Summary of Mark - Mark 1-16

2:04The beginning, that is, the good news. What Mark presents before us is the beginning of the good news about Jesus Christ. Christ is a title, speaks of His office, His headship over humanity. He is the King, He is the ruler, He is the Anointed One, He is the One over humanity, as God's appointed human ruler. Jesus is this One, and it's good news that He is the One. But Mark also says He is the Son of God, the beginning of the gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

2:48The Son aspect speaks of His divine authority, His godness. Jesus is not only the human king, He is God. God Himself comes into the flesh, and this is where His authority comes from. This is where His rulership comes from. In fact, it is impossible for Him not to rule because He is God Himself. He is by very nature the Creator. And so ruling is a natural outworking of who He is. And this is good news. And what Mark summarizes is just that: the beginning of it. And it has no end. The good news of God's kingdom in Christ Jesus has no end because He is eternal. His kingdom has no end. And therefore, the good news has no end.

3:52So I want to spend a little time reviewing what Mark wants to make sure that we take away from this gospel. And Mark wants his readers to do four things in response to this good news that has begun. He wants us to do four things. And there's more, but certainly this morning I want to talk about four. So that is where we're going to go this morning. Look at these four things that Mark wants us to do as a result of this gospel, so that we will be a people who will be careful to do them. And the first thing. That Mark wants us to do as a result of this gospel is tremble at who Jesus is. Tremble at who Jesus is. Turn to Daniel 7. The very backdrop to this gospel really finds its roots right there in Daniel chapter 7. Now, what's going on in Daniel chapter 7 is Daniel has witnessed this vision about the kingdoms that will come on the Mediterranean theater, if you will, who will in sequence dominate the territory. And he sees at the end of the days one of these, a kingdom come that will never be destroyed. And in verse 13, he sees the one who is the authoritative one coming. In verse 13, he says, I kept looking in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven, one like a Son of Man was coming. And he came up to the ancient of days and was presented before him. And to him was given dominion and a kingdom, that all the peoples, nations, men of every language might serve him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion which will not pass away, and his kingdom is one which will not be destroyed. And in verse 18, that kingdom will be given to his people. Verse 18, but the saints of the highest one will receive the kingdom and possess the kingdom forever, for all ages to come. Again, in verse 27, then the sovereignty, the dominion, and the greatness of all the kingdoms under the whole heaven will be given to the people of the saints of the highest one.

6:34And two questions come out of the whole backdrop of the Old Testament, Daniel's vision. There is this king, there is this kingdom that is coming that will never be destroyed forever and ever. It will replace, totally destroy all others, and it itself will endure forever. And the question throughout the scriptures is: who is this king and who are his saints? Who are they? Going into the Christmas time, right? We see Magi coming from the East. This is why. A people throughout time have been asking this question: who is this king? And who are his saints? Well, Mark answers the question, both of them. And so, as we go back to Mark chapter 1, I just want to walk through.

7:30And see how Mark presents Jesus. He presents him as one with great authority with the response that we would tremble at who he is. Mark chapter 1, he comes on the scene. Jesus goes to the synagogue. First of all, he is one who teaches with authority. Then an unclean spirit presents itself and he rebukes the unclean spirit, casts it out. He is one who has authority over the unclean spirit. And then, going on, he is able to heal all kinds of diseases, all kinds of sickness. He has authority over the human body, over disease and sickness. In fact, at the end of chapter 1, there's this leper that comes to him. He even has authority over the unclean and foul diseases. And he himself is willing to stretch forth his hand and touch the diseased, even the unclean ones.

8:38He is one with great authority. In chapter 2, there's this paralytic that comes and is let down, and Jesus' authority is taken to another level because he declares that he has the authority to forgive sins. Now, who has the authority to forgive sins? That's the question being asked. In chapter 2, who has the authority? Let's suppose, let's just suppose, and this would never happen, but let's just suppose I got ugly and said some ugly things with my wife. Okay, that would never happen. But if it did, and I needed to ask for forgiveness, do I go to my youngest daughter and say, please forgive me for saying an ugly thing about your mom?

