Mark Clark [00:00:03]:
First Corinthians, chapter two is where we are and then maybe into chapter three, depending on what happens. Got a bunch of stuff, bunch of work to really get through. So hopefully you're, you're awake and in the zone at all of our sites. Langley North, Langley south, here in Surrey and in Calgary as well. Just a quick update for you as we move into the end of the year. Give you a quick financial update. Oftentimes we do that. So you know, the financial picture, it's really good.
Mark Clark [00:00:27]:
You guys have been really faithful. Actually for our year we had a goal of the year to date goal. Our overall budget was about 7.2 million for this year. So the goal to date thus far has been 6,305,000. About that. And then the year to date giving has actually been $6,265,450. So we're literally just behind. You guys have been so faithful on point.
Mark Clark [00:00:53]:
We've been able to actually fund ministry, do a lot of amazing things over the last year. So it's crazy. The expansion people meet in Jesus transformation. We'll report more of that to you as we go along. But just wanted to let you know that we're doing well, you guys are doing well. But then as we come into December, we tend to build our budgets to have a lot more come in at December year end for those of you giving and making sure you are if you're actually part of this church. And so our year end December goal is $993,695. That's the way we kind of build out the budget for a bigger chunk to come into December.
Mark Clark [00:01:29]:
So those of you make sure that you are giving, you're faithful, and we end the year. And then the other thing is the village 2021 update. The land we purchased, land you guys are faithful in, that raised $10 million in six months. That was awesome. So now we have the land, but now we've started and we're going to actually launch the second phase of that, the big phase of it in the first quarter of 2019. But before we do that, there's actually stuff that's coming in. There's bills, there's things that we need to pay, there's architectural drawings. It's actually coming along awesome.
Mark Clark [00:01:59]:
We've been to multiple meetings. We have this great architectural firm that we're working with and we go down and we kind of build it out and look at it. Soon we're gonna be able to show you guys that the drawings that have gonna be on a website and you'll be able to put the goggles on and walk through the place and exactly what it's gonna look like to be able to do what we wanna do. Probably gonna be about a 25 to 30 million dollars building. But it's honestly gonna fund the mission of what we're wanting to do in reaching this city, but also all across Canada for the next 20 or 30 years. So it's gonna be amazing. We're gonna launch all of that in the first quarter of 2019. But there is bills that are actually happening.
Mark Clark [00:02:34]:
So continue to Give to Village 2021 all your year end stuff to be like, you can give it to that. Because we got architectural bills to pay and all kinds of things, we have to actually help the city remap. So not everyone has to do u turns in all those kind of things. They're just costs. So give to operational because we have, you know, 900, just under a million dollars to give to that in December and then over and above that to Village 2021. Okay, here's the thing about First Corinthians chapter one and two. They've really kind of grinded us down and they've said to us that we're not worthy and God is the one to actually glorify for us in our lives and makes us kind of feel down. And I get that.
Mark Clark [00:03:17]:
It's been a few weeks of like, man, I don't feel good about myself and I gotta. And Paul kind of wants to do that because he's trying to also say, here's how beautiful and here's how awesome God is. And in First Corinthians chapter two, we ended last week in this, in this idea of verse 8 and verse 9 and verse 10. It's this beautiful image of what God has prepared no one has understood. And in verse 8 he said something very important that I wanna come back to and make two comments. Because it actually feeds right into the idea of our budget and the idea of what we are as a church and the idea of the vision and the mission and the values we have at his church that might be different than any other church or just kind of most churches and what they value. And the two things really come out of the text. Verse 8 He talks the fact that none of the rulers of this age understood Jesus and the cross.
Mark Clark [00:04:08]:
And so he focuses in on the rulers of this age. And the first thing that we gotta understand is kind of the, the vision that G.B. caird, a very famous scholar of the last generation, talked about. The fact that when it came to Jesus, the greatest religion that the world had ever seen, Judaism, and the greatest government that the world had ever seen, the Roman Empire, both came together to kill Jesus. And what we've got to start to understand about that is when we, we tend to trust to the rulers of this age, we tend to look to people in power and we tend to trust the politics or trust to political movements or trust to things of this world that, that Paul's coming out and saying, well, don't really trust to those things. Cause those things aren't the actual value. Those things aren't ultimate value. The right and the left probably would have both killed Jesus.
Mark Clark [00:04:59]:
And what we've gotta understand is constantly throughout the Gospels, Jesus is being presented to us as kind of the outlaw king. You have King Herod, who claims to be the king of the Jews. And all the way through the Gospels, you have these moments that from a devotional, applicable standpoint, start to raise questions about your heart, your mind, your life, and what you give allegiance to. And what I mean is this. If you go to Mark, chapter six, there's this beautiful way that he tells the story. And everything in the Gospels is lined up in a certain way for a reason. When they tell a story and then follow with another story, you're supposed to see the theology that actually drives from that. And in Mark, chapter six, you have the story about Herod.
Mark Clark [00:05:34]:
And he's throwing a party and he has all the generals and he has everyone in power. And he says, what do you guys want to do? How do I satisfy you? How do I give you pleasure? How do I actually give? And everyone said, hey. This girl comes up and says, hey, I want to. I'm dancing for you. And he goes, I'll give you anything you want. She goes, I want the head of John the Baptist. And Herod kills John the Baptist, brings the head of John the Baptist out to the guests. And there's this picture of.
Mark Clark [00:05:56]:
This is the king of the Jews and how he parties and what he celebrates and the people in power and what he does is violence. And. And then the very next story, if you go read it, is the story about Jesus, the outlaw king, the true king of the Jews, but the one who's claiming it. But you have to actually subvert the empire of the world to ever actually believe it. And he's walking along and he's having a party of his own. He has 5,000, maybe 10 or 15,000 people in front of him and they have nothing to eat. And so he Says, what are we going to do? And he throws a banquet of his own, because he takes five loaves of bread and two fish, and he feeds five to 10 to 15,000 people. And it says they ate and they were satisfied.
