The KING Displayed, An Automatic Response - MISSIONS

[0:00] If you would please take your Bibles and go to Matthew's Gospel. Matthew chapter nine.

[0:18] Matthew chapter nine, we're gonna start in verse 18. Matthew 9, 18, that black Bible, if you left your Bible at home, there's a black Bible in the chair in front of you.

[0:30] You can pull that out and go towards the back. Find page six into page seven. You'll find Matthew chapter nine, verses 18 through chapter 10, verse four.

[0:43] That kind of goes together. And then next week we'll do chapter 10, verse five, all the way that whole discourse that Jesus does. We'll do that next week. But this whole section goes together, chapter nine, verse 18 through chapter 10, verse four.

[0:57] It's just we're gonna study this morning. And by the way, thank you for being so gracious to Roy and his wife last week. That was great. Thank you for welcoming them. I appreciate it.

[1:07] I guess they convinced all of you to sit more on the right side as opposed to the left side. So I'm glad Roy did that. That's just kidding. That's a joke. So this is the remnant here.

[1:19] Yes. Yes. So where are you people? My family's on this side too. That's scary. Anyways. Chapter nine. Matthew chapter nine, verse 18.

[1:30] Let's read this together. While he was saying these things to them, behold, there came an official. He bowed down before him saying, my daughter has just died.

[1:41] But come and lay your hand on her and she will live. And rising, Jesus and his disciples followed him. And behold, a woman who'd been suffering from a hemorrhage for 12 years came up behind him and touched the fringe of his garment.

[1:57] For she was saying to herself, if I only touch his garment, I shall be delivered. But Jesus turning and seeing her said, take courage, daughter. Your faith has delivered you.

[2:11] And the woman was delivered at once. And when Jesus came into the official's house, seeing the flute players and the crowd and noisy disorder, he said, depart. For the girl has not died, but is asleep.

[2:24] And they laughed at him. But when the crowd had been put out, he entered and took her by the hand and the girl arose. And this news went out into all that land.

[2:37] Verse 27. And as Jesus passed on from there, two blind men followed him, crying out and saying, Have mercy on us, son of David. And after he had come into the house, the blind men came up to him.

[2:49] And Jesus said to them, Do you believe that I'm able to do this? They said to him, Yes, Lord. And he touched their eyes, saying, According to your faith, let it be done to you.

[3:00] And their eyes were opened. And Jesus sternly warned them, See, let no one know. But they went out and spread the news about him in all that land. Verse 32.

[3:13] And as they were going out, they brought to him a man, mute and demonized. And after the demon was cast out, the mute man spoke, and the multitudes marveled, saying, Nothing like this has ever been seen in Israel.

[3:27] But the Pharisees were saying, He cast out the demons by the ruler of the demons. 35. And Jesus is going about all the cities and the villages, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every kind of disease and every kind of sickness.

[3:47] And seeing the multitudes, he felt compassion for them, because they were distressed and cast down like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few.

[4:02] Therefore, entreat the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into his harvest, and having summoned his twelve disciples, chapter 10, verse 1, he gave them authority over unclean spirits to cast them out and to heal every kind of disease and every kind of sickness.

[4:17] Now, the names of the twelve apostles are these. The first Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew, his brother, and James, the one of Zebedee, and John, his brother, Philip and Bartholomew, Thomas, and Matthew, the tax collector, James, the one of Alphaeus and Thaddeus, Simon the zealot, and Judas Iscariot, the one who betrayed him.

[4:39] I'd like to run through some pictures, show you some pictures, to try and evoke certain responses from you.

[4:52] Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. I like this one.

[5:04] I like that one. Or how about this? Oh. Oh.

[5:15] Oh. This next one's really nice. Oh. I almost think they photoshopped those colors, but I'm not sure, because that would be really cool if it's really purple. Grand Canyon.

[5:31] Oh. Kind of blurry. Don't like really that shot. That was a little bit better. There's a reason why I'm doing this.

[5:43] Automatic responses. Oh. Oh. Oh. Whoa. Right? Because these pictures produce responses from us.