9:30Would that be the appropriate channel? No, why? Because the offense wasn't against her, it was against my wife. The point being is: who can forgive except the one who has been offended? And that's what the Pharisees are asking there. Who can forgive sins except for God alone? And Jesus makes it very clear: I do have authority to forgive sins, and watch this, which is easier to say. Pick up your mat and walk. But going on, he is one with authority. And in Mark chapter 4, his authority is taken to a whole other level. As they were out there on the sea, and it became very contrary, storm.

10:24Fishermen thought they were going to die. Seasoned fishermen thought they were going to die. Jesus is asleep in the boat, and they wake him up and they say, Do you not care that we are perishing? And he gets up and he rebukes the wind and said to the sea, Be quiet. And then this deathly silence overtook the whole sea, perfectly calm. And he said to them, Why are you afraid? Do you still have no faith? And they became very much afraid and said to one another, Who then is this?

11:09Who is this? Who is this that even the waves obey him? Who is this? And this is the question that Mark is answering: Who is this one? Who has this kind of authority? And then in chapter five, we see that his authority is extended over a whole legion of demons, not just one demon, but an army of demons. And going on, he has authority in chapter five over death itself. And he calls back to life the daughter of Jairus, who had died. She is the authoritative one.

12:00On. Mark just presents Jesus in chapter 6 as one who has great authority. And he takes that authority to a new level as 5,000 and actually more, probably 20 when you count up all the people. But in this section, he creates matter out of nothing. In the feeding of the 5,000, he takes the few loaves and a few fish and he breaks them. And as he breaks them, he blesses them. And matter is created out of nothing.

12:42There is only one other person in all of Scripture that creates matter out of nothing. And you have to go all the way back to Genesis chapter 1 to find him. And it is God himself. This is who is among us. So who is he? Who is he? Mark presents him as one with great authority. And he actually answers that question in chapter 14, verse 62. You remember, Jesus is before the Sanhedrin, and they're trying him. They're trying to find a ground to put him to death. And they're not getting anywhere.

13:30So this really irritated the high priest. And so he finally stands up. The high priest comes over and he said to him, Tell us, are you the Christ, the Son of the Blessed One? And Jesus says in verse 62, I am. And he goes on to say, and you shall see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of power and coming with the clouds of heaven. Daniel chapter 7. Jesus says, Yes, I am the Christ, and you will see me coming in the clouds with great authority, great power, as Daniel chapter 7 prophesied, I am he.

14:24That is who Mark tells us Jesus is. He is the central figure in history. Fear and tremble before him. That is what Mark wants you to do. Don't casually, flippantly think about Jesus. But who Mark presents Jesus to be demands your sober thought, deep meditation. Careful consideration because you will see him coming in great authority. Fear is a good thing to tremble, to revere, to respect highly. That's what he's talking about here. The psalmist says in chapter 19 and 9 that the fear of the Lord is clean. It endures forever. The fear of the Lord is clean. A holy respect for the person of Christ is clean, and it endures forever. So the first thing that Mark wants his readers to do is tremble at who Jesus is. Second thing Mark wants his readers to do is marvel at what Jesus has done. Marvel at what Jesus has done. So Jesus not only comes on the scene in Mark's gospel as one with great authority, but he also comes on the scene as one with great love, a great love for the will of the Father, and a great love for fallen humanity. This is who Mark presents him to be. Go to Mark chapter 12. Profound question is asked by one of the scribes. He comes up to him, says to him, What commandment is the foremost of all? And Jesus answered, The foremost is, Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one, and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength. The second is this: you shall love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other commandment greater than these.

17:00And what Mark does is he goes on. So here is the greatest commandment. What does God want from us? What does he want from you? What does he want from all humanity? To love him first, foremost, over all. And second, he wants us to love each other as ourselves. And Mark gives us in that very same chapter what loving God with all of your heart looks like. And he does it in 41, and it's the example of a widow. Verse 41 in chapter 12, he sat down opposite the treasury and began observing how people were putting money into the treasury. And many rich people were putting in large sums, no doubt making a lot of noise when they were. And this poor widow came up and put in two small copper coins, which amounted to a cent. And Jesus said, There it is. Stop. Call the disciples over here. And calling his disciples, he said to them, Truly, I say to you, this poor widow put in more than all the contributors to the Treasury, for they all put out of their surplus, but she, out of her poverty, put in all that she owned and all that she had to live on. You see, loving God isn't measured by what you give, it's measured by what you hold back. That is what loving God with all your heart looks like. Then he gives another example, chapter 14. You remember, and there, in verse 3 and following, there is a woman with an alabaster jar, a very costly perfume. She comes in and she breaks it, which amounts to about a year's worth of wages, and she just pours this precious treasure, her precious treasure, on the head of Christ.

