What a great day today. Are you appreciative of our worship team, our tech teams? Can we show some thanks? I want to draw your attention to something that's coming up at the end of the month called Invitation Sunday, and we've never done this before. But when you think about the greater Auburn region, we have 10 churches that are joining together to all invite family and friends on October 31st. Now, everyone's gonna be at their own churches, but already 10 churches are in and united to do this together. We're thinking about every man, woman, and child in the greater Auburn area, and how easy it is for us just to invite someone with an invite card or personal invitation. And I looked at three different surveys, and did you know that if someone's invited personally, there's over 70% chance that they will come with you to church? Incredible. It's just one invitation and God can change a life. So think about this date, October 31st, and what God's going to do. Start to pray now. Think about who you could invite. It's great to invite every weekend. This is a special time when all the churches in Auburn are doing this together. Many churches in Auburn are doing this together. We're going to invite our city. A lot of people are isolated. People may be thinking about God, wondering are there any churches out there. We're going to extend a personal invitation. Coming up, October 31st. So we're excited about that. Also, as we reach out, we also want to reach in. And we realize there's a lot of people in our church family who have lost jobs. And I want to remind you, if you're going through a difficult time financially right now, we have a Good Samaritan Fund. And that's what it's there for, is to care for people. You know, thinking about a lot of people in our church family right now, in between jobs, don't have a job. Financially, things are stressful. We're walking together. Good Sam Fund. Today is a special day for a couple reasons. One reason is that we have some of our international partners with us today, Ted and Renate. The Rubeshes are here. If they would go ahead and stand. There they are. Let's give it up. Let's give it up. They are serving God in Sri Lanka. They have come a long ways, probably a little further than your commute today. They have come a long ways, and they have so many incredible stories about what God's doing. After our second service in Grace Cafe, there's an opportunity to meet and greet and hear some of those stories, be encouraged in your faith. Also today, we have a time of prayer, a time of healing, anointing with oil. And this comes right from the Bible, James chapter 5. The Bible says that if anyone needs healing, come to the elders. The elders will pray and anoint with oil. That's what we're going to do at the end of this message. And we do this several times a year. We're following the scripture. Also, God said, let my house be a house of prayer for all nations. And you think about the diversity of generations, ethnicities in our church, coming to God in love, one family coming, because we all need healing. And God has set it up. It's God's design that we pray, that we anoint with oil, and that the elders, the elders are leaders of our church, and they're not on staff, they're not paid, they're serving, we're grateful for them, and part of their role is to pray for healing. That's going to happen today. You're going to have an opportunity at the end of the message, as the elders will be across And from the stage here, you'll just be able to slip up, ask for healing right up your aisle or row. We're going to be having a time of prayer, and God answers prayer. We have seen God provide, God heal, God strengthen, God restore. Too good not to believe. We're so grateful for what God is doing. and what he'll continue to do today. So that's where we're going, and right now you can open up to Mark chapter two. We're in a series called Move Beyond, and today we're talking about moving beyond religion. More specifically, let's move beyond a religious mindset. Mark chapter two, we're gonna start in verse 23. Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Father God, you are our healer, your refuge, you're our strength. God, we find our joy in you. God you bring restoration and we give you all the glory. We don't have that power but you do. God we pray that you would change our mindset, change our relationships, change our heart in any way that doesn't honor you. God it's so easy to fall into a religious trap. and miss the encounter with you, Jesus. We pray that we would seek you together, and as we do, God, we lift you up, and we thank you that you draw us to yourself now, Jesus. We pray in your name, amen. When you follow Jesus one of the most important steps is to move beyond an unhealthy religious mindset. And that unhealthy religious mindset can be so deep and