[5:56] You see certain things, and it's almost like, you know, when you're at the doctor and he wants to check your reflexes and he does a little thing on your knee and it kicks, right?

[6:07] The knee-jerk reaction to some of those is like, oh, wow, that's amazing. Or, oh, that's so cute. Those are knee-jerk, unless you're a stoic, cold person. There's nobody like that here, is there? But those are like almost knee-jerk reactions, responses that we have.

[6:24] Why do I say this? In the same way, when we see the glory of our king, when we see the greatness of God, the goodness, the character, the works of God displayed in his person and work, the Lord Jesus Christ, one automatic worshipful response in us should be missions.

[7:00] missions. There's other responses that come that's true. But one of the responses that we should have that we will see from the text, when you see the glory of our king, Jesus, the Messiah, king of Israel, an automatic worship response should be that you want to tell the world how awesome that he is.

[7:29] Missions. Thus, the title, bow down and worship Jesus, the Messiah, king of Israel today. The king is displayed. Here's an automatic response.

[7:41] At least it should be. The king is displayed. He shows who he is. When God shows who he is, one automatic response should be missions.

[7:56] We want to tell the world. We want to tell people about Christ. We want to tell people how they can be saved. Or as we looked at in the first hour of Psalm 145, it creates in us an enthusiasm which produces the result of missions.

[8:15] I'll put it to you in a statement. The king displayed an automatic response. Because Jesus, the authoritative Messiah, king of Israel, displayed God's now rule reign on earth by his words and works, an automatic worshipful response is to tell the world about his kingship.

[8:37] That's what this passage is about. or a response is missions. You didn't know you were going to get a missionary type message today, did you?

[8:53] Neither did I. Because this is who Jesus is, he displays who he is, because one response that we should have is to tell the world about his kingship.

[9:08] Missions. This is the last set of three historical miracle stories displaying the very powerful authority of Jesus.

[9:20] And it's followed by a focus on discipleship or missions. You see his personhood and then you see missions. And these stories are highly condensed.

[9:31] I mean just kind of just rattle them off type thing. And in two of the three miracles faith is stressed. That's why we sang about faith this morning too.

[9:44] Which led to a touch as the means for the healing. But it's not faith that saves them. Jesus saves by the means of trusting him alone.

[9:57] Faith does not save you. Having enough faith doesn't save you. Jesus saves you by the means of trusting him to deliver. And as our king who has authority over our lives the response should be missions.

[10:11] We're going to tell the world that Jesus Christ is Lord. So there's a short statement. Let's go through this. Because our king displays first his authority and you see his authority how?

[10:26] Death, illness, blindness, mutinous, demons. demons. Because our king displays his authority over death, over illness, blindness, mutinous, demons.

[10:38] We'll go to the next part. Notice how it begins here. Chapter 9 verses 18 to 33. This whole section that displays the authority of Jesus. Look at verse 18.

[10:51] He's saying these things to them. There came an official. An official probably of the synagogue. The local synagogue. Which is very important in the community. This guy. He came, bowed down before him saying my daughter has just died but come and lay your hand on her and she will live.

[11:10] Notice his great faith. He had strong faith. Strong faith seen by him bowing down to Jesus in worship. Truly believing that Jesus could raise his daughter from the dead.

[11:24] Mark gives us more details. Luke gives us more details. Matthew just gives us the gist of it. And notice he says here in verse 19 without a word Jesus along with his disciples just followed him.

[11:37] Okay? So there's the story that's happening. And then another thing happens. Look at verse 20. And behold, a woman had been suffering from a hemorrhage for 12 years came up behind him and touched the fringe of his cloak.

[11:53] This woman had a 12 year chronic menstrual disorder. That would just be terrible in and of itself.

[12:04] But then couple that with this. She'd suffer from a social stigma. Nobody could be around her. She couldn't be around anybody because she would, if she touched her and they would touch her, they would become unclean.

[12:18] That was like, no way for Jews. But not only that, but there was, religiously, she could not do things.

