The Intensity of the Passion

Transcript

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

Looking at you and trying to, like, what's he doing? Why is he doing this? It goes on to 16 and 17. And he would not allow anyone to carry anything through the temple, and he was teaching them. Good morning. In December of 2003, there was a special Christmas concert in Vatican City. All of the highest ranking Catholic officials were in attendance and performing that night was Lauren Hill. Now Lauren Hill at the time was one of the biggest names in R&B and hip-hop. She was winning award after award. She was much sought after. And at this particular concert there were 7,000 plus Catholic officials, their families, their friends. All of them were in attendance to hear her Christmas concert. It was great anticipation for what she was going to do. How would she approach these similar, these familiar songs? And that anticipation, that giddiness that the crowd was feeling is very

similar to what we find as we open to Mark chapter 11. This is traditionally known as the triumphal entry. And this is our series, this is the second week in our series called The Passion, where we are following Jesus's journey from the disciples' confession that He's the Christ in Mark 829 all the way to the resurrection. It's a span of roughly two to three, maybe even four to six months. So last week we looked at Jesus's delivery changing. In Mark 8, 9, and 10, he goes from veiling the gospel to throwing the doors open. He's discussing his resurrection directly, and he lays out two paths for people to follow directly. It says he's either follow me or be cast into hell. Jesus is not mincing words, he's being very direct. And this week we embark upon the triumphal entry and despite all of this direct discussion that Jesus is having, despite biting remarks, despite being supremely

clear, Jesus is more popular than ever. And on his way to Jerusalem there are throngs of people waiting for him with great anticipation, Giddiness even for what he was going to say and do and when they see him coming the crowd is Ecstatic they are throwing their cloaks down for him to walk on they're throwing palm branches down And they're quoting the Old Testament like it says here mark 11 9 and 10 It says and those who went before and those who followed were shouting Hosanna Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David, Hosanna in the highest." They're quoting Psalm there. They're saying this guy is the Messiah. This is his coming out party. And really, if you've been reading the gospel all the way through, this is the moment that everyone has been waiting for. These are the crowds finally getting

their long-awaited Messiah. This is the disciples seeing all of their hopes realized and seeing Jesus accepted as the Messiah, as somebody that the disciples have long suspected and are finally seeing their, they're like, oh okay yeah we see it now they see it this is great. This is the height of Jesus's popularity and influence. However, this would all be very short-lived and to see how I want to finish the story of Lauryn Hill at the Vatican. Because with 7,000 people hoping for a beautiful Christmas concert, with all these Catholic officials and their families and their friends and everybody waiting for something beautiful, Lauryn Hill opens up by asking why everybody in here is not in mourning. opens up with a long speech where she expresses extreme disappointment in how they have led a sexual abuse scandal. All these families, all these children hurt.

And when she says all that, the crowd is bewildered. They're frustrated. They're mad, they feel tricked, they're in shock. And instead of cheering, many jeered, many walked out. Many yelled things back at her. And as they talked to the press about what happened, they're working to publicly shame Lauren Hill for what she did. And it turns out, as they interviewed Lauren Hill afterward, She accepted the invitation to go to the Vatican, specifically so that she could shame the Catholic Church.

And this is very similar to Jesus's arrival in Jerusalem. Because although everybody expected him to play the Messiah, Jesus's arrival is unexpectedly harsh, it's abrasive, and it surprises people. Look at verses 15 through 17 of Mark 11. It says, and they came to Jerusalem and he entered the temple and began to drive out those who sold and those who bought in the temple. And he overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons. So the temple in Jerusalem was an extremely popular place to be, it was very public. A lot of people did a lot of business in the temple. It would be like going into Target and lining up bonfire in the middle of the kids section or something strange like that, it's very weird, caught a lot of attention and surprised people a lot. We keep going in those verses, 16, and he would not allow anyone to carry anything through the temple.