Mark Clark [00:06:38]:
And Mark is trying to say, which empire do you belong to? The empires of the world that are about power and value only in success and reputation, and that will ultimately do violence spiritually and physically to people. Or do you follow the outlaw king? Do you follow the one walking around that claims to be the king of the Jews, but he has his own kind of banquets, he has his own kind of parties? What do you actually derive your meaning from? From the things of this world, the rulers of this age, or do you actually give them to Jesus, the true king? That is still the question on the table for your life. And we've got to begin to realize some of you are just. You are. You are addicted to the rulers of this age. You are addicted to the power structures. You think that these structures are going to solve all the issues, including the issue of your own soul. And you begin to realize that the only way to actually have that kind of satisfaction is to actually give yourself to Jesus, the one who brings out of nothing and yet satisfies you fully.
Mark Clark [00:07:40]:
Second, that actually makes you begin to go, man, we trust to ourselves all the time.
Mark Clark [00:07:47]:
And what we've got to understand is you might miss Jesus as powerful and as smart as you might be, both the highest religion that the world had ever seen and the greatest power structures that the world had ever seen actually missed Jesus. They said, we don't want him. And so they didn't understand this. And what did they do? They have crucified the Lord of Glory. The cross becomes this thing that they have done. And then Paul's saying, because he's already said in chapter one, that it's actually the meaning of everything, that we get all of our life and all of our fulfillment from the reality of what the cross means. And so you literally have two options in your life. You can either be the kind of people who try to get definition and meaning in life from the things of this world, or from the things of the cross.
Mark Clark [00:08:32]:
That's what we've been talking about for 12 weeks. We come to this place where it's like, this is the decision you actually have to make in your life. And there's this great scholar, a pastor by the name of Tim Keller, who draws out this idea that you can live your life according to the rulers of this age, or you can live Your life according to the one who is crucified, the cross. And some of you, you're here exploring. You're atheist, you're agnostic, you're of another religion. And here's what you've got to understand. Every other worldview and religion will tell you that you need to earn it, that you have to do good things, that you have to show God that you're of value and that you're worth it. And maybe if you live a good life, then maybe God will accept you into heaven one day.
Mark Clark [00:09:10]:
That tends to be the way human structures go. And then the cross comes in and says the opposite and says, no, it's not based on your performance, but what Jesus has done for you. And there's a psychology that comes along with that. And Tim Keller points out this. He says there's a way to live. You can live according to religion or you can live according to the gospel of the cross. If you live according to religion, he says, you function like this. I obey, therefore I'm accepted.
Mark Clark [00:09:33]:
But if you live according to the gospel and the cross, it's I'm accepted because of what Jesus has done for us, therefore I obey. According to religion, your motivation is light in life is based on fear and insecurity. But in the gospel, your motivation is based on grateful joy. In religion, you say, I obey in order to get things from God. Maybe if I'm good enough, he won't make me sick. Maybe if I'm good enough, I can go to heaven when I die. Maybe if I'm good enough, then he'll enlighten me. Maybe if I'm good enough, my marriage will heal.
Mark Clark [00:10:01]:
Maybe if I'm good enough, he'll give me enough money. I obey to get things from God. That's according to the world. That's what if you're just left to yourself what you would deduce about salvation. But the cross comes in and says, no, no, no, listen. You obey not to get faith things from God, but to get God. That that's the ultimate joy, that you get him. And when you get him, he's the one who satisfies.
Mark Clark [00:10:27]:
If you in religion, when circumstances in your life go wrong, you get angry at God or yourself, since you believe that anyone who is good deserves a comfortable life. Have you ever thought that to yourself, I'm a good person? Why did this go wrong in my life? That's religion. That's the rulers of this age. That's what they're gonna tell you. It's karma. It's if you Give money away, then I'm sure money will come back to you. Throw it out to the universe. Think positive thoughts.
Mark Clark [00:10:54]:
Be positive thinking. And I'm sure good things will happen. And if they don't happen in your life, what's the inverse from that? Whose fault is it? Whose fault is it? Yours. You didn't think positively enough. You didn't do good things enough. When circumstances in your life go wrong, you are to blame. And you wonder to yourself, what happened? Why don't I live a comfortable life? I'm a good person. That's religion.
Mark Clark [00:11:17]:
The gospel says, when circumstances in your life go wrong, you struggle. But you know that while God may allow this for your training, he will exercise his fatherly love within your trial. In religion, when you're criticized, you're furious or devastated because it's essential for you to think of yourself as a good person. And threats to that self image must be destroyed at all costs. Of course, if you've been with us for the last 11 weeks, you've probably not thinking of yourself as a good person much anymore. But that's the way. If you just left to yourself, you're like, okay, it is essential that people think I'm good. And so what happens when something goes wrong in your life? You hide it.
Mark Clark [00:11:54]:
You isolate, you become secret. And it kills you because psychologically there's a burden and a weight that destroys your life. The gospel frees you up and goes, you're not a good person. You're a disaster. Which is why Jesus had to be good for you. And then you go, okay, now I can live in freedom. Okay? You don't understand what I did last night, Tony. You're like, it's not a.
Mark Clark [00:12:16]:
See, if you live according to the worlds. If everyone has to think you're a good person, then when something goes wrong and they don't think you're a good person or you get criticized. Picture the last time a family member. I mean, we're coming up on Christmas, right? Family's gonna get together and you're all like, oh, I don't like Uncle Tom. You know, Uncle Tom a couple years ago. Uncle Tom.
Mark Clark [00:12:33]:
Yeah, that's probably not the best phrase.
Mark Clark [00:12:35]:
Uncle Jack. I don't like Uncle Jack. All right. Uncle Jack. You know, I can't believe he did this to me. And now we gotta gather and eat turkey and pretend that we're friends. I hate that Uncle Jack, because he criticized me two years ago. He told everybody I was this, and he talked behind my back.
Mark Clark [00:12:49]:
See, if you're living according to the rulers of this world, if you're living according to religion, here's what's gonna you're gonna care what Uncle Jack said about you, and it's gonna crush you. But if you believe the gospel, you don't care what Uncle Jack says. Not only because Uncle Jack's an idiot, but because it's not of value that you're worthy in front of the eyes of the world. The only thing that matters is Jesus. Glory is seen in the midst of your brokenness. That's the point. So you can look like a mess, but God looks good. The point.
