If it gets a little warm in here today, it's because one of our air conditioning units is down, we're waiting to get it fixed. It would happen on the hottest day of the year thus far. I told Brian to make sure it's down around 58, so I can feel comfortable, but it's not going to hardly be there. What a joy it is to be able to open up the Word of God. So will you take your Bibles and turn to Mark chapter one, we're going to be examining verses 29 through 39. As we continue our verse-by-verse analysis through this amazing gospel, follow along as I read Mark one beginning in verse 29. And my discourse to you is under the heading "Jesus Total Dominion over Everything. "And immediately after they came out of the synagogue, they came into the house of Simon and Andrew, with James and John. Now, Simon's mother-in-law was lying sick with a fever. And immediately they spoke to Jesus about her. And He came to her and raised her up, taking her by the hand, and the fever left her; and she waited on them. When evening came after the sun had set, they began bringing to Him all who were ill, and those who were demon-possessed. And the whole city had gathered at the door. And He healed many who were ill with various diseases and cast out many demons. And He was not permitting the demons to speak because they knew who He was. In the early morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went away to a secluded place, and was praying there. Simon and his companions searched for Him, they found him and said to Him, 'Everyone is looking for You.' He said to them, 'Let us go somewhere else to the towns nearby; so that I may preach there also, for that is when I came for.' And he went into their synagogues throughout all Galilee, preaching, and casting out the demons."

Dear friends, there is no greater privilege on Earth, than worshiping Christ. And that's what we have an opportunity to do here today, I'm reminded of what Paul said in Philippians, three. "But whatever things were gained to me those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. More than that, I count all things to be loss, in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish, so that I may gain Christ." I hope this is the passion of your heart this morning. If it's not, you will forfeit great joy and blessing in your life. And that is a tragedy because nothing else in life even comes close to the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus. All the privileges and all the illicit pleasures of our unconverted past are suddenly eclipsed by the glorious perfections of Christ's character, and the infinite power of His grace in our life. A mature saint will find satisfaction in Him alone, and fulfillment in life in him alone. That's not to say other things aren't wonderful. Certainly, they are, but nothing compares to the relationship we have with Christ if in fact, we are in intimate fellowship with Him. The esteem and love for Christ will cause us to choose Him above all else. Nothing else in life compares to knowing him. And I might also remind you that we should never see Christ as a means to an end. But rather Christ is the all- glorious and all-sufficient end in and of himself. This is why Paul said "I am determined to know nothing among you, except Christ Jesus and him crucified." And today, we have an opportunity to see his majesty unveiled before our eyes from several vantage points. We're going to see his total dominion over everything exhibited here. In this text, we're going to see his power over both the spiritual and the physical realms of his created universe, all of which have been devastated by sin and his curse upon all creation. And in our text here this morning, we will see how Jesus actions provide irrefutable proof that he is indeed who he says he is. He is the Son of God, the Messiah, the king of Israel, which, of course, is Mark's primary intention in his Gospel. And sowe're going to see this manifested in three ways. Number one, we're going to see his authority over disease and demons. Secondly, we will see his dependency on the Father and the Spirit and finally, his priority to preach the gospel. And I pray that we will all be edified and encouraged by what the Spirit reveals to us this morning.

