If you have a copy of God's Word, I invite you to open with me to Mark chapter 1.
Mark chapter 1.
We've been tracking with Jesus through the book of Mark over the past several weeks.
And in case you've missed it, or just to refresh your memory, I want to catch you up to where we are thus far,
and where we've been thus far in the book of Mark.
And to do that, I want to use a map.
Sometimes it's good to see a geographical context of where we've been and where we are.
So we could get that map up there.
This map that we're using is a map of the upper region of Galilee.
Galilee is a region. It's not a town. It's not a country. It's a region.
A lot of times people get confused about that.
Over here is the Mediterranean Sea, just to kind of give you a geographical context.
This is in modern-day Israel.
And where we've been thus far is, we'll come down here and we'll see that Nazareth is right there.
Nazareth is the town where Jesus grew up in.
It wasn't where he was born, but where he grew up.
But we've seen Jesus move from Nazareth over to this region over here, where it's the Jordan River.
The Jordan River flows between these two bodies of water and actually flows south of here as well.
But the Jordan River is right here where Jesus was baptized.
And then we see Jesus come down from the Jordan River to the shores of the banks of the Sea of Galilee,
where he's called his first four disciples.
So far we've seen Simon Peter, Andrew, James, and John.
And this week we arrive in a little fishing village called Capernaum.
It's right there.
If I can hold the thing on there just right.
It's Capernaum. It's a fishing village.
It's a very prominent fishing town of this time.
And it's actually the hometown of Simon Peter.
And this is really where we pick up in verse 21 of chapter 1 of Mark.
It says,
They went to Capernaum, and immediately on the Sabbath he entered the synagogue and began to teach.
I want to pause here for a moment because Clay last week pointed out something that's really important to us
as we track through the book of Mark.
Mark likes to use words indicating immediacy,
or things that show quick action from one place to another.
In fact, we see this word immediate no less than ten times in the first chapter alone of Mark.
So Jesus, we see, immediately is compelled to go into the wilderness after his baptism.
Simon and Andrew immediately drop their nets to follow Jesus.
And here Jesus gets to Capernaum and immediately begins to teach.
So Mark is really, by using these words and using this immediacy,
he's really showing the urgency of the task at hand,
that Jesus' ministry is one of urgency.
It's one of necessity.
And we move from places very quick in the book of Mark.
And so, Jesus gets to Capernaum, likely with the first four disciples,
and says,
Man, that was a tough hike.
I'm feeling pretty tired today.
I think, since it's the Sabbath, we're just going to take a break and just kick up.
No, that's not what happens.
Jesus gets to Capernaum and he says,
Does somebody say it's the Sabbath?
Surely there's got to be somebody at the synagogue.
Let's get to work.
And Jesus begins to get to work.
He begins teaching in the synagogue.
By the way, the reason why Jesus is able to do this is because there is a Jewish tradition
in the synagogues of that day where traveling teachers could go into a synagogue and begin to teach.
They did that so that they could hear from other teachers.
And if somebody happened to be traveling, then it was a great thing to be able to hear from different people.
And so they allowed traveling rabbis and known teachers to be able to teach within the synagogues.
So Jesus is using that right that he has to go into these places and teach when he's teaching there.
Verse 22, it says that they were amazed at his teaching.
For he was teaching as one having authority and not as the scribes.
So there's something different about the way Jesus taught.
He was different than the scribes and the teachers of that day.
This is really important.
We're going to come back to that.
Verse 23, then there was a man in their synagogues with an unclean spirit.
In other words, he was demon possessed.
This demon possession and men filled with unclean spirits is synonymous in the New Testament.
And he cried out saying, 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.
Now notice here, the demonized man was in the synagogue, which is essentially the old covenant equivalent of the church gathering place.
It would be like somebody coming into this room or into this building and creating a scene and shouting out loud during the teaching time.
So don't think for a minute that in the church all the people there are great,
and that the people outside of the church are the only ones who are demon possessed.