Mark Clark [00:13:17]:
Now, according to religion, Keller says your prayer life is gonna look like this petition, petition, petition, asking for things. And it's only gonna really heat up when you hit a time of need. That's rulers of this world type stuff. That's religion type stuff, he says. But when you get the cross and when you get the gospel, you pray because you want relationship with him. You pray out of intimacy. It flows from what you want. And you spend time in adoration and praise toward him.
Mark Clark [00:13:46]:
You see what's going on. There's two ways you can live your life. And some of you are here and you're exploring spirituality and Christianity and wondering, what am I gonna choose? You have the crucified way or you have the ruler of this age. Those are your options.
Mark Clark [00:14:00]:
Okay?
Mark Clark [00:14:00]:
That's the first thing that we've gotta wrestle with. We've gotta come to terms with the reality. And what we wanna do constantly as a church is look to this and go. Salvation's not just about individual souls getting saved. It's about the rulers of this age understanding what reality is. And so he says these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. We're going to come back to that.
Mark Clark [00:14:27]:
For who knows a person's thoughts except the spirit of that person which is in him. So also, no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. Now, we have received not the Spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God that we might understand the things freely given to us. And he builds and he starts talking about things like this that we might understand, okay, that we might comprehend. And then he climaxes all of those thoughts in verse 16 with something very important. And I want to spend a couple minutes on this because we love this as a church for who is understood, okay? Understanding cognitive ideas, thinking taught, comprehending all of these things. He starts to talk about why. And it climaxes with these two words.
Mark Clark [00:15:10]:
The mind of the Lord and the mind of Christ right here. This is what I want to talk about. Oftentimes in modern Christianity, we focus on. And I'm going to do a little bit of an important aside here for the next few minutes. And some of you might wonder why I'm doing it, because you think it might be irrelevant to you personally. But the reality is Christianity and us as a church have always cared about something more than just individualized salvation. Personalized, privatized salvation. We believe that's the starting point.
Mark Clark [00:15:43]:
But there's a much bigger vision that God has given the church. And oftentimes the church does not talk about this. And I'm going to put my prophet hat on for a few minutes and I'm going to talk about what I think the church has failed at and what it needs to do. And some of you might not be happy with the next 10 minutes. It's okay. Just hang in there, open yourself up that you might actually be wrong and understand that I'm in good company because no one liked the Old Testament prophets when they talked to Israel anyway. So later on, you can delete everything I say for the next 10 minutes. But I think it's essential for what the vision and mission of the church is in Canada for the next 20 or 30 years.
Mark Clark [00:16:19]:
If we are going to be relevant. Here is the reality. If we're going to actually impact and do what Jesus has asked us to do in the context of mission, not only personally, but as a church, corporately. And this has always been our heartbeat. Gospel community, culture. Culture. That's the piece I want to talk about for a second, because here's the reality. Christianity is not doing this overly well right now.
Mark Clark [00:16:42]:
He says, here's what's ultimately going to get transformed. Your mind. You're going to send the mind of the Lord and the mind of Christ. You're going to get that downloaded into your mind and your mind is going to be shaped. And here's the reality. The modern church, what is called evangelical Christianity, has oftentimes abandoned the life of the mind. Here's what we do well. We do sentimentalism well.
Mark Clark [00:17:06]:
We do emotionalism well. We do privatized Christianity well. We do the life of how you feel and your soul. We do, like, get, you know, how you picture Christmas, right? Like, it's the family sitting around and the fire's going and the hot chocolate and the kids are in their PJs and everything's like that nice, like Norman Rockwell kind of. And that's how we've done Christianity, we've done that well. But in doing that well, oftentimes, here's what has happened. We've abandoned the life of the mind. Now Mark Noel, who is this scholar, great scholar, wrote a book called the Scandal of the Evangelical Mind or the Modern Christian Mind.
Mark Clark [00:17:48]:
Here's what we've got to understand. Remember when Jesus, people are coming up to Jesus and Jesus says, what do you think the greatest commandments are? And someone comes up to Jesus and he says, what is the greatest commandment? Love God with all your heart, soul, what mind and strength. What we've done well in modern Christianity is all the sentimentalism, all the emotionalism, all the experiential stuff, get you riled up, all right, get you doing things experientially, get you. And we do, we do, we do safe well. We do all of these things really well. And in the midst of it, we've abandoned over the last 150 years, the life of the mind. And here's what Mark Noll basically says, he said, and this is what's really important actually, when we settle for sentimentalism and emotionalism, what happens is, is we get tricked because we think that Christianity is good enough as a privatized emotional, sentimental thing. It's like my daughter, I was putting my oldest, Sienna to bed two nights ago and I said, hey babe, goodnight.
Mark Clark [00:18:53]:
I went and kissed her, did it all day and then walked out. But she didn't wanna fall asleep. I don't know if your kids have ever done this. And I walked out of the room and she didn't wanna, she wanted, she's just, you know, my kids will, sometimes they'll just kinda like they try to trick me. And so she says to me, daddy, Daddy, we need to spend quality time together before I grow up. Now if I was stupid, I would go, oh, honey, you're right, you know, that's a good point you make. And I'd come in and sit with her, you know, for a lot longer. But I'm not stupid.
Mark Clark [00:19:25]:
And I realized I was being tricked by a 12 year old.
Mark Clark [00:19:27]:
All right?
Mark Clark [00:19:28]:
We need to spend quality time together before I grow up. Give me a break. You're just playing on my heartstrings, all right? You're tricking me. So what I need to do is stop and think for a minute and go. I gotta go deeper here. What's actually. Oh, there's a motive. She wants to stay awake longer, she wants to do this or that.
Mark Clark [00:19:43]:
Oftentimes in modern evangelical Christianity, we've been tricked into thinking that the life of sentimentalism and emotionalism and experientialism is good enough. And in the midst, we've abandoned the life of the mind. So here's what Mark Nall says. I've written down a bunch of his thoughts. I just want to go through them with you because I think they're important. He says the scandal of the modern Christian mind is that there isn't much of one. Modern Christianity has nourished millions of believers in the simple verities of the Gospel, but have largely abandoned the universities, the arts and other realms of high culture. It has little intellectual muscle anymore.