Now, let's go back to the context, making sure that we understand what's going on here. In this historical narrative, Jesus has just left the synagogue in Capernaum, where the people were absolutely amazed at his authoritative teaching. And they were doubly amazed when they saw him cast a demon out of one of the people who were a part of the synagogue, whether he was the chairman of the deacons, I'm not sure, or the superintendent of the sunday school department, we don't know. But he was somebody that they all would have known. And we know that Jesus very presence terrified, as well as infuriated, this evil spirit, so much so that we read that he somehow uses the vocal cords of his host. And he cries out in verse 24, saying, "'What business do we have with each other Jesus of Nazareth? Have You come to destroy us? I know who you are the Holy One of God!' Jesus rebuked him saying, 'Be quiet and come out of him!'" Well obviously, the people had never seen anything like this, they were absolutely flabbergasted. And so now we come to a point where the service is over typically their services ended, by the way right around noon. And it was time to go home, find something to eat. And I'm quite certain, we all know what the topic of conversation was. Can you imagine having seen all of that in a service? So we know that they head to Peter's house. And we also know that Peter had a wife and children. Tradition tells us that they that he had at least, or they had at least one son, and in that house, he also had his mother in law and his brother Andrew, and Andrew's family. I might also add that archaeologists believe they have discovered Peter's house underneath the foundations of an octagonal, Byzantine martyrium church. "Martyrium" is Latin and it it refers to a shrine or a church that was built over the tomb of a martyr. Those of you that come with me to Israel, we will see this. It's an amazing site. And it was a Byzantine martyrium, meaning that it was built sometime during the Byzantine Empire, which was also called the Eastern Roman Empire. Sometimes it's called the Byzantium, and that Byzantine Empire existed somewhere around I think 353 or so, or 330 to about 1453 AD. So what they have discovered is this was a simple home, built in the first century consisting of a few small rooms that were kind of encircling a courtyard, which was typical. We also know that the proximity of this structure is very close to the ancient synagogue where Jesus would have been. They even claimed that they have found some ancient fishhooks in that particular edifice. And they believe also that it later on probably even in Peter's days served as a church a gathering place for the saints there in Capernaum in the surrounding area. One of the walls bears the graffiti quote "Lord Jesus Christ help your servant." Another contains ancient writings on the wall plaster mentioning Jesus as quote "Lord, and Christ." It's written in Aramaic, Greek, Syriac as well as Latin, along with other graffiti references to Peter, one commentator by the name of Edwards, gives brief description of the house. Here's what he said, quote "Within a stone's throw of the Capernaum synagogue lays a structure that can reasonably be identified as the house of Peter. The house is part of a large insula complex, in which doors and windows open to an interior court rather than outward to the street. The court accessed by a gateway from the street was the center of the lives of the dwellings around it, containing hearts, millstones, for grain, hand presses, and stairways to roofs of dwellings. The dwellings were constructed of heavy walls of black basalt, over which a flat roof of wood and thatch was placed." So that gives you a little idea of probably where Jesus and the rest of them went for lunch after that eventful service.

So let's pick up the narrative in verse 29. We read, "And immediately after they came out of the synagogue, they came into the house of Simon and Andrew, with James and John." Now here we have four men, all four of them, successful fishermen, having been part of their own fishing enterprise. The fishing industry was a very profitable industry in that age, people from all around depended upon fish as one of the dominant food sources in that region. And I might also add, therefore don't think of, of Peter and Andrew and James and John, as kind of primitive, I don't know, unsophisticated swamp people from southern Louisiana. All right, that's not what we have here. These men were successful businessmen. Now, the scenario that's about to unfold, again, is Mark's way of providing more irrefutable proof of Jesus deity, that he is, indeed the Messiah King, the Son of God. And that brings us to our first little point in the outline, we see His authority over disease, and demons.