[12:31] She could not go into the court of women because she had that flow of blood. So not only was there a social stigma, religiously, she couldn't even worship, at least.

[12:42] I mean, she could, we understand that, it's not about the place. But for a Jew, this was a big deal. But look at what she does.

[12:54] She came up behind him and touched the fringe of his garment. Jesus, by means of her faith, healed this woman. It was not some magical power in his garment. He didn't say, I'm going to wear my magic garment today, guys.

[13:09] I'm not going to wear it tomorrow, I'm going to wear it today. It was him, it was Jesus. And look at her thought process in verse 21. She's saying to herself, if I only touch his garment, I'll be delivered.

[13:21] I mean, she was convinced with great conviction that he could heal her simply by her touching him. This took great faith on her part.

[13:32] You know, Jesus takes real, small, simple faith in him as a response. It's not about how great it is. It's there.

[13:46] She had it. And look get it. Verse 22. Jesus turning and seeing her. He said, take courage daughter, which means what?

[13:59] She was discouraged. Be encouraged. She was discouraged. Oh no, what am I doing? Am I crazy? And he gave the most direct statement about how faith was the agent of your healing.

[14:15] Your faith, that word has made you well. Literally in the Greek, it's so-so, where you get the word saved. And I translate it for you, delivered.

[14:28] Your faith has delivered you. And her bleeding immediately stopped. She was delivered.

[14:42] Now, technically, Jesus will become unclean. Right? But instead, she became clean and was fully delivered.

[14:55] God had divinely delivered her because she trusted in Jesus, the God man, the Messiah came to Israel to heal her completely. And maybe there was spiritual deliverance as well in her statement.

[15:10] I mean, think about this. Before, there was the social stigma. Religiously, no worship could happen. now, not only could she have relationships again, but she could worship God again.

[15:23] This is going to create such an amazing response from her. Such deliverance has come. Well, notice, back to my story, verse 23.

[15:35] Back to the original story. Jesus, you know, he's going to the official's house, remember that? See the flute players, a crowd of noisy disorder. Flute players was a sign of mourning.

[15:49] He told them, depart. She's not dead, she's asleep. Affirming that she would be raised to life just like someone who's awakened from their slumber.

[16:00] Sometimes you see some people, one of my kids, I go and check on my kids, one of my kids was asleep like this. Like, that looks so creepy. Oh, just kind of covered them and just walked away. That looks weird.

[16:10] You know, some of us sleep like, we look like we're dead. Anyways, so, but that's the idea. She's, it's like she's sleeping, like she's going to be awakened from her slumber.

[16:23] And instead of inquiring what he meant, considering his comment, or even trying to stick around, I mean, what's he talking about? Let's stick around.

[16:34] Instead of that, what did they do? End of verse 24, they laughed at him. There's unbelief right there.

[16:48] Verse 25, when the crowd had been put out, he entered the room that she lied, and he took her by the hand, and she unbelievably arose.

[16:59] This was the most amazing miracle Jesus had done. He had great authority. He has authority over death, and he has authority over a chronic illness, 12 years of bleeding.

[17:14] His authority is over death. His authority over illness. This is what's showing. The kingdom had already come in Jesus, even though we still wait for the not yet to come. One thing is for sure, raising this girl pointed to the fact that the ultimate resurrection will be by Jesus' power.

[17:35] He raises the dead. The one who forgives sin has the power to raise even the dead. We have such confidence and hope that he can forgive sinners and he can raise the dead.

[17:48] He forgives us, he will raise us. Notice why this should automatically bring about an enthusiasm towards missions. The hope of resurrection, the forgiveness of your sins, that Jesus has power over death, that should create enthusiasm for us to tell the world about our great king.

[18:17] So he goes through this with death, illness, notice the next part talks about his blindness, verse 27. He's passed on from there to blind men, followed him, have mercy on the son of David, which implies the fact that they're following him, they're following him even into the house, discipleship of some level is happening, and their cry showed they truly believed he was Israel's Messiah, king with the authority to heal them.

