SPEAKER_00: Tonight, we're coming into the last three chapters of the Gospel of Mark.
SPEAKER_00: And as I said earlier, we've done 52 messages on the Gospel of Mark looking at the life of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: We've called it the messy gospel.
SPEAKER_00: And has it ever been messy?
SPEAKER_00: Jesus led a messy life.
SPEAKER_00: Anybody here had any messes in your life?
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
SPEAKER_00: If you have, that's the Jesus life.
SPEAKER_00: Life is not easy.
SPEAKER_00: I hope you teach if you have children that you train them in the ways of how hard life is.
SPEAKER_00: Life is tough.
SPEAKER_00: Life is difficult.
SPEAKER_00: And when you become a Jesus follower, you kind of put crosshairs on your back.
SPEAKER_00: Satan is after you.
SPEAKER_00: He is the stealer, the killer, and the destroyer.
SPEAKER_00: You now have the Spirit of God living in your life.
SPEAKER_00: And so you become an arch enemy to the demonic world.
SPEAKER_00: And so expect battles.
SPEAKER_00: And so as we look at the life of Jesus, we are looking at one who is coming into his last days in a drama.
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to call it Act One of the drama of the killing of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Act one and the drama of the killing of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And so next week we'll talk about Act Two, the next week Act Three, as we come into the closing of the Gospel of Mark.
SPEAKER_00: So would you turn in your Bibles to Mark chapter 14?
SPEAKER_00: Mark chapter 14.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm going to, Dan, can I hand you this?
SPEAKER_00: Because I just know what I'll do is I like prick myself when I'm moving my arms.
SPEAKER_00: And there'll be blood everywhere, and it'll just seem like I'm trying to reenact this docudrama.
SPEAKER_00: Mark chapter 14, verse 1.
SPEAKER_00: After two days it was the Passover and the feast of unleavened bread.
SPEAKER_00: And the chief priest and the scribes sought how they might take him by trickery, underline, highlight, circle, trickery, and put him to death.
SPEAKER_00: But they said, Not during the feast, lest there be an uproar of the people.
SPEAKER_00: Really interesting passage.
SPEAKER_00: I just, when I was studying this, I couldn't get off this first part.
SPEAKER_00: Especially this word trickery.
SPEAKER_00: Trickery actually means treachery.
SPEAKER_00: So if you're if you if you're one of those Bibles, you know, where you actually can write in the margins, you might put over the side, circle trickery, and put treachery.
SPEAKER_00: This, there is treachery going on.
SPEAKER_00: And guys, trickery and treachery is Satan's way.
SPEAKER_00: That's what he does.
SPEAKER_00: He loves trickery and treachery, and he works best in a crowd.
SPEAKER_00: It's called mob rule.
SPEAKER_00: And it happens in churches all the time.
SPEAKER_00: It happens in businesses all the time.
SPEAKER_00: Some of you young people have been bullied at school, and I'll bet you, even if there's one guy, he's probably got this cadre of other people around him.
SPEAKER_00: You personally have been made fun of, or you've been in situations where there's always kind of this mob rule.
SPEAKER_00: There's this group.
SPEAKER_00: And so it's this is this is this is chief priest and scribes.
SPEAKER_00: This is a group of at least a hundred.
SPEAKER_00: And this is not whether they're gonna go after Jesus and kill him.
SPEAKER_00: It's now they're looking for the timing and how they might do it.
SPEAKER_00: And trickery and tre and and um and the treachery of Satan is always done in the dark, and so they can't do it in the light because of the uproar of the people.
SPEAKER_00: Remember, we're we're only a few days.
SPEAKER_00: We're probably only two days away, maybe three days away from Calm Sunday, where you know Jesus came in and everybody's hailing him, the king of the Jews, and they're laying down their coats and they're laying down palm branches in honor of him like he's a king.
SPEAKER_00: And so at this point, Jesus is still very, very popular in Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: It's interesting, the same word for treachery is found in Psalm 78, talking about Israel, where we read, Israel turned back and acted unfaithfully like their fathers.
SPEAKER_00: Listen to this.
SPEAKER_00: They were turned aside like a deceitful bow.
SPEAKER_00: Like a deceitful bow.
SPEAKER_00: Vance, you're an archer, you're a bow hunter.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, the image we have in Psalm 78 is that there can be a deceitful bow.
SPEAKER_00: And a deceitful bow sends out deceitful arrows.
SPEAKER_00: And so deception is what deceivers do.
