Mark is impressing upon us in this passage, that the crowd is made up of two different groups of people. Those of Israel, and those who are far-away ones. In this sermon, Pastor Tony unpacks Christ’s costly compassion on the 4,000. Christ has this mixed crowd–Jew and Gentile–recline at a wilderness table together, and satisfies them of himself together as one people.

Entrust yourself today to this one who is willing and able to sustain us through this earthly wilderness.

You can copy the scriptures now, if you would, for our New Testament reading. These are sermon texts. As we continue through Mark, Mark chapter 8. I’ll be reading the first 10 verses there, Mark chapter 8. Mark chapter 8, starting verse 1. Before we hear the Word read and preached, let’s ask the Lord’s blessing upon it at this time. Let’s pray together. Our dear Heavenly Father, We confess again what a privilege it is being here in your presence. Lord, we marvel at your grace and your mercy and your kindness towards us. We pray, Lord, as we hear now your word preached, that you would give us ears indeed to hear and eyes to see. Lord, we pray that you would give us tent of hearts, hearts to receive all that you would have us to receive at this point. And we ask once more, Lord, Because we’re feeble and our minds wander and we are so inundated by the things of this life, the issues that we go through, Lord, we ask that you would indeed arrest our attentions once more. Remove all those distractions that, again, swirl around in our minds, causing us mental fog, Lord, and spiritual fog. Lord, help us to hear what you have for us and to receive that were through your spirit, and we ask, Lord, by the Holy Spirit, that you would bend our lives and our wills towards you, that we would submit again and again in praise, Lord, and in confidence, Lord, and we pray that the instrument now of your word this morning and the meditations of all of our hearts would indeed be acceptable in your sight. We ask all of this for the sake of our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, and we all said as your people, Amen. Mark chapter 8, starting at verse 1. In those days when a great crowd had gathered, and they had nothing to eat, he called his disciples to him and said to them, I have compassion on the crowd, because they have been with me now three days and have nothing to eat. And if I send them away hungry to their homes, they will faint on the way. And some of them have come from far away. And his disciples answered him, how can one feed these people with bread here in this desolate place? And he asked them, how many loaves do you have? They said seven. And he directed the crowds to sit down on the ground. And he took the seven loaves and having given thanks, he broke them and gave them to his disciples to set before the people. And they set them before the crowd. and they had a few small fish, and having blessed them, he said that these also should be set before them. And they ate, and were satisfied. And he took up the broken pieces left over, seven baskets full, and there were about 4,000 people, and he sent them away, and immediately he got into the boat with his disciples, and went to the district of Dalmanutha. So far, the reading of God’s word. Indeed, it is the word of the Lord. Amen. You may be seated. Almost universally, when people come to this text from a preacher’s perspective, We’re faced with just that question. What are we to do with this text? Because haven’t we just dealt with this text in a sense in the feeding of the 5,000 in close proximity to this in Mark chapter 8, the feeding of the 4,000, right? They sound quite familiar, the two accounts. And again, if you were here just a few weeks back, you were with us when we read and dealt with the feeding of the 5,000 in Mark’s gospel. And these texts are very, very similar. And so oftentimes what preachers do is they come to the text, and they simply go through it very quickly to get to the next section, where this confrontation that occurs between this feeding with both the disciples, this confrontation, and the Pharisees. And they don’t speak a lot of time of this text because of its seeming repetition, right? Seeming mirroring, if you will, of the earlier feeding, the feeding of the 5,000. And I’m convinced that’s not the best way to go about it, right? Again, one of the things that we have to affirm and remember is that there’s no filler in God’s word, especially a short gospel like Mark. We look at these stories and there are similarities for sure. We have thousands of people in both accounts. They’re in the wilderness in both. They’re listening to the teaching of Christ. Very familiar both in number and context, though not identical, and in location, but not quite identical. And in both stories, both accounts, historically, Jesus has compassion on the crowd as they’re out there listening to his teaching. because of their needs, their physical needs, their wearisomeness of where they’re at. And even beyond that, as we saw the last time, the needs spiritually are also a very real issue as well. And so Jesus in both stories asks the disciples once mentioning the need, he asked them how many loaves they have, right, to take an assessment of what was there. And of all stories, Christ has the people sit down. And he blesses and he breaks this bread and he gives it out to the people. And in both accounts, everyone is fed, and they’re fed so well that it says they were