FBC Sunday Evening Service

Faith Baptist Church

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All right, good evening. Let's hope you had a good afternoon, got some rest. I asked one of our ladies tonight.

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I'll pick on people from the pulpit. How was your day? She's nice and quiet. Nothing like a good, quiet, restful

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Sunday afternoon, is there? I hope it was that way for you. We're going to begin tonight with number 12 in our hymnal.

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I'll hail the power of Jesus' name. We're going to focus tonight on Mark chapter 1 and be looking at the authority of Jesus.

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And this song honors him for his power, for his authority. So let's stand as we sing, shall we?

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Let's sing the first, third, and last. So we'll kind of skip the second. First, third, and last.

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All hail the power of Jesus' name.

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Let angels prostrate fall. Bring forth the royal diadem and crown him of all.

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Bring forth the royal diadem and crown him

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Lord of all. Let every kindred, every tribe on this terrestrial ball.

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To him all majesty ascribe and crown him.

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To him all majesty ascribe and crown him

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Lord of all. We at his feet may fall.

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We'll join the everlasting song and crown him.

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Well, let's pray to our

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Lord. Roger Young, would you please lead us in prayer? Thank you.

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You may be seated. Let's take our Bibles for a psalm tonight.

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Read Psalm 45. It's the first nine verses. Psalm 45.

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And then we'll sing this together. Someone this morning came in, morning service, and picked up the psalter and said,

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We just ordered one of these for home. Love this thing. So, hope you do.

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Hope you're getting some benefit from our psalm singing. Psalm 45.

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And again, our focus tonight is on the authority of Jesus. So, there's some messianic overtones to this psalm.

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I have a little kind of a heading to the psalm in my Bible. It's not the regular, you know, caption or whatever.

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It says, To the Chief Musician. But prior to that, it says, The Glories of Messiah and His Bride.

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The last half of the psalm focuses on the bride. But in the first half.

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And your right hand shall teach you awesome things. Your arrows are sharp in the heart of the king's enemies.

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The peoples fall under you. Your throne, O God, is forever and ever. A scepter of righteousness is the scepter of your kingdom.

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You love righteousness and hate wickedness. Therefore, God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness more than your companions.

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All your garments are scented with myrrh and aloes and cassia. Out of the ivory palaces by which they have made you glad.

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Kings' daughters are among your honorable women. At your right hand stands the queen in gold from Ophir.

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So, in our Psalter, the red book, number 93, is the psalm that goes along with that, number 93.

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So, we'll sing this together, and then, I think we know this tune.

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Do we know this tune? Kelly's like, I don't know if we know this tune. We'll see. But then, I do want to give some opportunities for testimonies tonight.

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The Lord has blessed and worked in your life over this past week. Psalm 45, number 93, for the honor of our king.

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I'm trying to figure out if I know that tune. Let's play the whole thing together, shall we? All right, let's try it together.

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For the honor of our king. For the honor of our king, every skill we have we bring.

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No one stirs the heart to sing like our royal savior.

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When he speaks, the truth is heard, grace and power in every word.

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Falsehood trembles at the sword of our royal savior.

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Righteousness and joy are found, lasting justice will abound.

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All because the king is crowned as our royal savior.

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See the splendor of Christ's bride, led in honor to his side.

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Chosen, loved, and beautified by her royal savior.

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Now and to eternal days, all

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God's people join to raise one unending song of praise to our royal savior.

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All right. Award for that. Especially notice in that second stanza there.

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Let me look at that again. Because this is going to come up in our text tonight. When he speaks, the truth is heard.

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One area where Lord Jesus will demonstrate his authority is in his teaching.

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His truth is heard. Grace and power in every word. So we shall see that tonight.

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All right. I wonder if there's any testimonies to share this evening. The Lord has done work in your life this past few days, past week.

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Anyone at all? Like you said.

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Okay. Sure. It's okay. It goes together, doesn't it?

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I'm glad to see you again, Carolyn. I pray for you that the Lord will continue to work graciously in your life in these days.

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Blessings on you. Anybody else? Yeah, Bob. Which is a big deal.

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That she would follow a command. She could hear, understand, and respond. So thank the

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Lord for that. Progress. Slow progress.

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But it's progress. Pray for Bob. And pray for Jody. And thank you, everyone who contributed to the benevolence offering last week.