And he was teaching them and saying to them, is it not written, my house shall be called the house of prayer for all the nations, but you have made it a den of robbers. So this is Jesus's first deliberate action. He's walking in, everybody's hailing him as the Messiah. What does he do first? He tears down stuff in the temple, he berates everyone, he makes a huge scene. And in response to this public display, the religious leaders began to turn up the heat. Jesus is cleansing the temple and they are responding. And when you look at the rest of Mark 11 and most of Mark 12, you see a string of challenges to Jesus's authority. They start in 11, they say, by what authority do you do these things? And they're saying, they come out of next, is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar or not? They ask him, which commandment is the most important of all? They're trying to get him.

They're trying to trap him in these questions that are set up to make him look dumb. And in a truly hilarious move, they contrived this whole situation where a woman is married to seven different men, all of whom have died. And they say in the resurrection, whose wife will she be? It's dumb, but they're trying to get Jesus. They're trying to make him look stupid. And each time each time all of that happens, Jesus answers them and the religious leaders look dumber and they are increasingly ready to kill him, to arrest him, to try him and kill him. And if if there is any question of the certainty of Jesus's death, if there's any religious leaders who are listening to all this and they're on the fence concerning Jesus's faith, then Jesus erases all them and he delivers his most abrasive blow. And we call this the parable of the tenants. Actually, the last parable that Jesus tells in the Gospel of Mark,

and it's the only parable he tells in the last half of Mark's gospel. So 9 through 11, what we're calling the passion, this is the only parable. And Jesus in the parable of the tenants, you know, tenants, you have tenant farmers, people that work a land that is not their own. So Jesus is speaking of tenants that are working a vineyard. And when the harvest time comes, the owner of the vineyard sends some servants and says, bring me back a little bit of the fruit. I want to taste it. I want to make sure everything's kind of going well. However, the workers don't want to share. The workers don't want to give him any samples. And so even though the owner is sending his servants, the tenants beat those servants at first. Then the tenants begin killing those servants. So you get the idea in the parable that the owner is sending servant after servant after servant, some are beaten, some are killed,

some are beaten, some are killed. And then finally, the owner sends his son. And the owner in the parable says to himself, surely they're going to listen to my son. But when the workers, when the tenants, when they see the son coming, they think to themselves like, oh, if we kill him, then we get the vineyard. Right? This is how crazy they are. And so because they think they're going to get the vineyard, the tenants kill the owner's son. And I don't think we need much interpretation on that parable. I think we kind of understand who that's for. But Jesus ends the parable this way. He says, what will the owner of the vineyard do? This is Mark 12:9, excuse me. Says, what will the owner of the vineyard do after they kill his son? He will come and destroy the tenants and give the vineyard to others. Jesus is not mincing words too much here. He's saying, you've had this vineyard for a while,

you're going to kill the owner's son and it will be to your detriment. There should be no question of who this parable is for, but just so the reader sees the bull's eye, we go down a few more verses in verse 12, and they, the religious leaders, were seeking to arrest him but fear the people, for they perceived that he had told the parable against them. The religious leaders listen to that parable and they know that Jesus is talking directly to them. And Jesus does not fear at all. He is going into a situation that's extremely hostile with all the religious leaders, and he gives them both barrels. He doesn't care. He's not intimidated. He's not pulling any punches here. He's giving them both barrels. And so just understand, I just want you to see, this is why I brought up the Lauryn Hill concert at all. Because when Jesus comes in here, I mean, he's coming in, they think he's a friend.

They think he's actually an entertainer. You have people that have preconceptions of who the Messiah should be, who Jesus should act like. And there's all this pressure to play Messiah according to their standard. And Jesus gives that no quarter. He shuts that down so hard and so fast that, you know, they're kind of rocked back by it. He's not interested in making people happy. He's not interested in meeting people's expectations here. He's coming on a mission. Jesus has a passion to fulfill, and this passion requires intensity. It requires sobriety. And so what Jesus does is He brings that intensity to wake people up. I can remember a time in my own life when I needed a little bit of this waking up, a little something like this. Things were not going my way. This is about midway through college for me. There was a girl that I thought I was going to marry, and she broke up with me, devastated.