SPEAKER_00: And so the picture of Israel and their rebellion is that they are, they have a bow that is of trickery, of treachery.
SPEAKER_00: And so when you gave your heart to Christ, guess what?
SPEAKER_00: You know, the target is now on your back.
SPEAKER_00: And the enemy's always looking for individuals that he can pull back and just drive an arrow into your heart.
SPEAKER_00: And every one of us has taken arrows to the heart.
SPEAKER_00: Today I had some middle schoolers.
SPEAKER_00: You know, we were at our house at this middle school D group, and we decided to change the format and not follow what we have in our PB and J bookmark, and we did uh we did David and Goliath.
SPEAKER_00: So we did 1 Samuel 17.
SPEAKER_00: And one of the things that was interesting about 1 Samuel 17 is David, if you recall, he comes into the Valley of Elah, and then he says, Well, I mean, will anybody take on Goliath?
SPEAKER_00: Will anybody fight him?
SPEAKER_00: And his older brother Eliab, and we were kind of figuring out the numbers.
SPEAKER_00: Let's say there were about two-year gaps of eight brothers, so he's probably about 29, and David's probably about 13.
SPEAKER_00: And Eliab just begins to go after his younger brother, and he says, You deceitful of heart.
SPEAKER_00: You came here to look at the battle.
SPEAKER_00: And we talked about the fact that's how Satan works, guys.
SPEAKER_00: He goes after your heart, and it's usually someone you know.
SPEAKER_00: And it's usually someone you thought you could trust, and they send those arrows into your heart.
SPEAKER_00: For some of you, it was your father.
SPEAKER_00: For some of you, it was your mother.
SPEAKER_00: But every one of us has taken arrows to the heart, and it's painful.
SPEAKER_00: This is what Satan does.
SPEAKER_00: Let me give you three things I see here about trickery, three things about Satan's ways.
SPEAKER_00: You know, we talk about God's ways.
SPEAKER_00: Well, Satan's got some ways.
SPEAKER_00: And here this summer, we're gonna go into spiritual warfare.
SPEAKER_00: I'm calling that series this summer, war.
SPEAKER_00: And we're gonna talk about Satan and demons and how they work.
SPEAKER_00: But here's three right, right, that I see just in our passage alone.
SPEAKER_00: Number one, Satan fears exposure.
SPEAKER_00: Satan fears exposure.
SPEAKER_00: So these guys have got their little plan they're hatching in some back room somewhere.
SPEAKER_00: Number two, Satan fears light.
SPEAKER_00: Satan fears the light.
SPEAKER_00: Most of his work is done in darkness.
SPEAKER_00: And then thirdly, Satan fears truth.
SPEAKER_00: Satan fears truth.
SPEAKER_00: So when you get in a dialogue where the issue is an issue of truth or falsehood, Satan and demons fear that.
SPEAKER_00: They'll try to avoid that, and in so doing, cover themselves.
SPEAKER_00: So this is the ways of Satan.
SPEAKER_00: How do you counter it?
SPEAKER_00: We're going to watch how you counter it.
SPEAKER_00: You counter it with exposure, you encounter it with light, and you encounter it with truth.
SPEAKER_00: And being in Bethany, at the house of Simon the Leper, as he sat at the table, a woman came having an alabaster flask of very costly oil of spike nard.
SPEAKER_00: Then she broke the flask and poured it on his head.
SPEAKER_00: Well, in John's gospel, this is Mary of Bethany.
SPEAKER_00: So everybody agrees in commentators that this is the same situation.
SPEAKER_00: And so this is Lazarus' sister.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, Mary of Bethany's pretty cool.
SPEAKER_00: She's watched her brother Lazarus raised from the dead by Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: She has worshipped at his feet.
SPEAKER_00: She's always at his feet.
SPEAKER_00: Mary's always at his feet.
SPEAKER_00: Remember, she's the one with her sister Martha that chooses the better way to listen to Jesus and to eyeball him and to be focused on him while Martha did all the work.
SPEAKER_00: You remember that dialogue?
SPEAKER_00: That's Mary.
SPEAKER_00: This is Mary.
SPEAKER_00: So not at her house this time.
SPEAKER_00: Mary shows up.
SPEAKER_00: So she shows up at this guy Simon's house and she takes this beautiful, very fragrant perfume, and she pours it over his head.
SPEAKER_00: And this perfume is referenced all through scripture.
SPEAKER_00: But we have some folks in this church that are really into essential oils.
SPEAKER_00: And since I injured my calf a few months ago, I'm now into essential oils.