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Was able to be very helpful to them. And I trust God will multiply that many times over.

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So, anybody else? All right.

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Let's take our supplement book and turn to number 27. We used all three of these today.

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Number 27 in your supplement, He Will Hold Me Fast. Again, think of the authority of Jesus, the authority of Christ.

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Number 27. Let's stand as we sing, shall we? When I fear my faith will fail

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Christ will hold me fast When the tempter would prevail

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He will hold me fast I could never keep my hold

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Through life's fearful path For my love is often cold

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He must hold me fast He will hold me fast

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He will hold me fast For my Savior loves me so He will hold me fast

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Those He saves are His delight Christ will hold me fast

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Precious in His holy sight He will hold me fast

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He'll not let my soul be lost His promises shall last

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Bought by Him at such a cost He will hold me fast

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He will hold me fast He will hold me fast

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For my Savior loves me so He will hold me fast

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For my life He bled and died Will hold me fast

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Justice has been satisfied He will hold me fast

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Raised with Him to endless life He will hold me fast

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Till our faith is turned to sight When He comes at last

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He will hold me fast He will hold me fast

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For my Savior loves me so He will hold me fast

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Thank you. You may be seated. And if you would, turn in your Bibles to Mark chapter 1.

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Mark 1. I'm going to read verses 21 to 34.

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21 to 34. This is a day in the life of the Lord Jesus. It says,

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Then He went to Capernaum, and immediately on the Sabbath He entered the synagogue and taught. And they were astonished at His teaching, for He taught them as one having authority and not as the scribes.

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Now there was a man in the synagogue with an unclean spirit, and he cried out, saying, Let us alone! What have we to do with you,

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Jesus of Nazareth? Did you come to destroy us? I know who you are, the Holy One of God.

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But Jesus rebuked him, saying, Be quiet, and come out of him. And when the unclean spirit had convulsed him and cried out with a loud voice, he came out of him.

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Then they were all amazed, so that they questioned among themselves, saying, What is this? What new doctrine is this?

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For with authority He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey Him. And immediately

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His fame spread throughout all the region around Galilee. Now as soon as they had come out of the synagogue, they entered the house of Simon and Andrew with James and John.

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But Simon's wife's mother lay sick with a fever, and they told him about her at once.

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So he came and took her by the hand and lifted her up, and immediately the fever left her, and she served them.

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At evening, when the sun had set, they brought to him all who were sick and those who were demon -possessed. The whole city was gathered together at the door.

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

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Just a brief prayer. Father, we pray tonight that you'd open up this life, this day in the life of the

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Lord Jesus. Give us some insight into His authority and how we therefore ought to respond to it.

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We pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, today is for me day number 23 ,047.

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How many days I've walked on this planet. 23 ,047. And honestly, as you can well relate, the vast majority of those days have been pretty mundane.

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Pretty routine. Same sort of stuff, day after day after day after day.

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Not all of them, to be sure. Some days have been outstanding, remarkable days.

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My one regret in life, and maybe some of you who are younger might learn from this, my one regret in life is that I never really learned how or took the time to journal, to write each day what's happened in my life, what's going on in my life, what's

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God teaching me today, and what has God done, what have I done, what's happened, what have I done.

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And so I never really got into that and didn't learn until later in life that it's a valuable thing to do.

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And still don't do it like I would like. In fact, I just got a book, and I'm reading through it right now,

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How to Journal for Spiritual Growth, or something like that is the name of it.

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And it's very helpful, very insightful. But I didn't do that. And had I done so throughout these 23 ,000, some of those 23 ,047 days,

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I might be able to look back on some of those days and say on this particular day, it's like one spectacular thing after another happened.

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Those are few and far between, aren't they? But this is one day in the life of the

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Lord Jesus, as Mark records it for us, and it's divided into four parts. You've got early morning, mid -morning, afternoon sometime, and then evening.

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And in each part of this day, the Lord Jesus shows some aspect of his authority.

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He demonstrates his authority, and that authority is responded to in some positive ways.

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So this evening what I want us to do is to see the authority of Jesus and then see how we ought to respond to that authority.

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So these four times of the day when Jesus shows his authority, his authority is seen, first of all, in his teaching in the early morning.