My schoolwork, like my grades and my career, I was in radio at the time, both of those were in the toilet. I was doing terrible. I was having a bad life, and I started to get very sad about it all. And eventually I saw it counseling. And so I began to talk to this counselor, And then she began to kind of walk me through what repentance, deep repentance looks like. Where not just a little bit, but I'm looking back through my whole life, which at that point was 20 years. But still, it's a long time to me. I'm looking back through my whole life. All these different situations, I begin to ask forgiveness for those things. I'm kind of walking through, praying through each event, right? Now at first, she assigned me that work and I didn't really make it a priority. Like it's my first couple of days, you know, first couple of sessions and she begins telling me about that

and I'm like, okay, I mean, that sounds cool. Like it had appealed to me, but it wasn't the same as me making it a priority, you understand. So I came back for the next session and with great anticipation, she says, Drew, how did it go? like, oh, I hadn't started it yet. You know, kind of twiddling my thumbs, you know. And the intensity turned up very quickly in that counseling session. I got a stern talking, too. She began to help me understand that she was not there for me to just dawdle. She began to help me focus on the things that I needed to focus on. And if you're familiar with the phrase, taking someone behind the woodshed, I think you understand what that conversation was like with me. Now look, I was raised in church, right? I was the good Christian kid. And I really believed, walking into that counseling session, I really believed that because I felt bad, that everything would be wiped away.

I thought that if I, you know, I felt really bad about what's happening and I'm kind of fighting through depression and okay, because I feel that bad, I'm then now going to escape consequences. But Jesus' mission did not involve me escaping consequences. Jesus' mission involved me suffering those consequences, slowly, personally. Jesus' mission actually involved me looking at several people in the eye, people that I had mistreated, and telling them that I'm sorry, and telling them that I don't really have an excuse for how I acted, and that I shouldn't have done it, and that if I could have their forgiveness, I would very much appreciate it. That's hard. That was months of my life. That was extremely awkward conversations. I mean, I met old girlfriends, I met old enemies. I mean, we'd meet for like coffee or something, and then I would just begin to talk through this.

And they were just kind of shocked and staring at me. And some of them just waited for me to finish and had no idea what to say. It wasn't rainbows and unicorns. I mean, it wasn't this real fun thing for me to do. It was hard. It is popular today to claim to be a Christian, but to act like that is private. It is popular to say, well, my faith is my own. And so I'm not really going to talk about it, or I'm not gonna really do anything about it. I'll just kind of go to church and then that'll be it. I'm claiming Christ, but it's private. And so, in effect, you say that you honor Christ.

You claim Him. You say, I'm a Christian, and I don't mean that you're not perfect. None of us are perfect. I'm a moron, like a lot. Ask my family, they'll testify. However, there's a difference in between, in between claiming Christ and then turn around and living a life that does not seek to honor him at all. That it's, you're not, it's not even on the brain.

And you believe that Jesus is okay with this. You believe Jesus is like, oh, that guy, what a stinker. However, when Jesus approaches you, whether you're challenging his authority laying down palm branches. It doesn't matter. Jesus has a mission and that mission has your name on it. And when Jesus comes, you're hoping for lowly Jesus, meek and mild, but what you get is focused Jesus with a goal in mind. You get Jesus ready to have a stern conversation with you. You get Jesus ready to do something that is not what you expect. And it's probably a little more abrasive than you thought, maybe you thought that he should be. Jesus, you should be a little nicer than that. If you are currently living according to however you want to live. If you are living a life where you say like, I'm a Christian, but then you are not doing anything to prioritize that, to seek the Lord, to nothing.

If that's where you are and you are not currently suffering consequences in those areas, understand that Jesus is being patient with you. Jesus is being patient with you. Do not mistake Jesus's patience for permission. It's not the same thing. Don't think that you can live however you want. Romans 2:4 says that Jesus's kindness should lead us to repentance. The kindness that Jesus shows us in not totally taking us to the woodshed every time we mess up, that is in hopes that we will learn those things things and repent and come to him.

