Mark Clark [00:00:00]:
Hey, everyone, Mark Clark here. Hopefully you are doing well. This is the Mark Clark Podcast, brought to you by the Thrive Podcast Network. Jump over to thrive podcastnetwork.com to see all the awesome podcasts that this great family of podcasts has to offer you. So first Corinthians, chapter one, verse eight to nine. Here is the title of this message. The end of the world. That's literally what we're going to be diving into today to talk about what it means to lack nothing in Christ, even in light of the end of the world, even when life feels empty.
Mark Clark [00:00:29]:
I'm going to share why contentment matters more than comparison, why our character outlasts our competency, and 10 practical ways to live a life that's both faithful and fruitful. This one's all about organizing your life in light of eternity. Let's jump into this. The End of the World on the Mark Clark Podcast. Let's go. But today we're gonna hit two verses, and those two verses are really important verses. And we kind of ended with a thought last week. And then I wanna kinda get into the meat of something and the mechanics of something and unpack a bunch of points for you that I think are important.
Mark Clark [00:01:08]:
So if we run at this a little bit, First Corinthians, chapter one. Last week we hit verse six and seven, even as the testimony about Christ was confirmed among you. So that you are not lacking in any gift. And. And one of the things that's really important as we kind of run at what I'm about to say is that I think what begins to happen is the Apostle Paul literally just said so that you're not lacking in anything. And I think when it comes to our life, what we have to recognize, even if we're exploring religion, spirituality, Christianity, that the reason we sin is because of what he is. Because we lack. It feels like we lack something.
Mark Clark [00:01:50]:
The reason we steal, the reason we lie, the reason we cheat on our spouse, the reason we. It's because we feel that there's a lack, there's something that's lacking in our life, and we need to get something else out of life. We need to suck something out of life, suck something out of the universe, get ourselves. And this is what's behind most of the sins of our life, is that we just feel like we lack. So we go after something we feel like some of you are really jacked about. October 17th because now you can smoke weed and do it legally. All right? And I think that's sad because at the end of the day, it's because you lack some. Anytime you wanna try to alter your state, it's because you lack a kind of contentment in your life.
Mark Clark [00:02:35]:
And the apostle Paul says, if you're someone who's in Jesus, then you don't lack anything. There's a kind of contentment that comes that transcends anything that you can experience in life. And so he says in Jesus Christ, if you're out there spinning your wheels, trying to find fulfillment in life, then Jesus Christ is what you actually need to consider and say, man, I lack nothing. Meaning the loneliness that I feel, the isolation that I feel, the depression that I feel in those moments, I need to keep coming back to Jesus. Not that that's an easy fix. I know we all deal with different things in life, but one of the key points is that we shouldn't add to people's loneliness. We shouldn't add to people's lives. We shouldn't add, as Christians, to people's feeling like they lack at any moment.
Mark Clark [00:03:22]:
And you know that that's an epidemic today with the rise of social media. There's a rise of depression and suicide among people because they feel like they're comparing their life to everybody else and they're missing out. Right?
Mark Clark [00:03:34]:
It's fomo.
Mark Clark [00:03:35]:
It's the fear of missing out. And you know what it's like when you're sitting at home on a Saturday night and it' and it's raining and nobody called you and nobody texted you, and you're scrolling through your Instagram account and everyone you know is at the same party, and you're like, what the crap? I didn't get no text. What's going on here? That looks like a fun party, too. They're all dressed up like, you know, to the nines. And I'm sitting here in my pajamas, all stained out. All right, Watching Netflix the Crown again. All right, what's going on here, man? I don't understand. Why didn't I get invited to the fomo? Like, I wanna go, and then you maybe just show up and just be what you did, invite me.
Mark Clark [00:04:15]:
All right, but you should be going out of your way to actually make people not feel a lack in life. Think about how it practically goes down. It means maybe you should think about your social media in a way that's not going to depress the people watching it. Maybe you should. I'm constantly. If I go somewhere that's really, like, a fun place or, like, I think about it, okay? I'm not living under the burden of not sharing it with People, of course I wanna celebrate what God's done and share funny stories or whatever and that's fine. But there's moments where I don't share anything about where I am because I don't want people to look at it and go, you know what? My life sucks. Think about that.
Mark Clark [00:04:54]:
When you post something, you should post stuff on social. Here's what the church should be. It should be the group of people who post stuff on social media to make people go, boy, I don't lack like post the bad stuff, right? Man, here's my face, I just woke up, haven't brushed my teeth yet, Smell, I'm ugly. Look, I'm ugly. Hey, look at my marriage, it sucks. Look at this place. We have to go. This is terrible.
Mark Clark [00:05:29]:
I had a terrible afternoon, right? Do stuff. So people look and go, man, my life's legit. Look at this guy. When he wakes up, he looks awful. That's what the job of the church. You should be fighting loneliness, fighting against isolation, fighting against people who feel lack in their life and to try to bring them a kind of fulfillment for them. And so he says, you lack if you're in Jesus Christ, you lack nothing. The fact that you have breath in your lungs is just a win above what you deserve.
Mark Clark [00:06:09]:
And so then you start to understand I'm a recipient of grace, and so I function as a conduit of grace in life at every moment. And so he says, you lack nothing, you're not lacking as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ. And so he talks about the end of the world, that the end of the world is not that we dissipate because the sun melts us like naturalism says. It's not that we get sucked up into the all soul like new age philosophy says, it's that there's going to be a revealing. We talked about this last week where Jesus Christ is revealed to the world and everything sad comes untrue and there's no more pain or dying or sin or death or destruction. There's a new world that's born and people who have trusted Jesus get into that world. And people who haven't do not get into that world. But there will be an unveiling where Jesus Christ is seen as the Lord and the Savior and the treasure of the universe, the one who's ultimate in control.
Mark Clark [00:07:04]:
And that's how the story ends. And so there's a practical reality where then once you've seen the end, then you start to work backward and retrofit your life in light of the end you start to say like this is what we do in life. I went on a trip, I'm gonna talk a bunch about a trip. I just went on over the last two days to Edmonton to speak at a young adult conference. I'm gonna illustrate it a few times today. But you know, I know what time the flight was leaving. The flight was leaving at 11am and so what do I do? I know that's there. So I retrofit everything.