destructive. And today we're going to identify it, unpack it. We want to obliterate it and move beyond together as we seek Jesus together. We're going to compare and contrast from this scripture a religious mindset with a Jesus encounter. Which one do you want? You get to choose today, a religious mindset or a Jesus encounter. They were choosing then, and we're choosing today. Now let's take a look at chapter 2, starting in verse 23. And you might be thinking, what is a religious mindset? Here it is. It's a way of thinking that appears very religious, but it's actually rebellion against God. Let me say that again, it's a way of thinking, it appears so religious, it's actually rebellion against God. And the Pharisees have this mindset. Let's take a look at verse 23. One Sabbath, Jesus was going through the grain fields, and as his disciples walked along, they began to pick some heads of grain. The Pharisees said to him, look, why are they doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath? Now, Pharisees were religious leaders, again, the epitome of a religious mindset. And on the one hand, they were very respected. They had official positions, and they had a lot of knowledge. They really knew the Bible, and they had a lot of morality. And sometimes they were very well-intentioned. That's all true of the Pharisees. The irony is that there was a lot of hypocrisy. They had the form of religion, but not the power. They weren't abiding with God, and so they had a lot of self-righteousness, and they were self-absorbed. This is who the Pharisees are, an interesting mixture. Now the context, Jesus walking with the disciples and they're hungry. Jesus was hungry. Jesus was human and God. He got tired. He took naps. He was hungry. The disciples were hungry. So they found some grain, the heads of grain on the Sabbath. And what did the Pharisees say with their religious mindset? Two words stand out to me. Look, unlawful. Let's all say those two words together on the count of three. One, two, three. Look, unlawful. That's the religious mindset that Jesus was going to have to deal with in this passage. And let's begin with their claim that this is unlawful. Well let's go to the law and what did God say? Here's a couple of verses that are relevant and extremely important in the Old Testament and they were familiar with the law. Exodus chapter 34 verse 21 says that you work for six days and you rest for one even during the harvest. Now why would God say work for six rest for one even during the harvest? Because during the harvest it might have been tempting to work all seven. And for the farmers this would protect them from greed because they could think you know if I work a seventh day I just make more money and I'll get what I want materially. God says no work six. Take the break for the one. In addition to that, you're not going to get burned out. God is always protecting and providing. Whenever God brings a law or command is to protect and provide, he's protecting people from burnout, from losing perspective in this world and having idolatry as your job. And also, he's protecting the laborers. The farmers could say, everybody works seven, and then the laborers got to do it. So no, protect the laborers. Let them rest. Let them have a day with God. Let them have a day of rest and enjoying family. This was God's design, Exodus 34, 21. Here's a second verse, Deuteronomy 23, 25. It says, when you're in your neighbor's grain field, you can pick some kernels with your hand But don't use a sickle. This is so reasonable. In other words, if you're walking through, your neighbor's got a grain field, go ahead and have a snack. You can grab some grain, rub it together, you can have a snack, but don't grab the sickle. Enjoy the snack, but don't steal the harvest from your neighbor. That's what God says. Leviticus 19.9 is the third verse. When you're harvesting, don't go all the way to the edge. And if any grapes fall, just let them be there on the ground. Don't pick up all the extra grapes. Well, why wouldn't you harvest to the very edge? Why would you leave some margin? Why wouldn't you grab every grape? Well, the Bible says there are people who are poor, and they don't have anything. So by leaving some of the harvest there on the edge, they can get a snack. They can grab a few grapes. Think about people who are poor. Think about people who are from other countries, the verse says. It might be struggling in their new country. Let them have some at the edge of your property. And that shows God's compassion and it shows God's generosity. And it's not all just me and my harvest. There's a looking around for the needs in the community. And you take those three passages together and what they add up is that Jesus and the disciples, according to the law, were just fine. They were not violating the law in any way. When