It's like any parent child relationship you do, you do need to give your children boundaries, but there's a point in time that comes in their development where you're saying, man, I hope they get it by now. You know, you can tell your child not to touch the hot stove only so many times, but when they're 15, right? You're like, maybe I should just let them touch it this time. Maybe they'll figure that out. Right? Jesus is trying to help us all understand what it is to follow Him. It's not, you know, Him slapping our hands every five seconds. It's Him, it's us understanding where we're at and then walking in repentance on that. Because Jesus will cleanse your temple. Jesus will come to you at a way that seems more abrasive and harsh than you think. And you will wonder why.

And Jesus will wake you up quickly. This is, this is why Jesus does this. It's because Jesus supplies an intense sobriety to our lives. He's not, he's not waiting for us to, um, to just have our hands slapped enough and go, Oh, okay. Maybe what Jesus is requiring of us is also what he is supplying to us. And that is an intense sobriety. And so we make this mistake where we see Jesus cleansing the temple and we kind of start cheering them on. We're like, yeah, Jesus, get the religious leaders. Yeah, don't, you know, don't take anything from him. Stick up for yourself. Yeah. And we're like, turn them on. But Jesus is not just focused on people that we don't like.

We're, we're all in that. It's not like Jesus is clean, cleansing the temple of somebody else. And when we're over there, oh yeah, you get them. Yeah, you better not cross Jesus. Yeah, but we're there too. We're there too. Jesus is not just focused on a few people that seem pompous and religious. Jesus is waking everybody up. Jesus is supplying sobriety to a drunk world. Jesus is supplying focus to a distracted people. He's ringing the bell and more often than not that includes me and it includes you. Jesus's mission isn't just for us to feel happy all the time.

Just like we see here in Mark 11 and 12, Jesus is faithful to provide what he requires. Jesus, in other words, freely gives this intense focus, this intense sobriety to us. freely, where our lives, as we follow Him, as He gives that to us, our lives are, we see distractions melt away. We see a mental toughness grow in us. We see that we can stand strong against difficulty, that we are seasoned against simple arguments, that our soul is fortified in the zeal of Christ crucified. All of these things are an intense focus that Jesus, again, freely provides. But how does Jesus build this intensity in us? Did we just wake up one day?

More intense than the previous day? This is where it's helpful to keep reading. In Mark 13, we can see where Jesus takes the disciples away. He begins to help impart some intensity to their lives. And he develops this theme, and the theme is be on guard, be on guard. He says it several times in Mark chapter 13. And again, we're answering how Jesus builds this intense focus in us, how he fortifies us. Well, the way he does that is he changes what we're focused on. He says focus on this, not that. Don't look over here where the distractions are. Don't get worried about the news cycle. Don't get worried about what's going on over here. Focus on this over here. And what that does is that helps us become more intense, more sober about things that matter. Mark 13, five through six. And Jesus began to say to them, See that no one leads you astray. Many will come to my name saying, I'm he,

and they will lead many astray. Again, he repeats this a couple of verses later in verses 22 and 23 of Mark 13. Says, for false Christs and false prophets will arise and perform signs and wonders to lead astray. If possible, the elect. But be on guard. I have told you all things beforehand. Be on guard, false teachers are coming. People will try to lead you astray.

It happens a lot. Here's some common ones. Just, I'll give you kind of just a scatter shooting of a few of them. You will have leaders that will come to you and say, I have a special connection with Jesus that you do not have. And if you want this special connection with Jesus, then you either have to pay me money, show me some kind of intense fidelity, Or you know some some weird thing and then you can gain this special access to Jesus if anybody starts talking anything like that run if somebody says that the Bible is Not the word of God. There's a church in Nashville church in Nashville a Couple weeks ago now. They said that the church is not the word of God that excuse me The Bible is not the word of God, but that the Bible is just a human response to God And what just kills me is the irony. They say, well, it's just a human response to God. We know that God's heart is this, that, and the other.

