Choosing Your Fire - Mark 9:42-50 - August 30, 2020

These are the Sermon Notes for August 30, 2020. We are now meeting at the church with limited seating and specific procedures and protocols that need to be followed. Read our Returning to Worship plan here. You can still watch our livestream service every Sunday at 9:37 am on our facebook page or watch the livestream recordings any time.

 Mark 9:42-50 Choosing Your Fire

Good morning! Thank you for your prayers this last week as my family gathered to celebrate my Nana’s life over in Maine. It was a wonderful gathering and a very special time together. Thank you also to Nate for bringing the Word last Sunday.

This morning we are returning to Galilee, to Jesus and His disciples in a house in Capernaum, maybe Peter’s house. Jesus has been dealing with the selfish ambition and exclusivity in the hearts of His disciples and He’s not done yet.

So let’s turn together to Mark 9:42-50, page 845 in the pew Bibles. Jesus is speaking here, probably still holding the little child that He had called into their midst back in verse 36.

42 “Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him if a great millstone were hung around his neck and he were thrown into the sea. 43 And if your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life crippled than with two hands to go to hell, to the unquenchable fire. 45 And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life lame than with two feet to be thrown into hell. 47 And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into hell, 48 ‘where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched.’ 49 For everyone will be salted with fire. 50 Salt is good, but if the salt has lost its saltiness, how will you make it salty again? Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another.”

Let’s pray.

So there is a lot going on in these few verses, but though it seems a little broad, maybe even scattered, Jesus is really only dealing with one main idea, all those sermon points really only boil down to one…

But let’s look at each of these ideas and we’ll see how they all really work together.

The first is in verse 42. “Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him if a great millstone were hung around his neck and he were thrown into the sea.

Ministry to children is so important but Jesus isn’t just talking to children’s ministers here. In truth, He is not just talking about children either, but anyone who is immature in their faith.

Jesus said that anyone who causes one of these little ones to stumble, to falter in their faith, it would be better if a great millstone were tied around his neck and he were thrown into the sea.

The word, “great,” is actually the word, “donkey,” in the original Greek, a donkey millstone. This is just opposed to a smaller handheld millstone used by women, this is more like the millstones that dot the countryside here in New England that rotated on a large wooden axle pulled around in a circle by a donkey to mill grain into flour. In other words, really big, maybe even… great.

All that to say, that the offense is significant, protecting the faith of the immature, whether it is a child or otherwise is vitally important. We must do our best to help them grow not make them stumble, to help them mature, not stunt their growth so as to falsely elevate ourselves.

That’s exactly what Jesus had been dealing with in the hearts of His disciples, the desire to be first, to be best, to be exclusive, to elevate themselves above everybody else, and not just them as a group either, but themselves as individuals. The consequences for their behavior was dire, nobody could escape a millstone hung around their neck and tossed into the sea.

As Paul wrote in 1 Thessalonians 5:14, instead of treading on the immature to elevate themselves they ought to…admonish the idle, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with them all.

There are countless ways in which leaders in the church have been guilty of causing little ones to stumble and sin, the history of the church is riddles with atrocities, but something seemingly innocent as saying, “do as I say, not as I do,” is destructive to the faith of children.

The point that Jesus is driving at is that we must all, as disciples, elevate the needs of others, to seek to help the faith of those who are weak, or immature in their walk with Christ regardless of their age. If our teaching, or our actions, cause ones such as these to sin or to stumble, if we are the cause of their sin we are to be dealt with harshly because it’s that serious, we deserve that millstone.

It’s the treatment of the cause of sin that Jesus is after here. If it’s the disciples causing little ones to sin, or even if it is our own hand, eye, or foot.

43 And if your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life crippled than with two hands to go to hell, to the unquenchable fire. 45 And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life lame than with two feet to be thrown into hell. 47 And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into hell, 48 ‘where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched.’

Now you may notice with careful reading that verses 44 and 46 are missing, which is kind of weird but they are identical to verse 48, “Where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched.”

