### Quotes for Outreach

1. "Can we sit on the wall and not fall? More specifically, can we take a seat on the ledge of what we might call indecision when it comes to the truth and not suffer a tragedy? Is that possible?" [44:06] (20 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)




2. "Our indecision regarding the truth, the truth will ultimately lead to tragedy. Listen, if we ride the fence when it comes to God's truth, and we sit there and we don't make a decision, we will blow up our life, and we will blow up the life of those around us. We will suffer great tragedy." [01:00:41] (35 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)




3. "Christianity is not a religion. If you're like, if you label yourself Christian, you're like, I'm not a Christian. My religion is Christianity. No, no, no, no, no. Yeah, the world will classify Christianity as religion, but Christianity is a relationship. It's about having a relationship with the God of the universe, and it's built on love." [01:05:04] (23 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)




4. "Our indecision regarding the truth leads to tragedy, but Christ's decision, his decisiveness to suffer tragedy leads to our triumph. That right there is the gospel, folks. We might be indecisive, and we might fall off the wall and be broken, but the King of kings and the Lord of lords is saying, listen, you were indecisive and suffered tragedy. I made a decision before you were born, before the stars were formed. I made a decision that I was gonna come, and I would decisively die and suffer a tragedy. Why? So that you could have triumph." [01:20:15] (40 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)




5. "If you're in this room today, and you've never asked Jesus to save you, I don't know what you're, I'm not dogging on you. You're just, you're like, I know I need to do it, but I've been trying to fix myself. I fell off the wall a long time ago. I'm trying to fix myself, I'm broken, I'm busted. I need some rescue, and you're trying with all of your resources and all of your religion and all of your good works and all of your guilt and shame, and you're trying to work through that, and Jesus is all the while saying, listen, you may have suffered a tragedy, but I chose to die in a tragedy so you could be set free." [01:21:23] (39 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)




### Quotes for Members

1. "John the Baptist's life was wrapped up in the mission of following God. I mean, that's what he was about. I mean, he wasn't perfect. We'll highlight that later in the message. He wasn't a perfect individual, but he was a godly individual, and he loved the Lord, and he dedicated his life to serve the Lord and to obey the truth. When the truth, when John the Baptist would encounter the truth, he would not just hear it. He would not just like it, hearing what he heard. He would do it. He would practice the truth. He had integrity, right?" [56:57] (38 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)




2. "We know we're riding the fence of indecision when we fear God. But we don't love him. When we fear God, but don't love him. Again, verse 20, it says that he was puzzled by the truth. He feared John because he knew he was a righteous and holy man. As a pastor, I can relate to this. I actually kind of chuckle at this. There's been many occasions where I'll be standing in a room, maybe it's students, maybe it's, you know, just some friends that maybe aren't of the faith, but they don't know what I do." [01:02:13] (37 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)




3. "We are puzzled by the truth, but we do not purge sin. I've already mentioned this. John, as he was preaching, Herod found John interesting and compelling, but he didn't find him interesting. He didn't find him interesting enough and compelling enough to get sin out of his life, which is why he ended up having this dance party. You see, I don't imagine like Herod's sitting in the crowd, John's preaching. He's amening John as he's saying truths about God's word. Oh, amen. Oh, yeah, preach, pastor, preach." [01:06:38] (42 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)




4. "We protect principles, but not at the expense of our platform. So here's the thing. Here's the thing. There was nothing contractually binding for Herod to kill John, right? Like some people say, oh, well, you know, he made that statement in front of all those religious leaders, all those political leaders, those religious leaders, you know, the who's who in the community, and we think, oh, well, since he made the promise, he has to follow through, like he has to follow his oath. There was nothing contractually binding." [01:10:05] (39 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)




5. "Our Christianity costs us nothing. I mean, I don't really have to elaborate on that. Look, if you're faithfully following Jesus, following him is gonna cost you something. Your energy, your resources, sometimes your reputation, your popularity. I mean, it's gonna cost you. Jesus told us, if you follow me, you will be hanged. You will be hated, not because you're hated, because the world hates Jesus. But God's word actually even tells us, blessed are you if you ever experience hostility or persecution because of your faith." [01:13:51] (51 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)

Well, good morning, Grace Bible Church. My name is Stephen, and as you can guess, I am one of the pastors. I happen to be the youth pastor, which is why I'm bringing toys on stage today. I have to position that. But I want to welcome you here. Thank you so much for choosing to be here with us, whether you're in person or online. We're excited to open God's word together.

