The Impression of the Gospel

Transcript

This transcript was generated automatically from the audio and may contain small errors.

And we're going to start in verse 14. We're going to read that in just a minute. But before that, I want you to think about a puzzle. Some of you may enjoy puzzles. I have a couple of kids that really enjoy puzzles. I also really enjoy puzzles, so we kind of nerd out. And, you know, when all the pieces are down there, you're like, oh, you're just, you're so excited if you are a puzzle nerd, you are so excited because you just can't wait to see what that finished product is going to look like and you love, you start grouping the pieces by color and all that. Anyway, it's great. I'm going to just completely go nuts over it if I keep talking about it. But, one thing about a puzzle is that there is nothing worse than losing one piece to a puzzle. You talk about ruining the whole day. You put together of this whole big giant puzzle and you're frustrated because now one's missing.

And if you're a neat nick like me, you want that last piece. The last piece has to go in there. Something that when you kind of look at a puzzle, and it's kind of obvious to say, but I think when you look at a puzzle, you understand the very nature of a puzzle is that it's interlocking. All the pieces depend on one another. that if you change one, if you change that one piece, let's say you turn one piece like the wrong way and you had to make everything else fit, well then you would have to actually go out and change all the rest of the pieces because they all, when you change one piece, you really change the, the, how the whole puzzle locks together. When it comes to the gospel, and this is our last week on our series about the gospel, when it comes to the gospel, I hope that you have understood as as we've gone through these last seven weeks, that these are more than just

interesting facts about the gospel. Rather, they are interlocking pieces. They work together. That if the person, the message, the method, the life, the veil, the faith of the gospel, all of those things work together. And if you adjust one of them or kind of misrepresent one of them. It really does change all of them. So to get you thinking about that, I want you to consider,

I don't know if you guys are Sam's Club shoppers or Costco shoppers, I'm not sure. I think our families are both shoppers. That's right, we doubled it. We cannot get enough bulk, we just can't. So when you go into Sam's, I know this is true for Sam's, this might not be true for Costco, but I know it's true for Sam's, pre-pandemic, you walk in and there are these two guys, or a guy and a girl, or two people, and you know what they're there for. They're there to sell you cable, or internet, or bundle, or phone, or something, right? They're trying to sell you something. And they're, I mean, they are like carnival barkers, man. They are there and they're just like, I see you, and they'll just start talking, man, man. And they're just, I mean, begging people to stop and listen to them. And my wife, who absolutely hates all of that and hates confrontation, has like stock answers

like memorized in her head, right? Like I can't recall all of them right this second, but they're very good, very solid, and it's like, hey, leave me alone. I got everything I need. Leave me alone. Which is great. So those guys are kind of, it's a hard sell, right? It's like right when you walk in, man, you see their shoulders kind of turn to you and you're going, oh. And I don't even mind that. I like talking to people. I'm a pretty big extrovert and I don't even like it. You know, it's just this, ugh, it's just hard. It's hard to just reject people flat out like that. It's just difficult. Okay, I want you to think about what if, what if that, that whole scene I just described, what if that were the primary method of the gospel going out? What if it were not disciples making disciples in relationships? What if it didn't have anything to do with that? What if the primary way the gospel went out was street preacher standing on the corner,

Jesus says from hell, yelling at people as they go by? What if that were the primary method of the gospel going out? Well, I would tell you, if that were the primary method, it would change everything else. The person of the gospel, Jesus Christ, would feel like a carnival marker or a peddler. The message of the gospel would feel like a scam, like you're trying to get me to buy something that I normally wouldn't buy. The life of the gospel then would be made trivial. The veil of the gospel would really only be bait and switch. The faith of the gospel then would become a transaction. If you change the method, you change the rest. I'm going to do it with one more example. What if the life of the gospel, so we talked about the life of the gospel being like sacrificing, serving, suffering and dying on behalf of other people. This is the life that the gospel calls us to live.

