07/07/24 Pastor Cody - Mark 6:53-56

D [Music] that's [Music] e us than [Music] have to ask [Music] e well good morning church good morning First Baptist Church how are you today good thank you for asking hey it is good to see each and every single one of you here my name is Cody I'm the pastor here we're all about loving God loving each other and loving our community and world and one of the things we got coming up is tomorrow morning at 645 we got a couple of Van loads of kids that we taking down to Falls Creek in Davis Oklahoma to have summer camp and so please be praying for those students and your chaperons I'll be going along with let's see here Austin and Deborah Athena and I think Chelsea is that right yeah so praise the Lord that we got that and so be praying for them pray that the Lord would just really speak to these young people I believe that God works in really awesome and incredible ways at Camp as people withdraw from their regular time of just the summer and stuff and intentionally take time to engage with the Lord God has a way of showing up in really unique and Powerful ways so be praying for those students and that would be great we also have our Men's Ministry breakfast that's coming up at the end of the month that will be a time for prayer and encouragement but then also we want to take time to prepare our property for National Night Out so we're going to have we're estimating somewhere between 1,00 to 1500 people that'll be here that evening to just

Connect with First Responders if you U are part of a local business and you want to help sponsor that to make it a reality we could really use the help and I've been to 40 some odd businesses and talked to 40 some odd bosses and so anyways it's going to be a great time everyone's very positive about that and I hope that you'll participate that in that as well we also have vacation Bible school that's July 15th through the 19th we've got 125 130 kids already registered and surely we're going to pick up some more there that week before Vacation Bible School I will be running the van out that day out to my neighborhood and so if we I could use probably another adult in there and so if you're just like yeah I can sit in a van with you that would be absolutely incredible anyways there's other other information that's in the bulletin right there and you can just stay up to date on what's happening in our church by taking a look at that other than that why don't you to find a neighbor say happy Fourth of July I hope that was great hug their next say welcome to First Baptist Church e [Music] SC hey thank you [Music] didn't well good morning church it's good to see you all here this morning honestly I love it whenever I need a microphone just to get everyone's attention because we're busy greeting each other in the name of the Lord that's good stuff and it's so good to see you all here and have kind of a full house today so yeah it's just good to hear the people of God rejoicing in being together now is it's part of our service where we like to just take a moment and ask the Lord to prepare our hearts and our minds for

Corporate worship this is a special time a time that has been ordained by God he's called us to meet together and to praise him together and so I'd ask that you would just take a moment and ask him to prepare you this morning and so Lord we do ask this morning that you would still our hearts and quiet our minds we're so quick to focus on so many other things we're so quick to let our lives get somewhat cluttered with the things of this world to the point where we forget to focus on you the creator of all things the sustainer of all things the one who has made a way for us who gives us peace and joy and hope in this life and in what's to come Lord I pray that this morning you would focus our attention on who you are and what you've done help us to turn that attention into pray to glorify you because you are worthy it's in Jesus name we pray amen I'd invite you to stand and join us as we sing All Creatures of our God and King [Music] All Creatures of our God anding lift up your voice and with us sing Oh Praise Him Hallelujah thou burning Sun with golden Le thou Silver Moon with softer gleam Oh Praise Him Oh Praise hallelu hallelu Hallelujah [Music] let all things their creator bless and worship him in humbl Oh Praise Him [Applause] hallelujah praise praise the father son and praise the spirit free in one Oh Praise Him Oh Praise [Music] hallelujah [Music] hallelujah all the redeemed watch by his

[Applause] blood come and rejoice in him his great love Oh Praise Him Hallelujah Christ has defeated every sin cast all your burdens down on him Oh Praise Him Oh Praise Him Hallelujah [Music] hallelu Hallelujah he's coming back again he shall return in power to re Heaven and Earth will join to say Oh Praise Him Hallelujah then who shall fall on men All Creatures of our God and King Oh Praise Him Oh Praise hallelu [Music] hallelu Hallelujah [Music] amen that is who we praise this morning our God is three in one he is Savior and Creator and he has made all things to praise His name this next song might be a little new for you it's called all my boast and simply what it's saying is what the Scriptures Proclaim about Jesus that our boast doesn't come from things in this life it's not from things that are skills it's not from our wealth but instead for the Christan the only thing that we have to boast and we know is Jesus Christ who made a way for us [Music] amen what Wonder of Wonders what love is this that Christ would die for me his goodness his Merit his rightousness this sinner only ple oh Foolish Pride be crucified the work is fin all my Bo is in Jesus all my hope is his love and I will glory forever in on the cross has done now fully forgiv my life is filled with graes

