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Hey guys, what's it doing? How's it going? I was gonna say how's it going and I said

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and how's it going and what what are you doing lined up with how's it doing?

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Okay so good morning and welcome to 2023. Anyone feel that? Oh yeah I turned 45 this coming Wednesday.

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Yeah I feel 2023. Will you pull me down just a little bit Scott if you don't mind.

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My name is Greg Hampton. If you've never met me before I'd love to to meet you.

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Life in a church is always eventful but if you haven't heard on Christmas Eve in this building

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a sprinkler pipe in the system upstairs from us burst and flooded the large room in our kids

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space and so if you were walking in like why is everything different? It's not just because we're

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like hey we need to change everything because it's new year. It is necessity. We are in the process

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of all of that being fixed and actually Jeff the owner of the building and a member of the church

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he did a really good job of cleaning up the water on the floor and so by the time I came in I

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since it happened Christmas Eve I was talking to him Christmas Eve and I was like I'm not going to

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bother I'm not going to tell the church this on Christmas weekend like this it'll be fine I'll

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come in on Monday I'll take a look we'll start doing insurance stuff so when I came in on on

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Monday like the floor was mostly dry he'd gotten rid of all the water and I thought oh this is

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just going to be some supplies back there that got wet because you could tell where it was still wet

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and then I watched the security camera footage and the the whole room there's just water dripping

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from the ceiling throughout the entire room and so we had insurance adjusters here this week is and

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ours they have to take care of getting the room all the way back up to code we'll eventually

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receive a check from the adjuster to replace and do some fun things for the kids but I do want to

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manage expectations because as you may know just about everyone you know had a pipe burst in their

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house or business this this season it was rather prevalent we just randomly ran into was it you and

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me or was it me we ran into the owners of dead poets coffee and they had had a pipe burst above

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them same thing they had to close for the entire week but because we have children and all that

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stuff in that space it has to be brought back up to a certain level and because all of the companies

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are going to be very busy we need to manage our expectations of how long that's going to take

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okay so it the mitigation has already begun but the reality of replacing the drywall in the

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insulation and taping and mudding and painting and all that other stuff with companies that do that

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we might not be back in there by the summer and so I just want you to kind of we'll do what we

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always do as a church we will adjust we will pull together we will make the lobby the absolute best

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experience that we can for our kids and we as parents will have smiles on our faces as we do

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it right we'll be like kids this is normal this is what families do you got to adjust and then

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hopefully when everything is done we'll be able to do some extra special things for them in that

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space that will make it even more worth the wait okay does that sound good yes one person the tree

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house director the funny thing is about this if it could be funny is that the very first sunday

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that we were ever supposed to have a public service as a church at rock island high school

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there was a water main break outside of the building and i got a call at 1 a.m from the

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uh the custodian and he goes literally he says i don't know why i'm the one that has to tell you

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this but there was a water main break and you can't use the building tomorrow and we had sent out

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70 000 mailers

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so we were expecting hundreds of people right and so i felt the peace about it i even texted with

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pastor jen i said i feel peace about it we'll get up we'll announce on facebook that we have to wait

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another week and uh it'll be okay we'll we'll meet people in the parking lot there are some people

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here a part of this church that that that came through the parking lot on that first sunday that

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are still part of the church today because we decided to meet in some way anyway right and

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yeah so and then the next week we kicked off but actually um today the second sunday of january

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is the anniversary of that day happy birthday y'all we're nine years old right a round of applause

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i guess we just have some kind of water related challenge every nine years

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um but i actually want to do something that i don't think we've ever done that i just want to take

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some time here to do i i want to take this microphone and no matter whether you've been here

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three months nine months or nine years i just want to give some of you the chance to share

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something that you've seen god do through this community and i'm wondering chris will you will

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you be the person that walks the microphone around to people it's on and uh scott will make sure it's

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unmuted so just raise your hand if you'd like to share something you've seen god do

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sometime in the last nine years here at the house a local church oh sweetie raised her hand

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but i will put or we'll put dave on the spot and make him say something

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we'll put or we'll put dave on the spot and make him say something

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sweetie we love you well since i have the mic i guess i'll just say some

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yeah i missed it she did say happy birthday um

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um she's so talk

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um see i got to actually be a part of the the birthing of the house even though it seems like

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i'm newer because i just started a couple years ago i attend regularly but um i remember meeting

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with jen and chris and everybody else at the old hit their house like planning the house and uh just