sacrificial life. Instead, what if we changed it out? What if we said that the life of the gospel was supposed to be pain-free? So, American dream. What if the life of the gospel was supposed to be pain-free? Well, the person of the gospel would be a savior, but not a teacher, and definitely not a Lord. The message of the gospel would comfort, but it would never convict. The method of the The gospel would focus on convenience. What's easy for people? What's pain-free? The veil of the gospel would make no sense at all. There's no reason to do that. It only causes unnecessary pain. And the faith of the gospel would be equivalent to paying off God. I'll believe in you if you make my life pain-free. If you change the life of the gospel, you change it all. Everything changes in concert. They all work together. If we are going to be people of the gospel, people who understand the gospel, live it,

then what we believe matters. And not just what we believe about the message, but what we believe about all of it. And so, one last time, one last time, as we go through the gospel series, let's talk about these different parts of the gospel. But primarily the gospel is a person, It's Jesus Christ, the risen one. It's our Lord, our savior. We know the gospel through our relationship with a person.

The message of the gospel is both the gospel for us, so Jesus died in our place, and it is a kingdom gospel message that Jesus is ushering in a worldwide kingdom that is breaking in slowly but surely. The method of the gospel breaking in becoming a reality is making disciples. Jesus had no use for billboards or megaphones. Jesus made disciples. He invested in a few people. The life of the gospel, again, serving, suffering, and dying on behalf of other people, Mark 10:45, the Son of Man came not to serve, but to be, excuse me, not to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many. I knew I'd mess that up. The The veil of the gospel is that Jesus is looking for true seekers, so he hides the gospel in plain sight. The faith of the gospel is a bold, active faith. It takes belief, courage, and urgency. The faith of the gospel is not armchair faith.

It's not, when we get to sit back, we must act. These are the components of the gospel. person, the message, the method, the life, the veil, and the faith of the gospel. These aren't just interesting facts. They're not like random lists. It's things that interlock, that work together, that form the whole. And so to end our series on the gospel, I want to turn to the impression of the gospel, the impression of the gospel. I realize this might seem odd to talk about the impression that the gospel gives. But I wanna say that how people, inside and outside of faith, how people perceive the gospel, how they see the gospel, matters a great deal. Now, I understand, let me be clear, the actual content of the gospel, the makeup of the gospel matters much more than the impression it gives, and we've given seven weeks to it, okay? So seven weeks to all the actual content and one week to the impression.

We do need to take a second and look at how people see the gospel, the impression that it gives, because it will determine how they apply it. How someone sees something will determine how they use it or how they live it out. I was helping a friend move one time, Dan, it wasn't you. I was helping a friend move one time and at one point, there were these two couches And there was a picture frame that was wedged in between them. And we were trying to see if we could get more stuff in there, as you do when you're moving. And so I thought that a picture frame would make a good lever. So I'm pushing on the picture frame to separate the couches more. Don't use a picture frame as a lever. That's all I can say about that. It's a bad idea. Seems great in the moment. But it's a terrible idea. I did not fully realize the problem of using a picture frame as a lever. I misunderstood the nature and the makeup of a picture frame.

It does not make a good lever at all. If we misunderstand the gospel, then we are gonna use it in ways that it was never intended to be used. We're gonna apply it in ways that are foreign to the gospel, or we're not gonna apply it when we do need to apply it. We need to understand the gospel. We need our impression of the gospel needs to be on so that we know when and how to apply it. If you are in the middle of a trial, for example, like you're going through something tough and you misunderstand the gospel, you believe the gospel is just supposed to remove you from trials, then listen, you are going to pray for God to remove you from that trial. And then that's all you're going to pray for. You're actually not going to seek what God is telling you in the midst of the trial. You're just going to wish it over. Right? So when you understand, when you misunderstand the gospel, you are, it's going to change how you pray.