And we're in our second week of this series that we're calling "The Secrets of the Servant," and I'm excited to jump in today. I'm hoping that hum isn't me. So I'm going to start with a nursery rhyme today, and I need your help to finish it. So be ready. This is your assignment, okay? Are you ready? Humpty Dumpty. Amen.

Okay, he sat on the wall. And then what happened? Okay, I'm going to just... He's really wobbly, so we're going to let that be his fall. Then what?

All right, here's what I really am curious about: How many of you, that's the first time you've ever heard that nursery rhyme? Oh my goodness, 100% of you have heard Humpty Dumpty. That was my... Yes, I was right. Someone's like, "Hey, is that going to be known by people?" I was like, "I think so."

Humpty Dumpty fell off the wall, right? So here's the question I want to begin with this morning: Can we sit on the wall and not fall? More specifically, can we take a seat on the ledge of what we might call indecision when it comes to the truth and not suffer a tragedy? Is that possible?

In the scriptures, in 1 Kings 18:21, Elijah the prophet asked this question. And we're going to jump into Matthew or Mark here in a second, but I want you to hear this. Elijah approached all the people of Israel and said, "How long will you waver between two opinions? If the Lord is God, then follow him. But if Baal..." That was a false god. So if you don't know, you're like, "Who's Baal? Baal? What?" It was a false god that existed during the time of the ancient Near East, a time in history when Israel lived.

"If Baal is God, then follow him." But I want you to notice what happened. Did the people make a choice? According to this verse, no, they did not answer Elijah a word. And so my question for us is: What if we don't give an answer either? What happens? What happens if we do not choose a side when it comes to the truth? What takes place?

Well, today in our passage, we're going to be in Mark chapter 6, and I would invite you, if you have a Bible, open it up. The scripture will be on the screen as well, but I want to encourage you to open up a Bible and turn to Mark chapter 6, verses 14 through 29. That's where we're going to be hanging out primarily this morning.

But I'm going to go ahead and tell you, before we even jump in, that there are three main characters in the story. There are some other smaller characters that play a small role, but the author, Mark, is highlighting three main characters. One of them is on God's side. He's made a decisive decision to follow God. Another of them, and I'm doing this backwards, is on evil's side, blatantly rejecting the truth. And then another character, the main character in the story, stands in the middle and doesn't make a decision.

And we're going to look in our passage together at what happens when you stand in the middle. When you sit on the ledge, what happens? So if you would do, if you already turned there, I'm gonna start by reading a couple verses. I might pause along the way just to kind of point out some details, and then we'll circle back and ask some more questions about this passage.

But beginning in verse 14, Mark chapter 6, it says, "King Herod heard about this, for Jesus' name had become well known. Some were saying John the Baptist has been raised from the dead, and that is why miraculous powers were at work in him. Others said, 'No, he is Elijah.' And still others claimed, 'He is a prophet, like one of the prophets from long ago.' But when Herod heard this, he said, 'John, whom I beheaded,' you heard that, 'has been raised from the dead.'"

I need to pause here for a second. First of all, I need to point out, King Herod, this is not the same Herod that was in the Christmas story. So if you're wondering, is that the same Herod? It's not. In fact, the New Testament, if you read history about the New Testament, there's lots of Herods mentioned, all pretty much part of an extended family network, not always very friendly to one another. But this particular Herod is not the Herod from that passage.