Mark Clark [00:20:18]:
It has colleges and radio stations and parachurch agencies. It feeds the hungry but neglects sober analysis of nature, human society and the arts. Which is fascinating because he says, our spiritual descendants, Jonathan Edwards, John Wesley, George Whitfield, the Great Awakenings, the Reformation, were all people writing at the highest levels of culture and mind. And it's interesting that we've abandoned the social studies, the sciences, the humanities, and we are not respected at a cultural level. Nal says this. On the one hand, there is this enormous growth of the church, and on the other hand, the church has almost had complete lack of influence. The modern Christian world is activistic, populist, meaning it's easy to swallow and pragmatic. It focuses on how it can work for you.
Mark Clark [00:21:13]:
Here's five points to a better this, here's the secret sauce to a better that Christianity is obsessed with that activistic, populist and pragmatic. Here's how it's practical, here's how it works. I don't want to stretch your brains too long, so I'm just gonna hit you with what works for your life right in the midst of it. And he says, and in the midst of that, the modern Christian world, in the midst of all that, allows little space for broader or deeper intellectual effort because it's dominated by the urgencies of the moment. It's dominated by what is happening right now in this. And so he says there was two major shifts that happened when Christians decided that they were anti Semitic science. We stopped being invited into the cultural conversation. When we decided that the earth was this old, everyone went, okay, let's stop talking to them.
Mark Clark [00:21:59]:
And we somehow thought that that was a gospel issue when we decided. He says the second issue is when we became these radical prophecy people, when we stopped looking at the events of the world and thought to ourselves, how do we, from a very intelligent, respectable way, enter into conversations about events in the Middle East? We moved from that to, I took A random Bible prophecy. And I know this is now what the Middle east stuff's about. And he said those two movements have only been true about Christianity for the last 150 years. That basically what happened is the first Gulf War happened. You remember this? In 1991, first Gulf War happened. Everyone's like, look, my Bible in Ezekiel says, hey, Saddam Hussein is the Antichrist. It's the end of the world.
Mark Clark [00:22:44]:
I can't believe it. And tanks are this, and Gulf War is that. And then that went away. And then 2003 came along and Christians came out of the woodwork. Well, I tell you, we're going into Iraq now. I remember I was sitting at a staff meeting one time, and the guy literally right when that, that, that when, when America went to Iraq in 2003, and the guy pulls out Jeremiah and he's like, look at this prophecy being fulfilled today. I'm like, that has nothing to do with that. That had to do with Babylon in the time of Jeremiah.
Mark Clark [00:23:12]:
What are you even talking about right now? And I'm like, you know, I'm in, like, exegesis mode. I'm like, actually, the context of this is 500 BC. And I'm like, wait a minute, what are you even talking about right now? Obama's been the Antichrist, Ronald Reagan's been the Antichrist, Oprah's been the Antichrist. Your computer is a chip that's going to be put in your brain. And everyone's. Everything's the end of the world at any moment. And everyone stop talking to us and start taking us serious. Because instead of entering into a nuanced conversation about the arts and humanities and political discourse, we did bad exegesis, pulled random Bible verses out, and everyone basically looked at us and went, oh, they're not even part of the conversation anymore.
Mark Clark [00:23:52]:
And so what happened is this. We didn't give nuanced solutions. And you look at the top 10 selling Christian books right now and think what you will of them, but they're not exactly books of, of nuanced sociological study of humankind in anthropology and scientific endeavor, which is what our history is, by the way, in Christianity. Not pragmatism, but intellectual reality, where people took us severely right back to Calvin, wrote the Institutes. It's recognized as one of the greatest thinking things ever written in the history of humankind. The guy was like 27 years old when he wrote it. That's our history. And never once did he go, okay, here's 12 points.
Mark Clark [00:24:35]:
Fill in the blanks. They all start with G. So here's what he says. Nal says modern Christians responded to the new social and intellectual conditions of the late 19th century by creating fundamentalism, the higher life movement, and Pentecostalism, all evangelical strategies to survive in response to the religious crisis of the late 19th century. In different ways, they preserve something essential of the Christian faith. But together, we're a disaster for the life of the mind, because what did we do? We prioritize experience over reason. And, you know, there's that Wesleyan quadrilateral that talks about reason, tradition, scripture and experience. Those are the four ways you deduce anything about the world, about reality, about truth.
Mark Clark [00:25:27]:
And we've emphasized experience over reason. We've abandoned it. We are no longer part of the conversation of the mind any longer. And now, why does all that matter? It matters not as a rant. It matters because it's essential to the mission of the church. And here's what I mean. A guy by the name of Charles Malik came and addressed the Billy Graham center of evangelism in the 90s. And he said these words, and this is the heartbeat of village church and what we're all about.
Mark Clark [00:25:54]:
He said this at the heart of all problems facing Western civilization. The manifold perversions of personal character, the problems of the family, the problems of economics, the problems of the media, the problems affecting the school and the church itself. At the heart of the crisis in Western civilization. Listen to this, lies the state of the mind. The true task of the evangelical Christian world is not only to win souls. For if you win the whole world and lose the mind of the world, you will soon discover you have not won the world. Indeed, it may turn out that you've actually lost the world. That's why this matters.
Mark Clark [00:26:39]:
That's why Paul says, you want what, the mind of Christ? Because you could go after and win everyone's experience, win their feelings and lose the world. Because you never shaped the doctors, the lawyers, the artists, the students see the real right from beginning when we were 16 people in my house, it's like, let's not just go after people's sentimental ideas about what Christianity can be. Let's go after the culture. Let's change a country. That's why, if you were wondering earlier, you know, why is the budget $7 million? Well, we got certain staff members of certain ministries because our mission is not to just sit and be church and sit around together. Well, I like you. I'm like you, too. It's like, how do we change the world? And how do you do that? It's not Just by changing how they feel about stuff, it's giving them a whole new furniture of mind.