18:43And Jesus says, stop again, look. And he says in verse 9, Truly I say to you, whenever the gospel is preached in the whole world, that what this woman has done will also be spoken of in memory of her. This is it, pouring out that precious resource. But then there's a third picture of poured out love, and that is Jesus Himself. See, He loves the Father with all His heart, and He loves His neighbor as Himself. And so in verse 22 of 14, here is the picture of His poured-out love. And as they were eating, He took some bread, and after blessing, He broke it and gave it to them and said, Take this, this is my body. Body. And when he had taken a cup and had given thanks, he said to them, He gave it to them, and they all drank from it. And he said to them, This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many.

19:43So it is, he will not be outdone. He pours himself out as the prime example, the supreme example and embodiment of perfect love for the will of the Father. This is what loving God with all your heart looks like, even if it means suffering on a cross, naked for the sins of the world. Jesus accepted it. He loved the will of God more than anything, even though it meant death on a cross. But he also shows us what loving your neighbor as yourself looks like.

20:30John 15, 13 says, Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends. He shows us what loving your neighbor as yourself looks like. He's a supreme example, the perfect embodiment of perfect love. So then the question is, how does one respond to something like this? How does one respond to one of such authority? Who has poured out such a costly love? Let me ask you this: Can one not respond without great offense?

21:12Can you not respond without causing great offense? I remember one time one of my children had prepared a picture for me. It's kind of on a large piece of paper. Put a lot of heart and effort into it. And it got crumpled up in a place. When I picked it up to kind of toss it out, all of a sudden I looked across the room. It was actually in my car, and tears were just coming down. What are you doing with my great work of art? That was an expression of love, right? You can't take an expression of love and throw it aside without causing offense. I remember we just had our Pioneers Christmas concert last Friday night, for those of you who are in attendance. I can remember a similar event years ago, and I can talk about this because all the people have cleared out, and it's kind of an interesting story or comical story anyway. But we had a young girl who had prepared a song, had worked hard on it, and had one of the pioneer leaders had spent a lot of time working with her on it. Well, she stands up in front of the crowd. And you can imagine sometimes being on stage can be frightful. And so this girl got up there, started working her way through it, and one of the other counselors was kind of feeling bad for her and just stood up and started clapping, saying, Yay! Kind of like to move her on out the door. Well, the counselor that had been working with her stood up and, like a mama bear in full rage, said, She's not finished, sing that song.

23:01Guess what? You could hear pin dropping. We're going to listen to that song. In other words, you cannot respond to such a great gift, to such a great work, without invoking a lot of wrath and displeasure. Just think, trampling this costly gift of Jesus' own precious blood and trampling that under your foot as something worthless or something not even worth consideration. I mean, I'll tell you what, how would you feel if you bought somebody an expensive gift this year for Christmas and they just didn't even bother to open it, just tossed it aside? There would be deep offense, would there not? Deep pain, right? You see, Christ's gift for the world cannot be ignored. No response is a response.

24:01And it's placed before us. So, how does Mark want us to respond? Well, he wants us to respond in faith and in love. So, Mark, he wants us to tremble at who Jesus is, marvel at what Jesus has done, and he wants us to respond to Jesus in faith and love. He wants us to respond to Jesus in faith and love. Now, what does this look like? Well, Mark gives us the details. First of all, what does responding to Jesus look like? Responding to him in faith and love. First of all, let's respond to his message. Go all the way back to chapter 1, verse 14. What is Jesus' message that needs to be responded to? Verse 14. Now, after John had been taken into custody, Jesus came into Galilee preaching. He was a preacher, preaching the gospel of God, preaching the good news of God. And this is it, saying, the time is fulfilled. The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe in the gospel. Those are present imperatives. You be repenting, you be believing. That is the response to the good news. Be repenting, that is, be turning from a man-centered way of life to a God-centered way of life. That is what it means to repent.