So what is Jesus after here? First of all, this is not a treatise on the doctrine of hell or eternal conscious torment for those who die without faith in Christ, it is, however, a treatise on self-denial and humility.

So to deal with the obvious first, the word translated, “hell,” in English is the Greek word, “Gehenna,” which means, “the Valley of Hinnom.”

The Valley of Hinnom is an actual place, it’s a sort of ravine on the southern end of the City of Jerusalem. It’s a place where the pagan kings of Israel sacrificed their own children to the false god Molech and burned them. Under the good king Josiah it was turned into a garbage dump where fires burned continuously to consume regular deposits of maggot ridden trash. I’ve been to this place and even two thousand years later dead animals are thrown there.

So when Jesus speaks of this place people understood what He meant, they could picture it, they may even remember the smell of it, it’s repulsive. And the imagery of entering life with one hand, one eye, or one foot, rather than being tossed into that maggoty, burning, garbage dump, would be especially strong if you had been there.

But rather than try to stretch the imagery to say that when Jesus said “hand” He was implying this, or when He said “eye” He was implying this or “foot” really meant this, I think we can simply conclude that if something causes us to sin, or tempts us beyond what we can bear, we are better off without it.

We must cast of the delectable as detestable, because sin is a serious issue!

Matthew Henry wrote, “We must put ourselves to pain that we may not bring ourselves to ruin; self must be denied that it may not be destroyed.”

And that’s really the whole point of this, sin doesn’t come from our hand, or our eye, or our foot, it comes from our heart and saying “no” to our own heart requires discipline.

Jesus said back in Mark 7:21-23, “21 For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, 22 coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. 23 All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.”

When we put our trust in Jesus, he deals with the punishment for our sin, the consequences for our sinful nature and our sinful choices were placed on Him on the cross, but that does not remove the temptation to sin from us, and it does not remove the natural consequences for our sinful choices.

We must continuously say “no” to our own pride which gives birth to all other sin in our lives.

Sin is a serious issue and as verse 49 says, everyone will be salted with fire, we just choose what kind of fire.

We are constantly faced with the choice or humility or pride, godly self-renunciation or fire of judgment, the purifying fire of the Holy Spirit, or the fire of condemnation and destruction, the fire of God’s altar or the fire of Gehenna.

50 Salt is good, but if the salt has lost its saltiness, how will you make it salty again? Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another.”

Salt is good… especially on corn on the cob… but how can salt lose its saltiness?

In First Century Palestine salt was from deposits near the Dead Sea, a big lake with no outlets so it is extremely salty. Swimming in it is really strange as the human body is much more buoyant in water so salty so you float really high in the water.

Anyway, that salt is not like the table salt we use today, it was nowhere near as pure, and when the calcium chloride leached away due to humidity, you were left with basically lime which wasn’t salty at all and pretty much useless.

That’s interesting, but what did Jesus mean?

Based on this context, the flavor and preservative qualities of salt, was spiritual discipline, the result of which is peace, or at least behaving peacefully. 

The lack of this saltiness was the lack of self resignation, the lack of the Spirit’s discipline, and the lack of consecration to God. It was choosing pride over humility, choosing sin versus choosing to cut it off or tear it out.

Having salt in ourselves is choosing to retain those precious qualities of humility and discipline that will make us a blessing to one another and to everyone that we are around.

Peter would later echo this same teaching in 1 Peter 5:6-11, and I can’t help but think he had these words of Jesus in mind when he wrote:

6 Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, 7 casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you. 8 Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. 9 Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world. 10 And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you. 11 To him be the dominion forever and ever. Amen.

Amen.

Whoever is Not Against Us - Mark 9:38-41 - August 16, 2020

These are the Sermon Notes for August 16, 2020. We are now meeting at the church with limited seating and specific procedures and protocols that need to be followed. Read our Returning to Worship plan here. You can still watch our livestream service every Sunday at 9:37 am on our facebook page or watch the livestream recordings any time.

 Mark 9:38-41 Whoever is Not Against Us

Good Morning! We are back in Mark’s Gospel, chapter nine, verses 38-41, page 845 in the pew Bibles.