It's going to change how you look at whatever's in front of you. If you are dealing with depression, another example, and you misunderstand the gospel, you believe that the gospel is only supposed to make you happy. Well then, when you're depressed, you are not happy. Or if you're bipolar, you're happy and then you're depressed, and then you're happy and then you're depressed. What will happen is if you believe that, if you misunderstand the gospel that way, then you will actually blame yourself for not being happy. You will blame yourself for being depressed and you will feel really terrible. And you will ask for forgiveness. You will say, oh God, forgive me for not being happy. But you will not, what you will not do is you will not engage the spiritual battle right in front of you. You will not understand that you are supposed to fight through this in community.

But if you believe that the gospel is only there to make you happy, then you won't reach out. You'll be ashamed. You won't reach out to people. You won't say like, oh, I'm, hey, I know the gospel is supposed to make me happy, but I'm not happy right now. And I don't really know what to do. That won't leave your lips because you will be ashamed, because you have misunderstood the gospel. As we open to Mark 8, we will see that the disciples have a similar level of misunderstanding, that they are something they're not seeing. We're going to start in verse 14. They're something that they're not seeing, something that they are kind of misapplying, misappropriating, they have a different impression of the gospel. They're not getting it. And it's kind of a funny episode. We're going to do 14 through 21, and I'm just going to interlude with a couple of thoughts. So I'm going to read Mark 8, excuse me, Mark 8, 14 through 21.

Now, they had forgotten to bring bread, and they had only one loaf with them in the boat. This is the disciples in the boat. They forgot to bring a bunch of bread. And he, Jesus, cautioned them saying, watch out, beware the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod. And they began discussing with one another the fact that they had no bread. So Jesus, if you can imagine, he's like, hey, hey, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod.

And they're like, oh, we forgot to bring bread. Like crickets, right? Jesus is dropping something on them. And they are just, I mean, missing it, right? Adventures in missing the point. I say Pharisees, you say bread. What? Why? What's going on? So they miss it. Jesus continues. Glory. Verse 17, and Jesus, aware of this, said to them, why are you discussing the fact that you have no bread? Do you not yet perceive or understand? Are your hearts hardened? Having eyes, do you not see? having ears, do you not hear and do you not remember? Okay, pause. You get the impression that Jesus is frustrated.

It's not really hard to read into it to see that Jesus is going, Come on, I just gave you all that. You don't get it? So then Jesus actually gets more to the point starting in verse 19. It says, When I broke five loaves, so the 5,000, how many baskets full of broken pieces did you take up?" And they said, 12. And the seven for the 4,000, how many baskets full of broken pieces did you take up? And they said, seven. And he said, do you not yet understand? Almost incredulously, almost just, come on guys, are you not understanding this? So he recounts two miracles with them and says, you still don't see it? This is like me when I asked my wife, hey, where's my heavy coat? And I have the coat closet open And I'm looking right at it, but I just can't see it." She goes, it's right in front of you. I said, I can't see it. The interpretation is it's not jumping out and biting me in the face.

I can't see it. And so when we had that exchange, my wife, in exasperation, says, you still can't find it? This is Jesus with the disciples. Hey, remember when I fed 9,000 people? You remember that? No? Oh, OK. This isn't clicking? It's a very odd situation. What's even more odd is that Mark, the gospel writer, doesn't resolve that question. He doesn't even, there's actually no more commentary on that episode, it just stops. Verse 22, it just says, and they came to Beth's data. It's a very weird thing, okay? So Mark moves the story along quickly, but you can tell and we'll find out, He hasn't forgotten it. That the next story that's coming up is a very odd story and it's going to get our attention. Let's keep going. Because in the next verse in 22, they came to Bethsaida, people brought a blind man to him, and then we're going to pick it up in verse 23 through 25.

