Mark 7:1-8:26 | The Jesus Way

Well, growth is foundational to life. Whatever doesn't grow eventually withers and dies. You see that in every area of life, right? In nature, if a plant stops growing, it begins to decay. In our bodies, if muscles aren't strengthened or stretched, exercised, they weaken. Same with relationships. There's no growth. It kind of stagnates and we drift. Growth is so essential. And one of the greatest joys of being a dad is getting to watch growth happen right in front of me. Right, with these kids, first it was rolling over, then sitting up, then crawling, then standing, then running. And every milestone was monumental. My wife and I, our family, we cheered for our kids as though they were winning an Olympic gold medal, right? It was that monumental. It was the greatest thing ever. And the same is true with her speech as well. You know, I still remember the excitement surrounding my daughter's very first word. She's four and a half now. But, you know, there's one thing that you know, you should know about the Christopher household is that we are very competitive. My wife and I, if we get into games, board games, it gets crazy. At our place. So now we don't even play a few games because we know I can, you know, speed games. I could never like beat my wife. So I'm like, I'm not even playing because I know how that works. So everything is a competition in a good way. And I remember we were competing as to what's the first word going to be like? What is she gonna say? Is she gonna say daddy? Or is she gonna say mommy, right? So every time I hung out with my daughter, I made sure to repeat the word daddy, daddy, daddy, right? I remember going to the store and I saw a book that says dada. So I open it, it's just pictures of animals. There's a baby duck and a daddy duck. And on the next page, a baby cow, A daddy cow, and the baby is saying dada, right? And then you move on. There's pigs, baby pigs, daddy pigs. And so I bought that book. Every day I made sure to go over and I go, dada, daddy, daddy, and this was it. And then I could see my wife trying her best as well. She had more time with the baby, and she would do the same thing every day. Mommy, mommy, mommy, right? And alas, finally, she said the first word. And how many of you think she said mommy? A few. Guys, I won. I won, okay? She said daddy. It was very different with our son. You know, he's two. I didn't even get into that competition because I know I was going to lose. And I did lose, you know. And now, you know, you can see the growth. It was just one word, excitement around one word, and then two words, and then a sentence. And now as a four-and-a-half-year-old, you know, she's talking logic, reasoning, and even outsmarting me sometimes. I want to give you a sneak peek into a conversation that we had this morning. So we wake up. We're getting the kids ready to church. And so she was up. My daughter was up first. And then we go to our son's room, two-and-a-half. And so... this happens every Sunday. Which church are we going to, Daddy? That's the first question that they ask. You know, is it the old church referring to the downtown campus or the new church referring to the Elk Grove campus that we have? So I said, we're going to the old church, downtown campus. And Rian's like, yay, we're going to the downtown, you know, he's cheering. And so I said, which campus do you like? You know, he's like, Old, I love old, you know, that's what Rien goes. And then I just step out, and then he goes, new is bad. New is bad. And, you know, so referring to the Northwest campus, I guess. And so my daughter, filled with fire and righteous indignation, she goes, you can't say that, Rien. You can't say that. This is unwholesome. Where did she get that word from? Unwholesome. And then it came a full circus. We actually had to go to the Northwest campus to drop off some items for the setup. And we're in the car. And then Drian goes, I like the new church as well. And Roshni's like, this is wholesome. So it all came together. But you see, we expect growth in every area of our lives. And the same is true for our spiritual lives as well. Just like a child is meant to grow physically, we are meant to grow spiritually. Paul, he tells the Corinthians in 1 Corinthians chapter 3, he goes, I gave you milk, not solid food, because you weren't ready for it. And then the writer of Hebrews, he now chastises the church. He goes, you are supposed to be teachers, but you still need milk, not solid food. So in other words, we're not supposed to stay as spiritual infants. We're called to grow, to move from milk to meat, solid food, from immaturity to maturity. And that's the process of discipleship. You come to God as you are, messy, needy, and broken. But you don't stay as you are. By God's spirit, and as you join him, he changes us. He grows us. He makes us more and more like Jesus Christ. We're well into our series in the Gospel of Mark