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getting to watch it grow and then i was actually the chaplain at arrowhead ranch so at the same

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time they guys were having the house i was always at arrowhead ranch in the mornings for 15 years

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so i never really could attend very well but just for me personally being able to

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start a new family and this becoming our new home church it was really meaningful for us because

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just for our girls to come in and feel so welcomed where our other daughter can we wake up and going

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hey we're going to church this morning right and that was new for us and we were just super excited

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about that that she had found a place and the girls found a place where they just feel loved to

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be able to come to and accepted that they feel like this is their home not just our home for

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lian and i so for us it's been really special to be a part of this community and just love and

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appreciate everybody so much so awesome praise god it's very cool very cool yeah

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who else i know we got at least a few people that are just not so introverted that they're

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willing to speak amy amy and randy who should go first amy so i have no idea is this good here

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we have been coming to the church since pre pre-birth but pre-launch in the huckleberry's days

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when uh ruby was an ankle biter and a table biter and all the other things um this has been such an

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incredible experience and i just i always remember talking to jen about it and saying i feel like i

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feel like i'm supposed to be involved somehow and i said that in front of you one time and you were

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like why don't you just hang out with us and see if you even like us first so i did and i do so this has been

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a place for me and my girls of um healing like huge like going through a really bad experience

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in my marriage and having the support to lend me the strength and the belief in myself to get out

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of that and remain standing yeah so thank you for that like all of you have been a part of that

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yeah we love you such a good place yeah

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i remember over at the old church over in rock island um i need to uh i love amy dearly but um

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sometimes you need to get all the right information when you're exiting the church

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right right right

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well we were mariana and i went back to look at the uh behind stage uh-huh at the high school yep

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yeah we were just kind of wandering around and uh amy said well you guys can go out the side door

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over there if you want so we kind of moseyed over there and i kind of pushed my back up to the door

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to let marianne go out first and uh the first step was about five foot down to the loading

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doctor yeah yeah and look he came back yeah and went over to the uh emergency room and much to my

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surprise the uh nurse there said that uh nothing was broke which was amazing yeah awesome very cool

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anyone else

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randy

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this this church has been kind of a a good landing place for us we tried so many churches

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grant heard so many horror stories from me and everything always seemed just right so i think

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we've been here maybe three years yeah and every everything about it seemed um like god math

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i didn't want to i didn't want to separate from our girls and the first time we came in greg

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mentioned that we were having family church because it was summertime so i had a whole summer to find

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out if i trusted you people and then we had coven and somehow it still felt like we were

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a church and came back and everything still felt just right it's been a good a good challenge for

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us in a lot of ways but it it's felt like a landing place over and over thanks brandy

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bradley

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i've spent most of my life being or most of my adult life being pretty transient and moving every

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like six or eight months and um and so anytime i feel like i can finally like find a church and

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get settled in and try to get involved there's been one reason or another where like i wasn't

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allowed to or i couldn't because of doctrinal differences that that came to light when trying

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to get involved and um i think i was here for like maybe maybe three or four weeks before

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i was able to meet with greg and we like just talked about those like beliefs very early

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because i came to learn that like i should probably be up front with these like beliefs

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and differences that often stand in the way of of finding home in church um and and those were

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things that were not even like a concern not even nothing and so um so i was able to feel

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very at home and very welcomed and very affirmed immediately with them finding this place and that's

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such a relief and makes makes like moving knowing no one into this into this area feel so much easier

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when there's there's a church community who's here to support and love immediately we love you

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bradley one more last one maybe one more eric right over here oh okay yeah okay over here and then there

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so i've been coming to this church on and off for the last nine years because i actually you

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mentioned that story and i remember standing out on the off the entrance off the street with a sign

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that said the house like hey we're just meeting at the parking lot but like come say hi to everybody

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uh and that's actually kind of like a really good memory it was a fun day to just kind of come meet

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everybody that i'd be seeing every sunday and then also being able to be as what i was 14 at the time

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and i was able to actually like help and actually be a part of something just right off the bat

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without even really doing anything just showing up he's like hey are you able to do this i was like

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let's go uh and then just throughout the years leaving for college um kind of leaving for work

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moved away for a little bit moved back and every time i came back to the church it was always a big

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smile and a hug from greg and different members from the church like oh welcome back how have you

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been it's always just really welcoming it's great to be here every sunday so love the church love

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coming back thanks love you guys and then eric last one eric