It says, Jesus took the blind man by the hand and let him out of the village. And when he had spit on his eyes and laid hands on him, he asked, do you see anything? So Jesus literally spits on his eyes, lays his hands on him and says, do you see anything? Typically, this is the end of the miracle. Typically, and when I say typically, I mean 99.9% of the miracles that are in the New Testament. I mean that this is the only time that something like this happens and it's in Mark 8, 23 through 25. So typically that's the end, but it keeps going. verse 24, and the blind man looked up and said, I see people, but they look like trees walking. And then Jesus laid his hands on his eyes again, and he opened his eyes, his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly. Okay. This is the only time that Jesus does this. This is the only time it ever happens. And before,

you know, before we started explaining it like Jesus, you know, he had a hitch in his giddy up, or he wasn't powerful enough, or the man didn't have enough faith, we have no indicators of that in the actual Scripture here. The man's faith seems fine. He seems like he believes, like he's ready to go. And yet, Jesus draws this miracle out into stages. Why? It's curious. And it's actually curious for two reasons. Number one, it's curious because Jesus does it at all. That he's the Lord of heaven and earth, and he can, I mean, he could have, look, just to put it in perspective, in other places in Mark, he told someone that their daughter was healed when they weren't even, like the daughter wasn't even around. Jesus didn't need to spit, touch, taste, nothing. He just said, oh, your daughter's healed. I did that remotely, okay? So look, let's not start to try to understand

that a different way, like Jesus had to do it had to follow a certain formula. It's not there. It's curious. Jesus then is laying this miracle out in two stages and it's curious. The second reason it's curious is because Mark recounts this miracle slowly. Other places in the gospel of Mark, I mean, literally in Mark 2 it says, And Jesus healed a ton of people. He went to the countryside, tons of people came, and Jesus healed them. The end. And he kind of moves on to the next story. So we need to understand that the gospel writer is actually slowing down on this story for a reason. So it's curious that Jesus does it. It's curious that Mark slows down for it. It's something that we probably need to go, oh, okay, there's something being highlighted here. There's something happening. And I believe that we will find out why that is happening as we look at the stories that happen immediately before it and immediately after it.

The story is immediately before and immediately after. The story before is what we just read about Jesus and the disciples in the boat. And remember, it ended very abruptly and the disciples aren't getting it. Okay. And remember, Jesus asks in frustration in verse 18, Jesus says, having eyes, do you not see? And then we get this interaction with a literal blind man who can't see in two stages. He can't see. So the story before has something to do with it. The story after also has something to do with it. And the story afterward is what I want to look at right now, because it's also about Jesus and the disciples. And it starts in verse 27. Mark 8, 27 through 29a, we're going to kind of stop before the verse is done. It says, And Jesus went on with his disciples to the villages of Caesarea Philippi. And on the way, he asked his disciples, who do people say that I am? And they told him, John the Baptist,

another say Elijah, and others, one of the prophets. And he asked them, But who do you say that I am? Okay, stop. I want you to notice Just like the blind man There is a two-stage process with what Jesus is doing here. He gives them two questions The first one is who do people say that I am and the second one's really similar But it's who do you say that I am those are two very different questions. I want to look at both of. When somebody says, when Jesus says this to the disciples, who do people say that I am? This is a very general question. It's a very disarming kind of question. It's like asking, what do people do on Saturdays? Well, I don't know. I mean, you're talking about what's popular at that point. You're talking about like what normally happens in the course of life. And so whatever Jesus says, Who do people say that I am? Their answers are very unsurprising.

John the Baptist, Elijah, one of the prophets, this is very common to the day that a good Jew is gonna be looking for another prophet like Moses. We're talking about that in Deuteronomy. Or another prophet to come in the spirit and power of Elijah. That's also kind of prophesied in the Old Testament. And these are revealing answers, but there's no personal cost. There's no vulnerability involved. They're just answering the question generally.

And you can see the change whenever he says, who do you say that I am? There's a big change from third person to second person. So it's not what do people think? What do most people do? What is it? What's common or what's normal? He's asking them in this second question to be vulnerable with him. He's asking them, what do you think? You have all the relevant facts. You have everything that's in front of you. Don't tell me the right answers. Jesus is saying, who do you say that I am?