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It says in verses 21 and 22 that on the Sabbath day, immediately on the Sabbath day, right away in the morning on the

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Sabbath day, and this was the practice, that the men would gather together on the

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Sabbath day at the synagogue and they would learn. And it was the men who did this.

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Ladies, women, weren't allowed in synagogue for Sabbath teaching, but the men did.

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And Jesus entered into that Sabbath and he taught. And as he taught, he dealt with doctrine.

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He taught them authoritatively the doctrine, the teaching of Scripture.

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He did not dwell on trivialities and on opinions.

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In contrast to the other rabbis and the scribes who would,

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I mean, they would sort of use the Old Testament writings as a launching pad, but much of what was discussed on the

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Sabbath day in the synagogue was the opinion of the rabbi or the discussions of recent teachings of the different rabbis.

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And there were two big -name rabbis that were well -known in Israel at the time and they would say, so -and -so says this, well, so -and -so says that, and that kind of a thing.

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Jesus came in and said, this is the truth. This is the teaching.

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So he dealt with doctrine. He didn't mess around with secondary things, with trivialities, with interpretations and various interpretations of the minutia of the law and so forth.

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He dealt with essentials. And I think that's an important thing to emphasize in our day as well.

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I just read this afternoon about an organization that sent out a letter to its supporters, and in that letter there was a statement of faith.

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And the author of that letter said, you need to take your church's doctrinal statement and compare it to this statement of faith so you can discern where your church has compromised.

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And in that enclosed doctrinal statement, most of it was perfectly fine.

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In fact, I would probably agree with everything in it. I didn't see the doctrinal statement itself. But what this discussion was about was this one item that is really an item of interpretation.

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It's one of those things where it's probably true, but you can't go to a chapter and verse and say this is the teaching of the scripture.

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Jesus didn't do that. He went in the synagogue in the early morning and he taught with authority.

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This is the truth. And his authority is seen in teaching. And then secondly, in the mid -morning, so synagogue time's about over, in the mid -morning, he demonstrates his authority over demonic power.

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This is seen in verses 23 through 28. So 23 says, there was a man in their synagogue with an unclean spirit.

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Now that in itself ought to cause us to pause. Think about that for a minute.

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Wait a minute. There's a man in the synagogue who's demon -possessed.

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He has an unclean spirit. And he seems to be perfectly content there. I mean, this man is allowed to be in the synagogue.

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He hasn't been cast out of the synagogue. And now think about this, because you remember later on when

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Jesus healed blind Bartimaeus. Remember that? Who did this to you?

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Who healed you? Because he did it on the Sabbath. Who was it that did this? And he didn't know, because he didn't know

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Jesus' name. And he just knew that this person healed him, and he was blind, and now he sees.

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Well, he couldn't have been from God, because no prophet of God would do this on the

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Sabbath. That's a work on the Sabbath. He's not going to do that on the Sabbath. And so they interrogated this guy and threatened to kick him out of the synagogue if he were to aver that Jesus was, the one who healed him, was the

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Messiah. They brought his parents in, the Pharisees did, and interrogated his parents.

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Is this your son? Yes. Are you saying he was born blind? Yes, he was born blind.

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But now he sees? Well, yeah. How did he come to have sight? Well, he's of age.

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Ask him. And the text tells us that they were afraid to say that Jesus healed him because they didn't want to get kicked out of the synagogue.

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They wanted to be excommunicated. Now, why did I point that out? Because here's the thing. It's okay to be in synagogue and be demon -possessed, but it's not okay to be in synagogue and affirm that Jesus is the

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Messiah. You get the problem there? Well, anyway, here's this man who's in the synagogue.

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He's a demon -possessed guy. He's not hindered at all. But the problem is he can't coexist with Christ.

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He can't stand being in the same building with Jesus. So in verse 23 and 24, he cries out.

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He says, Leave us alone. As Jesus is teaching authoritatively, this is too much for the demon to handle.

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And the demon cries out through this individual, Leave us alone. What are you trying to do? Are you trying to destroy us?

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We know who you are, the Holy One of God. But they also cannot help but obey the authoritative command of Jesus.

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Jesus rebuked him and said, Be quiet, shut up, and leave.

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And when the unclean spirit had convulsed him, he cried out with a loud voice and he came out of him. He ended up being silenced and departed.

