At this time. And I'm going to give Denise a second because my children will just sprint because I know them so well. No running, okay? At this time, kids are dismissed down to children's church, which are really just my kids. I'm just telling my kids to go. Well, friends, I want to share a memory with you, and it's a memory of the first time the Bible ever scared me. A little bit of backstory, because we're going to have to walk there now. I'm not counting the Catholic parts of my upbringing. I was raised Catholic. The Bible exclusively scared me for the entirety of that time. However, this was after I had become a Christian. I haven't shared my story much. I was the first person to become a Christian in my household at 13 years old for youth ministry. And through that, my mom ended up going to church and my sister and my dad eventually ended up going to a different church kind of on his own. But that's kind of the short story of our family. And the first time the Bible ever scared me was actually I was 14 or 15 years old, and my church was doing a big push for Bible reading. And how they decided to do a big push for Bible reading was through audio Bibles. So everybody. It was probably a lot of money. I don't remember, because, you know, when you're 13, you know, $20 was a lot of money, right. But everybody bought these Bible on. And I think. I think the organization was called Faith Comes By Hearing or something like that. And they were these dramaticized NIV audio Bibles. And they came in a big CD case that was roughly 40 pounds. And it was about like, you know, it was like this. The Old Testament was the top, and then the New Testament was the bottom. And you put them in a CD player and you would listen through the whole Bible. And, you know, my mom actually read through the Bible at that time, and I worked my way through. But I remember I had this stereo system, like this 3 CD stereo system, because I was very, very cool in my bedroom. And I thought, I know what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna fall asleep listening to the Bible. Because again, it was. I thought, this is perfect. I'm gonna listen to them while I go to sleep. It'll help me to go to sleep. You know, it makes me sound like a good Christian if I tell the story and, you know, it'll be good, right? And so it was everything I was looking for. And I don't know how much time it was. And the reason I don't Know how much time it was? If you ever fallen asleep listening to something, you know it'll just pass. But I do remember what verse we were on when we woke up. And it was actually the story we're going to read today. And if you haven't looked at it in your bulletin, it's the story of Jesus driving out thousands of demons that call themselves legion. And I forget which gospel I was listening to, whether it was Matthew where it happens in chapter eight, Mark, where it happens in chapter five, or Luke where it happens in chapter eight. But I was awoken by. I looked for this recording because what I'm about to describe to you isn't going to sound belief. But when the absolute psychopaths who recorded this niv Bible decided to sit down and do a dramaticized recording, the way they recorded the thousand demon voice was they had 20 dudes stand in a room and scream every single line. So I go from sleeping to we are called Legion for we. I was so scared and I get up, I'm disoriented and I turn it off. And that was my experience just like this. So my personal relationship with this voice, with this verse is that when I think about it, I get scared and disoriented where I'm just like, I just, you know, there's a few memories that imprint yourself your mind, right? We grew up doing a Christmas play. And every time I hear the Christmas things, I can still hear my lead pastor growing up. I could still hear his voice doing the Christmas, like the exact dictionary because we use the recording every year. So. So it's like they wanted to know where is he who was born King of the. That was exactly how he said it. And it's just like written on the back of my mind. And so every time I read this verse, that's what I hear. I hear these, these terrifying demons. And I think it's helpful because that's kind of how it should feel. When we read this story, there is something disorienting about it. And as we've met Jesus in the book of Mark, we continue this story. And we know what Mark is trying to do. Right Mark, right in the beginning of his gospel, which we mentioned is Mark is a disciple of Peter. He's writing down Peter's personal experiences. And the way he writes is fascinating because right in Mark 1, right in Mark 1:1, he says this is the beginning of the good news about Jesus, the Messiah, the son of God. And that's the last time in the whole book that we get Mark's opinion on what he's writing. He tells us this is the story, he's the Son of God. And then for the rest of the book, we get stories and we're supposed to kind of react to them and ask questions about them and go deeper into them. And actually we don't get somebody in the story who really gets it right. Because Peter and Mark 8 would say, you are the Christ, the son of the living God. But we