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Mar 27, 2022

We are Weak, but He is Strong

We are Weak, but He is Strong

Speaker: Patrick Lafferty

Series: Follow: Learning from Mark about Jesus’ Most Misunderstood Command

Keywords: prayer, sorrow, sleep, death, temptation, beware, behold

It’s debatable whether the consequences of the last two years have more to do with what they’ve produced in us, or what they’ve revealed in us. What is certain is how both now and always we find what is truest in us through an experience of pressure. We will see a sharp contrast between Jesus and His disciples in how the moment reveals the heart. As we consider the passage we’ll take its implicit invitation to behold something, beware of something, and how beholding and being wary relate.

Readings & Scripture

AFFIRMATION OF FAITH: Adapted from “St. Patrick’s Breastplate” attributed to St. Patrick of Ireland in the 5th Century, A.D
ALL: I arise today, through
God's strength to pilot me,
God's might to uphold me,
God's wisdom to guide me,
God's eye to look before me,
God's ear to hear me,
God's word to speak for me,
God's hand to guard me,
God's shield to protect me
Christ with me,
Christ before me,
Christ behind me,
Christ in me,
Christ beneath me,
Christ above me,
Christ on my right,
Christ on my left,
Christ when I lie down,
Christ when I sit down,
Christ when I arise,
Christ in the heart of every man who thinks of me,
Christ in the mouth of everyone who speaks of me,
Christ in every eye that sees me,
Christ in every ear that hears me.
Salvation is the Lord's
Salvation is Christ's
May thy salvation, Lord, be always with us!
Amen.

CONFESSION OF SIN:
LEADER: Merciful God, for the things we have done that we regret,
ALL: forgive us.
LEADER: For the things we have failed to do that we regret,
ALL: forgive us.
LEADER: For all the times we have acted without love,
ALL: forgive us.
LEADER: For all the times we have reacted without thought,
ALL: forgive us.
LEADER: For all the times we have withdrawn care,
ALL: forgive us.
LEADER: For all the times we have failed to forgive,
ALL: forgive us.
LEADER: For hurtful words said and helpful words unsaid, for unfinished tasks,
and for falling asleep to you and your kingdom.
FAMILY: Father of mercies, forgive us and help us to lay down our burden of regret at the foot of the cross. Amen.

ASSURANCE OF PARDON: from Acts 13:38; Ephesians 1:7, NRSV
LEADER: Through Jesus Christ forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you. In Christ we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace.
ALL: Thanks be to God.

BENEDICTION: Jude 24, 25
LEADER: Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy, 25 to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever.
ALL: Amen

ADDITIONAL RELATED SCRIPTURES:

  • Genesis 4:1-7
  • Psalm 22
  • Psalm 51
  • Isaiah 51:17,19,22
  • Romans 7:18-20
  • 2 Corinthians 5:21
  • Galatians 5:16, 17
  • 1 Peter 4:12-17
  • 1 John 3:1

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

  1. Let’s get personal right off the bat: what effects have the last two years had on you–good or bad? Can you discern whether the experience has produced something in you that was new, or just brought something out that was latent? 
  2. How would you describe Jesus in this passage? Why might some find his transparency less than admirable? Why might others find it all the more endearing?
  3. If the only insight you had about following Jesus was from his prayer here at the beginning of his ordeal, what would you learn? 
  4. Why might Mark include yet another of the disciples’ embarrassing moments? How might their behavior sober you? Encourage you?
  5. As for those questions surfaced in the sermon–those of a Welsh preacher named William Williams, have at them: 
    1. How real is your sense of God and His holiness this week?
    2. Are you conscious of the reality of sin, and of your capacity for it?
    3. How clear and vivid is your assurance and certainty of God’s forgiveness and Fatherly love?
  6. More honest answers only: are art galleries your thing–why or why not? If they’re not, is it because the kind of art you typically find in galleries isn’t your cup of tea, or is it more the act of patiently perusing art that leaves you a bit fidgety? Regardless of your honest answers, how is beholding the heart of Jesus similar to perusing art? How might it be helpful–and moreover, necessary?

QUOTES: 

 

  • Our salvation is played out with the Devil, a Devil who is not simply generalized evil, but an intelligence determined on its own supremacy. Flannery O’Connor in a letter to a friend
  • Don’t be naive. Part of you is eager, ready for anything in God; but another part is as lazy as an old dog sleeping by the fire. Eugene Peterson’s rendering of verse 38
  • . . .prayer is never unnecessary. John Calvin
  • He cannot ‘tempt’ to virtue as we do to vice. He wants them to learn to walk and must therefore take away His hand; and if only the will to walk is really there He is pleased even with their stumbles. Do not be deceived, Wormwood. Our cause is never more in danger than when a human, no longer desiring, but still intending, to do our Enemy’s will, looks round upon a universe from which every trace of Him seems to have vanished, and asks why he has been forsaken, and still obeys. Lewis, C. S.. The Screwtape Letters 
  • Dear God, I cannot love Thee the way I want to. You are the slim crescent of a moon that I see and my self is the earth’s shadow that keeps me from seeing all the moon. . . .I do not know you God because I am in the way. Please help me to push myself aside. . . . Please help me to get down under things and find where You are. . . . My attention is always very fugitive. The way I have it every instant. I can feel a warmth of love heating me when I think & write this to You. Flannery O’Connor

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