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So Jesus demonstrates his authority over this demonic power. And then in the afternoon sometime,

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Jesus demonstrates his authority over sickness sometime in the midday. This comes out in verses 29 through 31 as he deals with Simon Peter's mother -in -law.

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And notice how he calms the panic. He calms the panic.

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As soon as they came out of the synagogue, they entered the house of Simon and Andrew with James and John, but Simon's wife's mother lay sick with a fever.

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They told him about her right away. Comes in to, you know, mother -in -law is sick.

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She's got this terrible fever. It's, you know, whatever it is, it's awful.

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And he calms the panic as they told him about her immediately.

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And then in verse 31, look at how he, look at how he deals with the problem. He just very authoritatively overcomes the disease.

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And how did he do it? Not with any medicine. Mark tells us he came and took her by the hand and lifted her up and immediately the fever left her.

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Matthew is even more precise and more specific when he says, he says

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Jesus, when he touched her hand, when he just touched her hand, the fever left her.

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He's more precise at the timing of that fever's departure when he touched her hand. It was instantaneous.

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What authority? I mean, I know, I know

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I'm thinking even of what Bob's going through these days and with Jody. And what a absolute thrill it would be for Jesus to see fit to instantaneously touch her so that, you know, today it's a miraculous thing.

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It's a, it's a wonderful thing. It's an amazing thing that, you know, she opened her eyes longer than she did last week and she responded to a command.

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What an amazing thing. If this instantly, this quickly, instantaneously, she who is asleep most of the time and not able to control much of her, you know, movements, not able to respond, would just wake up and be well, be able to get up.

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It is so thorough, this healing, so thorough is this instantaneous healing and complete that at the end of the verse it tells us that she served them.

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In other words, I think of this, I picture this as like she's in the typical

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Italian matriarch in the family. You know, she comes out of a back room somewhere and her husband or her kids have invited a bunch of people over and she's been oblivious to it for whatever reason and she comes onto the scene and here's all these people that have shown up in her house and she says, oh, well, we've got to get something to eat, we've got to find something to eat, and she goes to the refrigerator, starts pulling stuff out and she cranks up the oven and gets the pots and pans out and, you know, got to get some pasta going and, you know, microwave -thaw the chicken to get some chicken going and all this kind of stuff.

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You ask me how, why would I think of that? Because I have an Italian mother -in -law, that's how

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I, that's why I think of that. But this is Peter's mother -in -law, you know?

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She's been out of it for however long that she's had this ridiculously high fever and oblivious to what's going on around her but instantaneously,

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Jesus touches her, the fever leaves her, she gets up and says, oh, I've got to get you guys something to eat, let's eat,

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I'm hungry, are you hungry? You've got to be hungry. This is the authority of Jesus over disease.

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And then he demonstrates his authority over the crowd in verses 32 through 34.

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This comes in the evening. And notice the sensitivity of this crowd to the

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Sabbath regulations. When the sun had set, that means

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Sabbath is over. And now, now they feel like they can come and find

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Jesus and be where Jesus is. And when the sun had set, this crowd is comprised of a whole bunch of different kinds of people with a whole bunch of different kinds of problems.

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And Jesus authoritatively deals with this crowd and he does so individually.

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It says they brought him all who were sick and those who were demon -possessed and he healed many who were sick with their various diseases and so forth.

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Luke 4, in Luke's gospel in this account, in chapter 4, verse 40, it gives us the detail that Jesus laid his hands on every one of them, every one of them.

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However many were in this crowd, we don't know. It's large enough to call it a crowd. But he took the time and showed the concern and he demonstrated the authority to each one of these individuals, whatever their particular need was.

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So he handled them individually and he handled the crowd, everything that was in the crowd.

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Our text says that in verse 34, he healed many who were sick with various diseases.

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So all kinds of problems, physically problems there. And he cast out many demons.

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So he handled everything and he handled it indiscriminately, indiscriminately.

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He did this for everyone who was in need. So there wasn't this thing with Jesus where he's evaluating these people individually and looking at this person and looking at that person and deciding,

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I don't think you're worthy of this. I don't think you're worthy of this. Okay, you're good, you're worthy. I'll take care of your problem and you go on.

