In God’s Hands

Speaker 1 (00:02):

Hi, I am Brian Mosley, our team here at right now. Media loves serving the church. We believe the mission of the church matters and that your leadership matters. So whether you're watching this message by yourself or with your leadership team, we hope that it's an encouragement to you. If you haven't heard Charlie Dates preach before, turn to Mark nine and buckle up. This sermon will both challenge you and edify you.

Speaker 2 (00:29):

I want to read into your hearing all the way down to verse 29. This is certainly a picture of hope that you and I must be being urged to grab hold of. It says, when they came to the disciples, they saw a great crowd around them and scribes arguing with them. When the whole crowd saw him, they were immediately overcome with awe and they ran toward to greet him. He asked them, what are you arguing about with them? Someone from the crowd answered him, teacher, I brought my son to you. He has a spirit that makes him unable to speak and whenever it seizes him, it dashes him down and he foams at the mouth and grinds his teeth and becomes rigid, and I ask your disciples to cast it out, but they could not do so he answered them, you faithless generation, how much longer or must I be among you?

Speaker 2 (01:34):

How much longer must I put up with you? Bring him to me and they brought the boy to him. When the spirit saw him, immediately it convulsed and the boy fell to the ground and rolled around, foaming at the mouth, and Jesus asked the Father, how long has this been happening to him? And he said, from childhood it is often cast into the fire and into the water to destroy him, but if you are able to do anything, have pity on us and help us. Jesus said to him, if you are able, all things can be done for the one who believes immediately the father of the child cried out, I believe, help my unbelief. When Jesus saw that a crowd came running together, he rebuked the unclean spirit saying to it, you spirit that keeps this boy from speaking and hearing I command you, come out of him and never enter him again.

Speaker 2 (02:38):

After crying out and convulsing him terribly, it came about that the boy laid there. He looked like a corpse so that most of them said he's dead, but Jesus took him by the hand and lifted him up and he was able to stand and when he had entered the house, his disciples asked him privately, why could we not cast it out? He said to them, this kind can come out only through prayer. This is the word of God. Thanks be to God. I want to raise the thought from this text straight from the words of Jesus in verse 19. I want to tag this text in our exchange. Bring him to me. Will you pray with me please, our Father and our great God, we do honor you, bless you and thank you for the privilege we have this day to be your children and to hear your word proclaimed. I do ask now that you will grant me clarity of mind, concision of speech and conviction of heart that I may tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth for your glory and for our good. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.

Speaker 2 (04:01):

Legend has it that in small town, Mount Vernon, Texas, the owner of the Drummond Bar and Grill, a tavern to be built in this local town had picked a plot of land close to a local church. He began to construct his new bar in proximity to the local church. When the church found out about the new bar and grill, it did not want that traffic or the attention of liquor near its church or its children. And so they began to pray. They began to pray individually and collectively that God would halt the erection of this bar. In fact, the prayer meetings caught a little bit of fire and they met corporately several times until it became widely known that the church was praying that God would not allow this tavern to be built. A few months before the structure was complete. No small storm hit that small town and with precision, a lightning boat struck the new construction, littered a flame and burned it to the ground.

Speaker 2 (05:26):

The church was relieved to find out that the bar would no longer be opening in its neck of the woods. They were rather smug grateful even until they received a subpoena in the mail. It turns out that Mr. Drummond had heard about their prayer gatherings and was suing the church for the lightning bolt striking his facility in construction and they actually went to court when they got to court. Mr. Drummond's attorney said that it was the church's prayers that were to be responsible for the burning down of his facility, to which the church's attorney at the behest of the church replied, no, my clients and their prayers had nothing to do with lightning striking this building. In his opening comments, the Judge Riley remarked, I don't know how I will decide in this case, but one thing is clear to me. The tavern owner believes in the power of prayer and the church does not.

Speaker 2 (06:48):

Our problem with powerlessness today is really our greater problem of prayerlessness today. When we get to Mark chapter nine, we run into an impotent, irrelevant bunch of disciples who are unable to bring about the change desperately needed by families in society, not because they did not have access to power, but more likely because they forgot to depend upon the power. I'm here today to submit to you that the events of Mark nine are not just flat characters on the pages of scripture, but they are living, breathing examples intended to encourage and motivate you and I toward believing fervent dependence upon God that you and I can see God do the impossible. I wish I had my church. Let me back up for a moment.