called The Jesus Way, where we're putting the spotlight on Jesus, looking at his life, his teachings, his actions, all with the purpose of learning from him and following his way. And today we're gonna look at a huge chunk of Mark, Mark chapter seven and eight. We're not gonna read all of the scriptures, but I wanna look at three characteristics of growing disciples of Jesus. of Jesus. One of the main purposes of this gospel is to let people know about Jesus. Who is Jesus? And you can see Jesus in action. The spotlight's on Him. He's teaching. People are amazed. He's doing miracles. The whole crowd, the whole city, He's gathered at His front door. There's just a lot going on and you can see this line you can trace this line throughout the gospel of mark of even his disciples coming to learn who jesus is a couple of weeks ago we saw jesus calm the storm a great storm that even fishermen this was their livelihood they thought they were going to die jesus calms the storm he says be still and there's a great calm and the disciples goes Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him. So the disciples are slowly growing in their understanding, in their knowledge of even who Jesus is. And we're going to trace that today by looking at three characteristics of growing disciples of Jesus. The first one, Growing disciples move beyond superficial external conformity and focus on inner transformation. So growing disciples, you move beyond superficial external conformity and focus on inner transformation. We're picking up the narrative from Mark chapter 7 verse 1. You can follow along with me with your Bibles or it's going to be on your screen. Mark chapter 7 verse 1 says, Now when the Pharisees gathered to him with some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem... They saw that some of his disciples ate with hands that were defiled, that is, unwashed. For the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they wash their hands properly, holding to the tradition of the elders. And when they come from the marketplace, they do not eat unless they wash. And there are many other traditions that they observe, such as the washing of cups and pots and copper vessels and dining couches. And the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, Why do your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat? A note on these people. The Pharisees, if you're wondering who they are, they were devoted to preserving and interpreting the Torah, which is the first five books of the Old Testament, which is God's law that they received, that Moses received on Mount Sinai. So they were guardians of tradition. And the scribes, these are religious scholars who specialize in copying, preserving, and interpreting Scripture. So these are the scholars, the elite, the religious elite of their society. And now you see the disciples of Jesus going against God. Their tradition. And so they come up to Jesus, possibly with righteous indignation, and they go, Jesus, we're not supposed to eat with defiled hands. It's impure. And why are your disciples doing that? And you know what Jesus' response is? He goes on the offensive. You see in the next portion, if you can go to the next slide. And Jesus said to them, well, did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites? As it is written, this people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. In vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men. You leave the commandment of God and hold to the tradition of men. And he said to them, you have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to establish your tradition. And he gives them an example. For Moses said, honor your father and your mother and whoever reviles. And many such things you do. Man, that's powerful, right? You know, sometimes we have a picture of Jesus, you know, who's meek and lowly and kind and polite. I would have loved to be in that conversation just witnessing how Jesus goes off on these Pharisees and describes the religious scholars. He goes, you hypocrites, you honor me with your lips, but your heart is far from me. And I love, and what Jesus is hitting at is very interesting. He says, you leave the commandment of God and hold to the tradition of men. That's what you're zealous about. Not the commandments of God per se, but the traditions that you have built around the commandments of God. And just for context, the Pharisees believed that alongside the written Torah, the law of Moses, there was also an oral law given by God to Moses at Mount Sinai. So this oral Torah contained explanations, applications, almost flushing out the written law. And so it clarified how to live in in light of God's word. And so this was later codified around 200 AD and it's called the Mishnah that is still used today. And these Pharisees considered the oral law as equally authoritative to the written law. And Jesus' issue here is that their traditions, their oral law