My question is, how do you know God's heart is anything without the Bible? How do you know God without God's word telling you who God is? Did you just feel your way to that truth? Was that some special impartation? Did he speak from heaven to you and tell you that the Bible wasn't his word? How did this happen? Well, it happens because things in the Bible don't really mesh that well with things in our culture. They tend to do this on some issues. On other issues, they totally glide on through and make sense of it, actually. But on others, they just, you know, you wanna talk about people's sexuality not being their own. That's a very biblical idea, right? Like, I don't own my sexuality. I don't get to do what I want with it. It's a gift that I receive and I honor God with it. That goes, I mean, 100% against what our culture says, because our culture says your sexuality is your own.

You get to define that, you get to do that. It's a resource. You see the difference now. If somebody tells you that organized religion is just to hold people down with fear, run. I guarantee that somebody who's hurt by the church and they're just trying to spare other people hurt. So it might be very well intentioned, but it's false. It might, some people might tell you that spirituality or mysticism is the only truth. The only truth that, the only thing that's true is what you can experience. That's false, run. If somebody just tries to help you stay or tries to help you understand that God just wants you to be happy and to discover yourself, run. God does want to, to birth in us joy, right? Yes, and amen. Like he wants his people to be joyful in him. But if you have somebody who is all joy, no pain, if you have somebody who's all blessing, no suffering, then they aren't reading the Bible.

They're not preaching Christ crucified. Okay, if Jesus hung on a cross, it wasn't so that we couldn't suffer. It was so that we could understand that we will. Jesus said as much. The most pressing thing right now is not what the new cycle is telling you is important. I can almost guarantee it. Whatever is on the ticker at the bottom is not what is most important. Jesus changes our focus away from these things that distract, these things that seem cool to be caught up on. He changes it. He says, go focus over here on these foundational truths. Focus on what you know to be true. Don't be persuaded by false leaders. Instead, remember the Word of God. Rely on the Word of God. Receive encouragement from the Word of God. And this is the first thing that Jesus says to focus on. Be on guard. Focus on these foundational truths. Here's the next thing. Mark 13, verse 9 and verse 13. We'll read the middle in a second. 9 and 13. Jesus says,

But be on your guard, the theme, for they will deliver you over to councils and you will be beaten in synagogues and you will stand before governors and kings for my sake to bear witness before them. Verse 13, and you will be hated by all for my namesake, but the one who endures to the end will be saved. So Jesus says first that false teachers are coming and now he's saying persecution is coming. So as a Christian, listen, I know that we aren't being lined up to be be beheaded in America. I understand that, right? I get it. And I thank the Lord for it. However, it is to say this as a Christian, no matter where you are, if you're going to follow Christ, if you're going to do it unapologetically, the deck is stacked against you. Okay, the deck is stacked against you. However, our response to that should not be to try to change all the laws so that the deck is not stacked against us. Okay, this should not incite

us to political reform. What it should incite us to do is to take our focus off of our comfort. The point of what Jesus is saying here, he's saying, don't fall in love with ease. Don't fall in love with life going the way that you think it should go. You will be beset with discomfort. Don't focus on your discomfort. Don't focus on the fact that this comfort is going to leave. Jesus says, don't focus on that. Focus on the fact that I'm going to provide. And you can see that in verses 10 and 11. Mark 13, 10 and 11 says, the gospel must first be proclaimed to all the nations. And when they bring you to trial and deliver you over, do not be anxious beforehand what you are to say, but whatever is given you in that hour, for it is not you who speak, but the Holy Spirit. Jesus is saying, persecution is coming, but the gospel wins.

