Crowds Or Disciples

We talk through Mark 3 and ask what it really means to belong to Jesus when crowds are big but commitment is thin. We contrast curiosity with obedience, unpack why Jesus calls ordinary people, and end with the kind of family faith creates when we actually do the will of God. 

• the difference between being interested in Jesus and following Jesus 
• why crowds gather fast and why crowds fade fast 
• curiosity as a doorway to real commitment 
• Jesus calling ordinary disciples instead of the elite 
• presence before mission as the pattern for discipleship 
• resisting what God is doing and why we villainize what we fear 
• blasphemy of the Holy Spirit as persistent hard-hearted rejection 
• keeping a soft heart through Scripture, prayer, and slowing down in the Word 
• the church as family shaped by obedience to Jesus 

If you want to volunteer in preschool, Ms. Kim would love to have you. Make sure you reach out. 

Transcript

Welcome To Jet Fuel Podcast

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Welcome to the Jeff Fuel Podcast, a series of Concord conversations. In each episode, our lead pastor and a guest will sit down and dive a little deeper into what we learned as a church that week. These are honest, practical conversations to fuel your faith and help you live it out with purpose and consistency. Or, in other words, this is jet fuel for your soul.

SPEAKER_00 0:27

All right. Well, welcome back to the Jet Fuel Podcast. Dude, it's good to have you back in the seat. Thank you. I know it's been a little bit, uh, but we are here fueling faith for everyday life. Yeah.

What Felt Fancy As Kids

SPEAKER_01 0:39

Um, so before we get started, we have our question. Yes. And it always comes from someone who you can't see on screen, but Miss Bree Simmons. So, Brie, what is our question for today?

SPEAKER_02 0:52

Okay. Um, what's something that when you were younger you thought was really fancy, but as you got older you realized it's completely normal?

SPEAKER_01 1:03

Something that we thought was fancy when we were little, but no, turns out it's completely normal.

SPEAKER_00 1:09

Well, a lot of things have changed since I was a kid. And so uh that was okay. I'll say this. So uh y'all know I s I have an obsession with like nice Nike shoes and stuff like that. But I'm telling you, back in the day, like the status that was like off I mean, it was incredible was the starter jacket. Uh-huh. And the spoofy one? The the puffy one. Yeah. Well, and I actually had the the uh the imitation one because I couldn't afford the real one. It was the pro line. But that Dallas Cowboys fit, I crushed it. And that was in the 90s, man, when they were winning Super Bowls. Yeah. Like super fancy. And now I'm like, you could buy those at any Goodwill. Like you just find them. They've been abandoned to the ages of time. But I thought back in the day, like that was the status. You'd just be sweating in that Joker in summer because you wanted to wear it, you wanted to have it. Uh but that was super fancy. And then now uh just go to Goodwill if you'd like one.

SPEAKER_01 2:11

Uh mine would probably be eating at Chili's. What? When my family would go to Chili's when we were little, it was like, oh, we are rolling. Like this is big time. Like we get chips and salsa and everything. Like we're going to Chili's, and now I'm just like, yeah, it's just chilies. Trevor Burrus, Jr. It's just just chilies.

SPEAKER_00 2:33

I bet we could say that about a bunch of restaurants. Like when you were a kid that you went and it was like super fancy.

SPEAKER_01 2:38

Well, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 2:39

Because my family was the big fan of like kids eat free on Sunday.

SPEAKER_01 2:42

Oh yeah, that's the only places we went was places that kids ate free.

SPEAKER_00 2:45

And so chilies. I wonder for you guys listening, I I would wonder what would be like your restaurant that you thought was super, super fancy. And now you eat at like That is not fancy. Once a week.

unknown 2:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 2:57

Mine was Olive Garden.

SPEAKER_01 2:58

Olive Garden.

SPEAKER_02 2:59

That was a five-star restaurant, Michelin, Chess. Super fancy.

SPEAKER_00 3:05

Oh man. Oh man, that's awesome.

Mark 3 And Belonging To Jesus

SPEAKER_00 3:07

Well, hey, man, we are going to jump back into Mark. We're kind of coming to a close. You know, the way we've built Mark to study this year is we've broken it into four big sections throughout the year. You know, we're going to take the summer, we're going to do a series there. But um, this whole first part has been about the crowds and calling. And we're almost done with section one. And so uh Mark chapter three, uh verses seven through thirty-five is where we're gonna be.

SPEAKER_01 3:33

But uh we get to learn a lot of big things about Jesus' ministry, crowds, disciples, and yeah, and it all kind of points if you take this, all these verses, and if you wanted to sum them up in one question, it's really, hey, what does it really mean? What does it really mean to belong to Jesus? What does that actually look like?