Speaker 2 (07:56):

I said that you and I can actually believe God to do the impossible when we trust him and depend upon him and not our own power. Some scholars suggest JD, that the gospel of Mark is a kind of outside in gospel. It is, as Joby said earlier, the kind of gospel where the people who do not have a proximity to the person of Jesus recognize the power of Jesus quicker than the people who are close to Jesus. It is a warning not to get too close to Jesus without getting close to Jesus that you can go to church, know the hymns, the stories, the theology, the routine, where to raise your hands at in the song, when to stand up and when to sit down and go home as powerless as you walked into the door from the garrison demoniac to blind Bartimaeus to the man with the withered hand to Jay Iris, the synagogue official to the cyro Ian woman.

Speaker 2 (09:12):

Everybody in this gospel seems to recognize who Jesus is quicker than those who are close to him. Well, in Mark chapter nine, it must've been a cool day. It's that cheerful time of year where the sunlight is starting to overpower the darkness. Some scholars suggest that it is about 40 days before the passion of Jesus Christ. It's that springtime kind of air where the crisp cool air blows like gentle zephyrs through the ancient near East. One can see the sun sticking its fingers through the clouds, tickling the harvest, getting them ready for a new season. It's a sunny, bright day, but it is also a dark day because there's a man whose sun is convulsed with demons. I don't know if you've ever noticed the contrast of the topography in scripture. It also contrast with our lives that you can be having the worst day in the world and nature has the unmitigated audacity to shine a bright light upon your sad day.

Speaker 2 (10:32):

It is striking to me that the artistry of nature does not register the misery of humanity, that when you're sad and want to stay in bed, the birds come by and sing songs to wake you up in the morning. It's a bright and cheerful day, but Bible readers know and if you hadn't read your Bible, you heard the preacher earlier, you heard that according to Matthew 17, this is an unusually bright day in theological venues that venue up at the top of the mountain where the sun is shining this time. I don't mean the SUN, I mean the SON He scholars call it has a hypostatic union. He is 100% God and 100% man simultaneously. And Peter, James and John had become accustomed to his son of manness, but in this moment they were going to meet his son of Godness and his mundane figure gave way to his majesty.

Speaker 2 (11:43):

The simplicity of his humanity broke before the splendor of his divinity. And in that moment, his garments started to shine forth brighter than bleach can clean a fabric. No cleaner could get his garments. This white and there appears Moses and Elijah, the chief prophets of the Old Testament. And Peter in his gregarious impetuous personality speaks too quickly. He's rebuked by the father from upper above who says Moses may be somebody, Elijah may be somebody, but both Moses and Elijah like a mirror to a sink, point your dirty soul to the one who can clean it. And I need you to hear what he has to say. I don't know who you listen to, what pundits you tune into for your news, what preachers you stream on Sunday morning, but let me tell you, there is not one whose voice is sweeter, whose words are stronger, whose position is more powerful than the Lord Jesus himself.

Speaker 2 (12:53):

And you ought not trade your prophet who points to Jesus for the actual Jesus. He alone is prophet, priest and king. And while there is glory on the mountaintop, there is grief down below. Jesus and Peter, James and John come down from that glorious mountaintop to find a debacle. The text says that there's an argument going on at the bottom of the mountain. I know what was happening. You see the scribes, the religious PhDs, the chairman of the elder board were waiting for this moment. This was the moment that they had come to this region for a man that brought his son to Jesus, but Jesus wasn't there. So he brought him to the disciples of Jesus and the disciples are found out to be impotent, unable to deliver this man. And in this era, the old proverb was, as the messengers are, so is the master, and when the disciples were unable to deliver this boy from the demon that had him possessed, they pointed to Jesus and they blamed Jesus.

Speaker 2 (14:21):

You see friends, when people bring their problems to the disciples of Jesus, they actually think they're bringing their problems to our Lord. Lemme say that again. When people bring their problems to the disciples of Jesus, the world can't really tell the difference between the disciples and Jesus. And so there are some people frustrated and angry with the church because they've substituted the power of Jesus for the weakness of his disciples. But can I tell you why I'm a Christian? I'm not a Christian because the church has gotten everything right. I'm not a Christian because the church has demonstrated and force and power the power of Jesus Christ. I'm not a Christian because I somehow believe in a blue eyed blonde hair, American flag, gun totten character from the Marvel universe.