25:30Be believing. That is, place your faith and your hope in Jesus. Be repenting. It's a present imperative. This needs to be your disposition, not just once as an entry into a new life, but as an ongoing command for our sanctification. We are to constantly be a people who are turning away from a man-centered way of life and constantly be turning to a God-centered way of life. Be repenting. Be believing. That is, be putting your faith in Jesus. And what is faith? Mark wants to tell us. Hebrews 11:1 says it like this. Now, faith is the assurance of things hoped for. It's assurance of things that you're hoping for. It's the conviction of things not seen.

26:25And so Mark gives us three examples of faith that he doesn't want you to miss. What's 2 times 5? 10. Okay, let's say this again. 2 times 5 is 10. This is going to be like an old-fashioned times table, whatever, memory exercise. 2, say it with me. 2 times 5 equals 10. 2 times 5 equals 10. Okay, those are the three chapters you need to remember. Chapter 2, chapter 2. 5, chapter 10. That's where Mark gives us these examples of faith, okay? He gives us these examples of faith. In chapter 2, it is the paralytic. Now, he was assured that if he got to Jesus, that Jesus would heal him. He knew enough about Jesus that he had the power to heal, and he knew enough about Jesus that he would heal. He and his friends shared this conviction about Jesus, and so they had assurance. And they had a conviction that if they just got to Jesus, that he would respond and they would be healed. And so they had to go through the roof because there was no room. And Jesus healed them. And go to chapter 5.

27:43There's a woman who has a blood issue, a very unclean condition. To wherever she touched, things that she touched or who she touched would become unclean. And in Mark chapter 5, here she is in the midst of a crowded people, pushing her way through to touch just even the very fringe of Jesus' garment, knowing that if she did, she would be healed. She had an assurance of the power, the healing power, which was resident in Christ. And she acted upon that, and she was convicted of it, and she went. Went and she pushed her way through and she was healed. And Mark stops the scene. Look at this. Look at this woman. And there's another example of such faith. Chapter 10. You remember, 2 times 5 equals.

28:48And chapter 10, there is this blind beggar in verse 46 named Bartimaeus. And Jesus is going up to Jerusalem with this crowd of people. And as they're going, they're passing by Bartimaeus. And Bartimaeus begins to cry out, Jesus, Son of David, have mercy upon me. But then there were many people who were saying, Be quiet. Hush. They were sternly telling him, Don't, be quiet, silence. And what does he do? But he kept crying all the more, Son of David, have mercy on me. And Jesus stops, the whole train stops. And Mark stops the narrative and says, Look, here it is. Call him. What do you want? I want my sight.

29:41Jesus said, Okay, go. Your faith has made you well. And immediately he regained his sight and began following Jesus going up to Jerusalem. Those are the three and only three examples where Jesus stops and the The word faith is specifically underscored and highlighted. That is how we are to respond to Jesus. Believe what has been revealed about him and act upon that belief. Be turning away from a man-centered way of life, be turning to a God-centered way of life, and be believing in all that is spoken and written about Jesus Christ.

30:33All that is spoken, that is, in the context of what's been written. See, what happens in Mark is that miracles do not produce faith, but faith paves the way for the miracles. Faith paves the way. The reason the paralytic was healed, the reason the woman was healed, the reason Bartimaeus was healed, was because they had faith. Miracles do not produce faith. That's why, after all that Jesus had done, all the miracles, the Pharisees show us a sign from heaven, or come down off the cross, then we'll believe. No, that's not what unbelief does. It's not convinced. There's never enough proof.

31:29Faith looks for reasons to believe, and then appropriates life accordingly. So who is this one? Who is this one coming with great authority? Who is going to be the king over all? Mark makes it very clear. It is Jesus of Nazareth. He is the one that will be coming in clouds with great authority. The question is, who are his saints? That's the second question that the Bible, who are they? Mark makes it very clear. It's those who put their faith and trust in Jesus. And you see this with the centurion. As he is transferred, he's going to be one. He looked upon Jesus upon the cross, and he was transferred. He went from a state of unbelief. That Roman thug that led the crucifixion train.

