Transcript

Sermon Transcript: Jesus Christ's Unique Ministry

3/6/2023 Jeff Schwarzentraub 47 min read

Pastor Jeff:

Our Father in heaven, we give you all the glory, honor and praise. Lord, we thank you for who you are. If there's anyone that deserves to be high and lifted up, it is you, the Lord Jesus Christ. And we pray to you today. And Father, we pray that through your Son and by your spirit that you would let your word be known to our hearts. Because Lord, we believe that every time your word is faithfully and accurately proclaimed that you speak. So our invitation, Lord, today, speak Lord for we are ready to hear what it is that you have to say. And so now for all those who have gathered who desire to hear the Lord Jesus Christ speak directly to you, who will believe what he shows you, and who will by faith put into practice what he shows you, will you agree with me very loudly this morning by saying the word, amen.

Congregation:

Amen.

Pastor Jeff:

Amen. Even though Easter is a month away I'm already getting excited thinking about all the people that we're going to be able to share the gospel with. And as I've been preparing for Easter and as I've been seeking the Lord, what's been on my heart this whole time is Jesus. Because we're so excited when we get to share Jesus with people who don't know Jesus. But one of the things that I find is, even in the church, for those of us who know Jesus and who have responded to Jesus through repentance and faith, oftentimes we get cavalier with Jesus. We forget who Jesus is and how unique he is, and how special he is and what role he plays in our life. And even for Christians sometimes we can roll into this religious kind of habit rather than this ongoing relationship with who Jesus Christ is.

And the reason is, is I think the devil tries to get us to forget just how unique and how special Jesus Christ is. And I believe that if we're called to do everything that Jesus Christ commanded us to do, then we better know what Jesus Christ did. And if God calls us to share the gospel with people who don't know him, then we better understand what that gospel is. And so from now going into Easter, I want to do a short series called The Kingdom Invasion where we can focus our eyes on Jesus, who he is, how unique he is, how he did ministry, how he calls us to do ministry, so that as we roll into Easter and share the gospel, it's not just an Easter Sunday. It's ongoing in our life for who we are.

And when I talk about the kingdom, I'm talking about our king. Because it's impossible to have a kingdom without a king. And Jesus Christ is the King of Kings, and the Lord of Lords. And everywhere he rules and everywhere he reigns there's a manifestation of what his kingdom looks like. And so over the course of the next weeks, if there's anyone I want you to be excited about, and it is true every single week, but especially in this season, it's the Lord Jesus Christ. Many of you have trusted him as your personal Lord and Savior and you get excited about who he is. But here's what the devil does. He'll tell you, "Well, you already know Jesus. Now just go try to be a good person and live your life." That's not knowing Jesus. Knowing Jesus is ongoing, exciting and thrilling to continue to walk with him. And I want to wet your appetite for even more of Jesus. So, wherever you are in your walk with him right now, you can take a little further journey with him.

And so to do that today we're going to begin in Mark chapter one. I just want you to open your Bibles to Mark chapter one. And what I want to do today is I want to talk about Jesus Christ's unique ministry. And I'm going to give you 10 words through chapter one that mark his ministry. Every word ends with T-I-O-N. I just kind of got in that phase as I was going through. But I want you to see what makes Jesus so unique and so special. And as you grab hold, each one of these words is so unique and special that by the time we're done today, you will know there is no other God, except the Lord Jesus Christ. And you'll be excited about that. As the Gospel of Mark opens, here's what it says. It says, "The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, as it is written in Isaiah the prophet, 'Behold, I send my messenger ahead of you who will prepare your way, the voice of the one crying in the wilderness, make ready the way of the Lord, make his path straight.'

John the Baptist who happened to be Jesus' cousin, appeared in the wilderness preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. And all the country of Judea was going out to him and all the people of Jerusalem, and they were being baptized by him in the Jordan River." Notice what they were doing, confessing their sins. There was contrition of sin. "John was clothed with camel's hair and wore a leather belt around his waist and his diet was locust and wild honey. And he was preaching saying, 'After me one is coming who is mightier than I, and I am not fit to stoop down or untie the thong of his sandals. I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.'"

Now, there's four gospels in our New Testament. They all start out a little bit differently. Matthew starts out with a genealogy to show that Jesus is indeed from the right human bloodline as well as deity, that he's the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords.

Luke's gospel starts out with a story of John the Baptist coming into the world, of Jesus coming into the world. And we get the Christmas story in Luke chapter two where there were angels and there were shepherds in a field keeping watch over their flocks by night. And suddenly an angel of the Lord appeared to them and the glory, Lord shown around them and they were terrified and so on and so forth. And we see how Jesus was born into this world and was laid into manger.

In John's gospel we see in the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God from the beginning. And in verse 14, see if you remember this from last week, and the Word became flesh and what? Tabernacled among us, and you know the tabernacle now.

But in Mark's gospel, Mark's gospel goes faster than any other gospel. It's the shortest gospel and it flies. And you see the word immediately about 43 different times, and it starts with the ministry of John the Baptist. John the Baptist was Jesus' cousin. He's six months older and here's his call in life to prepare the way for the Lord to come. Now I want to give you the first word that makes Jesus Christ unique and what makes his ministry unique. And the first word I want you to know is that the uniqueness of Jesus Christ's ministry is marked by his incarnation. His incarnation. Now we see John the Baptist, he's preaching about Jesus and I preach about Jesus, but up until this time, Jesus had not stepped on planet earth. Do you know why? Because up until this time, the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit dwelled together in unity. And God, the Father in this time, sent his son to be the savior of the world.

And when he did, Jesus Christ, the second person of the trinity became incarnate flesh. Listen to me, because if this doesn't blow you away, you're not paying attention or you're too jaded in your Christian understanding. God became a man.

Congregation:

Yes.

Pastor Jeff:

There's no other religion in the world that even comes close to proclaiming that. So what was John the Baptist ministry? To tell the world that God has become a man and he's coming to you. That's a tough ministry. And we know that he was anointed by God because he was doing what the scriptures were saying that he was going to do. He was fulfilling the Prophet Isaiah's prophecy. That one would come and say that God is coming. He was preparing the way of the Lord.