Mark Clark [00:07:33]:
I wake up at 6:30, I pack, I get ready, I shower, I work on some stuff. I need to speak three times there. So I work on some things. I meet the guy who's traveling with me at the bus loop at 8:30. We get thing we drive there every week, right? We get, we're in traffic so now we're taking the hub lane but now there's really no hove lane through that one particular part. So then I go out to the bus lane and pretend I didn't know. And then I, and then I drive that and I'm like oh, I didn't know bus. I thought huv.
Mark Clark [00:08:02]:
And so I went there and I skipped the, you know, 20 minutes in the line, don't you know, email me.
Mark Clark [00:08:08]:
About it, you're immoral as well.
Mark Clark [00:08:09]:
And, and so then we get to the airport, you know, we eat breakfast. Like it's like you gotta organize your life in light of kind of the end. That's the point. And what he said is, I'll tell you what the end is. Jesus Christ is going to be revealed as the Lord and the Savior and treasurer of the universe. So now in this moment, in the present, retrofit your life. What are you doing? What is it about your life that you are reorganizing in light of the fact that that's the end of all things.
Mark Clark [00:08:38]:
And so he says a couple things about that revealing.
Mark Clark [00:08:43]:
He says, Verse 8, who will sustain you to the end. I love that. So there's two things I want to say about the end and that's really.
Mark Clark [00:08:51]:
What today's about, about how to retrofit.
Mark Clark [00:08:54]:
Your life toward the picture of the end. There's two things about it. The first one is God's role and the second one I want to unpack is our role. What gets you to the end? What gets you to the end? What gets you before he says, guiltless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ who will sustain you to the end? Guiltless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. What gets you to the day of the Lord? The end of all things. When he comes back riding on a horse with a sword between his mouth and you look toward that day and you go, what we have to understand about Christianity is we have, we talk about Jesus and we think about Jesus as the, as the kind of peasant, the poor 33 year old Palestinian peasant who's walking around teaching nice things about seeds and farms and birds and all of that. Kind of like a hippie, right? That's how we picture him and that's how we, you know, when we're worshiping, when we're thinking about him, when we teach about him, that tends to be what we think about. But what the Apostle Paul says here, right at the beginning of this book, he says, everything that I'm gonna deal with about your messed up sexuality in Corinth and in Canada, everything I'm gonna talk about, about how depraved you are, how narcissistic you are, how selfish you are, how greedy you are, everything is going to be seen in light of the fact that Jesus was that person for 33 years, 2,000 years ago.
Mark Clark [00:10:19]:
But that's not who he is now. He is the resurrected ascended Lord who is coming back, riding on a horse, and he's gonna start slaying some wickedness and there's gonna be a sword of righteousness coming out of his mouth and every knee will bow and every tongue will confess and you'll have white hair and flaming eyes and he just doesn't even blink. He just sees right through you, through to who you are in the dark. That's who we worship. That's the vision. Paul says, so when I'm explaining to you to get your marriage in order and get your moral life in order and get your money in order and, and stop sleeping with your stepmom, all right? Which is exactly what he addresses in this book. You're like, that sounds odd. That's what he hits.
Mark Clark [00:11:01]:
All of that is seen in light.
Mark Clark [00:11:03]:
Of not the poor Palestinian peasant, but.
Mark Clark [00:11:05]:
The risen one who will be revealed as the Lord of every. He's gonna come back and everyone's gonna give an account. And when you get in front of him, on what basis are you gonna give an account? And on what basis are you gonna be seen guiltless? How do you get to the end still saved?
Mark Clark [00:11:29]:
You know who he says does it? God. Wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ, verse 8. Who will sustain you to the end? How do you get to the end? Saved.
Mark Clark [00:11:49]:
God keeps you saved. That's the beauty of it, right? That's the assurance. The Assurance is not that God will.
Mark Clark [00:11:58]:
Save you even if you stop believing in life. The assurance is that God actually keeps you believing in life.
Mark Clark [00:12:07]:
That's the beauty of it. This is awesome because that's just blowing your brain right there. You're like, what are you talking about right now? Because that means that you don't get any credit for your salvation. It's him that sustains you to the end. One writer I read years ago, he.
Mark Clark [00:12:25]:
Said, if I could lose my salvation, I would. So you wanna talk about the kind of security and assurance you have till the last day?
Mark Clark [00:12:36]:
The last day? How do you even get to the last day?
Mark Clark [00:12:39]:
Guiltless and blameless? It's because Jesus Christ never loses anybody.
Mark Clark [00:12:45]:
When you are in the hand of the Father.
Mark Clark [00:12:46]:
He doesn't lose sheep. He doesn't go, I had a sheep in my hand.
Mark Clark [00:12:50]:
Oh, lost him. Don't know where he went.
Mark Clark [00:12:52]:
I have no idea what's going on.
Mark Clark [00:12:54]:
He sustains you, and in the end.
Mark Clark [00:12:57]:
You are guiltless in front of him, not because of your life, but because of what he did in Jesus Christ. And then you come in behind Jesus and you say, please, Lord, judge me on his righteousness, not my righteousness.
Mark Clark [00:13:07]:
Now that's God's job.
Mark Clark [00:13:08]:
I wanna spend the rest of our time talking about our job. Cause here's my desire for you.
Mark Clark [00:13:13]:
My desire for you is that when you get to that last day, that.
Mark Clark [00:13:17]:
You not only live a faithful life, but a fruitful life. And here's what I mean by that.
Mark Clark [00:13:22]:
In the Parable of the Talents, I don't have time to unpack it for.
Mark Clark [00:13:24]:
You, but because we have to get to 10 points.
Mark Clark [00:13:31]:
In the Parable of the Talents, when Jesus comes back and asks everyone what they did, he gives the analogy of, I gave you five bucks and what did you do with it? And one guy says, I made 10 bucks out of it. And he says, you know, well done, good and faithful servant. And his faithfulness, listen, it's very important, is evaluated on his effectiveness, on his fruitfulness to actually do some stuff in his life. He doesn't come back and say, I gave you five bucks. What did you do with it? And he said, I kept the five bucks. Actually, that guy who buried the five bucks out of fear, which is what some of you do with the resources and the gifts and the. The time and the energy that God has given to you. He buries it out of fear.
Mark Clark [00:14:12]:
And Jesus comes back and he says, you wicked servant, to the prison with you. And the guy gets whipped to death. In the end, it's like, but, Lord, I was fearful. You gave me five bucks. I didn't know what to do with it. What if I spent it and I lost it?