SPEAKER_00 3:51

Which Aaron I think is a really important question because I think even just some of the conversations that you and I have had recently with some people in our church is there is just such a difference between going to church and um, you know, uh being a follower of Christ. You know, not a fan uh of, hey, man, that's great. I admire that, I um I like that, and someone who's obedient. And so addressing that question is a big deal. And so this passage in verse 7 uh opens up, they move from the synagogue, the healing of the man with the withered hand, which is just phenomenal, to now uh they've moved and they've gone out by the sea. You kind of see this pattern, uh especially in this, these few verses where he goes from the synagogue, then he goes to the sea, then he goes up on the mountain, then he ends up in a home that Jesus is ministering in all these different places, but now he's gone by the sea, and there are people from everywhere Galilee, Judea, Jerusalem, which is in Judea, beyond uh the Jordan River, uh Tyre and Sidon, and some of these places.

SPEAKER_01 4:54

When I love thinking that people are probably all there also from everywhere, but also for all kinds of different reasons. Like there are probably that people that have been following him that are starting to think, oh, like what he's saying is true. There's probably thinking people that are coming that I just want to be healed, like I heard he can heal people, so that's

Why The Crowds Keep Coming

SPEAKER_01 5:12

what I want. There's people that are just like, hey, I'm who is this guy that people keep talking about? And so I just I don't know, it's it's it almost makes me feel like church a little bit, like when people come in. There are some people that are very devoted to their faith and to what we do. There are people that are just coming in the doors because they don't have anywhere else to go. And there's some people that are coming in and they're like, let's just see what this place is about.

SPEAKER_00 5:34

Yeah, let's check it out. Well, I do love there's there is this little bitty underlying thing in there where it says all these people from these areas, Tyran Sidon, the the Decapolis out on the other side of the Jordan River, all these places. But a lot of these are not just Jewish crowds. Yeah. Uh they're Gentile people as well. And so uh Jesus is pulling a diverse group. And it's not like today where you can just throw something on social media or do a YouTube video or a podcast or something like that, and the information gets out. I mean, this is word of mouth back in the day, and and Jesus' ministry, just even in these early stages, is just spreading like crazy. And people are are coming. And um, you know, I think about it, you know, not just the um the different populations, but I I gotta imagine different ages, different experiences with faith and religion. It kind of reminds me of Concord right now. Yeah. Uh I was talking with an older gentleman in our church the other day, and he was like, you know, Concorde today reminds me of Concord 40 years ago. And I was like, Yeah, what do you mean by that? Yeah. And he was just like, there's so many young families around. He was like, we kind of had this season where all these young families came to Concord, and then we all raised our families together, and a lot of these are empty nesters and grandparents now. Yeah. And it's like it's been a reset. And I love it because uh I don't know, you preached uh recently. Uh it's been different recently because there's a lot more uh noise in the audience.

SPEAKER_01 7:00

There is a lot more noise that you have to just be like, okay, tune that out.

SPEAKER_00 7:04

Because there's kids and there's babies and there's families and and uh kids from the kids' ministry and student industry coming in. And I love it because, you know, I think just personally that uh healthy church uh sounds uh there's sounds to it, the sounds of life. You know, when it gets quiet, it gets here, sometimes we see churches just age out and they close their doors. But I love that God is entrusting us with not only just our senior saints and those who have helped build the foundation here, but so many young and new families, people checking it out. And I think that's what was happening with Jesus' ministry is a diversity of people are coming uh to him. Um but it gets a little crazy because uh Jesus actually has a little bit of an escape plan.

SPEAKER_01 7:49

Yeah, well,

Crowds Do Not Equal Commitment

SPEAKER_01 7:50

he has to tell his disciples, hey, please go get a boat because if not, I'm gonna get crushed. Trevor Burrus, Jr.

SPEAKER_00 7:54

Yeah. I mean, the crowd's getting kind of aggressive. They're pushing, they're shoving, they're they're pressing in on him. Um but you know, for me, crowds don't always equal commitment, right?

SPEAKER_01 8:07

I know. I think about there's I mean, there's a there's I'm not downplaying megachurch. Like there are lots of mega churches that I know that are doing great ministry. Amazing things. Um but I agree with you, like and a bigger crowd doesn't always equal a commitment. Like if you think about all these people that were following Jesus, most of them were not committed to the work that he was doing and the work that he was calling them to do. And so, yeah, they were just there to, hey, I want to hear what this man has to say.