obliterated or contradicted the very heart and intent of God's law. Instead of focusing on the heart, it was more on external traditions, external behavior, external conformity, and making sure all of those traditions are followed. And not only that, you know, these guys that equated the interpretations of God's Word with God's Word itself. And Jesus says, you have actually rejected God's Word in order to maintain your traditions. And the example that he gives is very striking. You know, he says it was the responsibility of children to take care of their parents. And that entailed sometimes a financial obligation as well. And so what the Pharisees did was with the concept of Corban, what you could do, you could say, well, this amount of money was supposed to go into taking care of my parents. But you know what? I've dedicated it to God. So what that does is it basically absolves them from using that money to help their parents because they've given it to God. And they get to use it while they're on earth. And then once they pass away, that money is passed on to the temple, to the church. So the Pharisees were smart in circumventing the obligation of children to their parents so that it ultimately benefits them. They've made void the commandment of God, in this case, to honor their parents by their traditions. And you know, if we were to be honest, this isn't just their problem. It's something that we got to watch out today as well. You know, sometimes inside the church, we tend to elevate our interpretation of Scripture to the same level of Scripture itself, or what we think is You know, one of the things that we are passionate about in our small groups here at 180 is we're not here just for community, for community's sake. That's not what small groups are for. We want to be centered around the truth of God's Word. Ultimately, it's not even our opinion. It's not what we think. A scripture says we really want to go into the authorial intent of what was written, why was it written, and form our opinion and form our understanding of scripture based on that. There's a little bit of digging to do. It's not easy, right? There's got to be some studying that's done. Sometimes we substitute religious habits for genuine obedience. It's possible to attend church, to sing songs, and even serve on Sundays, but still neglect the deeper commands of Scripture. And sometimes we even confuse church culture with biblical truth. This is one of the things that I really love, you know. is even coming from a different culture, just to see what our culture really values. The way we do stuff is different in every culture. You know, sometimes I wonder, like Indian weddings, you know, we have some awesome weddings. It's a week-long event. It's just so much fun. You know, the bride comes in, comes on a horse. It comes on an elephant sometimes. It's just... We have a lot of fun. And you know what? When the missionaries came into India, you know, and we're forever grateful to them. You know, my answer says I'm a fifth generation Christian. So you can trace back. We were evangelized to some missionaries from Britain. The schools that I went to, all of it was just blessed. built by British and Scottish missionaries, and we're so thankful. But sometimes it's easy to elevate customs and traditions of our culture and impose it on another culture. So if you come to Christian weddings now in India, we sing the songs that's sung in Britain. Like Felix Mendelssohn, I don't even know who that is, but his songs are sung because that's who, you know, the British missionaries like. Here comes the bride, just all of that, you know, just the same order of service as is here. And then you go to my Hindu friends' weddings, they're having fun, right? I feel like, you know, I have a point. When I do want to go to heaven, I want to tell you, you guys deprived me of an elephant ride when I got married. And I'm not happy about that, right? We sometimes elevate our culture, our traditions, and say that's God's word. And also, I mean, our commandments of God, the commandments of God are sometimes nullified and made void by broader cultural influences as well. Our culture gets to, you know, we can't live in a vacuum. Obviously, we live in the culture outside us as well, outside the walls of the church. And sometimes we end up redefining sin, end up calling what God calls sin normal or even good. Or we measure worth by material success. Or we even prioritize comfort over obedience. Just a lot of values that hold true in our society today. Making void the commandments of God by your tradition that you've handed down. That's what Jesus says to the Pharisees. So what does Jesus do? What is his response? Because he identifies the problem and he kind of speaks to the solution as well. It goes, and he called the people to him again and said to them, hear me all of you and understand. There's nothing outside a person that by going into him can defile him. But the things that come out of a person are what defile him. And when he had entered the house and left the people, his disciples asked him about the parable. And he said to them, Then are you also without understanding? Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from the outside cannot defile him, since it enters not his heart, but his stomach and is expelled? Thus he declared all foods clean. And he said, What comes out of a person... is what defiles them. For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within and they defile a person. We might not kind of understand the significance of this, but this was a big deal because Jesus rejects the whole approach. of the religious scholars, of the religious elite of their day. The fundamental question is what defiles a person? How can we be pure? What makes us holy in front of God? And the solution that the Pharisees and the scribes had was, well, you wash your hands, you follow this. Whatever you do externally is what makes us pure and holy. Well, if you touch someone who is defiled, then you're unholy as well. So there's an entire tradition, a religion, that's built around external conformity, and Jesus appends it. He goes, it's not what goes out, it's not what's something external to the person, but what comes from the inside. So he reframes holiness and growing as a disciple of Jesus, not just as external conformity, but inner transformation. And we saw that entire list of sins there. He goes, those are what defiles a person because it comes from inside. I'd like to read that list again for us. If you can go back to the previous slide. That verse goes from within, out of the heart of man come evil thoughts. Sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness, all these evil things come from within and they defile a person. Growing disciples of Jesus move beyond superficial external conformity and focus on inner transformation. This is the journey that we're called to. to grow progressively as disciples and in our holiness where we move from just external conformity, where we just try to look that part of being a Christian. We're going to church. We sing songs. We serve. And the word that Jesus has for those who just do that, he goes, cost them hypocrites. You honor me with your lips, but your heart is far from me. And, you know, this is a sobering topic. Because a lot of us, we've been hurt and wounded by people who claim to be followers of Jesus, but who don't act like it, right? You know, my mom's side of the family, my mom's a first-generation Christian, and she's one of nine kids, big family, and they're all Hindus, so they're not Christian. And one of the biggest impediments for them to accept Jesus was when my grandfather, he was very poor. He was just making it in life and business. As he got going, as he started to get successful, he had a Christian partner with him. And so as they got successful, one day the guy embezzles all his money. makes a dash for it, and he never heard ever about this person again, and he lost all his money, and he had to start again. And so my grandfather would go, if this is what you Christians do, I don't need your God. And most of his family, you know, they're all in the family business, and they don't want anything to do with the Christian God because of this person, right? Maybe you can think of people that you know who claim to follow Jesus, but who don't actually live out that way. Or if you were to be honest, it could also be us. Well, we claim to follow Jesus, but sometimes our actions are not Proportional or not, they don't reflect how we're supposed to be. God calls us as growing disciples not to just be okay with a hypocritical, external, superficial conformity, but more so inner transformation where we deal with the core issues of our heart. Let me give you a few scriptures as to what God is calling each and every one of us to do. In 1 Peter 1, verse 15 says, But as he who called you his holy, you also be holy in all your conduct. Since it is written, you shall be holy, for I am holy. Ephesians 1, 4. He chose us in him before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and blameless before God. And then Romans 12. 1 Thessalonians 4, 7. It says, 1 Thessalonians 4, chapter 3. If you're wondering what God's will is for your life, and a lot of us have that question, what is God's will for my life? What does God want me to do? This is literally what it says. 1 Thessalonians 4, 3. For this is the will of God, your sanctification. And it goes that you abstain from sexual immorality, that each of you know how to control his own body in holiness and honor. Growing disciples move beyond superficial external conformity and focus on inner transformation. Moving on. Growing disciples refuse to write people off. They believe anyone. can come to Jesus. Anyone. In the next portion of this passage, we're not going to read this, but there's three miracles that happen. And