Speaker 2 (15:30):

I believe that I've met the real brown-skinned Palestinian Jew named Jesus the Christ who has power over every demon in hell and that runs the earth who can speak to the winds and the waves who can deliver from sickness, who can put joy in a broken heart, who can wipe every tear that falls from our face, who knows our thoughts before they appear unto us. And if we can help the world see the real Jesus and not our fictitious representation of him, then more people will come to faith. It was George Bernard Shaw who said that God made us in his image and we returned the favor.

Speaker 2 (16:17):

Jesus comes down and he says to his disciples and the crowd, what are you all arguing about? I want to submit to you that this is a striking subtle, yet significant movement in this narrative because it also mirrors the history of Christianity in America. In the face of an appalling circumstance, the disciples and the scribes are having an argument while the kid is laying there dying, the representatives of Jesus are there arguing. Have you ever noticed that in our history we've been arguing when we should have been delivering? You ain't got to say amen. I brought my own and I got my own church to go back to when I leave here today at one of the zeniths on the American colonies when revival was revival was sweeping through the eastern seaboard. More African people were being stolen from their native land and being told that they were given a brighter, better future as chattel slaves and at a time where arguments were happening about the new divinity and the brightness of religious freedom and the fight for a real church, the most heinous crime against these people were taking place and you got to look back at that history and ask, what were y'all arguing about?

Speaker 2 (18:03):

While people are laying here dying being stolen, consigned to human indignity, what are you arguing about? I'm not here to make a political statement and I can tell by the fact that you're quiet already that this may not go well, but I'm going to say it anyway.

Speaker 2 (18:23):

I'm not here to make a political statement. Brian is my friend. He knows that I'm not here to make a political statement, but right now we're arguing so much about abortion and it's life in that womb be clear right now we're arguing so much about abortion that I wonder what could we be doing as a church to actually eliminate the need for abortion rather than arguing over whether or not abortion should be taking place, you say to me, what is eliminating the need? Well, if America actually lived like women mattered, like women should be paid a livable wage, the same amount of money for what a man does, that childcare would be provided unqualified good childcare where kids could have food to eat and good schools to go to regardless of the neighborhoods that they lived in. If we created a support network, a woman would keep her kid and the church could deliver an entire generation. And you ain't got to say amen, but I know what I'm talking about because I'm living proof of what I just said.

Speaker 2 (19:30):

And the question becomes, what are y'all arguing over? My daughter came home from school and Illinois is in bad shape. She came home from school the first week with a family survey form saying, dad, they want to know about our family. I said, all right baby, what are they asking? They want to know. How many houses do we have? I looked at the form, I said, no, baby, we got one house, but that ain't what they asking. They want to know if you live in one house with your mom and another house with your daddy. She said, oh, okay. She said, but now they're asking me for my pronoun. What's my pronoun daddy?

Speaker 2 (20:05):

I grabbed that form with righteous indignation. I said, baby, you just learning the difference between a noun, a pronoun and adjective and an arb. What kind of godless institution is leaning on kids to answer questions about a pronoun and they don't know the difference between the parts of speech and our teachers are being consigned to those heathen institutions to go in there and to bend their conscience. And it may not be happening in your state like is happening in mine, but I wonder what if the church in America actually got its act together, pooled resources. We could have dynamic Christian in every neighborhood that needed them, but instead we arguing.

Speaker 2 (20:56):

Jesus says, what are you arguing about? The kid is dying, man steps forth and he says, I brought my son to you technically. He did not bring his son to Jesus. He brought his son to the disciples of Jesus. He says, I brought my son to you and they couldn't do it. What an indictment on the church today. The world brings its problems to the church. It says, but you can't fix it, huh? Have you ever noticed, I've noticed this from Rome to Athens, to London, to Inglewood on the south side of Chicago that when the world has a problem, they come looking for the church. When nine 11 happened, the tragedy that it is on our nation and planes were grounded, the government did not look to the New York stock exchange to fix this problem, to bring healing and hope to the nation. They did not immediately turn to the armed forces.

Speaker 2 (22:14):

But when all the planes were grounded, there was one plane that was permitted to fly north to the Capitol and then to New York. It came from North Carolina. It had one person on it other than the pilots. Do you know who it was? Billy Graham? Because when the nation was in trouble, it reached for its preacher. When the world has a problem, it's going to lay them at the feet of the church because we're supposed to have the power. We're supposed to be connected to the resource to deliver us. But can't you see the world now saying, we brought racism to you but you couldn't fix it? We brought misogyny to you but you couldn't fix it.