32:24He looked upon faith. There was the thief upon the cross who looked upon Jesus. He is going to be in his kingdom. Then there's Joseph of Arimathea, one who sat on the very council that condemned Jesus to death, though he may not have been there and probably wasn't there at the time of the condemning of Jesus. Two totally different walks of life, and yet there they are. Who is the king? Jesus. Who are his people? Who are the saints of the highest one? Those who put their faith and love in Christ. So, what does Mark want us to do? First, he wants us to tremble at who Jesus is. Second, he wants us to marvel at what he has done. Third, he wants us to exercise faith in him. And fourth, he wants us to overcome satanic opposition. He wants us to overcome satanic opposition. Now, how are we to understand satanic opposition? Well, Mark gives us a picture. I mean, there are many today who set themselves up as authorities in spiritual warfare. The problem is, they are puppets of Satan themselves. They really don't understand the biblical picture of satanic opposition, and they themselves are led captive to vomit out a whole bunch of garbage about spiritual warfare, and they themselves become puppets or players themselves of the opposing forces of Christ. But Mark gives us a framework to understand satanic opposition.

34:10He gives us a very clear picture of the goals. He doesn't give us maybe all the details that you would like, but he gives us everything we need to know. And the first thing, the goals. What are the goals and objectives of satanic opposition as revealed in Mark? Well, it's very simple. You see, throughout the Gospel of Mark, Satan tried to keep Jesus from going to the cross. That was the goal. Prevent the cross from happening. Prevent Jesus from going. Though he orchestrated the events to crucify him, the intention was to get Jesus to turn away from going. And this is directly in Mark 1:13. Remember, he was in the wilderness for 40 days, being tempted directly by Satan, as if he could become the king of this people that God had set for him by any other means except for going through the cross. And then, and directly, he's mentioned again in Mark 8:33. And this is after Peter had made this great profession, this great profession. Why don't you look there at 8:33? Peter had just made this great profession. You are the Christ. You are God's anointed ruler, the head of the human race. That's you. And then Jesus said, Yeah, well, let me tell you something.

35:39There is suffering in the road ahead for me. This Messiah is going to suffer. He's going to be crucified. He's going to be rejected. He's going to be killed. And three days later, he's going to rise. Peter said, No way, this isn't ever going to happen to you. No way. For the Messiah? Uh-uh, no way, not for you. Well, this is Satan himself tempting Jesus not to go to the cross. And this is what Peter Jesus says. But turning around and seeing his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, Get behind me, Satan. For you are not setting your mind on God's interests, but on man's. And that is satanic involvement, to get people to set their minds upon the things of men, not the things of God. And certainly in Christ, it was to keep him from going to the cross. And all that, the mock trials, the scorn, the betrayal, the rejection, all of these were tactics to get Jesus to get so fed up and not go to the cross. Would he trust God to such a level? Would he trust the Father's will to such a level? And Jesus, of course, went, the perfect embodiment of loving God with all of your heart, soul, and mind. But then afterwards, what was Satan's goal after he got upon the cross? Was to get him to come down from the cross. The whole cross, what did it represent? It represented total trust in the Father's will. That is what the cross represented to Christ, the means of salvation.

37:30The means of the blessings, the means of a justice that was according to divine will. But above all, is Jesus' desire to do the will of the Father. And right afterwards, in 8:34, Jesus lays down that this is the cost of disciples. You want to be like me, then you're going to have to have this attitude like me. Because he summoned the crowd with his disciples and said to them, If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. You need to love the will of God more than even if you were put upon a cross.

38:11Love, if God's will for your life involves suffering, which inevitably it will, you're to love his will more than in your own life. And this is exactly what Jesus did. If you want to be my disciples, this is who I am. I love the will of the Father more than I love my own flesh. And if you're going to be my disciples, this is going to be true of you. It's not a work of yours, but it will be true of you. Because this is what the Holy Spirit accomplishes in us. So it was to keep Jesus, Satan's goal was to keep Jesus from going to the cross. But then, in relation to other people in Mark, it's similar. Though people were not called, no one else is called to die for the sins of the world.