Undeserved for Mercy that flow down that s Hill let Praises now return rise up my soul and bless the Lord who else is worthy all my Bo is in Jesus all my hope is his love and I will glory forever in what the cross has done sing Oh Praise the one oh praise forever blessed him alone my heart adore and I will in nothing L than the love of Christ my Lord sing that again oh praise the one for forever bless him alone my heart adore and I will boast in nothing less than the love of Christ my Lord I boast not in riches in strength or might but in the grace of God I glory in weakness to live his Christ in plenty in one that I may know that all may see his power with in me all my boast is in Jesus all my hope is his love and I will glory forever in what the cross has done now I stand in his freom ransomed clean in his sight and I cannot be ashamed for my Bo is Jesus Christ my H is Jesus Christ forever my H [Music] Christ you can be seated as our ushers come forward to take up the offering good morning my name is Greg and I'm one of the deacons here at First Baptist camton and just thinking about independence day you know 248 years ago I think it was that we did get our independence from England they consider that Thanksgiving I think but I'm thinking about that we had in Independence

From a nation but Christ gave us the opportunity of independence from sin and Satan but also that we would be interdependent as the body of Christ and this is one of the opportunities that we have to be interdependent to be able to share the things financially that God has given us as a body with the body and for the ministry of the church let's pray Father in Heaven thank you Lord you don't need this money you have everything and you have no needs but yet Lord You Have you have brought us into a relationship with you and a relationship with one another and you ask us father to depend on one another you ask us Lord to be a part of the ministry through giving and so father at this time we pray and we ask Lord that the offerings today would be a way that we can show that body functioning together dependent on one another and that Lord you would use these monies for your sake For Your Glory for the ministry of reaching others and helping others grow in a deeper relationship with you father we thank you in Jesus name amen well today as I know you know is a family worship Sunday so we got all our all our kid kiddos in here today and over the past month as we've been singing Jesus strong and kind in here the kids have been seeing that in their in Sunday School Kids Quest time kind of almost practicing it and you know so have we also been practicing it so today we get to lift our voices together in a song that we all know and parents I encourage you to encourage your kids to sing loud yeah listen for those little voices praising the Lord this morning so I invite you again to stand as you're able as we sing Jesus strong and kind [Music] Jesus said that if I thirst I should come to him no one else can satisfy

I should come to him Jesus said if I am weak I should come to him no one else can be my strength I should come to him for the Lord is good and faithful he will keep us day and night we can always run to Jesus Jesus strong and kind do you believe that can you always run to Jesus Jesus said that if by fear I should come to him no one else can my sh I should come to him for the Lord is good and faithful he will keep us day and we can come to Jesus Jesus strong and kind Jesus said if I am lost he will come to me and he showed me on that cross he will come to me he is faithful for the Lord is good and he will keep us day and night we can run to Jesus Jesus strong and kind Jesus strong and [Music] Jesus loves me this I know for the Bible tells me so little ones to him belong they are weak but he is strong yes Jesus loves me yes Jesus loves me the Bible tells me so yes Jesus loves me yes Jesus Loves Me Jesus loves me the Bible tells me so the Bible tells me so [Music]

Lord you are good and faithful Lord we thank you for the constant reminders of your faithfulness Lord I pray that though we will meet trials and struggles of various kinds in this world Lord that you would always remind us that you are for us and Lord that though this life has so many struggles in it Lord there's something better for us Lord that we can dwell with you forever if we believe because you made a way for us when there was no way Lord thank you for loving us it's in Jesus name we pray amen all right kids it's children's lesson time you guys have a good Fourth of July yeah you guys blow up some stuff yeah I my brother yeah fun hey over there all right okay well I have something for you guys here I have something very special what is this a blanket okay is there anything special about this blanket here pass it around what's special about it's warm okay it's warm you have to sleep okay what else soft memories okay what if I told you that this was Jesus's blanket garment not blanket garment okay use your imagination for a second what if I told you I went to Israel and I went on a tour and one guy led me to the house where they believed Jesus lived in and I found that there and they said this is Jesus's garment would that be more special okay now what if I told you that this was a garment that Jesus wore in a story that I'm about to share and that it if you touched it you could get healed would you believe me no okay that's the right answer but go ahead you keep but yes there this story that I'm about to read it says this in verse 56 and wherever he

