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We talk about the Greenbush community a fair bit.

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If you have not taken some time to drive through or pray through or walk through or whatever,

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I encourage you to do that.

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It's a lot of different, like there's homes of people who have lived there for decades

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and forever and then there's businesses and there's renters and there's all sorts of

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things there.

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So there's a lot of life happening in that community and we want to continue to pray

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that God would bless them and that they would know that they are loved.

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So thank you Bradley for leading us.

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I'm going to start off this week's message with a bit of a grudge that I have on a movie

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that I just recently saw.

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I don't go to movies anymore, mostly because I forget to and I'm always like, oh that looks

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like an amazing movie and then I forget how to access it.

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I don't know what happens but there's a disconnect there.

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So my friends and I saw that there was going to be a Whitney Houston movie and we were

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like, these are college friends of mine and we all used to sing the choir together and

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I was like, we're going to that right?

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So we all met in Chicago, we went to this movie and it was not good.

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It was not good.

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And my friends and I still can't quite get over it.

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And so as we debrief the situation, one of them so accurately laid this truth bomb on

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us, it was like watching a Wikipedia page with music.

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She was right.

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There seemed to be attempts at some continuous threads and themes but because they just threw

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everything in from her teens to her death, it was a mess.

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And so by throwing everything in, you lost the most important things.

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You lost the threads, which was a real shame because Whitney is a dang legend and ain't

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nobody ever going to sing the national anthem like she did in 1991.

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Come on.

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Right?

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Tell me you were there.

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Thank you.

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It was 32 years ago so that may be missing some of you.

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I was 14 years old and living back home in Western New York, which by the way, our hometown

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heroes were in that Super Bowl.

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They did not win it, but they might this year.

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Who am I talking about?

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Thank you.

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So we'll see.

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Go Bills.

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As a Western New Yorker, I'm obligated to say that.

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Go Bills.

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My family would be so proud.

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So when you tell a story, you write with a direction in mind, which I think the people

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who wrote the Whitney Houston story forgot.

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You keep it focused and the ideas and the elements are written to support that story.

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We see this in the Gospel of Mark and we've been working our way through this book.

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The writer wasn't giving an account and just simply listing events.

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He was telling a story.

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And so when thinking about the author writing a narrative, it makes sense that they would

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make intentional literary choices for what they're wanting to convey.

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In the case of this Gospel, it was critical to the writer to get this stuff written down

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and to tell you a specific story of Jesus that mattered at that time.

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It was not going to serve the narrative well to tell you everything, so choices were made

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to tell you some things, key things.

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And we see this so well stated in the Gospel of John.

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At the end of chapter 20, the last thing John says is, Jesus performed many other signs

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in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book.

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But these are recorded.

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The things he wrote are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son

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of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.

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That was John's directive to lead you to believe that Jesus is the Messiah.

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And he chose stories to build a narrative that he wanted you to hear.

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He tells you that.

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And Mark does the very same thing.

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To understand the scriptures we'll be looking at today, I want to talk about what Mark's

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objectives were first, because I want us to hear his intentions, his why behind the scenes

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that he chose.

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The book opens with a prologue.

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That's what books open with, a prologue.

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Let me set things up.

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In chapters, chapter 1 verses 1 through 15, the passage establishes Jesus as the Son of

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God and that God approves him as his son, who is able to speak with authority on God's

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behalf, with the proof that Greg pointed out a few weeks ago, being the dove descending

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on him at his baptism.

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These two points therefore then allow Mark to set up his key themes.

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Jesus is the way.

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That shows up constantly through Mark's gospel.

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That there is a coming kingdom of God.

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So this then directs the readers to know that Jesus, Son of God, is the way to God's kingdom.

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The book holds true to these themes through all three parts.

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It's broken down into three parts.

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And so Mark had to establish this first, because with this established, the reader can then

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move forward to the first part of the book, which focuses on Jesus's activity in Galilee.

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So we're going to be in chapters 2 and 3 today.

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We're not quite at reading the scripture together, but this is where we will be landing.

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I want to give you a little bit of context.

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The writer of Mark highlights five stories of conflict that we're going to go through.

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These are run-ins that Jesus had with the local religious authorities.