[18:46] And notice what you each kind of test them there in verse 28. Do you believe I'm able to do this? They said to him, yes, Lord. Jesus healed more blind people than any other category of healing because it had messianic significance.

[19:04] Isaiah 29 verse 18, Messiah would come, he would heal the blind, which is unheard of. They hardly affirmed their trust in him.

[19:16] It wasn't about having enough faith to heal them, that's ridiculous. Jesus healed through the means of them trusting him, and their faith was based on what people told them because they didn't see his actions.

[19:27] Remember, they were blind. They didn't see anything. It was all based upon hearsay. That takes great faith. Well, notice what Jesus says.

[19:40] Verse 29, he touched her eyes just like the official's daughter. He touched them, touched their eyes, saying, according to your faith, let it be done to you.

[19:52] Verse 30, and their eyes were opened. Since they trusted him as Israel's Messiah king, their eyes were opened, just like the official's daughter.

[20:03] He touched their eyes, and they were instantaneously healed. And then he commanded them, notice, excuse me, verse 30, see, let no one know.

[20:14] Why? Don't incite the Romans and their religious leaders. I don't have some political agenda. Jesus did not want to pose a political threat to the Romans or to the religious leaders, he came to save sinners, not judge the world or lead in some crazy revolt.

[20:32] That's not why I'm here. And yet, how does a former blind man keep his mouth shut? That'd be kind of hard to do.

[20:44] Especially, you know, you're like walking around like, wait a second, didn't I just see you the other day? You were blind. Well, let me tell you, Joe, guess what happened to me, right? That's why it says there in verse 10, but they went out and spread the news about him and all that land.

[20:58] They happily spread the news about Jesus. Well, look, to trust in Jesus is the means through which God's good gift of salvation comes to people. We trust Christ. We don't trust in him, thinking of him as like a charm or a genie.

[21:11] that's what the prosperity gospel preachers teach people. He's a charm. He's a genie. He'll give you whatever you want.

[21:21] Just rub the lamp. No. We trust Christ. We trust him. So you have the death, the illness, the blindness, then you have muteness and demons.

[21:34] It says here verse 32, they brought to him a mute and demonized man which was caused the muteness and probably most likely death as well. He was mute because of the demon.

[21:49] Once Jesus cast out the demon, verse 33, the mute man spoke and the multitudes were like, nothing like this has ever been seen in Israel. They were blown away. Jesus has authority over the mutes and the demonized.

[22:03] All these miracles, and not just these three, four, but even the ones before that, the first set of three, the second set of three, and this last set of three, four, it shows Jesus' powerful authority to forgive sin as well as to have compassion on those who are suffering.

[22:21] The emphasis is not necessarily the physical human felt need, but the main emphasis is that God's deliverance of sin is found in Jesus. The kingdom is here, in Christ.

[22:33] So because our king displays his authority, next statement, because our king displays his ministry of words and works, look at verse 35, and Jesus was going about all the cities and the villages over the three aspects of his ministry, teaching in the synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every kind of disease and every kind of illness.

[22:55] It shows God's kingdom has come in Christ, the Messiah king. It gives us a total picture of his words and of his works. This is like what said in chapter 4 verse 23, kind of like the end of that section.

[23:09] So because Jesus shows his great authority, because he shows his ministry, and third, because he shows his mercy towards people, look at verse 36. And seeing the multitudes, he felt compassion for them because they were harassed and cast down like sheep without a shepherd.

[23:31] They were troubled people. Jesus had compassion for them because they were harassed and cast down. They had no leaders who truly cared about them.

[23:44] No shepherds, no leadership. leaders are needed. Good leaders are an absolute necessity for God's people.

[23:58] And notice that we're likened to sheep, defenseless animals that are vulnerable to attack without a shepherd's protection. even without any predators.

[24:10] They're in trouble as sheep because sheep are not good searchers for their own food either. As you've probably been told this for lack of better terms, to put it succinctly, sheep are stupid animals.