Because I would almost guarantee you, I can't know for certain, but I would almost guarantee you there are people all across our nation right now
who are entering into church buildings with demon possession.
Jesus called them wolves in sheep's clothing, and the enemy loves to enter into these places.
He loves to infiltrate our camps.
He loves to infiltrate our churches.
And they cause all kinds of division and strife and conflict within the flock.
And that's what's happening in this text.
Jesus is bringing in the kingdom of God.
The kingdom of God, we already know, is at hand.
And as the kingdom of God is ushered in, the kingdom of darkness is lashing out against it.
They rightfully don't want Jesus there, because he is disrupting their world.
He's disrupting their mission to destroy people's souls and destroy people in a very dark way.
This time, however, they're messing with the wrong person.
As we continue on in verse 25,
So three primary truths that we're going to focus on this morning.
And the first thing that we see in this passage is that Jesus had authority in his teaching.
There's something different about Jesus when he taught than the teachers of that day.
Jesus didn't bore people with the Bible.
That's one of the greatest travesties a teacher of God's Word can commit,
is teaching in a boring way.
And it's happening all over the country this morning,
where preachers and teachers are boring people with God's Word.
And to bore people with this Word that's so rich, is so meaningful,
is so powerful and authoritative, sharper than any two-edged sword,
and able to pierce as far as joint and marrow, according to Hebrews 4.12.
Jesus didn't just get up there and read some passages and just kind of make a few comments here and there,
like most of the teachers of that day did.
We've seen already some examples of Jesus' teaching,
and examples of how he taught with authority.
Last week, we saw where he said,
The time is fulfilled.
The kingdom of God is at hand.
Repent and believe in the Gospel.
It was foretold that this would happen, by the way,
in Isaiah 11.2.
It says that,
So we see Jesus teaching with authority,
and always in such a way that spurred his followers,
the people who are listening to him,
into action somehow.
And he was compelling in a very unique way.
Now, when I was in seminary,
I had the opportunity to listen to a lot of preachers and teachers.
When you're in a place, if you can imagine,
in a place where you have three chapel services every week,
in addition to your Sunday night, Sunday morning, and Wednesday night,
activities, you hear a bunch of sermons,
and you get to hear from a lot of different people,
which for the most part, is a really, really good thing.
It's good to see the different dynamics and teaching styles.
It's really good to be able to see how they divide the Word of God differently.
But every now and then, you run across someone who's in it for themselves.
And they're in it to make a name for themselves.
And oftentimes, you'll see these guys on TV.
And the primary reason is because they have made it a mission and a goal in their lives
to make a name for themselves.
And they have placed themselves in a position where they are in front of people.
And oftentimes, they're in front of people.
And they're on the news.
You see them on CNN sometimes making incredibly unbiblical comments.
It's because they've built themselves up to the point,
and they think that they are just going after it.
And these guys are really good communicators, by the way.
They'll tickle your ears.
They'll make you laugh.
But when it comes down to the content of what they're saying,
it's man-centered truth, not Bible-centered truth, and not God-centered truth.
And I want you to hear this this morning.
The deal is that good preaching never leads to man-centered praise.
Good teaching, good Bible teaching will never lead to man-centered praise.
As a teacher of God's Word, I almost cringe.
And I hesitate to say this because I don't want to discourage anybody.
But I almost cringe when people say,
Good job, Kyle.
That was a great sermon.
And it's not because I don't like that.
And if you've said that before, it's not a big deal.
I don't want to make a big deal out of just that fact.
But the reason why I cringe is because it seems like I'm taking credit where credit isn't due.
Because if there's anything good about something that I say or the way I preach,
it's not because of me.
It's because of the Spirit that works in and through me.
And God deserves the glory, not man.
I'd much rather have preached in such a way that people don't say,
Great job, Kyle.
I'd rather preach in such a way that people say,
Wow, what an amazing God we serve.