And here's how we know it had nothing to do with John the Baptist's stature in life. I mean, you read about him. It says in verse six, "He was clothed with camel's hair and wore a leather belt around his waist and his diet was locust and wild honey." Now, why do they put that in the Bible? So you would know there's nothing attractive about this guy, and yet people from Jerusalem and all the surrounding areas in Judea, they're flocking to him. Because they want to know, "If there's a God that cares, I want to know who that God is. And I want to meet that God." Friends, I'm here to tell you today that there's a God who cares, and there's a God who loves, and there's a God, the Lord Jesus Christ, and he's come to the world. And when he came to this world he was already eternally God. But when he put on flesh he became the God man and he didn't just put on flesh for 33 years, he came as the God man. He fulfilled the law as the God man. He died as the God man. He rose as the God man. He ascended as the God man. And guess what? He's coming back as the God man.

Now here's why that's important. If Jesus Christ ever ceased being God then there's no need for any talk here. We can't have a relationship with him. If Jesus Christ ever ceased being man, we have no relationship to God, because there's one mediator between God and man, the man Jesus Christ. The only way you can know God is through Jesus, and that's because of his incarnation. God became a man. That's revolutionary. Say, well, that's pretty similar to the other religions of the world. It's not like anyone else. God loved his creation so much that he became like his creation and came to his creation. That's the incarnation. John the Baptist was preaching and proclaiming, "Get ready because God is coming and he's coming in the form of a man."

Ain't that awesome? Study the world religions over. You will never find anybody make a claim like that. Jesus Christ claimed he was God. Jesus Christ was crucified because he claimed he was God. Why? Because Jesus Christ is God. He's God in flesh. I mean, there's been songs over the years where people write him like, "What if God was one of us?" He is. He's been tempted in every way you have, yet without sin, he understands you. He understands your condition. He created you, he formed you, and he loved you so much that he humbled himself and came to earth and put on flesh for all eternity so that you could have a relationship with his father. He's unique because of his incarnation. And being by God, the Son becoming fully man, he's uniquely qualified to be our savior of the world. He's uniquely qualified to be our Lord. There is no one like our God because of the incarnation. Amen.

Congregation:

Amen.

Pastor Jeff:

Let me give you the second one. The uniqueness of Jesus Christ's ministry is marked by his identification. His identification. Notice what happens next. It says, "In those days Jesus came from Nazareth and Galilee and was baptized by John," that's John the Baptist, "in the Jordan. Immediately coming up out of the water he saw the heavens opened in the Spirit like a dove descending upon him and a voice came out of the heavens. 'You are my beloved son, in you I am well pleased.'" Now, why was Jesus baptized? He wasn't baptized because he had to confess in repent of sin and trust God as his father. He was already God. What was he doing? He was identifying and modeling what the rest of us would do. He was identifying with his father.

If you study the person in life of Jesus, if there's one soul focus he had, it was intimacy with his dad. From the time he was 12 years old that we read about when he was left in Jerusalem, unbeknownst to his parents, and they had to take a U-turn on the way back from Galilee and come back to Jerusalem and they find him in the temple. And what does he say? "Did you not know I needed to be where, in my father's house?" We're going to read about early in the morning where he got up and went and prayed in solitary place because he wanted to be with his father. Before he picked the apostles out of all his disciples he stayed up all night and prayed to his dad. After he fed the 5,000 before he walked on the water, he's praying. Even in the garden he's talking to his dad. Even on the cross he's talking to his dad, "Father forgive them for they know not what they do."

And even those scenes in the Bible that we say, "Well, that doesn't sound like the Jesus I know." Where he got mad and was overturning tables in the temple and get a cord of whips and was whipping people with him, said, "Doesn't sound like Jesus." Why? Because he said, "My father's house is to be called a house of prayer, but you made it a den of thieves. You're degrading what my father wants done and it makes me mad." Why? Because all he cared about was his dad. He was identifying with his father. Now here's why that's so important. When he came up out of the water, what did he hear? He heard these words. "You are my beloved son and in you I am well pleased." Do you think that was the first time Jesus ever heard those words? I think he heard those words all the time. I think Jesus knew those words all the time. I think those words were the benefit of those who were there listening and the benefit of us today to know what the father was speaking to him.

Now, here's why identity is so important. Because if you don't know who's you are and you don't know how God sees you, you can't function the way God wants you to function. And for about the first five years of my Christian faith I couldn't make my Christian faith work. I went to church. I repented of my sins. I trusted Jesus. I knew I was going to heaven, and yet I couldn't make it work. It was like I can't stop sinning, what's wrong with me? But I realized my identity was off. And once I learned about my identity, and I learned that because Christ dwelled in me and that God saw me the way he saw his son. And that I already was all the things that were true about Jesus, not because of anything I'd done, but because of what Jesus had done to me, my whole life changed.

I wasn't trying to be holy. I am holy. I wasn't trying to be loved. I am loved. I wasn't trying to be chosen. I am chosen. I wasn't trying to be forgiven. I am forgiven. If you don't understand who you are in Christ, you will perform and you'll never feel satisfied. Because in your mind's eye you're always trying to please your father. I'm going to church. I'm reading my Bible, I'm praying. I'm trying to give more. I can never do enough. But if you hear these words in your heart that the father would speak to you, for those of you who have entrusted in Jesus, "You are my beloved son. I'm so pleased with you. You are my beloved daughter. So pleased with you." If you really understand that truth, then you understand that at Calvary when you turn from your sin and trust Christ, here's what's true. You can't make God love you anymore, no matter what you do. And you can't make God love you any less, no matter what you do. You say, "Well yeah, no God's serious about holiness."

Yes he is. But holiness is the result of me understanding how loved God sees me, and how loved I am. Once that shifted in my life, I stopped performing for God, I started just resting in God. And from that moment on, it was, "Well, God, if you love me that much and there's nothing I can do to make you kick me out of the family, why wouldn't I just want to give you everything?" And that's when my life began to change. See, Jesus model because he was already God's only son and didn't need to turn from anything. The relationship that they had, what Jesus heard his father speaking over him all the time is how loved he was. Some of us have the voice of the enemy how horrible we are, how treacherous we are, how bad we are, how you're really not a good Christian, how you really didn't do right things. That's the voice of the enemy. God's voice is, "I love you, I love you, I love you." Isn't it true we want to spend time around the people that love us?

