How much is Jesus Worth?

How Much is Jesus Worth?
A sermon on Mark 14:1-25 by Coty Pinckney, Community Bible Church, Williamstown, MA 7/30/00
Let’s begin this morning with a multiple choice question:
If you could become any one of these four people, which would you choose?
(a) The richest, most successful businessman in the world;
(b) The most popular, most attractive movie star in the world;
(c) The president of the United States;
(d) An aids orphan in southern Africa.
Which do you choose?
Some of us might have a hard time choosing between a, b, and c; but is there anyone here this morning who would pick d?
Let me change the question: You now have the same four choices, except: if you choose a, b, or c, you do not know Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. If you’re the aids orphan, you do.
Which do you choose now?
Is the choice hard?
Do you see what I’m asking? How much is Jesus worth? Is knowing him worth more than all of Bill Gates’ fortune? Is knowing Him worth more than all the fame or power of a movie star or a president?
Today we consider the first 25 verses of Mark 14. The central theme of this section is: How much do we value Jesus? This passage is like a play: there are four main characters or groups of characters, all revolving around Jesus, all trying to determine what Jesus is worth. The characters are:
The chief priests and their associates
An unnamed woman
Judas
The other disciples
The passage divides itself into five scenes. We'll begin this morning by reading the entire passage, stopping only briefly after each scene to clarify or elaborate on a few points; after reading, we will compare and contrast some of these characters, drawing out lessons for ourselves. So while we read, think about the different characters. What is their purpose? What is their goal? How do they value Jesus? And ask yourself, How much do I value Jesus?
Recall the context of Mark 14: this is the last week of Jesus' life; from the very beginning of his ministry there has been conflict with the chief priests, but now it is all coming to a head. Jesus has cleared the moneychangers from the temple -- implicitly saying that those who are responsible for the temple -- the chief priests -- are not doing their job. And in Mark 13, He prophecies that temple will be destroyed completely, with not one stone left on another. As you would anticipate, these statements and actions don't tend to pacify the anger of the chief priests.
Scene 1: The Chief Priests and Associates
1 ¶ Now the Passover and Unleavened Bread was two days off; and the chief priests and the scribes were seeking how to seize Him by stealth, and kill Him; 2 for they were saying, "Not during the festival, lest there be a riot of the people." (Mark 14:1,2 NASB)
At this time, Passover was the Jewish festival most widely attended. We don’t know how many Jews who lived in surrounding areas and other countries flooded into Jerusalem, but at least a few hundred thousand, and possibly more than a million. Among these would be many who had heard Jesus speak, and many who had welcomed Him so joyously on Palm Sunday, just a few days previously. So the chief priests want to avoid arresting Him during the festival – not to preserve the sanctity of the feast but to minimize opposition to their move. They want to move on the sly, stealthily, and deal with Jesus privately, at night, where those who oppose them might not notice.
Scene 2: Jesus, the Disciples, and a Woman
3 And while He was in Bethany at the home of Simon the leper, and reclining at the table, there came a woman with an alabaster vial of very costly perfume of pure nard; and she broke the vial and poured it over His head. 4 But some were indignantly remarking to one another, "Why has this perfume been wasted? 5 "For this perfume might have been sold for over three hundred denarii, and the money given to the poor." And they were scolding her (or as the NIV reads, they "rebuked her harshly.") 6 But Jesus said, "Let her alone; why do you bother her? She has done a good deed to Me. 7 "For the poor you always have with you, and whenever you wish, you can do them good; but you do not always have Me. 8 "She has done what she could; she has anointed My body beforehand for the burial. 9 "And truly I say to you, wherever the gospel is preached in the whole world, that also which this woman has done shall be spoken of in memory of her." (Mark 14:3-9 NASB)
Picture the scene: Jesus and his disciples, possibly with other guests are eating at the home of Simon the Leper -- presumably a former leper whom Jesus had healed. This house is in Bethany, a couple of miles outside Jerusalem, where Lazarus and his sisters, Mary and Martha, live. As is the custom in this time and place, they are not sitting down to eat but reclining, lying with their feet away from the table, resting on their left arms, using their right hands to eat. The table is short, perhaps a foot high.
During the meal a woman enters the room carrying an incredibly expensive jar of perfume. She not only opens the jar, but breaks it, filling the room with its aroma. Then, rather than putting a small amount on Jesus, she pours the entire jar on him.
John tells us the identify of the woman: Mary, the sister of Lazarus. He also tells us that she does not stop at his head, but pours the perfume on his feet, and wipes those feet with her hair.
The plant that produces nard at this time was grown only in the Himalayas, and so the perfume is very expensive. If the stated value of three hundred denarii is accurate, this would be about $15,000 in the US today: 300 times one day's wage for unskilled labor. Nard was literally a gift for a king.
John tells us that Judas begins the rebuke of Mary for this "waste," and then the other disciples chime in. But Jesus accepts this offering, and silences her critics.
Scene 3: Judas and the Chief Priests
10 And Judas Iscariot, who was one of the twelve, went off to the chief priests, in order to betray Him to them. 11 And they were glad when they heard this, and promised to give him money. And he began seeking how to betray Him at an opportune time.
Chief priests are delighted: their problem is solved. Judas will help them find Jesus in a private place, so they can arrest Him where there are no crowds to start a riot.
Matthew tells us the amount of money they offered him: 30 pieces of silver, probably worth three to four denarii each. So the total value was about 100 denarii, or about $5000 for us. The chief priests pay Judas about one-third of the value of the nard Mary poured out on Jesus. According to the Old Testament, this is the value that the owner of an ox would have to pay the owner of a slave gored by the ox. So Judas sells Jesus for the price of a slave.
Scene 4: Jesus and the Disciples, Preparing for the Last Supper
12 ¶ And on the first day of Unleavened Bread, when the Passover lamb was being sacrificed, His disciples *said to Him, "Where do You want us to go and prepare for You to eat the Passover?" 13 And He *sent two of His disciples, and *said to them, "Go into the city, and a man will meet you carrying a pitcher of water; follow him; 14 and wherever he enters, say to the owner of the house, ‘The Teacher says, "Where is My guest room in which I may eat the Passover with My disciples?"‘ 15 "And he himself will show you a large upper room furnished and ready; and prepare for us there." 16 And the disciples went out, and came to the city, and found it just as He had told them; and they prepared the Passover. (Mark 14:12-16 NASB)