Was entering Villages talking about Jesus or cities or Countryside they were laying the sick in the marketplaces and pleading with him that they might just touch the fringes of His Garment and as many as touched it were being healed from their sicknesses okay so tell me something the people who were sick were they placing their faith in an object like this the Bible says that they were being healed whenever they touched the fr ring of His Garment okay they fa they had faith in God that's a good answer yeah you know it's if you just read it at Plain Sight it's like man if they just touched The Fringe of their garment there must be something truly special about this garment but if we read a little bit before that in verse 54 it says this and when they got out of the boat immediately the people recognized him oh here we see the point they were not putting their faith in an object okay they were putting their faith in Jesus okay so not a garment right our faith our healing doesn't come in a garment or an object it doesn't come from children's camp how many of you guys like going to children's camp yeah and you learn about Jesus there right you come away feeling more spiritual what about if you listen to really good praise and worship music you guys like listening to praise and worship music yeah okay right what about your mom and your dad do your mom and dad lead you to the Lord do they help you walk and obedience towards him yeah they do yeah what about going to go going to Sunday school okay does that help us grow in our faith yeah it does absolutely and these things are good and did you know that On The Fringe of a garment that the rabbis wore they put those there as

Reminders of God's law to help them remember to be obedient to God okay and so we have things that help us in our walk with God but guys listen our object of our faith is not in any of these things but it is in the person of Jesus Christ and that's really important because human beings tend to easily start putting our faith in things that we can touch things that we can control see okay but it's really important I want you guys to remember this for anything that our object of faith is not in this those people who were putting their faith in Jesus by touching him they are putting their faith in the person and here's the thing here's the good news keep sleeping on it this is empty where if this really was Jesus's garment where's Jesus where is he's in heaven he's risen yes he's risen and now he sits at the right hand of the father okay all authority and power has been given to him and we don't need to go to Israel to go into a city and hope that we could see Jesus walking by and maybe get to say hi to him and touch him we don't have to we don't have to go anywhere or do anything like that to have a relationship with Jesus all we need to do is pray and believe our object of our faith is in the Risen Savior Jesus Christ who now sits in heaven and is governing the whole world he's paid for all of our sins he's forgiven us of all of our debts and we can just we can have this relationship with him anywhere you know it might sound like yeah we all know this but it hasn't always been that way and so that's why when we take communion we get to remember what Jesus has done for us now when we take communion as Christians are we putting our faith okay girls are

We putting our faith in this communion no we're not we're using it's kind of like tassels to remind us of the goodness of God and what he has done for us okay all right let's pray dear heavenly father thank you so much for dying on the cross rising from the dead for governing us and leading us to saving Faith because of what you've done Lord thank you for that we don't need to do all of these things we don't we don't need to work for our Salvation we don't need to work for Grace you just give it to us freely because you love us Lord I pray that you would help us to find you as our ultimate treasure the object of our faith the thing that we would love more than anything else help us to make these distinctions and to know them and to really just love you and treasure you Above All Things pray these things in Jesus name amen all right guys we're going to go over there and get our Stu hey guys back up back up it is a blessing to have a church full of little ones isn't it all right well as these little ones get back to their chairs and next to their parents or grandparents or whoever brought them if you have your Bible and I hope that you do please turn with me to Mark chap 6 verse 53 Mark 6 verse 53 we're going to be this is what's called a summary passage in other words Mark he's not going to give us specifics of the events at this time if you want to get really specific about all of the things that happen John chapter 6 which we went into a little bit last week and it's such a long passage with so much meat and I for the sake of those with little ones and also for our nursery workers I would highly recommend that you take time after church today to read and study John chapter 6 so that way you

Can see some of the interactions that Christ had in the midst of all of his ministry that he does here now last week we talked about how Jesus who was walking on the water and the whole purpose behind that Miracle of Jesus walking on water was not so was not for any other reason other than to display his identity to the disciples because the week before that we were looking at Jesus and how he had turned that the Loaves and the fish and to this massive Feast for about 15,000 people and the disciples Hearts were hardened and so by him walking on the waves it allowed for them as we saw in John chapter 6 it allowed for their hearts to be softened and for them to understand that Jesus Christ is truly the Son of God now in this passage we're looking at Jesus he was increasing in popularity at an astounding rate after the miracle with the loaves of bread and fish Jesus he was more popular than ever and don't forget that Jesus had already been nearly crushed to death in Mark 3:9 and he was swarmed by people who were pushing all around him in Mark 5 and yet Jesus he once again chooses to go back across the lake to where he is most popular in order to re-engage in Ministry but he left that massive crowd of 15,000 plus people back over in Betha in a rural area and the disciples they had left earlier and so the people they just figured that Jesus stayed behind on the mountain and so the crowds that had received the amazing supper they figured that as he was on the mountain still praying and they didn't know that he was on the mountain still praying and they didn't know that he had walked across the water or anything like that so when Jesus gets to this other area across the lake they hadn't heard of the miracle with the bread and the fish but they do know his reputation of being a Healer of being full of