SPEAKER_00 8:38

Well, uh, for me, when we think about this, for just Concord, and I I think for so many of you listening, whether you've been at Concord for just a little bit or you've been there for a long time, or maybe you're not even a part of Concord, I do think there's such validity in just saying it out loud of there is a place for small churches, there's a place for medium churches, there's a place for large churches, for mega churches. And, you know, Concord, we've kind of been a lot of all of those at different times. Um, but I do think it's important that the health of a church is not always equal to the number of people, small or big, yeah, but it's the hearts of the people that are coming. And what we're gonna see as we progress through this text is we see these crowds, but then the Lord starts whittling some of it down. Yeah, yeah. Well, let me ask you a question. Why do you think the crowds were drawn to Jesus so quickly and early on in his ministry?

SPEAKER_01 9:33

I think I mean an obvious answer is like he's doing wild things. Yes, stuff they've never seen. Healing people, calling out demons, like he's doing some crazy stuff that people have never seen before. But I also think like it's a lot of word of mouth of like one of those crazy things, but he's he's not only doing crazy things, he's also saying some pretty crazy things according to them. Right. Now, like we talked about, I can't remember what week we talked about when he said, like he made the statement, oh, it was the the four men lowering their friends. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And he makes a statement like, uh hey, I'm like the son of man can forgive sins, and they're like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. That doesn't fit in my box. That is not who is and so he's doing and saying wild things, and then word of mouth just keeps spreading there, like, okay, who who is this guy?

SPEAKER_00 10:25

Like right. Well, I'm telling you, uh my my kids make fun of me all the time because if I find like a product that like I like, man, I am like hype man of it. Man, I got this wallet, you know, for Christmas a couple of years ago, and everybody I could find, I'm talking about, man, look at this, and it pulls out and holds this many cards. And but when something changes your life, you get excited about it. And and I think a lot of people were going, you're never gonna believe what happened to my uncle. You're never gonna believe what he said about this, and I think that's drawing the crowd. But what's the difference if you were to take, Aaron, what we're seeing in this passage in Mark III, and you were to bring that to 2026?

Curiosity Versus Following Jesus

SPEAKER_00 11:02

All right, we're talking in the spring of 2026. What's the difference in being interested in Jesus and actually following him? Because I know that's kind of the big question because uh you and I used this phrase the other day of going, coming to church doesn't make you a Christian just as much as standing in the garage makes you a car.

SPEAKER_01 11:19

Yeah. I think the biggest difference is if you're actually following Jesus, you've allowed him to change you. Right. Um, because I for a long time, and I mean most people, a lot of people who are listening have heard my testimony, I've shared some of it on here, but I didn't get saved till I was 21, but I knew a lot about Jesus. Like I grew up in church, I grew up going to camp every year and going to BBS, and I could give you all kinds of answers to any question that you asked me about the Bible, any question you asked me about faith, like I knew the answer. I did not know Jesus. And and so I think the difference is, and it again, uh the cliche statement of moving from head knowledge to heart knowledge, but it is a real transition that has to that has to happen because if it's not changing the way that you live, the way that you react to people, the way that you make decisions, like, and it's just things that you know, it's pointless.

SPEAKER_00 12:22

Right. Well, I I've always kind of thought about like this, like the difference in curiosity and commitment. Like curiosity can be very pure in your heart. You want to know, you want to see. And I think there were a lot of people that were curious about this guy who could heal and cast out demons, and he was teaching in ways that all these learned guys and he was so young compared to some of the older rabbis of that day, and you can be curious and still not be committed. Yeah, you know, and so that that actual, you know, obedience to his discipleships is a big deal.

SPEAKER_01 12:53

But I do think, and this I don't know if this is in here, but a lot of times though, that curiosity is what leads people to being radically changed by they start coming a little bit closer, a little bit closer, a little bit closer, and then all of a sudden you see the Holy Spirit like move and they're like, okay, no, this is this is real.

SPEAKER_00 13:15

Well, I'd encourage you, especially for you guys that are listening, like if you've got people that are curious in towards faith, towards Christ, man, lean into those conversations. Don't let them just kind of look. You know, you want to give them some truth and bring that because here's the deal uh curiosity can lead to that commitment to Christ. Now, salvation is a work of the spirit, um, but man, we know that God wants to draw people to himself. So well, we move from um, you know, by the sea where Jesus has got his getaway boat just in case uh the crowd gets aggressive, but uh he's he's doing all of these things, but now he's gonna move to a mountain to pray, and he's gonna call disciples

Jesus Calls Ordinary Disciples

SPEAKER_00 13:59

to himself.

SPEAKER_01 14:00

It's this uh moment is always interesting, and I thought I thought about it again when I was reading the scripture. Like the way that it's worded is interesting to me. Okay. When it says like Jesus called like basically he called who he called who he wanted and they came. Like, and I'm just like that's just a simple, like, okay, yes, he called their name, they came, their lives were changed forever, and they would change the course of history. So the way that it's worded, it's just this simple, like, oh yeah, we're gonna go hang out in the mountain. Like and but it's like, no, this these 12 people are about to radically change the course of history.