With all the crowds gathered in Jerusalem for Passover, finding a place to eat the Passover meal is a real problem. The meal should be eaten within the confines of the city proper, but room reservations are hard to find. Furthermore, the Jesus and the disciples need to move with some secrecy, since an arrest in a private home would be convenient for the chief priests.
Now, although they have been in town almost a week, the disciples have made no arrangements for a room. They have been so caught up in the events of the last week they haven’t even thought about the Passover meal. It is not a surprise that they would need a place within Jerusalem to eat the Passover. And Jesus had prophesied about His death, so they should have known this would be an especially important time. But they didn’t think.
Jesus, however, had graciously prepared details ahead of time. Presumably during His last visit to Jerusalem, Jesus made arrangements for a room to be available for this special meal. He then works miraculously, arranging that upon their arrival in the city they will see a man carrying a jar of water (an unusual event in these times). Like Samuel speaking to Saul, telling him who he will meet on the way home, Jesus gives further evidence to His disciples of His authority and foreknowledge at this critical time.
Scene 5: Jesus and His Disciples: The Last Supper
17 And when it was evening He *came with the twelve. 18 And as they were reclining at the table and eating, Jesus said, "Truly I say to you that one of you will betray Me—one who is eating with Me." 19 They began to be grieved and to say to Him one by one, "Surely not I?" 20 And He said to them, "It is one of the twelve, one who dips with Me in the bowl. 21 "For the Son of Man is to go, just as it is written of Him; but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been good for that man if he had not been born." 22 And while they were eating, He took some bread, and after a blessing He broke it; and gave it to them, and said, "Take it; this is My body." 23 And when He had taken a cup, and given thanks, He gave it to them; and they all drank from it. 24 And He said to them, "This is My blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many. 25 "Truly I say to you, I shall never again drink of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God." (Mark 14:17-25 NASB)
Jesus and the disciples wait until they can move under the cover of darkness to the upper room. Here, while they are eating, Jesus breaks the news that one of the twelve disciples will betray Him. Twice before -- in Mark 9:31 and 10:33 -- Jesus has said that He will be betrayed (note that the NASB translates the word "delivered up" in those verses, but it is the same Greek word translated "betray" in 14:18). But the disciples had not understood much of what Jesus said in those verses, and clearly did not think that one of the twelve would be the betraying agent. They cannot believe this -- clearly the eleven have no suspicions of Judas -- and each one asks Jesus if he is the betrayer.
In this culture, to be betrayed by one "who is eating with me," who "dips with me in the bowl" was considered particularly treacherous. To eat with someone implied friendship, trust, and an obligation to help and protect them. So by speaking of their eating together, and saying that the betrayer is "one of the twelve," Jesus is emphasizing the enormity of the evil of what is happening.
Yet Jesus knows this has all been prophesied 1000 years previously, when David wrote Psalm 41:
Even my close friend, in whom I trusted, Who ate my bread, Has lifted up his heel against me (Psalm 41:9 NASB)
The Characters: Jesus
Now let's turn our attention to the characters. We will look first at Jesus, and then draw some comparisons and contrasts between the others.
Mark clearly presents Jesus as in control of the situation. Jesus is not surprised by anything that happens. The chief priests are trying to move secretly, on the sly, but Jesus knows their plans and arranges matters so that His arrest does not take place until He has finished His other work. Judas thinks he is fooling the other -- and he succeeds in fooling his fellow disciples. But Jesus knows of the betrayal, and lets Judas know that He knows. Jesus is well-prepared for this momentous last meal, making arrangements ahead of time. Jesus controls events at the house of Simon the Leper, interpreting what Mary has done so that the others might understand.
But most importantly, Jesus presents Himself as precious through the institution of the Lord's Supper. There are two aspects his preciousness to unpack here. First:
(1) The Lord's Supper signifies that Jesus pays the penalty for our sins
When offering the cup, Jesus says "this is my blood of the covenant which is poured out for many." In Mark, this is the clearest statement yet of Jesus' role in atoning for our sins. In 10:45 Jesus says he came to "give his life a ransom for many;" here He elaborates on that theme. Jesus here identifies himself with the Passover lamb, whose blood, we are told in the Old Testament, would have been poured out on the altar "to make atonement for your souls." Paul also emphasizes this parallel between Jesus and the Passover lamb, stating "Christ our Passover also has been sacrificed" (1 Corinthians 5:7).
What does this mean? As the author of the book of Hebrews writes, "without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins." God is a just God; He is the moral authority in the universe. He makes sure that every wrong is paid for, exactly as it deserves. And each of us sins in many ways. Most fundamentally, each of us fails to praise God as we should; instead, we dishonor Him by our actions, our inaction, our thoughts, and our words. But Jesus, the perfect, unblemished lamb, offers His life to pay the penalty for all our sins, enabling us to enter God's presence spotless and pure. This is what we act out and celebrate when we partake of the Lord's Supper. This is how precious Jesus is.
But there's even more!
(2) The Lord's Supper signifies that Jesus lives within you
Given that Jesus pays the penalty for all our sins, we should respond by living out lives that honor and glorify him. But how can we do that, since we are so prone to selfishness, self-centeredness, and other forms of evil?
Jesus says the cup is His "blood of the covenant." In 1 Corinthians, Paul tells us that Jesus said the cup is the "blood of the new covenant." A covenant is an agreement, a promise -- in this case between God and His people, telling them how they can become right with Him, and how they can fulfill their purpose by glorifying God. The idea of a new covenant goes back to Jeremiah 31:33:
"But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days," declares the LORD, "I will put My law within them, and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.
Or, as Paul puts it in Colossians: "Christ in You, the Hope of glory." God says His law will not be something external, rules that His people will have to live up to. No. His law will be on their heart, within them, and they will have true intimacy with Himself.