My wife loves me. I said in the first service, my children love me about 90% of the time, to which my daughter corrected me. She's like, "That's not true, dad, we love you a 100% of the time, but we only like you about 78% of the time." But I know this, as much as they love me, God loves me unconditionally. And I don't know about you, but it used to be in my life when I was doing good in my walk, I wanted to be around God. But when I wasn't doing good, then I tried to distance myself until I could clean myself up so I could come back to God. But the more I understood how much God loved me, even when I'm not having a good day or not having a good week, I can run to God because he hasn't changed his opinion about me, because Jesus Christ still dwells in me through his Holy Spirit. Do you have that identity? See, that's how your life and Christ will flourish is having that identity rooted in who God says you are.

Congregation:

That's right.

Pastor Jeff:

And here's the truth. If you're a Christian, if you've turned from your sin and trusted Christ, the same measure of love and the same quality of love that God the father had for his son, that's how much he has for you. Do you believe that? That's biblical truth. Some of us have a hard time believing that. So not me because I know what I did this week. It has nothing to do with your performance. Christ took care of all of that on the cross. It's because of your identity and who you are. Jesus' unique ministry was marked by his incarnation, his identification. And how about this third one, his preparation. His preparation. Notice verse 12, right after his baptism, "Immediately the spirit impelled him or cast him out to go into the wilderness and he was in the wilderness 40 days being tempted by Satan and he was with the wild beast and the angels were ministering to him." What was he modeling here? He was modeling that whatever the father shows the spirit to do, and however I'm led by the spirit, I will do whatever the spirit says.

That's what he was modeling and that's how God prepares us to grow in Him too. When we hear the truth of God's Word, when the Word of God is being proclaimed, when we read it, when we study, when we meditate on it, oftentimes the spirit of God wells up inside and says, "You need to take a step of faith there. You need to trust me here. You need to start doing this. You need to stop doing this. You need to start doing this a little bit differently." That's the spirit of God inside of you directing your path. And here's what we see in Jesus. The spirit of God casts him into the wilderness for 40 days and 40 night with wild beasts. And we don't see Jesus saying, I don't want to be with the wild beasts, and what kind of food is out there, and what kind of shelters out there, and who's going to protect me out there, and what's even the purpose of going out there.

And I don't really understand. And if you don't send me a sheet explaining to me all the reasons that we're going to do this, I don't know that I'm going to go. Maybe I'll talk to my small group about it this week and we can pray about it. Know, when the Holy Spirit prompts him, he goes, because he doesn't need to know all the reasons why. And the more that we mature in our faith, there's this false misconception to think the more mature I am, the more I'll understand why God is doing what he's doing. What I find is God still doesn't open our minds up to everything that he's going to do. He's just saying, "Will you trust me? Will you trust me?" And he has a way of speaking to all of us individually. He has a way of doing it to us corporately, saying, here's what I'm doing and I'm wondering, will you follow my lead?

And that's how he prepares us. Little step by little, step by little step by little step. And we always say in this church, the hardest step of faith you will ever take is what? The next one. We never arrive in our faith. And Jesus was modeling all the way from here, all the way to the cross, through the resurrection, to his ascension. And even when he returns, it'll be at his father's bidding to come and get us. He was modeling how to be obedient, how to trust and obey. That's who our God is. Have you seen God stretch you for his purposes? Are there some things his spirit has been prompting in your heart? Showing you, "Here's a step of faith I'd like you to take where it makes you a little uncomfortable." Or says, "I don't know that I'm the person for that. I don't know that I'm ready for that." But God is saying, "Oh, yes you are. Because this is what I want you to do." And if you take a step of faith, that's when we get to see God miraculously show up in supernatural ways.

Jesus was unique because of his incarnation, his identification, his preparation. And how about this? His invitation. His invitation. He invited men and women into something that's different than what we think about oftentimes in church. I was going to spend our whole time in these verses, but notice them in verse 14, "Now, for John had been taken into custody." So here his cousin is arrested, who's going to be beheaded for simply claiming that Jesus was God and was coming to rescue people from their sins. "When he was taken into custody Jesus came into Galilee." And what did he do? Preaching the gospel of God. What is the gospel? Gospel literally means this, good news. Just by show of hands, how many need to hear a little more good news? Don't turn on your TV. We need more good news. Good news is good news. Good news is what thrills your heart.

Good news is where you can't contain it. Good news is I have to share this. That's what good news is. So Jesus came sharing the good news and what does he say? And he was saying, "The time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand, repent and believe in the gospel." So what's the kingdom of God? The kingdom of God is the rule and reign of Jesus Christ. And he was saying, now that I'm on the earth and now that I'm here and now that your king has arrived, my kingdom is being unleashed. My rule and reign is taking over. One day Jesus is going to rule and reign over everywhere on the earth and in the universe he's ruling and reigning from on high. But one day when he disposes of sin, death in the devil, then he's going to rule unparalleled and he's still ruling unparalleled, just not everybody's listening to him. Amen?

He was saying the Kingdom of God is at hand. And then what does he say about this good news? He gives us two words. We don't like using one of the two words, but Jesus uses them, so I'm cool with it. "Repent and belief." Repent means to turn from your sin. Belief means to trust me with your life. Both are equally important. That's how you experience the good news. Well, what's the good news? The good news is that Jesus Christ says Lord and that you can be part of his kingdom. That you can be an influencer for him if you'll turn from your sinful life and you'll turn to him. And when's the kingdom at hand? Right now, because I'm here. That's what Jesus was telling everybody during his earthly ministry.

Now, what's the kingdom today? The kingdom today is still Jesus Christ rule and it's still Jesus Christ reign. And you can get in theological debates about this all the time. There are some that say the kingdom is only future, meaning when Jesus Christ comes, there'll be no more sickness, no more death, no more disease, no more dying, no more demons. And when that happens, until that happens, there's really no kingdom. It's just that's when the kingdom's going to come. So just sit and wait for it. Then there's other people that will say, no, no, no. It's the realize kingdom. Every single thing that Jesus did, he'll do today. He heals, he delivers. He casts out demons all the time with everybody no matter what.

And then there's a position that I take which is more of an already not yet position, which is this. I believe that everything Jesus began to do and teach, he's still doing today. And that one day the full measure of all that is going to come and take place. That's what I believe. And I believe there's a tension that we can hold and we'll talk about that as we go through the text today. But make no mistake about it, whether you realize it or not, because sometimes in Christian circles we'll say things like, "I want him to be my savior. I just don't know that I'm ready to have him be my Lord yet." He is Lord. Whether you want him to be or not, he is Lord, the question is how are you responding to him as Lord? "Why do you call me Lord, Lord and do not do what I say?"

