Hello, welcome to another Inspiring Word Bible broadcast. This week we're going to be continuing our look into the Gospel of Mark chapter 7 and we're going to close out chapter 7 on this episode. Join me by turning to chapter 7 verse 31 and while you're finding your place we're going to talk about prayer requests, or prayer in general right now. We want to remember the world, the situation worldwide that's going on. We want to remember all of the financial situations that are taking place and unfolding here in our own country, each community, each state. We all have our own little difficulties. Troubles that are heavy and they burden us down. But we need to remember, God is still in control. What is taking place around the world right now has not caught God off guard. He is still in control. It is His will playing out. And I realize that's difficult to kind of wrap our minds around. with innocent lives being lost in war, but we've got to remember the Bible tells us that there will be wars and rumors of wars. Wars are something that have taken place since the beginning of time and they will continue until the end of time. I'm not trying to discount anything. I'm not trying to take the emotions out of anything that's going on. is simply bringing you to a check of the reality of things. But also, like I said, understand God is in control. Nothing is taking Him by surprise. Nothing. The souls of these innocent victims, they're in His will just as much as the preaching of the Word of His, His Word is in His will that word as a testimony daily. With that little bit of, I guess, just a commentary to open us up, I'd like to go to the word, go to the Lord in prayer before we open His word and begin our study for this week. Pray with me, please. Heavenly Father and Lord God, thank you. Thank you for everything that you have given and done, all of your mercy, all of your grace. Lord, there are those who are struggling today. They're struggling emotionally with the war that is going on in Europe. They are struggling with the financial struggles that have taken place and the financial downfalls that have taken place in this country and around the world, they are struggling with why? And so many things. There are personal struggles. There are political struggles. There are financial struggles. Lord, there are spiritual struggles. There are those out there today who are struggling with sin. They are struggling with the addiction, with committing it. It seems to be taking over their life. They're struggling with trying to stop it. Pray that you would touch their lives. Let them know in their hearts that the only way sin can be defeated is through Jesus Christ. Lord, there are those who are grieving today, those who are asking, why the loss of a loved one? I pray, God, that you would give them comfort and peace and one that passes all understanding. Some of these that are struggling are your saints. I pray, Lord, that you would wrap your arms around them, that you would draw them to you, that you would Help them. Help them come to a fresh reality of you and your presence in their life when they need it the most. Help them. Lord, I pray that you would bless the preaching of your word today. I pray that it would not return to you void, but that it would accomplish everything you have purposed it to do. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen. As I said, we're going to be picking up in verse 31 of Mark chapter 7. That's where I'm going to begin reading. And again, departing from the coast of Tyre and Sidon, he came into the Sea of Galilee. through the midst of the coast of Decapolis, and they bring unto him one that was deaf, and had an impediment in his speech, and they beseech him to put his hand upon it. And he took him aside from the multitude, and put his fingers into his ears, and he spit and touched his tongue. And looking up to the heaven, he sighed and said unto him, that is, be opened. And straightway his ears were opened, and the string of his tongue was loosed, and he spake plain. And he charged them, he being Jesus, charged them, that they should tell no man. But the more he charged, so much more and were beyond measure astonished, saying, He hath done all things well. He maketh both the deaf to hear and the dumb to speak. Now there is a parallel passage in the Synoptic Gospel of Matthew. Matthew 15, beginning with verse 29. I want to go over and I want to read you Matthew's account. And it is somewhat different, it's not a contrast, it's not a contradiction, but it is somewhat different than what Mark, than the way Mark has recorded it. Beginning in verse 19, let me make sure I have my notes. No, beginning in verse 29, 15 and 29. And Jesus departed from thence, and came nigh unto the sea of Galilee, and went up into a mountain, and sat there. And great multitudes came unto him, having with them those that were lame, blind, dumb, maimed, and many others, and cast them down at Jesus' feet. And he healed them, insomuch that the multitude wondered, And when they saw the dumb to speak, the maimed to behold, the lame to walk, the blind to see, and they glorified the God of Israel. So we see from Mark's account there was more than just this one man present. But from Mark's account we get a much more detailed presentation of what happened. You see, in Mark's account, Jesus took this one man and he took him aside. That explains why he took him aside. There