Notice what we read here in verse 30. "Now, Simon's mother-in-law was lying sick with a fever; and immediately they spoke to Jesus about her." Luke, the physician offers some additional information, some medical input, in Luke 4:38, he tells us that it was a high fever, and also that her daughter and son in law immediately asked Jesus to help with the situation when he entered the house. And so she was deathly ill; there was some kind of an infection going on. She was unable to function. And in verse 31, we read, "And He came to her and raised her up, taking her by the hand, and the fever left her and she waited on them." Dear friends, this is absolutely astounding. Here we see not only Jesus’ compassion, but we see His power, right down to the cellular level. You know how large bacteria is. It's not very big. And to think that somehow, he eradicated all of that and she is healed. He restores her. Luke 4:39 says, "And standing over her, He rebuked the fever, and it left her and she immediately got up and waited on them." Again, instant total healing. And no mention of her mustering up enough faith so that she could have been healed, right? You don't see that anywhere here, like you hear from these despicable con artists, these faith healers that prey on the naive and the ignorant and the desperate. I might add here as well, in this regard, New Testament healings were never dependent upon the recipient's faith. You just don't see that. And we're going to see that more in this text this morning as well as others as we continue through Mark's gospel, all that is a blame shifting technique that faith healers use when the healing doesn't work. You know, it's not my fault, not God's fault is your fault. You don't have enough faith. According to Benny Hinn, and I use him as an example, because he is perhaps the most notorious of all these charlatans, he's preached and so-called minister to literally millions. I know, one of his crusade brags about the fact that they have 7.3 million people in attendance in three services in India. Well, according to Benny Hinn, quote, "Faith is vital to your miracle. Healing is received by faith and healing is kept by faith. It takes aggressive faith, to bring salvation from that sickness. You cannot receive healing unless your faith is right with God. Healing is easily attained when your walk with God is right." And sadly, I've counseled people over the years who didn't get healed in the services and it's a tragic thing because they're struggling with the fact that, I guess I just didn't have enough faith, rather than struggling with the integrity of the faith healer. You realize that only one of the 10 lepers that Jesus healed in Luke 11 expressed faith. Both a disabled man lay beside the pool of Bethesda in John five and the blind man, in John nine, didn't even know who Jesus was until they were healed. Jesus raised people from the dead, like Jarius' daughter, like Lazarus. Dead people don't have any faith that they're exercising, I think that's fair to say. And throughout the gospel record, you see Jesus, healing multitudes of people, despite their unbelief in Him as the Messiah. To be sure, dear friends, God does heal. According to his sovereign purposes. He is the great physician. And we're all recipients of that special measure of grace, his healing grace. But you must understand no one today has the power to heal, like Jesus and the apostles. There is zero evidence that miraculous healings are occurring today as they did in the apostolic era, when the church was first coming into existence, and that's because the purpose of the miraculous sign gifts was to authenticate not only the messenger, but the message of the gospel. What we see today is pure chicanery. It's it's parlor tricks that mislead the gullible. Sometimes it can also be demonically empowered counterfeits. We've seen that as well. And these charlatans that boldly proclaim they are performing signs and wonders are in fact just scamming millions of people of their life savings and putting it in their pockets. Benny Hinn told a TBN praise audience in 2000, quote, "I believe that God is healing people while they're making a pledge tonight. There are people getting healed making a pledge." And at another praise athon, he said, quote, "Make a pledge, make a gift, because that's the only way you're going to get your miracle. As you give the miracle will begin." When revealed his true motives, and one of his television interviews, he said, quote, "In your prayer request, be specific, and then send a gift." Here's why, "The word says," quote, "Give. The word says sow and then you shall reap. You can't expect to harvest until you sow a seed of money. So send that seed today, whatever amount, it really depends on your need. Someone came to me in Church recently and said, 'Well, Pastor, how much should I give to God?' I said, 'Well, what kind of harvest are you looking for?'"

If you ever noticed in these healing crusades, everything is scripted. There's a pre-arrangedenvironment. There are props. We know that there are people that are prescreened so that they can get information from them, and they prefer the massive crowd because it's easy to work up a massive crowd and get them into some kind of an emotional frenzy. Amazing how human beings can function. All of a sudden, they're slaying everybody in the Spirit, and everybody starts to fall down and whatever degrees Satan is involved in that, we're not sure, but they fall down. And now they are programmed to believe virtually anything. It creates a mob hysteria. And of course, emotional people are the most easily duped. Those that like to dance around waving their arms and crying and shouting and laughing in the spirit, supposedly speaking, ecstatic gibberish, claiming that it's tongues. There are many people that are ruled by their emotions rather than their mind, and they don't have the mind of Christ. So they love this kind of stuff. And they think it's the Spirit of God at work. And what's also interesting is these healings are always of some invisible ailment, right? It's, you know, it's back pain, ringing in the ears, chronic headaches or whatever. It's never something like leprosy. It's never new limbs suddenly appearing. It's never new eyes given to a person born blind from birth and so forth. But the miracles that Jesus and the apostles performed, were absolutely undeniable. They were immediate. They were spontaneous in the healing, there was no recuperation time. There was no need for physical therapy. Some of these people, they'll kind of limp around yeah, you know, it's feeling better. Well, you know, you need, you need to just kind of hang in there and take it easy for a while and regain your strength. No, none of that.

And here's the most important thing, all of these miracles pointed to Christ, not the faith healer. In his book, "Strange Fire - The Danger of Offending the Holy Spirit with Counterfeit Worship", John MacArthur says this, quote "Hinn claims to be the channel the Holy Spirit anoints and uses to bring God's healing power and presence to the hurting and spiritually hungry. But such claims are nothing more than hot air fanned by flames of rank, arrogance and outright deception. Hinn may wield," quote, "gifts of showmanship, histrionics, crowd manipulation, con artistry, and possibly even mass hypnosis, but one thing he certainly does not possess is the New Testament gift of healing. At best, Hinn's supposed healings are the result of a euphoric placebo effect, in which the body temporarily responds to a trick played on the mind and the emotions at worst. Hinn's healings consist of outright lies, and demonically empowered counterfeits. In either case, a simple comparison between the biblical gift and Benny Hinn's elaborate stage production exposes the latter for what it really is a scam." End quote. And this applies not to bent just Benny Hinn but others like him.