Because He is amazing.
And preaching should lead to God-centered praise, not to man-centered praise,
with the exception, by the way, of one preacher
who deserves all the praise and the glory that we can give to Him.
And I'm not talking about Spurgeon or Whitfield or Jonathan Edwards.
We like those people too.
But it's Jesus.
He speaks as one with authority because He is one with authority.
He speaks as one with authority because He is the authority.
As one writer put it,
Jesus' teaching is different than the scribes of that day
because His teaching is tied to His very character.
And that's just it.
Everything about Jesus is holy.
Everything about Him is God.
He is 100% God.
When He speaks,
every single word that comes out of His mouth
is the Word of God.
And people are rightfully amazed by Him in this context
because He is amazing.
He is the spoken, living, breathing Word of God.
And so we clearly see that Jesus had authority in His teaching
and He was rightfully authoritative in His teaching.
When I teach, or when Nathan teaches,
or when other people here,
Clay last week and Chris is speaking next week,
when we teach,
we teach on the authority of the Word of God.
We don't want to teach on our own authority.
We teach on the authority of the Word of God.
So we see that Jesus was authoritative in His teaching,
but Jesus also had authority over demons.
We see that very clearly in this text,
that Jesus has authority over demons.
So that brings up the question,
is spiritual warfare and demons, are they real?
But some people in our culture will tell you,
no, they're not real.
But it's written all over the pages of Scripture,
that yes, spiritual warfare is real.
Demons are real.
Satan is real.
C.S. Lewis wrote a good little book called Screwtape Letters.
Anybody in here ever read that book?
A few of us?
It's a tough read.
Sometimes it's hard for us to read that
because C.S. Lewis kind of gets into the mind
of what it's like to be a demon
or to be on the dark side of spiritual warfare.
It's a crazy book.
And it's amazing how he's able to write it.
Now, it's not truth.
It's fictional.
But he does write some truth in there.
And he makes this interesting little statement
in the Screwtape Letters that goes like this.
He says,
There are two equal and opposite errors
in which our race could fall about the devils.
One is to believe in their existence.
The other is to believe
and to feel an excessive, unhealthy interest in them.
And so what he's saying here is that people,
when they hear demons,
when they hear about spiritual warfare,
what they often do is they resort to one of two things.
Oftentimes they'll either go,
I don't want to see them.
I don't want to hear about them.
I don't believe in them.
I just want to ignore everything the Bible has to say about them.
You're making me feel awkward by even talking about them.
So some of you might be going there right now.
You might be like,
Kyle, I'm just kidding.
I'm feeling awkward even talking about it right now.
Others of you will have an unhealthy,
inordinate obsession with them
where you blame everything that happens
that's bad in your life on spiritual warfare.
I've heard some pretty crazy stuff.
I won't tell you exactly what I've heard,
but it's just crazy stuff.
Kind of like somebody would say,
you know,
my coffee is hot,
hotter today than it was yesterday,
and hell is hot,
so that means that the demons of coffee
are trying to scorch my tongue,
and they're trying to punish me today.
And I've heard some crazy off-the-wall stuff.
I've heard people blame Satan for their sin.
Satan made me do it.
Let's call sin what it is,
and it's an act of our own act,
our own choice to commit an atrocity against God,
to go outside of what God's Word has told us.
That's what sin is.
It's not anybody making us do it.
It's our own wrong.
It's our own decision.
So to deny spiritual warfare is wrongful,
and to overemphasize it is wrongful as well.
But spiritual warfare does exist,
and demons do exist,
and Satan does exist.
So what does that mean for us?
It means we're at war.
We're constantly at war
in a lot of different ways.
We're not just at war spiritually.
We're also at war with our flesh,
according to Scripture.
We know that spiritual warfare is going on,
and any good soldier,
in order to learn how to defeat the enemy,
has to know his enemy.
And so we see here that we need to know our enemy.
