Okay. All right, I'm ready. Okay, we are live. So thanks for joining our Adult Bible Fellowship today. As we continue in our study of the Gospel of Mark, we're up to lesson number 45. We'll be in Mark 9 again this week as we continue just to, we've really slowed down these last few lessons and really begin to just take our time and go verse by verse through them. We won't always go at this slower pace, but it seemed profitable and seemed to make sense for for this point in the study. We'll be in Mark 9, verses 38 to 41 in a moment. Let's pray, though, first. Ask God to bless our time. Father, again, Lord, we're so thankful for you. We're thankful that we can call you our Father. And we thank you for giving us your word and all the truth. wisdom for life that we find in its pages. We thank you so much for this precious gospel that John Mark, that you inspired John Mark to write down and that we can glean from. And I pray, Lord, as we read it today and as we study it and discuss it, that we'd use it mightily in our lives. Help us, Lord, to grow, help us to have ears to hear. We pray this in Jesus' name, amen. So we're talking today about, again, the issue of pride. reoccurring theme in the last couple of passages that we looked at as the disciples are struggling with pride. Jesus, in fact, throughout this passage, he's been teaching his disciples about true greatness. In other words, greatness from God's point of view. How does God define greatness versus how do humans typically define greatness? And so the disciples have been struggling with this. They've been wrestling with this. issue of pride, and Jesus is continuing to deal with that by using these opportunities that come up as these teachable moments for these men to understand, and of course for us as the readers, to understand. In our last lesson, we looked at what true greatness was, We looked at the servitude, the serving. Service is, in God's eyes, the greatest. Jesus said in verse 35, if anyone desires to be first, he shall be last of all and servant of all. And that was the two things that we looked at last week in terms of what God views as great. If you remember, right before that, the disciples were arguing about who among them was the greatest in the kingdom. And so Jesus sits them all down and uses that moment to help them understand what God thinks of greatness and God's highest calling is that of a servant. And so we saw that. And we're gonna continue in that theme in this next passage. So Jesus is going to continue that lesson as the disciples, once again, they're gonna bring something up to him. something that they've done in the past where they've struggled with this issue of pride. And again, God, Christ himself is gonna address that pride and then refocus them back on their purpose. He's gonna address the pride, so that's why we're calling this pride versus purpose. We have three points, we're breaking it into three sections. The pride resurfaced, we're gonna see it come back up again in the disciples' lives, verse 38. Jesus is going to rebuke that in verses 39 and 40, and in 41, He's going to restore their purpose and remind them, once again, another theme of greatness in God's eyes. So let's look at verse 38. So if you're in your Bibles there, Mark chapter 9, verse number 38. Now John answered Him, saying, Teacher, we saw someone who does not follow us casting out demons in your name, and we forbade him because he does not follow us. Jesus had just finished telling them in verse 37. He had brought that little child into the group, and we talked about the culture at the time. Children were basically ignored. There wasn't a lot of sentimentalism with children like there is today. But he had brought this child, the least of them, into the midst of them. And he had said, whoever receives this child is receiving me and receiving the Father. So God sees the reception of the least, the love of the least of these as something very great in his eyes. It's a connection point between us and him, both the Son and the Father. So Jesus had just made that statement and John pipes up and says, well, by the way, we rebuked a man that was casting out demons because he's not part of our group. We stopped him from doing what he was doing. We prohibit him from continuing. So Jesus is here trying to teach this lesson in total humility servitude so it's possible maybe John's statement that he speaks up in States was possibly born out of wondering well maybe we messed up then or maybe it was more on the zealous side we're not given the tone a lot of times in Scripture of how he came across maybe he was trying to impress Jesus with his great zeal and But whatever the case, John mentions it, and I believe this is the only time John is quoted in Mark, but he speaks up here and tells Jesus what they have done. Notice what John is saying. We saw someone who does not follow us casting