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um for me one of the things that i love about this place is being able to contribute to it

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in whatever capacity there there that there is needed and one of them is that uh when we first

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got this place um if you look straight up you can see the vertical beams and you'll see these little

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beady holes there were nails and you can see the little holes in the middle of the building and

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straight up you can see the vertical beams and you'll see these little beady holes there were nails

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coming through those and i don't know what was connected beneath this but i spent time on like a

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scaffold pulling nails out of this entire sort of area here and it actually felt really good

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to do so as far as again contributing to you know the church home that i was extremely excited about

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it's awesome thanks guys so it's it is the beginning of a new year oh my dad my dad here you go

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stand close in case he says something you shouldn't say take the mic

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and this is what i like about this

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we laugh and the fact that there are three different people that preach

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yeah a variety it's never boring i have not heard of the old church i went to the same person was

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teaching every week so and all the people that volunteer when things need to be done

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there's never a lack of volunteers i think that's great thanks dad i love you

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all right so okay well county my mother-in-law

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my mother-in-law is what happened when you open it up one more i still got a sermon preach

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greg i love that our church is grounded so in prayer it started years before you came

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and it has grown and grown and brought us together as a family and we've seen miracles

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and we've seen god's hand in so many situations throughout all of this and we've all grown through

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it and i think that when people walk in the door they feel the holy spirit here and we haven't

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lost sight of that and that's what i like best about our family here so thank you love you county

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all right brendan was just gonna say hi dad hey man love you

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thanks man all right so this is the beginning of year 10 so we'll see what god has for us i know

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that we are going to be going through the gospel of mark for a while and so i just this is going

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to be kind of an intro message for mark it's going to show you some things that are happening if

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you're a bible nerd you're going to be like oh i oh if if you're not this leans a little bit more

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into teaching than just preaching so those of you that like that you're gonna be like oh i really

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got what i wanted uh today uh the gospel according to mark is traditionally attributed to a man named

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john mark we don't really know for sure if he was jewish if he was greek scholars disagree about

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what city he wrote it in uh precisely what year but we know that this book came first it's it's

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not first in the new testament if you if you open in the new testament starts with the book of

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matthew matthew mark luke john it's second for some reason a lot of people think that because

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of the subject matter and the the overall theme of matthew is the reason that they ordered it that

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way but but mark is actually the oldest it's actually the first one that was ever written

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and put into circulation i just want you to think about that right now there are at least five

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billion copies of the bible on earth five billion and then that's not including like all the other

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books that are about jesus that are just scattered across the earth i would feel like it's possible

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that there's at least one book about jesus for every person on earth but mark wrote the first one

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it's the first one that was in circulation that someone could go hey you got a copy of that thing

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that that guy wrote about that guy i really want to read that you couldn't just go to a bookstore

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and pick up one of a plethora uh do you know what a plethora is sorry that's a callback to a movie

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um but mark wrote the first one and then of course uh matthew and luke plagiarized half of it for

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their books i mean word for word word for word this is why the uh that's a little bible nerd humor

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as well but literally that's why matthew luke and and mark are called the synoptic gospels because

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they are in sync they have so much in common literally word for word you can find passages

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and stories that maybe but one word here and one word there is a direct copy from the book

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of mark now of course mark wasn't telling his own story he did because he wasn't actually one of

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the original disciples he didn't see most of or any of this happen so why did he write a gospel

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and why do we take his word for it right so back in 2021 i meant i mentioned mark in one of our

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sermons that we were doing when we were going through the book of acts because mark is the one

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that was on a mission with with paul and barnabas but he left early he's the one that when paul and

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barnabas were going to go out on ministry again barnabas wanted to take mark and paul was like

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and paul was like not that traitor not that guy that abandoned us i'm not taking him anywhere

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he didn't say exactly that but it does say that they they disagreed sharply that they argued

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with each other and that they split ways and they quit doing ministry together but then what happens

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that mark ends up spending a lot of time with peter who is one of the original disciples and

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so when you read the book of mark no disciple is mentioned more than peter because mark is telling

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peter's version of the story this is why one of the reasons that we trust it because mark is writing

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down the firsthand accounts of one of the original disciples mark is also the shortest gospel the

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fewest words the fewest chapters one of the main reasons that it is so much shorter than matthew

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and luke is because those two books start with what we think of as christmas stories they begin

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with the birth of jesus it begins with the angels it tells these genealogies it talks about zachariah