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This will incidentally also be foreshadowing what's to come in part 3 of Mark's book that

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leads to the conflict that Jesus had with higher up authorities that led to his death.

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And so because of what's coming, the writer needs to quickly establish very early this

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foundation for Jesus's authority being from God and that he was the way to the kingdom

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of God.

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Mark had to set this up immediately.

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Why?

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I'm glad you asked.

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Let's talk about that.

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This book was written in somewhere between 60 and 70 common era.

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Jesus was about 50 or so years to about 30 years prior to that.

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There was already a very present kingdom that the readers were living in called the Roman

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Empire.

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You might have heard of it.

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And that empire was hard at work keeping its citizens aligned with their leadership and

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their structure.

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When there is an oppressive empirical power at the top of the food chain, there are no

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unobserved small corners of that empire that go unnoticed.

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That people are just happy and carefree and living their lives completely detached from

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that empire.

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Oppression begets oppression.

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Occupation begets occupation.

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Overlording begets overlording.

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It exists this way because the structure must be held up.

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The system does not remain the system without the under structure.

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Rome was really serious about this.

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So even though Jerusalem is far away from the center of the empire in Rome, Rome was

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pretty aware of it still.

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So in the year 66, a revolt against Roman rule broke out and Jewish revolutionaries

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took control of Jerusalem.

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This is about the time of the gospel being written.

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They deposed the Roman Empire appointed high priest.

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You see how that works.

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Oh, that the empire put in a high priest into the local situation.

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And instead, they took that guy out and put in their own.

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So the revolt at the local level from the Jews at scale was a local militia that took

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on a literal empire.

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It's a moving idea.

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We love an underdog story.

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But to no surprise, Rome was not going to just be cool with that.

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War immediately followed.

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Rome sent several legions to Jerusalem to crush the revolt.

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And I promise you, when I say several, that was a small portion of what they had available

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to keep their empire under their control.

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So they just sent this faction out to Jerusalem.

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And Jerusalem in 70 was reconquered by the empire.

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Rome was not going to only just retake the city.

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They were going to make sure to remind Jerusalem and any for whom the jury may have still been

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out that Rome was in charge.

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And don't you dare try that again.

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They destroyed both the city and the temple.

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This temple that every Jew held sacred and as their spiritual home was destroyed.

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But this was not only unthinkable to the first century Jews that the temple could be destroyed.

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It was unimaginable.

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It was sacred.

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And Yahweh's dwelling place, how could it be destroyed?

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Rome took careful steps to show that their kingdom was bigger than this kingdom of God

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that was being talked about.

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Rome didn't care if people believed in the kingdom of God so long as it wasn't bigger

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than the empire.

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They just were not going to let anything depose them.

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So the stories highlighted in the conflict stories of Mark created relatable micro narratives

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to the broader one that the readers were living in as a way to understand how to respond to

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earthly authorities and power, religious and political, how to orient themselves towards

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Jesus's voice and how to live in a way that reflected the coming kingdom.

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It was really purposeful.

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And so this was the context at the time.

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The earthly empires in juxtaposition with the kingdom of God.

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The authorities on earth and the approved authorities and the approved authority of

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Jesus as the son of God.

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And remember, Mark was real intentional about setting up the structure that understood Jesus

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is authority, speaks on behalf of God, he is the way to the eternal kingdom.

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Do you see why he had to set that up real fast?

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And so I tell you all this before reading the passage because this is how the readers

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of the book would have experienced it.

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They didn't have the other gospels.

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They didn't have all these epistles running around.

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They weren't ubiquitous yet.

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Their historical context influenced how they read the book.

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Again, they didn't have the Bible and the New Testament as a whole to consult and to

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work with and see how the whole arc was showing up.

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They did not have it.

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And so the stories and the accounts, they didn't have them in their hands.

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And so it may surprise you when I talk about context and why it's important.

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We here, as we read the Bible, we read it as 21st century people living in America.

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We are detached from the original meaning with the history we know, our definitions

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and unconscious biases.

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And we live in a nearly oversaturated experience of cultural Christianity here, which often

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does not line up with the Bible or what Jesus himself said and has from time to time also

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held up empirical systems.

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And what I'm saying is context matters and knowing the difference between how we read

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the scriptures as 21st century people living in America versus what the people experienced

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in 66 common era when they first read the book of Mark experienced.

