Jesus' Authority

I assume many of us have or know someone who does have a nativity scene, that is the birth of Christ scene in either a figures or a picture. It's interesting, there's a pretty expected who's involved there. You've got Jesus in the manger, or some actually leave him out until Christmas Day. You've got Mary Joseph. You don't have a drummer boy, most likely. You shouldn't. But you always have, or you typically have, shepherds and angels. Sometimes livestock there in the, in the, in the picture. But as I think about that, I want you to see there that, that what's gathering there in the Nativity scene, what's gathering there at the birth of Christ is heaven and earth. The angels come to see their creator being born a man, and the shepherds and the animals, they're there as well. We see their heaven and earth coming to see the one most significant event in history, God, their creator, being part of creation. I highlight that because during the season we do see this happening, but I also want to mention Heaven and earth are two very significant categories we as Christians need to understand. Genesis 1, in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. And in Revelation 21, the end of the Bible, and I saw a new heavens and a new earth. Well, we see here two realms. We know of the earthly realm, we live here, we're part of it, we're spirit, we're physical, we're physical beings in many ways, but humans have a soul spirit as well. But the other realm, it appears to be only a spiritual realm. Angels, demons, they're powerful. What we think about at Christmas, he, Jesus Christ, became a little lower than the angels, having taken upon human flesh. The, the order of being, or the spiritual beings, angels and demons, they're greater than humans or physical. We know of one particular demon. That is Satan. He's a liar, an accuser, a murderer. He's the one who not only led the rebellion in the heavens, but he's the one who instigated the rebellion here on earth. So we have to understand God created every being, spiritual, physical. They were all created good, but a rebellion has taken place so that the heavens and the earth are both marred. This morning we're gonna think about Jesus Christ as the Lord of heaven and earth. We're going to see he is the one who is the creator of all, and he's the one who is come to reign over all. Now, as we get into this, I do want to take C.S. Lewis' warning very seriously. Something, it's a fascinating little fun read, challenging read, the screw tape letters. As we think about demons, as we're about to get into that part of the text in a little while, He says, there are two equal and opposite errors into which our race can fall about the devils. One is to disbelieve in their existence. The other is to believe and to fill an excessive unhealthy interest in them. They themselves are equally pleased by both errors and hail a materialist or a magician with the same delight. We cannot deny there's this other realm where another battle is taking place. But we also need to make sure we're standing firm on what the Word of God says. As you heard the text read, our first text 4.35 through 41, we see there Jesus has all authority on earth. He makes the storm stop. Second 5.1 to 20, he has all authority in heaven. The demons are destroyed. Let us turn first to chapter 4, 35. Jesus has authority on earth. He provides peace in the storm. Now, chapter 4, the first part of it, Mark takes a break from the typical narrative and he shares a number of the teachings of Jesus. Here we jump right back into the narrative on that day after he's done with the teaching. Evening had come. Now, I need to remind you, Mark is not one of the disciples who's walking with Jesus during the time of his ministry on earth. But I want you to see there's a lot of eyewitness-like material in this story. The way the church has often understood the gospel of Mark is that Mark is walking alongside of Peter, and Peter is helping him write this gospel. And I think it's significant that we see an eyewitness-like kind of account here. What time of day it is. Where they're at. There's details that an eyewitness would have access to. Mark wasn't there, but he has that access. Now, now, Jesus, he's been teaching the disciples, remember, he's pulled them in. These truths are for you. They're not for everyone who's on the outside. And we look. We ask, why did he cross the sea? Well, it's to get to the other side. Let us cross to the other side. There is a drummer boy. Verse 36. And leaving the crowd, they took him with them in the boat as he was. It seems as if it's an immediate. There's no packing. They're going across the sea, and it's important to recognize they're going to the Gentile area. They're going to another side of the sea. It would feel like the other side of the world to them because they're not among the Jews, they're gonna be among the Gentiles. And they don't pack, they don't plan, they all get into a boat and they go just as he is. And it even appears the disciples are somewhat taking control of how this is gonna happen. And that makes sense because half of them are fishermen. Verse 37, this is where the tension in the story begins. A windstorm arose and the waves were breaking into the boat so that the boat was already filling. Apparently, the sea is somewhat like Florida, where a storm can just happen out of nowhere at any time. It makes sense, if you know the