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One reason I mention that is to exalt the Lord Jesus. But another reason I mention that is to highlight the difference between Jesus' authority and the so -called faith healers' authority in our day and age.

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Because what do they do? What do they do? The exposés on these individuals have shown that they have their sifters, the people that, you know, the gatekeepers for the potential recipients of the power of the healer.

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And if the gatekeeper sees this individual that has a real problem, they don't get up there.

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They only allow the ones up on the stage who they know the faith healer can, with his zapping, cause them to faint.

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And then they'll let them come up. But the person who is in a wheelchair and has withered legs or whatever, they will not make it to the stage.

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They're very discriminating as to who gets to receive the, quote, authoritative healing power of the faith healer.

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Not Jesus. Not Jesus. He handles each one individually.

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He handles everything. He does it indiscriminately and he does it authoritatively. You see at the end of verse 34.

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He cast out these demons. He healed those who were sick. And he did not even allow the demons to speak.

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Didn't even allow them to speak. This is authority. All right, so see the authority of Jesus.

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He has authority. He's showing his authority in teaching over demonic power, over sickness, over this crowd of all kinds of different problems.

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And he demonstrates his authority thoroughly. But what I also want us to look at is the responses.

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How should we respond to this authority of Jesus? And one of the ways we should respond to the authority of Jesus is to allow ourselves to be taught of him.

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If he is one who teaches with authority, then we should allow ourselves to be taught of him.

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In fact, we should be eager to learn. We should be eager to learn of him. I think of this synagogue crowd who were eager to learn because he teaches as one who has authority.

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And why listen to Jesus? I mean, what did Jesus tell us? Come to me, all you who labor and heavy laden.

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Take my yoke upon you and learn of me. Learn of me. So you apply that to yourself and to myself.

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Why do I come to church, for example? Do I come to church for the social thing of it all?

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Do I come because I enjoy this, I enjoy that? Or do I come to learn of the

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Lord? And I don't just mean by that intellectual, learning a bunch of intellectual facts.

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To be taught of him. Teaching from the Lord is teaching that goes through the mind and touches the heart, the whole aspect of the being.

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Every chamber of the heart, if you will. The mind, the desires, and the will.

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So come eager to learn. And furthermore, when we think about responding to the teaching authority of Jesus, to be taught of him, we must accept the authority of his word.

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Accept the authority of his word. Like what Carolyn mentioned earlier about an emphasis on the inerrancy of scripture.

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The authority of scripture. This is his authoritative word. This is what I need to pay attention to as my sole source of authority.

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And his teaching. The Lord teaches us with his word. And let it make an impact.

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Let it make an impact on you. It says they were astonished at his teaching.

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And that word conveys the idea of the wind being blown out of them.

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Got the wind blown out of them. You know? You ever had that happen? Get the wind knocked out of you and you're...

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This is the kind of response. They heard what Jesus had to say and it hit them.

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It hit them. He probably stepped on some toes. He probably encouraged them greatly.

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But what he said, it made an impact on them. Made an impact on them.

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So respond by being taught of him. A second response to the authority of Jesus is to tell of him.

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To tell of him. And so this is seen in verses 23 through 28 as Jesus is confronted by this demon in his authority.

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Jesus' authority confronts this demon. I do not mean to suggest by this response that we are in any sense demonic.

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But what I want you to catch is how did this demon respond to the authority of Jesus? How did he respond?

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Well, one thing he did was he told who Jesus was.

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He told of his person. See this in verse 24. He said, what do we have to do with you?

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Jesus of Nazareth, which of course is a...

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It's an exclamation of his humanity. That Jesus is a man.

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Jesus of Nazareth. Who is Jesus? He is one who is fully man.

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But the response doesn't end there. He says, I know who you are, the holy one of God.

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He is fully man, but he is also fully God. Tell of his person in response to his authority.

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And tell of his position in verses 24 through 26. As the holy one of God, what is his position?

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He is part of the Godhead. But as we see this authority of Jesus being demonstrated over this demonically possessed individual, we also see that his position is one of superiority.

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Even over the demonic. Even over the demonic. The demon doesn't have any choice but to do exactly what

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Jesus tells him to do. And he departs. And I think of that in relation to a lot of folks who struggle with,

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I wouldn't necessarily call it demon possession, maybe oppression.