Compassion and a teacher the one who can heal their wounds and get rid of their sicknesses this passage as I've said is called a summary text and in The Book of Mark this is the longest and most detailed one that we will come across let's see what we can learn about Jesus together as we stand and we read Mark 6: 53-56 God's word says this when they had crossed over they came to land at ganzar and moed to the shore and when they got out of the boat the people immediately recognized him and ran about the whole region and began to bring the sick people on their beds to wherever they heard he was and wherever he came in villages cities or Countryside they laid the sick in the marketplaces and implored him that they might touch even The Fringe of His Garment and as the and as many as touched it were made well let's pray so Lord we do thank you for this time that we get to have together today to study your word and Lord this week this passage is particularly important as Lord we just want to continue lifting up to you Denny and we want to pray for her healing but also for Janet and her recent diagnosis Lord we also want to pray for Norma Houston and her very rapid decline in health Lord we thank you for the confidence and the hope and that they have reached out they have touched you and that while their bodies fail them they have an eternal hope in Christ that regardless of how sickness winds up Lord that you have their their souls Eternal and secure because of their faith in Christ and we thank you for that and Lord we just submit them to you and we ask that you would work in their hearts and in their minds and in their bodies Lord we ask for peace Lord we also want to continue to lift up to your church Lord as we pray for our finances and our leadership and the many needs that we have Lord we just submit ourselves to

You and today with every person that's in here we pray that every person under the sound of my voice would hear the Gospel today and Lord that whether we are Christians or whether we're not that we would leave transformed by the power of your Holy Spirit Lord for those that know you that we would grow in our knowledge of you and for those that don't know you that they would come to know you today we ask that you would help us God Lord we also want to lift up to you our nation today Lord we pray that you would just work among its people father and we pray for our leaders we pray for wise and godly leaders Lord but we also know that your judgment is to give us leaders that we deserve and so we pray that you would please relent give us Mercy where we don't deserve it God and that we would have wise and godly people in our leadership thank you for the time that we have together today we just ask that you would bless us Lord in Jesus name amen well growing up my mom was a big Winnie the Pooh fan any Winnie the Pooh fans out there yeah a couple of you okay I was not a Winnie the Pooh guy okay I just you know guy I like Dino riters did anybody watch Dino Riders back in the 80s you know no one know it's very rare to find people that anyways I'll get back to the sermon so Winnie the Pooh I was watching it and I'm reminded at just how much we actually have in common with a lot of the characters in win the Pooh and I was sitting down now as I was thinking about this sermon I started thinking about how I can have tunnel Visions sometimes you know I can be blinded by the things that are going on in my own life and my own responsibilities that I don't take time to see the plight that other people might have and I started to think about this one episode where Eeyore he's floating down a river on his back yep and he's

Floating down the river and what's interesting is that Pooh sees him as he's as he's walking down the I'm gonna call him Winnie the Pooh I just can't say Pooh with a straight face it's the benefits of having five kids I guess so Winnie the Pooh Bear he's he's walking along the bank and he sees Eeyore starting to sink in this River and one of the things that he says is Eeyore you're in the river and Eeyore says yes I've fallen in that was silly of me and so Pooh he overlooks his friend's pleading eyes and he says you know eore you really should be a lot more careful and so eore he says well thank you so much for the advice all the while he's beginning to sink in the river he's almost on the point of drowning and Pooh almost with a yawn says Eeyore I think that you were sinking and that's kind of the only hope that eore has at that point in time and so he says well poo would you really mind rescuing me and so P Winnie the Pooh pulls him from the river and eore apologizes for being such a bother and Winnie the Pooh says don't be silly you should have said something sooner and I how much do you relate to that though like we have we have these blinders on in our eyes as we are sharing our struggles whether we're in community groups or with friends or wherever online we automatically just kind of let people share and then say okay and we don't do anything about it many times we can all relate to that story a bit and we're probably a lot more like Po bear than we would care to admit but thankfully our Lord Jesus Christ is not nearly that dense as we saw in the feeding of the 5000 and in Christ walking on the waters Jesus is not hard-hearted towards us he is full of compassion he is full of love