out demons. not someone trying to cast out demons, not someone pretending to cast out demons, but we believed we were seeing demons being cast out by this man. He was specific. And also, in whose name was the man casting out the demons? Jesus' name. So, This man was having a successful ministry, freeing people from the damnation and the oppression of demon possession. He was having a successful ministry. So why would the disciples stop him from doing it? He says it twice, at the beginning and at the end of his statement, because he does not follow us. He's not part of our group, our group of the 12 disciples in Jesus. Notice, it's not because he didn't follow Jesus or do his ministry to the honor of Christ, it's not really about Jesus per se, although he's included in the us, it's about them. These men were in error about the discipleship process. In their minds, if you're not one of the 12, then you're nothing. A friend of mine once said his wife was Dutch, and the saying, if it ain't Dutch, it ain't much. You guys have heard that? I don't even know what that means. I've never been able to forget that statement. I kind of know what it means based on what they said. In any case, this is the attitude that the disciples were having, this exclusive elitism that they were struggling with. Jesus was the true leader. Jesus was the one that they were claiming to follow. Yet they, in their minds, it seems that they have brought themselves up almost on par with Christ. He's not following us. And he wasn't part of the 12, yet what was he doing? He was doing the works, the same works that Jesus had already called them to do. We're gonna look at the verses in a moment that show that. Not only was this man doing the works that Jesus had called and empowered them to do, but he was doing it under the submission to the authority of Jesus in order to do it. He was not acting or trying to act in his own power. He wasn't doing it as some kind of a money-making scheme or anything like that. He was submitting to the authority of the name of Christ in order to do this. And so once again, John and the other men, they're struggling here. Once again, pride, it just keeps resurfacing. They were too concerned about themselves and what they believed was their elite status. So what argument are we back to? The same argument that Jesus asked them about when they were on the road, which was who is the what? Greatest. So it's continuing on, and perhaps again, maybe that's why John brought it up, but in any case, Jesus, as he so often does, uses it as this teachable moment. Remember what just happened a couple passages ago in Mark 9. They're at the foot of the mountain. Jesus and the inner three have come down from the Mount of Transfiguration. And what do they find? The other nine disciples. Had they had success in casting out the demon out of the boy or not success? Not success, right? This man, though, was having success. He was able to do it. He was having success where they failed. Maybe it was bothering them. And again, remember, Mark is not necessarily strictly chronological with how he writes his gospel. So there could have been, this could be a flashback, if you will. It could have happened out of the order that we read it in. So this jealousy, potentially, is part of the problem, and jealousy and pride our close companions in our hearts. A similar instance, if you will, a similar occurrence happened back in the Old Testament. When Israel was spending the years of wandering in the wilderness, two of the Israelite men were prophesying in the camp and it upset some of the people. Turn with me to Numbers chapter 11. We're gonna go to a couple passages. They will not be on the screen. Get ourselves turning pages. Numbers 11, starting in verse 27. Numbers 11, verse 27. It says this, and a young man ran and told Moses and said, Eldad and Medad are prophesying in the camp. waving the red flag, there's a problem. These two guys are prophesying in the camp. Verse 28, so Joshua, the son of Nun, Moses' assistant, one of his choice men, sound familiar? 12 disciples, choice men, answered and said, Moses, my Lord, forbid them, forbid these men from prophesying. Notice Moses' response in verse 29. Numbers 11, verse 29, then Moses said to him, to Joshua, Are you zealous for my sake? Oh, that all the Lord's people were prophets, and that the Lord will put his spirit upon them." And Moses returned to the camp, he and the elders of Israel. So these two men were prophesying, they were under the control of the Spirit. Remember, in the Old Testament, the Spirit would come and leave. We see that most explicitly with King Saul, as the Spirit came upon and left him. David prays in the Psalms, Lord, don't let your Spirit depart from me. We don't have that same issue. The Spirit comes and indwells us, and he seals us, we have him. But at this time, the Spirit would come and leave, and