satisfied. They were satisfied. And if you remember, we talked Quite a bit about that in the feeding of the 5,000. And then we have the leftovers being collected into baskets and brought in to show the provision. And so there was much, there was so much there that was leftover that everyone had eaten and was full, right? In fact, the stories are so similar that many just simply say Mark’s reusing the same story again, and that defeating the 5,000 and defeating the 4,000 really aren’t two different stories. Mark’s just using them as an author to kind of set up again this confrontation, this discussion that’s going to come with the Pharisees and the disciples. And so he reuses the stories we are told by many. So it only took place once and that would be a very convenient way to go to hold to that and just rush into the next section. He said many people do just this because of a seeming inability for us to grasp the disciples and their response to Jesus to these things. And remember he says of the crowd that he had compassion on them. They’ve been with him a long time. He needs to give them something to eat. And why did the disciples, what did they say in response to this? Where in the world is anyone going to get bread to feed this many out here in the wilderness, right? The question again comes, how is this possible? And for some, that’s just unbelievable. Beyond believability that these disciples who had witnessed all that they had up to this point, including the feeding of the 5,000, would now come to this event, in Christ’s word to them, and say, yeah, we have no clue what’s going on. We have no clue where possibly somebody could get this kind of food for this big crowd like this, right? And so since it just seems so strange that they could forget so quickly all that they’ve been through and be so dense, if you will, that they are, with the one whom they are with, They say this must be the same story, right? Some of the commentators approach this. And this is why the disciples don’t get it, right? It’s just repetition because of course, you know, God’s people never, never guilty of those. God’s people never forgets things like this. Um, you know, Israel, as we think of the history of Israel, they never murmured about a lack of provision. Uh, those sitting under many miracles, they never complained about not having enough water. Um, just as you and I have never complained about a situation where we’ve seen historically God provide again and again for us and yet when a stressor comes, right, something new or a reflex in default is to think how’s God going to fix this situation, right? Of course Israel did forget these things and they were dense even as we are, right? The disciples of God’s people have never had this sort of forgetfulness. Of course they have had this kind of forgetfulness. And you know this, right? You know this if you lived the Christian life for any amount of time. You realize as it is for us to read, we have experiences like this all the time where God has shown himself over and over. He’s shown us his miraculous provision for us, his people, and he’s shown us that he’s our father and that he cares for us. We are important to him. And yet these new situations arise, right? These losses and crosses, as the Puritans would say, And we act like we become forgetful. We have this spiritual and historical amnesia. We forget what God has done and who we are and what he’s promised and who he is in his character and in his power. We forget this idea of the character of God and we hope that he will come through right though we really have no certainty that he will because we’re just not sure if he’s ever done it before right. This is kind of I don’t think it’s just me but we have this kind of weakness of faith quite often and what’s more is that these sort of explanations will just never do right they won’t do because they don’t match reality. And so it’s indeed strange to see these two stories. Again, as I said, Mark is only 16 chapters long, so why have this block of seemingly repetitious text telling a very similar story? Surely he’s left many stories out, or he’s not told exhaustively all that Christ has done. And so if you’re gonna leave something out, why not leave something out that’s, right, very similar? But Mark doesn’t leave it out, he includes it. And for some reason, he wants us to hear and to learn about this event and that’s so similar and common to defeating the 5,000, right? And so it seems strange to us, but it’s definitely a second account. And we know it’s not just the same account if we were just to read the text, right? It’s the text tells us that it’s not. And we see in verse, Verse 1, right, it says, when a great crowd again had gathered, right, and so it’s declaring that it’s indeed another incidence of this. When the crowd had gathered again, they had nothing to eat. And so Mark’s trying to use that word again, right, and he’s using it as a connector, and he’s trying to remind us that they’ve seen the situation before, but it’s a recurrence of this same kind of thing. And so there’s this crowd right what’s going on and kind of outline form. There’s this crowd that have been gathered in the wilderness. They’re hungry. They have no food. They’re weary. And again, here we have this wilderness event. This crowd is weariness. And we’re going to go through this scenario one more time. And not only does Mark intimate that this is a repeated circumstance, but Christ very explicitly says