Calvary Chapel River Oaks

Pastor Grady Clark: Amen. Father, we pray you prepare our hearts this morning. You’re so holy. We’re so in awe, Lord. Our fleshly nature, our beings don't measure up. It's your holiness, Lord, that makes us holy. It's your righteousness that makes us righteous. It's all you who bring us into the presence of God.

We're so thankful. We know we can't do this on our own. We know we have nothing that we bring to the table, but we come worshiping you, crying out how holy you are, how sovereign you are, how merciful you are and loving. And we thank you. Prepare our hearts now, Lord, as we enter into this time of communion. I pray you’ll prepare our hearts, Lord, as we take this bread and this wine today. Lord, that we are cautious in one level knowing, Lord, that we need to examine our hearts, but also, Lord, we come boldly because we are children of God. And we thank you, Lord, for this time together. In Jesus' name. Amen.

Ned: Lord God, thank you for you are holy. And Lord, you called us to be holy. Not because of us, but because of you. Lord, I pray that we can just continue to get into your word, teach us, guide us, Lord, mold us into your image, the image of your son Jesus Christ. It's not about us, but it's about you. And we do thank you, Father God. We ask all these things in Jesus' name. Amen.

I’d like to talk to you about something. Have you ever thought about the same yesterday, today, and forever? Ever think about that? Jesus says the same yesterday, today, and forever. You know, a lot of churches out there really want to hone in on the future, you know, when Jesus is coming back. A lot of times, they get it wrong. But I want to share with you about the same yesterday, today, and forever.

For example, let's look at July 2026. If the Lord doesn't come by then, well, guess what? Guess what's going to happen July 2026? Loved ones will pass away. Loved ones will be born. God's going to be there. Think about that. It's not about if Jesus is coming back in July. If he doesn't, the question is: will you be there July 2026? Everybody has an appointment. And it is appointed for men to die once, but after this, the judgment. That's in Hebrews 9. I encourage you, read Hebrews. Read the book.

See, as believers, we're on a journey. What happens July 2026? If I'm not here, so be it. See, my appointment was at the cross. My judgment was at the cross. Jesus Christ died for me. If 2026 July comes and I'll see it, thank God. If I don't see it, thank God. I'm with him. My goal in life is not to go to heaven. That's not my goal. My goal in life is to be like Christ. My goal in life is to be a light to those around me. That's my journey. And that's the journey I want the Lord to take me on. Think about it. The world behind me, the cross before me.

Yet, Jesus was before. He is today. He's forever. Think about it. A year ago, the cross was there. Loved ones were there. But the loved ones that were there, are they here today? The same yesterday, today, and forever. It's a heart issue. Today is the day of salvation. Not yesterday, because some people are not here. Tomorrow can't be a day of salvation because you might not see tomorrow. Our hope is today. God has his hand on tomorrow. God has his hand on today. God had his hand on yesterday. But yesterday as a believer, the world was behind us.

Let's look at that. As believers, we live today. Tomorrow, if the Lord has it, we live. But the bottom line is the cross is before me. An hour from now, the cross is before me. Two hours from now, the cross is before me. Two years from now, the cross is before me. The world needs to wake up because today is the day of salvation. The thorns that were put in his head, the nails that were put in his body, the stripes that he took is for us today. Salvation is today.

A lot of people cry about, "Well, I’ll have the 11th hour." Well, that's a whole lot of faith. But we don't have that. We don't have that promise. We don't have the promise of tomorrow. Because every man on this planet has an appointment. And after that, the judgment. Listen, today is the day of salvation. Today is the cross. It's about his love. It's about his forgiveness. You know, think about this. God has a will for man. He has a will for the believer and he also has a will for an unbeliever. His will for an unbeliever is that none perish, that all come to repentance. That's the heart of God. While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

So that's a promise, that's a hope for the world. And as believers, we need to get that message out. We’ve got to quit. We can't compromise with the world. We have to stand up, be firm, be steadfast, and allow the Lord to do the work in us as believers, to bring forth the light, bring forth the message that God loves us. God loves the world. He died for the world. He gave his life for the world. And as believers, we accepted that. So it's not about us. It's about what he's doing in us to bring forth that light.

So believers, if you're out there, wake up. Wake up to your calling. Seek God, learn of God, be at his feet because we have a job. But yet, we rest in that job because he's doing the work. We rest in him. We're steadfast in him. The armor is for us to protect us from the world, but yet, we be a light to the world. Yeah, the world hates Christians. Yes, there's a war out there. But the bottom line is, as believers, we're a light to you, the world, to love you, to understand what we're doing. The war is within your own hearts. We believers need to be a light. We can't hate. Yes, we hate the things that's in the world.

But let me tell you, as a believer, yes, there are sinners out there. We love you. We don't like the sin that's in you. I don't even like the sin in my own life. That's why Christ came and died. So as we take communion, let's understand. It's about what he did for us. He took upon himself our guilt, our shame, our sins, and in return, he forgave us. He comforts us. We become a new creature. We become a living sacrifice. Well, how do we deal with that? By putting on the full armor of God. So as believers, let's be a light. Let's partake with one another. And the world, if you're listening, today is the day of salvation. And you can partake with us. It's about asking God to forgive. "Lord, forgive me a sinner. Forgive me of my heart. Lord, make me a new creation. Lord, forgive me." That's a prayer. Prayer of the heart, prayer of forgiveness. And you're forgiven. And you may take part.