Now, the modern charismatic infatuation with miraculous signs and wonders is really nodifferent than the first century crowd's fascination with Jesus. We read in Matthew 16, four, he calls them a "wicked and adulterous generation seeks after a sign." I mean, the people were basically curiosity seekers, fascinated by the supernatural. They were not in love with Christ and wanting to worship Him. And for this reason, according to John 2:24, the Lord said that "He did not commit Himself to them because He knew all men." Now, what we see here, when Jesus healed Peter's mother-in-law, is radically different than the faith healing chicanery, that is so prevalent in our day. She was healed instantly she was healed completely. She was healed in a way that was beyond disbelief. Like those who touch the hem of Christ's garment in Matthew 14:36 and quote, "were made perfectly well." We don't see that today.

Now back to Capernaum. Verse 32. "When evening came after the sun had set, they began bringing to Him all who were ill and those who were demon possessed. The imperfect tense here of the verb "phero", which is bringing, means that they kept on bringing more and more. It's just a constant stream of people. That's what's going on. And you can imagine, I mean, word gets around, and everybody that could possibly make it are coming. They're bringing their sick loved ones and family and friends. And it's interesting, he says, "after the sun had set", that's very important because according to Jewish ceremonial law, you weren't allowed to carry anything or anyone on the Sabbath. You had to wait until the sun went down, which would have been around 6pm or so before you could bring your friends and family to Jesus to be healed. Verse 33, says, "And the whole city have gathered at the door." So we're talking hundreds and hundreds, perhaps, several 1000 people. And in verse 34, says, "And He healed many who were ill with various diseases." Many doesn't mean "some, not all", it means literally "a vast number." In fact, Luke helps us understand this in his account, in Luke four 40. It says, "While the sun was setting, all those who had any who were sick with various diseases, brought them to Him; and laying His hands on each one of them, He was healing them." SoJesus is just walking through the crowds, just healing people. Can you imagine what that would have been like? Boy, I wish he could come here today. I've got some things I'd like... for you know, don't you? I've got friends, I've got family, you know, I want to bring them all. And you know what, one day that's going to happen. But here we see the compassionate heart of the Savior, the Great Physician, the Good Shepherd, who would lay down his life for his sheep. As I was contemplating the glory of all of this, I thought about how this is really a foretaste of glory when all suffering and all sickness and death will be banished forever. I remember as I was thinking about it, I was just kind of singing to myself "Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine. Oh, what a foretaste of glory divine." That's what they had there. And that, by the way, is what we can have here as we fellowship with one another and worship Christ, a little taste of heaven.

Now, notice also in verse 34, we read that he "cast out many demons; and He was not permitting the demons to speak because they knew who He was." Now remember, demons thrive in the context of false religions. And Israel's apostate works-righteousness system fell into that category. And I also want to add that every church must guard against heretics and hypocrites. And even people who are demonized, and many times you won't know this until certain things happen. Unfortunately, we have had those people at Calvary Bible Church, and God has protected us from them. We've had to screen them out, discipline them out, or they just leave. We’re warned about this. For example, in Acts 20, beginning of verse 28. Paul tells the elders of the church at Ephesus "Be on guard for yourself and for all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God, which He purchased with His own blood. Here's why I know that after my departure, savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock. And from among your own selves, men will arise, speaking perverse things to draw away the disciples after them."