Mark Clark [00:14:28]:
And he goes, you could have at least put it in the bank and made interest on it. And so he's. But the one who made took five bucks and got 10. And the one who took 10 bucks and made 30, he says to you, I'm gonna give you more. I'm gonna give you more responsibility. I'm gonna give you more pleasure, more delight, more joy.
Mark Clark [00:14:45]:
Cause you did something effective with your life before the end. That's what I want. I want you and me to actually be effective. And so how are we gonna do that? 10 ways we're gonna do that. As we look to the day of his revealing. All right. Paul says, God is faithful by whom you were called, verse 9. Into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord.
Mark Clark [00:15:11]:
He called you. He's gonna sustain you. That's his job. Now, what is our job? Our job is to look toward that end and do what Jesus has asked us to do. The commission is to make disciples. You're making disciples at all times. The word disciple means math. They taste.
Mark Clark [00:15:26]:
That's a great commission. You're making learners out of everybody. You view everybody like you do your kids at every moment, whether it's a coworker that's 30 years older than you. Your job is to disciple them in the ways of Jesus so that they think and behave and act and belong the way that Jesus actually asked them to. And the way you do that is you look at everybody the way you look at your kids. When you look at your kids, everything about what you're doing with them is you're discipling them. You're showing them, here's how to be a human being. Here's how to say thank you.
Mark Clark [00:15:55]:
Here's how to act. Here's how to live. Here's how to love. You're constantly doing it because you know that they need it. They're a disaster. All kids are. My kids are. My kids were born into the den of iniquity.
Mark Clark [00:16:05]:
Those kids. Hearts are blackened. All right, they're in. They're all about them, man. I remember when my youngest, Bella, she was like 4 years old, and I caught her, all right, in the bathroom holding a total roll of toilet paper over the water. And she looked at me and she's like, flush. And I'm like, what? No. If you flush, it'll bubble up and go all over the ground.
Mark Clark [00:16:29]:
And she's like, no. I'm like, yeah, idiot. No, I'm like, k, go try it. All right? She goes. And all the water comes over and I'm like, ha. Told you. All right?
Mark Clark [00:16:42]:
And my wife comes in, she's like, which one of you are older? You are the dumbest human being.
Mark Clark [00:16:46]:
What are you doing? All right. I'm sitting there like, yeah, I'm smarter than her. All right, sucky. All right, so my kids are ridiculous. We were going for Nexus. We were actually going for our Nexus interviews. And everybody's gotta be like, legit. Like, okay, you gotta answer because, you know, who knows, right? They're not gonna give us our Nexus pass if we're bringing drugs across the border.
Mark Clark [00:17:07]:
And so it's like, okay, kids, here's the thing. You answer every question legit. You just stay on focus. You tell them that. Okay, daddy. Okay. Boom. So we get up to the thing.
Mark Clark [00:17:15]:
We're like the next in line. I'm like, okay, we rehearsed our answers. You know how old you are? You know this, we're your parents.
Mark Clark [00:17:21]:
And Hayden goes, you're not my parents.
Mark Clark [00:17:23]:
I'm like, what? Shut up. What? Shh. Stop joking around. Totally straight faced.
Mark Clark [00:17:28]:
She's like, I don't even know you.
Mark Clark [00:17:30]:
I'm like, what? And there's like, security people walking around. I'm like, ah, don't worry. What?
Mark Clark [00:17:36]:
She's like, I actually don't know you.
Mark Clark [00:17:39]:
Like, straight facing it. All right? These kids are wicked, all right? All they wanna do is mess us up, all right? All they wanna do is make us question our lives and our salvation and our calling and our sanity at every moment. And so my job is to disciple that brain, all right? Cause that brain needs a lot of discipling. All right? This is how you think, all right? This is how you. And so that's your job. And everybody around you is like that. They're into what's good for them. And your job, Jesus said in the Great Commission, is to teach people to what, Observe all that I commanded.
Mark Clark [00:18:18]:
So it's not good enough, as I've talked to you about before, to just teach Hayden what Jesus commanded. That's not actually my calling. That's easy. She can recite that back to me. All right? Love your neighbor, Pray for those who pray, you know, all of that. Great. What I need to do with her is actually I need to make her.
Mark Clark [00:18:35]:
Obey all that Jesus commanded. Now that's a whole other story. But that's your mission in life. So how are you gonna do that?
Mark Clark [00:18:43]:
All right? Here's 10 things that you gotta hold.
Mark Clark [00:18:45]:
Onto as you look toward the end and say, I'm gonna be a good decision. So you take out your phones.
Mark Clark [00:18:49]:
I won't even know if you're texting.
Mark Clark [00:18:51]:
Your girlfriend, all right? Or you're just, you know, tweeting about or checking scores. I won't even know because I'm gonna think that you're taking notes, all right?
Mark Clark [00:18:59]:
Notes are a good thing. Take your notes, take your phone out.
Mark Clark [00:19:01]:
Cause you're not gonna remember any of these 10 things. So I'm gonna tell em to you, and you can go home and figure this out.
Mark Clark [00:19:06]:
Okay? First one is this. Your character. Your character must be intact at every moment if you're going to be effective. Meaning competency matters. It matters in life, but character matters more. You look at our culture as secular as our culture is, they seem to care about character, don't they? I mean, even right now, we're seeing it in the news. All right? There's a guy trying to become a Supreme Court judge, and everybody wants to know if he did something immoral when he was 17 years old. And if he did, he shouldn't be on the bench.
Mark Clark [00:19:45]:
So a culture that is not rooted in God, not rooted in morality, rooted totally in secularization, agnosticism wants to know whether this action took place. And if it did, this person is ergo unfit for service in the public square. Now think about a culture like that. It doesn't just care about competency, it cares about character. Everybody around. This is why the apostle Paul, when he starts to lay out what a church leader should be in First Timothy three, he doesn't start with make sure they're very competent. He starts out with make sure they're a husband of one wife. Make sure they're not given to money, make sure they're not given to drunkenness, make sure they're this.
Mark Clark [00:20:24]:
Make sure they're that. Your character is what people around you are gonna look at. And they're going to judge Christianity based not on your competence, but on your character. Feel that your life. Right? NBC News, I've shared this before, fired Brian Williams because he lied about whether his helicopter was shot in Iraq or somebody else's. And all of a sudden, over the years, it became him. And there's a whole study about why that happened. Was he actually lying? Or was it because the way memories work, that memories aren't actually memories? We take snapshots of things and then stories evolve, and we're not really sure.