don't know if Peter fully got it because Peter was still pretty bothered by, you know, the crucifixion. Maybe Peter thought, oh, this is going to be like a military leader or a political leader he's going to overthrow. But the guy who actually gets it in the story happens all the way in Mark 15:39, where it says, and when the. So it's, we're at the cross, Jesus is being crucified. And when the centurion who stood there in front of Jesus saw how he died, he said, surely this man is the Son of God, or surely this man was the Son of God. So Mark is telling firsthand accounts from Peter. And we're supposed to just kind of be right there in the audience. We see everyone's reactions. And those reactions are instructive to how we understand who Jesus is. And we've been working our way through, through Mark. And as we open, we meet John the Baptist. And then in Mark 3, Jesus starts to split off from kind of the religious leaders. And then we get Mark 4 is parables that are about the nature of the kingdom of God. And then there's four or five stories, I think. Five. Five stories that show Jesus power, that are just miracle stories over and over again. So last week Jesus calmed the storm. This week he's going to drive out a demon. Maybe it's four. And then, you know, and then next week we get woman with the issue of blood. And then we get Jairus daughter who he raises from the dead. So when we look again at kind of the broader scope, Mark is saying Jesus has power over the wind and the waves, over the spiritual forces that work against us, over health and over death itself. Right. Like Mark is telling a story. But as we look at these reactions, we can kind of see what is instructive about the story looking at today. So if you'll humor me, I want to read the passage together and let's see kind of what reactions we want to pull out. So beginning in Mark 5, verse 1, 5, verse 1. And I'm reading from the NIV, they went across the lake to the region of the Gerasenes. When Jesus got out of the boat, a man with an impure spirit came from the tombs to meet him. This man lived in the tombs and no one could bind him anymore, not even with a chain, for he had been chained hand and foot. But he tore the chains and broke the irons on his feet. No one was strong enough to subdue him. Night and day among the tombs and in the hills, he would cry out and cut himself with stones. Now the first thing I want to kind of pull out is this man's situation. This man is an outsider among outsiders. He is as far outside of civilization as you could be. Now this region that it says Jesus landed in, this was not a Jewish region, right? Like, and we know that from other details in the story, but this was a Greek area. But these people had kind of kicked this guy to the outskirts, sides, the outskirts of society, right? He was out among the tombs. He is cutting himself with stones. It was kind of like, we don't want you around. We, we don't want to hear from you, right? He had kind of turned to this self destructive activity in his day to day life. He was among the dead, he was around pigs. Any person who was Jewish who heard this story would have said, man, that guy is just completely gone. And even a gentile would have said, which is likely where this guy lived, would have said, this guy is completely out of society and, and completely hopeless. No one is trying to even help him, right? The only help we get from this story is, yeah, they tried to put some chains on him and that didn't work, right? Like it's, you know, no one is making any effort to address this man's needs. Now it's described as demon possession, which we could spend probably several somewhat interesting weeks talking about, right? We don't know exactly like what this man was going through. What we might call, call it today, right? We know that he was oppressed by a spiritual force and that this thing was going on. He was oppressed by, or oppressed and possessed by an impure spirit, right? And this man. But what we should draw from this is that this man is completely hopeless and no one cares. This man is completely hopeless and no one cares. Anybody who was aware of him would have just said, yeah, I mean, eventually he'll die, I guess, right? Like that would have been the level to which his community was concerned about him. And so that is this man's situation. And let's continue reading. When he saw Jesus from the distance, he ran and he fell on his knees in front of him, he shouted at the top of his voice, what do you want with me, Jesus, son of the most High God, in God's name, don't torture me. For Jesus had said to him, come out of this man, you impure spirit. The other thing to notice about this story is it's kind of written in reverse in a weird way, because it's like he says, he did this. He did this because before this, Jesus said this. Like, if you were reading a book that was like this, you'd go insane. But that's, you know, but that's the structure of the story. Then Jesus asked him, what is your name? My name is Legion, he replied, for we are many. And he begged Jesus again not to send him out of the area. A large herd of pigs was feeding on the nearby hillside. The demons begged