Sower Church

All right. Good morning. Good to see everybody here today. It sounds like you like each other except mostly true. Anyone here that doesn’t like anyone else in the room. Don’t admit that. Um, if I haven’t met you, my name is john, I am not one of the pastors here at sewer, but I love our pastors. Um, I love the standard they’ve set for God’s word and how they care for us and provide spiritual leadership for us as a church. I’m julie and I have been part of the church for about a year now And I did pass her out in central Nebraska for about 25 years and with our new ministry Now I get to be a coach encourager for other pastors and for churches when they feel stuck and can’t quite figure out why. And so I get to be part of helping them find forward. And I love that. Um, but I love getting to be here with you as well. So Julie and I were married, um, 34 years and one month ago. Yeah, I love her very much. She did announcements by the way. That’s, that’s uh, that julie, that’s who that is. Someone told me one time in seminary they said johnny, it’s great to love all women in general, but only one woman specifically. Right. And that’s what we’re going to talk about this morning. I thought the pastors like me here, but they assigned me this passage to teach. It’s gonna be good. It’s gonna be good. Um, so we’re looking at exodus. 20 Going through the 10 commandments and the passage we’re looking at this morning is a short command. It’s a clear command. It’s a simple command. It says do not commit adultery. We know what it means, right? Our culture fudges. Our culture makes excuses. Our culture minimizes. Here’s the reality when julie and I got married 34 years and one month ago I said something like this said, hi john take you julie to be my lawfully wedded wife love and to cherish as long as we both to live. There are other things in there for richer for poorer sickness and health. All of that. As long as we both shall live. No one gets married and takes those vows planning to break them. No one does that. And yet many fail. Many do. In fact break them. And it hurts. It hurts not only the spouse, it hurts friends. That hurts extended family, There’s Children that hurts Children. First communities. It hurts when God is telling us do not commit adultery. He’s not trying to hurt us. But what Gandalf said to bilbo over this dark evil ring, right? I’m not trying to rob you. I’m trying to help you. I was trying to help us experience his best experience life the way he intended. So there’s some stats. I found I was trying to get current on what’s happening these days. The american association for marriage and family therapy. That sounds official, doesn’t it? They say this. 15% of married women. 25% of married women. Men have admitted to having extramarital affairs. That doesn’t sound like a lot unless it’s your spouse for you. And it’s everything all of a sudden, isn’t it? And those are just the ones who admit it. The ones who didn’t and haven’t got caught yet, Psychologists tell us over 50% of the divorces that happen happened because of adultery. 36%. That’s a high number admit to having an affair with a coworker. 36% admit to infidelity on business trips. That’s high, 17% admit to an emotional or physical infidelity with a brother or sister in law. Some of you are thinking but it happens. I’ve seen it happen. So have you adultery is a killer. The # one reason women cheat is emotional connection. Number one reason men cheat the sex. And I guess I’ll just say on the front end what we’re talking about. I’m going to be specific but not graphic. Okay. I was curious. I don’t know if this magazine is any good was an oddity. I found a magazine called Best Life Set out to discover or to rank all of our states 50 states in America. Um to find out who…

Good morning. My name is Shane and one of the pastors here. If you are new with us this weekend. Thanks for joining us. Uh, it’s been a beautiful weekend. And so hopefully you’ve had Fun with friends and family. We have been working through the 10 commandments. And so today we’re on commandment six and I tell you to flip open your bibles and we would read through it. But I bet I can tell you it before we get there. Right, you shall not murder. So there’s our text for today. We’re looking at exodus 20 13. So in English, we’re talking about four words. Uh, hebrew. We’re talking about to write no murder. So how are we gonna fill a half hour time? Well you’ll see. So some translations actually will look if you flip open, some may say you shall not kill. I’ll tell you why in a little bit here on why murder would be the better translation. It opens the door when it’s just used the word killed. To some misinterpretation justified areas where killing may be necessary. So I’m not gonna actually spend a ton of time on that portion of it except for the fact that you know sometimes to understand what something does mean. It is good to understand what it doesn’t mean. It can narrow the scope. And so I want to narrow our scope a little bit because I do think there might be some legitimate questions around what this may or may not include. So when I think about what are some areas that this does not include, that the context of this verse, you shall not murder is not talking about. So the first one that we would take into consideration would be ex exodus 22 2. If somebody breaks into my