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There's a detachment and what we know, what we can learn about them matters.

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It changes how we approach the passages.

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What I just shared with you may interest a little bit closer to what first century Jews

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and the followers of Christ might have heard when reading the Gospel of Mark and these

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stories.

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So I am going to read through these stories.

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We're not going to stand today, but I ask that you give the scriptures your full attention.

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If you do need a Bible, you are welcome to grab one from the cabinet in the hall.

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It's the thing that right when you walk in the door, that's where you can get them.

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And if you even need to get one right now, you're welcome to do that.

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I also welcome you to take some notes as we go.

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As we go along, we will look for places where Jesus spoke with authority, where earthly

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authorities took issue, and where Jesus led people in the direction of the kingdom.

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So I'm going to start in Mark 2, and this is story one.

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When Jesus again entered Capernaum, the people heard that he had come from home, or he had

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come home, excuse me.

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They gathered in such large numbers that there was no room left, not even outside the door,

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and he preached the word to them.

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Some men came, bringing to him a paralyzed man carried by four of them.

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Since they could not get him to Jesus because of the crowd, they made an opening in the

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roof above Jesus by digging through it, and then lowered the mat the man was lying on.

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When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralyzed man, son, your sins are forgiven.

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This is Jesus speaking with godly authority.

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Now, some teachers of the law were sitting there thinking to themselves, why does this

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fellow talk like that?

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He's blaspheming.

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Who can forgive sins but God alone?

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This is the earthly authorities taking issue.

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Their structure is threatened.

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Immediately, Jesus knew in his spirit that this is what they were thinking in their hearts,

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and he said to them, why are you thinking these things?

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Which is easier to say to this paralyzed man, your sins are forgiven, or to say, get up,

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take your mat, and walk.

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This is Jesus showing the way of the kingdom.

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But I want you to know that the son of man has authority.

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Notice Mark pointing this out, on earth, to forgive sins.

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So he said to the man, I tell you, get up, take your mat, and go home.

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He got up, took his mat, and walked out in full view of them all.

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This amazed people, and they praised God saying, we have never seen anything like this.

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Notice that people are shifting their attention to God's kingdom by way of Jesus.

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Story two, verse 13 through 17.

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Once again, Jesus went out beside the lake.

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A large crowd came to him, and he began to teach them.

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As he walked along, he saw Levi, son of Alphaeus, sitting at the tax collector's booth.

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Follow me, Jesus told him, and Levi got up and followed him.

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Again, Jesus speaking with godly authority.

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While Jesus was having dinner at Levi's house, many tax collectors and sinners were eating

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with him and his disciples, for there were many who followed him.

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When the teachers of the law, who were Pharisees, saw him eating with the sinners and tax collectors,

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they asked his disciples, why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?

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Here are earthly authorities taking issue, the structures being threatened.

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On hearing this, Jesus said to them, it is not the healthy who needs a doctor, but the

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sick.

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They may not come to call the righteous, but sinners.

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Jesus shows the way of the kingdom.

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Story three, now John's disciples and the Pharisees were fasting.

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Some people came and asked Jesus, how is it that John's disciples and the disciples of

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the Pharisees are fasting, but not yours?

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Earthly entities take issue, things are stirred up, common structures threatened, Jesus shows

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the way to the kingdom.

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Jesus answered, how can the guests of the bridegroom fast while he was with them?

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They can't, so long as they have him with them.

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But the time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them, and on that day they

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will fast.

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No one sews a patch of untrunk cloth on an old garment, otherwise the new piece will

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pull away from the old, making the taer worse.

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And no one pours new wine into old wineskins, otherwise the wine will burst the skins and

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both the wine and the wineskins will be ruined.

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No, they pour new wine into new wineskins.

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Jesus is Lord of the Sabbath.

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Jesus both speaks with godly authority and he points the way to the kingdom.

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Story four, one Sabbath Jesus was going through the grain fields and as his disciples walked

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along they began to pick some heads of grain.

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The Pharisee said to him, look, why are you doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath?

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Earthly authorities take issue, their structure is threatened.

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He answered, have you never read what David did when he and his companions were hungry

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and in need?