Mark Clark [00:21:00]:
There's a whole psychological study done on this you sit down with someone and you ask them what they did on 9 11, all right? On this day and wait two more years and then ask them them again. And the stories will be vastly different because memories aren't actually memories. Now you're freaking out because you're in the Matrix and you don't even know if you're alive right now. All right, forget that. Listen, point being, Brian Williams was fired. Why was he fired? All the guy does is read a script that somebody else wrote to deliver news. Why does it matter? Because character matters. No one wants to hear a guy read the news who's immoral.
Mark Clark [00:21:30]:
That's the point. Our world cares about this, your life. I remember there was a guy, we went out for lunch one day, and he looked at me and he said something crazy.
Mark Clark [00:21:41]:
And I don't think it's true, but.
Mark Clark [00:21:42]:
He said something that really kind of.
Mark Clark [00:21:43]:
Caught me off guard.
Mark Clark [00:21:44]:
And he said, you know, certain people want to hover around you because you bring legitimacy to their life, so you better be careful who you hang around. And I'm like, whoa, what does that mean? And he said this. He said, because you're the most trusted.
Mark Clark [00:21:57]:
Man in South Surrey, which is the town I live in.
Mark Clark [00:22:02]:
Sorry, what? He said, don't you know that you're the most trusted man in our town? And I'm like, but I know who I am in the dark. What are you talking about right now? And I don't think that's true. But the reality is, character matters. Now you feel the weight of it, and you're like, oh, my good. When I go to the grocery store, I shall be the trusted man in South Surrey. Hello, Sarah. Thank you for pushing the cart about. Hello, chips.
Mark Clark [00:22:37]:
I shall take the only the greats.
Mark Clark [00:22:39]:
Character driven, righteous chips and things.
Mark Clark [00:22:42]:
I shall not turn a pineapple over. I'm just buying a pineapple. That's all I'm doing today. It's fully upright. It's like, now I can't, like, cut someone off in the parking lot. Be like, what the. I'm like, hey, God bless you.
Mark Clark [00:23:01]:
I don't know why all of a sudden I have to put a different accent on.
Mark Clark [00:23:04]:
But the point is, character matters. Your life matters. What you do with your time and your energy and your money matters. Look at your character. You can be competent, you can be funny, you can be winsome, you can be persuasive. But if your life and your character sucks, nobody's going to listen to what you say, period. Which is why you gotta look to.
Mark Clark [00:23:27]:
The day of the Lord, and go, is my character actually intact, or am I a disaster? Because if I want to carry a witness and let anybody want my Jesus, and my life is an utter wreck. I can't even pull it together. I'm always the one in need from everyone else around me. You got to think about, what are you doing? Jesus says, if you can't get. You know, at one point, a pretty harsh point of the New Testament, the Apostle Paul says, if you can't get your stuff in order in life, you're worse than an unbeliever. Like, we don't tend to, like, preach those, you know, texts in, like, small group when people are like, man, I just can't get my life together. And they're like, let me. Let me read this one.
Mark Clark [00:24:16]:
You can't get your life together, Tom, you pass a chocolate chip cookie. You're worse than an unbeliever.
Mark Clark [00:24:24]:
Any other prayer requests? All right. Everything's fine. All right.
Mark Clark [00:24:33]:
Character. Okay.
Mark Clark [00:24:35]:
Secondly. Secondly. And these are things that I unpack with leaders and felt they were really.
Mark Clark [00:24:43]:
Important for all of us to kind of think through. The second thing is passion.
Mark Clark [00:24:47]:
Not only should you have character, but.
Mark Clark [00:24:48]:
You should have passion in your life.
Mark Clark [00:24:49]:
You should show the world that when.
Mark Clark [00:24:54]:
You'Re looking toward the final day, the.
Mark Clark [00:24:56]:
Last day, that you go to yourself.
Mark Clark [00:24:57]:
Man, I'm passionate about this Jesus who's coming back.
Mark Clark [00:25:02]:
I'm so passionate.
Mark Clark [00:25:03]:
All my time, all my money, all my energy goes toward this.
Mark Clark [00:25:07]:
Passion covers over a multitude of weaknesses.
Mark Clark [00:25:10]:
Mistakes, and sins in your life. You know that if you.
Mark Clark [00:25:12]:
If you. If you have passion, then people want to know what you're about. And so when you leave here today, recognize when you're at a restaurant, at a party, at a meeting, at work, your passion is gonna say a lot about the kind of joy that you have in life. And so you gotta understand, passion attracts people. It makes people think, well, what's behind their life that I don't have? That's what we want, right? That's why when Paul starts listing out the fruit of the spirit, he starts talking about love. Joy, right? Joy. That would be part of your life. Passion is the thing that captures people's imagination to the kingdom.
Mark Clark [00:25:54]:
This is probably a bad example, but Jim Jones. You guys know who Jim Jones is, All right? Jim Jones ran a culture, all right?
Mark Clark [00:26:01]:
In Guyana, he made 900 people killed.
Mark Clark [00:26:03]:
Himself on a single day. People were giving their children to him as sex slaves.
Mark Clark [00:26:07]:
All right? This guy, can you imagine him getting away with any of that? If he was just like, how most.
Mark Clark [00:26:16]:
Of Us do Christianity just, like, monotone beige notepad. Hey, guys. So we're gonna kill ourselves today, everybody. We'll get some juice. You get the juice. Okay, we'll get the juice ready for you later. Give me your children, give me your daughters. And I'm gonna have some slavery here for a bit anyways, guys.
Mark Clark [00:26:44]:
So lunch is in a bit, and then about one or two, we'll all get ready in our bed and put our Nikes on, and I'll just kill ourselves.
Mark Clark [00:26:53]:
It's been good knowing you.
Mark Clark [00:26:54]:
It's been great.
Mark Clark [00:27:02]:
All right, cool. Like, no one's. Everyone's going, sorry, what are we doing here? Right? But he's charismatic, he's passionate. He's like, this is what we're going to do, and it's going to mean something for the universe, for your soul, and for eternity. And everyone's like, right. There's a story told about David Hume, the biggest atheist in England. He wrote this book against miracles and critiqued all of theism back in the day, 150, 200 years ago. And then there was George Whitefield.
Mark Clark [00:27:36]:
George Whitefield is one of the most powerful preachers, most charismatic, passionate preachers. I mean, he would be in fields in the Great Awakening, and thousands of people would come to know Jesus. No microphones or anything. George Whitefield, boom. And someone looked down one day and saw David Hume walking down the street, said, where are you going, Mr. Hume? And he said, I'm going to watch George Whitefield preach. And the guy said, why are you gonna go watch George Whitefield preach? You don't even believe anything that he says. And David Hume said, yeah, but he does.