the claim is, look, they're unlawful, it's an accusation that's false, the devil is the accuser of the brethren, it's a false accusation, within the law, they are perfectly, they're walking with God. But the issue isn't the law here, it's the interpretations and the multiplication of rules and regulations. And ultimately it's a system that a religious mindset will form. It's a suffocating system that comes from a religious mindset and that's what they've stepped into. Francis Schaeffer says it this way, without the infinite personal God, all a person can do is make systems. What a terrible substitution for a relationship with the infinite personal God. All the person can do is make systems, some sort of structure, some type of limited this framework in which he or she lives. Ultimately shutting themselves up in that framework and not looking beyond it. When you remove this relationship with this infinite healing God, all you can really set up is a religious framework with rules, maybe some rituals, try to create that framework, push God out of the way, live within it, and you're really trapped within it, and you get quite angry with anyone else that won't perfectly fit in your format in your system. And that was the tension in this passage. Now, let's really unpack, and as we do this, here's six characteristics, I think, of a religious mindset. And you might think of some experiences you've had, that's okay, but really, let's ask God to search our hearts to see if we're carrying today some of this religious mindset that's destructive and unhealthy. Here's six characteristics. Number one, they major on the minors and they hinder the teachable. hindering the teachable. These disciples haven't been walking with Jesus for 30 years or 20 years. It's kind of newer in the faith. And yes, they're eating some grain on the Sabbath. And the religious people who have, again, morality and they know the Bible, they don't walk with God, but they know about God. What do they do? They make this Sabbath snack thing massive. They take a minor, Sabbath snacks, and they blow it up massive. And all of a sudden the minor becomes the major and everyone's judged and judged falsely as well. I'll tell you, this is a temptation during COVID to make minors massive. Now, we want to be aware, biblical, prayerful, loving. Yes, we got tough decisions. We need God's wisdom, absolutely. But just be careful you don't blow one little thing out, and next thing you know, you're not even talking to your spouse because there's a little difference on a COVID view, right? So this can happen today. Here's the second characteristic. Tries to control Jesus. A religious, unhealthy mindset tries to control Jesus every time. And this is something we can all fall into very easily, is a sense of entitlement for them. And without even realizing it sometimes, we'd say, no, Jesus, you did do that. You can't do that. You can't actually say that. You don't mean that. This is when you're going to work. This is how you're going to do it, Jesus. And pretty soon, we're driving and telling Jesus that we're leading. In that sense of entitlement, instead of he's the Lord, let's trust him. Let's trust him and follow him. Even if it's countercultural, counterintuitive, he knows best. That was the tension of the religious mindset. Here's the third one. They do not see past personal preferences. They take personal preferences and try to impose them on everyone. Have you ever seen that? Take a personal preference, try to impose it on everyone because it's what I like and I know it's best and I know it's best for everyone. So everyone needs to do it my way. That was their MO. That was their way that they would walk through it. In addition to that, they also think, well, I'm better and I'm more holy. My preferences are better. I'm better. I'm more holy. Everyone should do it just like how I want it. That was how they approached it. And then the next one, they value traditions and opinions over revelation. Revelation is the scripture. That's our truth source. But they would move scripture out of their way and bring in the traditions, bring in the opinions, and really elevate those above scripture. A classic line is, well, it's because we've always done it this way. Well, if it always lines up with the Bible, then it's good. Listen, we'll always have water baptism. Keep that tradition. We'll always have communion. Keep that tradition. Those are biblical traditions. That's not what we're talking about here. We're talking about man-made traditions that people turn into idolatry and they move away from Scripture. Number five, they criticize healthy freedoms. They want to control. A religious mindset wants to control people, wants to control environments. All about control. And so the freedoms that they have to snack on the Sabbath, they're gonna try to wipe out