It's his invitation here that he's going to have. What does he do? He's not just telling people that, "I'm the king and the kingdom has come and repent and believe." What does he do? Verse 16, "As he was going along by the Sea of Galilee he saw Simon and Andrew, the brother of Simon, casting a net into the sea for they were fishermen. And Jesus said to them, 'Follow me and I will make you become fisher's of men." Immediately they left their nets and followed him."

Going on a little further, "He saw James, the son of Zebedee, and John his brother who were also in the boat, mending nets. Immediately he called to them and they left their father Zebedee, in the boat with the hired servants, and they went away to follow him." What's this invitation? I don't see Jesus passing out gospel tracks saying, "Here, you need to believe you're a sinner. Ask me into your heart." "Oh, you did great. Have a good life." That's not the invitation here. What's the invitation? He said, "Follow me. I know you're fishermen, but I'll give you a higher calling. I'll give you a mission you know nothing about. I'll let you go fish for men." And it's interesting because if you study the New Testament, you would find that the disciples are not very good at their trade. Because in every chapter that it talks about they're fishing, they can't catch anything ever.

And so Jesus is talking to these young men and here's what he says. He says, "Hey, you follow me. I'll give you purpose in your life, life like you've never had. I'll let you do what you think you're good at in a way that you can really honor me." And here's the truth. Everybody's looking for significance in life and everybody's looking for who to attach to and who to become part of and all this stuff. And Jesus is like, "Hey, come follow me and I'll turn your life upside down. I will take you on an adventure. I will take you on a journey. I will take you on a mission unlike anything you've ever seen." Now, here's the problem in religious circles, we think that call is for the select few, the 3%, the 1%. They're called to be missionaries. They're going to take the gospel into unreached people groups. They're going to do great things. We'll pray for them, we'll resource them. We'll give them money.

The normal Christian life is that you give everything you have to Christ and you let him run every area of your life and you're a missionary no matter where you go. Whether you're in Denver, Colorado or outside the walls of the United States, everywhere you go you're on mission for Jesus Christ. Why? Because he's called you to a greater purpose than yourself. And we miss this. We miss this because we think disciple making is only for the select few. And we miss this because we think all that God cares about is getting us out of hell into heaven. That's part of what he cares about.

But notice this, he's not inviting them to get out of hell and go to heaven. He's inviting them to a whole different way of doing life. He's inviting them all the way in, just like he invited the rich young ruler all the way in. Is there anybody you see in Jesus' ministry where he said, "Hey, just give me a little bit, don't go all the way in with me." I mean everybody he's talking to, he wants full allegiance. He wants you all the way in. And this is what he was doing here. He was given an invitation to say, "If you really want to come after me, what's he going to say later? You must deny yourself. Take up your cross and follow me." Here's what Jesus was saying. "Hey, you want to be a follower of me? Come die with me. Give me everything. Come die right now and then let me lead your life."

And to live is Christ and to die is gain. Because since you've already died with me, it won't matter when you die anyway. And the quality of life that you're looking for in your life is giving your life fully to the Lord Jesus Christ. There's no greater return on investment.

You can't tiptoe in with Jesus. There has to be a time where you're like, "Okay, you got me all. You got all of me." I was telling the story earlier this week about when I went back to visit my university I graduated from and met some people that were doing a different ministry and I asked him, "How come you never talked to me?" And they said, "Well, you're part of another ministry. We didn't try to recruit away." And I said, "I understand." And he started telling me, I'm like, "What is your ministry doing?" He's like, "Well, we gather students and we pray every single summer about where we're going to live and where God wants us to be and who God wants us to share the gospel with." And I'm like, "You pray about where you're going to live?"

I'm like, "I pick where I want to live because I want to live in a nice apartment." I'm like, "Why would you pray about that?" And he goes, "And then we pray about who God's going to lead in our path and how we're going to set up disciple making." And I thought, "That's so radical." Now I think, "That's so normal. Why wouldn't you pray about everything?" Because when Jesus takes over your life, it doesn't matter whether we're talking about your finances, your singleness, your marriage, your vocation, your avocation, your hobbies, your money, whatever. If it's all under the lordship of Jesus Christ, then he's stewarding it all anyway. All you're doing is being obedient to how he wants you to live. And there's incredible freedom in it. Because I find that most North American Christians want to accept Jesus to get out of hell, but then put him in a box and leave him right here and say, "Okay, my life's really going to be difficult, but one day it's going to be really good. It'll stink now, but at least I got my life insurance policy."

There's nowhere you'll read that anywhere in the scriptures. Jesus wants to consume your life. As I've said many times, the Holy Spirit did not come in your life to be resident, he came in to be president. He came in to take you over, and that's what we see in Jesus. He is following the leading of the Lord. And what's he doing? He's inviting people to follow him. Let me tell you why this is another big deal. Because sometimes in church we'll look around and be like, "Oh, we're big enough. We got enough people here." And I'm telling you, because I've been in our church when it was 12 people and I've been in our church now that we're about 5,000 people. Every single stage that we're in, people will tell me, "Oh, we're big enough. We're big enough."

The only reason you would say that is if you don't care about somebody's soul. Because if you realize that in our area there's two million plus people, of which 90% of them have faintly seen a Christless eternity, and God has put you and I here to go tell them about the love of Christ. How could we be too big? Not if you care about souls, not if you're inviting people to follow Jesus. And the reason some of us have a hard time inviting people to follow Jesus is because we're not following him either. Just didn't say, "Just trust me and go do what you want." He said, "Follow me. Do what I'm doing. Watch what I'm saying. Watch what I'm doing. Then you go say the same thing and do the same thing that I'm doing."

That's what a disciple is. That's what Jesus was modeling. It was an invitation to a journey that looks different than just religion. It was his incarnation. It was his identification, his preparation, his invitation. Let me give you a another one. It was his proclamation. He spoke differently than other people spoke. Notice verse 21, "Then they went into Capernaum, and immediately on the Sabbath he entered the synagogue and he began to teach." Not surprising, that's what rabbis do. But notice this, "They were amazed at his teaching, for he was teaching as one having authority and not as the scribes." The scribes would read the scriptures and say, "Here's what God is saying."