He's not looking for right answers. And this mirrors what Jesus asked the blind man a few verses earlier. whenever he says, do you see anything? He spits on the blind man, puts his hands on the blind man, and then says, do you see anything? And then we have this, who do you say that I am? Jesus is asking the blind man and the disciples, what do you see? Do you see anything? What do you make of it? What's in front of you? You have the relevant facts, tell me what your impression is. I'm not looking for the right answers. I mean, as the joke goes, you know, it's a long time ago in Sunday school, and the teacher says, okay, what's brown, lives in trees, and stores up acorns for the winter. And a little boy raises his hand and says, that sounds a lot like a squirrel, but just to be safe, I'm going to say Jesus. Okay, it's the safe answer, all right? The safe answer, like, look, I get it, man.

I get it, you know, we're in a church service. You know, the right answer is Jesus, okay? There's a lot of right answers that we can kind of rally around. And it's good. They're right answers for a reason. Okay, they're right. But that's not exactly what we're talking about here. This is Jesus really trying to poke through all of those right answers that we want to just, you know, put out there and say, what do you think? Do you see anything? What is your perspective? And how many times in our lives do we face something very similar. How many times are we faced with something traumatic? With the cancer diagnosis, with the brain tumor diagnosis, with the job loss, with the loss of a loved one. How many times are we faced with that? And then the Holy Spirit's inside of us going, okay, do you see anything? Do you see it? Do you see what I'm doing through this.

Do you see what this is for? Do you see anything? How many times do we face temptation, struggle, pain, and working to breaks in habits and the highs and the lows and the throws of all of that and the Holy Spirit's inside of us going, do you see anything? Do you see what I'm doing? Do you see what's at work? There's an example of this. It's a great example in scripture. James chapter 1 verses 2 through 4. It says, Can it all draw my brothers when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness and lets that fastness have its full effect that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. Sometimes whenever this verse gets kind of trotted out there, it's, it's, it's kind of made to be a glossing over of what you're really going through. So like just put a smile on, even though you're going through something really terrible,

Just put a smile on it. That's not, that's not what I believe is going on. I believe that the Holy Spirit uses this passage and points to us and says, I know that this trial is painful. Otherwise it wouldn't be called a trial. Okay. It'd be called a vacation. I know this trial was painful, but do you see anything? Do you see the steadfastness that I'm building in you? Do you, do you, do you feel the perfection that is happening in your soul? Do you see that? Or do you only see the pain? Or do you only see the loss? Or do you only see the frustration? Because when you do it, verse 2, when you do it, joy will come. What is your impression, not just of the gospel, but what is your impression of how it applies to all of your life? It is good to know the gospel truth. It is better to apply it. It is good to know the truth. Not knowing the truth is a bad place to be in, okay?

But you still can know the truth and not apply it. Because you will, you will go through difficult seasons. Some of you are in a difficult season right now. It would not surprise me. I know many people that are going through something really tough. You are going to deal with tremendous disappointment. You're going to have to deal with like refocusing your whole life on something different. You're going to have to give up a dream. It's going to hurt. And when you deal with that, your flesh will want to look at the pain, the loss, the despair, all of it, and just say, oh, I am crushed under the weight of all this. I don't even know what to do next. And the temptation then is to give into that despair and just say, Oh, I'm so frustrated. However, we must, we must have an impression of the gospel that allows us to apply the gospel right then and there.

