Mark 2022

Today's bible reading is from the book of Mark chapter 2 verse 18 to chapter 3, verse 6. Now, John's disciples and the pharisees were fasting. Some people came and asked Jesus. How is it that John's disciples and the disciples of the pharisees are fasting, but yours are not.

Jesus answered, how can the guests of a bridegroom fast while he is with them? They cannot so long as they have him with them, but the time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them And on that day, they will fast. No 1 sows a patch of untrunk cloth on an old garment. Otherwise, the new piece will pull away from the old, making the tear worse. And no 1 pours new wine into old wine sticks skins.

Otherwise, the wine will burst the skins, and both the wine and the wine skins will be ruined. No, they pour new wine into new wineskins. 1 Sabbath, Jesus was going through the cornfields, And as his disciples walked along, they began to pick some ears of corn. The Farris seed said to him, Look, why are they doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath? He answered, have you never read what David did when he and his companions were hungry and in need.

In the days of Abathiah, the high priest, he entered the House of God and ate the consecrated bread, which is lawful only for priests to eat, and he also gave some to his companions Then he said to them, the sabbath was made for man, not man for the sabbath. So the son of man is lord, even of the sabbath. Another time Jesus went into the synagogue, and a man with a shrivelled hand was there. Some of them were looking for a reason to accuse Jesus, so they watched him closely to see if he would heal him on the Sabbath. Jesus said to the man with a shrivelled hand, stand up in front of everyone.

Then Jesus asked them which is lawful on the sabbath to do good or to do evil, to save life, or to kill, but they remain silent. He looked around at them in anger and deeply distressed at their stubborn hearts, said to the man stretch out your hand. He stretched it out and his hand was completely restored. Then the pharisees went out and began to plot with the herodians how they might kill Jesus. Thanks, Maggie, Maggie.

My name is Pete Woodcock. I'm 1 of the pastors of the church. Welcome. To Cornerstone Church. We're going through Mark's gospel.

We're really sort of building up to that marked drama, which is gonna be a great opportunity for us to invite our friends to. But we're looking at this little passage now. So keep that open. Let me pray. Father, help us now as we look at your word.

By your spirit, help us to apply it to our hearts and minds in Jesus name, our Mm. Now the great c s Lewis who wrote a fantastic book called mere Christianity wrote this. Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house. At first perhaps, you can understand what he is doing.

He is getting the drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof and so on. You knew those jobs needed doing and so you were not surprised. But presently, he starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts abominably. And does not seem to make any sense. What on earth is he up to?

The explanation is that he is building quite a different house from the 1 you thought of throwing out a new wing here putting up an extra floor there, running up a tower, making a courtyard. You thought you were being made into a decent little cottage, but he is building a palace. He intends to come and live in it himself. It's a great little illustration. You're a house, God coming in.

What would it look like then for you? That's the question I'm really asking. What will it look like and what will it feel like to have the Lord Jesus Christ none other than him coming into your life, coming into your house. It's interesting. The 3 stories that we were looking at last week that just precede the passage we're in, we're gonna look at today.

3 stories about Jesus entering the lives of of different people. There's a leper. He's unclean naturally. He can't help it. His whole nature is unclean.

There's a paralyzed man He could not help himself. He had to have helpers. There is Levi. He's uncleared. He's a sinner because he chooses to be.

It's not nature this time, it's because he chooses to be. And what happens when Jesus comes into their lives? Jesus says to the leper, I am willing be clean. He says to the paralyzed man, son, your sins are forgiven. And he says to Levi, follow me.

And that's just a wonderful summary of the Christian faith. That's what it is to be a follower of Jesus. I'm willing be cleanses Jesus, I'm willing be clean, sun your sins are forgiven. Follow me. Now that sounds really nice.

It's brilliant. It's wonderful stuff. And Mark shown us that, but there's opposition now. In fact, there's opposition been around. There's a clash There's a clash of belief between Jesus and the religious leaders.

Their belief, their behavior is the dominant belief and behavior in the people in this passage. They're they're the they're the dominant ones that are pressing how to what to believe and how and how to live. And Jesus challenges that He comes into their lives and he makes this challenge. And he challenged it by making massive claims about himself. He claimed to forgive sin.

Then Jesus associates with not the right people, he associates with sinners and tax collectors and he says that's why I've come. And then his attitude towards religious tradition fasting as we've just seen in the reading. That challenges their position. And then the attitude towards the Sabbath day and the claims that he makes about himself in relation to the Sabbath Day, they cause clashes, opposition. You've got different world views, different ways of thinking, different behaviors.