SPEAKER_00 14:40

Right. And and we know that um they're called disciples, that's really uh learners. We get our Greek word Methetes, which is uh where we get mathematics and multiply, so there's all that, but he also calls them apostles. Uh and so that apostle is that thing of being an emissary, like a like a missionary, somebody sent out on behalf of someone else. And what I love about what we're about to walk through, and I love these names, uh, but is God doesn't uh Jesus doesn't call the elite. Oh, yeah. No, that's a good thing. He calls the very ordinary. But isn't that an encouragement to you? Because I mean, he's all the controversy that Jesus is dealing with in Mark chapter two and Mark chapter three, these these different controversies about can he forgive the Sabbath, the um, you know, fasting, all of these things that he has. Uh you and I kind of split those five controversies as we as we did it. But he's not calling these rabbis, these learned guys, these Pharisees or scribes. He's looking at fishermen and government workers and uh, you know, these different people, just very ordinary. And that, I mean, speak to that for a minute when people show up at church and they go, Man, I'm not like them. I don't have that or that skill. I mean, God uses everyday average people, right?

SPEAKER_01 16:01

And I think when you look at the way so when you read this text, it gives kind of two purposes for these men. Like one, it's the first one is hey, they need to be with Jesus, and two, they're gonna be sent out by Jesus. That that's the only that is the only like rec like requirement. So are you saying we overcomplicate? We do overcomplicate. Like I think about they have I mean, how many times have you gotten into a conversation with someone and probably like thought through it in your own life about how I need to get to a certain point or I need to know this much or I need to like get this worked out before, and it's like no no no no like we've seen over and over again already in March, I mean we're only in chapter what three and we've already seen how simple, like, hey, follow me, okay, great, like and drop my nuts and go. And then he calls the twelve and they go and they follow, and that then the text gives us, hey, okay, you need to be with me and you need to be sent out by me. That's it. Like that's right. Now, granted, that becomes very difficult for them when we look at their life, but it's we overcomplicate the process of no, you need to be with Jesus. The way we do that is through scripture and through prayer and through community with other believers, and you need to be sent out by him. You need to be living on mission. There's it's uh it's kind of I mean, it is a It is amazing.

SPEAKER_00 17:25

So if you're looking at Mark 3 14, I mean it literally says, and he appointed twelve whom he also named apostles, so that they might and be just what Aaron said, that they might be with him and that he might send them out to preach, and then verse 15, and then have authority to cast out demons. Literally, he was gonna take his ministry and he was gonna empower them to do it as they had spent time with him. And I I I wonder if we could evaluate for ourselves how much time we spend with the Lord and how much we're taking from that for the purpose of being used by him, not just amassing knowledge. Yep. Because I don't know about you, but I've met some big-headed Christians that are very ineffective.

SPEAKER_01 18:11

Well, and it's I think it's a lot of times because we want we want the assignment, we want to be sent out, but we don't really want the relationship part first. And we want like we want it has to be That's a

Presence Before Mission

SPEAKER_01 18:24

strong. Well, it has to be presence like presence has to come before mission. Like when I'm when I'm thinking about the discipleship process for anyone, like if you're not spending time with Jesus, you can't be sent out by him. So but we want that. We want the job, we want the big, flashy like missionary job, or we want the platform. The platform, we want people to listen to us speak, or recognition like we want all of these things, but we want it not having to spend time with them.

SPEAKER_00 18:56

Dude, that was such a mic drop-worthy statement of we want the assignment without the relationship. We want the recognition, we want the honor, and that's exactly what the Pharisees wanted. Um and uh that's so, so wild. Well, uh, you know, how do we process this? Let's ask some questions on that.

SPEAKER_01 19:16

Why do you th well here's one, Clint, for you. Why do you think, why does he emphasize and we've talked about this a little bit, but why does he emphasize being with him before sending them out? Like that he is very clear that has to come first. Why is that such an emphasis that he makes?

SPEAKER_00 19:34

Well, I I have to think that it has to do with knowing who you're following. So much of what we see, I mean, even being a parent, and and you guys that are parents, you get this. Um, your kids pick up not only your beliefs, they pick up your speech patterns, they pick up your reactions, your mannerisms. I mean, there's been times where Lauren has been like, oh my gosh, it looks like I'm looking at your dad the way you do your hands or something like that. But I think there's so much of spending time with Jesus to where you get to know him, you begin to imitate him, you begin to be transformed by him and grow in him. And I just think so many times we try to do things in our own power, our own creativity, our own opportunity, and we miss the supernatural part of spending time with Jesus and picking up his mannerisms, his his his way of thinking and processing. And I think so many people don't want to spend time with the Lord, they just want to be used by the Lord.