In the middle of pain, in the middle of frustration, we apply the gospel because we know it and we rehearse it. We know the truth and we rehearse it. We've said it a lot. You are what you meditate on. You become what you rehearse. So some of us, some of the worst things we have going on are these old memories, just that keep replaying in our mind, that tell us that we're not good enough, that we'll never amount to anything, that our lives are a waste, that we're a waste of space, right? All these really super toxic things that play in the back of our mind and we rehearse them. We give them power, we give them life because we rehearse them, we believe them. What we have in the gospel is not just a mind trick. What we have in the gospel is the reality, the truth that is sometimes difficult to ascertain. It's difficult to get the impression of, but the truth is that he who began a good work

in you will be faithful to complete it until the day of Jesus Christ. That's Philippians 1, 6. And just taking that one promise, think about that, that he who began a good work in you, the one who said, okay, you, okay, I'm going to pick you and I'm going to do a good work in you. And then I'm going to finish it. Well, that has nothing to do with you or your abilities. And that has everything to do with the Holy Spirit working something in you. We talk about the explore phase, like I talked before, whenever we were doing announcements. Look, there are people that are exploring the faith, but please don't get the impression that they are somehow in the driver's seat, okay? They're exploring, sure, but the Lord is the one that is in this knock on the door of their heart. The Lord is the one that is convicting them of sin. The Lord is one that's saying, look, you need a relationship with me

and maybe you haven't done that. When we rehearse the truth that God is at work in us, when we rehearse that truth, it changes. everything. And that's only one promise. This is full of them, full of promises that are all yes and amen in Jesus Christ. So if all of these promises pertain to us, then it's not a matter of liking it. It's not a matter of thinking that they sound nice or they nod or they stitch on a pillow or nod or they're on a bumper stick or not, it matters if you know them and if you apply them. Rehearsing the truth, knowing and rehearsing the truth, you are what you meditate on, you become what you rehearse. So much of what you do with the gospel depends on how you see it. So how do you see the gospel? I'm going to give you three options. Well, I'm going to give you three bad options. How's that? These are some ways that people see the gospel.

Some see the gospel as hell insurance. It's like a hell insurance card, right? You sign up for it one time and it's good for life. You just sign up for it once, maybe one time at camp, maybe one worship service, maybe one revival a long time go that that day you felt really bad. However, the gospel of Jesus says that He is leading a movement of disciples who follow Him, people that are devoted to Him, that live for Him, that make disciples for Him. The gospel is way more than hell insurance. The gospel is following Jesus in every sense of that word follow. And it doesn't mean perfection. It means that your heart's changed, that in your heart you want to follow. So the gospel is hell insurance. Also the gospel as moral inspiration. And this is one that man, I tell you, this is the religion of Burleson, okay? The gospel as moral inspiration. Basically, you try really hard for Jesus, okay?

You try really hard because you're a good person and you want to reflect well on Jesus. And so all these are great intentions, right? So you want to be good, you want to show other people that Jesus is good, so you try to be really good. And so you try really hard and it probably makes you a really hard worker and really responsible. Again, those are fine attributes in a person. Those are virtuous. However, the gospel of Jesus says that he gives you Holy Spirit power right now to accomplish what he wants to do in you. And this is precisely because you are unable to do it on your own. Okay. So listen, I know it's real popular to just say like, Hey, you know, Jesus positive vibes, okay. Like it's going to be, we just have, we just have to have a good mindset and everything's going to be okay. No, no, that's actually not true. That's like a really modern way to spin. Let's all try really hard to stay

positive and be like Jesus. Jesus wants you to be like Jesus more than you could ever want to be like Jesus. And Jesus has given you the Holy Spirit to accomplish that. And that is the only way that you can accomplish that, is by allowing the Holy Spirit to work in you. It's giving up. It's not trying harder. It's giving up. The Gospel, Ephesians 2:10, the Gospel says that Jesus has laid out, planned out good works for you to do, so that you will walk in them. It's not your plan. It's not your life, not your dream, not your goals. No, no, it is God laying out your life and saying, walk in it. I'm not only gonna plan it out, I'm gonna give you the power to do it. And then I'm gonna applaud as you go. Like, it's gonna be great.