He's not indifferent to our needs and he intimately knows exactly what we need and when we need them and it is this knowledge that leads Jesus back across the lake in order to minister at ganar now ganesa is located on that Northwestern Shore okay that's a capernium that's Jesus's base of operations right around here sometime somewhere between beada and K akib is where that Miracle of the 5000 took place and they go across the lake they get stuck there and they land in Ganer now they're actually not ganar proper because ganzar yes it was a town but it was also a region this is the region that we're talking this is modern days but what ganess is known for it's a three and a half mile stretch of just absolutely beaule and fertile land it's where most people would plant their lives and so there were all these little towns all throughout that region and Christ and his disciples they put their their their boat up onto the shore drag it up there they Beach the ship and they step on out of the boat and the people instantly recognized Jesus Christ and they brought all of the sick people to him they were carrying them on bed they were helping them hobble over to seed Christ they were readily doing everything they could to bring the sick and the needy to Jesus and Jesus welcomed them with open arms and you might think man how many people were sick during this time because for six chapters we have seen healing after healing after healing and repetitious times of people saying of Mark saying that everyone was healed as many as were brought to him were healed but remember that modern medicine is modern I was recently reading a U terara Ross I don't know if y'all follow her on Facebook or not she's a historian she knows so much history absolutely brilliant woman and she said she was talking about Calvin kage's 16-year-old son who he died while

Calvin kulage was President of the United States back in the 20s he died from an infection from a blister while playing tennis now I don't know about you but I don't know of many people that die at the age of 16 from a blister nowadays that's that's how far removed we are from the issues and the plights that the people were dealing with at that time a broken arm could have been fatal the common cold flu today they're just as prevalent now as they were in the ancient world cancer was an issue in the ancient world as well poor hygiene lack of medicine no sewer system that would create a big mess rare access to clean water made health issues common and we know this as verifiable facts in archaeology and people they were absolutely decimated by these things except for when Jesus was around in Mark he summarizes the text in verse 55 that the people they brought the sick on their beds to wherever that they heard that he was and listen here this is an application point for you is that anyone can come to Christ just as they are you don't get better you don't get cleaned up before you come to Christ you come to Christ in order to be clean he's the one that makes you all better the issue that we all face is not so much body sickness but Soul death that's the issue that we all face the Bible says that we are spiritually dead apart from Christ and you know the beauty is that young people in our culture are recognizing this more and more and more and more the answers that the world provides are meaningless and they leave people feeling less satisfied why it's because generally people they look to entertainment to videos more vegging out more hookups more pleasure they're hoping that leads to more of those type of things but actually it leads to less Joy less

Fulfillment less contentment greater anxiety greater depression and why is that because God has not created Humanity to find joy and peace and everlasting contentment in all of those things he has created us to find all of those things not in the things themselves but in the person and work of Jesus Christ the truth is that without Christ existence is lifeless it is meaningless it is purposeless and it is hopeless yeah there's desires there's searching there's reasoning there's lots of things that we can do before Christ in order to seek out the truth but all of those are ultimately dead ends and lead to anxious Hearts have you ever looked at the kind of people that will be in heaven turn with me real quick I added this morning as I was praying so it's not up on the screen so open up your Bibles and go over to 1 Corinthians chapter 6 1 Corinthians chapter 6 this passage is a roll call of all the kinds of people that'll be in heaven and please allow me to finish my thought before you jump to conclusions here because there's 10 classifications of people that we're going to see here in 1 Corinthians 6 verses 9- 11 it says or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God do not be deceived neither the sexually immoral nor idolators nor adulterers nor men who practice homosexuality nor thieves nor the greedy nor the drunkards nor revilers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God 10 classifications right there because verse 11 says this and such were some of you but you were washed that washed means that you have come to Christ with his cleansing blood the only thing that can make our souls clean is the blood of Jesus Christ that has taken place in your life Jesus

He died on the cross for sin and he took the punishment that you and I deserved he died as our substitute and on the third day he rose again the Bible says also that you were Sanctified that means that you are now set apart to live a holy and righteous kind of Life a new kind of life that glorifies God and Paul says that you were Justified that means just as if I had never sinned that I have been declared righteous before the sight of God in other words each of these people they saw themselves as Sinners who deserve to be separated from God forever but they came to God recognizing ing that Jesus Christ had taken their punishment and they did what God instructed them to do repented of their sins and believed in Jesus Christ by placing their faith and trust in his work alone for salvation and the moment that you do that what happens you are justified in God's sight righteous in his eyes and every single person makes a terrible mess of their lives you look at that list and you might say well I don't struggle with some of those things but you know what some of those those other things that you do struggle with you're just better at keeping hidden the beautiful thing is that God he can save you from your mess too glory to God for that we all have different ones we've all wrecked our lives in different ways but thank the Lord that we can come to Christ just like we are you may not have these sins but you might have others you might be a liar you might have cheated might have stolen something coveted hated others had terrible thoughts before for a pure and holy and righteous God we are all messed up but just as these sick people in Mark chapter 6 just as they could come to Christ just as they are you can come to Christ with all of your messes too and he invites you to turn away from all those messes to come to him for