SPEAKER_00: Let me believe it or not.
SPEAKER_00: And I you guys always hear me about my prayer walks.
SPEAKER_00: I'm always injured.
SPEAKER_00: And uh somewhere like three weeks ago I did something, and it was my ankle, and uh, so now I've got a sore ankle.
SPEAKER_00: So now I'm back on the Adams essential oils.
SPEAKER_00: So I looked it up, and so the spike nard comes from the nard oil, which was used as a perfume, an incense, a sedative, and an herbal medicine at that time, and it came from India.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 4.
SPEAKER_00: But there were some who were indignant among themselves and said, Why was this fragrant oil wasted?
SPEAKER_00: For it might have been sold for more than 300 denarii and given to the poor, and they criticized her sharply.
SPEAKER_00: So here comes Mary, 300 denari, which one denarii was one day's wages.
SPEAKER_00: So she basically took a year's worth of wages in this alabaster box of this spike nard and just gives it all to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Is there a more beautiful picture of worship?
SPEAKER_00: Costly worship, giving it all to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Now, guess who?
SPEAKER_00: Guess who we know from other passages in the gospel is the one who's criticizing her.
SPEAKER_00: Does anybody know?
SPEAKER_00: Judas.
SPEAKER_00: Wow, he's he's he's really a man of integrity on issues of finances.
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna find out in just a second.
SPEAKER_00: Here's what most believe.
SPEAKER_00: Many believe that this was Mary's dowry.
SPEAKER_00: That she had been saving this all her life because she's not married.
SPEAKER_00: She lives with Martha, her sister, and her brother Lazarus.
SPEAKER_00: And so here's probably about 60 is current financial vernacular, 60 to$70,000, just gives it to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And by the way, if anybody want to give that to the road, we'll be we'll just be blessed by that.
SPEAKER_00: But but listen, this being on a serious note here, there's only two people in this last week or so of G in Jesus' life that he actually commends.
SPEAKER_00: Do you remember that when he went into the temple, there's an old lady who comes into the treasury and she puts like less than a penny, like an eighth of a penny in the box, and then Jesus commends her.
SPEAKER_00: And nobody else noticed because he said she gave, remember, everything she had.
SPEAKER_00: And then he commends this woman, two women on Mother's Day.
SPEAKER_00: But two women, because he looks at her and he probably knows that was her dowry.
SPEAKER_00: Man, I just wanted to unpack this.
SPEAKER_00: I thought I don't have time because I want to cover more of the passage.
SPEAKER_00: But there is something of Mary's heart here that we need in our lives, church.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is her husband.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is her life.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is her focus.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus, she pours out all that she has unto him.
SPEAKER_00: In two weeks, we're gonna go in there, we're gonna have worship, we're gonna have a service, we're gonna go in there, we're gonna celebrate one-year anniversary, and some of us are gonna stay in here when we could be sleeping, when we could be going out to hang out, and we're gonna and we're gonna pray and we're gonna worship, and we're gonna pray, and we're gonna worship.
SPEAKER_00: Why do we do that?
SPEAKER_00: What a waste of time by the world's standards.
SPEAKER_00: Because he's deserving of all of our focus and all of our wholehearted devotion.
SPEAKER_00: That's why we do it.
SPEAKER_00: But men and women, when you come into worship, when I get done here and I'm and I'm finished, and we go back into worship, you know, I adjure you, I encourage you, I I would I would strengthen your hearts to say, just drop your stuff and really focus.
SPEAKER_00: For some, it's, you know, hands down, it's fine, because it's not the it's not the position of the body, it's the attitude of the heart.
SPEAKER_00: For some it's it's upraised hands, but give yourself when you come back here to worship.
SPEAKER_00: Each morning when you get up in the morning before you go to work, give yourself at least briefly to God's word and and to worship.
SPEAKER_00: Something, there's a transaction that's happening in the heavenlies when we worship like that.
SPEAKER_00: So Jesus said, This is great, let her alone.
SPEAKER_00: Why do you trouble her?
SPEAKER_00: She has done a good work for me.
SPEAKER_00: You have the poor with you always, and whenever you wish, you may do them good, but me you do not have always.
SPEAKER_00: She has done what she could.
SPEAKER_00: She has come beforehand to anoint my body for burial.
SPEAKER_00: Assuredly I say to you, wherever this gospel is preached in the whole world, what this woman has done will also be told as a memorial to her.
SPEAKER_00: My goodness.