So Jesus gives us this wonderful picture: We are to eat His flesh, and drink His blood; we are to have His life within us, always. Remember, God had commanded the Israelites not to drink any blood of any kind, and to drain all the blood from an animal prior to cooking its meat. God's explanation of this command is found in Leviticus 17:11:
‘For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you on the altar to make atonement for your souls; for it is the blood by reason of the life that makes atonement.’
God tells the Israelites to eat no blood, for the life is in the blood, and that serves to make atonement for their souls. So when Jesus tells us to drink His blood, He tells us to have His life within us. Christ in us, the hope of glory. So by the power of the living Christ within us, we not only can stand before God with our sins paid for; we also are transformed eventually into His likeness, as He lives out His life in us.
So we are to drink up Jesus' life, consume Him, for, as Jesus says in John 6:55, "My flesh is true food, and My blood is true drink." This is the lesson for us: Feed on Him, devour Him, get all our sustenance from Him, value Him above all else, desire Him more than anything, glorify Him with our money, our time, all that we are. Jesus is the most precious of all.
Reactions to Jesus by the Other Characters
How do the other characters react to this most precious One? The woman, Mary, is central here. All others are in contrast to her.
Mary vs the Chief Priests
The chief priests pay money to destroy Jesus; Mary gives much more money to anoint Jesus for burial.
Mary vs the Disciples
The disciples have had much more instruction from Jesus than Mary ever had. Jesus had prophesied about His death in their presence at least three times; indeed, when they returned toward Jerusalem, they are concerned because the authorities have tried to stone Jesus. Thomas even says, "Let us also go, that we might die with Him." Nevertheless, they act completely unprepared for His death. They do not act as if they expect anything to happen; they don't even make any preparations for their last Passover meal together.
On the other hand, Mary surely does not understand all that is happening, but knows that she will not have Jesus with her much longer. Despite not having heard Jesus' prophecies about His death, she knows that He will die, and knows that Jesus is more precious than anything else imaginable. So she gives up what is most valuable to her -- this jar of nard, perhaps a family heirloom -- to prepare His body for burial. She demeans herself even to the point of rubbing His feet with her hair, knowing that the most important thing of all is devotion to Jesus.
Mary vs Judas
Judas is one of these disciples, one of the intimate circle that has been loved by Jesus, taught by Him. Judas has traveled with Jesus for three years, and has heard those prophecies about His death. Judas has even been empowered by Jesus to perform miracles when He sent the disciples out two by two. But now, Judas sells the most precious person in the world for the price of a slave. For $5000, Judas gave up the source of all true life.
Mary has had much less contact with Jesus, but values Him above all else. She gives up three times what Judas received for betraying Him, in order to honor Him and acknowledge Him as precious.
But there's another contrast between Judas and Mary. Look again at verse 21, where Jesus says:
"For the Son of Man is to go, just as it is written of Him; but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been good for that man if he had not been born."
This verse proclaims both God's sovereignty and man's accountability. God is sovereign; He foretold Judas' betrayal 1000 years previously. And He arranged events so that all would take place according to His good, perfect, and wise plan. God is in control.
Yet Judas chooses to betray Jesus, and is responsible for that choice; Jesus says, "Woe to that man!" For what he does, Judas name for all time with be the name of a traitor.
What is the contrast with Mary? She too was part of God's plan, acting out the preciousness of Jesus for all the world to see. She too made a choice. Her name too will live for all time, "that also which this woman has done shall be spoken of in memory of her."
So why are these scenes together? Why does Mark put the story of Mary's anointing of Jesus right next to the story of the Last Supper?
Mary lives out the picture of the Lord's Supper. Mary is feeding on Jesus, showing that she values Him above all else -- and this is what Jesus pictures for us in the Lord's Supper.
John Piper puts it this way:
When you truly partake of the cup and the table of the Lord, you are being nourished and satisfied by the Lord, and loving the Lord, and delighting in the Lord, and trusting the Lord and fellowshipping with the Lord. That's what it means to share in the blood and body of Christ -- to sit with Jesus at the banquet of the benefits of his death.
Conclusion
Are you sold out to God? Or are you just sold out? Mary was sold out to God. Judas was sold out. Just as Esau sold his inheritance for lentil stew, Judas sold His soul for $5000.
That seems incredible to us — but what’s your price? Do you have a price?
Physical punishment for yourself?
Physical punishment for your family?
While many of our brothers and sisters around the world and in the history of the church have to ask that question, for us the prospect of physical punishment or death for proclaiming the preciousness of Jesus seems abstract, unreal. So ask yourself this question: Is your price a steady job and a nice income and a nice house and a nice car and college for the kids?
Good things, all: But are you devoting yourself to these goals more than you are devoting yourself to following Jesus? Is the pursuit of these things, is your plan to achieve all these things, standing in the way of your making a radical, life-changing commitment to God? Standing in the way of your expressing you wholehearted devotion to Jesus, like Mary?
Instead, are you more like Simon's dinner guests: calculating, "Oh, that’s too much to give to Jesus! We’ll give him our worship on Sunday, and a tenth of our income (maybe); that should be enough. But, Hey! What I do with the rest of my money and the rest of my time, that’s up to me."
Are you sold out to Jesus and the gospel? Or are you only playing at church?
You don’t owe Jesus only a tenth of your income. You don’t owe him only your worship on Sunday. You owe him everything! You owe Him your entire life!
But this is not some onerous debt you have to repay, which hurts each time you make a payment! For when you yield to him, when you give up these pseudo-successes and pseudo-pleasures the world offers, when instead you feed on Him, and drink Him up – you find the real love, joy, and peace the world so much longs for. You get to know the most precious, the most beautiful, the most loving person in the world. And as you get to know Him, and as you see Him and learn more and more of Him, as you drink Him up, you become like Him.
So do that! Drink him up! Feed on him!
Taste and see the goodness of the Lord – and enter in to the joy of His presence.
So, yes, I would rather be a poor aids orphan in a developing country – and know Jesus - than the richest man in the world, and not know Him. I know that that’s the right choice. I don’t always act consistently with that knowledge, but I know it’s right.
What about you? Is Jesus more precious to you than anything in this world?