topography here, because the heat from the sea would be coming up, and the cold from the mountains that surround the sea, that would create a storm out of nowhere sometimes. And so all of a sudden, a storm has risen. And it's surprising here, again, Most of these men are fishermen. Some of these men are fishermen. This windstorm appears to be unusually dangerous. The waves are breaking over the boat. The boat is filling with water. And I understand how Matthew the tax collector could be freaking out, but the fishermen, they've probably been here before. But they're all terrified except for one. Verse 38. But he, that is Jesus, was in the stern, asleep on the cushion. Now, he's just finished teaching all day long. Confession, one of my favorite things to do after preaching is to go take a nap. It feels good, it's exhausting. The kind of intellectual, emotional energy that takes place to teach it, a nap is good, But even more interesting here, the only time you ever see Jesus sleeping is in the middle of a storm. Now I'm sure he slept other times. He's a human being. He, he, he slept. He rested. But the only time the Gospels record him sleeping are in the middle of a storm. He's in the stern. He's asleep on a cushion. Verse 38. Second half. And they woke him. And they said to him, listen how they jump to conclusions in what they say to Jesus. Teacher, OK, that seems OK because we just heard a number of parables. He's really been emphasizing his rabbi role here. That seems respectful. Rabbi, do you not care that we are perishing? Now if we go back a little bit, they've seen Jesus heal a paralytic, cast demons out, teach with all authority, invite sinners in, confront the scribes, make them look silly with their own arguments. They've seen Him do great things that show great power, and they're jumping to a conclusion that they're in real danger. They don't yet understand they're with the One who has created all things. So they're not recognizing who He is. The other part of what they've jumped to a conclusion is they see His inactivity as a sign that He doesn't care. I mean, listen to that. Think about how this would roll over you if your kids just jumped to this conclusion because you didn't act immediately upon some need. Do you not care? These disciples are not really acting like they're on the inside learning the truths of God. Now, now, it's, it's, it's a bit of a sarcastic statement they're making. It's, it's, it's harsh. It's, it's disrespectful. Do you, do you not care? Do you not see what's going on? It's pretty amazing how they're treating Jesus here. I just want to pause here. Jesus isn't scared of how you want to talk to Him. Now, we should go and recognize He's God, so we want to speak to Him in a respectful way. But if you read some of the Psalms, the way Jesus and God invite us to speak to Him very honestly is encouraging. And what's even more amazing about this correspondence isn't how disrespectful the disciples are. It's how Jesus responds, not to them. He awoke. and rebuked, and I would think the, the object of rebuking were the disciples, but no, he, he doesn't say anything to them. He rebukes the wind. And he said to the sea, peace. Be still. This is, there's a language, like he didn't even speak to a demon. It means be muzzled. Peace is a significant category. It means to be whole, to be sound, to be made right. Peace, stop. Be right again. Be still, be muzzled, shut up. And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm. They were not going to perish. But Jesus, their teacher, spoke to the wind, spoke to the sea, and a windstorm that felt like it was going to bring them down ended. Now some want to make a show that somehow Jesus is like Jonah here because there's sleeping, there's a calming, there's a sacrifice. I'm not sure about that, but I think our call to worship is certainly connected to this passage. He says to be quiet to the storm. At least Psalm 107 is pointing us to this very story. Notice after he calms the storm, he then speaks to them. Verse 40. Now he turns to the disciples. Why are you so afraid? Have you still no faith? And notice there's a contrast. There's faith and there's fear. And the word faith here is, or the word fear here, it is different than the word fear for 41, right? So when he asked afraid, that's a different Greek word than in 41. In 41, it comes from the word phobos, right? A phobia, we understand that word. We have arachnophobia. We're scared of things. The word afraid here in verse 40 actually has more to do with a wavering, weary, faint heart. A cowardice. It's the kind of fear that isn't a reverence or a terror. It's more just a weakness. There's no, there's no ballast. There's a faintness to it. How long are you gonna continue on in this weak state, in this being turned to and fro? Have you no faith? Have you no trust in who I am? And then verse 41, and they were filled with great fear. Now they're terrified. Who is this? that even speaks to the wind and the sea and they obey him. As we think about each story, we're gonna ask two questions first. Who is Jesus in this story? First, he has authority to tell the storm to stop. He has power over this creation. He is the one who created this earth. He has control over all aspects of it. He has amazing power. If we think about his power as a creator, go back to Genesis 1. How did God create? He spoke it. He spoke this creation into existence. When we think about