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it talks about um elizabeth it talks about all the other characters that are part of the story but

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mark skips all of it mark skips straight to jesus being an adult and it doesn't mean that mark has

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been careless though it means that he's being precise it is a fact at least for me it is much

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more difficult to write a short sermon than a long one uh john bray some of you know who that is would

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say that his dad told him preach about god and preach about 20 minutes 30 40 minute sermons are

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way easier than 20 minute ones because you can ramble with 20 you have to be precise there's no

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wasted words there's no meandering or rabbit trails or greg hampton moments of oh i just thought of a

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stupid joke i'll say right here so just like that that's not in my notes it's not in my notes i just

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thought oh i'll say that right now and so i did and i just added 27 seconds to this message

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so the gospel according to mark is really kind of like the 20 minute sermon of the gospels

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it's specific it's precise it's rich but it also has deeper meaning everywhere you look

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there's deeper meaning because mark is thinking like an author he's telling a story and he's

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telling it in a specific way to a specific audience assuming that they already know some

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things about jesus and about history of the jewish people think about it like this

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think about it like this you know when you run into an old friend that grew up in the same

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neighborhood as you it happens every now and again i got two friends that we grow up with

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me adam and mike we got in a lot of trouble together right you you you run into this person

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and you have this ability to speak in shorthand you you can mention the old neighborhood dog

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and instantly know that they're remembering the same nine stories that you're remembering

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that's what mark does over and over again mark writes like you grew up in the same neighborhood

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that this is based in so that when he says certain things you're supposed to know the stories behind

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them this past year our men's group actually went through the book of mark on tuesday nights and over

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and over again we would find ourselves in the deep end of a story that would easily miss

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if you weren't taking your time to wade past the surface and so these next few months we're going

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to take a look into the scriptures we're going to take a look into the book of of mark to see what

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peter was telling mark and what mark is telling us about jesus and maybe we'll see some of the

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things under the surface as well along the way it's going to be primarily something that i do

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today and we're going to see why it still matters to our lives today okay so we're going to see

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what matters to our lives today okay all right so let's open up our bibles if you have a physical

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copy uh open it up to the book of mark obviously because we're doing the book of mark if you don't

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have a copy we have them on the bookshelf out in the lobby you can take one home with you today or

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open a digital uh bible app we're going to be in mark chapter one we have a tradition of giving the

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scriptures our full attention one of the ways we can do that is by standing together if you are

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if you desire if you are able and we'll do that now if you don't mind staying with me as you

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as you would like mark one starting verse one says this the beginning of the good news about

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jesus the messiah the son of god as it is written in isaiah the prophet i will send my messenger

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ahead of you who will prepare your way a voice of one calling in the wilderness prepare the way for

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the lord make straight paths for him and so john the baptist appeared in the wilderness preaching

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a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins the whole judian countryside and all the

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people of jerusalem went out to him confessing their sins they were baptized by him in the jordan

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river john wore clothing made of camel's hair with a leather belt around his waist and he ate locusts

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and wild honey and this was his message after me comes the one more powerful than i the straps of

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whose sandals i'm not worthy to stoop down and untie i baptize you with water but he will baptize

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you with the holy spirit at that time jesus came from nazareth and gallilee and was baptized by

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john in the jordan just as jesus was coming up out of the water he saw heaven being torn open

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and the spirit descending on him like a dove and a voice came from heaven you are my son whom i love

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with you i am well pleased at once the spirit sent him out into the wilderness and he was in

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the wilderness 40 days being tempted by satan he was with the wild animals and angels attended him

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let's pray god of every tribe every tongue every color every nation we thank you that these

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scriptures exist they have persisted throughout the millennia that we have them to read to learn

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from to look deeper into and i pray that whatever you have for us to learn today i pray that it would

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stick that it would become a part of the framework of our faith that our faith would become stronger

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that we would become more like your son jesus amen amen you can have a seat thanks

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okay so the rest of the time i'm talking everything that i say keep thinking new beginnings

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new beginnings everything i say have that in the back of your head new beginnings verse one

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what are the first words in the first gospel ever written

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the beginning yeah the beginning at least two books two other books in the scriptures begin

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with those words anyone genesis and john right john comes after this book so who knows maybe john had

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an original idea or he was like hey i like how mark is is then the other one is genesis

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the first gospel begins with the words in the beginning or the beginning and the first book

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of the bible starts with in the beginning it says this in the beginning god created the heavens and