Cleansing for healing and to trust in him not necessarily physical healing don't don't miss that spirit spiritual healing is the issue and the question is will you in verse 56 if you go back to Mark chapter 6 it says and wherever he came in villages cities or the countryside they laid the sick in the marketplaces and implored them that they might even touch The Fringe of His Garment and as many as touched it were made well now in Mark chapter 5 we see this playing out right the woman with the Hemorrhage and she just said if I just touch just the Hem of His robe then I'll be saved and everyone heard about that and so everyone goes you know I just need to just get close to Jesus just to touch him and then I will be healed now I don't know where that blanket went you got the blanket over there all right now we're not going to cut those up into threein squares and sell them to you guys okay all right we're not charlatans that's not what we do but we don't have relics and artifacts like that we don't believe that's there is inherent power in those kind of things and we read in the book of Acts about you know Peter's Shadow falling across people okay we read about that but that was for the apostles okay my shadow doesn't do that I don't think anyone's shadow does that okay but what we do see is God still healing in truly miraculous ways Thomas you've seen it in your mom's life praise the Lord that she's doing wonder she had she was diagnosed was it stage four or stage three stage four cancer in remission Steve we've seen it in your life too praise the Lord we've seen it God he still works in wonderful and Powerful ways and we don't have to trust in relics we don't have to trust in things we get to trust in Christ in alone can you imagine what it would be

Like if we did have a holy blanket in our church we draped it over here and we just we started spreading the word if you come and you touch this thing then you'll be healed how many people do you think would be in this church I mean we would add we would have thousands of people coming they'd be coming from Springfield and Jain all to touch the holy blanket we need to come up with a better name the Blessed blanket there you go all right and people but that just shows a deeper sickness that people are far more concerned about their physical bodies that will perish than their spiritual Souls that live forever either eternal eternally separated from God's love in Hell or eternally with him in that blessed presence in heaven it's foreign that's strange to me but people they were flocking to Christ not because he was a Son of God and were worshiping him but primarily because he performed Miracles and they wanted to see what Christ could do for them you know when people try to see Christ and seek Him for selfish reasons my marriage is bad therefore I'm going to start going to church and that's I understand that God can reveal himself in really amazing ways in those situations and if you're here you're in the right place if that's what you're going through but we have to move from away from what can God do for me to I want Christ as simple as that you might see God work just by being in church or you know whatever reading your Bible things like that's not the same as salvation is it if you're here and you want healing you want purpose and comfort and joy but you don't want Christ then Christ is not yours you can find you know temporary comfort and temporary joy and temporary purpose and temporary healing

But the riches of those things are not found in the things themselves but in a right relationship with the Lord and this is why Jesus healed not to do good works but to call people to himself yes he did do good works but that's not the primary focus and you can read that parallel passage in John chapter 6 if you don't believe me but this text in Mark is pivotal because it's from here on out that Jesus's Ministry is going to be distinctly different it's going to be a lot more teaching and engaging with the disciples very much personally because Jesus at this point in time he's not as concerned with getting as many people to listen to his teaching as he is about empowering the disciples for Ministry and developing them so what do we learn from the summary there's four things that you can write down is firstly we learn about Jesus's extravagant love that he has for people Jesus he travels he goes everywhere he's healing he's performing Miracles Jesus he's loving everyone no matter what they're dealing with or whatever they're going through Jesus displays his care for those that are in need and this is true about Jesus's feelings towards you as well Jesus he does love you he does care about you and you might say well I don't feel like that all the time I don't feel particularly loved or cared for well you might feel at times that he has forgotten you might feel at times like he doesn't hear your prayers or listen to you he might feel like he doesn't answer them in the way that you want them to be answered and Satan might be whispering to you that you know Jesus doesn't care about you so how can you fix that well look at what's true the disciples thought that Jesus didn't care while they were on the waves in the

Middle of the of the storm they were just struggling Against the Wind And yet when they asked Jesus can you calm the storm they he absolutely said yes the disciples thought that they were forgotten on the lake when they tried to get the shore and yet Jesus he walked on water and he came to them remind yourself of what is true preach the Gospel to yourself remind yourself of what the word of God says look at what Hebrews chap 10 says in verses 19- 23 it says therefore Brothers since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus by the New and Living Way that he opened for us through the curtain that is through his flesh and since we have a great priest over the house of God let us draw near with a True Heart in full Assurance of Faith with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water let us hold fast the confession of Our Hope without wavering for he who promised is faithful God his promises are faithful to you to you so we don't have to wonder does God hear me he says that he does do we don't have to wonder does God love me he does last night in our devotional was John 3:16 for God so loved the world that he gave is the only begotten son that whosoever believes in him shall not perish but have everlasting life that's a promise a promise from the Lord we learn about Jesus's immeasurable power so far in Mark we've seen Jesus perform countless Miracles we don't know how many he did the Bible says that if it was if we were to lay it all out everything that Jesus said and did and taught all the Miracles that he performed there wouldn't be enough paper to write it all down but how much power would it take to make a leper hole with a touch to drive away sickness with a word how much power does the Savior have