his power and justification, how does God, how does God make us righteous? declares it. That there's something we have to recognize about the power of the Word of God. Right here, He speaks to the sea and the wind, and they obey His Word. There's something powerful about the Word of God and flesh now in Jesus Christ. Now as we think about the storm and how it affects the disciples, We really like Him to exercise His power like this more often. God, would you please settle down the storms? Would you please fix these circumstances? Can you change what's going on all around about me? I'm terrified. We recognize that Jesus is always speaking a word of peace, but it is not always changing the circumstances we're asking Him to speak, to change. He oftentimes leaves us in whatever problems we're in for our own good. When you recognize He's the one who speaks a word of peace. We can go to Romans 8. Creation is groaning for more of this word to be declared by Jesus. The creation is groaning to be renewed and reconciled. We ourselves, we need peace. We need peace with ourselves. There's an unsettledness within our own hearts. There, there, we need peace with others. There's, there's unreconciliation going on. We need peace with God. The true peace. the clear beginning point of peace that Jesus Christ has come to bring. So how to respond? Well, there's two clear responses in this passage. There's the wavering fear, which is really our natural response, and then there's faith. The fear Jesus is confronting them, do you not yet believe? Why are you afraid? He's addressing them. They're the Lion and the Wizard of Oz. Right? He needs courage. He has no ballast. He has no... The Lion, he thinks he needs to go to the man behind the curtain to provide courage. He tries to find it himself. He can't. What you see here is Jesus is saying, if you want to have faith, don't look inside. Don't look for magical solutions. Look to me. Jesus speaks. He's healed a paralytic. He's destroyed demons. He's going to die on the cross. He now sits at the right hand of the Father. This is the, the faith building up truth that believers need. Alas, we become faint. We become weary. The natural inclination of these disciples, even though they're with Jesus and they've seen His miracles, waiver, to be tossed to and fro. Jesus calls them out of that fear and into faith. He says, look at me. See what I can do. Hear my words and, and trust me. So Christian, I want to encourage you this morning. I want to challenge you. How do you grow from fainting to faith? Walk closely with Jesus. Listen and learn. Be a disciple who longs to be with Jesus in the midst of the times that seem easy, so that in the midst of the times that seem like trials, you're going to actually look to Him in the midst of it. There's a hard truth out there for many of us. Fainting may never stop. You can look to Charles Spurgeon, one of the great preachers of all times. And you'll see in his journals regular seasons of what we would call depression, but he called fainting. A weariness, a downtrodden soul. It's so easy to get there, but we didn't realize Jesus died so that we would not stay there. He rose again to lift us up. We so easily turn faint of heart. We could look to Christ and ask him, help my unbelief. I believe there's two ways in which we normally respond to a trial. We either look at the storm and we grow faint, or we look to Jesus and we grow in faith. Brothers and sisters grow up in faith by looking to Jesus. The first thing we see is he's the Lord of creation. The second longer story, we'll spend more time here, he is the Lord of heaven. Chapter five, verse one. And as they've come to the other side of the sea, to the country of the Gerasenes, Jesus has stepped out of the boat. And remember, as we've walked through Mark, the word immediately is a, is a trigger. It's a trigger word. Whenever it immediately shows up, you need to be looking, because something had to happen. Immediately they met him out of the tombs, a man with an unclean spirit. The Greek word here is demonized. A man who has been tormented in a unique way by a demon, and he's coming up out of the tombs. Okay, that's the story, and then we take a break for a few verses because Mark's going to give us background on who this man is. So who is this man coming out of the tombs as an unclean spirit? Verse three. He lived among the tombs. All right. This will be considered unclean for the Jew and just kind of weird for anybody. There's a living man who has a residence among the dead. You don't live among tombs. He's taking his residence up among the dead in the graveyard. Verse 3 continued, no one could bind him anymore, not even with a chain. For he'd often been bound with shackles and chains, but he wrenched the chain apart, and he broke the shackles in pieces. No one had the strength to subdue him. Over and over again, they tried to control this man, the community, his parents, his friends, his neighbors. They would try to subdue him. They would try to bind him and shackle him because he would hurt himself. He cut himself, verse 5, night and day in the tombs of the mountains. He was always crying out and cutting himself with the stones. There's a self-destructiveness and they tried to bind him to stop him, but he has been overcome with a demon so that he now has the strength of a demon and no one could bind him. Remember Mark 3? Jesus said unless you bind the strong