Mark Clark [00:27:35]:
That's what the word disciple means. Make disciples. Math, etc. Math, logic, reason, brain. And we've abandoned all that and we've gone after populist, activistic thinking that simply deals with the desired moment and whatever happens to be happening right now. And we're really good at feeding the poor and doing it. And we say, okay, that's what we're called to do. And we've lost the conversation in the context of higher art, intellectual discourse, because here's the reality.
Mark Clark [00:28:08]:
How do you change a culture? You get into the universities, you figure out how to change what they teach students so that when students become doctors and lawyers and artists and influencers, then they start to actually change the people around them. And so. So much so that a guy by the name of J. Gresham Meshin from Princeton in 1913 said this. We may preach with all the fervor of a reformer and yet succeed only in winning a straggler here and there if we permit the whole collective thought of the nation or of the world to be controlled by ideas which by the resistless form of logic, prevent Christianity from being regarded as anything more than a harmless delusion, which is what people think of you when you're a Christian. And then he says this. What is today a matter of academic speculation, tomorrow moves armies and pulls down empires. The reality is the life of the mind.
Mark Clark [00:29:00]:
Once you go after that, that's how you change a culture. That's how you change a nation. And we have to show that Christianity holds up in the context of the marketplace of ideas. In regard to the life of mine. Now, that might mean a little work. That might mean you have to stop once in a while when an idea hits you from the media or the radio or whatever, and you have to go, wait, is that actually a thoroughly reasoned, rational Christian idea about the way the world works? Think about the way why science grew out of the. The bedrock of Christianity. Because Christianity has certain convictions about the world that animism doesn't and Buddhism doesn't and Hinduism doesn't.
Mark Clark [00:29:36]:
Hinduism looks at the universe and says it's an illusion. Science can't grow out of that. Science can't grow out of animism that says that the trees and the water are actual gods. Because you don't want to start poking. You can't do any kind of analysis, you can't do an examination. You can't do. You can't do any of these things. And yet Christianity says, no, there's logic.
Mark Clark [00:29:56]:
God created the world in Genesis 1 and 2. There's form, there's reality, there's logic, there's rationale, there's systems, there's patterns. Christianity was the idea that founded, Listen, all the major universities grew out of Christianity as a thought, and now we've abandoned that world. University was a. Was a Christian invention because we wanted to bring truth and unity together and start to understand the ideas of the humanitarian. And so we got to stop and we got to go, man, is this yesterday? Okay, let me illustrate it to you this way.
Mark Clark [00:30:31]:
And then I'll be done with this, Then you can start to care again. Yesterday I was.
Mark Clark [00:30:40]:
Just to picture the idea of how often you just have.
Mark Clark [00:30:42]:
To stop and not let things go.
Mark Clark [00:30:44]:
I was sitting prepping some thoughts for this morning, and my buddy's wife is sick, and she was sick all day. We all went out together and she had to stay home and she had.
Mark Clark [00:30:54]:
This fever and she's sitting home and.
Mark Clark [00:30:56]:
We'Re like, how's Kerry doing?
Mark Clark [00:30:57]:
How's Kerry doing?
Mark Clark [00:30:58]:
Oh, she's good.
Mark Clark [00:30:59]:
She's got this fever.
Mark Clark [00:31:00]:
So anyway, a couple hours went by.
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And we got, you know, we're like.
Mark Clark [00:31:03]:
You know, best friends with these guys. So, you know, we've had this relationship. And I looked down at my phone.
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And it said, carrie just died.
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And I'm like, oh, crap.
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And now I gotta take care of her kids. Oh, man, this is gonna, like, derail my life now. I gotta inherit these more children. It's gonna be like time of myself. I gotta spend money on these kids. Oh. And then I'm like, oh, wait, wait, wait. And I look back there, Carrie's phone just died.
Mark Clark [00:31:29]:
I'm like, okay, that's less of a thing.
Mark Clark [00:31:34]:
Like sometimes you gotta stop and go, wait, what is the data actually say? Person's just assuming at first blush. This is a thing. And that's what we've done, man. We've done lowest common denominator thinking about Christianity.
Mark Clark [00:31:50]:
And in so doing, we've lost the mind of the world. Now, Paul says this. How would you ever come to realize that your mind is going to be shaped by the things of Jesus? How are you ever gonna come to a place where your mind is actually going to be transformed? He says this, okay, so now this is the. Now we're back into the second big idea of the text. He says this.
Mark Clark [00:32:17]:
How will you ever know? How will you ever come to cherish Jesus Christ? Remember we talked about that? It's one thing to know Jesus and know he died and know he rose again. But how do you come to cherish? And he says this, it's not by human intelligence. It's not by all your things.
Mark Clark [00:32:28]:
It's not by powers, it's not by the rules of the heirs. He says, for the Spirit searches everything.
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Even the depths of God. So these things God has revealed to us. So the thing that you need is not illumination. It's not pathways to heaven, it's not pillars, it's not doing good things, it's not praying, certain prayers. It's not going to church a certain amount of times. What you don't need is illumination or enlightenment. What you need is revelation. You need God to reveal himself to you.
Mark Clark [00:32:58]:
When I was a kid, every year around this time of year, somebody dressed up like somebody really important this time of year would come into my house. And I didn't realize it, but I was like, how does this person know we're gathered here as a family every year? I was a little kid and he came. We had lots of fun. And then I realized that one year, I realized it was my dad. And my dad, every year would come and he'd dress up and he'd play this part in our life. We'd be all, oh, my goodness. Now, how did I ever come to realize that? I didn't deduce it by logic. Here's what I did.
Mark Clark [00:33:27]:
He actually pulled it all, the costume off one day, and I went, ah. He revealed it himself. He had to reveal himself. And then I said, oh, my gosh, my dad. Here's what you needed. You needed God to reveal to you the realities of how to cherish Jesus, how to have a life of mine. And he did it by the Spirit. Now, why is that important? Because he said, the spirit searches everything, even the depths of God.
Mark Clark [00:33:49]:
And he starts to use an analogy, a human analogy. Verse 11. For who knows a person's thoughts except the spirit of that person? Meaning kind of your soul, small S like this, like your internal thoughts, right? Nobody knows what you internally are thinking, ever. In order for anyone to know what you think, you need to say something. Otherwise you're a complete secret, right? You know, like. And sometimes that's like, even your spouse, your spouse does not know what you're thinking. Now, some of you expect your spouse to know exactly what you're thinking at all times, but for the most part, they don't know what you're thinking. And sometimes, like.