What did Jesus do? Jesus was saying, "Here's what I'm saying. Let me tell you who God is. Let me tell you how God thinks." He spoke with complete authority. Even if we read the Sermon on the Mount, people were amazed because he spoke as one with authority. I don't have authority on my own. The only authority I have comes under the Lordship of Christ. To the extent that I preach the word, the word has authority. To the extent that I tell stories or my opinions, I don't have authority. Where do we get our authority? Under the Lordship of Christ. Jesus is authority. When we read the word and we understand, "This is authoritative," we read it differently than if we think, "Oh, it's a suggestion, or yeah, these are manmade words. Or yeah, I'm just not sure this is true, or I don't know." No, that's not how Jesus is. Jesus taught with authority. He said, "Anyone who is ashamed of me and my words, I'll be ashamed of when I come." It's everything the Bible says. That's the authority that we have. It's truth that we have. Jesus spoke with authority.

Here's my question. Do you live under his authority? Do you operate under his authority? Jesus said in the Great Commission, "That all authority in heaven and on earth have been given to him, therefore go." So what was he doing at that point? He was delegating his authority that he had to us, to go do everything that he was doing. Well, what's he been doing so far? What's he been doing so far? Well, he's been identifying himself with his dad. He's been preparing himself to do everything that the Spirit's telling him to do. He's going out and inviting other people to come with him on the journey, because he's not going to do it alone. And now he's proclaiming the authority of the Word of God. Friends, if you go to a church that does not proclaim the authority of the Word of God, if you ever move somewhere and you can't go to Brave, then leave that church and go find a place that proclaims the authority of the Word of God.

Congregation:

Amen.

Pastor Jeff:

It's so important. People can use different personalities to teach it. They can use different ways to teach it. They can use different means to teach it, but make sure that they believe in the authority of Christ and that they're living under the authority and that they're telling you, "This is what God says."

How about another one? Number six, this is where people begin to squirm in church. In the first service I had several people get up and leave at this point. But this is a mark of Jesus' ministry. You'll see it all over the Bible. And one of the ways that makes him unique is his ministry of liberation. Liberation. Notice what he does. He goes and teaches. He preaches with authority. And in verse 23 it says this, "Just then there was a man in the synagogue with an unclean spirit."

Now, can you check that out for a minute? I mean, this is the guy that's coming to the synagogue every single week. People that went to the synagogue every single week knew the Old Testament scriptures. People that went to the synagogue every single week study the scriptures during the week. This guy is a religious guy who knows about God and has been told about God. And what's going on in this guy's life? He's got an unclean spirit attached to him. And he cried out, and this is not the man talking, but the unclean spirit talking inside of him. "What business do we have with each other, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are, the holy one of God."

And what does Jesus do? Well, here's what Jesus does. "Jesus rebuked him saying, 'Be quiet and come out of him.' Throw him into convulsions. The unclean spirit cried out with a loud voice and came out of him." And notice this. "They were amazed, so they debated among themselves." So now they're going to have a discussion. They're not going to celebrate the fact that this guy's been set free. They're going to have a theological debate. Because that's what people do in church when God begins to move. "They were amazed and debated among themselves saying, 'What is this? A new teaching with authority? He commands the unclean spirits and they obey him.' And immediately the news about him spread everywhere into all the surrounding districts of Galilee."

Now, this is so important that in the coming weeks I'm going to spend an entire week on this to talk about this. Because I didn't have good teaching on this growing up. Most of you don't have good teaching growing up on this, and we don't really talk about this. We think that the good news of the gospel is just getting out of hell and getting into heaven.

But what do we see with Jesus? It's not just getting people out of hell and getting into heaven. It's letting them live in complete freedom before their Lord. It means this. Some of you in here have unclean spirits that are attached to you. Now, let me be crystal clear. For those of you who have repented and believed, the Holy Spirit indwells your life, he owns you. You will go to heaven. You know you're going to heaven. But for some of you, due to trauma or unconfessed habitual sin over a period of time or a number of other factors have given the enemy a foothold in your life. Which is different than just having some sin in your life.

Sin you can confess and forsake. You can make good choices to get out of it. But some of you, even as Christians, I find over the last 32 years that would say, "I know I'm born again. I know I've repented on my sin. I know I believe, but there's this sin here in my life, and no matter what I do, it never goes away." And then they say stuff like this, "But I know one day when I die and go to heaven, it'll all be gone. Praise God, but my life's going to stink from now until the time I meet Jesus." I don't read that anywhere in the scriptures. I believe that Jesus is authoritative over unclean spirits and demonic activity, even in the life of a believer. And we get uncomfortable with that. "Like Jeff, are you saying that Christians can be oppressed by demons?" "100%. I've watched it with my own two eyes."

And we're going to spend some time talking about that. And what does that look like? Because here's what happens. This man convulsed a little bit, doesn't say how long he convulsed, but he convulsed and then he became clean. And what's the first immediate reaction of the congregation? Theological debate. "Was that really a demon? Is that really this? Is this a new teaching?" Why? They're not even looking at the man who's been demonized who's now been set free. They're not celebrating this freedom. They're wondering how their religious system's all jacked up now. And how this man interrupted the service. You see that? But don't miss this. because part of Jesus' ministry is liberating people from demonic activity, which is good news because it means no matter how deep you've gone into the darkness, you can be completely free on this side of heaven, ain't that good news?

He's not just telling people to get ready for heaven. He's demonstrating his rulership and authority over all areas. Then notice the second one, verse 29. "So, demons have been cast out, and immediately after that they came out of the synagogue and they came into the house of Simon and Andrew with James and John. So they go to Peter's mother's house, and Simon, I'm sorry, Peter's mother-in-law's house. And Simon's mother-in-law was lying sick with a fever, and immediately they spoke to Jesus about her, and he came to her and he raised her up, taking her by the hand, and the fever left her and she waited on them."

Now, in the first century, if you were sick, you were sick. Where are you going to go? There's no NyQuil, there's no Tylenol, there's no antibiotics, there's no Z pack's, no. I mean, you're sick. Jesus walks in, sees Simon's mother-in-law, takes her by the hand, said, "Let's go. You can go ahead and wait on us now. We're a little bit hungry." And she goes and makes some food. What does Jesus have authority over? Sickness. Sickness. So Jesus has authority for salvation. He has authority for the demonic. He has authority for healing. Now, this is where people get a little frustrated. Because they're like, "Well, wait a second, I've been sick and Jesus didn't heal me, or I prayed for my mother-in-law, or I prayed for my mom, or I prayed for my dad and they died of sickness, and I prayed for somebody to be delivered and they weren't delivered. So it must not be true."