what's unique about this is that when Jesus came in, his mission was to the lost sheep of Israel. And he explicitly says in Matthew 15, it says, I am here for the lost sheep of Israel. So his gamut of ministry was to the Jews, right? But in this portion, we see that Jesus does three miracles and all of which happens in Gentile territory. And this is so significant because just as we saw in the first portion as to what constitutes defilement, you know, if you don't wash your hands, if you're impure, if your couch is not washed, you know, you're defiled. The Jews considered the Gentiles impure. So anyone who associated with the Gentiles was now impure as well. These Gentiles were considered as outsiders, unclean, idolatrous, and beyond God's covenant blessings. They were seen as spiritually and morally corrupt, unfit for even fellowshipping together, and a threat to Israel's purity. That was their conception of non-Jews to Gentiles. And Jesus goes into Gentile territory and he does three miracles. The first one is the Syrophoenician woman's daughter. So she comes to Jesus, you know, and she's a Gentile Syrophoenician woman. That's the territory that she's from. This territory was opposed to their staunch arch nemesis of Israel. And so she comes to Jesus and says, God, can you heal my daughter? She's oppressed by a demon. You know, you could say an insulting answer where he says, well, I don't give what's supposed to be given to the children to the dogs. Referring to the children being the children of Israel and dogs being Gentiles. It may be an insult. It may not be an insult because she didn't take it as an insult. She goes, well, Jesus, that is true. But even those dogs, they eat from the crumbs of the master's table. So in some ways, she outwits Jesus and Jesus is impressed. He goes, daughter, because of that statement, I'm going to make your daughter well. And the daughter is healed. And then the second one is a deaf and a mute man. Again, he's in the region of the Decapolis. Again, a Gentile territory. And Jesus heals this man and he's healed. Healed. And then number three, you have the feeding of the 4,000. We had the feeding of the 5,000 a couple of chapters before in Jewish territory. But now this is happening in Gentile territory. So the assumption is that there could be a lot of people in the crowd, 4,000 men and women and children who are non-Jews. And Jesus does an awesome miracle of multiplying. There's a huge application for us here. Jesus is for everyone. No one is too broken. No one is too damaged to be recipients of the mercy of Jesus. Jesus does not exclude anyone who wants to come to him. He extends mercy across social, ethic, and religious boundaries. And growing disciples refused to write that off. They believe anyone can come to Jesus. This might be very pertinent to the times that we live in. There's just so much chaos, so much division, so much tribalism in our world today, right? We believe the same things. We're all part of the group. And everyone else, it's not worth fellowship. We don't want to associate with them. Different politics, different lifestyle, whatever it might be. We want to cut them off. Right? But Jesus is not just for the people that we naturally like. Those who share our values. are the ones that make us feel comfortable. He's also for people that we avoid, the people we struggle to understand, and frankly, even the people we flat out don't like. Those who make you angry, Jesus is still for them. He extends His grace farther than our preferences and prejudices. Growing disciples refuse to write people. What if we, as growing disciples of Jesus, if we claim to be a disciple of Jesus, what if we lean into our identity as kingdom citizens, as ambassadors, as diplomats, rise above the squabbling, the hate, and extend the grace of Jesus to those who actually need Jesus? And to be honest, that's the only source of hope that we have in the world today. There's not going to be a political, governmental, whatever. There's not going to be a solution that brings everything together other than the gospel of grace, the gospel of Jesus. And you and I, we're called to be ambassadors of this gospel. We pray, we intercede, we fight together. for people to come to Jesus because Jesus is for everyone. Finally, growing disciples carry yesterday's lessons into today's challenges. Mark 8, verse 11, it says, "...the Pharisees came and began to argue with him, seeking from him a sign from heaven to test him." And he sighed deeply in his spirit and said, why does this generation seek a sign? Truly I say to you, no sign will be given to this generation. And he left them, got into a board again, and went to the other side. Well, the only thing, I mean, the thing that Jesus has been doing is signs. There's so many miracles happening. Feeding of the 4,000 that we saw. The Syrophoenician woman's daughter sealed. There's just so many awesome miracles that's happening. And