Speaker 2 (23:09):

We brought our perplexing circumstances and our homelessness and our food shortages and you had no power to help us. I brought 'em to you and they could not help. Jesus says, how long am I going to have to put up with y'all? This is Mark chapter nine. I want to suggest to you that how long is a chronological question. In Mark chapter one, they should have come to see when Jesus healed the man in the synagogue that he had power. When he touched Peter's mother-in-law raised her up off her bed affliction that he had power, that when he met the man with the withered hand that he had power, that when he confronted or Jay Iris confronted him, and that woman who had a 12 year hemorrage came up behind him and touched the hem of his garment and was made whole. They were supposed to get that he had power.

Speaker 2 (24:16):

And then somebody from Jay Iris's house said, whoa, whoa, whoa. Wait a minute. Now the girl is dead. And Jesus said, don't listen to them. Death may have taken her from you, but I'm going to take her from death. They should have known that he had power. And then they get on a boat to go on the other side of the sea, and when they get on the boat, the boat starts to rock and quake and they are frightened. Now, these are not novices. These are nautical expert fishermen who know how to handle the ways I don't know about you, but I'm not nervous on a plane with turbulence when the pilot is called. But if there's turbulence and the pilot gets on, if the pilot is nervous, I'm nervous, and these men who knew how to handle the water are nervous and they come to Jesus and they say, do you care that we're perishing?

Speaker 2 (25:18):

Can't you see Jesus? He's human wiping the sleep from his eyes, the crut from his lids, the slob from his beard, and he gets up holding onto the side of the walls. He goes to the bow of the ship and he leans over and goes, sh. And the wind stands sentinel at its creator's command and the waves lick his hand like a manje dog and they look at each other and they go, who is this that even the winds and the waves obey him? I'm preaching better than y'all saying. Amen. He gets off of that boat and he runs into a garrison demoniac who has a storm running through him. He has no clothes on. He's cut himself, he's bruised. Nobody could contain him or chain him, but at the end of the text, the Bible says that he was called and in his right mind and over and over again, Jesus is demonstrating his power, but he comes to Mark chapter nine and asks How long, and I got to look at some of you and ask the same question.

Speaker 2 (26:27):

When you face something that feels impossible and you are ready to hit the panic button, what you need is a good memory. Memory will say to you, now, if God delivered me from that in the nineties, if he got us through that in the early two thousands, if he got me over this hurdle, if he healed my body, if he got me through a pandemic, what is this that I'm facing right now? Faith is not merely believing in what God will do, but faith is believing in what God has already done. And if he's done it already, I said, if he's done it already, y'all want to have fun with this text. I just need you to exercise your memory. Is there anybody in this sanctuary today who's ever had their backs up against the wall, but when you fell to your knees to pray, you heard God answer you on the other end and he deliver you? Can I pause for station identification? Is there anybody here that knows what I'm talking about? We got a God who has power and what else does he have to do to show you He has power.

Speaker 2 (27:57):

After all you've been through, he hadn't brought you this far to drop you right? In this season you're praying and you are hurting. He knows right where you are friend. And I may have been sent all the way from Chicago to Dallas just to look you in the face and say, God knows where you are and you are not hopeless. Feel the hopelessness of this man. How long has this been happening? He says, from childhood. See, when you look at the duration of this, you can sense the hopelessness that emerges. It's one thing to deal with a problem for a few years. It's another thing to deal with a problem for season upon season, year upon year, you start to feel like there's not going to be a cure.

Speaker 2 (28:52):

A demon gotten ahold of this boy, and I know there's some people in places that I get to preach at around the world who don't believe in demons and they look at me and they say, man, I heard you got a PhD. You actually believe in that. And I say, and you don't. Can I tell y'all something? There is an unseen world that influences shapes and determines what happens in our seen world. If you don't believe in the demonic, that might be evidence of how much the demonic has ahold of you. See, the devil doesn't mind you coming to church or even hearing preaching so long as you don't believe what you hear. I want to submit to you that the problem in our world is that our nation even is full of wickedness, that there are demonic forces. What else would make children nine, 10 and 11 grab firearms and go shoot people in school?

Speaker 2 (30:06):

That's demonic friends. What else would make us live in one of the wealthiest nations in the history of humanity? And people still go to bed hungry at night. That's not policy merely that's evil friends. The devil ain't playing with me and he wants to destroy me and you and he will not rest until he's able to take us. And one thing that I've decided what's not fair about this text, everybody else we run into that's bound by these demons and Mark are adults. This is a kid and at some point you and I got to say, I draw the line with my kids. I am not going to let some evil wicked force come in my house and mess with my kids. I bless the Lord for the memory of my mama who used to take oil and grease our heads and pray over us.