and criticize those freedoms. And they're really complaining. This is the fruit of a religious mindset. Complaining. Show me in the scripture where complaining comes from God. A religious mindset will result in hypocrisy and complaining. Complaining is the fruit of a religious mindset. And here's the sixth one. It takes something good and taints it. The Sabbath is so good. We need rest. What do they do? They taint it. It becomes a burden. It becomes controversy. They're going to twist something that's good and they're going to taint it and they're going to call what's good wrong. These are all some of the fingers. And you can tell a religious mindset, it's subtle and it's overt. And it's so easy. You know, I think of, and this might minister, maybe you can relate, if you either play sports, have kids in sports or grand, kids in sports, and after they're done on the field, they have these little rubber pellets. Have you seen these little pellets? And when my kids play sports, those pellets end up in their shoes. They end up in their socks. I don't know how, but they end up on our entryway. They end up in the bedrooms. They end up in my car. I'll clean those pellets out. And it's like, they came back? Where did they come from? I think I've got them all. And there's more. And they just keep coming and coming. And it's like, where are all these rubber pellets coming from? And some people say they're carcinogenic as well. That's a whole other conversation. But these little pellets, it's like, they just sneak in and they get everywhere in the house. And I'm telling you, the religious mindset's a little like those rubber pellets. You don't really say, rubber pellets, come on in, or you can have this one little area. They just creep in and they're in your shorts, they're in the shoes, they're in, you know, I find them in my hair, I find them in the shower, they're just... Well, you know, my would-be hair, I got some hair right there. Anyways, these rubber pellets, they just sneak in. And you know where they like to come in? They like to sneak in church and they like to sneak in religious circles. And pretty soon the religious mindset, you're just like, we got to clear this out. You know what Jesus is doing in this passage? He's clearing out a religious mindset to make space for God. Because it's really hard to have both. The Pharisee is like, we're going to have a religious mindset. Well, then are you going to have Jesus? No, you're probably not going to have much Jesus. You might be around Jesus, but you're not really going to have a Jesus encounter here because you really can't have both. That's the news. And Jesus says, let's drive out, identify, let's obliterate this religious mindset junk so we can have a fresh encounter. The Holy Spirit can move and people can know me, the healer. That's what we want. That's what we want. If we don't, we'll end up with a form of religion, but not the power. We'll end up with a form, but not the Holy Spirit. We'll end up with a form, but not the love. That's what you end up with, with a religious mindset. Now, let's see how Jesus responds. Take a look at verse 25. Jesus answered, and this is brilliant. He's changing the culture. He's clearing out the religious junk. He's changing the culture. It's revival time. This is what he says. Have you never read what David did when he and his companions were hungry and in need? In the days of Abiathar, the high priest, he entered the house of God. They ate the consecrated bread, which is lawful only for priests to eat. And he also gave some to his companions." This is brilliant because Jesus is going to go right to the Bible, their agreed true source. Here it is, like Old Testament passage, this is one they know, consecrated bread, the spirit or the law of that rule, what's really going on here? Jesus is like, you totally miss it. You've got all these regulations, you totally miss God's intention. People were hungry then, they had food then. We're hungry today, we ate food now. And in fact, in both instances, God is saying, that's great. Back then, for David and his companions, when they were on the run, they needed food. Consecrated bread was all there was that saved their lives and provided for them. It was great. Today, the disciples and Jesus, they ate the grain. That's great. In both instances, God is clearly for this. God's approval, convincing clarity. Jesus starts with the Bible and he starts with the specifics. But that's not where he stops. Now he moves it to the next level and he says, well, beyond just the specifics, let's talk about the Sabbath. The Sabbath is a blessing. Why? We're human. We're not robots. We need rest. You say, well, the pace of the culture is so intense. Exactly. We need spiritual rest. We need emotional rest. We need relational rest. We need physical rest. We need rest. We can't just