the Pharisees come to Jesus and they're asking for another sign. I assume maybe they're doing that to catch Jesus off. Maybe Jesus can do it. Maybe he calls something from heaven. Doesn't happen and they can disprove. Oh, he is not the Messiah. Maybe they want to discredit Jesus. Just an assumption here. So Jesus says, you know what? I'm done with you guys. I'm going to the other side. So he gets on this boat and he goes to the other side. And while he's on this boat, He teaches the disciples, or he cautions the disciples about an important lesson that holds true for us. Mark chapter 8, it goes on, Now they had forgotten to bring bread, and they had only one loaf with them in the boat. And he cautioned them, saying, Watch out, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod. Again, just some context here. In the Old Testament, leaven was a picture of corruption. So just as little yeast works its way through the whole batch of dough, sin is compared to leaven, which if left unchecked, corrupts everything it touches. And so Jesus is saying, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod. And then the disciples, they began discussing with one another the fact that they had no bread. And Jesus, aware of this, said to them, why are you discussing the fact that you have no bread? Do you not yet perceive or understand? Are your hearts hardened? Having eyes, do you not see? And having ears, do you not hear? And do you not remember when I broke the five loaves for the 5,000? How many baskets full of broken pieces do you take up? They said to him, 12. And the seven for the 4,000, how many baskets full of broken pieces did you take up? And they said to him, seven. And he said to them, do you not yet understand? So you see the process of these disciples. They're not able to... See Jesus clearly for who he is. He's cautioning the disciples and he goes, Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Herod. Which is an interesting combination. We know what the Pharisees are. You know, we're the religious scholars who rejected the authority of Jesus. Who rejected Jesus as the Messiah. And the only thing that's common between both Herod and the Pharisees is that both of them saw Jesus at work. But they still chose not to believe in Jesus. Unbelief, I believe, is the leaven of the Pharisees and Herod. Both of them saw Jesus at work. They saw what an amazing teacher He was. They saw all of the miracles, but both refused to take that step of believing in Jesus as the Messiah, the Son of God. Of God. And so he cautions his disciples now. And the disciples are still, they're like, oh, maybe he's talking about the bread that we forgot to bring. And Jesus goes, guys, do you not understand? When I fed the 5,000, how many baskets were left from five loaves and two fish? There were five whole baskets of food that were left over. That's how much God worked. And that's how much the food was multiplied. And he goes the same thing with feeding of the 4,000. How many baskets of food was left? He goes, do you not understand? Do you not see me for who I am? There's a danger of familiarity with Jesus. We can be exposed to Jesus. We can see him. We can know his stories. Yeah, we don't actually see him for who he really is. He is the Lord of heaven and earth. And not just that, He's the Lord of our lives. When we've given our lives to Him and we've received Jesus, and some of you might have done that. Maybe there are some of you who haven't done that here. But when you do give your life to Jesus, He becomes the Lord and Master. of our lives. I love the picture that Paul talks in Galatians 2.20, I've been crucified with Christ. Think of Paul being crucified on that cross and he goes, it's no longer I who live, the life that I live here, it's not me. It's I want Jesus to live His life through me. It's a great picture of how the gospel is supposed to be lived out. Growing disciples carry yesterday's lessons, if I were to qualify that, about Jesus, about who Jesus is, into today's challenges. The portion there ends where Jesus really going off on his disciples. He goes, do you still not understand, guys, as to who I am? It seems like until this point, even Jesus' own disciples missed the point of Jesus. But this section closes with an astonishingly hopeful parable of healing, which I believe is the climax and the turning point of this whole section. And I believe it's an object lesson. Let me read that scripture to you. And they came to Bethsaida and some people brought to him a blind man and begged him to touch him. And he took the blind man by the hand and led him out of the village. And when he had spit on his eyes and laid his hands on him, he asked him, do you see anything? And he looked up and said, I see people, but they look like trees walking. Then Jesus laid his hands on his eyes again, and he opened his eyes. His sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly. And he sent him to