39:00But we are called to look upon the cross. We are called to put our faith in what Jesus did upon that cross. So that satanic opposition is similar but different. See, he tried to keep Jesus from going to the cross, and he also tries to keep people from looking upon that cross. You see, that's the same goal. To keep the two. Jesus had to die, and faith has to be exercised in him. That's the conduit, faith, through which salvation, the means of grace, that transformation that takes place. Jesus died on a cross, yet you must appropriate that by faith. You must believe that this is what he did. And so Satan's opposition is to keep people from exercising faith. Understand.

39:59Mark's goal is for you to exercise faith in him and beware that there is satanic opposition that's going to keep you from or try to keep you from that. And the tactics, Satanic, the Satan's tactics are very plainly spelled out for us in Mark chapter 4. Remember the parable of the soils? Right? There is those seed that fall upon the road, and their hearts are so hard that they will not receive the truth. And Satan comes and takes away the word. There he is again, that adversary. He comes to take away the word. And how does he do this? First of all, he tries to make the word absurd, right?

40:46Or he makes it very undesirable. He seeks to take the truth away. And in the context of Mark, there were those who loved the praise of men more than the praise of God, so their hearts were hardened against the truth or any kind of truth that would jeopardize the praise of men. And then there are the false teachers, those false religious systems that take people down a road of misinformation about Jesus. All this affects the way of keeping the word from being implanted in the heart. And really, this is what 2 Peter is about. False teachers. We're going to go there in the days ahead. We'll go to 2 Peter. But even another tactic of Satan is persecution. Remember, there are those that fell on the rocky places. And then when affliction and persecution arises because of the word, immediately they fall away. They receive it for joy, but then persecution comes. This is what 1 Peter is about. Interesting, at the end of Peter's life, he writes, his two biggest concerns about the church are the persecution that's causing people to fall away, or it's concerned for the church that they would fall away, and then the false. Teaching of 2 Peter.

42:04But this is what Mark's original audience was facing: intense persecution. And then there is the fleshly desire, right? There's the hard heart, the hard soil, then there's the rocky soil, and there's the thorny soil. And these, they receive the word, but then the deceitfulness of riches and the desire for other things enter in and choke out the word, and it becomes unfruitful. This is the tactics. These are the tactics. And this was Judas, right? You can see this: those who fall prey to other things. All this satanic opposition is to keep Jesus from going from the cross or to keep you from exercising faith in him. That's it.

42:50It's the goals. You know, Scripture reveals to us that there are two lions. There are two lions in Scripture. There's the evil lion, the killer, and Peter himself warns of him in 1 Peter 5:8, be of sober spirit. Be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Be warned. Be fearful. Be alert. Then there's the defender, the other lion. He's from the tribe of Judah. He is pictured as the leader. He is pictured as the defender. The good lion, and he loves his people. So, as Daniel sees this vision, he sees this king coming, one who loves his people dearly, and that is why he gives them the kingdom. It's a beautiful picture. Mark 1:1, the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. This is who he is. Mark's gospel is very much the same as John's. Remember, in John 20, 31, John says this, but these things have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing, you may have life in his name. Same goal is for Mark. It's funny how they all kind of come to the same point. Jesus is the Christ. He is the Son of God. And by believing in His name, you will have life.

44:34Brothers and sisters, that's the message of the New Testament. That is the message of Mark. So who is the Son that will come in the clouds with great authority? Jesus. Who are the saints that will receive the eternal kingdom? Those who place their faith and trust in him. So Mark's gospel. Put your faith and trust in Jesus. Be turning away from your man-centered way of life. Accept what is said about Jesus is true. And put your faith and trust in Him. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for this quick overview, Lord, as we've been many years looking at the details. Father, we thank you for the big picture. We thank you for this glorious scene of the coming King and His saints. Father, we thank you. And Father, we just pray now that you would, by your Spirit, remove the veils from our eyes, remove the hardness of our hearts, God, and that you would give us faith. For those who have never put their faith and trust in you, I pray this morning, Father, that you would draw many here today to yourself, that they will call upon you. And Father, for those of us who have been walking with you for many years and everybody in between, Father, I pray that you would cause us to be a people of greater faith. Father, we thank you for this. In Jesus' name.