But I want you to notice that Herod is the one who has John beheaded. He's the one that signs the death permit, so to speak. And this particular Herod is hearing about, and the passage says, he heard about this. What is the "this"? Well, it's referring back to all the different miracles that Jesus has performed. He's healed people. He has done these miraculous miracles. He's calmed the sea. He's cast out demons. He's preached the gospel.

And so Herod is hearing about this Jesus character, and even more so, he's hearing about the works the disciples have done. Because remember, last week, we talked about how Jesus sent out his disciples two by two. He sent them, and they were doing miracles. They were casting out demons. And so all this rumbling of all these amazing things were taking place made way to King Herod, who had just executed a righteous man, John the Baptist, and Herod was haunted. Because he's afraid that John the Baptist had come back from the dead. He's like, "Oh, this is karma. He's coming back to get me."

So we keep reading, verse 17: "For Herod himself had given orders to have John arrested, and he had him bound and put in prison. He did this because of Herodias." Now, this is kind of a big deal. This is kind of messed up. This is where it gets kind of crazy. He did this because of Herodias, his brother Philip's wife, whom he had married. So he stole his brother's wife to marry her.

It says that John had been saying to Herod, "It is not lawful for you to have your brother's wife." Right? That would be a breach of the Ten Commandments. You should not commit adultery. And it's kind of a messed up situation. And so John is calling out Herod and Herodias for their unlawful marriage. This isn't right. This is not right.

And so it says that Herodias, that is his wife, nursed a grudge against John and wanted to kill him. But she was not able to. Why? Because Herod feared John and protected him, knowing him to be a righteous and holy man. When Herod heard John, he was greatly puzzled, yet he liked to listen to him.

I want to pause here. This is so interesting. This is interesting. Herod, John the Baptist is doing ministry in the New Testament. You can read about his ministry. And Herod arrests John because his wife wants to kill John. Does that make sense? He's like, "If I throw John in prison, I can have my guards protect John so that my angry wife doesn't kill him." I mean, that's basically what Herod's doing.

And it says that Herod liked listening to John. So even though John was calling Herod out on his sin, he still found John to be a compelling character. And so he would listen to what John had to say. They were, I don't know that I'd call them friends, but they spent time together. And John was protecting him.

Let's pick up in verse 21. "Finally, the opportune time came, and on his birthday, Herod gave a banquet for his high officials, military commanders, and the leading men of Galilee. When the daughter of Herodias came in and danced, she pleased Herod and his dinner guests. Then the king said to the girl, 'Ask me for anything you want, and I'll give it to you.' And he promised her with an oath, 'Whatever you ask, I will give you up to half my kingdom.'"

Now, I need to unpack this here because John the Baptist, in his relationship with Herod, is challenging Herod to have more, what we might call sexual integrity. John is saying, "Herod, it's wrong for you to be in a relationship with your brother's wife. That's wrong." And so he's calling him out on this.

So he gave him an opportunity to repent from his particular bent and towards being someone that lacks integrity when it comes to sexual practices. And here we have Herod throwing this dinner party, inviting in, and I hope you caught this, his wife's daughter. Okay? And I might add, his niece, because it's his brother's daughter also.

And she comes in and performs a dance. And specifically, I want you to notice this: There are no women here at this party. Right? It's an awesome show. If you've watched the show "The Chosen," they highlight the death of John the Baptist. In that particular show, they show that there are women present at the party. There would have been none. It was a gentleman's party, so to speak.

And I use the word gentleman as a euphemism because they weren't acting like gentlemen. This girl came in to do a sexually explicit dance. That's what was happening. There were a bunch of grown men gawking at this young lady. And she danced for them and pleased them so much that in his foolishness and his stupidity, Herod says, "You can have whatever you want up to half my kingdom."

Now, there's a little bit of irony because Herod, even though he's referred to as a king, he's really just a Tetrarch, which means that he has fake authority. He doesn't even have a kingdom. He's a governor. He doesn't own anything. And so he's making empty promises, "Up to half my kingdom." There's a person over him that is in command of him, a Roman official, and he has no power to give away his kingdom. And yet he makes that promise.