crank it nonstop 24-7. The Sabbath is a gift. The Sabbath is a wonderful gift and it sets a rhythm. Here's a question. When God brings something that's good, why do we so often either reject it or try to overregulate it? God brings the Sabbath. We're either going to say, no, we don't need that Sabbath. That's junk. We don't need to rest at all. We're just going to run hard nonstop. We got technology and education. Now we're going to run hard and just burn ourselves out. Or we want to over-regulate it. Oh, what'd you do in the Sabbath? What, you help someone? You gave out a meal? Oh, I can't believe that. the two extremes. It's kind of like the church. The church is a blessing and a gift from the Lord. So we don't need to reject the church and say, Oh, I'm just doing my own thing. I don't need any church anywhere. And we don't need to overregulate it and churches become legalistic. What about God's grace and salvation? Jesus died on the cross for our sins, our substitute. This is grace not earn, not performance. Don't ever reject it because it's our salvation. And don't ever over-regulate it to say, well Jesus did 80, I do 20. Jesus did 90, I do 10. It's a combination deal. He got it started, I finish it off. No it isn't. It's God's grace. Receive healthy Sabbath. Savior. God's grace. The church. Don't reject. Don't over regulate. And ultimately Jesus moves beyond the specifics. He moves beyond the Sabbath. And this is the big one right here. He is the Lord of the Sabbath. The key in all of this is who is Jesus. He is the Messiah, he's the King of Kings, and he's the Lord of Lords. And he's setting up a kingdom that not even people with a religious mindset and positions can stop. Because his kingdom is one about loving God and loving people. And his kingdom will never be thwarted by a religious mindset. This is who is Jesus, who is the Sabbath, and how do we live this out together. Now, I want to show a picture here of my nephew, Nico. I have one nephew, and this is Nico. He just turned one. He just turned one. Any chance I get to talk about Nico, I'm going to be talking about Nico. So there's Nico. You can tell he's happy. Look what he got for his one-year-old birthday. What more could you ask for? And what's Nico going to do with that cake? What do you think he's going to do? Exactly. He's going to dive into the cake. And you might, you know, if the Pharisees were here, they'd say, where's the napkin? Where's the silverware? I don't see a bib, right? What's Nico thinking? Cake, frosting, birthday, go for it, right? And when you consider this, all right, what's the spiritual side of this illustration beyond just the Nico story? The Bible says in Psalm 34 verse 8, taste and see that the Lord is good. Taste and see that the Lord is good. In this passage, you know what the disciples are saying? The grain? Yes. The Sabbath? Yes. Jesus? Yes. We're saying yes, yes, yes. And the religious mindset says no, no, no. And we choose our relationship with the Lord to enjoy the relationship with the Lord. Let me unpack it this way. Here's some things that are tough to do if you're a Pharisee. They're tough to do if you have a religious mindset. Just continue in this picture in your mind. It's really tough to laugh if you have a religious mindset. The Bible says in Proverbs 31, we trust God and we laugh at the days to come. It's not that there aren't challenges there, but we're trusting God. And because we trust God, we don't take ourselves too seriously. And we realize that God's in control. Jesus is going to return and we can even laugh, like a good belly laugh, not just a ha ha courtesy laugh. But I'm talking about a real laugh. It's really hard to laugh if you have a religious mindset. Here's the second thing. It's really hard to have pure joy. If you have a religious mindset, have you ever noticed it's hard to control people and have joy at the same time? You ever noticed that's really hard to do? You know, they had the ark and they didn't have joy. They had this religious mindset. Well, all we need is the ark. If we have the ark, you know, what about God's presence? Oh, it's not the presence as long as we have the ark. Oh, the ark's here. Great. They just shrunk God's presence down into this, which was a blessing and it was a provision by God, but they went to idolatry and it's like, well, we have the ark. Well, do you have joy? No. Do you have the presence of the Lord? No. But we got the ark. We got the ark. It's hard to have joy. Here's another thing. It's hard to listen when you have a religious mindset. Stephen was the first martyr in the book of Acts. Killed for his faith. You know what the religious leaders did? They put their hands over their ears. He's sharing the gospel. They put their hands over their ears and they yelled all the more. That's a religious mindset. It's hard to listen to