was a multitude of people there. It says, took him aside from the multitude, so that he didn't make an example of them. But we want to take this passage apart today and we want to look at it and we want to see the amazing pieces of ministry of the work of God that was taking place in this. First notice the location. They left Hiram Sidon and they headed to Decapolis. They came into the Sea of Galilee or according to what has some very strong claims, they departed and came through Sidon to the Sea of Galilee. When you look at a map, you can see that much better. From Tyre to Sidon to the Sea of Galilee. The way they are geographically laid out, you see that. It wasn't a short trip again. It wasn't like Jesus just walked across the street or walked across town from one location to another. This was geographically quite a long walk. So they went through this, they proceeded as far north as Sidon. And I'm sure during that time they were taking a rural route as it's laid out. Because we don't have any documentation of any ministry taking place there. Jesus was going where he knew he needed to be. And that was in the area of Decapolis. So, he passed through the frontiers, he passed through the rural areas, the undeveloped areas, until he reached Decapolis. Now, Decapolis was a very prominent area. It is a word that represents ten cities. So Jesus goes from being in the middle of nowhere to being in this very large metropolis-like area. It was known Rome away from Rome. It was a very large area that he walked into. And he started there, and just as soon as he arrived, people knew him. To the coast of Decapolis, and they bring him to him. So they saw him, they knew him, they recognized him. They had heard the preaching and the teaching of the gospel. We think today about the preaching and the teaching of the gospel and we think about missionary work. Or we think about the local church and people going to the local church. And while all of that was taking place, there were in this time, friend, there were teachings going on in the synagogues. Jesus' disciples, where he was leaving from one place to another, folks were always, for the sake of our vernacular, they were getting saved everywhere he went. So the preaching and the teaching of the gospel was something that was ongoing before the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. It was ongoing. The testimony of what Jesus was doing in people's lives was very, very real. That's why myself and so many like me are always talking to you about spreading the gospel. about preaching with your words and with your lives the gospel of Jesus Christ because it tells people about Jesus. It introduces people to Christ. I have a feeling when we all leave this world, when we all leave this world and we move in and we stand before the Lord We're going to be surprised at two things. We're going to be surprised at how many times we spread the gospel and we're going to be surprised at how many times we didn't. How many times we succeeded in fulfilling the Great Commission and how many times we failed to when we had so many opportunities. If we want people to hear about Jesus, and if we want people to come to Him, if we want folks to bring others to Him, we have to be willing and ready to share Jesus. And as I said before, it doesn't have to be some long, drawn out, big, elaborate message. Most of the time, the gospel is communicated one on one. And most of the time, it's done without planning. Most of the time, we're standing in front of someone else, and the door opens. by the Holy Spirit to begin talking to someone about what Jesus has done in your life. And how Jesus has affected things in your life. Your personal testimony. Your personal account. Your personal witness of Jesus Christ. And it is in those moments where the seed is planted for someone somewhere down the road by the grace of God to hear the preaching of the gospel and from that preaching the Holy Spirit calls that person to salvation and maybe at that moment when you're sharing your testimony maybe at that moment you have an opportunity to extend Jesus to someone through salvation. There's no greater blessing and no more humbling of an event in life than for the Holy Spirit to open up somebody's heart and for you to invite them to accept Jesus and they accept it. It is an amazing feat to see God do that, make that work in someone's life. And to see Him use you in the process. So we see that people came to Him. They brought others to Him. Now they brought others to Him that were deaf and they had impediments or problems in their speech and they beseeched him to put his hands on him. They begged Jesus to heal this man. Apparently there were a lot of people who loved this one individual. Because there was a multitude, remember from Matthew's account? There was a large group of people there. And out of that large group, there were many of them that Christ would eventually and would go on to heal. But this one man, this one man, he had so many friends that brought that man to Jesus and they beseeched Jesus to heal him. That brings us to another point about bringing people to Jesus. That applies today. When we bring someone to Jesus, someone we know, we're usually bringing them to Him in prayer, are we not today? We can't physically bring them to Christ, but we can bring them in prayer. So it would be the same thing today as say that this man had a