his home saying, do not even enter the village. This story can be an object lesson of of just even our journey of evolving, the disciples' journey of evolution as to how they saw Jesus. This two-stage miracle is an object lesson of the process of disciples' growth in understanding. In the process of Jesus revealing himself, even in these scriptures, we see Jesus A pattern of Jesus doing things twice to help the disciples understand, to help the disciples grow in their understanding of Jesus was, you know, we see two feedings of the massive crowds. We see two miracles on a boat where Jesus does the same thing again to help his disciples see who he really is. And now this object lesson could be seen as an analogy where Jesus first goes and heals this person and he can see something. But he can't clearly see who Jesus was. And Jesus touches him again. And now, his sight is restored. I believe this object lesson shows how Jesus patiently, compassionately, and masterfully works with his disciples until they see him clearly. Just right after. Pastor Carl's going to be preaching that. For the first time, Peter confesses. Jesus says, who do you think I am? Just the section right after. Peter says, you are Christ, the Son of the living God. First time ever, the disciples confess that Jesus is Christ, the Son of the living God. We see in their journey, again and again, the disciples fail to understand. They miss what He's trying to teach them. They worry about the wrong things. They stumble in their faith. But Jesus doesn't give up on them. And you know what? If that's your journey today, Jesus is not giving up on you either. He is patient. He keeps teaching. He wants you to see Him for who He truly is. And it's He who's begun that work in your life. And He will bring that to pass. We all need a touch from Jesus. That's why growth, growing in... Our Christian life is not contingent on us. It is in some ways, but it's not something that we bootstrap and try to do on our own strength. The most important thing that we can do in terms of growing in our faith in Jesus is to go to Jesus. That's where spiritual disciplines come into play. We're exercising our faith. We're exercising our muscles to grow in our knowledge and understanding. So every time you read your scriptures, every time you read your Bible, when we say read your Bible, it seems like such a cliche thing to say now, right? And we all know like that. We got to read our Bibles and we all almost always regret that we're not reading our Bibles enough. That's not the attitude to Bible reading. We're not checking off a box. We're not checking off a list. We're growing in our understanding of who Jesus is. What's foggy becomes clear as we see God manifested in His Scriptures. And that's discipleship. That's the process that we want to be in. As I end this morning, we're going to have the worship team come and lead us in a song about just... How awesome King Jesus is. We're going to do that song again. But I want to, we don't leave here on a Sunday without an application for us. We want to be doers of God's word, right? I want you to consider this. Are you a growing disciple of Jesus? Am I growing as a disciple of Jesus with a clean heart and rather than just the motions of surface religion? Are you grown as a disciple of Jesus with open arms, extending His mercy to those you think don't deserve His mercy, rather than underestimating the power of God's redeeming grace? Are you growing as a disciple of Jesus by carrying the lessons God's taught you forward rather than missing what Jesus is showing you in the here and now. Just like that blind man at the end who had a touch from Jesus, ask Jesus for a fresh touch today and take one small step of obedience this week. It is God's will that we grow in our faith. We grow in our understanding of who Jesus is. I mean, if we truly believed, you know, even Jesus said, what is the greatest commandment? There was a lawyer who tried to trick Jesus. He goes, what is the greatest commandment? And Jesus said, You shall love the Lord your God with all of your heart, with all of your soul, with all of your mind, and with all of your strength. This is the greatest commandment. And this is what Jesus wants for all of us. To love Him with everything that we have. It's part of being a growing disciple of Jesus. The worship team is going to lead us in a song shortly. But I want to give us about a minute. I'd love for you to just bow your heads, close your eyes. It's just you and the Holy Spirit. Just ponder. Consider, are you a growing disciple of Jesus? If you're not, it's not about you. It's about God working in you. And today can be a day when you give yourself... To God, where you tell Him, God, I want to grow. I'm done. I'm done just resorting to external, superficial Christianity. I want a transformation of the heart. God, I want to be like You, extending Your mercy and Your grace. I want You more than anything.