Jesus, send us among the pigs. Allow us to go into them. He gave them permission. And the impure spirits came out and went into the pigs. The herd, about 2,000 in number, rushed down the steep bank and into the lake and were drowned. So the second thing I want us to see, the first thing was the man's situation. The second thing I want us to see is Jesus response to the man. He is a hopeless outsider, and Jesus chooses not only to go to him, but invite him in. Right. This guy has done nothing for Jesus to help him. Right? Like the actual man. Right. We get the feeling that, you know, the. The demons for some reason compelled them, compelled him to fall at the feet of Jesus. Your translation might say worship. That's not really a great translation. It just means that he showed up and fell at his feet, right? Like just the physical action. Right. It wasn't really an act of worship. It was just an act of maybe an acknowledgement that Jesus was more powerful than him based on what they said. But this isn't, you know, the demons seeking Jesus in any way. They see Jesus as an adversary. And Jesus takes every single step to pull this guy back from the dead. He deals with the demons, right? Like, we get this conversation between him and the demons, and they say, what do you want with me, Jesus, son of the most High God, in God's name, don't torture me. For Jesus had said to him, come out of this man, you impure spirit. And some of the commentaries point out that the concern that the demons had was that they didn't understand Jesus mission either, in a certain sense, because they believe that maybe this was, you know, the Messiah coming to wrap things up for good. Right? Because if we fast forward to the book of Revelation. All of you know, Satan and his minions are thrown into the lake of fire, right? Like, and this is, this is what happens. And the commentators kind of theorized that what was happening here was the demons believing that this was their kind of moment of final elimination, right? They thought Jesus was going to kind of kick them out and completely get rid of them. That isn't what ends up happening. What ends up happening is, you know, what we read. But that is the reason behind what they're saying. And like I said, the story is written a little oddly. We don't know why we get this negotiation. We don't know why Jesus goes back and forth when in other places he just says, get out, and they get out. But what we see is, is that they ask to go to the pigs. Jesus allows them to do so, and we don't. Again, we don't know why. But one commentator kind of theorized and said, Jesus permission resulted in everyone seeing the great destructive power and number of the demons and that the man had experienced an amazing deliverance. It also apparently resulted in the demons own ruin. So kind of his theory, if you will, is to say the reason why Jesus doesn't just say, leave the man and says, instead, go into the pigs is all of a sudden there is this very physical example of what these demons were doing to this man, that they were destroying him, they were unraveling him. And it was pointed at as, we're going to see something that did matter to the townspeople, right? Because the townspeople were happy to let this man be tormented. And we're fine with it, or at least passive about it. But 2,000 pigs go over the hill. It's like, well, there's a financial loss there. So we got to look into that, right? And so we don't know why Jesus did this exactly, but we do see what happens in the story. But what we need to see first is that Jesus response is love, compassion and rescue. Jesus response is love, compassion and rescue. He shows up and he rescues this man from his place of hopelessness. And then finally we get the crowd's reaction, right? So we've seen the man's situation, we've seen Jesus's response. And then we get the crowd's reaction, which I have to be honest, as I studied this verse, this kind of stuck out as the most interesting thing for me. Verse 14, those tending the pigs ran off and reported this in the town and countryside. And the people went out to see what had happened. When they came to see Jesus and They saw the man who had been possessed by the legion of demons sitting there dressed and in his right mind, and they were afraid. Those who had seen it told the people what had happened to the demon possessed man and told about the pigs as well. Then the people began to plead with Jesus to leave their region. And like everything else in Mark, we're kind of left to theorize about this reaction, right? And I try to be very careful to not say scripture says when scripture doesn't say, right? Like to say, this is absolutely 100% what it means when I don't know, you know what I mean? So what I did is I kind of collected how some commentaries thought through this, and this is what they said. One of them said the demoniac had formerly been a restless, raving maniac, and now he was sitting peacefully in his right mind. He had been shamelessly naked, but now clothed himself. He had been out of control, but now he controlled himself. The people's fear probably arose partially from anticipating what Jesus might do with the great power