Listen, if you ever prayed for somebody to get saved, that didn't get saved, doesn't make it not true. I prayed for people to be healed. They've been completely healed. I prayed for godly people to be healed and they weren't healed to the glory of God. Why does God choose to do what he does? I don't know. But here's what I do know, Jesus Christ has authority over sickness. He has authority over disease. He has authority over the devil, and he has authority over your eternal salvation. Amen, end of story.

Sometimes people don't get healed or set free because they don't have enough faith. Other times people have enough faith to believe that God can, and for some reason they don't receive the healing that we think they should have. But here's what you know as a believer, because I know a lot of believers that have died with cancer and have died in faith, and immediately the moment that they died they were completely healed. All I'm saying is, I believe God wants to do a lot more on this side of heaven than we allow them to do in his church. And the reason we don't want them to is because we're more afraid of somebody convulsing or having a weird experience in the church than we are seeing him set free.

Congregation:

Yeah.

Pastor Jeff:

I'm just telling you, as your pastor, I want to see people not only know Jesus, I want to see people in love with Jesus, set free by Jesus and say, "I love him ever more than I've ever loved him before." Amen. That's the gospel. Let's move on to the next point because you'll love this if you like that one. And what makes Jesus minister unique is repetition. So if you didn't like that, you're going to see it all over again. I mean, notice this in verses 32, 33 and 34, what happens? So he's now cast out demons or unclean spirits. He's now healed Peter's mother-in-law. Now what do you see?

"When evening came after the sunset, they began bringing to him all who were ill and who were demon possessed." So word's gotten out in the street that he was in the synagogue and somebody had an uncleaned spirit was healed. Words got out on the street that Peter's mother-in-law that been lying sick for a while, has now healed. So what's the town doing? They're bringing all their sick and all their ill and all their unclean people, which would be people that are like, "We've been praying for this and nothing changes. We've been praying for this and nothing changes. If Jesus can do something, we'll bring them." And notice what happens. "And the whole city had gathered at the door." Now just think about that. I've been to Capernaum. I mean, it's not as big as Denver, but just picture the whole city gathered at the door. You know what they were saying? "We'll wait on this because we want this, whatever he has." And he healed many who were ill with various diseases and cast out many demons. And he was not permitting the demons to speak because they knew who he was.

Jesus didn't want anybody to know who he was until he finally died on the cross and rose from the dead, because he didn't want people just to experience his goodness without knowing the fullness of why he came. And the primary reason he came was to die for your sins and rise from the dead so that you could be in relationship with his dad. But make no mistake about it, if you study the scriptures and you go through the gospels, what will you see? Jesus bringing salvation, Jesus's bringing healing, and Jesus's bringing cleansing, all over the place. And here's what we tend to say, "Yeah, I know that salvation part's good. He preached that. But you know what? That demonization stuff doesn't really happen anymore and the healing stuff doesn't really happen anymore." And then you ask the question, "Well, why?" "Well, Jesus did all that and in the first century they did all that. But when the last apostle died out, apparently they doesn't do that anymore."

So here's my question. Where did all the demons and the sickness go? Because they're still here. So has God said, "Hey, from the time the apostle Paul dies or the last apostle, you guys, it's just going to stink to live. You're going to have no authority and no power." I don't find that to be anywhere in the New Testament at all. I see that God's the same yesterday, today, and forever.

Congregation:

Amen.

Pastor Jeff:

I see God can still save, can still heal, can still cleanse, can still let people live in the fullness of who he or she is before the Lord. That's great news. And yet for some of us, you know what we'd rather say? "I'd rather just live with all the garbage in my life and be kind of mediocre in my walk than go to a church that actually believes that God heals. Because I wouldn't want to be around any weird stuff." That's sad. And I can tell you, as your pastor, I believe the authority of God's Word. I think you know that if you've been here with us for a long time, that every single word in this book is from God, from Genesis 1:1 to Revelation 22:21. Every single word is of God. It's authoritative, it speaks. And y'all know that because last week we went through 89 verses in tabernacle and everybody's tuned in and we know it's true.

But I also know that the same spirit of God that wrote this book is the same spirit of God that heals, that regenerates and sets people free. And he's the same God that we have today too. Amen. And this is what you see Jesus doing. And you would have to go blind to read the gospels in the New Testament and say that Jesus doesn't still do that.

You would have to. And for many of us, we grow up in the church and we're kids in Sunday school, we're asking questions, "Well, when's he going to heal people? And when's he going to cast out demons?" And then we get all theological in our debate. "Well, he doesn't do that anymore. Let me tell you why." And they can't give a biblical reason for it. But then you have generations of people that believe that God's different now and then we're stuck in our stuff. "So I might as well try to work hard and be my best and be religious, because God will be more pleased with me if I do that," and we miss the whole point of the gospel.

Whoever the Son sets free is free indite. "If you continue on my Word, then you are truly my disciples, then you will know the truth and the truth will set you free." What does God have the desire for every single believer, man, woman, boy, and girl? To be free. To love God and to be loved by God in such a way that you enjoy your life with God. There's no greater journey that you can go on. Amen.

Let me give you an eighth word that marks the ministry of Jesus that makes him unique. And it's this word, it's supplication. Supplication is prayer that means to ask or to beg. And we've talked about this a little bit already. Notice verse 35, "In the early morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went away to a secluded place and was praying there. Simon and his companion searched for him and they found him and said to him, 'Everyone's looking for you.'"

What was the pattern of Jesus' life? It was getting along with his dad. To do what? To pray. What is prayer? It's communicating with the Father. And the Bible says, "There's one mediator between God and man. It's the man Jesus Christ." So how can you pray through Jesus? That's the only way. Let me say it again. The only way you can pray is through Jesus, because there is no other God. And if Jesus has ceased being the God man, you have no access to the Father. You don't need to pray through saints or people that have died that have gone before either go, just pray directly to God through the person of Jesus. You have full access. Now, how serious was Jesus's prayer life? Every time we see him, he's always secluded by himself seeking time with his dad.