Persecution is coming, but the gospel wins. Safety, as you know it, will leave you. Okay. If you, if you are living a really comfortable life, a really safe life, and then you, you begin to answer the call and you begin to say, okay, I'm going to follow Jesus with my life. I can't promise you many things, but one thing I can, and, and scripture makes this pretty clear is that you will grow less comfortable. Your life will not be as easy. It just won't. Our culture, our world welcomes people who just go with the flow. And when you say, I'm going to follow the risen Lord with my whole life, and I'm going to, I'm going to make all my decisions based on that, you will not be welcome. It will, It will sound to the world like an indictment. Whether you're ranting on Facebook or not, it doesn't matter, it's going to feel like an indictment to other people. And the first response is going to be, well, do you think you're better than me?

It will put you at enmity with other people. When I'm talking with people, just in random conversation, like at the in line at the coffee shop or the supermarket, wherever, because I talk to random people, it's what I do. I embarrass my wife all the time. When I do that though, when I'm meeting somebody new, the question will come up, what do you do for a living? And let me tell you, I think long and hard before I answer that question. Because the way I answer that question will determine the rest of that conversation. And more often than not, I say I'm a pastor at a local church and that's kind of where I leave it. But every time I do, I can see them mentally just take a second and rewind the last five minutes of the conversation and think, okay, did I just say something I should not have said? Look, when you say, and look, that's not me trying to do anything.

Like I'm not super judgy. I'm not like, well, I just got off the church and you know, like there's a twinkle in my smile or anything. It's not like that. All you have to say is like, I follow Jesus and they will feel condemnation. You don't have to put it out there. You don't have to say anything. They're gonna feel it. They're, especially in Burleson, USA. Let me just say, in this area of the world, the amount of religious guilt per square mile is high. It's high. You don't have to tell people like, well, you know, you should be in church. Okay, okay. They're living with that guilt. They know that. When you say I'm a Christian, it's going to trigger all of that in them, whether you want it to or not. It's going to do it. Persecution is going to come, and the gospel is going to win. And this is how Jesus builds our intense focus. And he helps us see the emptiness of comfort.

He helps us see the lack of enjoyment in controlling your whole life. And when he does that, sometimes it's not fun. So we had a family, the Hays, bless you guys. They have recently been freed from relying on their own comfort. Bless you, you have been freed from that. When their house flooded and they had to move out into a different house, it doesn't feel like freedom. I'm sure most days. However, when you move out of your house in an emergency, it's going to help you remember, oh, this is all temporary anyway, right? And I dare say, this season has been a season where you've learned and relearn some things. Like, it's kind of been cool, although hard.

And it ain't over yet. That's a quote. Look, and it's not just that safety will leave you. But Jesus is saying, look, safety is going to leave you. It's fleeting, right? Your comfort is like, Jesus says, true safety is with me. True comfort is with me. I have it over here. I'm the one, Jesus says, I'm the one in control of all things. Rest in me. Our comfort comes in knowing that Jesus wins, that He focuses our minds on His control. And so one last thing, one last thing that Jesus says to be on guard against. Remember, he says that false teachers are coming, so we focus on these fundamental truths. Jesus says persecution is coming, so we focus on the comfort and the safety and the control that he has, that he provides. And here's the third thing that Jesus tells his disciples. It's in Mark 13, 33 through 37. I'm going to read it all. He opens with the theme here, be on guard.

Be on guard, keep awake, for you do not know when the time will come. It is like a man going on a journey when he leaves his home and puts his servants in charge each with his work and commands the doorkeeper to stay awake. Therefore, stay awake. For you do not know when the master of the house will come in the evening or at midnight or when the rooster crows or in the morning, lest he come suddenly and find you asleep. And what I say to you, I say to you all, stay awake. This changes our focus on whatever's happening now to when he's coming back. So first he says false teachers are coming, second he says persecution is coming, third he says I'm coming. I'm coming back. And he doesn't tell us when he's coming back and sometimes we might think it's easier if Jesus would just tell us when he's coming back. But I have observed in my own life and in other people's lives a tendency to wait until

the last minute. Jesus challenges us to wait on His arrival as our hope. His arrival is our hope. And this is like a dad teaching a little child to learn how to swim, right? You got the little kid in the pool. Maybe they got floaties on, maybe they don't. It depends on which lesson it is. And what do you see? You see the dad in the water, and the dad's saying to the child, hey, look at me. Look right here, look at my face. Look at me, swim to me. Just come on, just swing to me. Just look at me. Hey, don't worry about the kid jumping off the side. Don't worry about the kids yelling. Just look at me. Just look at me. This is what Jesus says to his disciples. Look, all this craziness is gonna happen. You're gonna have wars, rumors of wars. People are gonna be saying they're the Christ. People are gonna be, just, hey, just look at me. Just look at me. This is Jesus in our trial.