SPEAKER_01 20:38

That's good. All right. So as we keep moving through this, we the next scene, obviously, like in pure Mark fashion, he switches to a completely

When People Villainize God’s Work

SPEAKER_01 20:50

different scene. Right. And so in this scene, the tone shifts very quickly. Right. And so when we're looking at it, the this is when the religious leaders are accusing him of being empowered by Satan himself. And so tell me, walk us through kind of a little bit about what's happening here in this.

SPEAKER_00 21:11

Yeah. So, you know, he gets through naming all of his disciples, and we didn't go through that. I I I love uh, you know, the twelve that he calls, they're so different and all that kind of stuff. But then he has this interaction with his family where they're like, he's out of his mind, everything he's doing, and they're trying to maybe uh I think protect their their family name, not to embarrass him and uh uh embarrassing all that kind of stuff. And then we get to this where he is facing opposition again, and they're saying that the power that he has or that he's using, it's it's not like they're denying that he's using power. They're now attributing it to some kind of evil force. Um, you know, they they they say two things the Beelzebel or the Prince of Demons, which is something they use to talk about. Satan at that point. And so what they've done is they've said, what you're doing has an evil origin. It has power that is dark. And so all of a sudden he has gone from being celebrated when he asked a question earlier in chapter three of, hey, is it better to do good or do harm on the Sabbath? And they won't answer. And he's like, we need to do good. We need to save life. And all the things that he are doing that is helping, they're now attributing to some kind of evil. And it is, it's it's bad. And it escalates so quickly.

SPEAKER_01 22:37

Why do you think why do you think that creates like this is creating such a strong reaction for people? Like why why is it why did they jump so quickly to oh no no, this is not good. This is from Satan. Like why the escalation here?

SPEAKER_00 22:54

Well man, I think this is maybe a bigger answer than we have time for, but it's when I look into our current climate, Aaron, and you get this, because I know with you being over Next Gen and uh a lot of different things, we we see this with our college and with our young adults, and even uh we have lost the ability to have conversation. We've lost the ability to disagree, we've lost the ability to be wrong. And so I think a lot of times when something doesn't fit exactly how we think it should work, our first thing is to villainize somebody else. We disagree, or I don't understand, or it threatens me somehow. I think maybe even the Pharisees, they're losing a little bit of clout, they're losing a little bit of influence. People are not coming to hear their seminar, their sermon anymore. They're they're flocking to see Jesus. And there's probably a little bit of hurt. And so when we interact with something, and we see this in our political climate right now, like we disagree on one issue, and what happens? We don't say, hey, we agree to disagree, or help me understand your viewpoint, or hey, let's pray about this, let's go to scripture. We go, you're wrong, you're the enemy, we can no longer talk. And I think we see a little bit of that with the Pharisees of going, he's taking away from us, he's doing something, so let's villainize who Jesus is and let's attribute the move of God to the power of Satan. Yeah. And it's just absolutely crazy.

SPEAKER_01 24:21

Well, and I think about and I mean this is these are probably not as strong of examples as what we see here in the scripture, but I think about sometimes in church, not specifically Concord, but just church as a whole, when we experience things that we don't understand, like changes in people's lives that we don't understand, or things that Jesus is doing in ministry through, like whatever that is, a lot of times when we don't understand it, we are opposed to it. Right. And that and I like I have done that, I'm sure you have done that. Like things that you come up against and you experience, you're like, I don't really understand. Like, really, did that is that really what happened? And so we automatically go to this negative outlook of something just because we don't really understand it.

SPEAKER_00 25:10

Well, why do you think our default is opposition if it doesn't perfectly align with what we're used to or what we expect or what benefits us? Aaron Powell Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 25:18

I mean, I think our default is opposition because we don't it doesn't fit in our box. Like it doesn't fit in, no, I had this plan, this is what I think it should do, this is how I think it should go, this is what I think should happen, this is the way Jesus has spoken to me. Like, and you it doesn't fit if something doesn't fit in that, it's just like, oh, okay, well, that has to be wrong.

SPEAKER_00 25:39

Right and that's and it it's just such a shame because I think many times there could be some great conversations and great ground that is made up if we would just pray through, go to Scripture, walk through things and be, you know, flexible to allow for the Spirit of God to show us and move us uh some things. But man, it it's just on the daily, I feel like, even from little things to small things, because you're gonna see. Now we're gonna take a break before this, but you're gonna see we're gonna get into blasphemy of the Holy Spirit, which is a wild uh accusation. Not an accusation, but it's a wild standard uh that is set that is hard to think through and process through. And so before we do that, let's take a break.

SPEAKER_01 26:25

A ministry highlight break, and then we'll be right back.