Sometime when he didn't have time during the day to do it, what did he do? Stayed up all night and spent time with his dad. Sometimes after miracles when they are ready to crown him kings, "I'm going to go up to the mountain, you guys go ahead to the other side. I'm going to go spend time with my dad." Who's he talking to in the garden of Gethsemane when he knows he's about ready to be crucified? Oh, he is talking to his dad. Why? Because I don't think Jesus was worried about the physical pain, even though it was excruciating. I think Jesus was sweating drops of blood because he knew for the first time, instead of experiencing the love of his father and how pleased he was, he was going to be a substitution for all of our sin and God the Father was going to pour his wrath out on his son.

So he's crying out saying, "Dad there's another way. I just want to bask in your love, but I'll do whatever you want." What's he doing on the cross? He's praying. Now, Jesus spent his whole earthly ministry praying. How significant is that to us? I mean, we have no other recorded deal where the disciples are all coming to him, say, "Lord, teach us to cast out demons. Lord, teach us to heal. Lord teach us. I mean, they're asking in tongues, 'Why couldn't we do that?'" But the one thing we see is, "Lord teach us to pray." I mean, if it had been us, maybe we would've said, "Lord, teach us to raise the dead and pray. Teach us to restore sight to the blind and pray." Disciples were like, "If we get the prayer thing because there's something different about you because of the way you talk to your dad, we want to know how to do that. Because if we can get that done, everything else will fall into place."

That's why at Brave, our first Tuesday will always remain our most important meeting of the month. Because corporately we get together to do what? To pray. Why? Because our church is run by Jesus Christ who's the head. And if he's going to direct us to do something, we got to hear him. We got to know what he's saying. We got to get ready for when he's going to unfold it. We got to be serious about what he wants to do and what he wants to get done and how he wants to heal, and how he wants to set free and how he wants to deliver. It's not our agenda. I was telling the story last night to a friend about the book Eugene Peterson wrote a number of years ago called, Working the Angles, where he basically argued he could take a college grad who was a good speaker and administrative and put him in about 90% of churches in America and nobody be the wiser, even if he wasn't a Christian.

As long as he could speak well and administrate well, everything would be fine. And he began to talk about, no, that's not what's important in a pastor. What's important in a pastor is seeking the face of God and hearing from God and following spiritual direction. I've told you this before, but I'll tell you again in case you didn't hear it. My most important ministry as your pastor, even more important than coming and having coffee with you or spending time with you is doing what? It's spending time at the feet of Jesus. It's praying. Your most important ministry that you have, regardless of how skilled you are, it's praying because when you pray, you'll hear God. When you pray, you'll know what God's saying.

I've lived long enough to know, and I've seen a lot of guys my age, younger, older people, I love people I respected fall out of ministry. But I'm telling you, long before they fell out of ministry, they fell away from their prayer life. They fell away from their intimacy with Jesus. May it never be, for me or for any of you. May Jesus Christ be central. What was Jesus' main ministry? Prayer. If that was the main ministry for Jesus, then what should our main ministry be? I mean, how is it possible to go to a church that doesn't even have a prayer meeting? Or a church our size to have a prayer meeting with six people sitting in the corner with yellow tablets? "Do you have anything to pray about? Do you have anything to pray about? Do you have?" that's not a prayer meeting. A prayer meeting is, "Let's come, gather before the throne of God. Hear the Lord, let him move on our behalf and let him guide our church."

That's prayer. That's how the first century Church exploded, because they prayed. They prayed. Amen. Let me give you this ninth word, one of the uniquenesses of Jesus Christ's ministry is this. It's his compassion. His compassion. I love this about Jesus. I love this about Jesus. Notice verse 38, it says, "He said to them." Now all these people are bugging him. Jesus, everybody's looking for you. And he's like, "Well, I'm with my dad, so I really don't care." "But all these people are looking for you." So he starts showing compassion. Compassion is when you see a need and you actually help. You don't just feel sorry. You actually move. New Testament words that are translated, sometimes you'll see he had pity on them. Pity doesn't mean, "Ah, that's too bad." Compassion is not, "Awe, I feel sorry for you." Compassion is, "I hurt like you're hurting and I'm going to do something about it."

So what does he do? He said, "Well, let's go somewhere else to the towns nearby so that I may preach there also, for that is what I came for." What was he saying? "I don't have to go back to the same synagogue every single week, because my good news is for the world. We're going to take it out everywhere." And he went into their synagogues all throughout Galilee. What was he doing there, by the way? Oh my gosh. There's those three things again. Repetition, preaching, casting out demons. And we also know he was healing people, because this was going to happen next. And a leper came to Jesus. Leprosy was a super painful gross disease of the skin that turned your skin flaky, white, and there was no cure for it. "And a leper came to Jesus, beseeching him," meaning begging him and falling on his knees before him and saying, "If you are willing, you can make me clean."

"Like Jesus. If you're willing, I know you can do something if you want to." And it says, moved with what? Compassion. I see you have a need. I want to do something about it. Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him and said to him, "I am willing, be cleansed." Immediately. Not a week from now. Not after he went to the doctor. "Immediately the leprosy left him and he was cleansed." So what happened? This guy comes to him and says, "Hey, I'm hurting. I got no other options. I'm desperate, but if you can do anything, please, I know you can do it." He's like, "Yeah, I'm totally willing to do it. Be healed, be cleansed. You're good."

Now, it's interesting because we don't know anything about this man. We don't know what kind of life you live in. It was good man, a bad man, we don't know. We do know theologically that, "All had sinned and fallen short of the glory of God." So here's what we know about this guy. He had a massive track record of sin, just like you and I do. And yet when Jesus sees him and sees all of his leprosy and he's got this great moment because he is got them wedged against the wall, he's got them pinned in the corner. He doesn't say, "Well, remember that time you were talking to your wife that way and you were bad to her? You need to go ask forgiveness there. And remember that time that you were going to give money to the church, but you took it and spend it on yourself. You need to go get that, bring that money back to me."

He doesn't pin him in and show them all his sin. Because when God sees the desperation of a person, he moves with mercy and compassion. And all he says to him, amidst all of his sin and all the things he had done wrong is, "Yeah, I'm willing, totally willing." What you see in the life and ministry of Jesus is every time he moved, every time he saw somebody that was desperate, he was moved with compassion. Every time he met somebody that was prideful thinking, "Who are you or what can you do or show us a miracle?" He met him with truth. When you're broken in your sin and you know you need help and you're desperate and you don't care whether you're Bartimaeus calling out saying, "I'm blinded. I want to see." Or whether this man with a leprosy saying, "If you're willing, I know you can help."