that he obviously possessed. Which kind of fits because when we go back to the story before this, the disciples see Jesus calm the storm, and it says they were terrified because they're like, if this guy can calm storms, like, I sure don't want to say the wrong thing in front of him, right? So maybe a little bit of that. Another commentary says instead of rejoicing because of the marvelous deliverance of the man from his pathetic state, the people were afraid. Their fear was no doubt caused by the presence of one with the power to perform such a miracle. So kind of the same thing. And still another kind of kind of said, well, maybe it's like a devil they know is better than the devil they don't know. Right. She says to tie the evil to a name or location creates the hope that it can be avoided. Avoid the man and you could avoid the evil. Jesus presence constituted a threat to the structure of their community. What we know is that they were afraid and they asked Jesus to leave. That's what we know, and that is all we know. However, we can kind of wrestle because we know that the townspeople knew about this man because they said they saw the man who had been possessed by demons in his right mind. So they knew what he looked like, they knew how he was before, and they saw how he was now. And I think it is fair to theorize that the problem that they had was that their Messiah didn't help people like this, Right? Like in their minds, they saw somebody on the outskirts and they thought Well, a guy like that, the Messiah is just kind of. Kind of destroy them and get out of the way, right? That. That salvation or help from Jesus or help from God is for nice, normal people who just maybe need a little bit of help. But guys like that, I don't know if we're just gonna. I mean, are you sure it worked, right? And also, Jesus, you killed 2,000 pigs. Even at a dollar a pig, that's 2,000 pigs. You know what I mean? And so all of a sudden, they were so inconvenienced by the things that messed them up. They were so inconvenienced by just that things didn't go the way that they thought that they should go. So they're sitting there. I mean, imagine this. They're sitting there with the author of life himself. They're sitting there with the Messiah, this man and God who had healed the sick and. And would raise the dead. And they're saying, we need to get this guy out of our town. Imagine if you were somebody who heard about the ministry of Jesus years later, and you had struggled with illness your whole life, and you're like, that guy was here. Where did he go? Why'd you tell him to leave? Well, he killed some pigs, okay? You know what I mean? It's almost silly to imagine, but that's. These people were afraid because Jesus was something new to them. Jesus was something who did something that they didn't expect, who invited someone in that they had thrown to the outside. And their apathy actually reminds me of the book of Jonah. Jonah is this short book about this prophet, and he is called to go to Nineveh. And he says, I don't want to. And God's like, well, told you to. I'm God. And so he tries to go somewhere else. There's a storm. He goes down into the water. He's eaten by a whale. He survives in the whale for three days. He ultimately ends up on the shores of Nineveh. He goes in, he preaches, and the nation of Nineveh returns to God, right? That's the story. And then in the end of the book of Nineveh, which again, is the last chapter, I think it's chapter four or chapter five. And Jonah is mad because God has delivered Nineveh. He's like, got. What he says is so crazy. He says, and it's a lot to read, but I want to read it together. Chapter four of Jonah. But to Jonah, this seemed very wrong. And he became angry. He prayed to the Lord, isn't this What I said, Lord, when I was still at home, this is what I tried to forestall by fleeing to Tarshish. I knew that you were a gracious and compassionate God. Slow to anger and abounding in love. I just picture him saying this very sarcastically. Slow to anger and abounding in love. A God who relents from sending calamity. Now, Lord, take away my life, for it is better for me to die than to live. Jonah is so overcome by nationalism, racism, like whatever you want to call his ism, right, that he has decided that he wanted these people to suffer for what he felt they had done. And God delivering them wasn't good enough for him. And God says, is it right for you to be angry? And then verse 5, Jonah had gone out and sat down at a place east of the city. There he made himself a shelter and sat in its shade and waited to see what would happen to the city. Then the Lord provided a leafy plant and made it grow up over Jonah to give shade for his head to ease his discomfort. And Jonah was very happy about the plant. This story is really funny to me. But at dawn the next day, God provided a worm which chewed the plant so that it withered when the sun rose. God provided a scorching east wind, and the sun blazed on Jonah's head so that he grew faint. He wanted to die and said, it would be better for me to die than to live. But God said to Jonah, is it right for you to be angry about the plant? So what's happened