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And what do they concentrate on? What do they focus on? What are they counseled to focus on? This technique or that technique?

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Maybe, you know, sing a song or quote a verse of scripture.

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All of that may be fine, but the ultimate focus has to be on Jesus. Jesus is the one in authoritative position to deal with this evil that is invading my heart, invading my mind.

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Tell of his position. And tell of his power. Tell of his power. Again, in verse 24, the demon recognizes that Jesus has the power to destroy him, them, the demonic, to ruin them, to render them useless.

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Jesus has the power to destroy oppression. Jesus has the power to deliver from bondage, as it comes out in verse 26.

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The unclean spirit convulsed him, cried out, he came out of him, and this man, who for however long of his life had been in bondage to this demonic power, is now delivered.

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He's now delivered. Jesus has that power to destroy oppression and to deliver people from bondage.

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Some of you heard recently the testimony of this young man who's come in the last few weeks, share of his bondage to alcohol for years and how in the last few months the

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Lord has graciously delivered him from that bondage. The Lord can do that because of his power.

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How do we respond to the authority of Jesus? Well, we tell of him. And then thirdly, we can respond to him, to his authority, by serving him.

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And this comes out in verses 29 through 31. As Jesus deals with the fever -controlled mother -in -law, heals her completely of that disease, then what does she do?

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End of verse 31. She served them. She served them. What is the basis of her service?

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Is it not the fact that Jesus has done something for her? He's graciously done something for her?

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Is not the basis of her service a heart of love, affection for her or for him?

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Is not the basis of her service a sense of gratitude for what

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Jesus has done for her? And is it not based on a desire to please him, to honor him, to meet the needs of him and the people that are there with him?

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Apply that to our own life in the 21st century in the church as God's people.

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In our response to the authority of Jesus, we serve him. What does it mean to serve the

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Lord? What is required to serve the Lord? What are the parameters for serving the

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Lord? Now, I think that we can be too narrow in our understanding of what that means.

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Not long ago, someone was talking to me about a little bit of lamenting about not being able to serve the

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Lord in the church. I said, well, like in what way? And he rattled off a few things.

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And I said, well, you know, there are only so many of those kinds of opportunities, and all of those opportunities are filled.

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I mean, people are doing that. And the person said, well, you know, I just feel like I'm just dust in pews.

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I'm just warm in the pew. And I said, well, do you think that the only way you can serve the

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Lord is if you have some kind of a position in the church?

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You have some kind of titled function in the church?

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Is that the only way to serve the Lord? I shared with him an extreme idea of what it means to serve the

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Lord. It was communicated by a pastor I served. I think I may have shared this not long ago. But he had this notion, and he said it in a

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Sunday morning message to the congregation. He said, if you don't have a ministry in the church where you have to call somebody to take your place if you're sick, then you're not really serving the

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Lord. Really? When you go to Acts 2, 3, 4, 5 in the early church,

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I mean, in a matter of a few short days, weeks, months, thousands of people became members, became a part of the local church in Jerusalem.

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How many Sunday school teachers did they have? How many Sunday school classes did they have?

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They didn't even have a nursery or a children's church. They didn't even have a building to take care of.

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Did those people not serve the Lord? Did they not have any way to serve the Lord? Look at how

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Peter's mother -in -law served them. She made them a dinner.

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And the Lord Jesus said as often as, if you do this, you give a cup of water to one of these, my brethren, you're doing it unto me.

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As you do it unto me, you're serving me when you serve them. So I think we need to not be so narrow in our idea of what it means to serve the

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Lord. When you go to work tomorrow morning, you are serving the

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Lord if you're doing that job as unto him. You moms that are taking care of little children, as you're bringing them up in the nurture and admonition of the

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Lord in your day -to -day work and wiping their noses and doing all that stuff that you do with those little kids, you do this as unto the

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Lord. You're serving the Lord. This is a response to his authority.

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He has done so much for me. He has given me these children. He has given me this job.

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He has given, he's provided, he's done this, he's done that. He has done so much for me. What I want to do for him is

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I want to serve him. What can I do to serve him? I can help this person in this way. I can do this for this person.

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I can help out in this way in the church and I can teach this class or I can change this diaper or whatever.