a good resource

http://tcpiii.tripod.com/index.htm

HIS Love beyond all love

Love Beyond All Telling
A Sermon by Coty Pinckney, preached at Community Bible Church, Williamstown, MA 6/19/94
O.J. Simpson won the Heisman trophy the year I turned 13. As a subscriber to Sports Illustrated, I read about him again and again over the years, following his NFL career. His grace on the gridiron was a wonder to watch. In addition, O.J. shared my sport, track and field, having been on a world-record setting sprint relay team in the late 60's. After retiring from football he occasionally served as TV announcer for track meets, and did a credible job. O.J. seemed to be not only a skilled athlete but also a man with a good head on his shoulders, a man who had managed to succeed not only in sports but also in life as a whole.
So it was with considerable shock that I heard last Friday that he was driving down the freeway, suspected of double murder. How could this sports hero, this man with everything the world has to offer, how could this man commit such an act?
Strangest of all to me was the extraordinary farewell letter, an apparent suicide note that he left for his fans. The note contains much of interest, but today I want us to focus only on its closing phrase:
Peace and Love, OJ
A man possibly guilty of double murder tells us "peace and love."
What is love? Many of us toss around this word as easily as O.J. And we end up trivializing it. From the Barney theme song to tourism marketing slogans to the adulterer looking for an excuse, the word "love" is so misused and overused in our society that we hardly know what to think when someone says, "I love you."
Because of the importance of the topic and the extent of our culture's misunderstanding of the term, we will spend two weeks looking at this issue. Next week we will discuss our response to God's love, and some difficulties presented by God's love. But today, we will ask:
What are some characteristics of God's Love?
How does it differ from our "modern" conception of love?
Let us, then, examine four characteristics of God's love.
(1) God's Love is Unconditional
In the world around us, people are loved on the basis of their performance. So O.J. excites us with his athletic prowess and we say, "We love you, O.J.!" When someone pleases us, when someone stimulates us, we appreciate what they do and use the term "love" to describe our response.
But God's love is not based on our performance! God's love, instead, is unconditional. Consider Romans 5:6-8:
6 ¶ You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. 7 Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. 8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Christ died for us when? Was he responding to something good in our performance? Was he saying, "Oh, that Coty Pinckney, he's such a fine man! Look at all he has accomplished! Because he has been so good, I will shower my love on him." No, not at all. These verses use the words "powerless," "ungodly," and "sinners" to describe us. Christ died for people like this, not for people who look like they have it all together.
So why did God love us? God's love is based only on his sovereign choice; God's love is based only on his mercy.
Consider two verses that highlight this point: Deuteronomy 7:7 and Ephesians 1:4:
The Lord did not set his affection on you and choose you because you were more numerous than other peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples. But it was because the Lord loved you and kept the oath he swore to your fathers.
He chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will.
Nothing made us attractive to God! On the contrary, we were despicable to God. But despite our problems it was God's pleasure, it was God's will to predestine us to be adopted as his sons.
So God's love is unconditional because it is the result of his sovereign choice. God's love has nothing to do with our goodness; God's love has nothing to do with our performance.
Now I don't know about you, but to me this truth is tremendously freeing. I don't have to look over my shoulder all the time, wondering if God is going to abandon me because I blew it. I don't have to worry that God might change his mind about me because of my poor performance. God already knows the worst about me -- and he chose to love me! God's love is unconditional -- delight in that statement.
(2) God's Love is from Everlasting to Everlasting
In a moment of intense feeling, we say, "I will love you forever!" -- yet within years, or months, or even weeks, those feelings change, and we so often renege on our promises. O.J. promised Nicole his love and faithfulness, but within a few years of their marriage he was guilty of domestic violence and, now, may be guilty of much worse.
What about God's love?
Consider these verses from Psalm 103:
15 As for man, his days are like grass, he flourishes like a flower of the field; 16 the wind blows over it and it is gone, and its place remembers it no more. 17 But from everlasting to everlasting the LORD's love is with those who fear him, and his righteousness with their children's children.
The Psalmist compares our lives to flowers that dry up and are gone. Human love is like that too; love that we promise to last forever may disappear in a very short time. But God's love is "from everlasting to everlasting." What does this mean?
"From everlasting to everlasting" can mean "from the beginning of time to time without end." As the verse in Ephesians puts it, God showed his love for us by choosing us "before the creation of the world." So from the very beginning of time, God has loved you. And this will continue for all eternity, as we share in His glory, in His beauty, praising Him in His presence for ages and ages. Think about this: there never was a time when God did not love you; there will never be a time when God does not love you.
Yet "from everlasting to everlasting" can refer not only to the time dimension but also to the relational dimension. He is, after all, your creator, the one who formed you, the one who knit you together in your mother's womb. He loved you when you were the product of the joining together of a sperm and an egg, and he has nurtured and cultivated this relationship with you until now. And on and on into eternity, he will continue to nurture and cultivate this relationship, so that you will know Him better and better, so that you will see Him face to face, so that this love relationship will flourish and bear fruit in unimagined ways. God's love is from everlasting to everlasting.
So God's love is unconditional, and from everlasting to everlasting. But in between the beginning of time and our joining him in his heavenly kingdom, could His love fail?
(3) God's Love Never Fails
Human love fails. Even in the best of relationships, we let our loved ones down. Indeed, today many couples plan on their love failing, by signing pre-nuptial agreements concerning the disposition of assets in the case of divorce.
Does God's love fail?
Admit it: Sometimes we feel like God's love fails. Certainly O.J.'s children must wonder about the love of God, having lost their mother to death and their father to the courts. Certainly the people of Rwanda must wonder about the love of God, when ten per cent or more of the country has been brutally murdered.
In these terrible times of tragedy, is God there?
Consider these verses from Isaiah:
54:10 Though the mountains be shaken and the hills be removed, yet my unfailing love will not be shaken nor my covenant of peace be removed, says the Lord, who has compassion on you.
43:1 ¶ But now, this is what the LORD says-- he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel: "Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are mine. 2 When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze.
God promises us that even in the most violent cataclysm, even if Mt Greylock were to be picked up and thrown into New York, God's love will endure. We belong to Him, and He will stay right with us -- forever.
Now look at the verses from Isaiah 43 carefully. Does God promise to keep us from troubles? Does God say, "I love you so much, I will give you an easy and comfortable life?" No, not at all. Rather, God promises to be there in the midst of our troubles. God says, "The path you must take may be through the rivers, but you will not drown; the path may be through the fire, but you will not be consumed in the flames."
God's love does not imply that He want to make you comfortable. God uses these trials for our good, in ways we can never understand while we suffer. But He promises us that He will always be there with us, regardless of the circumstances, regardless of the way things may look to us. God's unconditional, eternal love never fails.
(4) God's Love is Both Individual and Corporate
Have you ever felt, "God loves Christians as a group, but not me individually." "God doesn't really love me!"
When circumstances seem to conspire against us, when we can't understand what God is doing, when we don't feel his presence while passing through the fire, we have a tendency to question God's love for us, we have a tendency to feel self-pity.
Humanly, this type of love -- a love for the group but no love for the individual -- is prevalent: O.J.'s gives "peace and love" to the general public, but something else to his wife; a philanthropist may give money and/or time to help humanity but then treat individual men and women like dirt, loving mankind but not liking men.
Charles Dickens paints a picture of such a person in Mrs. Jellyby, one of his memorable characters in Bleak House. Mrs. Jellyby is working on starting a philanthropic project at "Borrioboola-Gha, on the left bank of the Niger." And this engages her attention to the extent that, in her first scene in the book, one of her children gets his head caught in a railing and another tumbles down the stairs -- yet she never notices. Dickens says her eyes seem "to look a long way off. As if . . . they could see nothing nearer than Africa!" She loves the idea of serving mankind corporately, but she fails to serve even her own children individually.
But God's love is both corporate and individual. Think of the biblical phrases that express God's love for a group:
God so loved THE WORLD
Christ loved the CHURCH and gave himself up for her
We are TOGETHER the body of Christ,
Paul expresses this beautifully in Ephesians, using body, building, and marital images to show how we all together are becoming what God intends us to be, his perfect bride, his well-functioning body, his superb piece of architecture.
But God also loves us as individuals. The images of him as our father and we as his children, as those adopted into his family show his love for each of us. God is not Mrs Jellyby, loving us as a whole but neglecting our individual needs. God is the father who knows his individual children, who cares about their bruises and scrapes, who tenderly holds them in His arms when they need comfort.
Furthermore, He tells us (as we saw in Isaiah 43) that we are summoned by name, that the very hairs of our head are all numbered. His love for us is not a love that looks to the good of all but neglects the good of individuals; his eyes are not looking at the common good so much that they can't see the good for each one of us. No! God is indeed building His church, and we are a part of that great work; He is summing up all things in Christ, and we are part of that summation. But God is so great that he never loses the individual trees by looking at the forest as a whole. He is tending and cultivating each individual tree, even while he manages the whole forest in such a way that both tree and forest are perfected.
So, yes, God loves the bride of Christ, and is perfecting the church as a whole. But God also loves you individually, you, Wendy, you, Dave, you, Doug, you Phyllis. God loves each of us individually, he cares about each of us individually.