Let me say, and I hope I'm not presuming too much here. Some of you lack toughness. Some of you, when you face difficulty, you cave every time, every single time. You're easily distracted from what Jesus has been trying to say to you for months, if not years, maybe decades. And one dashed hope, one big disappointment just defeats you, just puts you on the ground. You hardly know how to get up from that. Let me say to you this, let me just hear me. In our moments of weakness and despair, whether we've come by them too easily or not, Jesus does not look at us and say, toughen up. He does not look at us and say, go rub some dirt on it and let's keep going. That's not what Jesus says. He doesn't insult our pain, He doesn't mock our pain. Instead, Jesus says, turn your eyes to me. Look at me. Look at what I'm doing. Listen to my promises. Receive my comfort, Jesus says to us.

Look to me for hope and joy. As we have our time of invitation, I just, I want you to know, when Jesus, when we do look to Him, when we turn our eyes to Him, man, it sometimes is not a fun thing. It's not a fun, you know, happy moment. It's a stern conversation. It's a woodshed moment for some of us, right? Where we think, oh, we feel really bad. Maybe Jesus will forget what all that I've done, okay? And Jesus says, look, I forgive you. I forgive you for what you've done. You come to me, I forgive you for it. But those things have consequences, and sometimes we need to just walk all the way through that, nice and slow. And Jesus says, I'm not gonna make you walk that alone. I want to walk that with you.

The stern conversations are never, they never leave us on an island. They might leave us feeling frustrated or like we could have done better, but Jesus is present in that moment. We don't fall into despair because Jesus is our home. As we have our time of invitation, I just want to challenge you. If there's a thing that you need to decide, If there's something that the Lord's brought up, just as we've been talking, maybe you need to walk forward in obedience to baptism. Maybe you need some prayer. And if you do, I'm gonna be right up here the whole time we're gonna be standing and singing, I'm gonna be up here, and you can come and receive some prayer, that's great. If you wanna join the church, then you can come right on up. And we'll talk about that right whenever you come up here. If there is just something that you want to do that you need help taking that next step

and you're just like, okay, Jesus, I don't know, then I would encourage you, as we sing, we're gonna be singing three songs, come forward at any point. Let me pray for this. Jesus, thank you so much for the opportunity to worship you, to see you in all your glory. Help us understand that you lock eyes on this and you say, come with me, follow me. I'm just focused on me.

Jesus, thank you for being with us. In the name of Jesus Christ, we pray. Please speak. to do. Faithful you have been, faithful you will be. Pledge yourself to me and that's why I sing your praise. Ever be on my list, ever be on my list. Your praise, ever be on my list, ever be on my list. Your praise will ever be our might, ever be our might Your praise will ever be our might, ever be our might Father, be your faith, Your kindness makes us more You show the witness, and Your strength becomes ours You're making me like you Loving me in mine Bringing beauty from my stance You will have your breath Ready about her guilt Ready about her strength And known about her feeling And that's why I see your pleasure ever be on my lips You'll be great, You'll be great The angels and saints will sing, Lordy Are You Lord? You'll be great, You'll be great The angels and saints will sing, Lordy

Are You Lord? You'll be great May He be brave, if angels and saints may sing worthy, Are You, Lord? May He be brave, if He prays, If angels and saints may sing worthy, Are You, Lord? And that's why seeing Your praise will ever be all mine, Ever be on my lips, Your praise will