is God sends Jonah to these people. He preaches the gospel to them. Not the gospel, but, you know, he preaches to them, and they come to follow God. Their hope is restored. And Jonah walks out of the town and goes, I knew you were going to do that. I knew you were going to help them. And those people don't deserve that. And that's not right. And he sits there maybe to just watch and see if God still decides to destroy the city. I don't know. And God says, is it right for you to be angry? He says, yeah, it's right for me to be angry. Right? That's why I'm angry. And then he's sitting there, he builds a shelter. God causes a plant to grow up. There's shade over him, and then the shade goes away. And God says, is it right for you to be angry about the plant? And Jonah says, it is. And I am so angry, I wish I were dead. And then God teaches this lesson to Jonah. But the Lord said, you have Been concerned about this plant, though you did not tend to it or make it grow. It sprang up overnight and died overnight. And should I not have concern for the great city of Nineveh in which there were more than 120,000 people who cannot tell their right hand from their left, and also many animals? And if you're reading in your Bible, the book just ends there, right? It just ends with God correcting Jonah and saying, you're more concerned about a plant that provided you comfort than you are for over 100,000 people. You know, he's calling out Jonah's selfishness, right? He's saying, how could you possibly be more concerned for your own personal protection from shade than people? But that's exactly what we see in this story with Jesus. The crowd is reacting to Jesus, and they're saying, man, nobody asked you to come around here. Nobody asked you to step in here and mess with kind of our order. And, you know, that guy is crazy. And he was out there and he was, you know, cutting himself among the tombs. And sure, we hurt him sometimes, but we never had to, like, worry about him, like, really hurting us or anything like that. And he was just. And everybody was minding their own business. And you come here, and now he's better, and 2,000 pigs are dead. And now we got a whole situation because of this Jesus guy coming along. They had an idea about the type of people that Jesus should save and. And the type of people that Jesus shouldn't save. And they said, you know, we don't really want you around here because we don't want you messing with the way that we do things. We don't want you messing with the way that we want things to go. And then finally, we get this man's reaction to Jesus. In verse 18, as Jesus was getting into the boat, the man who had been demon possessed begged to go with him. Jesus did not let him, but said, go home and tell your own people and tell them how much the Lord has done for you and how he had mercy on you. So the man went away and began to tell in the Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him. And they all were amazed. You see, this man was ready to follow Jesus, and he thought that that meant that he was going to leave these people. The people probably didn't want him, obviously, right? And he thought that that meant following Jesus. But Jesus said, you know, no, you need to stay here and tell people about what happened to you. But the man's response is a pretty simple one. He says, jesus, you Gave me back my life, and I want to use it for your good. So we've got kind of a feel for what the reactions are, but what can we learn from them? I think the first thing we can learn from is the way Jesus is. He chooses to go anywhere. He chooses to go 100% of the way to everyone who could possibly need him. And sometimes I think we miss this, right, that Jesus is concerned for everyone. And it's a fun game to play in your head. Well, it's not fun because it'll make you feel like you're not a great Christian, but it's a fun game to play in your head to kind of go through people, you know, and say, well, how would I feel if that person showed up at church? How would I feel that? You know what I mean? And just imagine how somebody. How you would feel about it. Because the truth is, anyone you could imagine Jesus loves more than you could possibly imagine. That Jesus desires us to go into all the world and to be unreserved about that choice. That Jesus wants every single person in Prospect Heights in Lancaster to come to a saving knowledge of him. That Jesus wants every single person in the city limits of Lancaster to come to a saving knowledge of him. We can keep going. Lexer county, the United States, our Thanksgiving table. You know, we could keep expanding what that could mean. But the truth is, is that Jesus wants everyone to come into a growing relationship with him. And that challenges us. Friends, right? That's hard sometimes because my brain. And again, I'm being recorded. So you'll be able to prove it. I kind of go, well, yeah, but not like everybody, right? Not like people who scare me, right? Like, not like people who make me uncomfortable, right? Like, I read those stories. I mean, I can just be transparent with you. I read those stories about, like, yeah, pastor. Pastor murdered because he was helping