other people. It's hard to understand. It's hard to care if you're like a Pharisee. Here's another one. It's hard to dance if you've got a religious mindset. It's really hard to dance. It's really hard to be uptight in a religious mindset and dance at the same time. Who said dance? David danced, David danced, and Mishal, his wife, said, how dare you dance? Don't you know you got a religious mindset and you're a religious person with a big position in this? And he said, I'll become even more undignified than this. Where the spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And I'm going to praise the Lord. Well, it's hard in a religious mindset. Well, it's hard to love if you have a religious mindset. Your love dries up. How are the Pharisees doing in love? Well, you know what the religious leaders said? When Jesus said, love your neighbor, they said, well, who's my neighbor? I mean, how many houses down? Like, how much are you talking about love? What is it? What's the religious rule here? Are you kidding me? Are you kidding me? It is really hard to laugh, to have joy, to listen to people, to dance, and to have love when you got a religious Pharisee mindset. Really tough to do. Now, on the contrast, a Jesus encounter. I was taking one of my kids. We have four kids in soccer. That's a lot of driving. That's a lot of taxi. That's a lot of chauffeur. That's a lot of coordination. My wife and I pray for us. Anyways, we were driving to West Seattle. I took this picture. I thought, how beautiful. Seattle, and I just started to think about the city. And I know there's so many cities, and there's, we've got Auburn and Kent, and you can think of your city, you know, Maple Valley, Sumner. I mean, there's so many cities. This just represents one city. But looking at this city, I just thought, Seattle, the second most de-churched in the nation. How many people got a taste of religious Pharisee stuff and just said, I'm out, and they haven't come back? They haven't come back. Eighth most unchurched. How many people today are just waiting for the football to start, and they're just thinking, church? That's Pharisees. I'd never go in there. Unchurched, just don't know the grace of God. How many millions of people today And what is our role in all of this? To help people from a religious mindset to a Jesus encounter. God has called us to say, come. God has also called us to go and serve. And how do we bless people? How do we reach people who have a misperception of Jesus and have a misperception of the spiritual life? How do you bless people and pray for them, listen to them, eat meals with them, serve and meet their needs, share your story with them? How do you communicate Jesus through your attitude, your actions, and your words in the setting that God has placed us? And the answer is that as much as we need a Jesus encounter, the sound needs a Jesus encounter. every man, woman, and child. But we start today with our own Jesus encounter. And what does this look like? First, in this Jesus encounter, Jesus is gonna bring trustworthy morality. Now, take a look as Jesus says in verse 27, then he said to them, the Sabbath was made for mankind, not mankind for the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath. He's leading them into a Jesus encounter. Here's a couple of characteristics of Jesus encounter. Jesus brings a trustworthy morality, a trustworthy morality. I am a Bible, 100%. Morality in scripture, 100%. Theology of scripture, 100%. The church, I love the church, 100%. A trustworthy morality. What does this mean? Don't add to or subtract from scripture. Don't add to or subtract from scripture. I was talking to two people this week. They don't walk with the Lord but they have perceptions and misperceptions about Jesus followers and what they've experienced from Jesus followers just doesn't seem to match Jesus. And I use this analogy, I'm not saying it's a perfect analogy, but I said if Jesus is the song, there's a lot of garage bands, there's a lot of basement bands trying to do a cover, and sometimes that song is a little rough. It's a little rough. And sometimes the groups of followers of Jesus, two, three, 10, you don't always see Jesus. And that's been their experience. So we're talking about healing and restoration. What I would encourage us to do is repent so we represent him well. How do you represent Jesus well? You repent of sins and a religious mindset so that you're filled with the spirit, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness flows. And in the song they see in you, in the song they hear in you, it sounds a lot like the song of Jesus. And so let's trust his morality, let's not add to or subtract from what the Bible says. And then secondly Jesus provides the rest and refreshment we all need. The Bible says Jesus himself is our peace. Jesus himself is where we