Notice what happens next. Verse 24: "She went out, that is Herodias' daughter, which we know from Josephus. Her name is never mentioned in the Bible, I think intentionally, because she's not one of the main characters, even though she's featured in this story. Her name was Salome. There's a famous Broadway musical called Salome. That's her name.

It says, "Salome," or well, it actually doesn't say her name. It just says, "She went out and said to her mother, 'What shall I ask for?'" I mean, here's her opportunity. This is Herodias' opportunity. "The head of John the Baptist." I want him killed. I want him beheaded. She answered. At once, the girl hurried into the king with the request. "I want you to give me right now the head of John the Baptist."

She ups the ante on a platter. What are her intentions? She wants to bring the head of John the Baptist into the very dinner party she was dancing at. That would lighten the mood. And so she says, "The head of John the Baptist on a platter."

The king was greatly distressed, but because of his oath and his dinner guests, he did not want to refuse her, so he immediately set an executioner with orders to bring John's head. The man went, beheaded John in the prison, brought back his head on a platter. He presented it to the girl, and she gave it to her mother.

Verse 29: "On hearing this, John's disciples came and took his body and laid it in a tomb." And so the story kind of unpacks itself, but we need to do something really quick because remember, I told you this story is all about our indecision when it comes to the truth. We need to identify the three main characters.

The first is John. John lived out the truth. John the Baptist's life was wrapped up in the mission of following God. I mean, that's what he was about. I mean, he wasn't perfect. We'll highlight that later in the message. He wasn't a perfect individual, but he was a godly individual, and he loved the Lord, and he dedicated his life to serve the Lord and to obey the truth.

When the truth, when John the Baptist would encounter the truth, he would not just hear it. He would not just like it, hearing what he heard. He would do it. He would practice the truth. He had integrity, right? And so that's John, and he's identified. And this is, it's no coincidence that this story of John the Baptist's death is on the heels of the story of Jesus sending out the disciples, and here's why.

What Jesus was trying to communicate, I think, I mean, it's an interruption in the story. Mark is talking about the mission. You'll see it. He's talking about the missionary journey, the death of John the Baptist, right back to picking up the story where we left off next week with the missionary journey.

So this interruption, why? Why stick it here? It could have been stuck anywhere. Why stick it here? Because Mark is trying to explain to them, the people, that following Christ is costly. Remember we talked last week about being a sent person, a person that is sent on a mission for God? John the Baptist is an example of someone who has been sent on a mission for God, and it cost him his life. That's the high calling of following Christ.

And so that's John. He is the character that lived out the truth. Then there's Herod, and his entire character is marked by what we would call indecision. He didn't make a decision. You know, in the story, he likes religion. You know, he finds it fascinating. He protects a religious leader in John the Baptist. He keeps his angry wife away from John the Baptist. It says that he's even puzzled by God's word. He gives it some thought, but he never allows God's word to sink into his heart, and he never actually practices what God's word says, and therefore, he ultimately blows up his life and the life of people around him.

I mean, that's what happens. He hangs on to his pet sin, and then he suffers a charge, and then he suffers a tragedy. And then the third character, there's Herodias. Herodias. And she's simply hostile towards the truth. She hears the truth about her wrong practices because John calls out Herod, but he also calls out Herodias and says, "This is not right." And she's like, "How dare you speak into my life? You don't know me. You don't know my situation."

She makes exceptions for her sin, and then in those exceptions is so offended that John would challenge her on her lifestyle that she resorts to wanting to kill him. She represents being hostile to the truth. But here's the irony. We can look at Herodias and go, "Oh, clearly, she's the villain in this story." But remember, she's not the one that signs John's death certificate. Who is it that signs John's death certificate? Herod.

The executioner, the one that has the authority to kill him is Herod, the one that was in the middle, sitting on the ledge, deciding between truth or evil. He ultimately makes the decision to kill this innocent man, which leads to an observation: Our indecision regarding the truth will ultimately lead to tragedy.