somebody and they kidnapped him and drained his ATM accounts and then put him in a trunk and killed him. I'm like, it's gonna happen to me. That's how I'm gonna go. Like, that's. That's it. I'm going to give somebody $5. And that's me at the beginning of the end. You know, that tends to be what my brain says, right? Like, that tends to be. I am a pretty anxious guy sometimes, and I can get fearful, and I can. And the truth is, is that Jesus, the way Jesus is in this story makes me uncomfortable because I'm like, jesus, just go to the city first, win them over. You know what I mean? Build some Infrastructure, Right? And, you know, help that out, and maybe it'll eventually get to that guy. But you got to think strategically, Jesus. But Jesus goes to the person who is on the outside of the outside of the outside, and he goes all the way to them. That is hopefully inspiring for us as Christians to say, where have I drawn up barriers where Jesus would never have a barrier? But I hope it's also encouraging to us as Christians who sometimes don't feel like we've really earned it, because the truth is, no, you haven't earned it. You haven't. You know, it even bugs me when people, and I know you might know somebody who does this. This isn't me being critical. And don't say, you know, Pastor Addison says, you should never say that. When people say Jesus already took the first step. That's like a topic when people talk about salvation. And I get what people mean is they mean like, Jesus took the step on the cross. Jesus took 100% of the steps, all the steps. He didn't take the first step. He took all of them. All we do at the moment of salvation is we stop resisting Jesus. That Jesus has come to us, he has offered us life. He has put it in front of us, and we say, yeah, that's what salvation is. It's not so much a step towards Jesus as we stop resisting his work in our lives, right? We put down our walls, we give up, we surrender, right? He didn't take the first step. He took all of the steps. In fact, he took steps that he hasn't even taken yet in your life, because you're probably going to step further away at some point. And he took that step. Step two, right? Like, every sin that you would ever commit was forgiven at Calvary. That on the cross, everything that I could ever do to put myself far away from God was made right at the cross. That it is made just as if I had never sinned. And that means that when I struggle with sin, because all of us do that, the message I should hear in my heart, and this is so important, the message I should hear in my heart is not, you piece of junk. I can't. I think sometimes we think this. We think that God is in heaven. Like, man, I forgave everything else, but this one's going to be a logistical nightmare, right? Like, it's just like, I remember when I would, like, ask for money from my parents, and it was never like, here's $20. It was, remember, because $20 is a lot of money. It was always like, let me Go through every. Like, they would be like. They'd be, like, doing their taxes in front of me before they handed me a $5 bill. Like, you know what I mean? It would just be like, I mean, if it's this much trouble, just keep it. Like, you know what I mean? And I think sometimes maybe it's just me, because that was my experience. I think sometimes that can be how we feel about God. Like, well, yeah, Jesus forgave all my sins, but now I sinned again, and what is he going to do? And we picture Jesus just up there. Like, the message of the gospel is that Jesus would say, yes, that too. And that doesn't mean we sin so that grace can increase, right? This is what the Apostle Paul talked about, right? We don't sin so that grace could increase. But when we feel down about ourselves, when we feel conviction and we say, that's not the man I want to be. That's not the woman I want to be. That's not the person I want to be, Jesus is with us, and he says, I understand, but that too is forgiven. But that, too is washed by my blood, but that too is covered. And then our conviction about sin turns into rejoicing because we say, oh, that too. That, too is forgiven. And his grace increases in our understanding of it. So Jesus will go anywhere, and we have to be careful that we would follow him anywhere. And secondly, Jesus comes to us even when we are anywhere. And so that's Jesus's reaction. But the man's reaction. The man's reaction is so simple. And it's just that when Jesus saves him, he is ready to go and tell his story. And I know what, you know, in a group like this, what we might say is, we would say, well, Addison, I don't really have a great story. I was just kind of raised in church, eventually became a Christian. Don't really know when it happened. I don't really have, like, one of those crazy preacher stories where it's like, oh, I was living in a shed, and you know what I mean? And we can feel like, I don't know. I don't really have a story. The truth is that we are all entitled to our stories of the way that God has worked in our lives. And when you look at what Jesus told this man as he tells, Jesus is getting kicked out, and he says, no, you stay here and tell people what God did for you. And the