Mark Clark [00:28:06]:
People will come from miles around to watch you burn if you set yourself on fire. So go do that.
Mark Clark [00:28:15]:
Passion rather than mailing it in and becoming the people at the party. We interview people, and they'll get on Skype. They'll be from, like, somewhere else. And I'll come into the interview, and I just know really quickly whether this person's gonna survive in village culture or not. Because if they bore me within the first two minutes, they're done.
Mark Clark [00:28:37]:
All right, so they'll get on Skype and it'll be like, okay, so here we go. Excited about you, John. How you doing? Where are you coming from?
Mark Clark [00:28:45]:
I'm in Boston.
Mark Clark [00:28:48]:
All right, well, what do you do? What do you want to do?
Mark Clark [00:28:52]:
Well, I'm not too good at men, but I like to journey with people. Like to, you know, sit in a coffee shop with the Bible. It's kind of journey with People, it's.
Mark Clark [00:29:04]:
Like, I can't pay you to be a Christian, John.
Mark Clark [00:29:06]:
And you're born me to tears here.
Mark Clark [00:29:09]:
And I'll just get up and leave.
Mark Clark [00:29:10]:
All right? And then people are like, are we gonna.
Mark Clark [00:29:12]:
Okay, here we go.
Mark Clark [00:29:13]:
Okay, John, so what other skills do you have?
Mark Clark [00:29:15]:
All right, you're done. You bored me to death. We don't want people like that. I want people with passion, people who are on fire, people who go, this is what Jesus did for me. At every moment, they're, like, so aware. Jesus told that parable, the person who's been forgiven a lot, they're constantly aware of how much they've been forgiven. And so they're constantly in a state of adoration and praise. And the people who just kind of.
Mark Clark [00:29:45]:
They don't feel like they've been forgiven a lot. They've been in this for so long. Like, they just kind of go through life and they're not. Like, at every moment, buzzing, just. I can't believe how good God is. I can't believe it. I can't believe it. Like, at every moment, it should be that kind of understanding, that kind of appreciation for what God's done.
Mark Clark [00:30:01]:
And then that'll make you passionate. All right, number three, we need to be dependent people. Dependent, meaning God is the only one with power. And if you're depending on yourself, the miracles will not happen in your life. The crazy things will not happen in your life. You need to be emptied of self and become dependent on him. As you look to his coming, as you look to his revealing, you say, jesus, I. There's nothing in my own power.
Mark Clark [00:30:27]:
Billy Graham, for many years would go out and he'd preach and have no results. And he met a guy who just had an anointing of the Spirit come on his life. And he said, I want that. I want that, I want that and his things. Nobody was getting converted. And finally, after two or three days together with this guy in a house, he just felt something happened to him, and he started laughing and he walked out and he preached. And before he was even done preaching, the whole place was. And from that day forward, I mean, the guy became dependent on Jesus every single day.
Mark Clark [00:30:53]:
He could have gone out and just preached his sermon. He, you know, travel around with a few sermons or whatever, but he was dependent. He said, there's no power in my life without you unless you do something great. And sometimes what'll happen is we'll have moments of tragedy or pain or suffering happen in order for us to become dependent people. I met a Guy when we went to Edmonton, his name's Trevor, Great young leader. Picked us up, really jacked up. We go out for lunch with him, we start talking through life. And I noticed that under his neck there's like a cut.
Mark Clark [00:31:26]:
Like it looked like a cut. It was all kind of like, just all kind of like different kind of skin. And I kind of looked at it and I thought, I want to ask him. Because that's just me.
Mark Clark [00:31:36]:
I'm like, I'm that guy, right?
Mark Clark [00:31:37]:
I'm like, what happened to your neck? All right. But I just like held back.
Mark Clark [00:31:41]:
So I knew the guy for more than 11 minutes.
Mark Clark [00:31:43]:
And so we kind of went through whatever. And then over lunch, the next by. Cause now we'd known each other for a while.
Mark Clark [00:31:53]:
And he looked at me and he said, when I was one year old and this guy's a pastor, he's in ministry. Great kid. He said, I crawled up on the stove and there was a big pot of boiling water, totally boiled. And I slipped and I pulled it down on myself. It went on the top of my head, went down my whole face, down my whole chest. One years old. He said, there's no way I shouldn't look completely. Everything should just be a mess.
Mark Clark [00:32:30]:
He said that day there happened to.
Mark Clark [00:32:32]:
Be the best surgeon in the country that deals with this in the room. They don't even work at the hospital. He heard a one year old was coming in and stayed. And miraculously he sees this doctor sometimes and he says, I don't. Your whole face should be gone.
Mark Clark [00:32:51]:
His whole face is perfectly normal.
Mark Clark [00:32:53]:
It's just here under the neck and down his chest. He took down his top and it's all just all burnt. His face is completely normal. Eight surgeries he went through as a kid to be able to make as a child. Like I'm talking two, three years old. He said, never were my parents more dependent on the power of God to get them through that. You see your kid go through that. It shaped our life.
Mark Clark [00:33:19]:
It's part of the reason I'm in ministry today, to be able to actually help shepherd and love and pastor people. See, we play with leadership and we think it's cute. We think it's cute to be a Christian. Listen, it's tough. That's why you need to be dependent. You need to go, I got nothing. I need you. I need you more than anything.
Mark Clark [00:33:41]:
Because he's the one with the power to actually do stuff. He's the one who's gonna create the miracles. He's the one who's Gonna actually have your two fish and five loaves multiply out exponentially beyond yourself. That's gotta be your life and your prayer.
Mark Clark [00:33:54]:
Okay? Fourthly, that your identity doesn't come from being a leader. It doesn't come from being the world around you. It doesn't come from your circumstances. It doesn't come from your. It comes from being in Christ. That's why Paul constantly, throughout the book of First Corinthians will say, your identity needs to be in Christ. Meaning the circumstances around your life will beat up on you, will destroy you, people will criticize you, people will backstab you. And the reality is you can move forward because your identity is in Christ.
Mark Clark [00:34:29]:
Over and over and over again, we've seen people just criticize me in ministry. People criticize me all the time. People criticize village church people. I mean, if I listened to all of that, I would just be in a corner somewhere, just like, I don't wanna do anything. I don't wanna come out. People talk about me. I can't believe it. And people meet.