that when he goes on, as we’ll see next week, he says this, he rebukes the disciples, and he says to them, having eyes do you not see? And having ears do you not hear? Do you not remember when I broke the bread and the five loaves for the 5,000 and how many basketfuls were left over after everyone was full and satiated and satisfied? And he asked the question in that first feeding, and they say, well, 12 basketfuls. And he goes on to say, what about the seven loaves for the 4,000? How many did you take up? And they go on to say seven. So Christ himself makes sure that we know there are two events happening. It’s not a repeat, it’s not a retelling. These were two different events historically, and that’s why Christ is a little bit at a loss here. He says, Are you that hard-hearted that having seen both of these events, you still don’t get the message that I’m trying to tell you, that I’m trying to convey to you, to present to you? And upon a closer look at these two stories, we see that while there are similarities, and there are, there are plenty of differences as well. And it’s important for us to recognize the differences and draw the significance from these differences. Perhaps that’s what’s being highlighted, right, when we look at similar stories. And it’s in these differences that we see just what Mark is trying to communicate, what he’s communicating to us through the Holy Spirit. Some of this may seem obvious as we look at this, but I hope as we go through these differences, you’ll see some things standing out, some clues as to the point that Mark is trying to make. Right, and so in the feeding of the 5,000, previously we have five loaves and two fish. We have seven loaves in the feeding of the 4,000, And it tells us some small fish, right? And the word fish is different here in this telling from the feeding of the 5,000. There’s a different word, and why would that be? The word for fish in the feeding of the 4,000 would translate to something like a small fish, like a sardine. Very small fish. And we have this difference also in both the quantity of the people and the quantity of the provision. The first situation seems a little bit less severe. Christ had been teaching for the day, and then the disciples come to him and say, it’s getting late. Why don’t we send the people away? You know they’re weary, you know they’re hungry. But in this situation in Mark chapter 8, they’ve been there for three days, it says, listening to the teaching of Christ. And Christ knows the situation is so serious at this point that he, in his estimation, he says that if he sends them home now, they won’t make it due to weakness. Someone will pass out, they’ll faint along the path. And we see that in the first story, Christ has compassion on the crowd, just like the second, but there are two different reasons given why he has compassion. In the feeding of the 5,000, Christ looks at the crowd and he says, he feels that, like Mark informs us, that Christ feels compassion on them, for they are, do you remember what it said in the first, the feeding of the 5,000? He has compassion on them for they are like sheep without a shepherd. Very significant. And so there was a very specific reference in that verse. that he’s referring to. And in this text, Jesus looks at the crowd and says he feels compassion on them. And what does he say? For they will basically grow weary and weak. All right. So he’s more concerned about the physical sustenance at this point, or at least seeming so. And he’s concerned whether they will make it in their weakness if he does send them away. Right. And so these are important differences. First feeding, There’s these specific groups that sat down, right, feeding 5,000. And you’ll remember that Christ, he put them in groups of, remember he groups them in groups of five, of a 50 and then 100, and he seats them. And we talked about that in that text. But in this instance, Mark 8, it says he tells them to sit down before he feeds them. And this is something I think stands out most in this whole endeavor. In the first feeding, 12 baskets of leftovers are gathered. And then in the second, seven were gathered. And none of this can get dizzying, like with all the numbers back and forth, but they’re significant, and bear with me here. There’s something going on that’s different. Not just the numbers, but what exactly is that, and why is Mark telling us these stories? That’s what we want to try to find out as we look at this text this morning. And I think Mark, as he does this and gives us these differences, he’s providing clues from within the text itself to show us just that, what he’s aiming for with this particular feeding and what he wants us to know and to believe and learn as we do so. So let’s look at some of these clues. And as we do, the first thing that we see, is that these two stories leading up to this feeding both take place in Gentile territory. That’s kind of the lead off of these two events. Gentile territory. And we don’t have time to go into the detail of what we’ve already seen, but just recognize this. In those stories, there’s this first encounter, it’s with Jesus and this woman, this Syrophoenician woman, and her daughter is possessed by a demon. She comes to Christ pleading for his mercy, that he would come and that he would heal her precious daughter. And then the strange interaction takes place, right, that seems off-putting, rude perhaps, where Jesus says, I’m sorry, woman, the bread