Mark Clark [00:34:26]:
So my wife Erin, we've been together 20 years. We've been married 15 years she does not know what I'm thinking. Now, sometimes that actually is really good. All right, because it's like, wow, she doesn't know what I'm thinking right now. I can just think these crazy thoughts in my head, and I don't have to have any repercussions, which is great, but sometimes it's really bad. So, for instance, last weekend, I knew that my. It was Saturday, and I took my daughter out and she was recording this thing, this album that she wrote, we're recording it. Took her out, spent all day with her, you know, just like, hey, this is great.
Mark Clark [00:34:58]:
I'm being a good dad. And I knew that Aaron's parents were coming to visit. And in my brain I knew it was sometimes in the week. And in my brain it was like, Monday maybe, or Tuesday or Wednesday. Now we have a calendar. And I could have gone looked, but I never did. But in my brain it was Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, so whatever. So I take Sienna out Saturday, we're gone all day, and then I go, hey, you did a great job.
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You wanna go out for dinner? She's like, yeah, I'm gonna take you out for dinner. Oh, great, Daddy. And I'm like, man, I'm like a good. This is good dad stuff, man.
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Like, I took my daughter out four.
Mark Clark [00:35:28]:
Hours writing this album with her, now I'm gonna take her up for dinner. It's legit stuff right here. So we get in the car and Sienna goes, hey, yeah, mom has to. It was five o' clock Saturday night. Mom has to go pick up Nana and Papa from the airport in an hour. And I'm like, they're not coming today. They're coming, like, in the, like, Wednesday. She's like, dad, come on.
Mark Clark [00:35:50]:
You know they're coming today. I'm like, no, they're not. They're coming on, like, Wednesday.
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She's like, oh, my goodness, you're a gong show.
Mark Clark [00:35:55]:
So she picks up my phone and calls my wife. And I think it's funny. So I'm like, ah, baby, this is crazy. Like, I'm going, like, I thought they were coming Wednesday. Funny. And she's like, what?
Mark Clark [00:36:14]:
What do you mean? She's like, I'm cleaning the house up right now.
Mark Clark [00:36:16]:
What do you think I was cleaning.
Mark Clark [00:36:17]:
Before you left for and asked you to clean the leaves up in the backyard, which you didn't do. Why do you think I asked you.
Mark Clark [00:36:23]:
You to do that?
Mark Clark [00:36:25]:
And I'm like, what?
Mark Clark [00:36:26]:
Because they're coming Wednesday. And she's like, what, do you live in your own world? So much that you thought my parents coming, like, are you nuts? Click.
Mark Clark [00:36:38]:
And I'm like.
Mark Clark [00:36:41]:
It'S funny. All right. So now and then. And then it was a call back. So where are you going for dinner? I'm like, oh, taking Santa out for dinner. Oh, that's really nice. So I just gotta figure dinner out for everyone else and go pick my parents up. That's fine.
Mark Clark [00:36:57]:
Wait, babe. Click. All of a sudden, these great things I was doing as a dad, like, I was doing good stuff, right? Like you agree with that I was doing, like, I took my daughter. Now we're gonna go for dinner, just the two of us. All of that all of a sudden was flipped into selfish mark. But the reality was, if she would have been able to see my thoughts, I was pure. I'm good, I'm good. And I sat with her and I said, babe, baby, listen, this.
Mark Clark [00:37:26]:
It's incompetence, but it wasn't malice. A very important distinction. See, if she would have been able to read and know my person's life, she would have been, oh, he's so pure. He just wanted to do what's good for his daughter and have daddy moments.
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Instead, she didn't know my thoughts. She thought I woke up twisting my mustache saying, how do I mess her day up?
Mark Clark [00:37:53]:
So here's the human analogy he's using. No one knows your thoughts, but you have a spirit inside of you that knows your thoughts. And that spirit, God has that. And the only way you are saved, the only way you know Jesus, the only way of any power in your life is because he decided by faith in Jesus Christ, the finished work of Christ, the person of work of Christ on the cross. You have been given the spirit of God which has come. And Paul says in Romans that the same spirit, and this is what's beautiful about it for you and me, that same spirit, he says that Rose Jesus from the dead is the same spirit that now lives in us. Which means, yes, your marriage can be healed. Yes, you can get off that addiction.
Mark Clark [00:38:35]:
Yes, you can figure out that habit in your life because you have the very spirit of God in you to empower you unto transformation. And that right there should change your.
Mark Clark [00:38:45]:
Life as you sit here right now. And if you don't have this spirit. See, here's an interesting thing. You wanna know something? Let this blow your mind.
Mark Clark [00:38:55]:
The APostle Paul wrote 13 letters. 13 letters. Never once in any of those 13 letters does he call someone a Christian. You know that he never uses the phrase Christian ever in his 13 letters of the new Testament, everything from Romans to Philemon is one guy. By the way, the apostle Paul, never once does he say, my question is, are you a Christian? That's how we talk. His controlling question is, do you have the spirit? That's what he wants to know. That's the controlling question. Does someone have the spirit of God or not? And you can tell because they've started to kill, sin, and they've started to love things that God loves and they've started to hate things that God hates.
Mark Clark [00:39:36]:
And the things that God hates makes them weep. And they cherish Christ above everything else. And they started to grow in godliness and holiness and righteousness and all of the. And he says, because you have the spirit now, for him as a Jew, here's what you gotta understand. There was the present age, and then there was the age to come. And in the present age, there was sin and exile and death and terrible things. But then in the age to come, there'd be forgiveness of sins and the Holy Spirit would come and it'd be the end of the world. And what he's had to realize is that that's not the way it worked out.
Mark Clark [00:40:05]:
It turns out that the end of the world, yeah, happened in some sense because of Jesus on the cross. And now those things from the age to come have broken into the present and are now present in billions of people at one time. Jesus is localized. He's at the right hand of the Father. The Father is localized. The spirit can be in a billion places. And that spirit has come from the future and given you power and meaning in the present. It's like I was trying to think of an image of what this is like in Paul's mind.