I might add that this is also one of several reasons why church membership is so important. And why the first century church required letters of commendation for people that went from one church to another church, as you read a second Corinthians three and, and Romans 16. I mean, you don't want heretics and hypocrites, and certainly demon possessed people involved in any capacity of the church, and you certainly don't want to give them the right to vote on things in the church. So there has to be a vetting process, there has to be a screening. And as we can see, there were many demon possessed people in the church or in that city in Capernaum, in that region, and this was all very Jewish. And we see that Jesus delivered them by, He says something interesting here, "He was not permitting the demons to speak because they knew who He was." That's an interesting statement. Here's what's going on, Jesus wanted no distorted declaration of who he was coming from these vile creatures that hated him so; that we're so committed to his destruction. Moreover, Jesus, true identity would not be fully revealed until his atonement upon the cross of Calvary because he knew that demons would say something like this, "yes, I know that you're the Messiah. You are the king of Israel, the Son of God, who will deliver your people Israel from Rome." Oh, boy, word gets around on that, and guess what happens? And so Jesus didn't want any of that, he didn't want an uprising. He didn't want the wrath of Rome coming down upon him, so he wouldn't allow them to speak. Furthermore, I might add, that Jesus, we see, really preferred to reveal the mystery of his person and his work concerning the kingdom to those that he knew truly loved him. And even when he did that, he did that in private settings. To the rest, he made public proclamations concerning himself that were veiled in the context of parables. So he would not allow these demons a platform. We see a similar scenario, by the way, when Paul encountered a demon possessed slave girl in Philippi, in Acts 16, beginning of the first 16, we read this, "It happened that as we were going to the place of prayer, a slave girl having a spirit of divination met us, who was bringing her masters much profit by fortune telling. Following after Paul, and us, she kept crying out saying, 'These men are bonds servants of the Most High God, who were proclaiming to you the way of salvation.' She continued doing this for many days. But Paul was greatly annoyed, and turned and said to the spirit, 'I command you in the name of Jesus Christ, to come out of her!' And it came out at that very moment." I've had some similar experiences. I remember one in the early 70s, when I was a student at the Moody Bible Institute. I went with some of my friends to an area there in North Chicago called Old Town. Maybe some of you are aware of that, I guess it still exists. But it was a unique place where in those days, all of the hippies went. And for some reason, with some of our friends, we thought, well, let's go to Old Town to see what's going on. And in that district, there happened to be a satanic cult that was there for the purpose of handing out pamphlets. They were called "The Process." I remember them vividly. They wore black robes with the black hoodie with the point. I mean, it looked like the Grim Reaper, I mean, that's literally what they looked like. And actually, it's called the Process Church of the Final Judgment, commonly known as the Process Church. It was founded in the United Kingdom in 1963. Well, they were standing around in various places on corners, handing out literature. I'm walking along, and all of a sudden, one of them comes towards me. And then another one kind of came, a woman came next to him. And they were, they were talking and all of a sudden, they got about six or eight feet from me, and they stopped, and he grabbed her. And he said, "Christian, Christian." And he turned around and they both ran in the other direction. They ran to the corner, they said something to them, they all looked at me, and they took off. Now, I was much more frightened than they were. I didn't know what in the world happened. And I guess at some level, that's a wonderful assurance of salvation, because at least these demonic creatures could see something that I couldn't see. But the point is, dear friends, there is a war going on, an invisiblewar that we cannot see. But it exists. And this was what was happening there.

Now Matthew gives us further insight into what happened on that eventful day in Capernaum. In Matthew eight beginning of verse 16. "When evening came, they brought to Him many who were demon possessed; and He cast out the spirits with a word and healed all who were ill." Then he adds this, "This was to fulfill what was spoken through Isaiah the prophet: 'He Himself took our infirmities and carried away our diseases.'" Beloved, here we have a glimpse of the long-awaited Old Testament kingdom, the prophecies of the kingdom that we read in Scripture. All of this came to life amongst God's covenant people there, when Christ was amongst them. They were able to witness the miracle of the King, to get a little sample of the kingdom. And all of these things were predicted harbingers of his kingdom, all of his healing and his miracles. In fact, Jesus said in Luke 17:20, "The kingdom of God is in your midst." And Matthew 12:28, he says, "If I cast out demons by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you." And yet the sad thing is, most of the people never embraced the king, because he didn't meet their expectations. They wanted to be saved from Rome not saved from their sin. And the rejection of Jesus as their King meant the rejection of his kingdom, which would therefore be postponed. And when the bodily presence of the kingdom was removed, so to was when the body of the king was removed, so to was the kingdom. But we know that when he returns as King of Kings and Lord of Lords, he will bring with him, his kingdom, his millennial reign. And for this reason, Peter preached in Acts three, verse 19, as I do, and as I hope you do, he said this, "Therefore, repent, and return, so that your sins may be wiped away in order that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that He may send Jesus the Christ appointed for you, whom heaven must receive until the period of restoration of all things about which God spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets from ancient time."