lot of people praying for him and beseeching Christ. Christian, how long has it been since you beseeched Christ on behalf of someone else and did it consistently? Consistently. and did it with a proper heart. You see, these people that brought this man to Christ, they didn't just take him by the hand and lead him up there and say, okay, here's Jesus, and they left him and went on their way. No, they took him up there and they stayed with him and they beseeched Jesus on behalf of this man. He couldn't hear Christ. He could see him, but he couldn't hear him, and he couldn't speak with him. The people that we are tasked with praying for today are people that have yet to hear Christ. They have yet to hear the calling and have the touch of Christ on their heart. And they have yet to have the ability to talk with Him. You see, to have the voice today, spiritually speaking, yes, everyone would have the voice, either physically or spiritually, to call out to Christ. But they would have an impediment of speech because spiritually, they would have no desire. They would have no want to. When you're praying for someone, or you're beseeching the Lord on someone's behalf, is your heart really genuine that you want the Lord to move in their life? Is it something that you're doing out of a conviction for them, or is it something you're doing for yourself just so you can convince yourself that you've done it to make yourself feel better? Is it a selfish motivation or is it something that is genuine because there is a soul that does not know Jesus or has been separated from Jesus and you want them brought to Him either through saving grace or through reconciliation grace. Whatever it may be, you're wanting grace in their heart and in their life and you want to see faith move in their life and change them. That is a challenge for the church. It goes back to what I was talking about earlier with the witness and the testimony and the introducing people to Jesus. Do we really have a heart and a hunger to spread Jesus? We should. We should. not because there's anything in it for us, because there is nothing in it for us. If we're thinking about what I can get, what I can do, if we're thinking about what it means for me, or how it's going to lift me up in God's eyes, or in someone else's eyes, then we are selfish. And really, there is a very real reason and a very real probability that God's not going to act on anyone's behalf or through anyone. Because there isn't a vessel there that he can work through. We are the vessels that God uses to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ. the saints are. And he expects us to have a heart to do that. He expects us to hunger and to feel for the lost and those who are spiritually dying just as much as he does. And you know what? We don't save anyone. We present the gospel. We present the way to salvation. But it is God, through the Holy Spirit, that calls people to salvation. It is. We beseech people. We beseech the Lord on behalf of people. And then we see the Lord come to them and call them through the Holy Spirit. And He took him aside in verse 33, and He put His fingers into his ear and spit and touched the tongue. Looking up to the heavens, He sighed, and He said to him, Ephphatha, that is, be opened. See, we have here the physical things that Jesus done to do the physical healing on this man. And then he looked up to heaven and he sighed. Now that sigh, in verse 34, that moment that he sighed, it is not a sigh of frustration or disgust or a sigh of being No. No. It is a sigh of Jesus seeing the burdens of this man be lifted and loosed from him so that his life can begin afresh and new. and he said that word, ephepha. It is an Aramaic word and it means exactly what it says here in the Bible, be opened. His ears were opened. His voice was opened. And straightway or immediately the string of his tongue was loosed He was released and he spake plain. Here in this picture we see the hand of the Lord freeing someone and things happened immediately. There was no physical therapy. There was no speech therapy. There was no time of teaching and reestablishing, strengthening muscles. There was none of that. All of that happened immediately. And he spake plain. They heard him. When Jesus says into a person's life, things change immediately. When Jesus speaks into a person's heart and calls them to salvation and they believe in Jesus Christ, they accept Him. They accept Him and they call upon Him, they confess with their mouth and they believe with their heart and they are born again. They are saved. It is immediate. Their heart is opened. Ephetha. Jesus comes in. He saves their soul and immediately what they hear is something entirely different. what they speak is something entirely different. See, it doesn't say, it says this man had an impediment, which could mean that he was able to communicate some, but not well, not normal, not complete, not clearly. When someone is lost, and if you're a saint of God, if you're saved today, you understand this. And I pray and sadly some have lost the knowledge and lost the memory of how they were before they were saved. You may not have been an immoral person. You may not have been a thief. or you may not have been any of these other things that we hear so many people talk about, but understand this, you were lost and on your way to a devil's hell until Jesus Christ said Ephrathah to your