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In the days of Abiathar, the high priest, he entered the house of God and ate the consecrated

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bread which is lawful only for priests to eat and he also gave some to his companions.

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Then he said to them, the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.

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So the Son of Man is Lord even on the Sabbath.

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Jesus shows the way to the kingdom and speaks with godly authority.

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Story.

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Another time Jesus went into the synagogue and a man with a shriveled hand was there.

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Some of them were looking for a reason to accuse Jesus.

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So they watched him closely to see if he would heal on the Sabbath.

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Why?

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Because their earthly structures had been threatened.

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Jesus said to the man with the shriveled hand, stand up in front of everyone.

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And Jesus asked them, which is lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do evil to save life

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or to kill?

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But they remained silent.

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Jesus is showing the way to the kingdom.

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He looked around at them in anger and deeply distressed at their stubborn heart said to

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the man, stretch out your hand.

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He stretched it out and his hand was completely restored.

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Jesus acts with godly authority.

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Then the Pharisees went out and began to plot with the Herodians how they might kill Jesus.

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Earthly authorities take issue, their structure is threatened, and just like Rome, they will

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not only stop the threat, but they will destroy it.

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For the first hearers, I think this would have offered a few things.

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Strangely enough, I think it would have offered them encouragement.

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That their current struggles as followers of Christ within a system that was built by

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earthly powers.

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That their struggles were not for nothing.

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And that there was a hope on the other side of it.

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There was something beyond this that was bigger and more real.

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To the first century Roman civilians, just like the temple, it would have been unthinkable

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that their empire would end in a fizzle just a few hundred years later.

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Only to be distant history to a church of Christ followers 16 to 1700 years later in

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Rock Island, Illinois.

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All empires fall.

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Every last one of them.

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God's kingdom remains.

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It would have given them a guide as well.

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Each of those stories had a very specific structure to them.

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Jesus was shown as the godly authority.

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Power structures were threatened.

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Jesus showed the way to the kingdom.

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So follow the voice of Jesus walking his way and it will lead to this everlasting kingdom.

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I think Mark was trying to encourage them.

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There is a way forward.

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Mark's gospel still has the same message for us today.

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Follow the voice of Jesus.

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Walk in his way and it will lead to this everlasting kingdom.

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What do we do with it?

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I think that these are good guideposts to check in with along the way.

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Because I don't think history has changed much.

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People are still people.

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We are still building our empires.

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The Roman Empire is no longer here but empires have not ceased.

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We build our own empires all the time with power structures and the systems meant to

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uphold them.

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Sometimes they are big and blatant.

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Sometimes they are quiet and people don't like to talk about them.

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When we build kingdoms without God as the head, they will turn into oppressive empires

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with structures built to maintain them.

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Because we don't know what to do with power.

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To live on this earth but to be a follower of Christ, the gospel of Mark's narrative,

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his focus helps us.

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So in all things.

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And am I letting the voice of authority in my life belong to the son of God?

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As Jesus speaks to me, am I listening well?

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Is my ear turned and tuned in?

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Am I paying attention to the voice of Jesus above all other things?

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Or am I confused by what I'm hearing and the directions it's pulling me in?

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Am I putting trust in it?

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Am I letting God as he speaks to me in Jesus and in the spirit, am I letting it be an authoritative

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voice that is trustworthy?

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We talk about what it means to listen to the spirit here at this church a lot.

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It's a part of our blueprint.

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We talk about it in week four of community tables.

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We had a sermon about it in the fall.

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I encourage you to go back and listen to it.

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It is a part of our structure here is learning how to listen well.

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And so again, am I listening to the voice of Jesus as it's been approved by God to speak

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authoritatively in my life?

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And I don't mean authoritatively in a lording over way.

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I mean in a way that is life giving, in a way that knows me and knows the deepest part

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of who I am, that it is a voice I can trust because it is full of love for me.

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And it is full of love for us.

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So that's first.

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Am I letting the voice of Jesus, am I listening to it?

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Am I listening for it?

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And then in all things, am I following it?

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Am I following Jesus as the way?

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Jesus is Mark established, he wanted to establish that this voice is the way to go.

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Jesus is the way.

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So sure, maybe I hear the voice, but am I going?

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Am I doing?

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Is my life lived in the way of Christ?