he had come upon these men. They were prophesying. Joshua says, wait, wait, wait, wait. They're not, just like the disciples, they're not one of us. They're not in our elite leadership core group. Moses, you've got to stop them. Another word for zealous there, when Moses says, are you zealous, could be also translated jealous, which is a negative attitude that envies others. Let's look at one other example. You're in Numbers. Go to the right just a book. to Deuteronomy chapter seven. Deuteronomy seven. Now this isn't exactly the same kind of an instance, but it is the same principle here about the fact that God can use whoever God wants to use. And he can use them at any time and any place and any way that he chooses to use them. And that's the lesson both the disciples in our passage in Mark 9 as well as Joshua there in Numbers 11 needed to learn. And notice what God says to the Jewish people. Of course, Deuteronomy is Moses' last word to the Israelites before they go into the promised land. It's really a kind of a long sermon that he gives them. He reiterates the law and the Ten Commandments and all the things, and he reminds them of the history and all the things that have happened. And so he's speaking to them. He knows by now he's not gonna enter with them. So he's giving them these last words of wisdom. And in Deuteronomy chapter seven, Let's start actually in verse six. For you, Israel, are a holy people to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for himself, a special treasure above all the peoples on the face of the earth. And God is still doing that today. Verse seven though, notice, the Lord did not set his love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any other people, for you were the least of all. Another familiar phrase. You were the least of all peoples. Verse eight, but because the Lord loves you, and because he would keep the oath which he swore to your fathers, the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of bondage from the hand of Pharaoh, king of Egypt. Israel, it wasn't because you were some mighty force that I felt needed to be on my side. You were the least. You were the smallest. You were the weakest. We're gonna see Jesus speak similar words to the disciples, but I think God is also speaking to us by application. We're not Israel, the church is not Israel, but there's an application there. When we believe that we have some kind of elite status as Christians because we do things a certain way or we attend or are members of a certain church We're actually effectively saying that God is somehow limited to using just us. That's what the disciples were saying. We stopped him. God can only use us. We don't want to fall in that trap. God is not limited, is he? Is God limited? He is a limitless God. He is an infinite God. He is omnipotent. He's not limited to using us in our little circle, in our little corner of the world. He uses the foolish things of the world to confound the wise. He flips the script constantly. It's all through the scripture, Old and New Testament alike. And he's still doing it today. He's still doing it today. We might be surprised with who we meet in heaven. I think we will be, I don't think it's might be. Now all those in heaven will have one thing in common, and that is Jesus Christ. They will have placed their faith in Christ alone, right? Everyone in heaven will have that in common. but that might be where the commonality ends in terms of the circles and the parts of the world and the places where they lived in this life. Not all of them will have lived a life exactly like ours in every way. God can use anyone for anything at any time. Now think about the disciples for a minute. We're gonna go back into the New Testament a moment, but think about them as in their humanity. Several of them were rough, work-hardened fishermen. One of them was a despised outcast because he was a tax collector. As a Jew, he was collecting taxes from his Jewish brethren for the Roman government. Totally despised, hated, cast out of the synagogue, We don't have all the profiles of all the disciples. But if that's what we do have of those men, I don't know that the others were of any loftier status. Again, if God really uses the foolish things of the world to confound the wise, I dare say that all 12 of them were what society called nobodies, Yet Jesus, the Messiah, their Messiah, had called them, he had claimed them, he had selected them for service. Not because of anything they had done. There was no title among them. There was no prestige, per se. Perhaps some were more wealthy than others. Perhaps that is how some of the financial, we know there were several women that followed that helped finance the ministry. But Jesus chose them because those are the men he wanted. He later pointed this out, John 15, verse 16. He says this to the apostles, to the apostles. It's important