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There's innumerable ways to serve the Lord that don't have to have a title attached to the job, if you will.

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And then lastly, verses 32 through 34, we can respond to the Lord by seeking deliverance of him.

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Seeking deliverance of him. Here are all these people that showed up at the door where Jesus was.

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Why? Because they heard of his authority. And as they heard of his authority, they came to him.

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They sought deliverance from him. And so one of the ways we respond to the authority of the

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Lord is seeking deliverance from him, of him, by him. That he delivers us.

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And doing so regardless of the need. Regardless of the need. So obviously in this passage, we read about some who had some spiritual problems.

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They were demonically possessed. What spiritual problems do you struggle with?

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Temptation, guilt, some besetting sin, fear, inordinate affection.

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I was listening to a series of things for pastors and this one pastor was talking about how for the first several years of his ministry, he was overwhelmed with fear.

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Fear just gripped him. He lived in constant fear.

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And fear of a lot of different things. How did he find deliverance from that?

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Well, the short answer is he went to the Lord. One of the things he did, and I thought this was an interesting thing.

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He found five men that he trusted and that he could be vulnerable with.

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And he shared with them his struggles. And he said to them, I'm asking you once a week to send me a text, an email, a phone call, or something.

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It doesn't have to be long, whatever. Just send me, once a week, send me something that lifts up Jesus, that speaks to me about Jesus.

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Why? Why did he want them to do that? Because it helped deliver him from his fears as he focused on Jesus.

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So you go to Jesus for spiritual problems and they came to Jesus for their physical problems.

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And that can be... I mean, we immediately go to the idea of healing, right?

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Because this is what happened here in this text. Obviously, Jesus doesn't operate in the same way today.

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Not everybody that we pray to for immediate healing, does the healing come.

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Generally, when healing comes, it comes gradually. So when we think about going to Jesus for deliverance regarding physical problems, it can be deliverance by way of healing or by way of patient endurance, the grace to endure.

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And the Lord delivers us in our physical ailments sometimes, not by taking the ailment completely away and taking it away right now, but he delivers us in a different way.

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Because we're dealing with this ailment and we're dealing with it like, I gotta be healed from this,

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I gotta be better, and all the rest kind of thing. And what the Lord wants to do in this time is to help me to learn some things about him, about dependence upon him, about patience, about endurance, maybe.

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But that can be a way that he delivers, not always instantaneously healing.

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But coming, deliverance to him, deliverance from him by coming to him regardless of the need and doing so continually, continually.

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Verse 32 says, when the sun had set, they brought to him all who were sick. Literally, that says they kept bringing to him.

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They kept bringing to him. It's like this parade of people that just kept coming to him.

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And the deal is, Jesus never tires of our coming to him.

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He never gets tired of it. And seek deliverance of him because he responds.

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He responds. He responds personally, he responds compassionately, and he responds authoritatively.

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So Jesus is our authoritative savior and Lord.

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And he demonstrates his authority in these varied ways, in his teaching, in his dealing with the demonic, in dealing with the physical ailment, in dealing with the crowd.

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He demonstrates his authority. Let's respond to him in appropriate ways.

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Let's learn of him. Let's tell of him. Let's serve him. And when needed, let's seek deliverance from him.

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So our Father in heaven, we thank you for the power of the

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Lord Jesus Christ. Thank you for his authority. And we thank you that the authority that he demonstrates in Mark 1 is an authority that has not diminished in the least bit in these last 2 ,000 years.

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He is still the same. And so Father, I pray that we would be submissive to that authority and we would be dependent upon him.

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We pray it in Jesus' name, amen. So let's take our hymnals and turn to number 366.

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366. And this hymn is simply a prayer to the

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Lord, offering ourselves for him to have his own way with us.

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You demonstrate his authority over us. He's the potter, we're the clay.

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Let's stand as we sing, shall we? First and the last.

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Have thine own way, Lord. Thou art the potter,

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I am the clay. Mold me and make me after thy will.

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I'm waiting, held it and still.

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Have thine own way, Lord, have thine own way.

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Hold o 'er my being, absolute sway. Fill with thy spirit till all shall see.

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Christ only, always living in me.

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Dismiss us now, O Lord, with your blessing. I pray that we would walk with you this week.

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We would learn of you. We would grow in Christ. We'd become more like him.