Scripture reveals much to us about Satan and demons.
We're not going to go into everything about that.
We don't have time this morning.
We could spend weeks on learning about our enemy.
So we're just going to stick to what does this text tell us
about demons and spiritual warfare.
The first thing that we should note here
is that Satan and demons can speak,
and that they are crafty.
They're smart.
They don't just come to us dressed in red,
holding pitchforks,
saying,
I'm a demon,
and I'm here to destroy your soul.
Right?
They come to us very subtly.
In this case,
a demon is coming into the synagogue,
into God's camp, so to speak,
and he is disguised inside of a human.
They're not just going to come to us
and make us fearful of them.
Satan came to Adam and Eve as a serpent.
And the way these evil spirits often operate
is they'll come to you in the context of truth.
They'll begin to twist that truth
and turn it into a lie.
And then they'll begin to promise goodness
apart from God.
We talked about this in our college Bible study
a couple of weeks ago,
where the lie that Satan tells Adam and Eve
in the garden,
it's just a mere,
it's a simple atrocity.
I mean, it is just an affront on God.
He tells them that by eating the fruit,
they will be like God.
And here's the lie.
Adam and Eve,
when they were created,
they were already like God.
They were created in God's own image.
He states it more than once in Genesis chapter 2.
And so we see that the Satan,
in the context of truth,
he twists that truth
and turns it into a lie.
The reality was for Adam and Eve,
they became less like God.
when they sinned.
Because before,
they were able to commune with God.
They were running to God.
They were enjoying His presence.
After they sinned,
it became a whole different story.
They're running from God
in sheer terror of God.
They became less like Him in reality.
So we need to recognize the enemy's schemes
and resist him.
The next thing that we need to recognize
and understand about our enemy
is that even though they may be crafty,
that God is creator
and they are creature.
Which means that God is sovereign
and Satan and demons are subordinate.
You look at what happens in this passage.
Verse 25,
And Jesus rebuked him saying,
Be quiet and come out of him.
There's no magic formula there.
There's no sprinkling of holy water.
There's no priest standing over him
reciting incantations.
Just a simple command,
but firm command
that Jesus gives.
He says,
Be quiet and come out of them.
And we see that demons recognize
Jesus' authority over them.
Not only that,
but they respond in immediate.
They have to respond
in immediate obedience.
Verse 26,
Throwing him into convulsions,
the unclean spirit cried out
with a loud voice
and came out of him.
And just like that,
the demon has to be obedient to Christ.
His authority and his rule
are too much to overcome.
So it's important for us to understand
because we often think of spiritual warfare
like dualism.
Dualism is what we see
in a lot of our stories
and a lot of our movies
that we come to
where,
like in Star Wars,
where you have
the evil emperor
who shocks people
into submission.
And you have this incredibly evil,
just everybody under his control
is incredibly evil.
His sidekick,
Darth Vader.
And everything that's happening
is just evil
from their side of things.
Then you come over
to the light side
and you have Luke Skywalker
and the last remaining Jedi.
And you have all the goodness
and they're fighting for the good
and trying to save the universe.
And oftentimes in our stories
you see this picture
where you have the evil side
and the dark side
are equal and opposing forces
that are going against each other.
That's not what we see
in the text of Scripture
when it comes to spiritual warfare.
This is not dualism.
This is total domination.
This is God supreme
and Satan subordinate.
God as the ruler of all things,
demons subject to his rule.
And when the time comes
for Jesus to return,
these guys are done.
They're just done.
You get the revelation
and it's all over for them.
Because the day will come
when God says,
enough is enough.
We're moving forward
with Operation Christ Return.
And when that happens,
Scriptures already told us
that the God of peace
will soon crush Satan
under your feet.
And on that day,
whether rich or poor,
whether angel or demon,
whether lost or saved,
every knee shall bow
and every tongue confess
that Jesus Christ is Lord.