And as we see Jesus answers to these objections to him, he does not compromise. He does not give in an inch. He comes into the house. He comes into people lives and he knocks it about. He comes into the house and says that furniture needs removing.

That chair that you sit in so comfortably and fits around you and you've got used to. That chair where you do your thinking It makes you think wrong, throw the chair out. But I like get it out, but it's so come get it out. Sit on a hard chair and start thinking properly. Jesus is saying, When I say to someone I'm willing, be clean.

Son your sins are forgiven. Follow me. That really really means new life. It means new thinking. It means new behavior, new trust, a radical new plan for your life.

So that brings me to my first point. Jesus is not just an add on. Jesus is not just an add on. He's not just an app It's not just that you have your life and you bring Jesus in as an app in your life. Listen to 2 Corinthians chapter 5 verse 17.

It's a fantastic verse. It says If anyone is in Christ, you see, that's not an add on. It's not adding Jesus into us. It's us being in Christ. If anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come, the old is gone.

The new is here. He's not an add on. We need to be in Christ and old will go and you will come. Look what he says in this these little tiny parables in verses 21 and 22 of Mark 2. No 1 sows a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment.

Otherwise, the new piece will pull away from the old, making the tear worse. The unwashed patch hasn't shrunk yet and if you sow a bit of un shrunken stuff onto stuff that's already shrunken, you're gonna make the rip worse. And no 1 pours new wine into old wine skins. Otherwise, the wine will burst the skins and both the wine and the wine skins will be ruined. No, they pour new wine into new wineskins.

The fermentation of the new wine will break old wineskins. They're amazing little parables. They're telling us Jesus is not an add on. They're parables that are are illustrating the radical new relationship that Jesus has come to bring. Jesus is like new clothes.

Don't add into the old. Jesus is like new wine. Don't stick him in the old wine skin. He's not an attachment. He's not an addition He's not an appendage to your status quo.

So you carry on life with a little bit of add on. He cannot be integrated or contained into some pre existing structures. He will knock them down. He's not to be added to your likes or your traditions or your behaviors. Jesus didn't come with a message to patch up an old system.

He came with a message to replace all systems altogether He's brought in a new eternal gospel, a new eternal good news of repentance and forgiveness by grace alone and other systems and that do not mix. They kill each other. They burst. They rip. His followers, he's saying are to forsake business as usual.

Just like the leper did. He didn't stay a leper? Just like the paralyzed man did. He didn't stay paralyzed man? Just like Levi did, he didn't stay a tax collector.

They were entirely new wineskins. With the expanding fermentation of Jesus in their lives. Now, it's very natural for people to want to hang on to familiar beliefs and familiar habits. It's very natural. The things that we've been taught, the rituals we've grown up with, the ceremonies, and all that behavior.

They they have deep roots in us, very deep roots. You know, we we've been brought up like this. So these are the things that we think and believe. But I think what this passage is telling us that as we understand who Jesus is. As we begin to trust who he is, as we understand that he is really the good, new wine, As we understand that he's the beautiful clothing, as we understand that he is a wonderful designer and architect, Then we let him get to work, and he bashes us about, and it hurts.

And of course it hurts because he's redesigning you. He's smashing you about to make you more like him. More beautiful, a palace for the Holy Spirit. In the end, the clash is so bad with these religious leaders and their world views that they actually wanna kill him. You can see it in chapter 3 verse 6 6, then the Pharaces went out and began to plot with the herodians.

They had 2 different world views by the way. They didn't really like each other but they came together and they prodded how they might kill Jesus. We don't want Jesus in our lives. Let's kill him. We're happy perhaps for a lodger to come in and stay in his room and we might go to the room and ask for advice sometimes but the lord of the manner of my life Their beliefs don't mix.

They wanna kill him. Now let me ask you this. It seems like a mad question. It's it's almost crazy for me to ask you this, but I'm gonna ask you anyway. Do you wanna kill Jesus?

Do you wanna kill Jesus? It it's ridiculous, isn't it? Or let me put it another way. Do you want to ask him at least to leave your house? He's bashing it about too much.

Or let me put it another way. At least I don't want Jesus in that room. Come down to this room, but not that room. Of my house or let me put it another way. Are you prepared for some demolition work in your life that hurts?

Are you prepared to throw out some of the favorite clothes? Some of those favorite garments that mature wine that you've been keeping. Do you just want Jesus to patch a problem in your life and nothing more? And if he tries to do more, do you want him out? Jesus says, I haven't come for patching.