to get the context right on this. He says this to the 11 believing apostles. Judas Iscariot has left the room to go meet with the high priest to betray his Lord. We don't believe Judas ever truly believed in Christ. So we're talking about the 11 believing apostles. This is what Jesus said to them. You did not choose me. but I chose you, and I appointed you, that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in my name, He may give you." And again, I don't believe this is talking to all Christians. I don't believe this is something we can use to try to understand our calling specifically. I believe This was a statement spoken to the apostles. They were the sent out ones, the original messengers from Christ. And this was promises, I believe, specifically to them. There are other promises specific to Israel that we couldn't claim for ourselves, like the land covenants and different things. I believe this is a promise, a calling for those that were the messengers, not all Christians that would receive the message. but those that were called in context to be his apostles. Now, should all Christians go and bear fruit? Yes. That remains? Yes, we should. Jesus is pointing out to these men, once again, that they had no merit within themselves to be his apostles. They didn't earn their position. He called them, they didn't choose apostleship, Jesus chose it for them. So as we think about that, and then we broaden it out and apply it to ourselves, we are also not elite. God doesn't need us. He doesn't need me up here. He really doesn't. He was getting along just fine without me for eternity past, and the same can be said for any one of us. We are just regular people who are saved by God's grace, and that's the wonder of our message. If we add our supposed elite status to what Christ has done for us, it just pales the whole gospel. It kinda twists it, puts it in the wrong light. The wonder of our message is that we are nothing, and yet God loves us and has saved us. So let's go into the next section. Let's get back into Mark 9. Look at this next, if you're keeping notes, number two is the pride is rebuked. Pride rebuked. Verses 39 and 40. But Jesus said, do not forbid him. Remember John has said, we've stopped this guy from casting out demons because he's not in our elite group. Verse 39, but Jesus said, do not forbid him. For no one who works a miracle in my name can soon afterwards speak evil of me. For he who is not against us is on our side. So just as Moses rebuked Joshua in that passage from Numbers that we read in chapter 11, so now Jesus rebukes John and the other disciples for their same pride. So this unnamed man, we don't even get his name in scripture, and Mark is not really big on names anyway, but he doesn't give us his name. He's this unnamed person who went down through the history of the world, never even named, He was doing the same work that Jesus had already commissioned his disciples to do. Back in Mark 3, verses 14 and 15, the calling of these men. Go all the way back to the beginning. Then he appointed 12 that they might be with him, that he might send them out to do what? To preach and to have power to heal sicknesses and to cast out demons. That was their three-pronged mission that he sent them out to do, and he empowered them to do it. Did they have success? Yes, they did. Later in Mark 6, and we've been through this already in our study, but in Mark 6, 13, when the disciples were sent out by Jesus, it says, and they cast out, how many demons? many demons. They had many successful ministries. They cast out many demons and anointed with oil. How many? Well, we don't know, but many, several, a lot of people who were sick and healed them. So these disciples, they had been able to cast out demons before, I believe, before this conversation in Mark 9, where they tell Jesus how they stopped this guy. They understood, they knew, what the proper method was. Otherwise, how would they have cast out many demons? They knew the proper method of using, invoking the name of Jesus, believing that by faith, and having seen success, seeing people freed from demonic empowerment and influence. So they should have recognized that what this man is doing is legitimate ministry. They had experienced it themselves. And in fact, John doesn't even try to hide it. He says it specifically. Yeah, he was casting out demons. He was having success. That should have been the clue that they needed to understand that they should not have stopped this from happening. They knew what the proper method was. They knew what a successful exorcism looked like. Despite of all of this, the men had stopped a good thing from happening, so Jesus rebuked them. Going back into our text again, verse 39, but Jesus said, do not forbid him, for no one who works a miracle in my name can soon afterward speak evil of who? Of me. Notice what Jesus puts at stake