All right, let's partake. Let’s hold up the bread. God, I want to thank you for sending your son. Lord, your word tells us that you bruised him. You bruised him for our salvation. Lord, we thank you for his broken body. We thank you, Lord. There are just not enough words. So Lord, we just do thank you. And let’s partake.

And as we hold the cup, for the blood, for the righteous blood that was shed for us to restore us, to redeem us. Lord, thank you. Thank you for making your appointment. Thank you for the cross. Let’s partake.

Pastor Grady Clark: Come on up, Eddie. I'm just making sure I got ahead of you just because I forgot. If we can all stand for the scripture reading this morning. I just want to reiterate what Ned said. He's right. Yesterday's gone. You can't get a day, an hour, a minute, or none of it back. It's gone. All we got is today. Today that we can give him all of our praise and glory, for he is our hope, the hope of glory. Tomorrow hasn't come yet. We're not promised tomorrow. We got today. Our reading's coming out of John chapter 6, verse 44 through 48.

Guest (Male): No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws them, and I will raise them up at the last day. It is written in the prophets: They will all be taught by God. Everyone who has heard the Father and learned from him comes to me. No one has seen the Father except the one who is from God. Only he has seen the Father. Very truly I tell you, the one who believes has eternal life, and I am the bread of life. Thank you, Lord.

Pastor Grady Clark: This is what happens when you skip a week. You forget what you’re supposed to do and when you’re supposed to do it. Good to see y'all this morning. Wherever you're sitting, whether you're here or watching online, we welcome you this morning. We're going to continue our study in the book of Mark, and our title this morning is "Don’t Follow The Crowd, Follow Jesus."

So Lord, we ask that you speak to us. We ask that you guide our hearts and our minds as we study your word. For your word is alive. It's a living word. And it speaks to our heart. It touches our heart. It cuts our heart. It exposes our sin, our attitudes, but then it heals as well and brings us into the intimate relationship that we're supposed to have with you. And I pray that that particular point is something that we really glean this morning. A relationship with you is not casual. It's not distant. It's an intimate relationship. And you initiated it. And we want to be in that intimacy with you because that's where we find our peace, we find our hope, we find all that we need, our substance. And that's where our relationship is grounded. So we thank you for all that you are and all that you've done and all that you're doing day by day in our lives. In Jesus' name. Amen.

Well, as we began this book two weeks ago, we saw that Jesus displayed his authority, not only in word but in action. He backed up what he said. And when he began to teach, the people were all amazed at his teaching. Now, they'd been sitting under teachers before. The scribes would teach, the Pharisees, I guess, would teach. They had different ones, Sadducees. They were all sad, you see. So they didn't listen to them much. But when Jesus spoke, he spoke with authority. He spoke from himself because the gospel is about Jesus. It's about himself. So he was speaking from himself. And to them, they were saying, "Wow, this guy really seems to know what he's talking about. He's really displaying an authority in what he says."

The scribes knew the law and they could quote the law, but Jesus was fulfilling in that moment the very law that they were reading. And that is authority to its ultimate degree. Matthew 5:17-18 says, "Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill. For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till it's all been fulfilled." He was in the process of that fulfillment himself in those moments as he's preaching and people are hearing. See, he wrote it. It's always about him. It's about his coming as their Messiah. They missed it.

But the demons knew exactly who he was. And remember in our last study, they were, "Hey, we know who you are. You're the son of the Most High." And he silenced them because he didn't want them professing that, because he wanted the people to hear for themselves and receive for themselves. So he silenced the demons as he cast them out. So he can silence them. He can cast them out. He had his authority there.

Jesus is on the move. As we talked about when we introduced this book, he's moving constantly. This is the way this book is written. He's going from place to place. We'll see a lot of the same stories in this gospel, but it's told in shorter spurts, if you will, not the full detail that you might get in some of the other gospels. But he's moving. And this week, we're going to continue to see his authority over all things. And we're going to see how we, as believers, need to be a follower of him as he's going, not necessarily following the crowds. Because Jesus, he fed the crowd, he taught the crowd, but he wasn't intimate with the crowd. He was only intimate with the 12 and he poured into them. So we need to be grounded the same way as they were grounded.

So we're going to see that as we get into this study. Mark chapter 1, beginning with verse 29. "Now as soon as they had come out of the synagogue, they entered the house of Simon and Andrew with James and John. But Simon’s wife’s mother lay sick with a fever, and they told him about her at once. So he came and took her by the hand and lifted her up, and immediately the fever left her. And she served them. At evening, when the sun had set, they brought to him all who were sick and those who were demon-possessed. And the whole city was gathered together at the door. Then he healed many who were sick with various diseases, and cast out many demons; and he did not allow the demons to speak, because they knew him."

So what we're seeing here is in the same pattern, he had cast out a demon as we read last week, silenced them, they weren't allowed to profess who he was. That's not what he wanted them to do. And he controlled them and told them no. He had completely authority over them. But what we're seeing here now is he's been teaching the people. He's been in the synagogue. He's now in Simon Peter's home. And there's an intimacy here. James and John are there. Simon's there. His wife's there. His mother-in-law's there. Everybody's in the house. And his mother-in-law's sick. And Jesus takes the time to heal her immediately. She rises up and she serves them. It's a time of intimacy in their house.

