If you'd join me, please, in Mark chapter 3 in your Bible. The testimonies were wonderful tonight. They were a sermon in themselves. I remember a missionary when I was a boy. I don't remember his name. I don't remember where he was going. I remember he was very tall and skinny. But after we had Sunday dinner, he played football with my brother and I in the front yard. And that's what I remember about him. Just throwing a football around, which was amazing because neither my brother and I ever played football. So maybe he didn't either. So three guys not knowing what they're doing. But anyways. Missionaries can have a great impact on our life, not just missionaries, but anybody who wants to live for the Lord. And just do right, we can have a great impact on the life of others. Mark chapter 3, let me start with, well let me just read one verse. And then I've just got some simple thoughts to share with you tonight. Verse 7, this is what struck me as I read this verse a week or so ago. It just kind of, the concept hit me. It says, But Jesus withdrew himself with his disciples to the sea, and a great multitude from Galilee followed him, and from Judea. following Jesus. Father, would you help us tonight in the few moments that we have? I pray you give me clarity of thought and speech and just some simple thoughts that come from your word might impact us. Help us, please. We thank you for the wonderful testimonies we've heard tonight of the impact your servants have had upon your children, and I pray you might help us to desire to have an impact on others, to be receptive to those who are going to be with us in a few days, that we might allow them to be a blessing to us, and that we might be a blessing to them. Would you guide and direct, please, in Jesus' name, Amen. I want to let the fellows know, like we've done just about every missions conference for quite some time now, Friday morning will be kind of a men's breakfast. We'll gather at Perkins at nine o'clock. And so any of the men of the church who are able to come, it'll be us and the husbands of our guests who are with us. And we'll just have a good time of fellowship and encouraging one another. And we can't go shooting anymore because the range is closed. So that's a bummer, but we can still go for breakfast there, man. We're good Baptists. So we can go get some food and have some fellowship. Amen. Well, following Jesus. This word that's here, it says, they followed him. It specifically has the idea of they're on the same road that he's on. Why are they on the same road or in the same place or they want to be in his presence? What is it that drives them to follow and be with him? Well, there's some things that took place that they saw and they observed. So let's back up a little bit and talk about those who follow Jesus. Those who follow Jesus, sometimes they get to witness His power. Look at verse 1 of this passage. Jesus is in Capernaum. He hasn't left yet. He's kind of back and forth there. It says, "...and He entered again into the synagogue, so that would be the same place he was previously, and there was a man there which had a withered hand. And they watched him, whether he would heal him on the Sabbath day, that they might accuse him. Now, if you look at Luke chapter 6, Matthew chapter 12, read the parallel accounts, you kind of wonder if it's another setup. I'm not sure, in Matthew, they record a question, the Pharisees aren't just watching, they actually ask a question, kind of a leading question, you know, is it right to do work on the Sabbath day? And it's kind of a veiled question, because here's this man who has a withered hand. And I know I've talked about this before, but a withered hand, it's shriveled up. The concept of withered, you know, talks about the grass withereth and the flowers fadeth away. Several times the scripture talks about that. And we know what that looks like in the middle of summer, unless you're irrigating your lawn, what color is your grass? It's brown. It's all dried up. It's brown. Unless you're irrigating and it kind of stays green. But otherwise it kind of withers up and gets brown and crunchy. And it looks terrible. But it comes back when we get to the fall. It turns green again. It goes through its normal cycles. In Revelation chapter 16 it talks about the river Euphrates drying up. making a way for the kings of the East. So what would happen if all the moisture in your arm was sucked out? It gets stiff and shriveled, right? We could ask Cindy, she's a nurse, it would just be, would it be limp or would it be stiff or what would happen to it? I don't either. I don't know. Yeah, hypothetically. I do know in the book of Kings there was a king who reached his hand forth against the prophet who was prophesying and it says his arm withered and he couldn't pull it in again. So at least in that case it was stiff, okay. Every time I read about this man with the withered hand, I think about James, and I've probably mentioned him before. He and his wife, Rosie, were in the church where I was an assistant there in Illinois. And James had had polio, I think, as a little boy. And I think it was his right arm, if I remember right. Is that right, Bridget? Do you remember? Was it his right arm? But it was all kind of like this. And he couldn't use it, he couldn't move it hardly. It was stiff, probably because he had no muscle. The disease had caused it to be shriveled. We don't know why this guy's hand is withered. It says a withered hand, but you kind of get the idea from all the passages that it wasn't just his hand, it probably was part of his arm, because he had to stretch forth his hand when he gets healed. So maybe he's a guy who normally comes to the synagogue. We're not told that. Maybe he's somebody who's been brought to the synagogue. You