To have in order to heal a woman who was bleeding for years in years and years and could not be healed how much power does Jesus have to have through that how much power does someone have to have in order to raise a little girl back from the dead Christ's goal throughout these six chapters has been a total demonstration of his power and his character and his love power over disease power over useless limbs power over demons power over death here's what the Bible says in Ephesians chapter 3 now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all we ask or think far more abundantly according to the power at work within us to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations forever and ever amen and so God he can do all these things he can because he is God and just as the crowds swarm Jesus and he meets their needs with compassion meets us in our need with love as well it doesn't mean everything works out the way that we hope doesn't mean everything is bright and shiny all the time we might wish for that but that's not the case if it's bright and sunny all the time that's called a drought you know the third thing that we learn about is we learn about Jesus's glorious Kingdom in the presence of Christ we see Satan and demons submit and flee from the Lord that's what we see in the first six chapters of The Book of Mark we see self-righteousness destroyed we see religiosity is like cast aside we're going to see that more and more all the dangers of disease and death are put away in the presence of Christ for the believer we know that in Christ we find Liberty from our sin and we no longer stand condemned because of faith in Christ we believe that because of Christ that no matter what our Affliction might

Be we will be healed and that timing may be after our death but we know that we will one day receive a glorified resurrected body that will not experience stress fatigue hunger sickness or death and thank the Lord for that in Christ's Ministry we see these wonderful works this tremendous teaching we see demons demolished and S sickness subdued and death defeated and for those that trust in Christ we have a beautiful assurance that this is our future this is our joy no more politics and dumb laws and candidates that we like or dislike amen we will have the perfect lawgiver and King no more Wars because Christ will have defeated every foe including Satan and sin and ultimately death itself and what Joy does that bring to Believers and finally we learn about Jesus's followers bringing others to him look at what the summary text says the people immediately recognized him and ran about the whole region and began to bring the sick people on their beds to wherever they heard he was folks truly loving your neighbors will ultimately result in people being brought to Christ we see that in Chapter 2 we see the paralytic being lowered down through the ceiling we see you know Andrew bringing along Peter we see people begging Jesus in verse 56 so that they would be healed just by the touch of his robe and in our lives we will have opportunities to share the love of Christ as well and we will be able to point people to Christ and help those that are spiritually dead to perhaps see the Lord because we want people to know Christ we want them to see and know and love Jesus the Jesus that can make them whole the Jesus that is the solution for all of the issues in our

World that's what we want and many folks think that Jesus came to just give us a better life to show us how to live to share with us some type of heavenly teaching some people think that Jesus came to be an example to do good and to and to show love but why did Jesus come well if our greatest need was information then he would have brought like a great administrator and educator right now Christ he's Master teacher but the greatest need was not information if our greatest need had been technology then he would have brought us a science like a holy Steve Jobs or Bill Gates or something like that if our greatest need had been money he would have sent us an economist who would have provided abundantly all the money that we would ever need if our greatest need had been pleasure God would have sent us an Entertainer but our greatest need was forgiveness so God sent a Savior and his name is Jesus Christ and so how can we move from coming to Christ for our needs to coming to Christ because he is God Almighty and we know that we need help in Soul sickness well if we look at the passage Jesus he was continuing to increase in popularity and he was demonstrating his power and all the people they were clamoring to touch him for healing and while the needs are great Jesus's power is greater because the Scripture says that all who touched him were healed now the emphasis of this passage is not on the disciples lack of faith found in verse 52 the passage is not about people's fickleness okay the point of the passage is Jesus's presence his power and his popularity with the people to prove that Jesus Christ is the Messiah the Son of God he is the son of the Living God and these actions serve as further proof