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The idea of rabbis in the old tradition was that as disciples, you are, the idea is that

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you're covered in the dust of the rabbi because you're following behind.

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And that the dust that's kicked up by the rabbi, you are, you're walking so closely

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to the teacher that you're covered in the dust of the rabbi.

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Am I listening and then following and taking action?

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Am I walking in the way of Jesus?

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And in all things, am I living a life of kingdom values?

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Am I living like I belong to the kingdom of God?

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Am I living in a way that has so clearly followed the way of Jesus that the only direction it

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can take me is the kingdom?

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You might find that as you check in with these guideposts, you yourself begin moving outside

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the walls of commonality to somewhere other, somewhere potentially uncomfortable.

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You might find that as you check in with these guideposts, you yourself begin moving outside

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the walls of cultural Christianity into spaces that the historical American church or even

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the tradition you grew up with or even other Christians that you know may not understand.

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You may find that the way Jesus leads you will subvert and dismantle structures that

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want to be upheld.

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Structures that you yourself, I myself, may have unintentionally upheld.

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It can feel unsettling because when we hear the voice of Jesus and we follow it in the

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kingdom's direction and then we find ourselves living out kingdom values, they're not always

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convenient or comfortable and they don't always make sense to the largest group of people.

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So you may find that listening to the voice of Jesus in your life, following in its way

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into the kingdom leads you into some conflict.

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Listening and following Jesus as the way to life in the kingdom might have us asking ourselves

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some more questions.

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Check in with that discomfort.

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Ask yourself, am I listening to the voice of Jesus or am I trying to reconcile Jesus'

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voice with what these voices are telling me and am I trying to make them match?

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We do that a lot to make things make sense and more comfortable.

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Because to follow the voice of Jesus, though it is filled with love and intention for our

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good, we may not be living in kingdom values when we start.

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And it's going to pull us away from that and that can be uncomfortable and it may not make

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sense.

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So it may lead to some conflict there.

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But as you also follow in the way, as God leads you into stunning and beautiful purpose

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for your life, you may find that it leads you in one way from another thing.

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And that may be uncomfortable and it may not make sense.

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And it may, you may be one of the pillars that's moving away from the structure that

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had been upheld and it starts dismantling when you start moving away.

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And it's a good thing, but it's hard.

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And then as you find yourself pulling in the values of the kingdom, when we sing the song

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at your house, I think that song is, it moves me because it's so full of what I think the

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table of the Lord looks like and the house of God looks like.

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Where we're invited in and we're shaped and loved and cared for and light shines on us

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and you are welcomed as you are.

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That doesn't always check out for some people when power structures are often things that

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keep people out.

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And so following the way of the kingdom may produce some conflict that way as well.

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However, Mark's encouragement was empires will fall, the kingdom of God remains.

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And it is there.

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It is always there regardless of what empire is standing.

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So be encouraged.

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This system will fall and the kingdom of God will remain.

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Amen.

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Let's pray.

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Jesus, I ask that as we sit in presence with you, you would help us hear you.

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And when you speak to us, God, it is a voice of love.

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It is a voice that knows us and approves of us.

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You see us as your kids.

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And so I thank you for that.

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And as we listen and as we grow in our various levels of trust with you, because that's a

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process for all of us.

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I'm grateful to God that when you invite us to follow you, you don't mandate it, but you

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invite us.

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I am thankful that when you invite us to follow you, that you are going to be responsible

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with that and us.

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You are not asking us to follow us to chain us and yoke us with more oppressive systems.

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But you are, that your way leads to freedom and it leads to life.

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And God, as we move into the kingdom and live in kingdom values, what we will find is that

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we may still be chained by the systems that we're coming from and we may decide ourselves

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that person doesn't belong here or that shouldn't happen or that's not the way of it.

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I'm grateful that in your kingdom, you are dismantling those systems and unshackling

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all of us from them so that we can live in your kingdom in freedom and love and offer

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it to others.

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But there is discomfort and there may be conflict.

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And we ask for your help with that.

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And we ask for grace with each other when we are all on different journeys for that.

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And we need to be thoughtful of that truth.

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I'm grateful, God, that empires do fall and that you remain.

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So with these things in mind, lead us, help us follow, and we will look to you in trust.

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Amen.