know, the Pharisees are like, oh, let's see if we can catch Jesus, because that's what they want to do. Hey, you know old Charlie down the street, he's been wanting to go to the synagogue, but he needs somebody to go with him, because he can't open the gate latch or whatever. So let's invite him and we'll kind of plant the stage something. I don't know, we're not told all the details. We just know there's this guy there with Withered and the Pharisees are watching and they know about him. And they ask this question, is it lawful to do good on the Sabbath day? Excuse me, Jesus is responding in verse four. Because they're watching and they ask a question and He knows exactly what they mean. I think it's in Luke where it says that He knew what was going on in their heads. So Jesus has the man stand up. Stand forth it says. And Jesus answers their question with a question. Should you do good or bad? Should you save life or destroy life? I'm paraphrasing of course. And they hold their peace. Well, that's because everybody knows what the answer is. Duh! You should do good, and you should save lives. But they're kind of all wrapped up. Notice in verse 5, it says, "...and he looked around about them with anger." That's not good, for the Lord to be angry with you. That's not a good place to be. He's angry, not just because he has anger issues, but he looks about with anger, it says, being grieved. It's the idea of greatly distressed. He's sighing, he's beside himself. because of the hardness of their hearts. In a couple other places, we read about blindness of hearts. It's the same word. Blindness, hardness, it's like you don't have any feeling. It's like you have no compassion. They're using this man and his condition as an object lesson and a prop for their agenda. They don't care about this man at all. It's like all the other times we've looked at the Pharisees and what they do. They don't care. They're just looking for a way to kind of get their point across. And Jesus tells them to stretch forth. And it's restored. What argument do they have against that? None. Which is why they go away mad. And verse 6, and the Pharisees went forth and straightway took counsel with the Herodians against him, how they might destroy him. We got to kill this guy. Because he is totally rocking the boat. But those who are following Jesus, they get to see Jesus's power. His ability to heal, restore, his courage to stand against those who, though wearing a robe of righteousness, are actually wicked and selfish and carnal, and he doesn't back down. I don't even have this written down, but you know, there's a great lesson for us to learn. Greater is he that's in you than he that's in the world. You do not have to back down from those who are unrighteous. We can be bold. We ought to be respectful and kind and polite and all those kinds of things. But we don't have to back down. We can stand for Christ and we ought to. Those who follow Jesus at times get to witness his power. But also, I want you to notice something, because in verse 7, we're talking about this great multitude. We were talking about a multitude this morning, a multitude that was the kind of multitude like a riot that pushes and presses upon you, and it's quite similar here. But notice this multitude in verse 7, they're from Galilee, That's the region where Jesus is, Capernaum, around the Sea of Galilee, that county, if you will. They're from Judea. That's the region to the south. Jerusalem is a part of that region, the main capital. So we have a bunch of those people. We have a bunch of these people. We've got a bunch of city slickers, because they're from Jerusalem, it says. There's a crowd from Jerusalem. There's a crowd from Edomia, that's even farther to the south. Traditionally it would have been the region of Edom, not Jews, but at this point they're sort of pseudo proselytes. So there's a bunch of those people. There's people from the east side of Jordan. There's a crew from them. And then there's a bunch of people that aren't Jews at all. They're from Tyre and Sidon. So, Galilee, Judea, Jerusalem, Edomia, beyond Jordan, Tyre, and Sidon. There are like seven distinct crowds all smushed into a giant crowd. Wow. Why are they there? They're there because of what they heard. And maybe what some of them saw, but specifically it says, when they had heard what great things he did, came unto him. They came looking for a show. Everybody wants to follow the winner. It's like fair weather fans. Rennell, how long have you been a Giants fan? And how well did the Giants do this year? They won a couple games. So, Ronell is not a fair weather fan. That's my point. There are people who will follow Jesus, but only because it happens to be popular. Those who are really following Jesus, they precede the popularity. There's a bunch of people and they're following Jesus not because necessarily believe he's the son of God or he's the Savior or the some Even a limited idea of him as the Messiah. It's He did miracles. We want to see one and we and we need one It's what can I get out of it? Because it says This crowd is so huge and so pressing, verse 9, and he spake to his disciples that a small ship should wait on him because of the multitude, lest they should throng him. Actually the word for throng means to squish. It's where later on, like in Thessalonians, we read about tribulation, and pressure, and persecution. This crowd is so desirous for some kind of a miracle touch, they're pushing on him. Because there's people who need to be healed, verse 10, for he had healed many, insomuch that they pressed on him for to touch him, as many as had plagues and unclean spirits. I mean, this is kind of a, not a nice crowd, if I can say it that way. This is kind of an ugly crowd. And they're all about what they're gonna get