Mark Clark [00:40:31]:
It's like you remember those episodes of the. So Hanna Barbera owned. Stay with me here. Hanna Barbera owned the Jetsons and the Flintstones, right? It's like those episodes when they bring those worlds together. And the Jetsons would all of a sudden be in the world of the Flintstones. And they were like. They were futuristic. They had flying things or whatever.
Mark Clark [00:40:50]:
But they were sitting around with these cavemen, Dino. And you went, oh, there's something off about this. That's what a Christian is like. That's why first Peter says that we are aliens. Because you've been given a spirit from the future in the present time. Which means when the Bible, in a few chapters, starts to get on about your ethics and saying, sexually, you need to figure your life out. Money, you need to figure your life out. You need to make sure you're not a swindler.
Mark Clark [00:41:14]:
You got to make sure you're not addicted to money. You gotta make sure your sex life's in order. The point of all of that isn't just some biblical ethic about, be a good person and maybe God will love you. It's about, you are the people of the future that have been drawn into the present. Now show the world. This is what fulfillment looks like. This is what new creation looks like. This is how much power I have in my life.
Mark Clark [00:41:35]:
That's what he's saying. And he says he wants that to.
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Be true about each and every person, that they would come to know Jesus.
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And so what's the point? Two things. It's the spirit's work. So how do you ever get this revelation?
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It's the spirit, which he said over.
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And over and over again to the.
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Point where we've been grinded down.
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But the beautiful thing about that is, therefore, it's not you. You have no, it's God. God has orchestrated, he's moved, he's given you. Which is beautiful. Cause then the weight comes. It's like this week, I. Okay, sometimes. You guys seen the movie Forrest Gump? Okay, Forrest Gump, right? Jenny, Hello.
Mark Clark [00:42:09]:
We like peas and cats again.
Mark Clark [00:42:12]:
So Forrest Gump is just in all these, like, perfect places. And it's just like he just fumbles into them, right? He meets all these people and he goes. He's always his favorite. Now, this week, sometimes I actually feel like this week, a guy, a local pastor, wanted to meet me. And I don't follow football at all, okay? I've never turned on the television to watch a football game in my life. So this guy wants to meet me. So he says, hey, come meet me at this pub. I want to talk to you.
Mark Clark [00:42:37]:
I'm a pastor. I want to get your advice about staffing and all that. So we show up to this place and the football. There's a football game on. On these massive TVs behind me. And he's facing me, and we're talking about ministry. And there's this football game on in the back. And I'm watching it, and I'm quite intrigued because it was like.
Mark Clark [00:42:52]:
It was a fascinating game. It was like the Chargers and the Chiefs or whatever. So they're playing this game, and I'm watching it, and it seems like there's a touchdown every two seconds. And there's all this strategy at the people are really jacked up, and everyone in the pub's gotta watch this. Are jacked up. And this guy's talking about something. I don't know what he's talking about. And I'm watching this football game, and I'm giving him some.
Mark Clark [00:43:13]:
You know, hey, you should do this. You should do this. I'm watching this. Anyway, so watch the football game. Well, that was an amazing game. It was like 54 to 50 was some crazy 100, 200 to 190, some crazy score. I was like, wow, that was crazy. And I got home, and I was scrolling through my Twitter feed, and it was like, that was the greatest football game of all time.
Mark Clark [00:43:30]:
No football game that's ever been played was even closest. And I'm like, I got to see that nonsense by now. That was all by accident. That wasn't me. That was the Lord, right? He worked that out for me because I would have never, on my own volition, said, I want to watch a football game. I'm like Forrest Gump, man. I just happen to be at the right times, at the right moments. That's not me.
Mark Clark [00:43:51]:
That's him. That's his point. The Spirit's the one that saves you, and you can't take any credit for it. That's issue number one, when we begin.
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To realize it's the Spirit that actually gave us life.
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And then, secondly, it means that anything.
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Can happen actually in your life. It means you can be freed.
Mark Clark [00:44:06]:
You can be free. You can start to understand the habits, the things of your life. The shame, the guilt that you've experienced.
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Is actually something that the enemy is using in your life to destroy you.
Mark Clark [00:44:16]:
Now, let me end this way, because.
Mark Clark [00:44:18]:
It raises a very interesting question. I'm gonna spend the last few minutes right here.
Mark Clark [00:44:22]:
He raises this question. If you're a spirit person, that's the.
Mark Clark [00:44:24]:
Controlling question of the text.
Mark Clark [00:44:25]:
But. But then he says, here's the problem, that not every person who has the.
Mark Clark [00:44:29]:
Spirit actually lives like they have the Spirit.
Mark Clark [00:44:33]:
And so he says, but I. Brothers. He calls them brothers.
Mark Clark [00:44:35]:
That's important because he's actually talking about Christians.
Mark Clark [00:44:38]:
He says, could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh. So here's the issue. He's saying, some of you live your life behaviorally as if you haven't got the Spirit yet, but you're people of the flesh. You're still stuck in those sinful things, and you can't get free of them. And so he says, look, yeah, you're Christians. Maybe I'm still going to call you brothers, but you're Christians who are living like people of the flesh. And that's where some of you are confused right now is you're trying to figure out how am I a Christian, but I'm not experiencing the actual freedom of the Spirit. And Paul says, yes, there are those people, there are people in these rooms right now who share the rite sermons on Facebook, who speak in tongues, who raise their hands in worship, who read their Bibles once a month, who go to church, who tied their income that either do not actually have the Spirit.
Mark Clark [00:45:30]:
Which is his controlling question when you're asking yourself, are you a Christian? His question is not, is your doctrine right? His question is not, do you do these things or not these things? His question is, do you have the spirit? Some of you have to ask the question, am I counterfeit? Do I actually have the spirit? Have I actually experienced, experience the Spirit in my life or not? Do I actually know Jesus or just know about him? That's a legitimate question. And some of you may be in that category. Others of you may be in this category where you are brothers, you are sisters, but you're people of the flesh still. And he says, this is a problem.
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Because what needs to happen is you need to put this to death.