[24:28] That's what we're called. We're called sheep. Thank you, Jesus. I guess so. Thank you, Lord. Am I supposed to say thank you for that?

[24:38] Yes, you are. Okay. That's just kind of weird. Okay. So, we are in great danger and we lack the resources to escape from the danger.

[24:54] Why were they like sheep without a shepherd? Because the religious leaders were faithless shepherds who did not care for the people. Predators who only looked out for themselves.

[25:07] Selfish ones who only wanted to extract from the people not help them. Praise Jesus. He is the senior pastor of his church.

[25:21] He's the senior pastor of this church. And so when you see all of this, his authority, his ministry, his mercy, when you see who Jesus is and what he has done, when we see all these things about our king, it should evoke an automatic worshipful response from us.

[25:47] When we see God's character in his work, it should evoke a response from us. Hold up over here. An automatic worshipful response, number one, praying for missions.

[26:03] This is what Jesus says. Look at verse 37. 37 and 38, and he said to his disciples, the harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. He's describing needy Israel.

[26:17] Not only were there sheep, not only was this desperate situation, but it was urgent. The harvest was bountiful, but those who work to reap the harvest were few.

[26:29] The situation was not only desperate, but urgent. It was time to reap the harvest that had come. We need workers, verse 38. Therefore, entreat the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into his harvest.

[26:48] When you see the authority and the ministry, God's mercy and grace, it should spur in us, one automatic response, praying for missions, to pray for God to move.

[27:05] And look at what he says, pray and treat God to send more workers, which God would do by means of these twelve disciples. He would use them to bring about the salvation of his people, because God always uses means to save people.

[27:28] God doesn't work in a vacuum. He uses means, and the means that he's decided to bring about the salvation of people is people, us.

[27:41] We are the means. William Barclay said this, the Pharisees saw the common people as chaff to be destroyed and burned up. Jesus saw them as a harvest to be reaped and to be saved.

[27:56] But with no laborers, you can't reap the crop. so this means something. If God uses means to save people, if people are searching for the truth, then it means God has brought them to the place where they are searching for the truth.

[28:13] And since they're one of his chosen ones, he'll bring the means for them to hear the gospel and be saved. And that's where we come in. We should pray for more laborers to reap the harvest, for more shepherds to shepherd God's people.

[28:32] You should pray for more elders to rise up among us in this church. There's only one shepherd right now. We need more. You should be praying for elders.

[28:45] You should pray for missions to take place. And I'm not talking about, you can pray for missions in terms of those Southern Baptist pastors and missionaries like that, TMAI, there's opportunities for you to do that.

[28:57] We're talking about locally here among us. Are you praying for missions within us as a local church? Are you praying for the work that's happening in Jerome?

[29:10] Do you know I go up there every single Friday? I've been doing it for almost seven years. It'll be seven years in July. And not one person has responded to the gospel.

[29:24] I need you to pray. I need you to pray. And when you're so overwhelmed by the merciful graciousness of God, one automatic response is that you pray for missions.

[29:41] Are we praying for shepherds to come and shepherd us in this church? But then there's also another response. It's missions.

[29:52] I split up into two parts. One, Jesus is just praying for it. And the other one is being it. Being missional.

[30:03] First you pray for missions, then you be missions. Look at chapter 10 verse 1. And having summoned his twelve disciples, he gave them authority over unclean spirits to cast them out to heal every kind of disease and every kind of sickness.

[30:19] Interesting. After just speaking about the urgency for missions and commanding them to pray to God for workers, now Jesus showed his disciples that they're the answer to the prayer.

[30:33] Maybe as you're praying, maybe you're the answer to the prayer. Ever thought about that? He gave them authority over unclean spirits to cast them out.

[30:45] They are the workers for God's kingdom by their teaching and their healing. His authority was extended to them. Twelve, because twelve tribes, of Israel, sending them on mission. We'll go through that chapter ten verse five to the end of chapter eleven, I think verse two.