Speaker 2 (31:06):

She would send us into school and say, I'm sending you into a wicked place, but Jesus is going with you. Angels are going to watch over you and they're going to bring you home when the day is done. If you want to see a change in the lives of your children, don't put 'em out. Put 'em on the altar. Find a way to cry out unto the Lord for power to deliver them. I know what I'm talking about. I know what I'm talking about because we tend to think our empires, our beautiful church buildings, our great programs are going to save people. Can I tell you your cute little program ain't going to save nobody.

Speaker 2 (31:52):

You got to have some real power. Power that's bigger than a start time and end time. You need power that the demons recognize and the disciples come to Jesus and they say to him, Hey, now why couldn't we do this? Jesus says, because this kind doesn't come out by your power. You see, you showed up thinking it was your power. The disciples have been fairly successful including chapter six before they get to this point, and I conclude that rather than being controlled by the power of God, they felt like they controlled the power of God, that rather than being dispensed by the power of God, they felt like they were the dispensers of the power of God. That rather than belonging to the God whose power it was, they thought that that power belonged to them. And so they showed up thinking that they had control of the power. But can I tell you where real power comes from? Real power does not come from the academy. Real power does not come from Wall Street. Real power does not live at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Can I tell you where real power comes? Real power comes to women and men who have time to pray that our power is not found in the sophistication of our doctrine. It's not found in the beauty of our temples and facilities. It's not found in the depths of our bank account, but there is power that comes to us in prayer.

Speaker 2 (34:00):

Any and everybody God has ever used in scripture to do something significant knew how to pray. Moses prayed and when he prayed, the waters of the red seat backed up and that wind blew and made that ground dry and the children of Israel walked through looking at the fish and sea creatures in the walls of the Red Sea. He prayed again and the water came crashing down and drowned Pharaoh's army because prayer works. Jacob prayed one night wrestling with God and he found out that sometimes the problem ain't other people. The problem is you and prayer won't just change things, but prayer changes people too. Joshua prayed. Joshua had to be praying, marching around those walls, having got Intel from the red light district in Jericho, he had to be trusting the Lord and when he marched that seventh time on that seventh day and they blew those horns, the walls fell down flat because prayer works.

Speaker 2 (34:57):

David found out that prayer works. David got caught like Bill Clinton with his hand in the cookie jar and it looked like it was over. They were going to throw him away because that's what we do with people who fall. We throw them away. But David found out that there's somebody who's got power over your elder board and he is able to give you mercy to help you recover from the trouble and the trauma that you face. I'm trying to argue in here that prayer works. Ruth prayed and she found out that there is a kinsman redeemer, somebody who sticks closer than your real family. Jonah prayed in the belly of a fish and God let him out. Courtside at Nineveh, Isaiah prayed in a cloudy temple. Jeremiah prayed with resignation papers in his back pocket. Hosea prayed with divorce papers in his hands. Even Jesus had to pray in a garden one night as blood tripped from his brow like sweat and if Jesus had to pray, why your church ain't pray?

Speaker 2 (36:06):

How you think we going to make it without prayer? I tell you we won't make it. We won't make it. I came out of the house to go. I was preaching at Wheaton College one time and it's about 45 minutes from where I live. I had about 43 minutes to get there and I came out Brian and my car was on the flat. The back passenger tire was on the flat. No problem. I'm from Chicago, by the way. You meet anybody from Chicago? That's our answer to everything. You can fix anything. I had an electric pump in the hatch in the back, so I went and grabbed it. I plugged it into the little lighter came on power, I connected it to the tire. I stuck a little twig in my mouth. I folded my arms, leaned up on the side of the car, looked real suave.

Speaker 2 (36:51):

You'd have thought I knew exactly what I was doing. I looked over about two minutes later and the tire is flatter than it was when I went to put air in. I said, that's odd. I poured water on the tire to see if air was leaking from the tire. The tire was perfectly sealed. I stuck my finger into the nozzle of the pump and air came out. The power of the pump was perfectly fine, so the tire had the capacity to receive the air. The pump had the power to dispense the air, but there was something keeping the air from getting in the tire. I reconnected it, poured water on that and I could see air shooting everywhere. It occurred to me that the problem was not with the capacity of the tire or the power of the pump, the connection, the stem was broken and I was late sitting on the flat trying to get to where I was supposed to be because my stem, my connection was broken.