Mark Clark [00:46:04]:
How did you end up having a.
Mark Clark [00:46:06]:
Totally derailed life even though you're a Christian?
Mark Clark [00:46:08]:
How did you end up in that affair? How did you end up doing that business deal that turned back into how did you get this addiction? How did you get that habit? How did you get this functionality in life even though you're somebody of the spirit?
Mark Clark [00:46:18]:
Here's what John Stott says, and then I wanna close with a reflection.
Mark Clark [00:46:22]:
John Stott says you've been to sow to the flesh. That's what he says. People have been sowing their life like seed. You sow to the flesh, you reap what the flesh gives you.
Mark Clark [00:46:32]:
You sow to the spirit, you ultimately.
Mark Clark [00:46:34]:
Reap what the spirit gives you. He says to sow to the flesh is to pander to it, cuddle it and stroke it instead of crucifying it. Every time we allow our mind to harbor a grudge, nurse a grievance, entertain an impure fantasy, or wallow in self pity, we are sowing to the flesh every time we linger in bed when we ought to be up and praying, every time we strain our self control, we are sowing, sowing, sowing to the flesh. And then he says this. Some Christians sow to the flesh every day and wonder why they do not reap.
Mark Clark [00:47:04]:
Holiness shouldn't be a mystery. This is the situation of many of us and it's because of what we're spending our time and our energy sowing into my hope and prayer would honestly be that you leave here changed. This is why I want to spend the last few minutes. I want every eye to close.
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Everyone shut your eyes. I can see you.
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Close your eyes.
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Cross our sights.
Mark Clark [00:47:30]:
Calgary, Langley, Langley, North Langley South. I want you to leave church changed today. I don't want you to just come and hear an event. And so here's what I want to do to you. I want to read to you something as you keep your eyes closed. John Flavell in the 1600s said there's six lies that the enemy tells you about sin. But then there's responses that you should make as a Christian. And here's what they are and I'm.
Mark Clark [00:47:53]:
Going to run through them and you.
Mark Clark [00:47:54]:
Reflect on them and you can listen to this later. Don't worry about writing anything down. Close your eyes and and reflect on your own life. He says this. The enemy is going to tell you six lies. The first lie is this, the pleasure of sin.
Mark Clark [00:48:08]:
These are all in regard to your.
Mark Clark [00:48:09]:
Sin and how to get free from them.
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The enemy's going to lie and tell.
Mark Clark [00:48:13]:
You about the pleasure of sin.
Mark Clark [00:48:14]:
The enemy will say this. Look at my smiling face and listen to my charming voice. Here is pleasure to be enjoyed.
Mark Clark [00:48:22]:
Who can stay away from such delights? That's what the enemy is telling many of you. And John Flavell says the response of the believer needs to be this. The pleasures of sin are real, but so are the pangs of conscience and the flames of hell. The pleasures of sin are real, but pleasing God is much sweeter. The second lie the enemy's gonna tell you is the secrecy of sin. Think about your life right now. Reflect. Don't think about your spouse.
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Don't think about your kids. Don't think about your grandparents.
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Grandparents.
Mark Clark [00:48:51]:
Don't think about your grandkids. Don't think about your neighbors. Don't think about your co workers. Picture your own soul here.
Mark Clark [00:48:56]:
The secrecy of sin.
Mark Clark [00:48:57]:
The temptation is this. This sin will never disgrace you in public because no one will ever find out you ever thought that to yourself, that's the enemy.
Mark Clark [00:49:07]:
The response is this. Flavel says, can you find somewhere without the presence of God for me to sin? Thirdly, he says the lie of the enemy is the profit of sin.
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If you just stretch your conscience a.
Mark Clark [00:49:19]:
Little, you'll gain so much. The enemy says, this is your opportunity. And the believer's response is, what do I benefit if I gain the whole world but lose my soul? I won't risk my soul for all the good in this world. The fourth lie is the smallness of sin. The enemy says, it's only a little thing, a small matter, a trifle. Who else would worry about such a trivial thing? Thing? This little sin you've got. And the believer's response is, is the majesty of heaven a small matter too? If I commit this sin, I will offend and wrong a great God. Is there any little hell to torment little sinners? Great wrath awaits those the world thinks are little sinners.
Mark Clark [00:50:03]:
The less the sin, the less the.
Mark Clark [00:50:04]:
Reason to commit it. Why should I be unfaithful toward God for such a Unfaithful toward God for such a trifle? Number five. The lie is the grace of God. Here's what the enemy says. God will pass over this as a weakness. Don't worry about it. He won't make a big deal of it, so neither should you. The believer's response, where do I find a promise of mercy to presumptuous sinners?
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How can I abuse such a good God?
Mark Clark [00:50:32]:
Shall I take God's glorious mercy and make it a reason to sin? Shall I wrong him because he's good? I love how these 17th century philosophers talk, theologians, pastors. And lastly, he says this, the example of others. The enemy says this, better people than you have sinned in this way. And plenty of people have been restored after committing this sin, so don't worry about it. And the believer's response is, God didn't record the examples of good people sinning for me to copy, but to warn me. Am I willing to feel what they felt for sin? I dare not follow their example in case God plunges me into the depths of horror that he cast them. Father, I pray in these reflections at this moment that we would see Paul's warning in this passage in chapter three as a warning to those of us not living by the Spirit, but sowing to the flesh, that today, as we sing, as we respond, as we leave this place in a little bit, that we would feel freer because of the grace of God and the power of the Spirit in our life. That that woman, that man, that teenager, that student, whatever, right now sitting in.
Mark Clark [00:51:41]:
These rooms listening to this, and they got that sin that's on their mind, and they feel disgraced and shame and guilty, like they'll never be able to.
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Have victory and defeat it. I pray, Jesus, you would speak to them right now that your voice would be soothing and you would tell them.
Mark Clark [00:51:54]:
Because they have the Spirit. If they do, they have the power.
Mark Clark [00:51:58]:
To defeat anything and that you would expunge the lies of the enemy in their life right now as they sit here. And as we sing in response. We would sing because of what you did for us on the cross. To give us freedom. In Jesus great name we pray. Amen.