is for the kids, not for the dogs, I can’t help you. He says, I came for Israel. and her reply that garnered so much respect and even admiration from the Savior. Remember, she says, that’s true, but even the dogs can eat the crumbs that fall from the table. And so this woman has her daughter healed by Jesus. And immediately after that, we see Christ again in Gentile territory, right? And people bringing to him this deaf and mute man. And Christ goes out of his way to unstop the ears and to loose the tongue of this one in Gentile territory. And then we come to our text this morning. And the text takes place, where does it take place? In the wilderness. Our English Bible reads, in a desolate place. The word there is wilderness though. But it’s not the same wilderness as the first story. This is a difference. The wilderness is on the east side of the Sea of Galilee, which is an area that is typically Gentile. And there would definitely be at least an influx of Gentile population there because of the seat, the moving there and the trade. And while it’s not enough to prove that the crowd was mostly Gentiles, though I think they were, Mark goes on to give us more clues. And he says he wants to provide them a meal. He doesn’t, what does he say? He says the reason is that if he doesn’t, many will faint along the way for they have come, what does he say, from a far away or from a far distance. And we read things like this and we think, well, they’ve traveled a few extra miles to come see Jesus, right? But the language of far away is pregnant, right? The great distance in our text is something that’s referred to again and again in the Old Testament, far away. And even we’ll see in the New Testament as well, right? And what that reference is too is to those who come from Gentile territories. that when God speaks of people who are far off or far away, he’s referring to those who dwell in Gentile lands, right? Because remember, what was the center of the earth according to the Jews? It was Jerusalem, right? And to be close to God was to be closer to the city. And to be far away from God was to be far away from his holy land. Think, for instance, some examples from the Old Testament. Remember the Gibeonites. They deceive, they construct this plan to deceive Joshua. And remember what they say, they come to him and they say, we’ve come from a distant country. It’s the same phrase, the same exact phrase that’s used. But notice the way in which it’s used there. The Gibeonites were saying what? They’re saying, we’ve come from a distant land. And you see the scriptures usage in the thinking and in the Jewish mind thinking. Again, Jerusalem is the center of the earth. And so everywhere out and away from there was far and distant and would surely be a Gentile region. So whether, we don’t have time to get into all the examples, but whether it’s the Gibeonites or the prophets, Isaiah particularly, speaking of those from distant lands, they’re referring to the far away ones of the Gentiles, the far away ones. Think of Ephesians chapter two. Right? All the construct, all the barriers that were erected to keep the people, the Jews from the Gentiles, are torn down. Right? They’re obliterated in the body of Christ. And it’s the far away ones and the near ones that become one new man. Right? So whether it’s the Gibeonites or, as I said, these other references, it’s the exact same phrase that’s used here in Mark chapter 8. They’re from afar. And when Jesus makes this observation, when he says this detail, he’s telling us that these are Gentiles who’ve come to hear his teaching. And it’s interesting, the Gentiles have remained with him for three days, right? It wasn’t like a match that flashes and then it gets old. They’ve been there for three days, listening to Jesus, with Jesus, going with Jesus. And they’re committed to hearing what he has to say. And there’s this remarkable reception of his ministry in this particular region, this region of Gentiles. And so it seems clear that Mark is impressing upon us, at least in a bare minimum, that these two crowds are made up of two different people. That’s the sum of this all. And the first crowd in the feeding of 5,000 is surely a crowd made up of Israelites, because he refers to the compassion he has on them as sheep without a shepherd, right? Very Jewish mind, they would remember this thing and they remember the passage from Isaiah. And we know that even when the language that Christ uses, he says that he had compassion on them, they’re like sheep without shepherd, right? But here, Christ is the one who has compassion on because they’re far away ones, right? They come from far away. And so he says, these people of God, the nation of Israel, they’re like sheep without a shepherd in the first instance. He does not use the language here in Mark 8, because a different crowd is the whole point, right? Because they’re a different group. They’re made up not mostly of Israelite sheep, but of what? Of Gentile puppies, of Gentile dogs, if you will, as he said. We just heard that reference in Mark chapter 7. And so in the feeding of the 5,000, Jesus showed the crowd several things. He’s showing them that he indeed was the king, the promised king of Israel. He was the shepherd who was to come. He was the one that God had sent to go before them as their leader. The fulfillment of those promises from the Old Testament. But not only that, he was one who would feed them like God himself, manna in the