I hope you have enjoyed being put through the ringer in the Gospel of Mark as I have, I hope so because we aren’t finished!

Last week we were with Jesus and His disciples in Capernaum, probably in the house of Peter, dealing with the selfish ambitions of the disciples and their willful ignorance of the plan of God that was playing out before them.

Jesus ended that passage we looked at with the phrase, “Whoever receives one such child as this in my Name receives me, and whoever receives me, receives not me but Him who sent me…”

And then John pipes up… “Speaking of doing things in your Name…”

Mark 9:38…

38 John said to him, “Teacher, we saw someone casting out demons in your name, and we tried to stop him, because he was not following us.” 39 But Jesus said, “Do not stop him, for no one who does a mighty work in my name will be able soon afterward to speak evil of me. 40 For the one who is not against us is for us. 41 For truly, I say to you, whoever gives you a cup of water to drink because you belong to Christ will by no means lose his reward.

Let’s pray

So what’s happening here? Jesus and the disciples are here in Capernaum on their way to Jerusalem and to the cross, whether or not the disciples wanted to admit it. They have gathered in a house, maybe Peter’s house, we don’t know, and Jesus has been instructing them, and to be honest, He has been exposing some pretty serious misunderstanding on their part as well as some pretty serious character flaws.

Unfortunately for them and for us, He is not finished.

The disciples had earlier tried to stop a guy from casting out demons in the Name of Jesus. What do we know about this guy? Not much on the surface, he was just some guy. But let’s dig a little deeper.

Where were Jesus and the disciples again? Capernaum

Had they ever been there before? Yes

Had Jesus preached and cast out demons around there before? Yes

Here’s the most important question, had anyone else cast out demons in Jesus’ Name anywhere around there before? Yes

We have to go back to Mark 6:7-13.

7 And [Jesus] called the twelve and began to send them out two by two, and gave them authority over the unclean spirits. 8 He charged them to take nothing for their journey except a staff—no bread, no bag, no money in their belts— 9 but to wear sandals and not put on two tunics. 10 And he said to them, “Whenever you enter a house, stay there until you depart from there. 11 And if any place will not receive you and they will not listen to you, when you leave, shake off the dust that is on your feet as a testimony against them.” 12 So they went out and proclaimed that people should repent. 13 And they cast out many demons and anointed with oil many who were sick and healed them.

So what does this tell us? It tells us that we can safely assume that this guy had come to faith in Jesus either through the preaching of Jesus Himself or the disciples, and that He had witnessed the disciples casting out demons in Jesus’ Name, so he was just following their example by faith.

Was this a good thing? Yes. Did the disciples see it that way? No.

So what was the problem?

38 John said to him, “Teacher, we saw someone casting out demons in your name, and we tried to stop him, because he was not following us.”

Not, “because He wasn’t following YOU,” but, “because he wasn’t following US.”

The disciples saw this guy as unjustified in his actions because he wasn’t following Jesus with them, he was just off on his own, not part of their group.

Here is a guy who clearly has faith in Jesus Christ, who just didn’t leave home to follow Jesus and the disciples. Maybe he lived in Capernaum, or somewhere near there, heard the gospel from Jesus or the disciples on their missions trip, came to faith, but stayed home, he didn’t drop everything and leave, he just stayed put but shared what was freely given to him with others.

But instead of being celebrated for his faith and his work for the kingdom, he was vilified by the disciples and they tried to make him stop without asking Jesus about it first. They felt justified in trying to stop him because he was not a part of their group, they thought he was unjustified in his actions because he wasn’t one of them.

I want to think the best of the disciples and say that they just thought that if you’re going to work for Jesus then you had to leave everything like they did in order to follow Him… 

But given the context and how they had just been exposed for their selfish ambition, it’s hard to imagine that their motivation for stopping this guy from casting out demons in Jesus’ Name was anything other than a desire to keep the honor of doing that work for themselves. They acted rashly, they didn’t seek the Lord’s Word on the subject, and stopped a man who was working for the Lord and His kingdom.