And we know that Jesus's ministry was only three years long. But during that three years, he was pouring into the 12. Now granted, there were the crowds. There were always people coming at him, coming to him for a need, a want, a desire: "Give me food," a healing, cast out a demon, whatever it was, they were in need of something. The 12 were in need of something too. Obviously, Peter's mother-in-law was sick. He healed her. But that time was a time of him pouring into them. One-on-one, 12 with one, they were all absorbing.

Now we know one was going to betray him. And he observed it all, he witnessed it all, he heard it all, but he did not receive it all. Did Jesus know that? Yes, he knew that. He allowed Judas to be with him for three years, knowing that Judas was going to betray him. Now, that's self-discipline. That's control. That's the power of God in man, because he was God and man. But we also know that he would go and he would spend time with the Father. We'll see that in just a moment. But this is a time of intimacy. And this is something that we need to see here because the intimacy is what bonds us to him.

It's easy to pray a prayer. It really is. Because you can do that in an emotion. You can do that in an emotional moment or in a fearful, well, emotion is fear, so it could be an excitement moment of, "Hey, I want to go with what's happening here with the crowd." Or there's a fearful moment: "I don't want to go to hell because that's what this guy keeps telling me is going to happen." So it's fire and brimstone. So you pray a prayer. You put a check on a box and you move on about your life. But there's no intimacy there. There's no relationship there. It's just a thing that I've done. Or maybe it's I've added Jesus now to my life. So he's riding alongside of me and he's going to bless me and we've got this thing going on that way. But that's not intimacy either.

Because it's all about you coming, what you want from him, when you want it from him, and it's all about me. And that's not a relationship. Try that in your marriage. Doesn't work. We all come with a selfish base. That's our self-nature, our human nature. But when we ask Jesus to come in, we're not asking him to come in alongside of us. That's how it's presented many times. He'll come alongside of you. You're asking him to take over. You're asking him to come in. And therefore there's that constant check and balance.

The Holy Spirit now comes and he brings your conscience alive to sin. And you have to recognize when the Holy Spirit says, "This ain't right. You're going in the wrong direction." If you don't follow the leading of the Holy Spirit, if you're not listening, you're not in the intimacy, then you go back to the fleshly nature. The Holy Spirit then will bring conviction because you realize what you've done. Then you go back into relationship and intimacy again. And you're immediately welcomed back. That's the wonderful thing about a relationship with God. It's not that we take advantage of this fact. We don't continue in sin so that his grace may abound, as Paul wrote. That's not what it's about. It's about coming into the relationship, remaining in the relationship, knowing that our fleshly nature still pulls at us, still will make us sometimes fall. But when we recognize it and repent from it, we're immediately brought right back into that relationship. There's no "I told you so." There's no beating you up by God. There's none of that.

Now Satan will try to come at you and throw that at you and bring a sense of guilt and shame. But that's all dealt with on the cross. So we don't have to live in that place. There's that intimacy there. And we know that most of the people that were following Jesus weren't in this intimate place. They were wanting to see what they could get from him. John 6:26-27, Jesus answered them, he's talking to the crowd, he said, "Most assuredly, I say to you, you seek me, not because you saw the signs, but because you ate loaves and were filled." So they weren't even, I mean, they were coming for healing for themselves or casting out demons for themselves or loved ones. But they were mainly coming because, "Hey, man, he's going to feed us. We can put up with two or three hours or whatever if we're going to get fed."

And you know, that is a mindset of a lot of the stuff today. There's a couple of local ministries and that's one of their big things is you've got to feed them or they're not going to come. If you don't have food for them, they're not going to come. If you don't have a giveaway like a hundred-dollar bill or at one time it was a car, if you don't have this stuff, they're not going to come. Well, that's the crowd nature. They're not coming for the message. They're coming for the whatever they can get out of it. And the message may penetrate the hearts of some, but for the most part, they're coming for their belly.

And he goes on in verse 27 here of John chapter 6, "Do not labor for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to everlasting life, which the Son of Man will give you, because God the Father has set His seal on Him." So Jesus is preaching the word, he's teaching truth, he is the way, the truth, and the life. He's preaching himself, he is the gospel. And he's telling people, "Listen, I know you may be hungry and I'm going to feed you, but that's not the real purpose here. I'm not here just to give you food for your stomach. I'm here to give you food for your soul, for your mind, for your body, for everything. And it's eternal if you will receive."

But in order to do that, you've got to get away from the crowd and get alone with me. You've got to spend this time. See, he said this in John 6:26-27, but then later on, when he began to speak of him being the bread of life, and he taught it in this way, "You must eat of my flesh and drink of my blood, lest you have no part with me." Well, John 6:66-69 says, "From that time many of His disciples went back and walked with Him no more." They weren't true disciples. They claimed they were followers of Jesus and they followed Jesus from place to place to place to place. But they weren't true disciples. True disciples would have stood by him. True disciples would be in that intimacy with him.

And Jesus said to the 12, he said, "Do you want to also leave or go away?" But Simon Peter answered him, "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. Also we have come to believe and know that You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." Now, that is an awakening. Now, we know that they're still in their fleshly mindset. We know that during this time they had ups and downs. Peter one moment said, "Blessed are you, you know, you heard from the Father, blessed are you, you're great here." And Peter's looking next minute, "Get behind me, Satan." So the flesh is still rolling and moving along.