SPEAKER_00: So now for six months, this is the fourth time Jesus has predicted his death.
SPEAKER_00: Martha gets it.
SPEAKER_00: The disciples don't.
SPEAKER_00: The chief priests don't.
SPEAKER_00: The scribes don't.
SPEAKER_00: Pilate doesn't.
SPEAKER_00: He's clueless of everything.
SPEAKER_00: And she notices him, and she's realizing his days are numbered.
SPEAKER_00: He's told us that.
SPEAKER_00: And so she takes all that she has, she pours it upon him in worship to him.
SPEAKER_00: And I just I just love this part.
SPEAKER_00: Look at it with me, you guys.
SPEAKER_00: It says, um with you always, and wherever you wish, you may do them good.
SPEAKER_00: But me you do not have always.
SPEAKER_00: She has done what she could.
SPEAKER_00: She has come beforehand to anoint my body.
SPEAKER_00: She comes beforehand to anoint my body.
SPEAKER_00: So here's why I think that's significant.
SPEAKER_00: He hasn't died yet.
SPEAKER_00: He hasn't gone to the cross yet.
SPEAKER_00: And yet, there is some kind of a transaction in the spiritual realm between Jesus and Mary.
SPEAKER_00: That Mary picks up on something.
SPEAKER_00: She knows something's about to happen.
SPEAKER_00: She has divine intelligence that he's going to the cross.
SPEAKER_00: Others don't, because she's a worshiper.
SPEAKER_00: And men and women, we become worshipers.
SPEAKER_00: God downloads information.
SPEAKER_00: God downloads his heart into our heart.
SPEAKER_00: And worship is our heart, connecting heart to heart with his heart.
SPEAKER_00: And there is this, there is this divine connection that occurs.
SPEAKER_00: Worship by the world's standards, listen, guys, is a waste of time.
SPEAKER_00: Mary has chosen to waste her life to follow Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Are you willing?
SPEAKER_00: Are you willing to waste your life for Christ?
SPEAKER_00: Dietrich Bonhoffer, pastor, martyr, spy, during the rise of the Nazi regime, the Nationalist Socialist Party in Germany in the 1930s, Lutheran pastor gave his life to try to destroy Hitler, developed a church movement called the Confessing Church.
SPEAKER_00: And in his great book, and mine is just torn apart, I just got a new one.
SPEAKER_00: The book Cost of Discipleship, which I would highly recommend to all of you to look at.
SPEAKER_00: It'll be one of our prominent books in our library when we get that done, is The Cost of Discipleship by Bonhoeffer, said this.
SPEAKER_00: And it just so resonated with me again when I was reading about Mary and her worship, and I was thinking about that woman in the treasury who gave all that she had into the treasury.
SPEAKER_00: Listen to these words from Bonhoeffer.
SPEAKER_00: Cheap grace is the deadly enemy of the church.
SPEAKER_00: We are fighting today for costly grace.
SPEAKER_00: Cheap grace means grace sold on the market like cheap wares.
SPEAKER_00: The sacraments, the forgiveness of sin, and the consolation of religion are thrown away at cut prices.
SPEAKER_00: Grace without limits.
SPEAKER_00: Grace without price.
SPEAKER_00: Grace without cost.
SPEAKER_00: Cheap grace means the justification of sin.
SPEAKER_00: Don't miss this, really important point.
SPEAKER_00: Justification of sin without the justification of the sinner.
SPEAKER_00: Grace alone does everything they say, and so everything can remain just the same.
SPEAKER_00: The Christian can just live like the rest of the world.
SPEAKER_00: But costly grace is the treasure hidden in the field.
SPEAKER_00: For the sake of it, a man will gladly go and sell all that he has.
SPEAKER_00: It is the pearl of great price to buy, which the merchant will sell all his goods.
SPEAKER_00: It is the kingly rule of Christ, for whose sake a man will pluck out the eye which causes him to stumble.
SPEAKER_00: It is the call of Jesus Christ, at which the disciple leaves his nets and follows him.
SPEAKER_00: Such grace is costly because it calls us to follow.
SPEAKER_00: And it's grace because it calls us to follow Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: It is costly because it cost a man his life.
SPEAKER_00: And it is grace because it gives a man the only true life.
SPEAKER_00: Men and women.
SPEAKER_00: Mary understands costly grace, and the disciples are still living in cheap grace.
SPEAKER_00: Look at verse 10.
SPEAKER_00: Then Judas Iscariot, one of the twelve, went to the chief priest to betray him to them.