As a footnote, and by God's grace, He will indeed bring a remnant of Israel to repentance right now, they are his beloved enemy. He is also going to bring many more Gentiles to saving faith, but we know that he will do this, even to Israel, Romans 11:26 tells us of a day when all Israel will be saved, other passages say the same. In fact, Israel's belief, if I can give you a footnote here, Israel's belief is necessary for these eschatological blessings. It's necessary for this to happen. We read about this all the way back in Leviticus chapter 26. Where God speaks through Moses beginning in verse 40. And by the way, this was, this was written about two years after the Exodus out of Egypt, which happened at about 1445 BCE. Here's what God says "If they confess their iniquity, and the iniquity of their forefathers, in their unfaithfulness, which they committed against Me, and also, and they're acting with hostility against Me-- I was all I also was acting with hostility against them, to bring them into the land of their enemies. Or if their uncircumcised heart becomes humble so that they then make amends for their iniquity, then I will remember My covenant with Jacob, and I will remember also my covenant with Isaac, and my covenant with Abraham as well, and I will remember the land. For the land will be abandoned by them and will make up for it sabbaths while it is made desolate without them. They meanwhile will be making amends for their iniquity, because they rejected My ordinances, and their soul abhorred My statutes. Yet in spite of this, when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not reject them, nor will I abhor them as to destroy them, breaking My covenant with them, for I am the LORD their God. But I will remember for them the covenant with their ancestors, who am I brought out of the land of Egypt in the sight of the nations, that I may be their God, I am the Lord.'" Throughout the Gospels, we see how Israel rejected their Messiah, despite all of his miraculous signs. In fact, what did they tell Pilate, "we will not have this man to reign over us, Crucify Him." And yet, because of God's mercy, and his covenant faithfulness, he will one day restore a remnant unto himself.

So we've seen his authority over diseased and dead and demons. Secondly, notice his dependency on the Father and the Spirit. This is so precious. Notice verse 35. "In the early morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went away to a secluded place." It can be translated wilderness place, "and was praying there." Which you know, in his humaneness, he had to have been exhausted with all that had happened the day before; all ofthose people. If you know anything about ministry, you know that enough people will absolutely wear you down. There are times where all I want to do is watch cartoons. You all know what that's like. Just having a lot of family around is tough enough, right? And so what does he do? Well, while it's still dark, he slips away into the night to find a secluded place, so to pray. And I might add that the gospels record other occasions when Jesus would retreat into a place of isolation to be alone with his father. And beloved herein is the power source of all that he did. This was the essential fuel of his life and his ministry, the very air that he breathed. One commentator said, "Jesus prayed before his baptism in Luke three; before calling the 12, in Luke six; before feeding the multitude, in John six; at his Transfiguration, in Luke nine; before he raised Lazarus, inJohn 11; in the upper room, in Matthew 26; in Gethsemane, in Matthew 26; and even while hanging on the cross, Matthew 27." Why was Jesus so committed to prayer? Here's why, beloved, because he was utterly dependent upon the Father, and the Spirit. Can you say the same thing? The Holy Spirit controlled all that he did. And we see all throughout his ministry he was dependent upon the Holy Spirit to enable his human nature to be victorious over the temptations of Satan, to endure the cross to be raised from the dead. He was dependent on the spirit and all things as Isaiah predicted, in Isaiah 11. And in Isaiah 42 and 61, he was dependent upon the Holy Spirit at in his virgin conception and birth in Luke one; in his baptism, in Luke three and his temptation in the wilderness in Luke four; in his preaching in Luke four and his crucifixion in Hebrews 9:14; and in his resurrection, Romans one four. And we see according to Acts, 1:2, that it was the spirit that empowered him throughout his ministry. Beloved, pre-dawn, private worship was the habit of our Savior. Is it yours? What is your prayer life like? There's perhaps no better gauge of a man or a woman spiritual immaturity than their secret devotion to God in prayer. If that is not there, you are basically an infant in Christ. And you are ill-prepared to do battle with the evil one. You show me a man or a woman who is lacking prayer and I'll show you a spiritual infant. I'll show you a person who fails to grasp the majesty and the holiness of God deserves our utmost worship and prayer. A person lacks in prayer fails to see how God is honored when we depend upon His infinite resources, and he delights in meeting our needs. In his sermon, "The Most High, a Prayer Hearing God," Jonathan Edwards, who lived from 1703 to 1758, preached on this issue in the context of quote, "A fast appointed on the account of epidemical sickness at the eastward of Boston." Alright, so they had a plague in Boston. And his text was Psalm 65:2 "O thou that hears prayer." Let me give you a small part of what he said. "Why is God so ready to hear the prayers of men? And to this I answer because he is a God of infinite grace and mercy. It is indeed a very wonderful thing that so great a God should be so ready to hear our prayers, that we are so despicable and unworthy, that he should give free access at all times to everyone; should allow us to be importunate without esteeming it and indecent boldness. And should be so rich in mercy to them that call upon Him. That worms of the dust should have such power with God by prayer, that he should do such great things in answer to their prayers, and should show himself as it were, overcome by them." He went on to say, "This is very wonderful, when we consider the distance between God and us, and how we have provoked him by our sins and how unworthy we are of the least gracious notice. It cannot be from any need that God stands in of us. For our goodness extends not to him, neither can it be from anything in us to incline the heart of God to us. It cannot be from any worthiness in our prayers, which are in themselves polluted things, but," Now hear this, "it is because God delights in mercy and condescension. He is here in infinitely distinguished from all other gods, He is the great fountain of all good, from whom goodness flows as light from the sun." End quote.