John says, “Jesus, we tried to stop a guy from casting out demons in your Name because he wasn’t one of us, isn’t that great?”

And Jesus replies with a short, three point sermon. He gives us three ‘for’s.”

39 But Jesus said, “Do not stop him, for no one who does a mighty work in my name will be able soon afterward to speak evil of me. 40 For the one who is not against us is for us. 41 For truly, I say to you, whoever gives you a cup of water to drink because you belong to Christ will by no means lose his reward.

Do not stop him… 

1. For no one who does a mighty work in my name will be able soon afterward to speak evil of me.

2. For the one who is not against us is for us.

3. For truly, I say to you, whoever gives you a cup of water to drink because you belong to Christ will by no means lose his reward.

The first, “for.”

For no one who does a mighty work in my Name will be able soon afterward to speak evil of me.

This man had enough faith in Christ to cast out demons in His Name, he couldn’t possibly immediately turn around and dishonor the Name of Christ. This wasn’t a power that one could just buy and misuse for their own gain like Simon the Magician wanted to do in Acts 8. And he wasn’t a false exorcist like the seven sons of Sceva in Acts 19 who tried to cast out a demon in the Name of Jesus that Paul preaches and got beat to a pulp and chased off.

The man had authentic, saving, powerful faith in Jesus and would not be able to perform a mighty work one minute in Jesus Name and then turn around and blaspheme that same Name.

The Second, “for.”

For the one who is not against us is for us.

This man was a reverer of Jesus’ Name and a promoter of His cause, he was sincere in his faith and confidence, there was no reason to stop him. 

Paul wrote about this from a Roman prison in Philippians 1:12-18

12 I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel, 13 so that it has become known throughout the whole imperial guard and to all the rest that my imprisonment is for Christ. 14 And most of the brothers, having become confident in the Lord by my imprisonment, are much more bold to speak the word without fear. 

15 Some indeed preach Christ from envy and rivalry, but others from good will. 16 The latter do it out of love, knowing that I am put here for the defense of the gospel. 17 The former proclaim Christ out of selfish ambition, not sincerely but thinking to afflict me in my imprisonment. 18 What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed, and in that I rejoice.

What was Paul saying? Even though people were preaching Christ to make his life more miserable than it already was he rejoiced because either way Christ was being proclaimed. 

The disciples should have done the same but they didn’t.

The third, “for.”

For truly, I say to you, whoever gives you a cup of water to drink because you belong to Christ will by no means lose his reward.

This is by no means a method for buying one’s way into the kingdom, rather it is a subtle form of Christ worship.

JP Lange wrote, “The respect and love which is even outwardly shown you in the very slightest degree by men in the world, for Christ’s sake, or in His name, proves that they stand in a certain spiritual connection with Him, which under His blessing may increase and become more strict. The smallest token of friendship you receive as disciples of Christ, is a token of friendship to your Master, which is rewarded by Him with the blessing of greater friendship.”

The disciples had been paid a great compliment by being imitated in their work for the kingdom but rather than accept imitation as the sincerest form of flattery, they took it as a slight against their imagined authority.

So here’s the problem with all of this. It’s easy to point out the flaws and foibles of the disciples, they really make it easy. The trouble is, they are a mirror of our own hearts.

Matthew Henry wrote, “Thus we are apt to imagine that those do not follow Christ at all who do not follow Him with us, and that those do nothing well who do not do just as we do. But the Lord knows them that are His, however they are dispersed; and this instance gives us needful caution, to take heed lest we be carried by an excess of zeal for the unity of the church, and for that which we are sure is right and good, to oppose that which yet may tend to the enlargement of the church and the advancements of its true interests in another way.”

Unity is not the same as unanimity, nor uniformity. We are not all the same, nor do we all always agree, but we can certainly unite under Jesus as Lord.

My assumption is that you all are gathered here in this place with these people because you like it here, that it suits you and just feels right, that’s fine, that’s good, but that doesn’t mean that those who gather across town that feel the same way about where they are or who they are with are wrong so long as they are gathered in Jesus’ Name.