go to have peace, rest, and refreshment. The Sabbath is good but Jesus is so much better. You can have a Sabbath of some rest, but not have much of an encounter with Jesus during the Sabbath. And the whole point of church and the whole point of this relationship with God is to have this personal encounter and this intimacy and this connection is to abide with Jesus. And it's every day, not just the Sabbath. There's a lot of people just wondering over the last year and a half, am I ever going to feel alive again? Am I ever going to feel just alive again? And I would say it starts with Jesus. That's where you're going to come to life is abiding with Jesus. That's where it starts. And then he will guide you from there. The third piece is that Jesus displays his greatness in the darkness. He is surrounded by this darkness. the Pharisee's teaching and the Pharisee's religious mindset. He's surrounded and what Jesus does is bring his greatness right in the middle of the darkness. And I want to read, look at chapter three as it continues in the original text. There's no chapter breaks. Look at what Jesus does here at the start of chapter three. Another time, it's not the only time, we have another time. Jesus went into the synagogue. Notice Jesus takes this religious junk. head on. He goes head on into the synagogue. A man was there. Can you picture this man with a shriveled hand in the synagogue? Some of them were looking for a reason to accuse Jesus. Notice that everywhere Jesus goes, The religious folks want to accuse Jesus. They're looking for another accusation against Jesus. So they watched him very closely to see if he would heal him on the Sabbath. Note here, people who don't follow Jesus know he can heal. And they just wondered, would he heal? They know he can heal. Sometimes followers of Jesus, I don't know, does he heal? I don't know. They know. Well, is he gonna heal? This is what Jesus does. Jesus said to the man with a shriveled hand, stand up in front of everyone. Sometimes we just want Jesus to only work off in private. No, Jesus is in the synagogue in front of everyone. He's gonna display his greatness. This isn't private healing. This is going to be a public healing. Then Jesus asked him, which is lawful on the Sabbath, to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill? Is that a tough question or an easy question? What do you do on the Sabbath? You kill people or do you save them? Do you heal them or do you ignore them? Just help me out. Anyone got any ideas on that? I don't know. What do you think? Heal them. Heal them on the Sabbath. Today is Sabbath time. Healing. And the religious leaders remain silent. They weren't going to answer that question. And here's the irony. They're plotting to kill Jesus. Did you catch that irony? They're upset that Jesus is healing publicly on the Sabbath in the gathering. They're so upset that he's healing people. They're starting to think they can kill him. That's where you go. Religious mindset. So he looked around at them. In anger and deeply distressed, does Jesus get angry? Yes, he does. Does he sin? No, he doesn't. At their stubborn hearts, stubborn hearts, Jesus is distressed because the people are so stubborn and they won't repent. He said to the man, stretch out your hand. He stretched it out. His hand was completely restored. Was there a lot of effort? Did they see Jesus sweat and work and do a bunch of things? No. Healing, restoration on the Sabbath. Did they celebrate and praise God? Then the Pharisees went out. They began to plot with the Herodians. Those were the political folks who, you know, linked with Rome. There was a political now linked with the religious. I'm not talking about end times. How they might kill Jesus. And there we have Jesus healing in a Jesus encounter. I want to share what David Wilkerson says. Catch his thinking here. He says, if you see a dog and that dog has an old bone in its mouth, don't grab the bone. Don't grab the old bone. Don't tell him that it's not good for him. He will growl at you. It's the only thing he has is an old bone. But you throw a big fat lamb chop in front of him. He's going to drop the bone. He's going to pick up that lamb chop. His tail is going to be wagging and you've got a friend. Instead of going around grabbing bones from people, I'm gonna throw some lamb chops, something with real meat and some life in it, and I'm gonna tell them about new beginnings. I'm gonna tell them about Jesus. And what Jesus does, and the tension in this room, is who wants a religious mindset? Who wants a Jesus encounter? And nothing's changed from them to today on a Sabbath, in a gathering, where Jesus wants to heal. Who's going to be stubborn with a religious mindset? Who is going to trust God, seek Jesus, and have a Jesus encounter? Yo, subscribe to YouTube channel. Subscribe to this channel.