Preschool Ministry Highlight And Prayer

SPEAKER_01 26:33

All right, guys, we are here with another ministry highlight. Today we have Ms. Kim Ellis here with us, who absolutely loves being on camera. Absolutely. Um Okay, Miss Kim, first question for you. How long have you been here at Concorde?

SPEAKER_03 26:51

So my family and I joined in 2005.

SPEAKER_01 26:54

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 26:55

And so we've been here ever since.

SPEAKER_01 26:57

Okay. And how long have you been on staff at Concorde?

SPEAKER_03 27:01

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 27:01

So you didn't start out as preschool director.

SPEAKER_03 27:04

No. Okay. No, so I served for the weekday program.

SPEAKER_01 27:07

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 27:07

Um CCP home of them and so thankful for them. However, um in 2013, I had the opportunity to have a super fancy title called the Preschool Associate. Oh, fancy. So I served under that current director at the time. Okay. And then in 2015, the opportunity came up for me to be preschool director, and I was still teaching. And then in 2020, a full-time position was available for me to be full-time preschool director.

SPEAKER_01 27:33

All right. Um so married to Shane. Yep. Three kids. Three kids. No grandkids yet.

SPEAKER_03 27:41

Not yet.

SPEAKER_01 27:42

Okay. Um let me ask you this. What is your I know you love your job, and we'll talk about that in just a minute, but outside of work, like what is something that is just extremely life-giving for you? Like you, if you had a free day to do whatever you wanted to do, this is what you're gonna do.

SPEAKER_03 28:02

I want to be with my people.

SPEAKER_01 28:03

Okay. All right. Okay. So hang out with your family, spend time with them. Absolutely. All right, cool. All right. So let me ask you this. What is now going to your job, what is your favorite thing about what you do here?

SPEAKER_03 28:16

So I love how preschoolers see the world.

SPEAKER_01 28:19

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 28:19

Um, when I think about a preschooler, you know, everything they see is like this level. Yeah. You know, things that you and I ignore, they get so much excitement out of. And so if we get the opportunity to share Jesus with them when they're just soaking everything else up, it's just so cool to see them figure it out.

SPEAKER_01 28:35

That's awesome. Um, okay, last question for you. Okay. What is if you were talking to our church family and you were gonna say, hey, this is the one thing that I would love for you to be praying over me and our ministry and the kids that are in the preschool, what would that be?

SPEAKER_03 28:53

I think the biggest thing is that people would continue to first of all just pray for the ministry and remembering that it's never too early to start sharing Jesus with those little ones, but also just to continue to equip our current team and those that come um to serve alongside us. And it's not just all young moms and dads. There's some folks that are grandparent age, and kiddos need to see people in every age, you know, that they can so they can learn from them. That's how we learn.

SPEAKER_01 29:23

Yep. Thank you so much, Ms. Kim. Um, if you want to volunteer in preschool, Ms. Kim would love to have you. There are a lot of kids that are still coming, and so we always need volunteers. She would love to have you. So make sure you reach out. Thank you again for being here. Thank you. And that's all we got.

unknown 29:42

Hi, like.

SPEAKER_01 29:43

All right.

Blasphemy Of The Holy Spirit

SPEAKER_01 29:44

Let's get back to Mark II. And Clint, I know we were talking before. This section gets very heavy. It does. Um, so we could probably do an entire podcast episode just on this section. But walk us through a little bit what we are about to see here in this passage.

SPEAKER_00 30:02

Okay, if you if you're with us or you got your Bible or you're familiar with this passage, we're about to get into the backside of Jesus being accused of um the miraculous things he's doing being demonic in nature. Um, and we're going to get into what many of you probably know is the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit. Now, uh, I will say this, this is deep theological water. And so we were just talking um offset a while ago of um, you know, this is one of those things where we could, you know, really go in depth. And even when you try to boil it down, there is a danger to making this too broad of a stroke to not lead to any kind of poor doctrine or poor uh belief, but really having a really sharp theological understanding of it. And it's one of those phrases, too, you've probably heard it, you grew up, uh, you know, the unforgivable sin. Yeah. You know, just like we hear things like the Trinity. Now, the Trinity, that word is not in Scripture and but we quote it like it is all the time. But it does have a very uh clear theological backing through the whole council of scripture. Uh and so this is a little bit of the same. And so just as you're part of this podcast right now, I just want you to listen intently so we make sure that you understand how Jesus unpacks this through through a couple of uh parable type analogies to help them understand and then the clarity of what it actually says.

SPEAKER_01 31:31

Aaron Ross Powell, I think when you look the context helps here. Like I know A ton. Because the I think when you think about when you think about this, what's happening, the leaders aren't they're not confused. Like the leaders are not confused. That's right. They know exactly what's going on. They are just rejecting the fact that it's coming from God. Right.

