aren't they wanting to touch me?
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I mean, after all, I'm Peter. I'm a famous disciple. I'm going to be one of the most famous apostles someday.
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Surely they want to touch my hand and never wash it again. They didn't demand a spotlight.
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The disciples weren't there because they wanted to be called upon by the multitude, the crowd of people.
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They were perfectly content to be in the background behind Jesus.
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And verse 9 shows us that they were perfectly content and happy to serve when and where they were needed.
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Jesus says to His disciples, get a small boat. Have it ready for me. This crowd is getting to be oppressive.
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All He wanted them to do is get a boat. Hold on to the rope that's holding on to the boat so it doesn't drift out into the sea.
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And have it ready so if I need to, I can just pop in that boat and you can send it out to the sea a little bit.
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Still hold on to the rope so it doesn't drift out so I can talk to the people and so forth. So what's their role here?
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What are they doing? They're holding ropes. They're just making sure a boat doesn't float away.
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There's a boat available. That's it. And the point is this is a simple little thing but they're happy to do it.
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They're just happy to be there. And I think there's a clear application for that for us, isn't there?
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Are we just happy to serve in any way when and where we're needed?
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Some people get very frustrated in the work of church life if they can't have some kind of recognized position.
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If their name doesn't show up on a ballot at the end of the year for the election of officers in the next year, then they get a little miffed and feel a little dejected.
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Are they happy to just come in some day and pull weeds? There are people here who do that.
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Bless their hearts. Bless them for that kind of servant spirit. I remember a pastor
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I served under in South Bend. This was a long time ago now. I remember him telling me, he was a very practical guy, a very practical guy.
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And his study had a door, a back door on it that you could go out the back door and go right into the men's room.
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And he'd use that a lot. And he'd say, he'd tell me, he'd say, now Brian, listen, when you get your own church and you're a pastor, don't think that you're above picking up a paper towel off the floor.
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And when you're done washing your hands at the sink, you take one of those paper towels and you wipe any drops of water off that sink.
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Don't think you're too big for that. Don't think that, oh well, the janitor will take care of that. That was 1985.
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So that was a long time ago. And that conversation sticks with me to this day. And I was listening to a guy, there's a series
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I'm taking right now, it's not exactly classes, but it kind of is. It's profiling a bunch of pastors and interviewing them about life behind the pulpit.
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And there's this one pastor who was talking about the importance of pastors developing a sense of humility.
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And I think that's true for every disciple, every follower of Jesus. Just being humble, willing to do whatever, whenever.
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And he was talking about being in India and was just absolutely ashamed when an
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Indian pastor there challenged him about what he thought he, as an
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American, needed to have. They were sitting in this hot, hot room with one single light bulb and it was so hot and the bugs were swarming around it and so hot, just swarming around them.
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And the Indian pastor, he's just taking it all in stride, and this other pastor, he was there with his 14 -year -old son and they're complaining and stuff about the bugs.
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And it's like, man, don't we have any bug spray? And he said, we didn't have any bug spray. He said, I just got my hairspray.
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I just got my hairspray out and started spraying these bugs. I was desperate to do anything. And that other pastor said, you
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Americans, you think you have to have everything, don't you? And he said, that set me on a course with that pastor, learning that I needed to go down, down, down.
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Be willing to go down, down, down. To stoop and pick up a piece of paper on the floor just to be a servant of the
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Lord, however, whatever way necessary. I wonder if that's our attitude.
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And Jesus, in their having that spirit, that spirit of subordination, they're like John the
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Baptist, where John the Baptist said, I must decrease and he must increase.
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And what these men are doing, these disciples are doing in going down, going down, being willing to do this subordinate task of unloosing a boat from its moorings and holding onto the rope and having it ready for Jesus if he needs to get in it.
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They're just standing there like a bunch of servants. Yeah. But what they did was they made
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Christ's work easier. They made Christ's work easier. He was able to help more people because of the help of the disciples.
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This little insignificant job of holding a rope on a boat.
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I wonder if that's our spirit. I'm grateful to the
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Lord for the people who are willing to serve and do just about anything. Whatever you need, whatever is needed.
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Oh, may the Lord develop that in all of us. And we don't get the spirit of pride, but the spirit of the disciple.
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Identifying with Jesus, proclaiming Jesus, being subordinate to Jesus.
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Father in heaven, I pray that you'd give us that servant's heart that these disciples had, we pray in Jesus' name.
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Amen. And let's close with that song.
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In our hymnals, number 548, sing just a stanza of a servant's heart.
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Make me a servant like you, dear Lord, living for others each day, humble and meek, helping the weak, loving in all that I say.
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Let's stand. Shall we sing? Make me a servant like you, dear
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Lord, living for others each day, humble and meek, helping the weak, loving in all that I say.
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Give me, Lord, a servant's heart. Here's my life, take every part.
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A servant's heart. Help me draw so close to you that your love comes shining through.
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Give me, Lord, a servant's heart.
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Give me, Lord, a servant's heart.
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If you notice, that song is written by Ron Hamilton. It says down at the bottom he was born in 1950, so that makes him 71.
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And Ron Hamilton has Alzheimer's, I think it's Alzheimer's, at least dementia, a very serious stage of dementia, and he's got assisted living, right?
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He's in assisted living facility now, which is really sad and surprising, and yet he's still got a wonderful testimony of song and everything, even at that stage of the game.
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He sits down at a piano and he can start to play and sing, even though he can't remember so much other stuff.
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Well, let's pray. Bless this to our heart's Father, this challenge that we've heard tonight, and give us that servant's heart.
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Bless us as we go our separate ways, and give us a week of service this week, however you would have us to serve.
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May we do it with all our hearts and cheerfully as followers, disciples of the