What is Jesus' heart? It's compassion. He has compassion for the one sheep that wanders off. He has compassion for the one that is completely lost. He has compassion for the one who's steeped in sin. It means this. He has compassion for you. If you're desperate enough to believe you need Jesus, he will pour his mercy and grace out to you like never before. Isn't that good news?

Congregation:

Yes.

Pastor Jeff:

The hallmark of Jesus is compassion. I don't know everything about every religion in the world, but as I've studied other religions, most religions are fear-based. "I got to get this right. I got to get this right. I got to do this thing. If I don't do this, the God or the Gods won't be pleased with me." And yet so many Christians act like that, rather than, "My God loves me, my God moves with compassion over me. My God cares about my situation, my circumstance."

He cares about withered hands. He cares about wayward sons. He cares about provision and means. He cares about your health. He cares about the oppression that you're feeling in your life. He cares about the brokenness in your family. He cares about your singleness and your isolation. He cares about it all. Because the Jesus I'm talking about in the Bible is marked by compassion. That's why he's so attractive.

Now, he tells them in verse 43, "Sternly warned him not to tell anybody and he immediately sent him away." And the reason for this, you see all over Mark's gospel is, "He hasn't died and risen yet." And he doesn't want people just to believe that he can do good things. He doesn't want to be the benevolent grandfather or the magician that can just sprinkle good stuff on. He wants to be the one that you repent of and believe for the forgiveness of your sins. And he said to him, "Say nothing to anyone, but go show yourself to the priest and offer for your cleansing what Moses commanded as a testimony to them."

But notice this 10th word that marks the ministry of Jesus that makes him unique, and it's his fascination, fascination. Jesus Christ is fascinating. I mean, if you study the Jesus of the Bible, you'd be blown away by who he is. Because notice what happened next in verse 45, this leper, he went out and began to proclaim it freely. Now, think about this. When it comes to evangelism in the church in North America, we usually offer a four-week evangelism class. And then we tell you it's going to be really, really, really scary. But please go and just share the gospel with people. And we're like, "I don't know if I can, but I'll give it a go." Here Jesus tells this guy, "Don't tell anybody." And what's he do? "I can't help it. I'm telling everybody."

That's what it's like because if you understand the fascination of Jesus, you won't need to take an evangelism class. You'll just be telling people about what God's doing in and through your life and in through those around you and in and through your church. And you won't be able to be quiet about it. And it's not a religious activity that you have to get excited about. It is the work of God in you as you're on the journey with Jesus and you're taking greater measures and steps of faith and you're watching him come through.

Saw a testimony this morning from a woman on our team, started our prayer time this morning by saying she'd never gone through prayer and fasting, but joined us to pray and fast during the 21 days of prayer and fasting. And she was specifically praying for one of their sons to get into a certain kind of school. And there were some issues with all of that stuff happening, so they prayed and fasted for it. Not only did the son right after the 21 days of fasting get into the school they've been praying about, but her husband got a new job so that they could provide the means to take him to that school. Amen.

She can't help tell people about it. She didn't take a class on, here's how you promote your kid getting into school that you prayed about. You say, "Well, how come that happens to her?" It'll happen to everybody means story after story after story, after story, after story, after story, after story in your life and the lives of all those around you. Why? Because Jesus is fascinating. So notice how this text ends. Notice how this text ends. It blows me away. So he goes out, spread the news around to such an extent. I mean, this is how many people he is telling to such an extent that Jesus could no longer publicly enter a city.

Think about that. He can't get into the town, he can't go to that town. He can't set up a preaching meeting. But stayed in unpopulated areas and they were coming to him from everywhere. If the fullness of Jesus is put on display, it doesn't matter whether you're in a city or the country, people will come from all over. The message of the gospel is go and share. But if you go and share, people will come and see. That's just the way it works. When people know there's a place where they're getting healed and they're getting cleansed and they're getting set free and they're getting delivered and they're getting saved, and all that stuff's going on, people, it doesn't matter where you live, they're going to come. And you will never be able to set up enough chairs for that because everybody wants that kind of relationship with God.

He's fascinating. And I'm telling you, you study the world religions over, and you just pick one of these words, and it's not true of anybody else. I've studied the life of Muhammad. I've studied a little bit about Islam and all. I'm not fascinated at all. There's 3,000 plus Hindu Gods. I'm not fascinated at all. I've been there. I've listened to people talk about why they believe what they believe. I'm not fascinated. The only one who is fascinating is the Lord Jesus Christ. There is no other but him. And he is worthy of all your glory, all your honor, and all your praise. And no matter how far you are on your journey with him, I got some awesome news for you today. You can take a step closer to him. You can grow in him. The things you feel hamstrung by, the things you feel like I don't know if I can ever get there.

God sees you. He'll have compassion on you. He'll have mercy on you. He will meet you right where you're at. And if Jesus was willing to leave heaven to come here and die for you, what else would he possibly withhold from you? No good thing will he withhold from those who walk up rightly. So, I have good news today, church, if you've never trusted Jesus Christ, the invitation's open. If you've trusted Jesus Christ, the invitation's open to continue. And no matter where you are on your journey, Jesus Christ wants to walk with you a little deeper. Amen and amen. That's what he wants to do, and that's how He brings his church into a place where people are experiencing the presence of him. Amen. Amen. Would you stand with me as we close?

Father in heaven, as we sing this song, we sing it to the glory of you. Lord, we praise you. We honor you. We thank you for who you are and for all you're doing in our midst. Jesus, be the fullness of everything you are. Be the fullness of the scriptures and be the fullness of our experience as we walk with you, desiring to give you the most glory that you could ever have. And Lord, for all that you're doing and for all you're going to do, we give you praise, glory, honor, and thanks.

If you're here today and you've never trusted Christ, you can simply pray like this. "Lord Jesus, I know that you're God. Right now I want to turn from my sin and bring him all to you, and I want to trust you as my personal Lord and Savior. Come into my life and save me."

Perhaps if you're here today, you can say, "Lord, I know you as my Lord and Savior, but Lord, there's something oppressing me. Lord, deliver me from that oppression. Take it from me and free me so I can be free to give you all the glory and honor." And God, we honor you. We praise you. We glorify you because you're the only one worthy, the name that's worthy, the name of Jesus that sends every demon fleeing. We give you all the praise, in Jesus name. Amen and amen. Can we give God praise for who he is?