house and I have a wife and four kids and there’s an imminent threat to health and life, I’m going to defend my family at any cause. And if that results in death, right? This is not the context of this verse. You shall not murder is not talking about legitimately defending your home, your family from an imminent threat. It is also, uh, not talking about a pure accident. If we look at Exodus 21, it will differentiate. It talks about hey, if you’re in an accident, right, you’re out doing something recreationally. You’re driving a vehicle, you get in a wreck, somebody in your vehicle dies. It’s purely an accident. It’s not something you’re trying to do, right? It’s gonna differentiate from that versus do not murder. So, it’s not talking about an accidental death in those situations. It is it is not addressing capital punishment. In a sense of the bible talks about there’s an authority of life for a life or that. Uh, in genesis nine or Romans 13 where God has given the governing authorities the right to yield the sword for legitimate again, legitimate reasons where somebody takes a life that could be tried and prosecuted and convicted of a crime where they could then lose their life. So this is not talking about capital punishment. That’s not the area when we refer to you shall not murder? That people can take this out of context. Other concerns, which is fitting for today would be What about war? Should we advocate people signing up for the military? Is that just Murder? And it’s not right? So in in all the old testament as murder is used 47 times. It is never once used in the context of war and which is again fitting for this weekend. I’d like to say, thank you for anybody here who is, who has served in the military, who is serving in the military memorial weekend is to honor you. And I just want to say, thank you for protecting uh, some of the many freedoms. We have one to be here together as a church. Thank you for defending those. One other one that I’m very thankful for is it’s not talking about that. We need to all be vegetarians or vegans. Okay, so hopefully have a nice thick steak and a burger and some brats today. Right? So it’s not talking about killing a…

Good morning. My name is Ben Lander, one of the pastors here. So glad to see you all this morning. And we are indeed working through the 10 commandments. So for those of you parents, especially the parents who have kids in the room Today, today is the commandment you’ve been waiting for. Right? Honor your father and mother. So give them a nudge, tell him, Hey, listen up, Pay attention. This is this is the good one, right? I think this is the commandment I had my kids memorize first right? I’m joking, but I did have them memorize Ephesians 61 through two is the first verse that they memorized, which is linked to this commandment, which is Children, obey your parents in the Lord. For this is right. So anyway, excited to be talking this morning about this fifth commandments of honor, your father and your mother. It is we’ve been working through all 10 of these in exodus chapter 20 And the first four commandments deal with our relationship with God and who God is. And then the last six start working through our relationships with each other and our commandments relating to loving each other and our neighbor and jesus summarized them and love your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength and love your neighbor as yourself. And so we’re working through these And this fifth commandments does kind of have as a connection here. It’s a transition from these first four which were focused on God to the next six, which our relationships with each other and the order is intentional as linked. And and we’ll see that, I love this quote from john Schultz here, who says our love for God will determine our love for our neighbor and our love for our neighbor is an indication of the depth and reality of our love for God. There is a connection between these two and our relationship with God and his provision of grace and himself is really what allows us to then go and extend love to our neighbor to obey. These commands are our connection to our Lord and the power of the Holy Spirits and our relationship with him is what allows us to carry these out. But today, the fifth commandment is honor your father and mother and it’s the first commandment focused on people and it comes with a unique thing which is a promise is the only commandment that has a promise. And so we’re gonna be looking at those things, but the command is to honor your father and your mother and I wanted to share a brief story as we begin here about how this has been so beneficial to me in my life. Um when I was in college, I wanted to, you know, do church work, I wanted to help people, I wanted to become a pastor and I wanted to start a business, I had this entrepreneurial spirit, I still do and so I was like, I don’t, I don’t need a degree to do that stuff. I want to have more time available to, to share jesus with people and to disciple people and to do, you know, help the church out and all of this stuff and I want to start this furniture clean company, which will allow me for more flexibility to help people, so I don’t need a degree. So I went to my parents and I was like, hey, I mean I’m gonna, I want to quit school and they said to me, they said, I don’t want you to do that, don’t do that. And they said, yeah, I know that you want to do all this other stuff and start this business and you don’t, you know, don’t need a degree for that. But there’s a lot of things that you learn as you earn a degree, it’s a hard work and you learn about the character and finishing something that you start and it’s also an opportunity for you to have a backup plan in case you’re something terrible happens later in life. And so I wrestled with that, but I decided to honor my, my father and mother and to finish the degree. And so I got an accounting degree and then immediately after graduating…