I've not come to fix a slight broken problem in your life. I've come to change you and make you new. And that will hurt. Do you want me? Or do you want to throw him out and kill him?

Now, we're gonna look at in a little bit more detail at these 3 stories that we see in this part of chapter 2 and into chapter 3. And they're going to reveal what the religious people trusted in, and they're going to reveal who Jesus is and the 2 don't mix, as I say. So here's my second point. The old and the new revealed, and they don't mix. Look at the fasting little story about fasting going without food in verses 18 to 20.

Now John's disciples and the pharisees were fasting. Some people came and asked Jesus. How is it that John's disciples and the disciples of the pharisees fasting but yours are not. Jesus answered, how can the guests of the bridegroom fast while he is with them? They cannot.

They cannot. So long as they have him with them, but the time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them and on that day they will fast. So here's some people coming up to Jesus and they're saying, hey, Jesus, look, your third in the spiritual ranking here. You're way below the 2. John's disciples fast.

The Farris's disciples fast. Your lot eat and you have just come from a sinner's house feasting. So you're way down on the spiritual list here Jesus. Are you taking religion seriously? The religious leaders you see, the Faruses, They were making fasting going without food.

They were making it a duty that should be done twice a week. That's what they said. You should fast twice a week. Go without food twice a week. And it was a sign of their godliness.

It was a sign that they were serious about spiritual issues. We fast. Religion I think very often makes inhumane things, unnatural burdens, on people as a sign of spirituality. And that's what's going on here. An outward sign, their spiritual by making them not eat.

And fasting then had become a sort of pride thing. Look at me, if you see other parts of the bible, you'll see they're sort of banging gongs. They're making themselves look weary and tired. We're starving and all of that sort of stuff. They're trying to say, look at me.

So that's what was happening with fasting. Now it's very interesting what Jesus does with this subject. Because he relates fasting to a relationship with himself. In the old testament part of the bible, Fasting was an expression that we're sinful and we're humble and we're looking forward to someone to deal with that sin. It's only commanded once in the bible.

1 day, and it's on atonement day. The day that you're made at 1, atonement, at 1 with God. The day when all Israel would fast while the priest would make at 1 man atonement with God on their behalf, by taking an animal and sacrificing it as a symbol of dealing with sins and having sins forgiven. This animal dies in your place and you fast to see that you're sinful, you should have died, but it died in your place. But after that day of atonement was feasting.

Food. A happy time. My sins are forgiven. So fasting in the old testament part of the bible, and atonement, they go together. And that's what Jesus does.

Look at verse 20. He talks about himself as a bridegroom, but look at verse 20. But the time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them and on that day they will fast. Jesus is really connecting fasting not with religious duty and look at me and aren't I good? Jesus is connecting religious fasting with a response of the heart to him.

If he's there, we feast, if he's taken away, we fast. When Jesus like the sacrificial animal on the day of atonement went to the cross and died for the sins of the world world, then we're deeply moved by that experience. I should have been killed. When Jesus said, my God, my God, Why have you abandoned me? I should be the abandoned 1, but he has taken my sin and saved me and made me at 1 with God.

Then I fast when he's taken away, but after that I feast. When he, the bridegroom dies, I'm sorrowful. But when he rises again, I'm joyful. See what Jesus is doing. I hope you're with me.

Very important this. Fasting has to do with where the bridegroom is. Imagine being at a wedding. You've done all the ceremonies, The food is laid out, there's the wedding breakfast as they call it. We're all sitting there and you're asked to say grace.

What a privilege. You're asked to pray. And you stand up and you say, dear lord, I am not gonna eat any of this glorious food that's been provided. I'm gonna fast. I'm gonna show how committed I am to spiritual things and not just the food and to the world, and I will fast.

Thank you that I have an opportunity to show how holy and godly I am amen. It's just inappropriate. You're at a wedding, you idiot. Why did you come you boring miserable so and so? Go and do your religion with God seeing, not with everybody else.

That's what's going on here. You've missed what's going on? You've missed you're in the wrong timetable. You're at a funeral. This is a wedding.

Fasting is not a thing in itself, Jesus is saying. It points to Jesus. Fasting is about your feelings and emotions. Connected to Jesus. So when Jesus is here, we feast and when he goes, we fast.

But bridegroom and fasting go together, but they preferred the ritual to what fasting really meant. They preferred the performance of themselves to the person of Jesus. They preferred the picture of fasting instead of what it pointed to. Because you see what's going on here in the clash of cultures is it's all about them. Their religion is transactional and not relational.