And our God will reign
as He always has
for the rest of eternity.
And demons,
they come into contact with Jesus
and they know the authority
that Jesus has.
Verse 24 saying,
What business do we have
with each other,
Jesus of Nazareth?
Have you come to destroy us?
And the demon recognizes
Jesus' authority
and His ultimate ability
to destruct
in the spiritual realm.
This demon recognizes
that Jesus has the power,
if He wanted to,
to destroy Him.
And if that's not enough,
he further declares,
I know who you are,
the Holy One of God.
And I love the fact,
and hopefully you'll get this with me,
but I love the fact that demons,
every ounce that is within them,
they hate and loathe
everything about Jesus.
And yet at the same time,
they have no,
they are powerless
to do anything apart
from His sovereign authority,
His sovereign command.
It's just amazing.
It's good to be on Team Jesus.
It's good to be
on this side of the cross
and to be able to see
the power and the authority
that He has.
Satan can do nothing
in this world.
The minions,
His minions can do
nothing in this world to you
apart from God's divine authority
and apart from what God says
that they can do.
Satan is a lion,
according to 1 Peter 5,
but he is a lion
that is on a leash.
And the leash is being held
by the Son of God
who takes away
the sins of the world.
It would be one thing
if this just happened one time,
but it doesn't.
This happens over and over
and over again
where Jesus encounters demons
and spiritual warfare
and over and over
and over again
they submit to His authority.
I can't help but see
a contrast here.
I want you to think
about this with me.
Demons have fear
because of their belief.
They know who Jesus is
and they're scared
out of their minds.
They believe in
and know that Jesus
has authority
and that's why they're scared.
But we're the opposite.
Oftentimes, not always,
but oftentimes we fear
because of our disbelief.
And if we could only realize
what the demons realize
about Jesus,
then we can experience
security
and understand
that we have no reason
to fear.
He is the Son of God
who takes away
the sin of the world.
He came to us.
He walked among us.
He ate and drank
like we do.
He had a power over disease.
He had a power over nature.
And ultimately,
He sacrificed Himself
on the cross
so that we can come
into communion.
We can have a relationship
with Him.
And that same God
is holding us
and we can feel safe
and secure
in His arms.
You know,
this kind of reminds me
of this whole concept
of us not really
having that faith
in Christ.
It reminds me
of when He was
with His disciples
and they were out
on a boat
and the storm came
and the waves were rising
and the wind
was coming up upon them.
And Jesus was asleep
in the boat
as you recall.
And the disciples,
they are just rightfully
just like out of their minds
scared.
They're just scared
out of their minds.
And Jesus wakens
and He calms the sea.
He rebukes the wind
and the waves
and says,
Be calm.
And immediately,
nature calms
when He speaks.
And then,
He rebukes the disciples
and says,
O ye of little faith,
there's been a time
in my life
when I've been scared
out of my mind
just like the disciples.
It was on Palm Sunday,
1994.
My brother was there
with me.
My brother's sitting
in the back
and his family
and my dad
and they're all here.
It's good to have them
here this morning
with us.
If you disbelieve
anything about this story,
go and talk to my brother
afterwards
because he was there.
It was me and my brother
and my mom
were at home.
Anybody remember 1994?
Anybody from Lumpkin County
remember what happened
in 1994
on Palm Sunday?
Maybe not.
Craig remembers.
Okay.
That day,
Lumpkin County
was ravaged
by a series of tornadoes.
Our house
was the first
of the tornadoes
to come through.
We were eating
a late lunch that day
and we usually
ate around noon
but we were eating
more like 2 o'clock
that day,
I believe.
and we were
finishing up with lunch.
We had observed
all throughout the day
how strange
the weather was.
It was just
a weird weather day.
We saw the clouds
racing and sometimes
they were kind of
colliding into each other
which by the way,
if you see that,
it's time to get
to the basement
because,
I mean,
that's a good sign
that there's tornado
weather coming.