Hey, welcome. Hello. Hello. Hello. My name is Mike. I’m on the four elders here at our church. Thank you for coming. Uh, it’s a joy to be a few. It’s a fun to watch babies getting dedicated kids are a blast. It’s honor to spend some time for this morning and look at God’s word. My uh, I have the honor of speaking through the fourth commandment this morning with you in exodus 20. We’re spending 10 weeks looking at the 10 Commandments. The first Four Commandments. Look at our response, our duty as followers of christ And then starting next week through the rest of the 10 commandments series. The next six weeks we’ll look at our response our duty as followers of Christ in relation to our fellow man. And so we’re looking at the 4th commandment this week. And so I titled this sermon real rest Real rest. I think that’s an important concept for us as people to think about. I don’t know about you, but in America we should relish and cherish our workaholic nous. It’s like a celebration. Like I’m so busy, How busy are you? I don’t know, but I’m busier than you And we just kind of boasting our activity in our movement and our and what we’re accomplishing or perceived accomplishing rest is a fleeting concept in our american culture, other countries, other nations. Got this down, dial down lockdown. We don’t do this well, can I get an amen in our church. Amen we don’t rest well. And so the idea is real rest. And so if you want to rest apart from christ apart from scripture, apart what the bible says where real rest comes from, you’ll get that results. But if you want to rest the way God lays out rest in the bible as we look out here in the fourth commandment, I think you’ll see a better way, a better way to really genuinely rest. And so as we embark into this fourth commandment on real rest, I have a thesis statement for you, I’d like to address as we go throughout this time together. The thesis statement is real rest comes when jesus is our sabbath rest. Real rest comes when jesus is our sabbath rest. So the concept of a sabbath is every seven days. God set aside a day for us to retreat, recharge, refresh ourselves in the Lord. We rest from our work, we cease working and we worship God, we work hard and we rest hard and we worship God. And so before we jump into this topic, let’s bow our heads and let’s pray and ask God’s blessing on this time. God, I thank you that you’re the Lord of sunday and you’re the Lord of every day, ask that you be Lord of all of our lives as we attempt to turn our thoughts from the activities of what we went through this last week. From this morning. It could have been a very eventful morning and a very eventful week for us God and rest is a fleeting thought, a fleeting concept of something. We rarely ever experienced God and I, we come here tired. We come here broken. We come here week. Lord, We come here needing rest. If we know it or not. Lord, I ask that you just help us to settle our hearts down, settle our spirits down. Help us to turn our mind from what we were doing to what we’re doing right now. We’re attempting to be under the word of God and learn um from the bible about what you say in scripture. Lord, I pray you convict our hearts, encourage our hearts, instruct our hearts. Lord teach us so that we might obey something today. Lord, you’re an equal opportunist of conviction, Lord, for all of us. Lord help us to be encouraged, strengthened, convicted challenge Lord, I pray that we would be doers of what we hear today. Not just hearers. That was not to walk away deceiving ourselves, but help us to walk away as doers of the word of God. We commit this time to you in jesus name Amen. Okay, So if you turn with me to the fourth commandment is found in exodus 20 picking up in verse eight. You can read in the h…

well, good morning, good morning and Happy Mother’s Day to all of you. My name is dan, if I haven’t met you yet, I’m one of the elders here at sewer church and I was just trying to take in some of what mike was saying there. I mean that’s pretty awesome. All those class awards man. I, I don’t think I won that many class awards. I think I was more known for being kind of a troublemaker class clown. I mean the least likely guy to be preaching I think from my class, I think I did you know when best dress? I think that was it. That was it ironically because my brother is, is a better dresser than me and we were in the same class. He red shirted uh, kindergarten. So we went to school together even though he was a year older. Yeah, they give out red shirts for academic reasons these days. But no Happy Mother’s Day. It is, it is great. What an amazing day it is. I’m thankful for my mom. She taught me how to stand up for myself. Um she literally told me that if I got beat up, I had better not come home crying. And