If I fast like this, then God owes me. Look God. At what I've done, I've put it in the bank. Now you owe me. And of course, if you're transactional, if God then doesn't pay up with what you want in life then either you've got to put more money in the bank or where is God.

Why is he doing this to me? Whereas if you know relational that he's in your house mashing up some stuff and chucking out the rubbish, he's there to stay. And to bring a place where he can live in. Who are they trusting? Who are they trusting?

Me. Me. It's performance. I was told believe it or not there's a church. There's a church not far from here.

Where they have the top 10 givers up every week. You walk into the church and Instead of having that, they'd have mister gives he's he's winning all the way down to the tenth. You walk in and there's there's John Lion's biggest giver this week. That cannot do anything but pride. Can it?

Look at me. John Lyons. Oh. Actually, he'd be right down there. But you know, unbelievable.

That's what it's about. It's a pride thing. When Jesus comes to your house, please bear with me. When Jesus comes to your house, He comes as a bridegroom. Look at these words from Isaiah 62.

Look what he makes you. They are extraordinary. We we've seen crowns and jewels and and things like that. But look, this is what he makes it. This is what the bridegroom makes it.

See the difference between it's all about me or it's about the bridegroom. You will be a crowd of splendour in the Lord's hands. He's talking about you. A royal diadem in the hand of your God. Listen to these words.

No longer will they call you deserted? Or name your land desolate. But you will be called his hepsi bar. Is that right? If I got it right?

Hepsibar. What a name? Well, then we got any girls called that. It's a beautiful name. It means my delight in her.

You will be called my delight in her and your land Beula which means married. For the lord will take delight in you and your land will be married. Listen to this, as a young man marries a young woman. So will your builder Let's trade. Mary you.

You're gonna be married to a builder as a bridegroom rejoices over his bride, so your God will rejoice over you. Who's the bridegroom in that? It's God And here is Jesus when this talk goes on about fasting saying, I am God with you I'll renew you. I'll do building work on you. You're married a builder.

Jesus is a builder and he's gonna smash out and put on wings and it hurts and you don't know what's going on, and it feels like your world is falling apart. But don't worry. Trust me. I'm the bridegroom. I will build a beautiful honeymoon suite.

He renew you. You won't be barren. You won't be dry. You won't be in darkness. See the difference?

1 is all about me. Me being number 1 and pride and the other is all about him. And that leads me to these other 2 stories on the Sabbath. Let me tell them quickly. First of all, Sabbath Day.

The disciples are walking on Sabbath Day and they're walking through a cornfield and they pick some corn like you do. You know when you're walking on through corn. And the second story is a man with a shrivelled hand comes into the synagogue on the Sabbath day and Jesus heals him. Now let's just get this a bit and then we're gonna reply all this stuff. The Sabbath day was a day of rest from work.

It was a day of rest from work where you trust God because you're not working. It was a day to enjoy everything he's given. And and 1 of the ways the Israelite people could show the world what a wonderful thing it was, to have God as your God was observing the sabbath day. I mean, there was nothing like this in the ancient world. There's never in the ancient world the regular weekly day off.

God who is good and kind and commanded his people not to be like the other nations, put in a day of rest. That's a kind thing, isn't it? We trust him on that day to provide because I can't work. We worship him on that day. To be without work is a terrible thing, but to overwork is a terrible thing.

God designed us to work and to rest. And God's commands are always a blessing for his people. But if you know the old testament story, the people of Israel didn't obey God, they disregarded his laws, they failed to obey the Sabbath. God sent prophets, if you know the story Jeremiah, ezekiel people like that to warn them that if they didn't keep the Sabbath, if they weren't living on that day where they rested in God then he would take their nation away. They didn't listen.

The nation was taken away. They went to exile in Babylon for 70 years. And then God brought them back and so they knew the establishment was a big thing. So you have people like the pharisees that are establishing a whole set of law and guidelines and rules to make sure no 1 sabbath breaks anymore. And it sounds quite good, doesn't it?

If the Sabbath took you into exile, then let's keep the Sabbath. But what happened is it became an obsession, and what happened is it became a badge of honor and that's where they went wrong. Instead of the Sabbath day being a place where they rejoiced in God's provision, and in all that God has done for him, it became a day of me and a day of work. It became a day of me not doing. It's so amazing.

They turned it into a work and policing everybody else. To make sure they're not doing anything. That was their job, that was their work. The seventh day of rest did all the blessings of God to know him and love him and see what he's given us turned into a day about me, not doing things and me policing other people not things. So we have this story.