SPEAKER_00: So this is a guy who just said, Well, what are we doing with all this anointing all?
SPEAKER_00: $70,000 worth of anointing all.
SPEAKER_00: Why don't we give it to the poor?
SPEAKER_00: And when they heard it, they were glad and they promised to give him money.
SPEAKER_00: So he sought how he might conveniently betray him.
SPEAKER_00: So Jesus, who had just criticized the finances, is actually about to take finances to betray Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: So he's obviously a hypocrite.
SPEAKER_00: Listen, guys, Satan always works through betrayal.
SPEAKER_00: Betrayal is a great tool of the enemy.
SPEAKER_00: And if you haven't been betrayed, it's coming.
SPEAKER_00: Betrayal hurts because it's always a friend.
SPEAKER_00: People you trusted.
SPEAKER_00: And so all of us have been betrayed, or you will be betrayed.
SPEAKER_00: And it really, really hurts because the thing about betrayal is that in most cases, you have given your heart to someone, and then they stabbed you with your heart.
SPEAKER_00: And so Satan works through betrayal.
SPEAKER_00: Moses was betrayed, David was betrayed, and now Jesus is betrayed.
SPEAKER_00: So Satan's way here is betrayal and rebellion, and God's way is always loyalty and submission.
SPEAKER_00: And you're going to be tempted to betray others.
SPEAKER_00: Now listen to this, this is really important.
SPEAKER_00: And we look at Jesus and we go, wow.
SPEAKER_00: Or we look at our own lives and go, wow, but have you betrayed Jesus?
SPEAKER_00: Well, all of us, if we're honest, we have to say we have.
SPEAKER_00: Are you being tempted right now to betray someone that loves you?
SPEAKER_00: And that someone has given their heart to you.
SPEAKER_00: Let me just say this.
SPEAKER_00: All betrayal is demonic.
SPEAKER_00: And it always looks good for the betrayer because you don't betray unless there's some benefit to you.
SPEAKER_00: But you'll always get caught.
SPEAKER_00: Because God hates betrayal.
SPEAKER_00: God hates it.
SPEAKER_00: And so if you're being tempted to betray a colleague or to betray your husband or to betray your wife or to betray a friend, just remember Pastor Steve told you it's always demonic.
SPEAKER_00: Run from it, confess it, and get it right.
SPEAKER_00: Get right.
SPEAKER_00: Loyalty, submission, love, forgiveness, I don't care what they've done to you, always wins.
SPEAKER_00: There's always blessing on that.
SPEAKER_00: Believe me, it works.
SPEAKER_00: Now, on the first day of unleavened bread when they killed the Passover lamb, his disciples said to him, Where do you want us to go and prepare that we?
SPEAKER_00: We may eat the Passover.
SPEAKER_00: So this is either Wednesday or Thursday, according to your view of that Passover of that year.
SPEAKER_00: Some believe it was Wednesday because of the three days in the tomb issue that he was actually killed on Thursday.
SPEAKER_00: We might call that Good Thursday.
SPEAKER_00: Actually, in the liturgical church, it's called Monday Thursday.
SPEAKER_00: So we don't know exactly which day it was, but there's different theories on that.
SPEAKER_00: But it's the first day of the Passover lamb who is killed, and Jesus is about to be killed, foreshadowing the prophetic nature of the Passover meal.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 13.
SPEAKER_00: And he sent two of his disciples and said to them, Go into the city, and a man will meet you carrying a pitcher of water, follow him.
SPEAKER_00: Now that's really weird because women carried the pitchers of water at that time.
SPEAKER_00: So it's very noticeable there's going to be a man carrying a pitcher of water, not a woman.
SPEAKER_00: Wherever he goes in, say to the master of the house, the teacher says, Where is the guest room in which I may eat the Passover with my disciples?
SPEAKER_00: Then he will show you a large upper room furnished and prepared, there, make ready for us.
SPEAKER_00: Now, tradition believes that this is actually Mark's home.
SPEAKER_00: So Mark, who's writing this gospel, he was not one of the Lamb's twelve, but he's probably one of the 120 on the outskirts.
SPEAKER_00: This is his home.
SPEAKER_00: So he's an eyewitness of what he's writing.
SPEAKER_00: So his disciples went out, came into the city, found it just as he had said to them, and they prepared the Passover.
SPEAKER_00: In the evening he came with the twelve.
SPEAKER_00: So Jesus, the Passover lamb, is foreshadowing his coming death through taking the Passover on the day that the Passover Lamb is killed.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 18.