here, his own reputation. And notice, it's not speak evil of you guys. You see the distinction he's making? It's speak evil of me. Jesus is saying, my name needs to be set aside and glorified. It's kind of a undercover claim of deity. He's worried, not worried, but putting his own name on the line as the key component to what's going on. No one who works a miracle in my name can soon afterward speak evil of me. He could have said a lot of different things there, but he chose to say, speak evil of me. Now, yeah. Right, I believe that. I believe a believer cannot be demon possessed, yes. True. Right. Right. So yeah, Brad is just making an important comment there about those that were casting out the demons, in fact, this man in this case, and those that he had cast the demons out of, those people that had the demons were not believers. We don't believe, and of course, this is pre-Pentecost, so the spirit wasn't indwelling like it is today, so there's a few different things that need to be a part of that conversation, but yes, the person here casting out the demons, was a believer in Christ. He was just as much, and I think Jesus is saying that, he's just as much a disciple as you 12 are. He's having the success, and he's not speaking evil of my name. And since Jesus is sinless, this is not a statement of pride. It's just a simple statement of fact of his identity. Why would speaking evil of Jesus be wrong? It's wrong because it's blasphemy, because he's God in the flesh. So when this man was casting out the demons, he was saying, and we don't have the quotes, but something like, in the name of Jesus of Nazareth, I command you to leave. I don't know if that's exactly word for word, but basically that was what he was saying. He was proclaiming and glorifying the name of Christ. And as we stated before, he was thereby submitting to Jesus as the authority. He was not using other names. He was not invoking names of angels, as was sometimes done in the name of Michael the archangel or what have you. He was invoking the only name that was the authority. Paul also addressed this issue in 1 Corinthians 12 verse 3. Therefore I make known to you that no one speaking by the Spirit of God calls Jesus accursed, and no one can say that Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit. Only the Holy Spirit's power and dwelling power can proclaim the Lordship of Jesus Only by that power will demons flee, but it is done as an act of faith in Jesus. What happens when someone tries to cast out a demon that does not have faith in Jesus? Go with me to Acts. I'm gonna turn into a few scriptures today. Acts chapter 19. We're gonna see. Some of you probably know where we're going with this. But in Acts 19, we're gonna start at verse 11. We're gonna see an example of what happens when someone even invokes Jesus' name, but not by faith in Christ. I believe that's the deciding factor. So in Acts chapter 19, look with me at verse 11. Acts 19, 11. Now God worked unusual miracles by the hands of Paul. so that even handkerchiefs or aprons were brought from his body to the sick. And notice what happened, the diseases left them and the evil spirits went out of them. That is powerful. The handkerchief that Paul held in his hand was taken and the spirit had to leave. Now, of course, that wasn't the power of Paul. Who was that the power of? Jesus. We could say the Holy Spirit. It's the power of God that did that. Notice verse 13, then some of the itinerant Jewish exorcists took it upon themselves, notice they weren't called or sent out, but they took it upon themselves to call the name of the Lord Jesus over those who had evil spirits, saying, notice what they say, we exorcise you by the Jesus whom Paul preaches. Not the Jesus that we believe in, but the Jesus whom Paul Also there were seven sons of Sceva, a Jewish chief priest who did so. Verse 15, and the evil spirit answered and said, Jesus I know, and Paul I know, but who are you? Then the man in whom the evil spirit was leaped on them, overpowering them, prevailed against them, so they fled out of the house naked and wounded. This became known both to all the Jews and Greeks dwelling in Ephesus, and fear fell on them all. Notice, and the name of the Lord Jesus was magnified. So we had these itinerant Jewish exorcists. I got a couple slides here just to read, just to understand this. I think it's important that we grasp it. In the Greco-Roman world, this is out of the New American Commentary, John Polhill. In the Greco-Roman world, Jewish exorcists were held in high esteem for the venerability of their religion and the strangeness of their Hebrew incantations. Magicians and charlatans were, he uses the word omnipresent kind of as a, they were everywhere, not literally omnipresent like God, but you could find them in a lot of places in the culture, offering various cures and blessings by their spells and