You got that? We have this story. The disciples are walking through a cornfield, and they're picking corn and in the mind of the pharisees they're harvesting and Jesus answers. Now look at this answer. Verse 25.

He answered, have you not read that David What David did when he and his companions were hungry and in need? In the days of Abatha, the high priest, he entered the house of God and ate the combs of crated bread, which is lawful only for priests to eat. And he also gave some to his companions. Then he said to them, here's the clash, The sabbath was made for man not man for the sabbath, so the son of man is lord even of the sabbath. Now Jesus does all kinds of things here.

Have you not read? He's saying this to the scripture people. It's a it's a really Alright. Let's have a fight then. My dad's bigger than your dad.

Have you not read? Of course, they've read. And that's the point. Everybody's fine with what David had done in this story, in the old testament, the priest, He was okay with it. The writer of 1 Samuel, he was okay with it.

The Faruses never had an issue with it. Why? Because David, the anointed 1 was the Messiah. And that's the point. David, who, by the way, was being pursued by false teachers to his death was allowed to do this because he was the anointed 1.

Jesus, who by the way, is being pursued by false teachers to his death, is the anointed 1. He's claiming to be the new David. But it's even more than that. The criticism is that the dis is that the disciples were breaking the law. Jesus never says they weren't breaking the law, That's not his argument.

He's just saying, no. No. No. No. They weren't breaking the law.

No. No. Who? That's the point. He's saying, there is something that supersedes the law.

A king, a Messiah, or anointed 1. There is someone who is bigger than the law, And of course, that's the lawgiver. And so he says in verse 27, look at it. In verse 28, then he said to them, the sabbath was made for man, not man for the sabbath, So the son of man is the lord even of the Sabbath. Son of man, if you look that up in the old testament, is the 1 that's given by God authority and glory and sovereign power to rule the nations.

And he's saying, I'm the son of man and I am the lord of the sabbath. I made the sabbath. I'm in charge of the day I designed the day. I know what it's about. The sabbath is about rest on the seventh day when God created the world in 6 days.

He rested not because he was tired but because he was finished and the whole goal of creation was for Adam and Eve to enjoy the rest, the finished work of God for them to go around the God and say, look at that God. Wow, how did you make that? That's a hippopotamus. Wow. What an amazing thing that is.

There's a warthog. That's the ugliest thing I've ever seen. God. Why did you make its bottom look like its face and his face looked like its bottom? What an amazing God you are?

All of these, what look at that thing up there? A bird, a fish, a enjoy seventh day, creation day, and Jesus is saying, I am the Sabbath. I am the finish there. That's why he said when he was on the cross. It is finished.

I've done everything for you for your relationship with me. Enjoy what I've done. Come into the sabbath. Stop fasting. Stop feasting.

See what Jesus has done for you. But they're too busy looking at themselves and policing others. And so it leads on to the second Sabbath Day thing. Don't worry. I won't go too much detail.

Where a man with a shrivelled hand probably put up by the Pharisees to see what Jesus would do comes into the into the synagogue, and Jesus asked this question in verse 4, which is lawful on the Sabbath? To do good or to do evil, to save life, or to kill, but they remain silent. He looked at them in anger deeply distressed that their stubborn hearts, and he said to the man, stretch out your hand, and he stretched out his hand, and it was completely restored, and then they wanna kill him. Old and new don't mix. Jesus is is about bringing you into the blessing of knowing God, Sub of day.

And it doesn't mix with me centered life. 1 will destroy the other, the wine in the skins. The patch on the clothes. Jesus brings life, not death. Jesus brings rest, not worry, Jesus brings gladness, not sadness.

Jesus brings feasting, not a funeral. Jesus brings the new not the old. Jesus brings joy, not miserable people. Just look at this verse here. This is the people of Jesus.

I delight greatly in the Lord. My soul rejoices in my God. For he has clothed me with garments of salvation. And arrayed me in a robe of his righteousness as a bridegroom adorns his head like a priest and as a bride adorns herself with jewel. This is a beautiful relationship that Jesus wants you to see who he is and why he's knocking your house about.

So the risk of going on come to my third point. Jesus in your house. Jesus comes to their life. He comes to their world view. He comes to their beliefs and habits.

And they don't really like it because they're trusting in themselves. But this morning, through this word, he now comes to your house. Do you want Jesus there? You want them just to show up? I've got lots of things Jesus.