so I learned to fight. Um, But how’s this for a mother’s day message? The 3rd commandment don’t take the Lord’s name in vain. The third commandment, that’s our Mother’s Day message today, We are in week three of our coverage of the 10 commandments, right? And we’re gonna look at the third commandment today and I do think there is some relation to being a mom when you think about the application of this commandment, because moms especially moms of young Children can relate to how often your name is called throughout the day. For the silliest reasons. Mom Mom. Mom. Mom. Mom. Mom. Mom. Mom Mom Mom Mom Mom, look at this mom and that’s it. You know, just like okay kind of reminds me of the scene from nemo, you know the animated movie, the little orange fish. When the seagulls would yell out. Mind. Mind mind mind mind, right? That’s what little Children can be like. Sometimes mind, mind, mind mom Mom Mom mine mine mine they go back and forth. So I think mothers can relate to the third commandment which talks about taking the Lord’s name in vain. Now on that note, let’s let’s get a little more serious. Let’s look at look at the word of God. Turn with me in your bibles to exodus. Chapter 20 We’re gonna reverse seven. Uh This is the third commandment. And while you’re turning there, I do want to prepare you. I want to prep you for today’s message right first I want to remind you simply this that jesus our savior, right? He he took the penalty for the law on our behalf. And so if we are in christ if jesus is our Lord and Savior. The penalty for the law which is death is no longer ours. He took that upon himself on the cross, right? So when the scripture says that we’re no longer under law but under grace, it means we are no longer under the threat of the punishment and the severity of the law because jesus, he took that on our behalf on the cross. And so I think that’s important for us to remember as we unpack the 10 commandments. And the second thing we want to reiterate is that law and gospel or complementary, because the law points us to christ and the Gospel establishes the law as God’s just and righteous standard of which we weren’t able to meet, but christ met on our behalf. And so today, as we unpack this third commandment, you will feel bit of the weight of the holiness of God and weightiness of the law. I just want to remind you if you were in christ that your faith, your faith is not based on how you feel moment to moment. Your faith is based on the finished work of christ. And as you feel the weightiness of the law and the holiness of God, I want you to change the narrative in your own soul. And then you’re thinking in that moment and say God, let your glory be revealed. Your glory be revealed. May your glory feel the earth Am…

Landon Patrick. Your your first job might not be in Lincoln, but your second job is in Lincoln. We’ll leave the light on for you. Welcome back if you guys want to come back. But we sure love students. Thank you for doing that guys. I was smart. Um, let’s let me share a quick story. I was driving back from church last week and I was asking one of my sons like, what do you think of church? It was good. I’m like, what? What about about the sermons? Like? It was good. I’m like, all right, I have a question, dad, Why are we xing out the commandments aren’t commandments a good thing. I’m like, son. There’s this thing called roman numerals. You’ll get to that eventually. Or or your mom already covered in school, but there’s roman numerals and this is the 10 commandments. And so why why would we spend 10 weeks looking at the 10 Commandments? That’s a big thing. We’re given prime real estate, 10 Sundays looking at the 10 commandments. Why are we spending so much time looking at something that happened so long ago? There’s a reason why the main reason why we’re looking at the 10 commandments is it gives you a glimpse a picture into the values and priorities and character of the God who wrote them, who said them to the nation of Israel. The bible tells us all about the character of God. The righteousness of God all about God. And the idea is that after spending 10 weeks studying the 10 commandments. You get a better idea what the mind of God is, what he cares about, where we’re going, what he values and us as people, you won’t have a perfect idea of God after this seven, but you should have a more structured, focused vision of what God’s vision is for our relationship in the future based on the 10 Commandments. And so before we go much further, I like to take a moment here and bow our heads and pray, Let’s let’s ask God to bless our time. Lord. We’re attempting to do a supernatural work. God looking at your word of the Lord, the Lord trying to communicate what you’re teaching us today. This is a is a weighty heavy thing where we don’t want to take this lightly. We don’t want to gloss over this. We don’t want to move quickly through this Lord. I pray that you just help us to settle our hearts down so our minds down and focus on eternity. Focus on our relationship with you, focus on what you’re saying in the second commandment. I ask that you just really multiply our time. Help us to cover a lot and a limited amount of time together, Lord, but I ask that you just help protect us from the trap of listening learning and not doing anything. I don’t know why we’re doing what we’re doing, helps us lean