Transcript
SESSION 1 It is a great privilege to be with you.
Think with me. If you right now could ask God one question, what would it be? If you could just get His ear for one moment and ask Him one question that you would get immediate answer to, what would that be? For many people, if they could get away from their fear and get away from their formal theology for the moment and be in a moment where they're really honest about themselves and honest about life and honest about their struggles as a believer, they would say to God, "Do you really care? Do you really care? Oh, I don't mean as an item of theology. Do you care about my marriage that's gone places I never thought my marriage would go? God, where are you?" "Do you care about this child that I was so glad to receive that now wants nothing to do with you and nothing to do with me? God, where are you? Do you really care?" "Do you care that I lost my job 18 months ago because a man 1,000 miles away made some executive decision for the betterment of the company and we haven't had work for 18 months and we're sinking down into this hole of financial need and it seems like nothing will stop us? God, do you really care?" "Do you care about the fact that my body has been taken over by a disease that makes me feel weak, that haunts me every moment of my day? God, are you there? Do you care?" "Do you care about that betrayal in a friendship that has ripped my heart apart? Thought I'd never face this with this person, this person. God, do you care? Do you care about the fact that I'm dealing with the weaknesses of old age? And I feel so alone and so vulnerable. Are you there? Do you care?" If your gospel can't sit with people in those situations with confidence and encouragement, you will help no one. They don't need you to say, "This too will pass. I'm there for you. I understand." Baloney. It doesn't help. Doesn't work. Maybe the two most important questions we can ask between the already of our salvation and the not yet of our final resurrection is these two questions. First one, what in the world is God doing? If you're going to live a life of confident faith and if you're going to help others, you've got to be able to answer that question. You can't leave that question unanswered. What in the world is God doing? The corollary question is this. And how in the world should I respond to it? What in the world is God doing and how in the world should I respond to it? Why don't you take your Bibles and turn to Mark 6? We're going to look at verse 45 through 52. I love the Gospel of Mark. I love how fast-paced it is and how straightforward it is and hard-hitting. Mark sticks in your face that Jesus of Nazareth is the Son of God, and he gives you no room for neutrality. That's Mark. I love Mark. Mark is not like Luke. Luke makes all kinds of editorial comments. Mark is just history, history, history, history, just Jesus in your face. It's wonderful. That's where I need Jesus. And along with that, there's this other theme that goes through Mark, Jesus has collected disciples around Him. And His purpose is not that these men would just be recipients of the work of His kingdom, but that they would be instruments of the work of that kingdom as well. That's God's call to everyone. No one is meant to just be a recipient. Everyone is meant to be an instrument. Enough of consumeristic Christianity. Enough of ecclesiastical Macy's. This is not a department store. This is a kingdom. But these men were not men of faith. And so Jesus was working to craft faith in them. Faith that could root at
Transcript: Session 1
WOMEN HELPING WOMEN
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