We must be careful to avoid the trap that the disciples had fallen into, the trap of narrow exclusivity, vilifying all but themselves, as if they were the only ones who got it right. Jesus’ Church is a vast expanse of people who love Him and who follow Him and His Word it may just look or sound or feel a little different than how we do it.

We must still measure everything by God’s Word just don’t get trapped in thinking that our interpretation of how it all works out is the only right interpretation just because we like it more or it suits us better. Whoever is not against us is for us!

Amen.

Ambition Exposed - Mark 9:30-37 - August 9, 2020

These are the Sermon Notes for August 9, 2020. We are now meeting at the church with limited seating and specific procedures and protocols that need to be followed. Read our Returning to Worship plan here. You can still watch our livestream service every Sunday at 9:37 am on our facebook page or watch the livestream recordings any time.

 Mark 9:30-37 Ambition Exposed

Have you ever been right about anything? Like, absolutely convinced that you were right? Willing to bet any amount, ready to die on that hill? But then, somehow, some way, you found out you really were wrong but maybe that didn’t change anything in your mind and you stayed thinking you were absolutely right when, in truth, you were wrong, you just didn’t like it so you wouldn’t accept it? I have just described to you what feels like my entire life.

We are going to look at Mark 9:30-37 and examine two questions, one unasked, and one unanswered.

Jesus and His disciples were on their way from Mount Hermon in the north, the Mount of Transfiguration, through Galilee on their way south to Judea and Jerusalem. They weren’t taking the highway or the more popular trade routes because Jesus wanted to get through there without any more large crowds. So here we find Jesus and His disciples on the back roads of Galilee…

Mark 9:30-37, page 845 in the pew Bibles.

30 They went on from there and passed through Galilee. And he did not want anyone to know, 31 for he was teaching his disciples, saying to them, “The Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill him. And when he is killed, after three days he will rise.” 32 But they did not understand the saying, and were afraid to ask him. 

33 And they came to Capernaum. And when he was in the house he asked them, “What were you discussing on the way?” 34 But they kept silent, for on the way they had argued with one another about who was the greatest. 35 And he sat down and called the twelve. And he said to them, “If anyone would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all.” 36 And he took a child and put him in the midst of them, and taking him in his arms, he said to them, 37 “Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me, and whoever receives me, receives not me but him who sent me.”

Let’s pray.

So let’s look at this first section, the question unasked.

Jesus plainly says to the disciples, “The Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill Him. And when He is killed, after three days he will rise.”

Clearly the disciples had not read the rest of the story because they didn’t understand what He meant. He couldn’t have said it any plainer than that but they didn’t get it.

Maybe it’s in the language, maybe His words weren’t clear, maybe they didn’t understand who the Son of Man was, or what the specific words that He used meant.

This can’t be true. Jesus referred  to Himself as “the Son of Man” six times in the Gospel of Mark alone in the first nine chapters, Matthew records thirteen times, before this time, Luke four times, and John around nine times. The disciples knew that He was referring to Himself.

Maybe they didn’t understand what He meant by “delivered in to the hands of men.”

The Greek word Jesus used, paradidomi, meant: to deliver a person into the control of someone else, involving either the handing over of a presumably guilty person for punishment by authorities or the handing over of an individual to an enemy who will presumably take undue advantage of the victim—‘to hand over, to turn over to, to betray.’

Hardly an uncommon or confusing phrase.

Maybe the word, be killed. It’s a Greek word which means, “to kill someone.” Maybe it was “treis hemera” that was causing the confusion. It means literally “three days.” Or maybe, “anestemi” which means “to rise or get up.”

The words weren’t the problem.

They didn’t understand the saying, and they were afraid to ask Him. 

Why were they afraid to ask? Were they afraid of Jesus’ rebuke? Were they afraid that He would give them a hard time for still being so dull? 

Jesus had never rebuked them for asking a question before. I’m not convinced that was what kept them from asking now.