Still, we just boil it down to moral inspiration. So we're just, okay guys, let's stay positive. be great. Let's stay positive for Jesus. Lastly, the gospel is extra. The gospel is extra. And this is, this again, this is what people believe. Hell insurance, moral inspiration, extra. That the gospel is something that you just tack on to the rest of whatever set of hopes and dreams you have. So whatever version of the American dream that you have, you just kind of tack Jesus onto that And you say, okay, this is my life plan and Jesus wants to help me accomplish it. I can do all things to Christ who strengthens me. Okay? Right? So they're going to say, okay, I can do all things to Christ who strengthens me. That means it's my life, my plan, my dreams, and Jesus is in my corner and he just wants me to accomplish my own ambition. It's like we think that Christianity or growing in Jesus is like walking up to this really big

buffet of good things and we just get to pick all these good things that are going to be part of our life and then just kind of go. But the reality is that we are assigned to those things. The reality, the gospel of Jesus says that you have to lose your life to find it. The gospel of Jesus says, all those dreams and hopes and ambitions you have, look, that's great. I'm not saying the Lord won't accomplish any of that. What I am saying though, is that what I know for sure is that Romans 12 is true, where he says to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God. This is worship. Worship's not a song in a church building. Worship is sacrificing your life. And that's very different than the gospel as extra. Jesus requires nothing less than everything, everything to follow Him.

Not whatever plans you have. And so again, the gospel then, it's a puzzle, right? It's like putting a puzzle together. And for many of us, for many of us, particularly in Berlison, but I mean, even here in this room, We have this puzzle, maybe we have some edge pieces out and maybe we have a couple of corners filled in. We got some colors grouped over here and over here. We've got a good plan, but we are missing the middle.

We're missing the middle of the gospel. We're missing the point. We got pieces and we cannot see it. We don't have a clearer picture. We can't behold it. We talk often about the gospel being this multi-faceted diamond, just so rich and so beautiful. and you think you've seen it all and then you just turn it just a little bit and there's so much more to see, right? That it's so beautiful to behold. So many of us are kind of working with this really, it's like a pretty outline of a diamond, but there's nothing in the middle. We just can't make it out. So today, today as we sing, I want to challenge you to see it all. I want you to see the gospel exactly as it is. I want you to see that it's the only truth that sets us free. I want you to see that it's the only way to live. It's the only life worth living. It's the only way for us to have a personal relationship, one-on-one, with the living God, the creator of the universe.

It's the only way. That's how I want to leave us with this part. It's the very last part of the story, actually. It's in Mark 829. So the disciples, like the blind man, finally begin to see. So Mark 829, I'll read the whole verse. And he asked them, but who do you say that I am? And Peter answered him, you are the Christ. You are the Christ. You're the Messiah. You're the promised one. You're the one that we grew up hearing about, Peterson. And so I just want to leave you with that. It's... Look, you can answer who people say Jesus is all day long until you're blue in the face. But I really want to pose the question to you. Who do you say he is? When you look at your life, not your words, but your actions. What do your actions say about who Jesus is? Do you see and believe the gospel in all of that clarity? And if you're like me, when I see it all, I mean, I'm just undone.

I'm just brought to my knees. I mean, there's no way, right? Like, I can't measure up to that. And that's not what I'm asking you to do either. The next step in understanding, like, when you are convicted, that you don't understand that, that you have a huge hole in the middle. It's to admit it, it's to repent of that. It's to start to begin to walk in the wholeness that Jesus has for you. You cannot do that unless you're willing to be vulnerable to Him. Today, during our invitation time, as Dan comes and plays, I want you to understand just this whole time is going to be a time of reflection and invitation, I'm going to be up here or down here, I guess. I'm going to be down here, mask on, ready to roll. And if you want to take a step, if you want to understand what it is for you to follow Jesus and where he's calling you to go, I want you to come up and see me.

Maybe that's joining the church. Maybe that's just having somebody to confess to and pray with, And that's cool. Maybe that's being baptized. Whatever that is, you can come up here and I can help you take that next step. And so as we come to our time of singing, let's pray. Jesus, we ask for you to help us. We ask for you to guide us. Pray that as we sing, that we give you our all.

It's your name that we pray, amen. Every song you've ever seen