Listen, if we ride the fence when it comes to God's truth, and we sit there and we don't make a decision, we will blow up our life, and we will blow up the life of those around us. We will suffer great tragedy. Herod wasn't blatantly evil. We wouldn't look at Herod and go, "Man, well, he made some really poor choices." We'd all agree with that. But we would say, "Oh, but he had good intentions."

I mean, he was trying to protect the righteous. He wasn't out to get them. He was duped. He was weaseled into making this poor choice. So we look at Herod and say, "He was just duped and tricked." But truthfully, he was a fool. He continued to play with sin, and he continued to, at the same time, admire his religion, but ultimately suffer tragedy.

Which is why I want to ask us this next question: How do we know if we are riding the fence of indecision? How do we know? We know Herod was. How do we know? And we can learn a lot from this story.

The first observation is this: We know we're riding the fence of indecision when we fear God, but we don't love him. When we fear God but don't love him. Again, verse 20, it says that he was puzzled by the truth. He feared John because he knew he was a righteous and holy man.

As a pastor, I can relate to this. I actually kind of chuckle at this. There have been many occasions where I'll be standing in a room, maybe it's students, maybe it's, you know, just some friends that maybe aren't of the faith, but they don't know what I do. And so they'll be talking, using language, "bleep that, bleep this, bleep that." And then one of the other individuals, knowing that I'm a pastor, will hit them and say, "Bro, bro, be quiet. That dude's a priest."

Which I'm like, I'm not actually a priest. But yeah, I get what you're saying. And I love it. It's so, it cracks me up. Because on more than one occasion, the person that was the one using the language that gets hit, then goes, "Oh, bleep, I'm so sorry."

And so, again, I'm not throwing shade at these individuals. But even the "Oh, bleep, I'm so sorry," it has more to do with the fact that they're in proximity to someone they see as a religious person. That's an example, maybe, I'm not trying to judge them, but maybe of a person who has fear in God but doesn't love him.

See, because fear of God will do just enough. The fear of God will do just enough to make us feel bad and guilty about our sin, but it's never enough to transform our lives. Like, I've met plenty of people who are like, "Oh, man, I shouldn't have done that. It was wrong of me to do that." And they feel the guilt and shame. And I empathize with that because I also sin and feel guilt and shame.

But the difference between someone that loves God and fears God, or that fears God and loves God, is those who fear God. They feel guilt and shame, but they don't change anything about their life. Those who love God, they're like, "I want to change."

You see, religion is all about fear. I mean, the world is full of religion. People who want to do, like, they try to do the right things to appease God, just do enough good in the world, and just don't do as much bad as the person next to me so that God isn't too ticked off at me. I mean, that's religion.

I've met plenty of people who see that. That's the way life is. I just don't want to, I want to live good enough and sin a little less than the next person so that God might let me into his heaven. I mean, that's the narrative.

But you see, Christianity, I'm going to say something, and don't misconstrue it. Christianity is not a religion. If you're like, if you label yourself Christian, you're like, "I'm not a Christian. My religion is Christianity." No, no, no, no, no. Yeah, the world will classify Christianity as religion, but Christianity is a relationship.

It's about having a relationship with the God of the universe, and it's built on love. We say here at Grace that we love God, we embrace the truth, and we try to do the right things, not so that he's not too ticked off at us, but so that we can see God smile. It's really different.

I don't buy flowers for my wife on our anniversary so she's not mad at me. That's fear, which I should, you know. I buy flowers for my wife on our anniversary because I love her and I want to make her smile. Do you see the difference between love and fear? That's what this is here.

Herod feared God but didn't love him. What about us? Do we love God or do we simply fear him?

Another way we know we're riding the fence when it comes, the fence of indecision when it comes to the truth is we are puzzled by truth, but we do not purge sin. We are puzzled by the truth, but we do not purge sin. I've already mentioned this. John, as he was preaching, Herod found John interesting and compelling, but he didn't find him interesting. He didn't find him interesting enough and compelling enough to get sin out of his life, which is why he ended up having this dance party.