Conclusion:
We have only touched on the wonders of God's love, this love that is:
Unconditional
From everlasting to everlasting
Never fails
And for YOU individually

So, Christians: Have you allowed the world's view of love to color your vision of God?
Have you been struggling, fearing that your poor performance as a Christian will cause God to quit loving you?
Have you been fearing that God's love will change, or have you felt that the difficulty of your circumstances show that God does not love you?
Have personal trials and tragedies made you doubt God's love, strength, and faithfulness?
Consider the verses on God's love; meditate on this list, pray over it.
As the Psalmist says:
Whoever is wise, let him heed these things and consider the great love of the Lord. (Psalm 107:43)
Be wise. Heed these things. Consider God's great love.
Or is all this foreign to you? Do you not know the love of Christ?
John 3:16 says
God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son, that whosoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life.
The invitation is open to you. Believe in Him, ask Him to be your Savior and Lord, repent and turn to Him, and He will welcome you into His loving arms.
Consider the great love of the Lord -- and respond.

Bearing Fruit

How to Bear Fruit
A sermon on Mark 11:12-12:12 by Coty Pinckney, Community Bible Church, Williamstown, MA, 5/7/00
This morning we consider one of the strangest actions of Jesus in his entire ministry. Every one of Jesus’ miracles recorded in the Bible focuses on serving others – except one: Let’s read it now:
12 ¶ And on the next day, when they had departed from Bethany, He became hungry. 13 And seeing at a distance a fig tree in leaf, He went to see if perhaps He would find anything on it; and when He came to it, He found nothing but leaves, for it was not the season for figs. 14 And He answered and said to it, "May no one ever eat fruit from you again!" And His disciples were listening. (skip to verse 20) 20 And as they were passing by in the morning, they saw the fig tree withered from the roots up. (Mark 11:12-14, 20 NASB)
Jesus curses and destroys the fig tree because it had no figs -- even though it was not the season for figs. It almost looks as if Jesus is peeved; hungry and hopeful that this green tree will provide nourishment, upon finding the tree empty of fruit, he curses it in a fit of pique. We might act that way if we had the power; but Jesus? This story seems completely out of character.
Recall that Jesus has just entered Jerusalem, acting out the role of the returning Davidic king. We saw last week that Jesus is our perfect king, performing all the roles of government:
He unites us from all different nations and ethnic groups
He punishes all wrong
He works all things together for good
He is sovereign, in control of all that happens, even of evil
Why would such a king act in this way? Jesus is the King who is in control of everything that happens; he always works all things together for His glory and our good. How could this event fulfill those requirements?
The answer to this question provides a key for understanding the next two chapters of Mark. In cursing the fig tree, Jesus provides a visual parable of the necessity of bearing fruit for all who claim to follow Him. He then provides us both positive and negative lessons concerning how to bear fruit, lessons we must take to heart if we are going to glorify God, if we are going to show the world what God is like. In relating the continued conflict between Jesus and the Jewish leaders, Mark teaches us vital lessons about how to become a dry, withered vine – and, in contrast, how to become a healthy vine, full of heavy, juicy fruit. This topic extends through the end of chapter 12; we’ll look at the first four lessons today, and consider the remainder next week.
Let’s begin by looking more at the story of the cursing of the fig tree.
Jesus is hungry; he sees in the distance a tree full of leaves. Many trees produce leaves and flowers simultaneously, but the fruit always follows the leaves. The nourishment provided by the sun via the leaves is necessary for the production of fruit.
Figs appear to be an exception, though in reality they are not. Fig trees produce flowers simultaneously with their leaves. But the flowers are encased in a fleshy, protective coverings which have the same shape as ripe figs, giving the false appearance of fruit. The fruit doesn't develop, however, until later. When pollination occurs inside these coverings (which requires the assistance of a special type of wasp), fruit develops. But the fruit, too, remains inside the fleshy covering. So the skin of a fig is actually the exterior, protective covering of the flower.
The tree that Jesus saw was unusual in two ways. First, it leafed out early. It looked to be especially well-watered by an underground spring or stream, and thus likely to produce abundant fruit. But when Jesus approached the tree, he found that it had neither ripe figs nor the precursors of figs, the fig-shaped flower modules. The tree appeared to be flourishing, but in reality it was producing nothing of value -- and never would.
So Jesus curses the tree. He curses the appearance of fruitfulness without the reality.
He’ll elaborate on this later this same week, as recorded in John 15:
5 "I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me, and I in him, he bears much fruit; for apart from Me you can do nothing. 6 "If anyone does not abide in Me, he is thrown away as a branch, and dries up; and they gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned. (NASB)
So God wants much more than the appearance of fruitfulness: He wants us to become like Christ; for that’s what it means to be fruitful. To display the fruit of the Spirit – love, joy, peace, -- to be like Him as we depend upon him. That’s what this passage is about.
We’ll see how Jesus applies this concept to our own fruitfulness as we go through the other stories.
The Fruitbearer is God-Focused in Worship
15 And they *came to Jerusalem. And He entered the temple and began to cast out those who were buying and selling in the temple, and overturned the tables of the moneychangers and the seats of those who were selling doves; 16 and He would not permit anyone to carry goods through the temple. 17 And He began to teach and say to them, "Is it not written, ‘MY HOUSE SHALL BE CALLED A HOUSE OF PRAYER FOR ALL THE NATIONS’? But you have made it a ROBBERS’ DEN." 18 And the chief priests and the scribes heard this, and began seeking how to destroy Him; for they were afraid of Him, for all the multitude was astonished at His teaching. (Mark 11:15-18 NASB)