And we know at the time of Jesus's capture and crucifixion, they all hid. They all ran and hid. And Peter, of course, denied him. But they were still at that moment not filled with the Spirit. They had the intimacy, they still believed, but they were afraid and their fear got them and they walked in that fear. Of course, Jesus reinstated Peter, we know that later when he fed them on the beach. But then the Holy Spirit came and he told them, "When I leave, I'm sending you the Comforter, the Helper. He's going to remind you of all the things that I've told you and taught you. He's going to be your peace. He's going to give you what you need. Don't be afraid when they haul you into jail. The Holy Spirit will tell you what you need to say when you need to say it."

So again, he's looking at these 12 in a different way than he's looking at the masses. He wants to reach the masses. He even sat on the hill and wept over the masses. And he said, "I tell you, you know, the harvest is ready, but the laborers are few." There are many in the masses that will come. But the masses itself can lead you astray. If you're not careful, you can get caught up into the excitement. You can get caught up into the emotion. You can get caught up into the wave moving across the country, whatever's happening, wherever it's happening. And as it's happening, you want to be a part of it. But ultimately, we're not called to be a part of a movement. We're called to be in relationship with Jesus. And if he places us in the movement, then that's where we need to be. But first, it's about him.

So we know that Jesus told them, he said, "Listen," he said, "When I go, the Holy Spirit's coming. He's going to remind you of everything." And then John 14:26 says, "But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you." So this is part of that relationship that we're talking about. This is the intimacy. This Holy Spirit, where does he dwell? He doesn't dwell there. He dwells here. He dwells inside us. We are, as Paul wrote, the temple of the Holy Spirit. So therefore we have access in this relationship that a non-believer can't have, even though if he prays a prayer, he doesn't have this confidence and this intimacy because the prayer itself doesn't save him. It's the change, it's the transformation, it's the realization that I am a sinner, I have to have a redeemer, I recognize that, I repent from my sin, I receive you, and I don't just receive you in my life, I take you as my life. No longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.

This is the real relationship. This is where the core of Christianity is. Now, I mention all this to you because this is God's will for every believer: to be this close to him. It's not that we just pray and become a Christian, but actually we become disciples just as the original disciples walked with him. See, there's kind of a facade, I guess that's the only, that's the word I'm using, probably not the right word. But there's a facade sometimes in Christianity today which is, "Hey, we all just kind of happy-go-lucky, we're in this club, we're in this whatever, and we're all living our lives and Jesus is right here with us and everything's good and all of this stuff." But we're not called to be like the disciples were. We don't walk away from our lives. We just bring Jesus into our lives. Well, that's not what the Bible teaches.

When Paul wrote in his letters, when Peter wrote in his epistles, when they all wrote, we read all of this stuff. There's nowhere in there that says, "Now, these original 11 plus Paul now being the 12..." I call them that, you know, the other one they brought in we don't really know much about him. We don't really know what happened with him after they rolled the dice and brought him in. But we do know that Paul was an apostle appointed by Jesus Christ and he met him on the road to Damascus and he brought him forth and set him on that journey. So we have those 12. We'll even call the other one 12 because they brought him in. We'll say 13. But all of those were set aside from their regular life.

The fishermen no longer fished. "I will make you fishers of men." They walked away. Now, I'm not saying that every believer needs to walk away from what they do in this life. What I'm saying is that when you receive Jesus in full and you're walking in his will, you need to be asking him, "Lord, is this job where I'm supposed to be? Am I supposed to be here? Because I want to be where I'm supposed to be to be the most effective for the gospel." And the gospel needs to be preached to those around me. And if I'm not effective here and can't be effective here because of the environment or whatever, "Lord, use me however you see fit. Take me where you want to take me. Put me where you want to put me, and I will go." As Ned said, the world behind me, the cross before me. So I'm going forward. I'm walking on the path you set before me. It may look completely different. It may not. He may not take you out of your job. He may not take you out of this place you live. He may leave you there to be that light in that environment.

But if we're to walk and believe in the same way the original disciples did, we've got to be willing to say, "Not my will. Wherever you have me go, I'll go. Whatever you have me do, I'll do." Now, that's not an easy thing because today's Christianity tells us that no, we're here in the United States. We've got to build our wealth. We've got to make sure our IRAs are all in place. We've got to make sure that we have everything set, this, that, and the other. And we've got to follow all the rules and we've got to get the house with the picket fence because that's going to show the world that God is blessing us. And that's not right. Not what scripture teaches.

It says be prepared to go where I send you. When Paul went, there were times he wanted to go someplace and the Holy Spirit said, "No. No, you can't go there. But I'm prepared to go there." "No, you can't go there." There were other times he was going somewhere and didn't get there: imprisonment, shipwreck, whatever it might be. But he was going and he was going wherever he went, wherever God placed him, he ministered. And that's the attitude that we're supposed to have, turning our back on the things that we think is our security and walking in him as our security.

Today in the church, many deal with this. They come to excitement. They follow excitement. They find culturally friendly churches. They come to be fed with what they want to hear. But there's no real desire for transformation to recognize that what I have been I don't want anymore. That's not of God. That's evil. That's ugly. That's not, it's flesh. And that needs to die. But if you're not being taught that, you're not going to understand that. In a lot of our church culture today, the message is, "You're all good people. Jesus wants to make you the best version of yourself through your own strengths." Again, non-biblical. He wants you to give that over. Is he going to use some of the strengths that he created you with? Yes. But he wants to make sure that you know that those strengths aren't what get anything done. You've got to give that to him and say, "God, okay, I'm pretty strong in this area. Use me here." Sometimes he'll say, "No, I'm going to use you over here because your strength in that area is going to get you in trouble. You're going to start relying on yourself."