into our our theology so it can impact our live Ology as christians I said, you just grow our understanding of you, our love for you and our desire to want to live for you, make this Word of God come alive and convict our hearts. Like only you can we commit this time to you in jesus name Amen. Alright. So let’s read over the passage together. Exodus chapter 20 starting in verse one. And God spoke all these words saying, I am the Lord, your God who brought you out of the Land of Egypt out of the house of slavery. You shall have no other gods before me. That was last week. This is this week, verse four, The second commandment. You shall not make for yourself. A carved image or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the waters under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them. For I the Lord, your God am a jealous God Visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the Children to the 3rd and 4th generation of those who hate me. But showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments who love me and keep my commandments. So it’s important for us to realize that …

Well, good morning, Good morning. So our church family so good to be with you guys this morning. Good morning to you. If you’re new here, my name is dan, I’m excited that you’re here. It’s good to be with the people of God worshiping God right on the day of the Lord, the day that the Lord has made the day of salvation. That’s what today is. Right. Amen. Amen. Well today we’re kicking off a new series on the 10 Commandments and I don’t want to delay it any longer. So I’m gonna pray. Uh, and then when I’m done praying, I’m gonna kind of walk through An explanation for why we’re gonna teach on the 10 commandments and then we’re going to cover the first commandment. So again, let me begin with the word of prayer. Bow your heads with me, father in heaven. I pray that our prayer would become the prayer of the psalmist in 1 19 where he says, blessed are you o Lord teach me your statutes Lord. That’s our desire this morning. Through your word, would you teach us your statutes in christ’s name? We pray. Amen Amen. So like I said, we’re kicking off this new series on the 10 commandments. When some of you may be wondering how can a church and that claims to prioritize the gospel preached on the law of God? Or you may be wondering what does the law of God have to do with christians And aren’t we under grace? Not under law. How many of you have heard questions like that or how many of you had those kind of questions yourself. Um as you think about the 10 commandments. Well, as christians, we want to have a biblical understanding of the relationship between law and Gospel. We need to have a biblical understanding of that. Um we cannot simply just dismiss the law is being irrelevant. Um for too many christians, the old testament has no role, no place, no significance to your walk with God. But do you know that the early church that the old testament was their bible? It was their bible. And the new testament is simply an exposition of the old testament, making those things that were in shadow form in the old testament clearer for the church. And so it’s important for us to have a biblical understanding of the relationship between the law of God and the gospel of God. And so let’s begin by looking at the very words of jesus as he talks about his law Matthew 5 17 and 19 he says this, do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have not come to abolish them, but to fulfill them. For truly, I say to you until heaven and earth pass away. Do we believe him? There is that until heaven and earth passes away, not an iota, not a dot will pass from the law. Until all is accomplished basically saying the smallest mark in any word or letter in the law will not be done away with until heaven and earth passes away Verse 19. Therefore, whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the Kingdom of Heaven. But whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of Heaven, I don’t know about you, but it is not my goal. It is not my desire to be considered least in the Kingdom of Heaven and according to jesus, you are considered least in the Kingdom of heaven. If you diminish the law of God, if you say this law is insignificant, unimportant and you teach others to think and to act in the same way Jesus says that you are at least in this kingdom, but he says those who teach them will be called great in the Kingdom of Heaven. Again, the words of Christ Matthew 22 verses 35 through 40. Actually Jesus is quoting moses, he says, here’s the pastor says, and one of them, a lawyer asked him a question to test him, teacher, which is the great commandment in the law and he jesus said to him, you shall love the Lord, your God with all your heart, with all your soul and…