incantations, notice, all for a financial consideration. The more exotic the incantation, the more effective it was deemed to be. A number of magical papyri from the ancient world have been discovered. These consist of various spells that often invoke the names of foreign gods and employ various kinds of gibberish. In the Paris collection of magical papyri, various Old Testament terms are found, such as aio for Yahweh, Abraham, and Sabaoth, terms which have would have sounded exotic to the Greeks and Romans. One spell reads, I abjure thee by Jesus, the God of the Hebrews. Another from the same papyrus reads, hail God of Abraham, hail God of Isaac, hail God of Jacob, Jesus Christus, Holy Spirit, Son of the Father. Man, on the surface it sounds like they're quoting out of scripture. but it wasn't done by those who had faith in Christ. They were trying to use Jesus' name as this kind of way of overcoming the demons, this, oh, if I just speak the name. Ancient magicians were syncretists and would borrow terms from any religion that sounded sufficiently strange to be deemed effective. Ooh, he's saying really fancy words. He must be legitimate. These Jewish exorcists of Ephesus were only plying their trade. Now I read all that to compare it to the man in Mark 9. Totally different, right? The man in Mark 9 that the men stopped who Jesus said, do not forbid him, was not an itinerant Jewish exorcist. Just speaking Jesus' name along with a bunch of other religious sounding, exotic sounding incantations. This man had faith in Christ. He was every bit a disciple as the 12. Jesus said, do not forbid him, for no one who works a miracle in my name can soon afterward speak evil of me. For he who is not against us is on our side. Back in Ephesus, do you remember what we read at the end? What was the result of all that? The name of the Lord Jesus was glorified. because they could see the false exorcist from the true one, meaning Paul. So his name was glorified. Interesting, the name of Christ. Here Jesus speaks of his name being glorified. So we see these connections. Verse 40 says, he who is not against us is on our side. Jesus allows no neutral ground. We cannot be kind of on Jesus' side. We cannot be sort of, kind of pro-Jesus. He made the converse statement in Matthew 12, 30, he who is not with me is against me. He who does not gather with me scatters abroad. So we are either with Jesus or against him. The Christian life cannot be lived walking a fence. For us who believe in Jesus and have eternal life, this is about our sanctification. We're constantly in process. Some days and even moments can change like that in terms of am I against him or for him? but there's no middle ground, it doesn't exist. Everything we do, every conversation, every response to whether it's negative or positive events in our life reveals the contents of our heart and it reveals to us where we are in that moment. Am I for Christ or against him? It can't be neutral. Jesus is the great divider. Matthew 10 says, Jesus is speaking here, Do not think that I came to bring peace on earth. Isn't that what the angel's saying at his birth? Yeah, that's gonna come later. Right now, there's not that peace. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword, for I have come to set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law, and a man's enemies will be those of his own household. Jesus divides. He creates a point of decision. He forces the issue. Because to not believe in him is to reject him. To believe in him is to accept him. This is the kind of polarizing decision that Joshua challenged the Israelites with. I did not tell Pastor Rich what I was gonna speak on today. Well, he knows I'm in Mark. He did not tell me the verses he was gonna use. But we find ourselves, once again, in Joshua 24, 15. Joshua is giving the two choices. Choose. There's no middle ground. Choose you this day. If it seems evil to you to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the river or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. But then he says, but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. There's no middle ground. There's no option there. There's no third option. It's either the one and true living God or it's the idols. The point he's making also is that we all worship something. We are created as worshipers. Even an atheist is a worshiper. Everyone worships because that's how the heart functions. It functions by worshiping. We worship Lots of things. We create lots of little altars and idols of the heart, whether it's financial gain or status, popularity, other people's opinions. We can set up a lot of things that we worship, or we worship the true and living God, and that's the point here. So it's not a question of if we're worshipers. You are a worshiper. I am a worshiper by human nature. You can't get away from it. You are worshiping something or someone right