SPEAKER_00 31:49

Like they know what's happening, but they're seeing healing, they're seeing authority, they're seeing truth, they're feeling threatened. And so they want to cast a villainy over it, a shadow of evil. Um and so uh it it isn't now this this blasphemy of the spirit, it isn't something that you can just, you know, trip into. It's not something that you can make uh, you know, I mean, I said the wrong word or something like that. It's a a persistent hard-heartedness towards the rejection of what God is doing and attributing that power to the demonic over and over.

SPEAKER_01 32:28

The way I've heard it, one of my uh like mentors that I had in college, the way that he described this idea was like a settled posture of resistance. Like you have settled into the fact that you are resisting what God is calling you to do, and that's how you're living. Wow, that's a big deal. Um that's that's always the way that he explained it to me.

SPEAKER_00 32:52

Well, let me ask you this question. Why is it dangerous to continually resist what God is clearly doing? You talked about that settled posture of resistance. So why is it dangerous for someone to say, I'm going to continually resist what God is clearly doing?

SPEAKER_01 33:07

I think we know we know God is sovereign, we know he's in control, his plan is gonna be his plan, like his will is gonna happen. And so I think one dangerous thing for me is if I'm continually resisting this, one of two things is gonna happen. One, he's gonna cause something, not cause, allow something to happen in my life that's gonna get my attention, which is probably going to hurt. So that's one. Or two, he's just gonna move past me and use someone else, which is also gonna hurt. And so when I think about the danger and what why I don't want to live in this like resistance of opposition to God, is because one, I don't want him to have to allow something to happen to get my attention. Now, we live in a broken world, there's lots of like you said, there's lots of theology here. Yeah, there's a the theology line we're we're walking here. And so, but I I want I want to be used by him. Right. And I want to be a part of what he's doing. And so I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 34:21

So how would you encourage somebody to keep their heart soft and open towards something that's clearly of

ow To Keep Your Heart Soft

SPEAKER_00 34:27

the Lord? Like how do you just for someone today, like how do we help them go, I want to keep my heart soft and pliable and open and spiritually aware to the move of God? How do we move towards that rather than this posture of resistance and stiffness against God?

SPEAKER_01 34:45

Aaron Ross Powell I mean, this is gonna sound really oversimplified and I like simple. You need to be in the word and you need to be in prayer. Like you need to constantly be communicating and seeking him and asking him and be under the teaching of his word consistently. Right.

SPEAKER_00 35:01

And so and I know that sounds like a simple, like it is it is kind of what when people go through different things, we're always like, you should you should pray more and read the Bible, and people are like, Great, I I get it. But people don't. But yeah, it's fixate. I'm telling you that because you don't do that. Right. You know, one of the things that I've been so encouraged by, and I I don't I don't want to, you know, puff anybody up or you know, tear anybody down, but one of the things that we started in this series was we gave everybody these journals and we said, transcribe. Let's let's try something difficult, let's try something out of the ordinary. Some people just instantly were like, I'm not doing it. No, I'm not, I'm not gonna do it. Some people started off strong and then you know, writing every word is a tough deal. But there are some, and I have heard so many success stories of people going, it has changed my like receptivity to what God's saying because I'm having to slow down and I'm writing out these words, and it's just like as I slow and I spend time and I'm reading and I'm praying and because when you're when you're just reading, you can skip words, you can like generalize stuff in your head and just skip to the next thing.

SPEAKER_01 36:08

If you're writing, you are writing commas, you're writing like all everything that's in the thing. And you're having a process.

SPEAKER_00 36:16

And you're having to s and you can't go as fast as you can when you read. Well, and what's so cool to me is it's not just we talked earlier about how Jesus pulls a diverse crowd and our church now is kind of in a reset, and we've got all of these generations and different backgrounds. We have people from different, you know, denominations and you know, people that are lost and people that have just come to Christ, and we've got this, you know, incredible mix that is now Concord. The people I'm talking to that are writing are not just one demographic. Oh, yeah. I mean, we've got men and women, we've got young people, we've got older people, but they're all experiencing the same thing as going, their heart is being softened and spoken to as they're writing. So I would just say this, even if you haven't started, we are just in chapter three. There are 16 chapters. Set an alarm on your phone 30 minutes a day, sit down and write. I'm telling you, God will speak in a big way. Um, but but I will say this, um, you know, when it reads in verse, let me read verse 28 and 29, it says, Truly I say to you, all sins will be forgiven, the children of man, and whatever blasphemies they utter, but whoever blasphemes the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is guilty of eternal sin. For they were, this is verse 30, for they were saying he has an unclean spirit. The the the attribute to say what Jesus was doing is not of God, it is of the enemy. And that uh in the Greek when it says as they were uh for they were saying, that's in the Greek imperfect, which means it was a consistent over and over. They were saying it, they were saying it, they were saying it, you have an unclean spirit. This is demonic, this is this. And it was that thing of I am rejecting consistently the the evidence of God's miraculous power. And so I would say for anybody who doesn't know the Lord, today's your day to turn from your sins and put your faith in the power and authority that God has to save you through his son Jesus. And so it's a it's a big, big deal. And I know for any of you that have questions, we would definitely love to help walk you through it. But let's uh let's finish because there is some awkward language that comes up as we finish this.