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the earth now the earth was formless and empty darkness was over the surface of the deep

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and the spirit of god was hovering over the waters almost sounds familiar doesn't it

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mark is doing this on purpose his entire opening is a kind of call back to the creation story

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and so the same way that genesis is meant to build anticipation in the beginning oh in the beginning

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what in the beginning god created the heavens and the earth oh and then what happened oh then the

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earth was formless in the water and the spirit was hovering above it and then he said let there be

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like there's this anticipation that builds in the way that the writer is writing and mark is wanting

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you to have the same anticipation as he's telling his story mark is telling you to have the same

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anticipation as he's telling his story mark is saying this is a new beginning doesn't replace

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the first beginning but it builds on it you're meant to remember that beginning as you're reading

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about this beginning then he mentions isaiah why okay so isaiah is the prophet that spoke for god

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when right before the first major exiles began right before israel started getting pushed out

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of their own land and isaiah was from the northern kingdom of israel now remember king david united

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the northern and southern parts of the kingdom as one kingdom and then his son solomon ruled

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somewhat heavy-handedly put a lot of pressure on the people didn't hand power off very well when he

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was dying and then it splits back into two kingdoms now both in the northern kingdom takes the name

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10 tribes in the north take the name israel they keep that name and the two tribes in the south

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that had jerusalem in it take the name juda it's important to know now both kingdoms eventually end

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up in exile but the northern kingdom of israel was defeated first isaiah the prophet is the one that

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was warning them that this was coming but when you read scriptures like this you see that he wasn't

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just warning them that something bad was going to happen he was also pointing to their future hope

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you cannot read the scriptures and see someone in the new testament mention isaiah without thinking

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about the future hope that isaiah spoke about isaiah was the most prevalent book in any synagogue

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the most copies of an old testament book of a hebru text is isaiah

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isaiah is the one that points to this concept this idea that there will be a messiah

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what were the first verse the beginning of the story of jesus the messiah

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so he's pointing to a messiah but he's also pointing to the one that would prepare the way for

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that messiah and that's what we see in verse four mark is saying that the messiah is the one that

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will prepare the way for mark is saying the future that isaiah was talking about is being fulfilled

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in john the baptist and it's clear as you read all the gospels in particular this one it's clear

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that john sees himself that way because he says i baptize in this way but another is coming i'm

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not even worthy to touch his sandals this is how much greater that he is than me because he's going

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something that is fully godly not just water but with the holy spirit he sees himself as this

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forerunner and he says another one that's more powerful is coming and then we meet him then we

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meet that one that is coming guys this is great writing in eight verses think about this in eight

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verses we're told who this story is about we're told where this story began we're introduced to

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one of the most memorable figures in all the scriptures we're told what he looks like what

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he wears what he's doing and we're told what's happening and why it's happening in the passage

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of eight verses and then we meet jesus even though you might miss some of the deeper layers even if

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you know nothing else about the bible you still can understand what's going on it's great

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it's great writing yeah verse nine is where we get to meet jesus and the density of the way that

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mark is writing continues when he introduces jesus the intentionality to hoping that you will see

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other things what do i mean so for some reason mark thought it was important to mention where

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jesus was from right doesn't tell us where john is from says that he's baptizing at the temple

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says that he's baptizing at the jordan but that doesn't mean that that's where he's from

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he wants us to know where he's from in what region and then why he came he says jesus came from the

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town of nazareth in the region of galilee to be baptized by john okay so think about the two

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kingdoms again i was talking about before before the exile okay you've got the 10 tribes of israel

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up north you've got the two tribes of juda in the south the region of galilee okay classroom question

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region of galilee the town of nazareth was which was in which kingdom you got 50 50 chance

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it's in the north okay and think about galilee is like a county okay a lot of a lot of people

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grew up in the church thinking galilee is a city or a town nazareth is like a town inside the county

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of galilee okay so he's coming from a town up north but the messiah is meant to come from the

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line of the king of david and david is from the tribe of juda which was in the south jesus in his

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body and in his geography is literally a bridge between the north and the south he's literally a

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physical connection between the two halves of the kingdom that had been divided and then jesus is

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baptized but why okay so for a couple reasons i mean when you read the other gospels they show

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this story and they tell a little bit more of what happens and john actually goes why would i

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baptize you and jesus says for is to complete all things but here in this story the impression that

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we get is because first it's not only jesus isn't only god jesus is also human as christians we