Mark Clark [00:34:45]:
Leaders meet me. They're like, man, you must have a rough time of it. So many people can criticize you. I'm like, really? I must not get some of these emails because I didn't know. So many people dislike me. They're like, oh, yeah, you don't baptize people, right? You know, I'm like, what are you. Where did that. What are you talking about? They're like, oh, yeah, you just.
Mark Clark [00:35:00]:
You'll just go out and someone will wear a wetsuit. That's not real baptism because the water didn't touch their chest. I'm like, all right. What are you talking about? All right? It's like, you got to look and go, how does God, God's spirit move in the midst of people testifying to the world that they're dead in Christ and alive together? And the power of that going out, whatever the form of it is, and whether you're, you know, inside and your third rib gets wet, I don't think that's what the Bible's about. And you see the power of it. People's lives. Good. When we were at church in the park this past summer and 80 people got baptized on that day, 30 signed up, all right? Another 50 on the spot just hearing the gospel.
Mark Clark [00:35:42]:
Go out and listen. Anyone wants to tell you that people aren't interested in Christianity anymore, don't believe it for a second, and I'll tell you why. There was a guy, one of our people talked to a guy, he Had a fishing rod in the pond. Okay, so there's this pond at church in the park, right? And he's in there with a fishing rod and he's doing this. And one of our staff walked up and said, oh, you know, you're fishing pretty cool. Like, what are you catching?
Mark Clark [00:36:08]:
And he's like, there's no fishing here. I just wanted to come and listen, but I didn't want to look like I was listening so I just pretended I was fishing.
Mark Clark [00:36:24]:
What? There's no fish in there. The guy's like, woo, hey guys, what's going on? I don't care about anything going on here. Just trying to catch a pike in a lake with no fish. That's how hungry people are.
Mark Clark [00:36:43]:
And you hesitate to sit across the table and tell them about the hope you have. You hesitate. One of the guys who was there, his name is Mike, he's a pastor of a church at the church I was speaking at this weekend in Edmonton and this young adult conference and got to know him and joked around about his life and being a pastor and all that kind of, you know, went out for a while, started talking and this guy is like beaming, like he's a solid leader, he's humble, he's competent, he's in the zone. And I'm like, this is a guy I would love to be friends with. This is a guy I would love to. Actually offered him a job a couple times to the chagrin of his church.
Mark Clark [00:37:36]:
So he.
Mark Clark [00:37:37]:
And then right near the end of our time there, I find out, he says, I said, so, you know, tell.
Mark Clark [00:37:45]:
Me about your wife.
Mark Clark [00:37:45]:
And he said, well, actually, yeah, it's my.
Mark Clark [00:37:48]:
He's probably.
Mark Clark [00:37:49]:
He was 40. He said, it's my second wife. I said, oh, what happened? He said, well, I dated this girl for four years, lived in Vancouver at the time as a pastor, youth pastor, and dated four years and got married four years. And we were driving up to somewhere, they got on the Coquihala, they went to. She said to him, hey, you. You good, Mike? And he said, yeah. And she got her sweater and put it up against his shoulder and fell asleep. He said it was six minutes later they hit some black ice truck, went over the edge, started rolling.
Mark Clark [00:38:35]:
He said, I was awake the whole time. I remember it, glass breaking, things shattering, flipping, flipping, flipping. And then stopped, hit a tree. And he looked over and she was totally broken, blood coming out of her mouth, her body twisted. And he looked and he said, I don't like, I'm scared to touch her. I don't know what to do. And he said, I'm going to die here. No one saw me.
Mark Clark [00:39:05]:
And he sat in his truck, and all of a sudden he sees this head kind of pop around the thing. And he said, is anyone down there? And he just screamed out, yes, yes. And people started to come and they called the ambulances, and they all came and took her out. And he heard the guy saying to his wife, you know, mike loves you. Mike loves you. Mike loves you. Happen to be a paramedic. And then she breathed her last and passed away right in front of him.
Mark Clark [00:39:38]:
And anyway, he's remarried now, has kids, and he's a great pastor and exudes joy. And you're like, how do you ever get through that? He held your wife as she died. Four years married in your 30s. When your whole life's ahead of you.
Mark Clark [00:39:59]:
How are you a leader now?
Mark Clark [00:40:01]:
How are you a pastor?
Mark Clark [00:40:02]:
How do you, like, sit and counsel other people through their nonsense and absorb it? How's that possible? Don't you want to just go, dude, wake up. I don't care about your little problem. The fact that your wife buys a coffee every morning and you think that's bad for, you know, for your finances, Knock it off. There's real pain in the world.
Mark Clark [00:40:32]:
But he doesn't, because his whole. All of his joy comes from something that transcends his circumstance. That's where your identity needs to be. And then the world can beat up on you and you can survive until the last day. All right, number five.
Mark Clark [00:40:59]:
People who are going to have impact toward the last day are people who.
Mark Clark [00:41:02]:
Recognize that this is a team sport, not an individual sport. You be part of the church because we need each other desperately. It was amazing. I brought one of our staff named Victor on this trip to Edmonton. And as Mike told that story.
Mark Clark [00:41:21]:
The.
Mark Clark [00:41:21]:
Penny dropped and Victor went, wait a minute, what's your last name? And Mike says his last name, and he's like, you were my youth pastor at the first church I ever felt like I connected to. My friend would invite me to this church and that church and this church. I never liked any of them. People were Gong Show. Then I came into your church and you were the youth pastor, and you cared about me and inspired me unto faith in a way that nobody has. And I've been in the church ever since. And now I work at Village, and I'm sitting at a table across from you. And now I just want to say thank you for being faithful in the midst of your pain to your job because it impacted a kid like me.
Mark Clark [00:42:11]:
In that moment. That's why you need the church man.
Mark Clark [00:42:15]:
Because Mike needed to hear that encouragement from a kid he'd never even met 15 years later, whatever it is, that's how God moves. He goes, oh, Mike needs encouragement. I know what I shall do. I shall have Mark Clark go out and speak at a conference. I shall have everyone else on staff be busy. And so he'll have to ask Victor, love you, bud.
Mark Clark [00:42:44]:
And then Victor will have to be at a table across from a guy who needs to hear somebody say, how you did your job changed my life in the midst of pain. That's the church, be it. And you need it desperately.
Mark Clark [00:43:03]:
All right, number six, you need to.