guy just says, okay. And so as we're interacting with our friends and our neighbors, you know, take those opportunities to say, you know, the way I've always thought about it, and this mostly comes from my faith is. And give yourself that opportunity to tell your story of the way God has worked in your life, right? Like you might have not have an exciting salvation story. I get that. It can feel like, you know, you aren't into like running the streets at 8 years old before you got saved in BBs, right? Like, I get that, right? Like, it's like I was a kingpin. I was the first eight year old kingpin. You know, it's like, no, that's not gonna be your story. What you can say though is, you know, my faith was pretty simple, but then I went through a medical diagnosis, then I went through the loss of my parents, then I went through, you know, the loss of somebody precious to me. Then I went through a financial situation. And in that I learned to trust God in ways that I never thought I would before. I learned to understand who God is. I saw the way the church came around me. I saw the way that people who were Christians cared for me and loved me and shared with me. We are all entitled to our story. And all that we are asked is that we would be ready to tell that story like this man is. And then finally the crowd, who I said to me is the most interesting part. We simply have to avoid that kind of apathy, right? Like we have to avoid that kind of apathy, we have to root it out in our day to day lives. You know, it's. There was a pastor I was around for years and he used to say the opposite of love isn't hate, it's apathy. And he would point to the fact that like, usually if couples stopped fighting, that was the worst sign for their marriage because they've just both given up, right? But if they're still fighting, they're still trying to move back towards something that's healthy. And I think sometimes we can slip into this with the world around us, right? We could say, you know, I just kind of want to live my like, peaceful little life and I kind of want to keep things cloistered off. And I'm not really going to concern myself with people that are out there or in this place or that because, you know, it kind of makes me uncomfortable and it kind of scares me. And what Jesus would say to us is that that should never be the way that we are. That we should be people who relentlessly and radically care for the people around us, that we reach out to the people around us, that we find ways to give of ourselves and our resources and, you know, maybe not financial, but time and conversations and care. And we try to be that person who is reaching out and into the world that goes into the outside of the outside, like Jesus did. And, friends, we can trick ourselves into believing that. I don't know that that's like. That's just, you know, that's something for somebody else to do or whatever. The truth of the matter is that when I read Scripture, I see a Jesus that is deeply concerned for the outsider. And I'm preaching to myself as much as anyone else, because I can trick myself into believing that I have a whole system that explains why I'm right about how I act towards people. But when I stand in front of Jesus and he says, what did you do for the least of these among you? Do I want to say, I did everything I could with what I had, or do I want to present to him a spreadsheet? I think I just want to do everything I can, right? And I think I just. You know, we get all jammed up, right, because we'll pass somebody on the street and they have a sign that says, like, you know, need help, need food. And we're like, I never give them cash because they might use it on drugs. So I always buy them food. I mean. And listen, I understand the thought process, but maybe let God worry about what they do with the cash that you give them. You know what I mean? Maybe just be obedient to what God has told you to do. To love them, to care for them, to reach out to them. And, you know, if they choose to sin with that, okay, yeah, it's not what you want, but I think sometimes we get jammed up, and you can see. You see, like, the type of apathy that this crowd had slipped into doesn't come all at once, right? It's not like they had one town council meeting and they were like, we're just not gonna worry about that guy. He's gonna cut himself by the tombs. He's gonna yell sometime. It's gonna be okay, right? They got there bit by bit, right? It was like, hey, did you hear guy yelling last night? Yeah, we went out. He tried to. He tried to fight Tim, and. And it was really scary. And so we're just not gonna. We're gonna bring more guys next time. We're gonna bring some chains. He broke out of the chains. We're gonna kind of try to stop messing with him, right? Like. And you could see how, like, little by little, they talked themselves into where somebody would come in and they would go, hey, is anybody gonna do anything about that guy? And they're like, yeah, it's just the town crazy guy. We were just gonna let him be the town crazy guy. He keeps to himself, you know, nobody ever bothers him. He never, you know, he kind of bothers us, but it's okay. And you could