So I want you to do this instead. And that's a hard thing to do because then we start saying, "Yeah, but God, look at how good I am. And I can do so much for you here. And I will do this and I will do..." And he says, "No, but that's not where I need you." Are we listening to those things? Are we walking in that relationship? Some will say just add to him what you're currently doing. Your best life now. Where'd we hear that? It's not my best life now. My best life is with Jesus in the eternal. That's going to be my best life. I want to live this life not within the power of my abilities and my strengths and pulling up my own bootstraps and doing everything good. I want to live in weakness so his strength is proven and his strength is demonstrated.

That's not becoming a disciple. A disciple not only believes but then he follows according to the full counsel of God's word. The Holy Spirit comes into a disciple and teaches him and brings him into a relationship with Jesus, reminding every disciple and every follower all that Jesus spoke and all that he did. It's not a religious experience. That's a big thing. "Oh, experiencing God. We've got to have an experience with God." And they want to generate it. If they can't get it, they'll generate it because this experience is where the feeling is. This is where you're going to feel all the things of God. You're going to have an overwhelming tearful experience or a laughing experience or in some cases it goes off the charts and you do the barking experience. It's whatever it might be so you can say you were in the presence of God, which you may not have been at all because you were more about the feeling than the reality. The feeling, the emotions, they come and go. But the reality of who Jesus is living in us lasts forever. And we need to understand that. People are looking for an experience, but it's a life-changing relationship that we need.

And like those who followed Jesus in his day, many are in it for themselves. And often the full counsel of God's word will offend them. It'll offend them because they don't want to hear that I'm still struggling with sin. "No, I prayed that prayer. Therefore I am now perfect and I can do whatever I want to do and God's okay with it." And there is an attitude to that. A lot of people won't say that out loud but they believe it because there's not been a change. There's not been a transformation of a relationship between them and God. It's just more of an experience that they had.

That brings me to current events. We remember the Asbury revival back in 2023 that took place up in the college there. Over 50,000 people flocked to the college after this revival broke out. One student started a livestream within 24 hours or 48 hours and it hit over 3 million views within 48 hours of the time that it posted. Now, months after this event, the question stands out: what happened to those who attended? Where are they now? What really affected this experience? What did it have?

So there are two different groups that did a tracking on this. One was the college itself. There's another one, a team from Duke Divinity School. Now, these are small numbers. So I want to make sure when I'm presenting this that I'm sharing that I do believe that God moved and I do believe that some were touched and I do believe that there were some hearts that were changed. Out of the 50,000 that flocked there, they hadn't talked to all of them. But they're getting an averages here. They talked to different people and got different thoughts from these people. So as they talked to these people post this event, there were 200 people that the Duke Divinity School followed. They followed them for months, talking to them, tracking, saying, "How you doing? What was going on?" and all these things. They did after 6 months, they did after 12 months.

Now these are not overall statistics, as I said, but I find it interesting. They broke the statistics out of these people down into three groups of people. The first group were people whose lives actually changed. And prominently in this group, they consisted of people who were already believers. They were seeking more. They went to this event. They weren't necessarily, this is also a group that's not, that weren't the college students. These are some of the people that came and flocked there. They already were believers, but they were looking for something more. They wanted, again, an experience, they wanted to see that they could get closer to God, whatever it might be, a closer connection, some of them said, than what they already had.

Many in this group stated that this experience did help them to change some spiritual habits, such as praying more. That's good. They’re praying more. Or being more active in the community. That's good too, putting being more active in the community here. But when you break it down, primarily what they got out of this group was they were works-based results. "I'm doing this more and I'm doing that more." But nothing in that group was said that they're closer to Jesus. That was not mentioned in any of this video that I watched and the information that I gained here. That term wasn't mentioned at all, that my relationship with God is closer because now through this experience, I understand what a broken person I am and how much I need him. That was not discussed anywhere.

The second group of people consisted of those who experienced an emotional high, which was real to them in the moment. It was very real. But after time, it faded. Things went back to their normal routine. The spike didn't last. The emotion didn't last. And then group three were people who came with high hopes but wound up with disillusionment. In other words, they came, they were in the midst, but they didn't feel it. And they didn't understand why. "Something wrong with me? Maybe God doesn't love me. Why can't I feel what they're feeling?" They were disillusioned, and some even walked away completely from the faith because they didn't understand why they couldn't get what everybody else was getting. They've distanced themselves from the faith altogether.

Now, again, in this group that we're talking about, these were not students that were surveyed, but out-of-town people who saw it online and came to it. And many of these were like those who flocked to Jesus when they heard of the healings and they heard of the demons being cast out and they heard of food being served. They all flocked and they crowded in the doors and they pushed to get to him. Now, the university itself interviewed many students, and these results also varied. And I'm breaking this down to one or two students, because this is how it was presented. One student had a positive reaction and it said it strengthened her current faith and gave her more boldness to share her faith. While another said they were all into the excitement, but after it was over, they returned to their dorm, they had the same problems, they had the same studies, they had the same exams coming, and the excitement was gone. They expected that this was going to now, I guess, make them all A students. I don't know what their expectations were, but they walked away let down. One said, "It's easy to feel close to God when 2,000 people are all around you, but it's harder when you're alone."