SPEAKER_00: Now as they sat and ate, Jesus said, Asurely I say to you, one of you who eats with me will betray me.
SPEAKER_00: So it's not going to be just Judas betraying him.
SPEAKER_00: It's going to be everyone.
SPEAKER_00: They began to be sorrowful and say to him one by one, Is it I?
SPEAKER_00: And I said, Is it I?
SPEAKER_00: And he answered and he said to them, Is one of the twelve who dips with me in the dish.
SPEAKER_00: The Son of Man indeed goes just as it is written of him.
SPEAKER_00: But woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed.
SPEAKER_00: It would have been good for that man had he never been born.
SPEAKER_00: So the custom of dipping the bread in the bowl was a sign of devotion and commitment.
SPEAKER_00: You know, probably the worst story of antiquity, of betrayal, is the story of the Last Supper.
SPEAKER_00: Here's Judas right there, and everybody's going to betray him, basically, at the table, but he's actually going to dip in the same bowl with Jesus as a sign of devotion, a sign of commitment, a sign of loyalty, and yet he's already conjuring up his deceptive plan.
SPEAKER_00: But isn't it cool that even if you've been betrayed, and I'm not neglecting the fact, I mean, that's not God's perfect will.
SPEAKER_00: Any kind of betrayal is not God's perfect will, but that even in betrayal, God can carry out his plan.
SPEAKER_00: That whether you've been betrayed through divorce or you've been betrayed through adultery, or you've been betrayed at work.
SPEAKER_00: Man, I've known dozens of guys that have, you know, built companies, and then kind of the second in charge figures out a way to kind of steal the company away and they get ripped off.
SPEAKER_00: God can still use that.
SPEAKER_00: God's working in this, you guys.
SPEAKER_00: God's at work in your betrayal.
SPEAKER_00: You may have been betrayed as a youngster, may have been raped, may have been beaten, may have had stuff stolen from you that goes to the very heart of who you are.
SPEAKER_00: God can redeem that.
SPEAKER_00: And he will teach you stuff at a level that others maybe haven't had to experience because he's going to use you to bring healing to others.
SPEAKER_00: So God's in charge here.
SPEAKER_00: This is my body.
SPEAKER_00: Then he took the cup, and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them, and they all drank from it.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 24.
SPEAKER_00: And he said to them, This is my blood of the new covenant.
SPEAKER_00: We just read that in Jeremiah 31.
SPEAKER_00: A new covenant, which is shed for many.
SPEAKER_00: As surely I say to you, I will no longer drink of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it anew in the kingdom of God.
SPEAKER_00: And when they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.
SPEAKER_00: Well, here's the new covenant.
SPEAKER_00: Let me read from Jeremiah 31.
SPEAKER_00: We just we just did this in our reading.
SPEAKER_00: Behold, the days are coming, so this is now the day, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to lead them over to the hand, the land of Egypt, my covenant which they broke, though I was a husband to them, says the Lord, but this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel.
SPEAKER_00: After those days, says the Lord, I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
SPEAKER_00: No more shall every man teach his neighbor and every man his brother, says the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Know the Lord, for they shall know me.
SPEAKER_00: Guys, you know him.
SPEAKER_00: You know the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: When you gave your heart to Christ, the Spirit of God came into your heart.
SPEAKER_00: You have a new heart.
SPEAKER_00: That hardened heart is a heart of flesh.
SPEAKER_00: That hardened heart can now hear things from God.
SPEAKER_00: Gang, listen, you can hear things from God.
SPEAKER_00: You can listen for the voice of the Holy Spirit and hear from Him.
SPEAKER_00: Not just in reading His Word, but in visions and dreams, in prophetic utterances, supernatural stuff.
SPEAKER_00: The other day I went into a coffee shop and I knew something about the guy at the bar.
SPEAKER_00: It was like the way it was set up, it's kind of like a bar.
SPEAKER_00: And I don't know.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I knew this guy, he had a Wichita State hat on.
SPEAKER_00: That's kind of weird.
SPEAKER_00: I don't even know about Wichita State.
SPEAKER_00: That was the first game that Isaac, my son, started in on second base.
SPEAKER_00: But anyway, Wichita State.
SPEAKER_00: That's all I know.
SPEAKER_00: So I'm looking at him and I and I knew stuff.
SPEAKER_00: I knew in my heart that this guy is going through a divorce.
SPEAKER_00: And he wasn't wearing a ring.