see how they slipped into this kind of apathy of we just, you know, we're just kind of showing up and we're just not going to worry about that. And friends, we do the same thing, right? Like, I could turn on the news at any moment and I could learn about a thousand unimaginable, horrific things that are happening around the world, right? And if I go on the Internet, I can find 10,000 more, right? And it's too much for us to process. So what we could do is we could develop this mindset because we. Well, I can't really do anything, so I'm not going to do anything. And I'm just going to kind of float along. And do you see how we can become, like, this crowd where we go. Our job is to just kind of survive and show up and just kind of go one day after another. And, like, as much as we look at this crowd and we find them embarrassing, we can slip into their same mindset. And we could fail to see the ways that Jesus would work in the people around us because we assume, well, those people are on the outside. And I want Jesus to work with the people I want Jesus to work with. And so the challenge of this story is that we would avoid that kind of apathy, that we would ask God to open our eyes to the needs around us, that we would ask God to turn us into people of compassion. And it is harder to live that way. It is more dangerous to live that way. And that is why it has to be an ongoing practice of saying, jesus, make me more compassionate. Help me to see people that the way that. Sorry. Help me to see people the way that you see them. So if you're not a Christian, So if you are a Christian today, the questions for you are, are you telling your story? Are you telling people the way that Jesus has worked in your life? Are you finding ways to work into conversation the way you have seen Jesus work and the way you have seen Jesus move? And secondly, do you have any traces in you of the apathy of that crowd that you could work out where you could say, jesus, make me more compassionate, make me more caring, make me the type of person who would go to the outside of the Outside and care for that person in need instead of being so concerned for my safety and my peace and my rhythms that I would slip into, you know, not really worrying about the people on the outside. And if you're not sure how you feel about Jesus, you know, I never know in a room kind of where everybody's at. Do you know that he's already taken every step to you? That he has offered you life and peace and grace and hope? And that he has offered you a life giving relationship with him? And he stands at the doorway of your heart and knocks and simply all you have to do is stop resisting his work in your life. Because that is the truth of the gospel. The truth of the gospel is that even if I am all the way on the outside like this man, Jesus has come the whole way to me and that he has come even beyond that, that he has forgiven every sin, that he has made me right with him and he has given me peace and purpose and joy that are found in him. And if we are on the outside looking in, Jesus would let us know that the only thing stopping us from a relationship with him is simply saying, yes, Jesus, your way, not mine. Let's pray together. As David comes back. Pastor David comes back. Lord, we thank you for this truth. We thank you that, Lord, you are gracious and kind and welcoming to us. And we rejoice in that. And as we rejoice in that, Lord, I pray that you would help us to be the people that go and tell. That we would go and tell our story, that we would share the ways you have worked in our lives with the people around us and with the people beyond around us. And Lord, I pray that you would root out the apathy that can so easily slip in. God help me to. And maybe I'm just praying this for myself not to assume anybody else is here, but help me to knock off the calluses, Lord, that. That. That I can. That my. That my spiritual skin wouldn't be so hardened that I have a systemic answer for everything that I don't do. In your name, I pray that you would humble me and help me to see people the way that you see them. And that is. That is painful and difficult. And that is. That is challenging. And that is. That is a life where I always look at a need and feel like, man, I won't be able to do enough while I'm breathing air on this earth. But Lord, give us your eyes to see the people around us. Give us your eyes to see the houses that touch this property. And the people in, the people in immediate distance of this church and beyond. Help us to follow you into the outside of the outside of the outside, into those people that you love so, so much that you desire to be told that there is a God who has taken 100% of the steps to offer them hope and peace in life. You've done that for us, Lord. Help us to do it for others. And finally, Lord, if we are. If any of us are on the outside of your love, Lord, I pray that today would be the day that we let you in, that we become your follower and we say, jesus, your way, not mine. And as we worship together, Lord, I pray that your spirit would work on our hearts and make us a little bit more like you today. We ask all this in your name. Amen.