I’m afraid that they didn’t understand and they didn’t ask because they didn’t want to understand. They had witnessed a glimpse of the Kingdom on the Mount of Transfiguration, they had witnessed the power of God at work in Jesus at the casting out of the demon just days before, they were convinced that the kingdom of Christ was all about power and so when Jesus said that He would be killed by men they didn’t want to hear about it. 

They buried their heads in the sand because they liked their ideas of how Christ’s kingdom would be arranged better. I’d like to say that they got better, and that the church has gotten better. Maybe they did, but not right away.

The question unasked was, “How does your death and resurrection fit into the plan for your kingdom?” But they didn’t want to hear it so they didn’t ask it.

But then in verse 33 and following, Jesus asked them a question and they really didn’t want to answer it.

33 And they came to Capernaum. And when he was in the house he asked them, “What were you discussing on the way?” 34 But they kept silent, for on the way they had argued with one another about who was the greatest.

Think about this for a second. The disciples were arguing about who of them was the greatest. Have you ever wondered how on earth they could be doing this? What would prompt such a ludicrous conversation?

The answer is: context.

Peter, James, and John had just witnessed the transfiguration, they got to see Jesus in sparkling robes, and to see Moses and Elijah back from the dead! The other nine guys didn’t get to see that, Jesus chose only these three. Those other nine guys couldn’t even cast out a single demon, they were obviously second class disciples.

And Jesus just told them that He was going to die, who was going to take over when He was gone? Somebody needed to be the leader! Somebody is going to have to step up!

But when Jesus, knowing full well what they were arguing about on the road, asked them what it was that they were discussing, suddenly stepping up was the last thing anybody wanted to do.

And this simple question, “what were you discussing on the way?” exposes one of the greatest threats to Christ’s church, and that is, selfish ambition.

The Way of Christ is a way of sacrifice, of service, and of selflessness, all completely opposite of our natural inclinations. The world is not the only place where it’s all “me, me, me.”

Alistair Begg said you will not find a greater collection of insecurity than at a pastor’s conference where everybody is scrambling for significance. (I’m paraphrasing.)

But the truth about ambition is that there is nothing wrong with a desire to succeed, there is nothing wrong with being great at what you do or wanting to be better at it whatever it is; but the true way to greatness is not by seeking to be first but by being willing to be last. It’s not by getting others to serve you; it is by becoming a servant of all.

35 And he sat down and called the twelve. And he said to them, “If anyone would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all.” 36 And he took a child and put him in the midst of them, and taking him in his arms, he said to them, 37 “Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me, and whoever receives me, receives not me but him who sent me.”

When Jesus said, “whoever receives one such child in my Name receives me…” The word “receives” means to welcome with friendliness as a guest. And we serve our guests don’t we? Even one as humble as a little child.

Jesus invites us to a radical reorientation. If you want to be first, you must be happy to be last.

When I look at the course of my own life and the choices that I have made in ministry, I find this passage to be extremely convicting. 

I look back and wonder, has anything that I have ever accomplished that might be considered good actually have come from pure godly motives? Have I continuously been made first because of my happiness to be last? The sad answer is, no. My own ambition to be first, to be best, to be better than the next guy or to prove my worth in the kingdom has been the source behind almost every move I have ever made in ministry. True confession. I’ll spare you the horror of recounting each selfish step.

But Jesus, in His gentleness, didn’t harshly rebuke the disciples for their selfish ambition. And his rebuke to my heart had been gentle as well.

The disciples’ minds were filled with false notions about the Kingdom of God, and maybe mine has been too. It’s not about a scramble for power or position, to prove your worth, or your ability, there’s no real glory in that, there’s no jewel in our crowns added for that.

Sacrifice, service, and selflessness, these are the pillars of the Kingdom, humbly serving and welcoming as guests the least is how one truly becomes great in God’s Kingdom.

Jesus exercised grace on the disciples with their selfish ambitions and false ideas about Christ’s Kingdom, he has grace for me and mine and for you and yours.

“We hold this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all surpassing power is from God and not from us…”

Amen.