You see, I don't imagine like Herod's sitting in the crowd, John's preaching. He's amening John as he's saying truths about God's word. "Oh, amen. Oh, yeah, preach, pastor, preach. Oh, yeah, that's great stuff. I'm taking notes, writing down the points, the points of the message." Then Herod walks out the door and nothing changes.

Now, listen, I'll be the first to talk. There have been times where that's me. I hear a message. I walk out the door. Guess what? Nothing changes. I'm acting just like Herod.

See, we can do this. We can make, and Herod did this. He made exceptions for himself. He's like, "Listen, I know it's wrong for me to take my brother's wife, but we just love each other." Or maybe it's a political move. Like, "If I get Herodias on my team, I can leverage her for more political power."

Whatever the case may be, however he wants to justify it, he's making an exception for himself to do wrong and ignore the truth. And we do the same things, right? Like, we'll say things like, "Oh, I know I'm not supposed to have sex outside of marriage, but we're getting married soon."

Right? In fact, we might as well be married because, I mean, for real, we love each other more than most married couples love each other. And so we make exceptions. Instead of following God's plan, we choose to do what we want to do, and we make those exceptions.

We know we're not supposed to gossip. We're only telling this information to this person because we need their advice on the situation. And we didn't like person five through 10, so now we're sharing it with person 11. We make exceptions to God's word.

We know we're not supposed to pay attention to the speck in our brother or our sister's eye, right? We're supposed to focus on the plank that's in our own, but as I shared the first two examples, some of us were looking around the room to make sure so-and-so heard them. Oh, snap. Now the finger's pointing at ourselves, right?

You get the point. We make exceptions for ourselves. All of us do it. We all make exceptions for ourselves, but see, our excuses leave us sitting on the seat of indecision, on the ledge of indecision, and if we're not careful, just like Herod, we will blow up our life with our exceptions.

We think the tragedy in the story is that John was killed, and don't get me wrong, that's tragic, but the real tragedy in the story is that Herod was this close to trusting the truth, and he fell. The tragedy. We can suffer the same tragedy.

Another indication that we are on the fence of indecision: We protect principles, but not at the expense of our platform. So here's the thing. Here's the thing. There was nothing contractually binding for Herod to kill John, right? Like some people say, "Oh, well, you know, he made that statement in front of all those religious leaders, all those political leaders, those religious leaders, you know, the who's who in the community," and we think, "Oh, well, since he made the promise, he has to follow through, like he has to follow his oath."

There was nothing contractually binding. The reason Herod had John killed is because he feared being embarrassed, embarrassed in front of all those important people. He put his platform above his principles, and we can do the same thing, right? We can choose our platform above our principles.

See, there's going to be times where we'll be faced with a choice: Hide our convictions, hide our convictions for fear of our platform being in jeopardy, or have a backbone and stand up for the truth. Those are our options, but if we ride the fence, we'll be silent for fear of losing our platform.

An example of this might be like a pastor in New York City, okay? A pastor in New York City trying to be faithful to God's word. He gets up on a Sunday morning, and he preaches about the fact that God's word teaches that life begins at conception, and that it's unethical, according to the scriptures, to take that life.

In New York City, he could get booed off the stage because the political atmosphere there is of that sort, whereas a pastor in Texas would get a standing ovation. "Amen, preach, pastor, preach, pastor, preach, pastor."

Well, listen, that same pastor in Texas might call out people's frustration in their church about people spilling over the border into America. And he might point out from God's word, "Hey, guess what? God actually invites the immigrant and the alien to come to him because he has his arms open wide."

I mean, that's what the Bible teaches. You look at the Old Testament, what God does with aliens and foreigners. He welcomes them, he loves them, he cares for them. So in Texas, that same pastor preaching about the conception might get kicked out of his job for that, whereas in New York City, the pastor might get a raise. "Preach it, pastor."

You get the picture. Listen, if you ride the fence of indecision, you don't talk about those types of things. You avoid them. But if you are decisive about the truth, you don't put your platform before the principles.