man, you can't plunder his house. This village is powerless against this demonic attack. No one had the strength to subdue him. That is important to recognize the emphasis there of Mark. No one has been able to subdue this man who is an unclean spirit. He's causing harm to himself. He's an outcast in society. He's living among the dead. And he is more powerful than everyone else. Verse 6 gets us back into the narrative. Verses 3 to 5 were a background on who he is. And when he saw Jesus from afar, he ran and fell down before him. And crying out with a loud voice, he said, now, now this is interesting because the man is moving. He's, he's running down. It appears to be his actions. He's speaking. But he has an unclean spirit. He's demonized. He is under the control of these evil spirits, these demons. Crying out with a loud voice he said, what have you to do with me? We've seen this question before. We saw it in Mark 1 24. What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? This is what the demons are asking as Jesus is coming. And I don't know if the demons are able to see immediately that he's the Son of God in the flesh, or if somehow they have a communication system that they've all sort of talking, somebody's here and he's not too good of news for us. Whatever it is, he immediately sees who Jesus is, he immediately runs down to him, and he immediately asks, what have you to do with us? And notice how the demon addresses Jesus by name. He already knows who he is, Jesus. He knows who he is especially, the Son of the Most High God. He recognizes his creator. He recognizes the second person of the Trinity as we know. The Father, the Son, Holy Spirit. He recognized Jesus is the one by whom he was created. He also recognizes, I believe, here in the Son of the Most High. Here's the one promised to Eve who's going to crush us. What do you have to do with us? I adjure you, by God, Kind of an odd way of speaking to Jesus as a demon. I adjure you by God, do not torment me. It appears they already know what's going to come, and they're begging in a way. I adjure you by God, don't torment me. Because Jesus was saying to him at that moment, come out of the man, you unclean spirit. Okay, so, so the demon has come. He's, he, Jesus is declaring, come out of him. The Jesus says, I know who you are. He gives his name, your Jesus. He gives him his position, the Son of the Most High. And Jesus seems to be turning around on him. Verse 9. What's your name? And notice the demon doesn't actually give a name. My name is Legion. And in case we might think that is a name, no, it, for we are many. My name is Legion for we are many. A legion would be a thousand plus troops in the Roman army, thousands. And it appears it isn't just Jesus coming face to face with a demon who is more powerful than the village, but it's a thousands of demons that are more powerful than not only this man, but the entire village. Verse 10. He again notice it keeps speaking in a singular even though it's the thousands of demons Controlling him and he begged him earnestly not to send them out of the country Verse 11 Before we move on from verse 10 some think there's something about demons and being territorial Maybe. I'm not sure if that's clearly told here. Maybe it's implied. I'm not sure what that really does for the story because of the location. But it does appear that they want to stay here and torment these people. He begged him, do not send us out of the country. Verse 11. Here's some background. There's a great herd of pigs. They were feeding on the hillside. And the demons, begged him, saying, send us to the pigs, let us enter them. Now, I have no idea when they go into the pigs. That's something we don't understand. Maybe they appreciate the great taste of bacon somehow. I don't know. There's nothing clear about why they would want to go into pigs. It's just clear they know that Jesus is going to have his way and that they are going to have to leave this man. They know he's the one who's come to crush them, destroy them, and somehow, in a moment of desperation, send us to the pigs. I don't know why, but here we are. And it's important, verse 13, Jesus gave them permission. They're not given permission to leave the man. They're commanded to leave the man, but then they're given permission. Notice the authority he has. They can only go where he wants them to go. He permits them to go where they've asked. He doesn't send them there. He permits them, it's very intentional. And the unclean spirits came out as he commanded, because they have to obey his authority. And they entered the pigs, because that's where they requested. And then the herd, numbering about 2,000, rushed down the steep bank into the sea and drowned in the sea. It is assumed here these demons were tormented in this destruction of the pigs, and they were destroyed in the destruction of the pigs. Why do the pigs have to die? That's not really clear. All I can tell you is John MacArthur called this the great swine dive. But what we see here is Jesus exercises his power. The demons have to respond. We have to remember here, pigs are unclean. Tombs are unclean. We're in Gentile land, unclean. The man's possessed by a demon, unclean. And none of this changes how Jesus is going to come and heal this man. This is an odd trip. He comes across the sea. He shows his power to quiet a storm. He comes in this very unclean land, has this very quick