wilderness. And He would satisfy them, right? Satiation, the fullness with bread there as well, just like the Old Testament promises that one day God would come and that He would lead them out on a second exodus and send them as a shepherd king and God Himself would come and feed them in the wilderness. And Jesus is saying to the nation of Israel, that’s me. I’m the king, I’m that God, I’m the one who provides manna from above for my people. I’m that Davidic king who has come to shepherd my people. But something else is going on in this text. If that’s what Mark tells us through Christ in the feeding of the 5,000, what about the 4,000 that we’re looking at today? At this point you might be thinking, well I wish he did just pass over to the end of, to the next story, but it’s important that we understand this. What Mark wants to tell us about the person and work of Christ, what is it in this second feeding? What are we to learn? What does the Spirit intend for us to be instructed by? And so let’s look at a few points of the language here. First he asked the people to sit down, right, to sit down. And interestingly, this is a particular word that means, it’s used for reclining at table, right, reclining at table. That’s what he tells them. The word Christ used here is to recline at table, and it has this connotation of celebration and joy and brotherhood and familial acceptance in that sitting down and reclining at table. Remember the significance of meals all through scripture. It’s not just physical fuel for your body. It’s very meaningful. And so he’s inviting them to recline, to take a seat at table, even though they’re in the wilderness, there isn’t a table. But the word of invitation contains these connotations. And Jesus uses the same word when he speaks to the disciples about the Lord’s Supper, right? The Lord’s Supper, where they recline with him at table. And then secondly, we see these baskets of food that remain. And sometimes we might think, well, there’s 5,000 feeding, and then there’s this 4,000. And in the 5,000, there’s more left over. So in the feeding of 4,000, it’s less cool than the first one, because there’s less left over. But the words in the two feedings for baskets is not the same as well, either. It’s quite different. The first feeding of 5,000, where there’s 12 baskets left over, it’s describing like a picnic basket. But in the second one, the word for basket, it’s the same word that’s used in Acts 9. Remember what happens in Acts 9, where Paul is led in a basket to escape. And so Saul, at that point, is lowered down. It’s a large, like a hamper, like a laundry basket, right? It’s not just a little picnic basket. And so what are you to make of these seven baskets of leftovers, these seven large hampers of leftovers? You don’t have to be a Bible scholar to know that the number seven throughout Scripture symbolizes certain things like fulfillment, completeness, perfection. So how does that fit in with this story? Why is it so important that there’s seven basketfuls left over? Well, what was the question that we’re told the disciples asked Jesus that led to this whole story? What are they asking? Very carefully, what they say is, from where or from what resource can someone satisfy These people with bread here in the wilderness, what’s the source that comes from? That’s what they’re asking. What is this derived from that could satisfy the kinds of people there? Now that’s the reason why this is important. It’s because of what’s being intimated here. Because in the Jewish mind, it shouldn’t shock us that God would come and give his people manna in the wilderness, right? We’ve seen this. So what God has done. And in this story, this is their story. This is what happened to them. This is their life. It’s their narrative. That’s who they are as a people. They’re those who have been provided for by the Lord. They’re God’s special ordained people who he’s provided for again, over and over and over throughout history. But here in this Gentile crowd, we’re there and the question that’s being asked, at least the way that Mark frames it, is what kind of resource would feed these kinds of people? And Mark has an answer. He says it’s the same source as the first one. It’s the same Shepherd King that’s the source, the fountain of this satiation. It’s the same one who is Yahweh in human flesh, the same one that is God, the God of the Israelites. He’s had enough fullness within himself to be the bread, not only for the Jews, but for the Gentiles, the one who would sustain and feed ones like these as well, these far away ones who’ve been following him. And for this one has enough within himself to give food, food enough to fill to satisfaction for Jew and Gentile alike. And as the gospel of Mark unfolds, He tells of the works of Jesus. He hints of this Gentile inclusion. And this is what shocks the Jews so much. But it shouldn’t shock them because this is what was promised long ago. Long ago in the Abrahamic Covenant. You’ll recall in Genesis 12 and 15 and 17. The nations will come in and be blessed through you. Part of that covenant of grace. Gentiles will be a part of God’s promises. And that this Messiah who has come for Israel is someone who is going to be sufficient, not only for Israel, but for Gentiles, they’re going to come and reap some sort of benefits as well. Time restrains us from mining the depths of this this morning. But let us know for certain, brothers and sisters, let us know for