heart and opened it up and you believed and you invited Him in. And often we simply forget that. We know that right now I am saved, I am living for God, I am one of God's children and then the rest of the world isn't. Then we need to remember if someone had not came to us and shared with us the good news of Jesus Christ Jesus could not have said epithet to our heart and could not have came in when we invited Him, when we believed in Him. Inviting Jesus into our heart is not really a good example or a good choice of words because We can call out to Jesus all day long, but until we get to the point where we are one of the ones the Holy Spirit calls and prepares us and prepares him and makes that connection, then we are not going to be calling out to him and he is not going to be opening up hearts. But because these people beseeched Jesus, that picture is there of beseeching. And the results are there. We pray. We pray continuously. We pray relentlessly. And then in God's time, in God's time, in God's situation, when God chooses The Holy Spirit calls that person to Jesus. Opens their heart. And grace begins to work and to move. It's amazing. And here Christ tells them. He charged them not to tell no one. And the reason would be that It was not at this time that Christ was there for an evangelistic meeting, so to speak, where He goes out and He's making more and more disciples. But at the same time, Christ knows that the man's heart is so excited. He knows that He was so excited, He was so thankful that He went out and He published it. were beyond measure astonished, saying, He hath done all things well. Speaking of Christ, Christ has done all things well. From the moment creation was spoken into existence, until the moment the new heaven and the new earth is formed, He does all things well. Every decision that Christ makes, everything about God's will that takes place in our lives and in the world, it is done well. And it always will be. We have to get back to the point in our lives control of anything. We are simply the instruments that God uses through Jesus Christ to bring others to that saving grace. Because you see in God's eyes there are only two people, the saved and the unsaved. That's all. The borders of the nations and countries around the world, those are our creations. The languages, those God created, the languages, go back to the Tower of the Bible, read that story. He does all things well. It is He who maketh both the deaf to hear and the dumb to speak. It is He, the Lord. The Lord makes these things happen. We are in a place where He expects us to be vessels He can work through church. We need to come to a fresh understanding of our purpose, of our direction, of our place in His kingdom, in His will, so that when He makes things and He does things well, He has an instrument, a conduit, work through does he have to have that no he doesn't but he chose to he doesn't have to have us but he chose to and since he chose to have us isn't it just isn't isn't it normal that we would want to be exactly what he wants us to be to be fit vessels for him to work through so that we could beseech him on behalf of others and see God work well in the hearts and in the lives of all of those around him. Something for us to think about and consider. Something for us to Look in the mirror and ask ourselves, am I a vessel that God can work through and do all things well through? Because one day, as I said earlier, one day we will stand before the Lord and we will see the opportunities that we had that we that we took advantage of and that we provided ourselves as a vessel and that God was glorified through. And we will see the times we failed because we just wouldn't do it or because we had some selfish ambitions. But whatever it may be, we're going to see the failures and the successes in our own lives from God's perspective. Not from ours, not from the denomination, not from the church, not from the pastor, from God's perspective. And in the end, is that not the only one that really matters? Let's pray. Lord, as we close this broadcast, thank you for your word Heavenly Father, I pray right now that I would be a vessel worthy for you to work through. Lord, I pray that I would beseech you on behalf of others and have no selfish ambition in my life. Lord, I pray that you would reach into the hearts and the lives of all who hear this, this broadcast today. And Lord, I would pray that you would move in their lives and I would pray, Lord, you would humble them to be likewise. Because until your church beseeches you to move in the hearts and in the lives of those who are separated from you, we are failing it. Lord, I pray that we could be revived. We could be renewed and we could be restored. We could see that, once again, that you do all things well. according to your will and in your time. Dear Lord, I pray for all of the requests, I pray for all of the needs that are about the world today. Lord, I pray that you would touch hearts and I pray that you would touch lives and Lord, I pray that you would shake us to beseech you on behalf of others. Heavenly Father, until next time, I pray that You would bless this message. You would send it out according to your will. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen. Thank you for being a part of this broadcast, whether you're watching it or hearing it in audio. Thank you. May God bless you until next week. Goodbye.