Oh, dear Christian, the theme of Christ will not be dominant in your heart and in your conversation, if it is not dominate in your heart, and cultivated by prayer. May I ask you do you pray before meals? And that's kind of it? Or do you make it an event and you spend time to get alone with the Lord? For most, prayer is limited to meals or when some great crisis comes. And sadly, for too many believers, they are unfamiliar with the mercy seat. They are distracted by other things, they're strangers to the throne of grace, it's just not that much of a priority. OhI'll offer a little prayer here and there as I'm driving down the road or, or maybe when something comes to mind. But to commune with the lover of my soul, that's just not a priority. Because he is not the source of my greatest satisfaction and joy. Other things are.  And ohdear friend, if that is you, you must repent. And you must get serious about your lack of discipline. And certainly that contributes to that kind of laxity in prayer, a lack of a lack of discipline, but it's primarily because you love other things more than you love Christ. Let's just be honest. That's what it is. Other things have taken his place. I love to be with my wife. Why? Because I love her. And if you love Christ, you will love to be with him. It will not be a burden. It will not be a duty, it will be a desire. And then you will find your strength to do battle with the enemy. Without prayer your life, your marriage, your family, your career will never be blessed. You will forfeit blessing in your life. If you neglect the pleadings of private prayer, as I have written elsewhere, quote, "I confess that as a pastor one of my greatest regrets is that I spent too much time in public ministry and not enough time in private communion with the Lord. But over the years, I have learned that prayer is more important than preparation. The closet is more important than the library, and the heart is more important than knowledge. I have learned that prayer is the spade that unearths hidden jewels in a text. I have learned that prayer is what calls for the Spirit to give life to the spiritually dead and dissolve hardened hearts. I have learned that it is prayer that ignites a preacher with holy zeal and transforms his clumsy rhetoric into tongues of fire. I have learned brethren that it is prayer, disciplined, fervent, private, persistent prayer that transforms weak shallow, cowardly men and women into mighty warriors of the cross." Before dawn, Jesus went to a secluded place, to pray, to spend time with the Father and the Spirit, to enjoy that fellowship and to be empowered for the fight that lie ahead. He is our supreme example, Beloved, if Jesus needed to do this, I think we do as well.

So we've seen his authority over disease and demons, we've seen his dependency on the Father and the Spirit. And finally, we see his priority to preach the gospel. Verse 35, again, in the early morning, he goes, finds a secluded place. He's praying there, verse 36, "Simon, and his companion searched for Him." Where's Jesus, it's breakfast time? Where did he go? Well, I don't know. Luke four beginning of verse 42, says, "The crowds were searching for Him." I mean, they let everybody know, hey, we can't find Jesus. What, you can't find Jesus? Where did he go? Oh, no, no, "the crowds were searching for Him", Luke says. And then it says, "And came to Him, and tried to keep Him from going away from them. But He said to them, 'I must preach the kingdom of God to the other cities also, for I was sent for this purpose.'"