Yeah. That needs a patch on it. I'm not very good at that. Can you put a patch on that? Little bit of new wine there but be careful might break something I like.

We've all views and ideas and habits and beliefs and traditions. We've all got them. And if we're not careful, we just simply add Jesus on to the panel player of God's that we have. An add on, an app. And it can't work like that, you'll find that both will be destroyed if you'd work like that.

The new wine will destroy the old wine skin, I'm afraid, and you'll have neither. Jesus comes to your home right now. Please listen at this point. What are you holding on to that he doesn't want you to have? Room by room.

In your head. What's the thinking that needs to go? Needs to change. Doesn't fit with Jesus thinking. What is it?

Identify it. Open the door. Let Jesus into the head to get rid of that false belief. What about your eyes? What you're looking at?

What's taking you up? What do you love looking at? Yourself for this glorious bridegroom, your mouth, your ears, your heart. Your hands. What are your hands about?

What do they actually show you worship? Your legs? Where do you run to? Your feet? What does Jesus need to get rid of?

What me centered thing does he find there that is just incompatible with Jesus. What habits? What behaviors? What beliefs? Does Jesus say they gotta go if we're gonna extend this house?

It may not be religious things as it was with the pharisees but it's still about you trusting you. Is it pride? By the rules that you obey? Is it pride by the rebelling from Jesus. Is it rules you put into your life in your religion that are just unnatural like fasting?

And you do your body in or you push your body, you try to prove yourself. Constantly pushing pushing, to try to prove yourself. You could do it. It's all about you. Jesus comes and he looks at you and me.

And we say go away, don't touch that. No no. Leave me and my beliefs and my worldviews and the worldviews that dominate me that I've taken in and imbibed, leave me alone. Go away. I think I wish you were dead.

I don't want to be a Christian. Are your behaviors? Is there patterns that make you miserable? You're fasting and you're not feasting. Do you need to connect your emotions much more to jesus So when you see who is the bridegroom, there is a cheer in your heart.

Do you need to pray that lord. Connect my emotions to Jesus and then see who he is. Are there things that lock you into yourself? That you compare yourself with others, either for good or bad. You think you're better than them or you're worse than them.

Look up at the bridegroom, stop looking around and stop looking at yourself. Are you working on the Sabbath Day? Will you not trust God for rest? Do you see work as more important than knowing the lord of the sabbath? Do you not know the blessings that Jesus brings on Saturday day?

Some of you that are at home. You should stop being at home and come now. Come at least a fellowship at the end of the service. You're sitting there because it's easy. Stop it.

Getting your car now come. Enjoy god's people. Seeing not about yourself but in God's people loudly, gloriously. He's king. He's my bridegroom.

He's my lover. He's my lord. He's by Sabbath. I wanna be with his people. Are you keeping your shrivelled hand back?

Are you giving it to the lord when he says? Be healed so it's a generous open hand. Think of the self defense we put up. Listen, I know these things because I know my heart. He comes to a room called self defense.

Jesus comes in and there's a denial of truth, isn't it? No. No. No. No.

The instant denial. That's not me. That's someone else. Or the self defense of fantasy, some of you are into escapism and fantasy to take up your lives because it's a self defense because It's a fantasy world you can be in and you can be key in that world. Or emotional isolation Some of you at home, you're emotionally isolating yourselves, withdrawing withdrawing from other people.

It's a self defense mechanism or blaming others. I'm good at that. Or the realization that I make excuses all the time for following Jesus. Stop it. Let him in.

He's for your good. Let him bash the walls out and make yourself bigger than just mean myself in a lie. But what about the self deception? The thinking of me as something that I am not, or the thinking that I will not reap what I sow when you will. What has got to go?

What me centered misery Do you need to ask Jesus to expel? We sang at the prayer meeting and what a wonderful song it is, trust and obey. For there's no other way to be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey, let him demolish that smelly old outside toilet that you've always moaned about anyway. Then put a big bathroom, where it cleanses and wash you, and where your ablutions don't stay around lingering. But you put the fan on and expel them.

Now I need to stop. Come to Christ. Right now. I'm hand over to Tom, and we should have a little bit of time to respond. Father, we praise you for the things that we have learnt in your word this morning.

We thank you for the Lord Jesus Christ, that builder, our bridegroom. Who comes and in his kindness exposes and knocks down the idolatries in our hearts and fills them with something so much us so much better, so much more glorious. Help each of us in whatever ways we need to look to Jesus and to find new wine and new life and rest in him. In Jesus' name. Oh, man.