interaction, and as we're gonna see, he takes right back off. Jesus is doing his work. step by step, making it very clear who He is. He's Lord of the earth. He is Lord of heaven. Now we have to ask, how will they respond? Verse 14. The herdsmen fled and told it to the city and to the country. And this would be big news. This many pigs, that either was the food supply for the Roman guard there, or maybe for the whole town. That may have been one of their primary incomes. And now they're all in the sea. And the people came to see what it was that had happened. And they came to Jesus. And they saw the demon-possessed man, the one who had, there's the past tense, the legion. He's sitting there. He's clothed and in his right mind. And they were terrified. Time and time again, they tried to bind this man. Time and time again, they tried to help this man. But every time, he overcame them. Over time, they failed, and they had just gotten used to this man being very disruptive in society, being very, very, very scary. He's out of the tombs, he's crying, he's hurting himself, and there's nothing they can do about it. It should have been scary. But now, they see Jesus with a man who was uncontrollable, the man who had a demon, now he's clothed in his right mind. And I think it's the right response. They're terrified. And those who had seen it, that is the event, they described to them what had happened to the demon possessed man, to the pigs. Verse 17. And they begged Jesus, please depart. The demons wanted to stay in this region to continue to torment this people somehow. Jesus destroyed them. Jesus healed this man who had been a difficult part of society for many years that they could do nothing with. And their response to Jesus, the one who has the power over even the demons, please get out of here. We don't want anything else to do with you. That's a sad response. Jesus doesn't let the demons remain in this region to torment them. He frees them, but then they respond seeing, with their own eyes, they're seeing their friend, their cousin, their neighbor, their family member. He's in his right mind. It's good. Would you please go? We've had enough. Nobody seems to be getting what's going on except for one. Verse 18, as Jesus was getting into the boat, the man who had been possessed with demons begged him that he might be with him. That's very intentional language. How has Jesus called every disciple so far? Follow me. Come be with me. Jesus' invitation to the disciples is to be with me. Jesus recognized he's the only son of God. He is the one who has the power over sin and death. He is the one who has the power over earth and over heaven and over the angels. And Jesus' invitation to all the disciples is to be with him. And this man gets it. This man now sees he is in his right mind. He has been healed. Jesus, I want to be with you. No one else. could ever help me. I want to be with you." He doesn't know much. All he recognizes is that the one who can help him is about to leave, and he wants to be with him. And Jesus gives us a bit of a surprising response. He did not permit him, but said to him. Notice the beauty here. It appears to be a new disciple. a Gentile disciple. Go. Go home to your friends and tell them how much the Lord has done for you. Go and share your testimony. How He has had mercy upon you. How you've been treated with such mercy, kindness, grace. It's amazing how this new disciple who's thinking the right way for the first time in a long time responds with such clear obedience. And he went away and began to proclaim in the Decapolis, which is his ten cities, how much Jesus, the Lord, had done for him. And everyone marveled. Who Jesus. The demon's right. He's the Son of the Most High. He is God who created all. He is God whom we've sinned against. He is God who has come down to take away our sin and crush it. The same way... Excuse me. In the same way, of course, is Satan. He's come a little lower. He is still the Creator God with that power, but He's become like us in every way. He delivers us. He delivers us from demons. Now, I don't think most of us are demonized, or any of us maybe, in the way this man was. But I do believe we've all believed a lie from Satan. I believe we've all submitted to a temptation from Satan. I believe we've all believed an accusation against us from Satan. And let me assure you, Jesus has come to give you a word that makes it very clear, here's my truth. Focus on what I say and not the law. Focus on what I have you and not the temptation. Focus on what I've done for you on the cross and that I died to free you and forgive you of all sin. You're no longer guilty. That is the great declaration of justification. We do have an enemy. There is a demonic deception taking place. He wants to lie to you, to confuse you. He wants to tempt you to get you off the way. He wants to accuse you so that you live in that defeated state. But Christ came to give you victory. We need constant healing. We need constant reminding of the truth. We need constant focus on the cross. I want you to see here there are two ways to respond to Jesus who has power over even demons. the first to get as far away from Jesus as possible. If you're not a Christian, that might be you. You like to figure out how to have a stiff-armed approach to Jesus and anything like him. You have your distance. Maybe you come here week by week because your parents beg you. Maybe you're