certain that God, the Holy Spirit, through Mark, is telling us something concerning this one who satisfies and fills alone, this Shepherd King, This one who brings peace and satisfies and fulfills all of those promises of the Old Covenant. Jesus, the one who feeds this group and comes, he says, come in fellowship and joy and celebration. Yes, even in the wilderness, recline at table and eat with me. And all the connotations of that. I’m the one, he says, who alone will provide. I take the children’s bread and I give it even to the dogs, even to the puppies. They shall no longer be under the table, though. They shall sit at table with us. And the salvation that I am bringing is big enough and sufficient enough for all those that I call. The bread that I give is fulfilling enough for Jew and Gentile both who will sit at table with me in the kingdom, he says, and I will feed them to the full. And there will be no, I’m sorry, and there will be enough to go around. because I’m the source of that. None will be left out. Rather, these dogs will sit with their children. They too will become sheep. They too will become sons. Christ is a resource that is sufficient for both groups of people, you see. I am the bread, he says, that comes from heaven, and I will give my life for the world, both Gentile and Jew. You see, Mark isn’t telling us something that’s merely situational or circumstantial, right? He’s not just saying, hey, there are Gentiles, there’s a Gentile line too. Get in that line, Jews get in this line. It’s not what he’s doing. He’s telling, he’s giving us something, what he’s doing is revelational. He’s saying Jesus is doing what was promised again, long ago in the Old Testament, that a feast would be set before all nations, not just Israel, and Christ is the one who will come and do it. so as we go from here brothers and sisters remember that entrust yourself to this Jesus even today have you not done so this Jesus who provides this Jesus who brings peace for with him and in him is peace and refreshment in the waters of life, rest, fulfillment, and joy, even in the pains and strains, in the crosses and losses of this life, in the wilderness that we find ourselves, but before we enter our true homeland. And remember, dear Christian, all that he’s done to rescue you from death and hell by dying a hellish death in your place. rejoice in this Jesus and go back down from the mountain of worship into your world shining with the joy of his love indeed infecting all who come in contact with you with that same love all for his glory. Amen let’s pray. Father we thank you for your mercy and for your love we thank you for accomplishing for sure our redemption Lord, we pray that we would believe those things said before us in your word, that we would have great peace, that we would know the life that you’ve called us to and it is our possession. Lord, we are so feeble and forgetful. We’re so weak in remembering. We thank you, Lord, for giving us means that we would remember, means that whereby we can grow that our faith could be strengthened by the Spirit. And so Lord, we pray that you would be with us in the supper, that you would be with us ongoingly as we sit under not only our private encounters with your word, but corporately, Lord. We pray that you would be with this church. We pray that you would help us to be those who indeed shine like lights in the world, a dead and dying world in such need of the truth and the love of Christ and the gospel of truth. Lord, we pray that you would provide for us as a church, this small outpost of the colony of heaven, a colony of heaven, even here in Fort Wayne. And Lord, we do pray earnestly, Lord, that as you continue to grow us, that you would provide for us a place that would facilitate your people, Lord, that we continue to grow that we continue and have more and more of an impact on this city, Lord. We are such, it’s so discouraging as we look around in our world and see all the things that are going on that are so contrary to the truth, that are so opposed to your people and to your way. Lord, we do pray, help us to not be pessimistic, help us to not be inundated, to be overwhelmed with our natural response in negativity, Lord, and that pessimism and cynicism, but Lord, that we would remember the truth of who you are and your power and your sovereignty, even in all of the chaos. And even though what is wicked among men is championed among men, Lord, help us to hold fast to the truth. Help us to remember to speak that truth in love. Lord, provide for us, provide for those who have special needs, whether they’re physical, whether they’re issues in families and relationships, Lord, whether there are needs for work, Lord, financially. Lord, help us to look to you in all things, knowing and trusting that you are a sovereign God and that you love us. And even in these things, you are working it all for our good. Though we may not understand that, help us to trust who you are and to know your character. Help us all to remember, especially those of us with physical issues, that you indeed will one day make all things new, and that you are indeed the God of the resurrection of the dead. We praise you for the promise that one day we will have new bodies. Bless this church, Lord. Bless the visitors that come. Encourage us. Help us to encourage one another. in our most holy faith. We ask this all, praising you by the power of the Holy Spirit, in the name of our Savior Jesus. Amen.