[31:00] We'll go through that next week. And just because you're praying, that doesn't mean you're not supposed to be missional. Well, I'm praying for missions. Well, praise God, but listen, if you're a Christian, guess what?

[31:14] You must be missional, which means your very life is a living display of the gospel. In your words, and your actions. If you're a Christian, that's part of the package.

[31:29] You're just missional. Why? Because you're enamored with the glory of God. You're so in love with your king that you're going to tell people about it. I've got to tell you about my king.

[31:43] Verse two through four, these will become the new leaders of Israel as opposed to religious leaders. The only time in Matthew where the twelve are designated as apostles, apostles are being sent out ones.

[31:59] They were his delegates, Jesus' emissaries. I'll just say a couple of things about them. They're enraged in six pairs, you would notice that. Andrew, Philip, Bartholomew, Thomas, Thaddeus, Simon, the Zealot.

[32:13] They're only mentioned here in Matthew's gospel, nowhere else. Notice also the end of verse four, Judas Iscariot is mentioned last, a fitting place. But all in all, these guys were ordinary men.

[32:30] There's nothing special about them. Wasn't them glitz and glamour. Nothing special. So as we come to this part, praying for missions, being missional, let me give you some implications to this.

[32:47] Three, actually. Three implications. First, God can and may use the unsaved to bring about his sovereign plan. Not because of them, but in spite of them.

[32:58] Because notice, Judas was given this authority. You see that? He was totally unsaved. He did not know Jesus, or maybe we should say, Jesus did not know him.

[33:16] God may, can, may, use the unsaved to bring about his sovereign plan. Not because of them, but in spite of them. Another implication. Though this does not directly apply to us today, because as Christ's followers, it indirectly applies to us, because we proclaim the gospel of the kingdom to others.

[33:39] we are God's means to the world called to speak the good news to all. You'll see this even more next week, when you start in chapter 10 verse 5, chapter 11 verse 2, you'll see some of these things, you'll go, oh yeah, okay, I can get some, but then other of these things go, wait, this doesn't really apply to us, that's true, because Jesus is directing this to his twelve apostles, so this does not directly apply to us, but indirectly it does, because we speak the same gospel of the kingdom, we're not called to heal the sick, that was Jesus, tied to Jesus, the embodiment of God's kingdom coming now, as well as the fact that revelation was being given by Jesus and his apostles, nor are we called to do some kind of social justice as a local church, Matthew's going to be very clear at the end of his gospel, what is the mission of the church, to make disciples, this creative church wants to bring drinking water to those in Somalia, that's a good thing, praise God, but that's not our mission, our mission is to make disciples, baptizing them and teaching them, that's the mission of the church, we proclaim the gospel,

[34:54] Jesus saves us and displays to us how to be on mission, not in terms of healing people, but in giving people the hope of mercy that they can have forgiveness of sins, the harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few, God uses us as the means to proclaim this gospel of the kingdom to all, that does, that is the implication for us, when we see his authority, when we see the ministry of Jesus, when we see his mercy and his greatness and his glory is seen mostly at the cross, dying on behalf of our sins, we are enamored by that and become enthusiastic about that and one of the responses we should have is, we want to tell others missions.

[35:46] Another implication, third, Jesus loves to choose no-namers to be those on mission. These guys, who are these guys?

[35:59] A tax collector, who's that? Simon the zealot, those guys were like freaky, creepy, like, they were like weird and yet Jesus had one of them as his disciples.

[36:14] Jesus loves to choose no-namers to be those on mission, sent out to proclaim to other no-namers the gospel of the kingdom, the message of forgiveness of sins through repentance and faith in Christ.

[36:30] So this is what it is. So here are the implications that we have. See who God is in his character and one of the worshipful responses is missions.

[36:41] So we come together to worship, to be taught, to give encouragement, to exhort each other with gospel truth. Now, when we go out, we are called to live on mission.

[36:58] mission. We live the truth and we speak it to those around us because God uses means to bring people to himself. And guess who that means are?

[37:09] It's you. It's us. We are the means that he uses to proclaim the gospel. You might say, Jim, I'm more of the praying for missions type person as opposed to actually doing missions.