someone interested, but you keep a safe distance and you know how to do that. And you're like this crowd who has the opportunity to hear more from the God who can save them from their greatest enemy, but you instead keep saying, no, I need my safe distance. I need Jesus away from me because I'm afraid of what he might ask of me. What Jesus asks of you is that you confess your sins to be forgiven and free. What Jesus asks of you is to come to Him who can give you peace and rest. What Jesus asks of you is to come to Him and to know that God who has given new life and who truly loves you. That's what Jesus asks of you. And yet out of fear of losing control of your own life, you keep your stiff arm up and keep Jesus at a safe distance. That is the most dangerous distance you could ever imagine because you will die and suffer in eternity under your sin, under the wrath of God, if you keep putting Jesus at what you think is a safe distance that is a dangerous distance. Hear the invitation. Be like this man who's in his right mind. I want to be with you, Jesus. I recognize there's nothing I can do to fix my sin. I recognize that no matter how many times I've tried to do some kind of a self-help to remove my sin, no matter how many times I've tried to fix my life and put it on the right track, I always go back to whatever this problem is. Recognize Jesus is the only one who can truly heal you of your sin. Let's just set aside the demons right now. The things that go on in our hearts. The lack of peace and rest we have in our own hearts. The unsettled disposition we have. Jesus is the one who settles that. He's the one who brings peace. He is the Lord of mercy. Come to Him and believe. Christian, we should all long to be more like this man. One, he knows the only thing he needs to do is be close with Jesus. We should be longing to be with Jesus. Two, be obedient. I was convicted this week because a handful of people who have been here for the last eight years with me said they never heard my testimony before. That's a shame on me. How could I not be telling you how the Lord's been merciful to me? Is that something that's just wrong with us and that we need to recognize? Are we not sharing what the Lord has been doing in our lives enough? That's the command of the man in his right mind. I kind of wanted this opportunity. Find folks who may not know you and share their testimony. No, better yet, go and ask for their testimony. Make them do this. Find out how the Lord has been dealing merciful with one another, so that we can rejoice with one another, so we can be encouraged with what God's doing to one another. Sharing our testimony is a great way to share the faith, but it's also a great way to build up the body with what the Lord has been doing to me, how he's had mercy on me and how he's had mercy on you. I'll conclude with just a final charge. If you look to Ephesians 6, You'll actually see the strategy for Paul and how we as Christians fight spiritual warfare, enter into spiritual warfare today. It's clear we have to know we're in a fight. This world is not a playground, it's a battlefield, to quote Tozer. Notice that there's a command there in Ephesians 6, be strong in the Lord because He is the victor. He is the one who gives us the strength to fight the battle. And the command over and over again not just in Ephesians 6, but in numerous places where demonic attacks are mentioned, stand firm in the Lord. It's like a ship. It has to have ballast. Standing firm in the Lord gives you a depth of understanding of who Christ is, what he's done, and that all victory is his. That is how you overcome the evil one. You know the truth to defeat the lie. You know what Christ has done to defeat the accusation. You know what he's called you to to overcome the temptation. Stand firm in the Lord. As we conclude, He is the Lord of heaven and earth. He has this great victory. He has power over the earth and over the heavens. And I would just as I wrestled with this text, as I wrestled with the implications of being able to trust the One who commands us, I have all authority on heaven and earth. That's His words to us in Matthew 28. It's amazing, as I thought, what if every Christian actually got how much authority Jesus has in this good news that's supposed to bring great joy, and what if we actually all lived submissive to this Lord? Well, what if we lived in this victory that He has just given a taste of, of renewing creation and of conquering Satan and sin and death? What if we actually lived in the victory of rather than submitting to the defeat of a faint heart? What if we embraced a faith that sought to grow, that Jesus came to be like us, to die for our sins so we can be forgiven and rise again so that we can live victoriously in his new life? Will you pray with me? Father, we thank You that You have sent Your Son. Jesus, we praise You, the Son of the Most High God, that You have not left us alone. You speak words of victory. You have given us Your victory. You have declared us Your righteous ones in Your unrighteousness. You've declared us not guilty. Help us, Lord, to no longer fear those accusations. Lord, you've given us your law. Help us, Lord, to love, to live in, and adore, and walk in that law. Lord, we thank you that you invite us to be with you, to walk in your victory, to walk in your love, to know that you are our Lord. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Amen.