That Jesus is fully Divine and if he is fully Divine then he is fully worthy of our submission of our reverence and our adoration and you have to come to that conclusion head heart hand head God he wants you to know that he has tremendous heart he has a tremendous heart for those in need when we see Christ we see the heart and the actions of God Almighty you see the love and the compassion that Jesus has for the Lost is the same love and compassion that the father has toward you so thank the Lord for that heart God he wants you to believe that as his ambassadors we are called to meet those needs as best as we can and share the Gospel in 2 Corinthians 5:18 it says all this is from God who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation that is in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself not counting their trespasses against them and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation therefore we are ambassadors for Christ God making his appeal through us we implore you on behalf of Christ be reconciled to God and hand God he wants you to follow the example of Christ meet the needs of someone around you and take the opportunity to share the Gospel with them the Gospel it doesn't end with you because we are called to share it we are called to make disciples and so let's follow Jesus's example and love those around us so that they might be drawn near to Christ at this time we are going to be partaking in the Lord's supper we're going to be doing it a bit different going back to how we used to do it before the pandemic we ran out of those little cups and everything so we're sharing a common plate and I've asked for PJ Garden to come up and lead us in that he's one of our elders and if you would just bow your heads in reverence as we transition into this

Time of communion one of the ble one of the blessings of having people over for a meal is the opportunity for fellowship and some good food while we're preparing the meal and getting the house ready we often reminisce about the good times the bad times that we've had with our friends and we look forward to their arrival and fellowshipping with them again and catching up and finding out what's new with them be this morning we take time to celebrate a different meal before us is the bread and the wine symbols of the body and blood of Jesus Christ Our Savior the deacons have Faithfully set this table before us they prepared the elements but and we're going to get to enjoy these together but we're not eating this meal to fill our stomachs or to just enjoy good food we're invited to celebrate this meal together remembering what Jesus accomplished on Calvary for us there is no priest there's no Veil he is our high priest he's already paid our sin debt in full complete there's no outstanding debt we don't have to go before a priest or anything we get to freely enjoy this supper together Paul writing from prison to the Philippian Church in chapter 3 says but whatever gain I had I counted as loss for the sake of Christ indeed I count everything as lost because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord for his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law but that which comes through faith in Christ the righteousness from God that depends on faith that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and that I may share in his sufferings becoming like him in his death Fellowship means communion an intimate

Familiarity this morning we're invited to seek familiarity with suffering it's the opposite of what's typical we typically want relationships that build us up that we get to gain success from like-minded people Hobbies different things but this morning we're to focus our relationships on ident identifying with Christ who suffered on our behalf this morning as you partake of these elements I invite you to consider the privilege that's ours to fellowship with the Risen Lord Jesus the one who suffered for our sake and who is now seated at the right hand of the father interceding on our behalf I'd invite the deacons to come forward at this time let's pray for the elements father God I thank you and praise you that this morning as we hold these symbols in our hand that we can remember what you did the price that you paid so that we might have eternal life the Forgiveness of sins and the hope of Eternity that we get to look forward to spend with you I pray that Lord as we celebrate this supper together as Brothers and Sisters in Christ that Lord we would not allow this part of the service just to be another mundane thing that we do but that Lord it would just invigorate a new and fresh awareness of the price that you paid for us we ask that as we take these elements that Lord you would just refresh our heart hearts and our minds with a fresh vision of who you are high and lifted up we ask this in your name [Music] amen in Christ alone my hope is f found he is my light my strength my song This Cornerstone this Solid Ground firm through the fiercest drought and

Storm what Heights of love what depths of Peace when fears are still when striving cease my comforter My All In All here in the love of Christ I Stand [Music] In Christ Alone who took on flesh fullness of God in heless babe this gift of love and righteousness scorned by the ones he came to save till on that cross as Jesus died the wrath of God was satisfied for every sin on him was laid here in the death of Christ I live [Music] Paul says for I received from the Lord what I delivered to you that the Lord Jesus on the night that he was betrayed took bread and when he had given thanks he broke it and said this is my body which is for you do this in remembrance of me [Music] there in the ground his body lay Light of the World by dark Ness slain then bursting forth in Glorious Day up from the grave he rose again and as he stands in victory since curse has lost its grip on me for I am his and he is mine bought with the precious blood of

[Music] Christ no guilt in life no fear in death this is the power of Christ in me from life's first cry to final breath Jesus commands my destiny no power of hell no scheme of man can ever block me from his hand till he returns or calls me home here in the power of Christ I'll Stand [Music] in the same way also he took the cup after supper saying this cup is the New Covenant in my blood do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me for as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes [Music] no power of hell no scheme of man can ever block me from his hand till he returns or calls me home here in the power of Christ I'll Stand let's pray father God I thank you and praise you that you sent your son not to be served but to serve to give his life as a ransom for many and I thank you that Lord we get to celebrate in this suffering with you remembering your body and Lord as we go out from this place into our community and world I pray that we would be mindful and take advantage of every opportunity to be this broken body and the representation of your blood and what it means to us as we come alongside those that are suffering and as we just bring the light to this dark and Lost World I pray that you would Empower us with courage and just the ability to

Trust you for the strength for the words and the opportunity to expand your kingdom we ask this in your name amen time