SPEAKER_00: So made my order, walked up to him, started dialogue, and I said, This is a weird thing.
SPEAKER_00: You know, I I feel like God told me something about you.
SPEAKER_00: And I was like, oh no, it's not this is not gonna go well.
SPEAKER_00: By the look, it's like, oh, I've I've met, you know, a lunatic, religious lunatune has come, you know, and I said, um, this may are I know I know you should have a ring on, but it's if I I felt like this way I always say it, whenever these things happen, I just say, I could be wrong, I probably am wrong.
SPEAKER_00: But I just had this sense that you might be going through a divorce.
SPEAKER_00: I don't even see a ring on your finger, so I'm probably wrong, right?
SPEAKER_00: He goes, No, I I'm married.
SPEAKER_00: I went, oh.
SPEAKER_00: He said, but there's a reason why I'm not wearing the ring.
SPEAKER_00: And so he began to share some stuff about his life, and we had a chance to pray.
SPEAKER_00: Folks, you have that heart.
SPEAKER_00: You have a heart to hear from God.
SPEAKER_00: And if you start living a life where you start, God speak to me today.
SPEAKER_00: God lead me at work, lead me at my job, lead me in my family.
SPEAKER_00: God will speak to you.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, can you imagine the Lord, the what we know of the Lord and all of his love and grace?
SPEAKER_00: We've got this guy down there.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, every day he's bugging me.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, he like he's he's down in Colorado Springs, and he's always saying, God, lead me and guide me.
SPEAKER_00: Man, what a nut.
SPEAKER_00: You know?
SPEAKER_00: God's looking for people like that.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, he's looking for situations with saints who are led by the Spirit, hear from the Spirit, walk in the power of the Spirit, and I'm telling you guys, God can use us to change our world through the power of the new covenant.
SPEAKER_00: And so here tonight, we're gonna take the bread and we're gonna take the juice because it's symbolic as well as spiritual powers on this for this new heart of a new covenant.
SPEAKER_00: He lives with us.
SPEAKER_00: He's with us right here.
SPEAKER_00: And so you can wake up each morning and say, Jesus, I know you're right here.
SPEAKER_00: God, as I go to work and I've got to go into this situation with my boss, I know you'll be with me.
SPEAKER_00: God, may I, all that I do have integrity on it.
SPEAKER_00: May I not exaggerate over here or lie over there.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna tell the truth.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna have to trust you with it.
SPEAKER_00: See, that's the personal, vital, dynamic, growing relationship we have with Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And that's what this is about.
SPEAKER_00: And so in a few minutes, when the worship team comes up, we're gonna start taking communion.
SPEAKER_00: And we're not just taking communion because that's what you do.
SPEAKER_00: We're taking communion because it represents the covenant of what we're reading here really happened.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus gave his body and he gave his blood for our hearts to be won over by him.
SPEAKER_00: And then Jesus said to them, All of you will be made to stumble because of me this night, for it is written, I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered, but after that I will be raised, and I'll go before you to Galilee.
SPEAKER_00: So again, Jesus prepares them the days ahead about what he's gonna do.
SPEAKER_00: In church, God can prepare us.
SPEAKER_00: God's preparing a way for our lives.
SPEAKER_00: All of us have betrayed Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: All of us have been like the Lamb's twelve.
SPEAKER_00: We've betrayed him.
SPEAKER_00: And yet, through this new covenant that we have with Christ, he's with us in a personal intimacy that we can have.
SPEAKER_00: If you don't have that intimacy tonight, come to him.
SPEAKER_00: And if there's something in your life that you need to repent of, something you need to turn from, turn from it.
SPEAKER_00: But the real drag to be wearing this backpack of bricks, kind of that weight of sin, he just wants to take it, gang.
SPEAKER_00: He just wants it.
SPEAKER_00: Give it to him.
SPEAKER_00: Don't keep living there, don't keep listening to the voice of the enemy.
SPEAKER_00: Don't keep listening to those demonic voices that tell you, oh, you know, you'll be happier over here.
SPEAKER_00: How's it going for you?
SPEAKER_00: I mean, it's always amazing to me with some of the folks we minister to here at the road who just continually do drugs, continually just do their thing, continually just get drunk as a skunk, and have car accidents, go to jail, get beaten up by their boyfriends or their girlfriends, because girlfriends, I'm finding out girlfriends, man, they can beat you just as good as a boyfriend, man.
SPEAKER_00: And then it's like, that's fun.
SPEAKER_00: That's really fun.