Now, Asbury itself reported a 17% jump in applications after the revival, but the student retention rates didn't change. Prayer groups spiked in numbers initially, but by fall of 2023, the numbers went back to pre-revival numbers. Now again, I'm not stating here that nothing happened, the Holy Spirit didn't move in a way or that it wasn't God that stirred the hearts of people. But what I'm saying is that many who were on campus and many who came to this from churches, who were bused in, there were people taking people, I know we have pastors locally that I talked to that took six or eight people up. And it was an exciting time for them. They were congregants of churches. They were curious seekers. Or they're looking for something refreshing. Or they just wanted to say they were a part of something. Whatever their motivations were, they went and they saw and they partook.

But one pastor stated that initially everyone from his church that went was on fire. They all got back: "What can we do for God? Let's do this, let's do that." Start a food pantry. Some of those things are still going. Some of the excitement is gone, most of the excitement is gone. And they had high expectations because they were a part of this as to what this meant for their lives. And basically, this pastor said it took him months of counseling the people that he took to help them deal with their expectations that were unrealized. There were a lot of people that were let down. Again, there was excitement, there was emotion.

Now, one thing I will say that I have not heard, and maybe some of you had and I'd like for you to tell me if you have, but out of this entire revival experience, I never heard anyone say that anyone preached the word, shared the word, but they experienced something. There were no organized teachings. There was nothing. It was prayer and singing. Nothing wrong with prayer and singing. But what I'm saying is if it's a genuine revival, there has to be word spoken. That's what happened in Acts chapter 2. There was excitement when they heard the disciples praying in other tongues and they all heard it and they were all saying, "Wow, we're hearing them praising God," not teaching them, "praising God in our own language." It drew them. It got them excited. They all came. "What is this stuff going on? We don't understand this. How can it be?"

And then Peter stood up and preached. It was the word of God that brought the conviction because they said after he told them, he said, "Listen, this is all in the law and the prophets." He went through back to the Old Testament, brought it all through, and then he said, "And you had Him crucified by your hands." And they all said, "Wow, what must we do to be saved?" And he said, "Repent, be baptized, receive Jesus as your Lord and Savior." Over 3,000 were added that day. Not because of the singing, not because of the tongues, not because of the emotional excitement, because the word was preached. How shall they know? How can they come if they're not taught? How can they hear if no one speaks? But the crowd was excited. Everybody was excited.

So many in this group stated that this experience did help them to change some spiritual habits: praying more, being more active. But primarily more works-based results. Group two consisted of people who experienced an emotional high, which was real, but after time it faded. Everything went back to normal. The spike, the emotion, didn't last. And group three were those who came with high hopes but wound up with disillusionment. We have to be careful as believers that we're not drawn in to an emotional high. That's what the world will do. That's what people who are not intimate with God want. Because if you don't have the intimacy in your own prayer time, if you don't have the time of reading and study, if you don't have the times where you're hearing the Holy Spirit one-on-one, then you're going to be drawn to these big events because these big events are going to tell you, "This is where it's at. This is what you're missing."

But what they're offering you is not real. It's temporary. It will feed your emotion, but it cannot change your heart. The heart has to change when you're in relationship one-on-one with Jesus. That's where the disciples were changed. The intimacy. It's not in the masses. So people are the same today as they were in Jesus's day. They love the excitement, they love the entertainment, they love the huge gatherings, they love the emotion. But true change can only come one-on-one with the Lord. And Asbury was an interesting event. But again, after listening to the narrator on this whole documentary that I listened to, he talked about people's experiences in human terms, not in spiritual terms. He said this, and I quote: "Asbury wasn't the great awakening some predicted. And it wasn't manipulation either. It's hard to categorize. It was deeply human, beautifully messy, and full of contradiction." That's what this outsider gleaned from all the interviews and all the study and pulling it together. This is what he gleaned out of what people were saying. And again, I do believe that there were some lives that were changed, but only for those who had ears to hear the gospel message, not just get wrapped up into the emotional moment.

I didn't hear anything about the gospel being shared or even Jesus being mentioned, except possibly in song and in worship. Now the reason I spent time on this particular thing this morning is because we're in this place where the crowds are following Jesus. They're pushing to get to him. But these are the same crowds as we read he spoke to in John chapter 6 where he said, "Hey, you're only doing this because of what you want from me. You want an experience. But you're not going to get what you really need unless you're willing to eat of my flesh and drink of my blood," meaning that we need to intimately enter in this relationship and know that he is our bread of life and he shed his blood for the remission of our sins.

This year, we're getting ready to go out into the community. But we're not going out in emotion. We're not going out in excitement. We're not going out to try to generate a movement. We're going out to share the gospel message of Jesus Christ. And we're going to be asking the Holy Spirit to let this message reach those who have ears to hear. If some are weeping, hallelujah. If the Spirit falls down and we're in a place of worship, hallelujah. But we cannot let the emotional aspect of that take over our human emotion and let the human emotion then try to drive it to be what we want it to be. We've got to be submissive to the Holy Spirit totally and completely at all times when we're out ministering on the street. Because if we're not, we can get sucked into something and it turn into something and it may be talked about in the news, it may be talked about among all the churches around town, and everybody flock to see it, but it doesn't mean anything's happening. It's only happening when the hearts are changed and transformed in a relationship with Jesus Christ.