now. I am as well. So it's not a question of if we worship, but who. And that's the point I believe that Jesus is making to the disciples that day. The man that they had stopped, he had made his decision. He had chosen to serve Christ. He had chosen to follow Christ. Jesus of Nazareth was his choice. Let's conclude. We just got a couple more minutes to go here. Purpose restored. So we've seen pride dealt with. It's resurfaced. Jesus has rebuked it. Now he restores their purpose. He gives them something to work toward. Notice what he says here. For whoever gives you a cup of water to drink, in my name because you belong to Christ. That's a key phrase. We've hit on that all morning. Because you belong to Christ. It's not just saying the words. It's not just giving the water. It's because of your faith in Christ. It's an act of faith. Assuredly, I say to you, he will by no means lose his reward. So we've had the full gauntlet of Christian service, casting out demons way over here, like one of the greatest, most magnificent things, at least in our point of view. Can everyone cast out a demon? I guess that's kind of a weird question, not sure that I don't even know the answer to that. But you have that ability, and you think of those handkerchiefs brought to Paul and how the demons fled. And there was obviously some that couldn't do that. In those cases we looked at, they didn't believe in Christ. Whatever the case is, from the human point of view, casting out demons seems to be rather high on the scale. Giving someone a cup of cold water, anyone can do that. And that's Jesus' point. He's making a contrast on purpose. You guys are talking about all these lofty things. He's not one of us, we're elite. Casting out demons is a big deal. Jesus goes to the extreme other end and talks about someone giving another person a cup of water. Even the disciples. as we learned, if you remember, could not cast out demons every time they tried. Remember, Jesus said, eh, you didn't really believe me when I said fasting and praying is important. You didn't really have faith that the spiritual disciplines mattered. That's why you couldn't cast them out. Doesn't mean they weren't believers. Giving someone a cup of water, man, anybody can do this. Jesus is bringing the disciples' attention and our attention back down to the least of these, which is a reoccurring theme throughout all of these last several verses, these last passages. And in the context of the flow, if it is somewhat chronological, remember who he brought and was holding in his arms just before this? Who did he have with him? A little child, a little boy in his arms. Could have been Peter's son, it could have been someone else's there, but any case, he's holding this child. He's bringing their attention back to the least of these. He's saying receiving a child, it's like inviting the son and the father to step in and connect with you in a real way. He called them to greatness from God's perspective, to be last of all and servant of all. Think of giving someone that hands out water cups. That's a last of all job, isn't it? That's a last, that's a servant of all. After all, shouldn't someone else be the water carrier? I'm too important for that. That was their attitude. It's so easy to find ourselves in the same place as the disciples. We so easily fall into the trap of pride. We talked about the trap of comparison last week, how it's really a lie because we never really get where we think we need to be when we're comparing among ourselves. And pride then begins to limit our willingness. It limits our opportunities to serve. Because we're just looking at the lofty things and not the sharing of water. Jesus is saying, you don't have to cast out a demon to be pro-Jesus. You don't have to cast out a demon to be on my side. I'm looking for the servants. I'm looking for the helpers. I'm looking for those that will hand out a cup of water in my name. And God sees that as a high calling. That's a high calling to God. He rewards faithful service. I believe that's maybe our main takeaway. That's where we'll close today. God rewards faithful service. Let's pray. Father, thank you, Lord, for your word. I thank you so much, Lord, that you have truly chosen the foolish things of this world to confound the wise. Lord, that wasn't a passage we looked at today, but we saw that principle sprinkled through all these passages. You have selected who you have selected, not because of merit, not because of status, but because that's your choice. And Lord, we're just humbled. We just bow as we consider that you would choose to use any of us, Lord, in any way at all, even just to hand out a cup of water in your name. Lord, help us to remember the least of these. Help us to keep our minds and focus on Christ. We pray this in Jesus' name, amen. Thank you guys for being here. Have a good day. Happy Father's Day as well.