And we even made
the comment that day
that hey,
this looks like
a lot like tornado weather.
just to give you
kind of a picture
of how weird things were,
there's a cloud
we observed that day.
There's a cloud
up in the sky
that just had
lightning just
surging through it.
It was like
unending lightning
just surging
through this cloud.
Never seen anything
like it before
in my life.
So we already knew
how strange
the weather was
that day
and so Craig
goes out on the porch
and out into our yard
just kind of observing
the weather
one more time
and we'd already
been out there
several times
but he went out there again
and he's kind of
looking over to the east
and kind of
looking up to the clouds
just kind of,
man,
this is so strange
and he looks
toward the west
to our next door
neighbor's house
and there was a tornado
just standing there
moving toward us
and beginning to rip apart
our next door neighbor's house.
Now,
I want you to know that
because you need to know
why my brother
was acting
the way that he was.
He's not normally
scared of a lot of
things but he came
bolting in the house
yelling at the top
of his lungs
get down to the basement
everybody get down
to the basement
and so he and I
it was the three of us
in the house at the time
it was my mom
me and my brother
and my dad was
somewhere else
serving in the community
but the three of us
were there
and so Craig and I
just bolt down
and we get to the bottom
of the basement
and we're standing there
looking at each other
where's mom?
Mom was not down there yet.
I don't know how
she could have missed
him yelling
get down to the basement
but somehow she did
and apparently we found
out later that she
was upstairs
turning lights off
and closing the garage
door while a tornado
was barreling
towards our house.
So,
we get up to the top
of the stairs
and we said
mom get downstairs
and we get down there
and by the time
that we got to the basement
we're sitting
on the basement floor
we're kind of
in a triangle
huddled together
we start to see
the effects
of this thing.
I didn't see
the tornado
personally
my brother did
and so
this is how
is it okay
if I tell them
how you're reacting?
So,
he's going
oh no
look at the trees
let me tell you
what the trees
were doing
the trees
would be sucked
toward the tornado
they'd be blown over
and then they'd suck
back and just
snap off
I'm talking about
big trees
just snapping off
and flying away
I've never seen
power like this
before in my life
just sheer power
of wind
and he's going
oh no
look at the trees
oh no
look at the
look there goes
the fence
and I mean
he was just
like we're observing
everything
we're looking
out the windows
seeing everything
that's going on
it is utter chaos
mom's to my right
and she's going
it's going to be okay
and then Mr. Future Preacher
man I'm over here
in my corner
of the triangle
going let's pray
let's pray
and finally
I said
let's pray
now
and I just began
to spill out words
out of my mouth
I don't remember
everything
that I prayed
but I remember
specifically asking
that God would place
a dome of protection
over our family
and over our house
after I got done
praying
Craig prayed
and mom prayed
and by that time
the tornado
had moved on
and we could see
outside
that there was
no more wind
at least there
were no more
effects of the wind
at the time
so we thought
well hey
we're okay
right now
at least we're alive
and we're very grateful
and thankful for that
we walked up
the steps
from our basement
our basement door
kind of opens up
into the foyer area
of our house
and we saw that
for the most part
our house is intact
and we're grateful
again
all over again
that we didn't know
what we were going to see
when we went up
to the next floor
we had no idea
if we had a house
above us
or if we had a roof
above us
or if there was
anything there
but we're grateful
that at least
our house was intact
so we walked
out our front door
and we looked
to the west
to that house
that Craig saw
with a tornado
hitting it
at that time
and it's leveled
all but one wall
the only one wall
was left standing
in that house
and we realized
how fortunate
we were at the time
it wasn't until
a couple weeks later
when somebody
came into my dad's pharmacy
and told him
what they saw
that we realized
the gravity
of what happened
that day
because they said
when I saw it
coming through
your neighborhood