Faith Creates A New Family

SPEAKER_00 38:31

Because Jesus has a run-in with his family.

SPEAKER_01 38:32

Yeah, another one. And so, because we've already seen him before, his family in the same passage that we've been talking about, his family calls, he says he's out of his mind.

SPEAKER_00 38:41

That's right.

SPEAKER_01 38:42

Um and so we see his family again. So, and that's how the chapter ends. And Jesus' family, they're waiting on him to come back outside, and they're asking for him to come back outside. And so when you look at this scripture, Jesus looks around and he says, Hey, whoever does the will of God, he is my brother and my sister and my mother. When you when you see this idea, I think it's what's interesting is as one of his family members, it sounds just at the surface, that he is rejecting his own family and going with someone else. That's not what he's doing. Right. What he's saying is, hey, I'm expanding who is called my family to whoever follows me and does my will. And so that and I think the right the one, and I know that you have like some notes that you want to walk through, but the reason why this particular part of this passage is important and why it sticks out to me is because this is how I feel like the church should operate of yes, we are like we are a family, we are all trying to accomplish the same thing. There may be arguments, there may be disagreements, but if we are constantly focused on Jesus, we will be like we will be operating this way, and it's it's not just about like proximity, it's about the fact that we are obeying the same. Oh, I love that you said that.

SPEAKER_00 40:08

And so because I think that's a big deal because so much of following Christ is about submission to his lordship and obedience to his command. And I think we we get that out of out of order sometimes. So he's looking at his family, he's looking at, you know, his mother, who was, you know, chosen by God to carry him. The the the virgin birth. I mean, this is a huge thing, and then he's got all of these half-brothers and sisters, many of which didn't acknowledge he was a Christ. I mean, can you imagine growing up with him for 30 years? He's in the house, he's all this kind of stuff, and you're like, this is my brother.

SPEAKER_01 40:41

There are vi I won't name who it is. There are videos, though, that people will post of like if it was on like a modern reality show and Jesus was on it and his siblings are like, Oh yeah, oh Jesus, like let's go watch another miracle. Right. And but that's I'm sure that's how they felt, right? Right. And they're living against someone who is perfect.

SPEAKER_00 41:02

And so they they have this thing of, hey, you're part of our family, and Jesus is looking at those who have gathered around him, and he says, but really where this comes into is if you do the will of God. And that's what we need from our church, from our people, from followers of Christ is not just being associated with Jesus, not just being close to Jesus, although that's important. We already talked about that earlier, to be with him. But so much of the ministry and the purpose is the connection is through doing what God asks us to do. And uh faith really creates a new kind of family.

SPEAKER_01 41:40

All right, let's let's close out here with some questions. Let's land

Three Questions To Take Home

SPEAKER_01 41:44

it, if you will, for this plain jet. So some three questions that we have this morning. So looking at this patch, it's kind of stuff for you to take away, just some for us to think about as well. So the first one, am I just part of the crowd or am I truly following Jesus? Like we look at this passage and some of them were, some of them were not, some of them were just there out of curiosity's sake. And I think the second one, am I prioritizing being with Jesus before serving him? This goes back to what we were talking about about how there has to be presence before there can be mission. Like we want the platform, we want the stage, but we don't want the relationship. And the last one is Is my life shaped by belonging to his family? And this goes into like, are you just coming to church? Are you just coming and sitting, staying as far on the sidelines as you can instead of really jumping into what we're doing? And if you are just staying on the sidelines, it's hard for your life to be shaped by what is happening. And so is my life being shaped by belonging to his family?

SPEAKER_00 42:48

Aaron Powell Well, I think the whole theme of this, or one of the themes in this chapter three, is that crowds come and go, but disciples stay and walk with the Lord and are obedient to him. And so um I just we're gonna see that.

SPEAKER_01 43:01

I mean, people start falling away pretty quick.

SPEAKER_00 43:03

Yeah. Well, for you guys that are listening today, I just want to say thank you for giving your time and your effort to study and want to go deeper. I know for me, every one of these conversations, not just here with uh the folks that are on the podcast, but with you guys that are listening, man, it's just jet fuel to know that we are on this journey together trying to go deeper in our faith and want to please and follow the Lord. So, guys, thank you all for joining us today, and we'll see you next time on Jet Fuel. Bye guys.