[37:26] Okay, well let me respond to that. First, we're all called to be missional because we're Christians. Second, we'll then go ahead and pray but maybe you can do other things to free others up to be missional.

[37:42] Have you thought about that? Maybe there's other things that you can do to free others up so they can be missional. Have you ever thought about that? Let me give you an illustration.

[37:55] Maybe this might help. I was thinking about it this week. You have a football team, right? Let's say college football, NFL. They have a first string, right?

[38:06] But they also have a second, third, and fourth string. Now the second, third, and fourth string, they practice with everybody else. They know all the different plays.

[38:19] They warm up before the game. They warm up with everybody else. and they're there on the sidelines watching the game. Sometimes the second or third, sometimes the fourth string quarterback actually has a headset on as he's listening to all the plays so that he can be in line with all the, they're engaged.

[38:39] They're not in the stands. With the painted face and the beard, yeah, right, you know, they're not in the stands. The second, third, and fourth string. They're on the sidelines.

[38:51] Sometimes they have their helmet on. They're ready. So I use that as a great illustration. We're all on the team. And though you may be just praying, maybe there's other things you can do.

[39:08] Maybe there's other things you ever thought that should be done. There's one verse that we didn't look at. Go to verse 34.

[39:24] Did you see this? In contrast to how the crowds responded, verse 34, but the Pharisees were saying, he cast out the demons by the ruler of the demons.

[39:38] This was their response. This is the unpardonable sin, which we'll look at that later. A couple weeks or so, something like that, in three, four, five weeks.

[39:52] Now, this shows tension that would begin to mount between the religious leaders and Jesus, to the point that they would kill him. The greatest evil, the unpardonable sin, is to call Jesus God's perfect son of the devil.

[40:07] evil. So I bring this up at the end, so that way that you're just, I want to encourage you to just be careful. Be careful to make sure we respond in worship that you don't harden your heart over what God is saying to us today.

[40:27] Don't harden your heart. Be mindful of this. The Pharisees' hearts were hardened. Don't harden your heart to the truth. Let the authority and the glory of Jesus be something that brings about such enthusiasm to your soul that you'll bring a response where you're praying for missions and you yourself are being a person who's missional.

[40:57] Because Jesus, the authoritative Messiah King of Israel, displayed God's now rule reign on earth by his words and works. An automatic worshipful response is missions.

[41:12] We pray for it and we do it. That's who we are as Christians. So God, we pray.

[41:24] We pray for missions now within your church. We pray you would raise up leaders and more shepherds in your church. We pray you would help us to pray for missions.

[41:44] We pray you would help us to pray more to see the work of God take place in Jerome, here in our own small little sea of cottonwood.

[41:54] that we would be a people who pray for missions and we would be a people who are missional.

[42:09] And still this in us because this enthusiasm, this passion can only come from you. We can't conjure it up on our own. I cannot conjure it up in myself.

[42:25] I cannot conjure up in your people. Spirit of God, you need to do that in our hearts. We also pray for those who are here who don't know Jesus, who have not turned and put their trust in Jesus Christ.

[42:44] We pray that they will do that. We pray they will respond to the gospel, they will repent and put their trust in Jesus Christ alone. Lord Jesus, give us a greater sense of who you are and what you have done, of how much, Father, you love us in your Son.

[43:09] That may spur us on as all these songs that we've been singing today, towards missions, to go into all the world things.

[43:25] I encourage you to take this time and let yourself, your mind, think of these things. Fill your mind with his word. Maybe you want to go to Psalm 145.

[43:41] We looked at that in the first hour. Maybe you want to read through that. Maybe you want to read back through your notes. Just letting these few minutes between you and the Lord to fill your mind and let your mind ponder on these truths.

[43:59] And after a few moments of silence, as we normally do, we do our time of giving and worship in our giving, worshiping by singing and praying. But just a few moments, I'd like to give that to you.

[44:15] Or you can let your mind think of these things. Do that now. Now.