I saw the tornado
split into two
different funnels
it's a phenomenon
that they call
the double vortex tornado
and they'll split
into two different funnels
there's a funnel
there's damage
on the back side
of our house
in the backyard
there's damage
to the lot
across from us
now there were
some damage
to our house
but structurally
speaking
it stands today
like it stood
before the tornado
structurally speaking
it was pretty sound
and the only way
to explain it
is that the God
who can calm
the wind
and the waves
place a dome of protection
over our house
and he is sovereign
there is nothing
that we should fear
and let me tell you
something
even if we had
died that day
our eternal security
rests in Christ Jesus
so either way
no matter what
had happened that day
we were secure
in him
so whom shall we fear
Paul puts it this way
he says
for I am convinced
that neither
death nor life
nor angels
nor demons
neither the present
nor the future
nor any powers
neither height
nor depth
nor anything else
in all of creation
will be able
to separate us
from the love
that is in
Christ Jesus
our Lord
we have nothing
and no one
to fear
because Jesus
has all authority
last but not least
what we see
in this passage
and I want us
to see this clearly
is that Jesus'
authority
his sovereign
authority
leads us to
total allegiance
to him
I'm going to say that
again because
that's kind of wordy
I didn't know
how else to word it
but Jesus' sovereign
authority
leads us to
total allegiance
to him
this particular passage
is bookended
with the people's
amazement of Jesus
they were amazed
first by his teaching
and then at the end
of this passage
they were amazed
by his authority
over demons
this word amazed
here in the text
is a compound form
of the Greek verb
pleso
and what pleso means
it literally means
to strike
or to smite
and so we're
talking about
a very strong
word with
very strong
meaning here
so the picture
is here
is that
the people
weren't just
amazed
they were
dumbfounded
they were
astonished
they were
shocked
in other words
Jesus may have
caused a few
jaws to drop
that day
what we know
for sure
and don't miss
this is that
people who were
there that day
were compelled
to go and
spread the news
about him
all over the
region of Galilee
you see one
thing Jesus
never had to
do was to
beg people
for followers
or to follow
him
he never had
to beg
people to
spread the
news about
him
he was just
amazing
he amazed
people
and in their
amazement
of Jesus
they went
out and
they shared
the truth
about him
the good
news
about him
last week
we saw him
approach four
fishermen
he said
follow me
there's no
begging
there's no
pleading
he just said
follow me
and it says
they immediately
dropped their
nets and
followed him
the picture is
the same
this week
Jesus didn't
ask him
people to
spread the
word about
him
they just
do it
out of
their
amazement
their
amazement
led them
to action
and those
followers
told other
followers
and those
followers
told other
followers
until Jesus
just has
these crowds
of people
who are
following him
around
everywhere
so brothers
and sisters
in here
this morning
I exhort
you
if Christ
has done
anything
amazing
in your
life
if you
are counted
among the
redeemed
then go
out and
share
what he
has done
for you
there are
plenty of
people all
over north
Georgia
and all
over the
state of
Georgia
and all
over the
United States
and to the
ends of
the earth
there are
people who
do not
yet know
Jesus
as their
Lord and
Savior
there is a
mission field
right here
where we are
in northeast
Georgia
so if you
are counted
among the
redeemed
it's time
that we
act as if
we're redeemed
and out of
the joy
that overflows
in us
through what
Christ has
done for us
it's time
that we go
and share
that with
our lost
people
to share
it with
our neighbors
to proclaim
it in your
workplace
to proclaim
him in your
schools
or on your
campuses
to proclaim
him to
the nations
he is
worthy
to be on
our minds
he is
worthy
to be
the topic
of our
conversations
more than
football
and more
than TV
shows
and more
than politics
he is
worthy
Jesus
is worthy
may his
name be
glorified
as we go
out from
here
and as we
go into
our communities
and we go
to the various
spheres of
influence that
we have
may his
name
increase
because of
our
amazement
in him
and because
we are
willing
to share
the gospel
with a
lost
and dying
world
let's pray
together