SPEAKER_00: Man, Christian life's so boring.
SPEAKER_00: It is boring.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, we actually get up in the morning, we feel pretty good.
SPEAKER_00: You know, we get up in the morning, I feel like I know where my legs and my arms are.
SPEAKER_00: I can actually walk a straight line to the John.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, isn't that amazing?
SPEAKER_00: You know?
SPEAKER_00: And um, sorry, Don, but I just brought back some memories.
SPEAKER_00: Don Hewland just retired.
SPEAKER_00: I was at his party last night and told a few jokes, but I mean, we wake up in the morning and I actually know who my wife is, and I mean she's she's right there.
SPEAKER_00: Um I kind of know I've got a pretty clear idea about my bank accounts.
SPEAKER_00: Um I can actually go outside and smell the air, enjoy the beauty of it all.
SPEAKER_00: My kids generally like me.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, but it'd be it'd be so much more fun to be staggering around and hugging a toilet bowl most of the night.
SPEAKER_00: It's really fun to be just sitting there totally smashed and you don't even know who you're waking up next to.
SPEAKER_00: That's fun.
SPEAKER_00: Or I could, you know, if I if I'm a rock and roll dude, the guys that everybody emulates, we can read about them on the front of People magazine for the next person they impregnated.
SPEAKER_00: Could you, would you like to be in their shoes?
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I read this stuff because I read Rolling Stone every once in a while reading Rolling Stone.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, this this is such a this is a magazine of such joyful people.
SPEAKER_00: Everybody's like, you know, and they've got blood coming out and everything, and it's all painted on there, and it's like I mean, sin makes you stupid.
SPEAKER_00: And I want to say, wow, the deception is real.
SPEAKER_00: So if you're in that boat, quit listening to the lies of the enemy and find true life.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus says, if the enemy comes to steal, kill, and destroy, I came that you might have life and might have an abundance.
SPEAKER_00: That's what I want to go after.
SPEAKER_00: How about you?
SPEAKER_00: So tonight, you guys can come up, the worship team's gonna come up.
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna take communion.
SPEAKER_00: And uh in 1 Corinthians it says, don't take communion if you're if you got an offense against a brother.
SPEAKER_00: Be careful with that.
SPEAKER_00: Don't take communion if you're living in sin.
SPEAKER_00: But get that right first.
SPEAKER_00: Get that right.
SPEAKER_00: So some of you may need to come up here, you may need to kneel down or something, and just get right with God before you take the elements.
SPEAKER_00: If you don't have a personal relationship with Christ, if you don't know Christ as your Lord and Savior, you would ask you refrain.
SPEAKER_00: This is for believers, for Jesus followers.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe this is your time to come to Jesus and get right with Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm gonna be, I'm gonna be like right here where I regularly sit.
SPEAKER_00: And if you want to come up and just say, Steve, I want to give my heart to Christ.
SPEAKER_00: I want to fully follow Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: I want to become a I don't want to be just a Jesus follower.
SPEAKER_00: I don't want to live in the distant world.
SPEAKER_00: I want to know him intimately.
SPEAKER_00: I would, it would be an honor to have the privilege to pray with you to receive Christ.
SPEAKER_00: When I was 18, I was a freshman in college.
SPEAKER_00: A person came up to me and challenged me to give my heart to Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And it took me a little while, but finally there was a night.
SPEAKER_00: And I went to this little chapel near the campus and I gave my heart to Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And man, never regretted it.
SPEAKER_00: Regretted a lot of things, but that's one thing I've never regretted.
SPEAKER_00: Come to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Come to Christ.
SPEAKER_00: He loves you.
SPEAKER_00: So, Father, in the name of the blood of Jesus, we just bless you tonight.
SPEAKER_00: And God, I pray a blessing over the juice and over the bread as we take communion.
SPEAKER_00: And Father, you're doing different stuff in different people's lives.
SPEAKER_00: And I pray, Lord, Holy Spirit, that God, you'd come to your saints, and those that need to give themselves fully to you would do that tonight.
SPEAKER_00: Those that are carrying sin, that they would get right with you.
SPEAKER_00: They would confess that.
SPEAKER_00: Because you say that if we will confess our sins, you are just and righteous, and you will immediately forgive us of our sin and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
SPEAKER_00: Father, I pray that for those that have been betrayed, they still carry the wounds of that betrayal.
SPEAKER_00: Holy Spirit, you would come and begin a work of healing in our hearts.
SPEAKER_00: Let's stand.