Well, good morning, sore Church, Good morning. Friends, Family. I hope you guys are doing well this morning. Um, I’m really excited to Share the word with you this morning, we’re gonna be talking about empty expectations. We’re gonna be looking at John chapter 20 I’m gonna walk you through those 1st 10 verses there. Um, but before we do, I think it’s customary right to say he is risen and you he is risen. Indeed. Amen to that. Amen to that. So why are you turning to John chapter 20 I want to share with you some of my first world problems. Maybe you can laugh at my misery. Um but it’s connected to today’s message about expectations again. First world problems, nothing too major. Right? Um, so my vehicle, the car that I drive has a backup sensor, every time I put the vehicle in reverse, it beeps and it lets me know that something is behind my vehicle or something is in in the rear of my vehicle. And the intensity of the beat increases the closer I get to something, this beat has conditioned me like one of Pavlov’s dogs. Right to the point where I’ve become somewhat of a bad driver when it comes to putting my vehicle in reverse, which is a problem. When I drive my wife’s minivan that does not have the beeping backup sensor. And so every time I hop into that van and I throw it into reverse, conditioned like one of Pavlov’s dogs, I hastily back up, not hearing the beat, not worried that there’s anything behind me until I hear a crunching sound and my wife saying, you just scratched up my van again again. Mhm. Every time I get into her van, I have expectations, but they are empty because she does not have a backup sensor in the back of her van. And today we’re gonna talk about empty expectations and we’re we ought to have our expectations. So I’m gonna walk us through john chapter 20 verses one through 10, beginning in verse and the first verse, jOHn says now on the first day of the week, mary Magdalene came to the tomb early while it was still dark and saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb. one of the very first things we see here is the highlighting of the first day of the week. Which is significant because whether you understand it or not, we gather on the first day of the week and we gather on the first day of the week because it is the Lord’s day, it is the Lord’s day because that is the day that the Lord was raised from the dead. This is unique. This is different because in the jewish culture, according to the old testament, the sabbath was at the end of the week, saturday, but jesus was raised on the first day of the week and so realistically, every sunday is a reminder of resurrection, sunday, the Chavez according to old testament law was a day of rest and worship. Now sunday has become the day of rest and worship the resurrection of the Lord points to the ultimate rest. The rest from the plight of sin and Brokenness and the curse of sin that is upon the world. It is a promise of the rest that God will give us from even the pains of death as jesus overcame death. So the first day of the week is for us a witness of the promise that we have in christ jesus. And there was no coincidence that the writers of the new testament like to highlight the Lord’s day, the first day of the week mary Magdalene, she comes to the tomb early while it is still dark. Now that is quite risky for a woman at this particular time in history, it’s dark out. She’s headed to place of burial, she’s headed to a grave site, so to speak and to do so in, in the cover of darkness was risky, but why does she do it? Why does she do it? Why is she headed so early in the morning to get to the tomb mary is still grieving and we know from other accounts you didn’t go alone. There were at least two women that went to the tomb this early in the morning. …

Good morning. Welcome. Thank you for coming to church. It’s a, it’s an exciting time. Palm sunday easter sunday and the christian calendar is key hallmark passages and moments in the life and calendar of a church and the people next week, we’re giving out candy to your kids. I think this week parents, we have a bunch of baby chicks that they have upstairs that they’re giving to your kids, so don’t, don’t mind the mess. First service said there was a little mess, but we’ve cleaned it up and they’ll, they’ll send your kids home with a bunch of baby chickens. That’ll be great. You know, you can, we do interesting things as a culture, don’t we with easter, but thank you for coming this morning. I’m excited to celebrate this morning with you. Um, next week’s the egg hunt. It’s exciting. There’s a traditional call and response thing that happens this calendar time of the year for christians. Um, someone says he has risen. The congregation says that’s next week, not yet. Right now in the life cycle of a church, jesus is on his triumphal entry into Jerusalem. And that’s palm sunday. And that’s, we’re gonna be looking at this morning. Uh, jesus triumphal entry into Jerusalem Before we jump into the passage, Mark 11 1 through 11, we’re looking at the graphic accounts of just entering the scene of mankind. Um I’d like to pray. That’s okay. So by your heads with me and join me as we pray Lord. I thank you for this morning. I thank you for today. I thank you for this being a visited planet. This being the planet that you’ve come. You’ve come to communicate. You’ve come to conquer our big enemies. Lord, the world, the flesh and the devil. You’ve come to give us life and meaning and purpose. You come to do so much in the life of a christian or we just, we just want to focus on you think of you, worship you celebrate you this morning as a church, as an individuals and as a body of christians or you just want to look to you and look to your gospel account of Mark’s testimony about you. I pray you just really you entered the scene of mankind in a humble and dramatic way and you are exiting the scene of mankind in a humble and dramatic way and you will return in a