Now verses 35 through 45: "In the morning, having risen a long while before daylight, He went out and departed to a solitary place; and there He prayed." This is something Jesus did regularly. He needed this time. He had to be alone to be recharged himself. His human side needed to be with the Father. He needed to be with him. Now, he was God and he had the power and the authority to rule his flesh, which he did. He kept it subjected all the time. But he still needed this time. That human side needed recharging. And so he would go and he'd spend time in prayer.

And Simon and those who were with him searched for Him. When they found him, they said to Him, "Hey, everybody's looking for You!" They're all crowds are trying to find You. But He said to them, "Let us go into the next towns, that I may preach there also, because for this purpose I have come forth." And He was preaching in their synagogues throughout all Galilee, and casting out demons. Now a leper came to Him, imploring Him, kneeling down to Him and saying to Him, "If You are willing, You can make me clean." And Jesus, moved with compassion, stretched out His hand and touched him, and said to him, "I am willing. Be cleansed." As soon as He had spoken, immediately the leprosy left him, and he was cleansed. And He strictly warned him, Jesus told him, said, "Go away at once." He said, "See that you say nothing to anyone on your way; but go your way, and show yourself to the priest, and offer for your cleansing those things which Moses commanded, as a testimony to them."

In other words, what Jesus was saying was, "Listen, you're already healed. But because you're Jewish and you're under the Jewish law, go and do these things not so you'll remain healed, but that you would be a testimony to those in the synagogue." In other words, they need to see it. "But don't tell them what happened and how it happened. Just give God the glory." However, he went out and began to proclaim it freely and to spread the matter so that Jesus could no longer openly enter the city, but was outside in deserted places; and they came to Him from every direction.

Now Jesus in his mercy and grace did not cause the man to get leprosy again because he disobeyed. But Jesus knew what he was going to do when he did it. It forced him out of the intimate, closer places now in town. Now he had to go out further and the people would have to come to him. Jesus knows the hearts of the people. And he knows how important it is to get away from the crowd and pray. And again, he did this regularly. He was feeding the people more than loaves and fishes and he needed to be refreshed. And in his prayer time with the Father, it's here that he got his nourishment and gave him the ability to do the Father's work.

And that's again when Peter found him and said, "Hey, the masses are here. We got to go meet with them." He said, "No, we need to go other places because this purpose I've come forth." In other words, I'm not called just for this town. I'm not called just for this place. And what did he tell the disciples in the Great Commission? Go into the whole world, all the nations, making disciples, baptizing in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Yes, he healed many. Yes, he cast out demons. But his purpose was to go and preach the gospel to all who would hear.

Healing someone doesn't save them. That's something very important. We went to a little church not too long ago, well, was too long ago now, time has gone. We've been here 14 years. Good gracious, been a long time ago. But they had this little book at a Bible study one night. And in that little book, it was talking about the girl that was following Paul and them around and saying, "You know, these are, they're worshiping the God most high," whatever. And he silenced her and cast the demon out. And in that book, it said, "And she was saved." It never said she was saved. It just said she lost her ability now to, that demon was gone from her, so she could no longer make money for the people of the center. And they were upset. It never said anything.

See, the thing is, look at how many demons Jesus probably cast out in his three years of ministry. Look at all the times he healed people. Those people died eventually. And in some cases, the demons may have come back because there's word of warning in that: be careful if you cast out a demon and you clean that house up and he wants to come back, he's going to bring seven worse than himself, and you're going to have a whole lot bigger problem than you had to begin with. The healing and the demon casting out that wasn't where salvation was. It was believing in Jesus, that he is the Son of God, that he did come to forgive sin and he did come to forgive my sin.

So all of these things doesn't mean that they got saved. It means that in their moment of their need, he met it. At Pentecost, again, it wasn't the tongues that saved the 3,000. It was a gospel message that was preached. Now when Jesus healed the leper, he said, "Don't go and blab it." But in his excitement, he did just the opposite. He couldn't control himself. He was excited. "Man, look at this! I met this guy, Jesus, I think was his name, and he's healing everybody! Casting out demons on everybody! You ought to..." More people would come, more people would come, more people would come. They want to see, they want to be a part of the crowd.

The location may have changed, but the message didn't. That's one thing about Jesus as again Ned said, yesterday, today, and forever, he was consistent in his message. That message is the same today as it was when he spoke it: "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." And as we will continue to see, Jesus always did the Father's will wherever he went. He was always about the Father's will. And he was always about pouring into the disciples in this intimate way. And the crowds would come and the crowds would go. And the Asburys will come and the Asburys will go. And the Brownsville came and it went. And there were many who tracked it down and followed it and tried to duplicate it.

Here's the other thing: other colleges, again, had spurts after Asbury. They didn't last near as long. They were over pretty quick. But the results were pretty much the same. So I know that somebody's hearing this and say, "Oh man, you're just putting down this Holy Spirit's movement. You're denying the Holy Spirit." No, I'm not. The Holy Spirit, again, if he's involved in it, there are going to be transformations of hearts, and there probably were some. They haven't spoken to those yet. Maybe that'll be the next video. I'd love to hear it. I want to hear it. I want to hear how somebody's life was turned upside down. And they're not just doing this and doing that and doing this for God because I'm supposed to do it, but now I'm a changed person because of what I heard in the gospel preached at this event. So far, that's not what I'm hearing.