Recall that the temple had an outer court, the court of the Gentiles. No Gentiles were allowed to go any further into the temple. While God intended this area to be a place of prayer for the nations, the religious leaders had allowed it to become a strip mall. Merchants sold animals for sacrifices; moneychangers converted foreign currency into the coinage required to pay the temple tax. Others, not wanting to carry their merchandise around the large temple area, used the Court of the Gentiles as a shortcut between the city and the Mount of Olives. So this area had become like Main Street instead of a place to praise and glorify God.
Note that this was a deliberate action by Jesus; he had surveyed the scene the previous day, and decided what he would do on Monday (Mark 11:11). He throws out the merchants and turns over the tables of the moneychangers, scattering their nicely-piled coins all over the ground. Undoubtedly this caused a great commotion: "What do you think you’re doing?" "Hey, where are the authorities when we need them? There’s a crazy man in here!"
But then Jesus does something interesting: In the midst of all the commotion, he teaches (v. 17)! Jesus had to make clear that his were not the actions of a vandal, but those of the nation’s true King and High Priest.
In this teaching, he quotes Isaiah 56:
"Also the foreigners who join themselves to the LORD, To minister to Him, and to love the name of the LORD, To be His servants, every one who keeps from profaning the sabbath, And holds fast My covenant; 7 Even those I will bring to My holy mountain, And make them joyful in My house of prayer. Their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be acceptable on My altar; For My house will be called a house of prayer for all the peoples." (NASB)
Do you see what Jesus is doing here? Temple-worship was ordained by God to picture the intimate relationship between the Lord and His people. It was to be a picture not only to the Jews but also to foreigners – and this particular part of the temple was designated for the worship of those foreigners. They were to be joyful in their prayers, as God reached out to all peoples.
But this Court had become a convenient place for doing business – a business that had lost all connection with the worship of the one true God. The entire system of temple worship had become only a set of rituals, requirements necessary to appease God rather than expressions of an intimate relationship. They would approach the temple with the attitude, "Oh, I have to do this, so that God won’t punish me. I’ll meet my needs here – get this over with, change my money, and I’ll be fixed until next time." You see the focus? "I, I, I; the temple worship exists for me." They did not focus on God. As we saw in our series on Leviticus, God instituted the sacrificial system to provide a series of pictures of His love and mercy – temple worship was never intended as a way to gain brownie points with God.
This leads us to our first principle for fruitbearing: The fruitbearer is God-focused in worship.
We worship to glorify God, to show through our teaching and our praise and our prayer what a mighty, loving, just, holy, and perfect God we have. Worship that loses this focus on God, services that become people-oriented rather than God-oriented, are in great danger of becoming like 1st century temple worship.
How do we stay God-focused in our worship? These matters deserve a full sermon to cover; let me just briefly note three points here:
First, our worship must focus on God’s word to us, in reading, teaching, and preaching.
Second, our music should serve to sharpen this focus with lyrics that are soundly biblical, that we can hear and understand. The music itself should enhance our ability to understand and take to heart the message of the lyrics.
Third, in our worship we should enjoy corporate prayer, God’s people speaking directly to Him, in praise, confession, thanksgiving, and supplication.
Jesus tells the woman at the well that those who would worship God must worship in Spirit and in Truth. That is what we want to do: To focus on the truth as proclaimed in God’s word; to exalt His name in God-honoring music, and to pray together fervently and deeply from the heart.
In sum, the central goal of our worship is to glorify God; A fruitbearer focuses on God in his worship.
A Fruitbearer Has Faith in God, Shown in His Prayers and His Forgiving Spirit
20 And as they were passing by in the morning, they saw the fig tree withered from the roots up. 21 And being reminded, Peter *said to Him, "Rabbi, behold, the fig tree which You cursed has withered." 22 And Jesus *answered saying to them, "Have faith in God. 23 "Truly I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and cast into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says is going to happen, it shall be granted him. 24 "Therefore I say to you, all things for which you pray and ask, believe that you have received them, and they shall be granted you. 25 "And whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone; so that your Father also who is in heaven may forgive you your transgressions.
Remember the context: Jesus has just judged the fig tree for giving the appearance of fruitfulness when it was really barren, and has rendered a judgment on the Jews for approaching temple worship like pagans, relying on a ritual to avert God’s wrath. So when Peter exclaims that the cursed tree is dead, Jesus summarizes the lessons about fruitfulness: "Have faith in God." He then shows that our faith extends to believing that our good God will fulfill His promises, so we can pray confidently in accordance with His word and know that He will answer. This statement is a further parallel between this account and Jesus' conversation with the disciples the night He is betrayed, as recorded in John 15:
7 "If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it shall be done for you. 8 "By this is My Father glorified, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples.
Furthermore, as is brought out in verse 25, our faith must extend to our confidence in God's justice. As we saw last week, God will wreak vengeance when vengeance is due; He will right all wrongs, so we are free to love and forgive everyone who annoys us, everyone who does evil against us.
The principle here:
A fruitbearer has faith in God, as shown in his prayers and his forgiving spirit. If we really believe God works together all things for our good and His glory, we will pray with power according to His promises, and can forgive whatever slights or evils done to us.
Ray Stedman puts it this way:
The one thing above all else which seems to block the flow of the life of God to an individual, to a church, or to a nation, is this unwillingness to forgive, this holding of grudges, this desire to put somebody down in order to feel good yourself, this unwillingness to set these things aside and let God heal all the hurts of life. That is why Jesus puts his finger on this one thing. Is this not amazing? The nation Israel lost its life because it would not forgive the Gentiles, the Romans, who had offended and grieved it. Instead, it gathered its robes of self-righteousness about it and looked with pride up to God and said, "I thank God I am not like these other people." God says that is what ends the life of a nation. That is what ends the life of a church. And that is what ends the spiritual life of an individual, cuts him off.
Do you want to bear fruit? Trust God to right wrongs. Have faith in His promises. And pray for those promises in the lives of yourself and others.
The Fruitbearer Speaks the Truth, Regardless of the Expected Response
27 ¶ And they *came again to Jerusalem. And as He was walking in the temple, the chief priests, and scribes, and elders *came to Him, 28 and began saying to Him, "By what authority are You doing these things, or who gave You this authority to do these things?" 29 And Jesus said to them, "I will ask you one question, and you answer Me, and then I will tell you by what authority I do these things. 30 "Was the baptism of John from heaven, or from men? Answer Me." 31 And they began reasoning among themselves, saying, "If we say, ‘From heaven,’ He will say, ‘Then why did you not believe him?’ 32 "But shall we say, ‘From men’?" —they were afraid of the multitude, for all considered John to have been a prophet indeed. 33 And answering Jesus, they *said, "We do not know." And Jesus *said to them, "Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things."
The scribes, elders, and chief priests cannot believe Jesus' audacity. They think, "Who is this itinerant preacher who thinks he can come in here and cause a scene in the temple?" So that's what they ask Him: "Who do you think you are? We are the authorities here; if anything is wrong in the temple, we'll take care of it. Who gave you the right to come in here and do this?" Understand that they've already answered the question in their own minds: No one gave Jesus this right; in their minds, He's a nobody, stepping on their turf.
Think about this: do the chief priests and elders have a right to ask Jesus this question? Perhaps not in these demeaning words, and probably not in the tone of voice they used, but surely the religious authorities do have a right to ask about Jesus' authority. They can't let every Tom, Dick, and Harry (or every Nathaniel, Joshua, and Zechariah) enter the temple and turn over tables.
So why does Jesus avoid answering their question? Why doesn't he simply say, "My authority is from God"?
The reason Jesus doesn't answer is that these men are not interested in the truth. And Jesus exposes their lack of interest through the question He asks. In effect, He asks, "You ask me about my authority; let me ask you about John. Was his authority from God or from man?"
Look again at verses 31 and 32. Are they concerned at all with the truth? In their discussions, does the true source of John's baptism arise at all? No. Their entire discussion is framed in terms of the response of the crowds. They care not one whit for the truth, only for the political ramifications of their reply.
So Jesus' answer to them is this: "You don't care for the truth, so why should I answer you? But if you do care, remember: The source of my authority is the same as the source of John's -- as he himself indicated."
The positive lesson for us from this interchange is this principle:
The fruitbearer speaks the truth, regardless of expected response. We must not be like the politicians of ancient times (the chief priest, scribes, and Pharisees), nor the politicians of modern times, scripting our remarks to play to whatever audience is in front of us. If we are to bear fruit that lasts, if we are to take on the character of Jesus, we must be willing to speak the truth of the gospel, whether it is popular or not, whether we are in the midst of great revival or bitter persecution, whether it will lead to our being honored or our being put to death. We must be men and women of our word, as James reminds us:
But above all, my brethren, do not swear, either by heaven or by earth or with any other oath; but let your yes be yes, and your no, no; so that you may not fall under judgment. (James 5:12 NASB)
This thought leads directly into the last section of today's text, where Jesus tells the parable of the tenants of God's vineyard.
The Fruitbearer Loves the Word of God
Let's get a little background from the Old Testament prior to looking at the story itself. In 12:1 Jesus quotes from Isaiah chapter 5, where Israel is compared to God's vineyard. Let's read the first seven verses of that chapter:
1 ¶ Let me sing now for my well-beloved A song of my beloved concerning His vineyard. My well-beloved had a vineyard on a fertile hill. 2 And He dug it all around, removed its stones, And planted it with the choicest vine. And He built a tower in the middle of it, And hewed out a wine vat in it; Then He expected it to produce good grapes, But it produced only worthless ones. 3 "And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah, Judge between Me and My vineyard. 4 "What more was there to do for My vineyard that I have not done in it? Why, when I expected it to produce good grapes did it produce worthless ones? 5 "So now let Me tell you what I am going to do to My vineyard: I will remove its hedge and it will be consumed; I will break down its wall and it will become trampled ground. 6 "And I will lay it waste; It will not be pruned or hoed, But briars and thorns will come up. I will also charge the clouds to rain no rain on it." 7 For the vineyard of the LORD of hosts is the house of Israel, And the men of Judah His delightful plant. Thus He looked for justice, but behold, bloodshed; For righteousness, but behold, a cry of distress. (Isaiah 5:1-7 NASB)
God does everything one can expect of the owner of a vineyard to produce fruit, but in the end the vines produce only worthless grapes. Isaiah explains the parable: God looked for justice and righteousness among his people, but found instead bloodshed and distress. He looked for the qualities that would show that the people were being conformed to His image, but instead finds them acting completely contrary to His character.
In Mark 12, Jesus makes a clear reference to this passage of Isaiah, but adds new characters, the tenants of the vineyard, those in charge of keeping, nourishing, and helping the vines to bear fruit. To whom do the tenants correspond? Who is supposed to make the nation fruitful for God? The religious leaders: the scribes, teachers of the law, and Pharisees.
With that understanding, let's read the passage:
1 ¶ And He began to speak to them in parables: "A man PLANTED A VINEYARD, AND PUT A WALL AROUND IT, AND DUG A VAT UNDER THE WINE PRESS, AND BUILT A TOWER, and rented it out to vine-growers and went on a journey. 2 "And at the harvest time he sent a slave to the vine-growers, in order to receive some of the produce of the vineyard from the vine-growers. 3 "And they took him, and beat him, and sent him away empty-handed. 4 "And again he sent them another slave, and they wounded him in the head, and treated him shamefully. 5 "And he sent another, and that one they killed; and so with many others, beating some, and killing others. 6 "He had one more to send, a beloved son; he sent him last of all to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ 7 "But those vine-growers said to one another, ‘This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours!’ 8 "And they took him, and killed him, and threw him out of the vineyard. 9 "What will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and destroy the vine-growers, and will give the vineyard to others. 10 "Have you not even read this Scripture: ‘THE STONE WHICH THE BUILDERS REJECTED, THIS BECAME THE CHIEF CORNER stone; 11 THIS CAME ABOUT FROM THE LORD, AND IT IS MARVELOUS IN OUR EYES’?" 12 And they were seeking to seize Him; and yet they feared the multitude; for they understood that He spoke the parable against them. And so they left Him, and went away. (Mark 12:1-12 NASB)
Why had the owner put the tenants in the vineyard? Both for the good of the vineyard -- as they care for it and make it fruitful -- and for their own good. They were expected to share in the productivity of the vineyard.
Just so, God put the religious leaders in charge of Israel for their good and His glory. Yet they rejected Him, and act as if their own selfish interests are all that matter. Ironically, by selfishly guarding "their own interests," they themselves miss out on the greatest joy of all: a loving relationship with King of Universe.
So God will do away with the existing tenants – the Jewish religious leaders – and will give to others the task of leading His people. Matthew's account makes this explicit; these words follow after the quotation from Psalm 118 concerning the chief cornerstone:
Therefore I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you, and be given to a nation producing the fruit of it. (Matthew 21:43 NASB)
What is the lesson of this parable for us? How can we ensure that we bear fruit instead of being dried and worthless branches, like the scribes and Pharisees?
Consider the error of the tenants. They received numerous messages from the owner, but rejected the messages and harmed the messengers. Indeed, they rejected the owner’s son, thinking that they then would have vineyard to themselves.
Do you see what this means? They rejected the Word of God: the Word in both its written form and personal form. So God rejects them, creating His church, and destroying both the temple and Jerusalem by the hands of the Romans 40 years later.
Yet the stone they reject becomes the chief cornerstone. Jesus himself is the cornerstone of the new building, the church, which brings glory to God.
This then is our final principle from today's text for fruitbearing: The fruitbearer loves the Word of God, the Bible, and the Word made flesh, Jesus. The fruitbearer loves the truths proclaimed through the written word, and Truth as manifested in Jesus ("I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life").
We are completely dependent upon the Word of God if we are to produce any fruit. Remember again Jesus' warning in John 15:5: "Apart from me you can do nothing."
So we must love His word, devour it, asking God to open it up to us, asking God to make His word dwell in us richly,
Conclusion:
Jesus curses the fig tree as a severe rebuke to the religious people of His day. Is there a parallel for the religious people of our day? Are we in danger of emulating the fig tree: having the appearance of fruitfulness without real fruit?
Undoubtedly the answer is "Yes." If we are to avoid becoming cursed fig trees, we must avoid at least four pitfalls:
Relying on ritual: So often we think that because we perform a certain ceremony once in our life, or regularly every week, we are right before God. These Jewish religious leaders were perfect in their observance of rituals that God had specifically ordained. But they had no fruit; they did not take on the character of God. God rejected them, despite their outward obedience to religious rituals.
Relying on numbers: Sometimes we're tempted to think, "We’re fine! Our church is growing by leaps and bounds! God is blessing us!" But remember, in terms of growth, few churches can match the cults. Churches can grow simply by appealing to people’s natural desires – by telling people what they want to hear, by avoiding the hard parts of Scripture. No. Numbers do not provide evidence of fruitfulness.
Relying on doctrinal purity: Others are tempted to think, "We’re fine because we hold to the ancient truths. That’s what it means to be fruitful." Well, no. That’s not what it means to be fruitful. James tells us even demons are doctrinally pure in many ways. God chose His people to be His own precious possession, a people who will value Him above all else, a people who will be in living relationship to Him, as a vine is to its branches. Doctrinal purity is an absolute must for fruitfulness, but alone it is not sufficient.
Relying on great emotion: Another group might say, "We’re so fruitful – just looked how everyone is moved in our services." But great emotion is no sure sign of fruitfulness. We can arouse strong emotions in many ways unrelated to God; go to any rock concert for evidence.
Now, doctrinal purity, emotion, and God-ordained rituals are all vital parts of the Christian life; if these are absent, there will be no fruitfulness. And in many cases growth in numbers accompanies fruitfulness. But the passage today gives us these keys to true fruitfulness:

Love the Word: both Christ himself and His spoken word, the Bible. This is the foundation for the true fruitfulness that comes from knowing Him.

Have faith in God, that He will fulfill His promises, and therefore pray with power and free yourself to forgive.

Focus on God in your worship, thereby worshiping in Spirit and in truth.

Speak the truth in love, without political calculations; proclaim God's truths whether they are popular or not, whether your listeners think this is what they need to hear nor not.

May we be a church overflowing with fruit -- and may each of us here this morning bear fruit, to the glory of God.

His watchfullness...

this tear I shed for you...

this tear that I bear

as I look upon all my creation

I love you all and I care



I light your day with sunshine

you find peace when the birds sing

i never forget you because you are mine

i created you, deliverance is what I bring


i hope you will speak to me

as you hurry on your way...