dramatic, glorified way. Lord I pray that you would, we would take take things serious this morning. As many women I pray, we would not handle the word of God lightly. We’d handle it correctly. As individuals, helped me to communicate correctly as a, as a, as a brother communicating the word of God to my brothers and sisters correctly. Lord, I ask that you would help us to make this moment in our life matter. Help us to learn about you, Help us to love you and help us to walk away desiring to live differently, lived more biblically because of today’s passage. We commit this time to you in jesus name Amen. Uh, the title we have is humble king. Great Savior, humble king. Great Savior, Mark 11 1 through 11. Um I workshopped a few other titles. One is a donkey, a king and you, how was the, that was the other one, A third option that didn’t make the cutting board that I’m not putting out there, but we’re just talking about uh juices Uber, that’s the, that’s the 3rd, 3rd title we’re looking at this morning, but the Book of Mark is said to be a passion narrative focusing on the last week of jesus’s life. And if you read the book of Mark or no Mark, he really has the most briefest gospel accounts of any of the four other gospel accounts and he says immediately all the time and he’s just rushing from one thing to the next. It’s like he’s from the Northeast and he has a desire to really get through what’s happening next. And so uh gospel commentaries joke about how all of Mark is a quick, immediate build up to this last week of juices life, Mark 11 through Mark 16. Um, and it’s this quick and sudde…

Good morning. Good morning. It was a good morning for you, right, Wasn’t it? Maybe it wasn’t, well, even if it wasn’t God is so good and we’re glad that you’re here with us. Um, if I haven’t met you, my name is dan and I’m one of the elders here. There’s five of us, four of us now. We sent one out and he’s planning a church, so there’s four of us now. Um, so glad that you’re here with us this morning. Go ahead and open your bibles to Romans. Chapter 12 work. Our main text will be two verses, but we will read quite a bit of romans just because of the context. Um, we believe in exposition of preaching and teaching. And even though we’re gonna look at two verses this morning, the way in which we work that out. Exposition aly is we look at the contexts that that verse lives in. We we don’t just say that one verse has its own zip code, right? It lives within a context. And so the context helps to bring more of the meaning of the individual verses that we’re going to highlight today. So while you’re turning there to Romans 12, I do want to tell a little bit of a story um, to kind of set the table a bit for today’s teaching recently, I did a wedding, I did a premarital counseling and a wedding for a couple of friends and um, I took them through a curriculum that I used for premarital counseling that likes to use fictional characters. Um, and highlighting within these fictional characters, various challenges that America couple might face. And uh, some of the challenges are kind of over the top a little, a little bit silly, but they communicate a point, They emphasize the point, they get the point across, so to speak. For example, one of the little challenges that I saw, um, that I think is funny from the book is that this newlywed couple, right? Um, every night the wife would politely ask the husband to turn off all the lights in the house and you know, they’re newlywed the first night or so. No big deal. Right? Oh man, this is my wife. Yeah, she’s asked me to, yeah, yeah, I’ll do that, you know, So he goes and he obliges and he turns off all the lights. Um, every other night after that, she continued to ask the question, would you please turn off all the lights? And it didn’t matter if he was in bed first or if he was in bed last. She wanted him to turn off all the lights. Well, uh, the shiny newness of marriage began to wear off and this young husband became incredibly frustrated and lashed out at his wife and said, you turn off the lights, I’m in bed already, right. And uh, that really crushed her and led her to believe, well, did I marry the right person? He won’t even turn off all the lights right, You know? Um, but through the course of conversation and trying to resolve this conflict over who will shut off the lights, it was revealed that this wife, this this new wife, um the one man that she had respected the most in her life was her father and what he did every night was he shut off the lights, he tucked her into bed and he kissed her goodnight. But she’s not married to her father, she’s married to a different man. And so the point of that is that in marriage, You have two individuals with two lives shaped by various experiences, relationships, values, ideas Coming from different families, trying to come together and become one new family. And that’s hard. In fact, it’s incredibly hard without God, but it’s worth it. And so my goal in the pre medal counselors to help these two individuals understand the things that have shaped their personality and the things that have shaped their spouse’s personality and to figure out how to follow jesus in becoming one new family. And through that process, you’ve got to be transformed. That only works if both individuals are being transformed. And so this morning we’re gonna talk about trans…