Mark Clark [00:43:05]:
Be authentic in your authenticity. People will see Christ because you're gonna put your failures first and show how big and beautiful Jesus is. I remember the day that I shared up here that my brain worked in a particular obsessive compulsive kind of way. And I thought weird things about moments that if I don't tap certain things, certain amount of times bad things will happen. And then I remember the next day a woman coming up to me in the playground saying, I thought like that too. I fold my towels in a particular way that if they don't hit a certain way, then I think people are gonna die around me. And so on. She goes, I never knew another human being thought like that until you shared that story.
Mark Clark [00:43:41]:
Sharing my own brokenness and being authentic with you as a church gave her permission to not be perfect. That's my job up here and it's your job in life. So stop leading with your perfection.
Mark Clark [00:43:58]:
When.
Mark Clark [00:43:58]:
You are with people. Lead from a limp in your life.
Mark Clark [00:44:02]:
And go, ah, I'm so broken, man.
Mark Clark [00:44:03]:
Isn't it good? Jesus is good. Stop talking about your accomplishments because behind them is the Father who anything good in your life comes from him anyway. Give him the credit. Be authentic.
Mark Clark [00:44:15]:
All right, number seven.
Mark Clark [00:44:16]:
Be willing to take risks in your life. Be willing to take risks over and over and over again.
Mark Clark [00:44:23]:
Nothing about village church was ever supposed to work.
Mark Clark [00:44:26]:
A 29 year old kid in a hoodie yelling at people. That's not what works in Canada. We all got to talk in pear shaped tones and apologize. I remember when we planted the church that was planting me, said, you know, we don't want to invest.
Mark Clark [00:44:43]:
We don't want to think too much.
Mark Clark [00:44:44]:
About, you know, you out in South Surrey doing your thing because maybe if it doesn't work, you know, you can come back and be the young adult pastor here again. And I was like, no, you don't understand, man. I'm burning the ships. If this don't work, this don't work.
Mark Clark [00:44:57]:
That's life.
Mark Clark [00:45:00]:
God, I gotta eat.
Mark Clark [00:45:00]:
If you don't have to eat, you don't work hard. You gotta be hungry. You can't live in a safety net in life, and Christianity won't let you take risks. Everything we've ever done as a church is a risk. The fact that you're watching this sermon on a video and I'm not live in the room like everyone said you had to be. He's gotta be live in the room. He's gotta see my encouraging looks to.
Mark Clark [00:45:22]:
Him and see me in a crowd.
Mark Clark [00:45:23]:
And feel my energy. So it's wrong to have video in church. That was a risk. We got up and said, by the way, it's all video now. Hopefully, you know, you don't like, well, I like when he sees my beautiful face. I shall leave now. But that's the risk.
Mark Clark [00:45:41]:
Everything we've done as a church has been a risk. Going to two services, everyone said wouldn't work. Going to three services, doing an elementary school, nothing was going to work. Coming here, I was terrified to come into the Bell Center. It's all these seats. I'm like, I can't do all these seats. They're just staring at me. Do you take risks in your life at all and recognize that here's the great thing with a great risk?
Mark Clark [00:46:04]:
You jump off a cliff, and if.
Mark Clark [00:46:06]:
Jesus doesn't show up, you fail. Man, he looks good in those moments.
Mark Clark [00:46:11]:
And then when you fail, you look awful, which is good, too, because then he looks good. Your job's to make him look good. So failing's okay. I've failed over and over again. I used to work in some little.
Mark Clark [00:46:24]:
Suburban church, and then I moved to.
Mark Clark [00:46:26]:
An urban church and thought I could just do the same stuff. And it was bad. It was kids stabbing each other, sexual assaults going on. I'm like, well, we'll do a sleepover. Everyone's like, what? We're doing a sleepover. All of a sudden, them and their friends come. It's like, bon. It's like a crazy.
Mark Clark [00:46:38]:
I was like, breaking into rooms. I'm like, you can't do that. You're in junior high, People calling the cops, having meetings with parents.
Mark Clark [00:46:46]:
Oh, the amount of failures.
Mark Clark [00:46:47]:
I remember my first leadership meeting.
Mark Clark [00:46:49]:
I went in. I'm like.
Mark Clark [00:46:50]:
I, like, went in, like, patent. I'm like, all right, stand up. Here we go. This is what we're gonna do. Boom. You, whoever you are, you Are now the greeting person. They're like, I'm the production person. I'm like, not anymore.
Mark Clark [00:47:01]:
With.
Mark Clark [00:47:02]:
After meeting my wife's like, that was the worst leadership meeting I've ever had in my life.
Mark Clark [00:47:05]:
I'm like, you are no longer invited. That's how I deal with that.
Mark Clark [00:47:12]:
I've failed so many times. It's incredible. All right, we gotta wrap this up. Number eight, be persistent. Persistent. Persistent, persistent, persistent. The people you're after with the mission you're on, with the family you're raising, with the thing you're trying to do for Jesus. Be persistent.
Mark Clark [00:47:28]:
Push through even when it's hard. Take the grace and the energy from Jesus. Listen, this conference I just went and spoke to in Edmonton, what was funny.
Mark Clark [00:47:36]:
About it is when people ask me.
Mark Clark [00:47:38]:
To come speak, they kind of pitch a vision, right? And they're like, there's this many people gonna be there to. So you get in your brain this, and you go in, and you gotta kind of.
Mark Clark [00:47:44]:
So they said, there's gonna be eight.
Mark Clark [00:47:46]:
To 900 young adults at this conference. So in my brain, I'm, like, prepping these messages going in.
Mark Clark [00:47:50]:
There's gonna be energy. Da, da, da, da. I get there.
Mark Clark [00:47:53]:
I'm not joking you. There was 73 people there.
Mark Clark [00:47:57]:
Now, in that moment, all I wanna do is, like, energy just goes, boom, done.
Mark Clark [00:48:01]:
And you're like, oh, man, I am so tired. I got so much to do. I do not want to do this. I don't want to stand up in front of these 73 people and try to, you know, speak all the.
Mark Clark [00:48:13]:
For hours.
Mark Clark [00:48:14]:
I'm like, oh, man.
Mark Clark [00:48:15]:
I was picturing, like, 800 influencers, you know?
Mark Clark [00:48:19]:
And it's like, hi, guys. Hey.
Mark Clark [00:48:24]:
And you forget, like, young adults, they look really young.