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believe that jesus is fully god 100 and fully human 100 somehow he is fully united as those

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two things and so at the beginning of his ministry he's doing what all the other humans are doing

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he's going and he's making a public declaration of what he believes but again there's more to

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that remember new beginnings mark wants us to think back to the new creation to the first creation

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in the beginning god created the heavens and the earth and the earth was formless and when genesis

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and when genesis names the first element on earth even before he speaks light into creation

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what was it does anybody know

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no we got before light he created the heavens and the earth and the water the earth was formless

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and the spirit of god was hovering above the water okay there was heaven there was earth and

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there was water between them in the way that it is described now the imagery that mark is giving us

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is that in jesus's baptism jesus creates this physical metaphor of heaven and earth

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uniting meeting in this holy moment in the waters of baptism

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with a new beginning now maybe you're thinking greg you might be reading into this a little bit

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too much but then verse 10 it says when jesus came up out of the waters what happens the spirit of

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god descends on him like a dove do you see it if you don't there's good reason okay there's grace

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here if you don't see that there's good reason it's because we aren't first century jews because

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we don't read the hebrew scriptures the way that they read them literally we don't read

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the same translations that they would have read but listen to what timothy keller writes about this

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specific instance it says this for this for the spirit of god to be pictured as a dove is not

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particularly striking to us right we've heard it thousands of times if you've been to church

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a number of times someone probably mentioned the holy spirit being like a dove but when mark was

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writing it was very rare in the sacred writings of judaism there is only one place where the

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spirit of god is likened to a dove and that is in the targums the aramaic translation of the hebrew

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scriptures that the jews of mark's time read in the creation account he says the book of genesis

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one verse two says that the spirit hovered over the face of the waters the hebrew verb there means

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flutter the spirit fluttered over the face of the waters and to capture this vivid image the rabbis

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translated the passage for the targums the thing that they would have been reading like this

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and the earth was without form and empty and darkness was on the face of the deep all seems

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normal to this point right and the spirit of god fluttered above the face of the waters like a dove

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when mark writes this he's intentionally trying to get us to see that jesus is heaven and earth

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and earth being united in the waters and the spirit of god like a dove is present in the same

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way right now in this new beginning exactly the same way that all of god was present at creation

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is that not cool

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all right so after his baptism when mark tells us the holy spirit descended on jesus like a dove

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that's what he's saying okay i can skip ahead okay and literally after this i could go i could go on

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about how mark is trying to get you to think about this what happens after jesus is um uh

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baptized what does he do he says the spirit of god immediately makes him go out into the wilderness

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to to what to be tempted okay what did the first human beings experience temptation the the new the

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the first book describes it as a serpent we think of that serpent as representing the satan and this

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says that he's being tempted by the satan but the story ends differently doesn't it and that's the

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point mark wants us to think about how the story was written the first time and how humanity humans

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failed the first time but now in this new beginning this new man this new adam

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he goes through all the same things that we do he's baptized in the waters the holy spirit is

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present the same way as the spirit was present at creation he experiences temptation but instead of

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falling for the trick he resists the point here is that mark is wanting us to know that this new

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beginning is going to mark a line where this new beginning creates an option for us to be a part of

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a new beginning if jesus can resist it and we can be in jesus and then we can live the way he lives

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that we can be in him live the way that he does we can resist all the holes all the traps

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all the ways that we would normally fall so what do we do with any of this okay i've got one thing

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for you it's a new year we're probably all thinking about new beginnings that we might need

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uh things that we might need to fix things that we might need to change

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but we don't just need new beginnings we need the new beginning does it make sense

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the truth is that yesterday i didn't have a great day i was just emotionally

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i was just emotionally it wasn't a good day but throughout the day i just kept thinking

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jesus is the new beginning jesus is the new beginning that the story can end differently

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so i asked him to pray for me throughout the day so then even though some of the same

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challenges that existed in the morning still existed at night my heart handled them far better

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because i was working to let god be the center of it i was working to let him be the beginning in me

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for me to not be the one that would fix it and change it to let his new beginning

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be the story that i would be in

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my hope is that over these next few months as we go through the book of mark

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you continue to remember new beginning jesus is our new beginning and if we are in jesus

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and every single one of our stories can end differently

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than we think it might amen let's pray father i thank you for your word for the depth of your

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father i thank you for your word for the depth of it for the creativity of it i thank you for new

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beginnings moving us shape us give us your new beginning

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so that our stories can develop and end the way you intend amen