out of it. But there are some followers of Jesus that they were followers of Jesus before the popularity. Okay. It kind of makes me think about I'm going to come back to that in just a moment. Lastly, some of those who follow Jesus are recipients of his pick. What do I mean by that? Verse 13. After this event, Jesus goes up into a mountain and he calls unto him whom he would And they came, so he calls some, and out of those that he called, he picks 12. Only 12. Now, we know there's a lot of disciples. Besides, you know, take the crowd out, okay? There's a lot of disciples. We know that because when we get to Acts chapters one and two, how many are in the upper room? 120. Ten times more than the number of apostles. And those are all legitimate disciples. They're real disciples. But only some get a promotion, if that's a good way to put it. You read the order and it's interesting because it starts with Peter. Peter was not the first apostle, first disciple that was called, was he? No, it was Andrew. And we think John, Andrew's named in John chapter one, but the other disciple is not named, it's presumed it was John, the brother of James. After that interaction with Jesus, then Andrew goes and brings his brother. But after that point, Peter is always mentioned before Andrew. Peter becomes dominant. And Andrew sort of kind of fades in the background. Think about that. What if the Lord showed up here and said to us, you know, like in Acts 13, when the Lord says to those that are gathered, separate unto me these two, because I have a special job for them. How would we feel if our name is not in the list? Like, well that's not fair. I was here first. Sounds like a typical American. I was here first. I ought to get first pick. First dibs or whatever we want to say. What was it that Peter said to Jesus there in John 21? After they're fishing and they come back to the shore and Peter's quiz, do you love me, do you love me, do you love me? And Peter's like, what about him? And Jesus says, it's none of your business. I'm paraphrasing, of course. What's it to you? If I want him to stay alive until I come back, what difference does that make? I have a job, I have your job. This is what I want you to do. And 1st Peter, we read about that we should follow in his steps. And it's another form of the same follow we just read in Mark about being on the same road. So as I was walking to church tonight just trying to summarize, okay, so what is the point here? And I have to ask myself a question, why am I following? I don't think it's coincident that as we asked for missionary testimonies, Rick didn't think we'd get very many. And I confess, I didn't think we'd get very many. That's why I said, well, then if it's not missionaries, that's okay too. But they were all about missionaries. And we hear about missionaries who are staying on the field, enduring, enduring, enduring, enduring, enduring. Some of them suffering difficult things, their health, maybe persecution or opposition. One of the young couples I met with Brother McQuarrie when we traveled around Turkey, that couple's off the mission field. And their ministry ended tragically And what happened was so discouraging, traumatic, that it destroyed their family. And that's a sad thing. What happens if the things in our life take a downturn? Do we give up on the Lord? We know the answer to that, what the answer is supposed to be. Yeah, it's supposed to be, well, no, of course not. But then when we're in the middle of it, it feels a little different. You know, we follow Jesus in a crowd. But what's important is that we don't stay isolated as an individual, though we may be in a crowd. We need to not just be a crowd. We need to be a family. We need to be joined together of one mind and one desire. and pray for one another, encourage each other, lift each other up when difficulties come, because they're coming, or they're here, and we have to help each other. Because if we're left to ourselves, what was it Solomon says in Ecclesiastes? A three-fold cord is not Yeah, not soon broken or quickly broken, however it's worded there. We're stronger together. And we need the Lord to help us. I wanna encourage you, come Wednesday, ushers if you wanna come and bring the boots, missions conference begins. I wanna challenge you to come every night. come every night. There's gonna be a different missionary talking to us every night, sharing their burden. We're gonna be challenged every night by the word of God. And the kids will be challenged by a different missionary every night. And we will hear about fields here at home. And some afar. Remember, the gospel is not, Missions is not someone over there, Missions is just the gospel everywhere. It's the gospel. And I know Missions Conference tends to go, it does go longer, doesn't it? By the nature of the service, it's probably about an hour and a half. So, that's not Joe Mark preaching, because, you know, that's 15 minutes, he's done. We're gonna sing two stanzas, hum one, and we're outta here. Okay, that's Joe Mark. That's not missions conference, okay? But come desiring to hear from God. And so we take, once a year we take a few days and we give more time asking God to work in us. And so I wanna challenge you to commit yourself to come and be here, okay? Come and be here. Father, we thank you for your love and grace. Would you bless, please? And now as we gather up our final Buddha offering, I pray you might bless that, that we can be a great encouragement and blessing to our guests who are coming. Give us safety, I pray you just would prepare as we're looking forward to Wednesday beginning. Help us with the final details as we kind of wrap things up and get ready for that. Be with our guests who are coming, give them safety. Bless now we pray in Jesus' name, amen.