So here's the thing: for our lives today, don't get all excited every time something blasts across the news media. "Oh, look at what's going on over here. Look at what's going on over there." What did Jesus say? Listen, some are going to say, "Here's the Christ. Come follow him. Here's this. Come follow..." He said, "No, don't go in haste to those things, but remember the words that I've taught you. I'm the way, the truth, and the life. I am your salvation. It's me you're going to find your hope in." So our message is not, it is to the crowds, but it's not that the crowds would flock to something to experience something. It's that we reach into the crowd that might be there, one-on-one probably, and preach the gospel and pray for hearts to be there that the Holy Spirit has prepared to receive the word that is spoken.

And if it gets exciting, hallelujah. But I'm not going out for that. We're going out in the reality of our relationship that we already have. So I'm not going over here to experience something. I'm going over here to show somebody, "Hey, I've got what you need. It's life-changing. It may not be circumstantial-changing, but it's life-changing in the midst of your circumstances." See, that's what people need to hear. We watched a little movie last night. It was a B movie, very bad acting. It was a Christian movie, very, very poor acting. But you're not going to get a lot of good actors in it, you know. There's not that many of them. But the whole movie was a good movie. There was nothing wrong with it except the one aspect that I picked up during the whole flow is like this married couple having major problems: financial problems, job problems, relationship problems. And as soon as they turned their lives over to Jesus, everything changed. Everything just immediately flipped. Their finances changed, their job changed, their relationship changed within five minutes.

Now hallelujah if that happens, and God does meet them where they're at. But that's not the reality of most relationships with Jesus. Yes, he comes in and there's change, but it's a change in you, not necessarily a change in your circumstance. And it may not change the person you're with. That's something we have to grab a hold of. Yes, God says he will pour, he will minister to the people, he will pour in, he will bless your wife, he will bless your husband, but that doesn't mean that they're going to fall in line in a relationship with him immediately. They may, they may not. Your job may not change immediately. You may struggle. You may still need financial help. You may still have physical issues. You may still have things going on in your life.

God didn't say he was going to change all of that immediately. What he said was he was going to change you immediately. Once you enter in that relationship, you are a transformed person. Now, it's walking that out every single day, walking that transformation out in the midst of the ugliness. So we don't go out and preach to people, "Hey, Jesus is your answer to your finances. Jesus is your answer to your health." He is the answer, but he's got to be your first thing. He's your answer for your soul and for your entire being in eternity. This is an eternal relationship. Enter into it now. This other stuff will take care, God will take care of it as you go.

And there may be an immediate healing. There were for many here. There may be food on the table. There were some here. There may be a demon cast out. And those are wonderful things to happen. But for the masses, there was no heart change. That's not what we're aiming to do. We've got to keep our focus on the relationship. So we're not going to follow the crowd. We're following Jesus. And me personally, this is a confession, as if you don't know it by now, I'm a cynic. I'm a huge cynic, more so on spiritual matters than anything else. And I have to be beat up by the head to say, "This is of God." Otherwise, I'm going to ride it out. And you're not going to catch me driving across the state lines to see something happening. I want to go downtown and watch the Holy Spirit make something happen.

That's what we're supposed to do. Don't follow the crowds. Get into this intimate relationship. That's how it's designed. He proved that with the 12. They knew him. They walked with him. They talked with him. Now, what we don't see in scripture is all the everyday conversations, the laughter, a lot of the rebuke he had to give them, I'm sure, the correction. But you can just imagine being one-on-one or 11 of you right there with Jesus every single day for three years. All of he taught them, we don't have in the word. We have the importance that we need, and the word of God is fully sufficient. But we don't have all those conversations. Can you imagine what those would have been? "Cut it out, James! Come on! In real life, yeah, whatever it is, you know? Cut it out, you're messing with your brother again! That ain't funny, Peter. That's hilarious, John!" We don't know. But it was intimate. And that's what he wants for us today. He wants us to walk that out.

So keep that in mind as we are continuing to grow toward outreach, that we are going out of intimacy. Not seeking something for ourselves, not seeking to see a big thing happen, but just do it because we want to be with Jesus. And if he's going there, that's where I want to be. And I believe that's where he's taking us. And I'm looking forward to warm weather so we can do it. I wouldn't want to put you out today. Thought about it this morning, we're just all going to go outside. It only got to 60 degrees in here anyway. It ain't that much different. What, 20 degrees, 60 degrees? That's only 40 degrees. We can handle it! No, I'm not that crazy.

But I do, I am looking forward to what God's doing with this body, with this group as we move forward. And I believe going through this study, we're seeing a lot of what we're going to be doing. We're going to see some of these same things. Some things are going to kind of freak us out. I mean, I know that. We may face a demon here or there. We may face some sick people. We may face things that we're praying for people and they may be outside of our comfort zone, but we're not in our strength. Remember that. We're going out in the power and the strength of God in that relationship.

So Father, we come to you this morning and we thank you again for your word. We thank you, Lord, that you are preparing us for what you have for us to do. And we thank you, Lord, that we're not getting all wrapped up in into what excitement might be happening, but we're actually being grounded. I would rather be grounded in you, Jesus, than to be in an exciting moment that fades away. Because they won't last. Excitement, emotion, never last. But a relationship with you lasts forever. So we thank you and we praise you. we desire you. Speak to us, Lord. May each of us in our own lives draw closer to you, that you may draw closer to us and pour into us what we need as we move into ministry in this community. We love you. We praise you. We thank you. In Jesus' name. Amen.