Speaker 2 (37:59):

I'm preaching to somebody here today whose life is on a flat. You are sitting still and God is calling you to be somewhere. You should have been there by now, but the reason you're not there is not because there's a failure in power with God. It is not because you do not have the capacity to receive the power of God. Your prayer life is broke and the only way to get power is to be able to fall on your knees and to call upon the name of the Lord and sit there and let 'em give you power. Y'all going to make me preach. I'll keep on preaching.

Speaker 2 (38:42):

The record is Mother Theresa prayed for days in a row. The record is Charles Simeon prayed at the same place in his study, kneeling at a bench, his face up against the wall. He prayed so much his breath burned a hole into the wall that the people who've experienced real power have spent real time praying. And I want to submit to you that prayer is not a passive resignation to life's circumstances. We do not simply pray to accept what is going on in the world. No prayer is the most potent revolution available to mankind. When you pray, you ought to expect that something's going to happen. I said, when you pray, you ought to expect that something's going to happen. Charles Inglis, that captain who had done many transatlantic trips had George Mueller on his boat one time. JD iss, a church Astoria. I pull these out for the church Astoria nerds.

Speaker 2 (39:42):

Charles Mueller was a marvelous evangelist and he had to get to Quebec. They were leaving Bristol and all of a sudden the boat stopped because there was a dense fog. Charles Ingles went up, he's the captain. He looked at this dense fog and like a good captain, he stayed looking at that dense fog for 24 hours waiting for it to lift. George Mueller came to him and said, Hey, captain. He said, I need to be in Quebec by Saturday, it's two days. The captain looked at him and said, well, I'm sorry the fog won't permit us to move. He said, that's fine. He said, if the ship can't get me there, God will get me there another way. He said, I've never missed a preaching engagement for 50 years and I've never failed to get an audience with God for 50 years. He said, come now down to the chart room and pray with me.

Speaker 2 (40:35):

Ing English says He thought to himself and I quote From what? Lunatic asylum has this man come and they got down on their knees to pray and Mueller put his hands on Charles Inglis and he began to pray a simple yet powerful prayer, God, a need to be in Quebec. By Saturday they got up to pray and English said he went to pray and Mueller put his hand on his mouth, said, no, no need for you to pray. He said, what do you mean no need for? He said, you don't want me to pray. He said, no, I don't want you to pray for two reasons. Number one, you don't believe that God will, and I believe that God has. He said, let's go back up. Do you know they went back up to the top of that ship and the fog was gone and Mueller was in Quebec on Saturday because nothing is impossible.

Speaker 2 (41:31):

I said, nothing is impossible to those who believe. This kid is laying there and they say he's dead. You know what Jesus goes to do? He raises him up by his hand. That's what the text says. He lifted him up by his hand in verse 27. Have you ever noticed the amazing things Jesus does with his hands? That's a great study to look at. In the Bible, they put two fish and five loaves in his hands and he looked at the multitudes, 5,000 men, not counting women and children, and he multiplied it so much that they had 12 baskets left over because it all depends on whose hands it's in.

Speaker 2 (42:25):

Blind. Bartimaeus is sitting on the side of the road. Jesus scoops up some dirt, mixes it with some spittle in his hands, applies it to his eyes, and he began to see because it all depends on whose hands it's in. A widow was walking in the funeral procession of her son and he puts his hands on the casket and the dad stood up into a living perpendicular because it all depends on whose hands it's in. If you put two fish in, five loaves in my hands, I'm going to give you back two fish and five loaves. If you put some mud and some dirt in my hands, I might be able to make you some mud pie at the beach, but that's the best I can do. If you put a dead person in my hands, I can't do much for you. If you put nails and wood in my hand, I may be able to build your birdhouse, but it won't last for long.

Speaker 2 (43:40):

But if you put nails and wood in the hands of Jesus, I wish I had a church in here. I said they put nails in his hands, a spear in his side and a crown of thorns upon his head, and he died, y'all. I said he died. He died till death died. He died till sin apologized and the earth rocked and quake like a drunken man, and the Roman soldiers said, surely this must be the son of God. Am I preaching to anybody in here? Because when you put nails in the hands of Jesus, he's able to save the world. Somebody ought to help me. You ought to say, put it all in his hands. I put this and that in his hands. Whatever your problem put it in His.

Speaker 1 (44:48):

Just as Charlie said, everything is made new and beautiful in Jesus' hands. As you leave this session, talk with your team about the things in your church and in your community that you need to entrust to Jesus through prayer and bold faithfulness.