Mark Clark [00:48:28]:
Like, I'm like, there's no way I looked that young when I was in. There's no way. I thought I was in, like, the junior high room.
Mark Clark [00:48:35]:
I asked a girl, I'm like, what year were you born? She's like, 2000. I'm like, like, using analogies. Nobody understands seeing Forrest Gump. They're like, what's that?
Mark Clark [00:48:48]:
I'm like, oh, I'm so bad at. I had to persevere through it and ask the Lord for energy and motivation. And the first time I spoke, within 10 minutes, something landed and the room shifted, and it was beautiful. For the next two days, it was beautiful. What happened in that room? The life change, the tears, the repentance, the empowerment. You gotta push through. All right, Ninth. You gotta deliver in life.
Mark Clark [00:49:28]:
You gotta Deliver there is. It's nice to have good motivations in life. It's nice to be a nice person. It's nice to want to do good things. It's nice to want to be effective at evangelism. It's nice to want things to be on mission. It's nice to want to fill in the blank. When Jesus comes back though, he says.
Mark Clark [00:49:51]:
What did you actually get done? What did you accomplish? Did you turn 5 into 10? Did you bury it? I actually wanna know if you delivered in life. Did you show up? Or did you talk about showing up? Did you actually. Were you actually effective in what I called you to do? Using your gifts and. And your wiring and your passions to do what I called you to do in the world? Did you actually do it or not? Cause the point is showing up. I remember just before I left on this flight, it was in the morning, I put my kid girls to bed the night before. I kissed them. And I said, they said, daddy, how long are you gone for? I said, just one day. And they said, okay.
Mark Clark [00:50:30]:
And they said, come and say goodbye to us in the morning before you leave. And I said, okay. But then I woke up and I was about to creep out the door and they were still sleeping and I was like, oh, I don't wanna wake them. And so I sat there at the door, I'm like, should I go say goodbye to them? I told them I would, but maybe I won't. I'm like, oh, it was for their good. I had good motivations. And I'm like, oh, I don't know what to do. And then I said, okay.
Mark Clark [00:50:50]:
And I actually opened the door, went outside and I went back in. I'm like, I said I would do it even though it might be bad for them. So I went upstairs and I said, hey. And they got.
Mark Clark [00:50:58]:
And they kissed me.
Mark Clark [00:50:59]:
Oh, I got that warm little.
Mark Clark [00:51:00]:
I just want to go back in there. And then I'm like, oh. And then the other one. Oh, kissing goodbye, Daddy.
Mark Clark [00:51:04]:
And I walked out. I'm like, okay, whatever. Don't know what that meant.
Mark Clark [00:51:07]:
I got home last night, my wife was sleeping. I got home late at 11 o' clock and she rolled over. She's like, hey, Just so you know, I heard the kids three times this weekend say that you came back upstairs and kissed them before you left. There is a world of difference between wanting to do something and doing it. Show up. Delivery.
Mark Clark [00:51:30]:
Lastly, I want you all to be hopeful.
Mark Clark [00:51:32]:
Don't be such a drag.
Mark Clark [00:51:34]:
Be hopeful.
Mark Clark [00:51:35]:
People in the midst of pain, in the midst of tragedy, in the midst.
Mark Clark [00:51:40]:
Of the world around you, where you.
Mark Clark [00:51:41]:
Could get very depressed very quickly.
Mark Clark [00:51:43]:
Get off Twitter.
Mark Clark [00:51:47]:
Be hopeful. Recognize you serve a very powerful God, an extremely powerful God. The kind of God that causes you, that moves. And the question of your life is like, am I gonna listen when he calls me? Am I gonna do things? I remember the day. I'll close with this and then I'll pray for you. I remember the day that a pastor walked into my office and said, hey, I feel like you should go visit so and so. And I'm like, yeah, I'll do it in a couple days. And he said, no, no, I think.
Mark Clark [00:52:14]:
You should do it today.
Mark Clark [00:52:14]:
And I'm like, okay, sure. So I showed up at their house and I never do this. I haven't done this before, and I haven't done this since.
Mark Clark [00:52:23]:
I showed up at a woman's house and I knocked on the door and I waited and I waited and I waited.
Mark Clark [00:52:28]:
And I knew she was there because her car was there.
Mark Clark [00:52:30]:
And she came to the door finally.
Mark Clark [00:52:32]:
And she was wearing her, like, PJs. And she said, what do you want? And I'm like, I'm just here to talk to you. You know, I know you a bit. I'm a pastor at the church, and I just wanted to kind of come and encourage you.
Mark Clark [00:52:43]:
My.
Mark Clark [00:52:43]:
You know, somebody said that I should. I don't really know you, but. And she's like, oh, okay, well. And I'm like, well, I'm not gonna.
Mark Clark [00:52:51]:
Do a dance on your porch.
Mark Clark [00:52:52]:
You wanna invite me in? I'm not here to do a candy gram. So I went in and we sat in her living room and talked for three hours. And we had tea and theology and we chatted all this stuff. Anyway, I got up to leave and I gave her a hug. We had a ton of fun. And she said, do you know why I'm in my PJs at 1 o' clock in the afternoon? I said, no. She said, I've been going through a really difficult time in life, losing my husband soon. And I walked downstairs and I walked into the kitchen today, and I said to myself, I've had such a hard time of it, Lord, I'm gonna take my own life today unless somebody comes to the door to encourage me.
Mark Clark [00:53:34]:
And I sat down on the chair in my living room and fell asleep. And I woke up to you knocking on the door. That's how powerful he is. Your role is to listen. You can save a life.
Mark Clark [00:53:57]:
Eternally, temporally, if you listen.
Mark Clark [00:54:02]:
Because on that last day he's going to come back and be revealed and go, what's up? Did you listen? Father, my hope is as we are a church, as we worship in response to this stuff, as we think about the day that you will come back, as we wonder about the motive toward the mission that you have us on as people. I pray Holy Spirit, you would speak and we would listen. You are so good and we are not. Our hope is in you, no, not in ourselves. Let that define us, Jesus, you died.
Mark Clark [00:54:37]:
You took on the wrath of God.
Mark Clark [00:54:38]:
You took our sin on yourself. You rose again to empower us, to give us life. Let us walk in it, Lord, and be faithful. Thank you that you will sustain us.
Mark Clark [00:54:48]:
To the end that that is your work.
Mark Clark [00:54:49]:
And let us be faithful in ours. In Jesus good name we pray.
Mark Clark [00:54:53]:
Amen.