So back to Mark's gospel. They're looking for him. And it says in verse 37, "They found Him and said to Him, 'Everyone is looking for you.'" All right, now why are they looking for him? Well, it's pretty obvious, isn't it? There's free food, you know. I mean, it's free health care. It's free everything. Dear friends, this is why people are pouring across our southern borders. This is just how people function. This is how Democrats get elected every year. They hand out free stuff. Everyone is looking for you, Uncle Sam, they're not looking for Jesus. By the way, this is also why millions of people flock to these prosperity, preachers, this prosperity gospel. This is why these people can, these preachers that preach this garbage will fill up massive auditoriums and amphitheaters and arenas. They want God to give them free stuff. After all, in their mind, God exists for me, rather than I exist for him. So in verse 38, "He said to them, great, get their personal info so we can follow up with them to solicit funds. And by the way, also find as many containers as you can to pass around so that we can take up a collection and tell them that I'll be right there. Oh, oh, one other thing. You get some musicians get a great band in there. And we need to alter their state of consciousness so that they'll believe anything that I say." Verse 38, "And He said to them," something very different right? "'Let us go somewhere else to the towns nearby. So that I may preach there also, for that is what I came for.'" I can hear the disciples now, "but Jesus, that's not what they came for. I mean, this this gospel preaching isn't going over that well. You know, why don't you do some more miracles. That's what they're coming for." But Jesus said, in Luke 19:10, "'The Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.'" Not to attract and wow his fans. Verse 39, "And He went into their synagogues, throughout all Galilee, preaching and casting out the demons."

Beloved, here in is the essence of his ministry. And all of these things he did to prove, that again, he was the messianic king, the Son of God. In closing, may I challenge you this morning, as I already have some. Your habit of prayer is going to be directly proportional to your love for Christ. And so if you don't have a habit of prayer, if that's not the desire of your heart, and I'm not saying you've got to do it early in the morning, I find that to be the best time for me but.... actually we need to be in a conscious state of communion with God all the time. But I mean, if it's not the desire of your heart, to spend time alone with the Lord, to worship and adore and praise Him, and to plead with him for strength, to stay in the fight, if that's the not the desire of your heart, it's because you're love for Christ is deficient. And you must repent of that, you must examine your heart. You've been distracted by other idols in your life. And those idols will promise you that which they cannot deliver. But when you find your greatest joy and satisfaction in Christ, there is nothing that can stop you, from spending time alone with him. As well as spending time with your wife, with your family, in prayer and with your church family. And also, when you make it your priority to proclaim the gospel. You know, if that's not a priority in your life, again, there's something wrong. You know, I was thinking about this, sadly, this month is considered by some to be gay pride month. That's when I was reading this when the world's LGBTQ communities come together and celebrate the freedom to be themselves, as opposed to feeling shame, and social stigma. Obviously, that is so sad. And folks, this would be a great month for us to commit ourselves to praying for these people who are blinded by their sin, who are in bondage to this hideous perversion. Let's pray for them. And let's pray that perhaps God would give us an opportunity to give them the gospel. Do you realize that there are people that come out of that community all the time because Christ has saved them by their great by His grace. So, let's pray for them. And by the way, I was thinking about this, you know, every month is pride month for Christians, right? You know, our boast is in Christ, we don't deserve it. My boast is in Christ, my identity is in him, and so is yours. Our proud confidence is in Christ, we are united to him. And I was thinking of what Paul said in Second Corinthians seven four "Great is my confidence in you; Great is my boasting on your behalf, I am filled with comfort; I am overflowing with joy in all our affliction." And I can say that as well for you, my what a joy it is to co-labor together with you. We have so much to be proud about, not because of anything we've done, but because of what Christ has done on our behalf. Let's pray together.

Father, thank You for these great truths that speak so clearly to our hearts bring conviction, bring repentance, bring revival. Bring just an overwhelming sense of all that indeed, you love us enough to condescend to our lowly a state and reveal to us your very words, that we might know more of who you are, and how we can live and fellowship with you. That we might enjoy the fullness of all that is ours, this side of glory in Christ. So Lord, thank You for Your word. Thank you for your time, or for our time with you here this morning. And we pray that in all things once again Christ will have the preeminence for it's in his name that I pray. Amen.