And so that's what God's called us to do. We have to put, if we're heralds of the truth, if we're sent people, we have to teach all of God's truth, popular or not. If we are sent people, we have to teach all of God's truth, and if we're sent people, we have to accept God's word, platform and danger or not.

And yeah, we don't want to just pick fights with people, but we still have to be truthful, and we still have to stand up for the truth. And Herod did not do that. He chose his platform over his principle. The question is, what about us?

What about us? There's one final indicator that we're on the fence of indecision when it comes to the truth: Our Christianity costs us nothing. Our Christianity costs us nothing. I mean, I don't really have to elaborate on that. Look, if you're faithfully following Jesus, following him is gonna cost you something. Your energy, your resources, sometimes your reputation, your popularity. I mean, it's gonna cost you.

Jesus told us, "If you follow me, you will be hated, not because you're hated, but because the world hates Jesus." But God's word actually even tells us, "Blessed are you if you ever experience hostility or persecution because of your faith." And he even says, "No, they're not persecuting you, they're persecuting me. They're not after you."

Listen, we're not important enough, and I'm saying that lovingly. They're after Jesus. They want to defame Jesus.

So what's our conclusion? Are we guilty of being indecisive? Are we like Herod or worse? Are we like Herodias? And here's the observation: We are both Herod and Herodias. We're both.

We are like Herod because we have floundered when it comes to the truth. We have given ourselves so many exceptions when it comes to our sin. And get this, even John is guilty of indecision, right? In Luke chapter 7, verses 18 through 19, it says this about John. John's disciples told him all these things that were going on, right? This is when John's in prison, calling two of them. He sent them to the Lord to ask, "Are you the one who is to come or should we expect something else, somebody else?"

What was John saying in that moment? In a moment of weakness, John was in prison. He sent his two disciples and said to ask Jesus, "Jesus, are you actually the Messiah or should we wait for somebody else?" Because I'm sitting up here in prison and I'm kind of questioning your plan right now.

So even John, at moments in his life, was indecisive when it came to the truth. But we are also all like Herodias because we are blatantly evil. Romans 3:23, it says this: "All of us have committed sin and fallen short of God's glory."

Notice, did you catch the word there? Fallen. We have fallen short. Oh, what happened to Humpty Dumpty? He fell. But the question we're left with is this: Can we recover? Can we recover after falling off the ledge of indecision? And I might even add blatant evil.

Remember the song: "All the king's horses and all the king's men couldn't put Humpty together again." Wouldn't it be awful if that's how it ended? But let me point this out. All your resources, all the people you know, everyone that you can think of, they can't piece you back together.

All the counseling in the world, and listen, I'm a believer in counseling. All the counseling in the world, all the success that you could ever have, all the financial stability that you could amass, it will not put you back together. None of that will put you back together. None of the king's horses and all the horses and all of the men couldn't put Humpty together again.

But I got a question. What about the king? Could the king piece this back together? Resources couldn't do it, but could the king? This leads to the last point: Yes! Exclamation point, exclamation point, exclamation point, yes!

There is a greater tragedy that leads to our triumph. I love this. Verse 29 points out something that I had never seen until reading through this passage again. John, an innocent man, dies in this story, but his death points to another death. Did you notice that at the end of verse 29, it says that John's disciples came and gathered John's body and put it in a tomb?

So track with me here. If you don't know the crucifixion story, it might be a tad confusing, so I'll try to unpack it for you. But this tragedy pointed to a greater tragedy. John in this passage represents Jesus, the innocent man that was killed and put in a tomb.

She represents the crowd, the one clamoring for the death of the innocent man, right? Herodias is the crowd saying, "Crucify him, crucify him. We hate this guy. Kill him." That's who Herodias represents. And Herod represents Pilate.

I got that backwards. It's okay. Sorry, so you can feel it. But Herod represents Pilate, this man who was a wannabe leader, had really no power or authority, but was scared of losing his platform, heard the cries of these angry, hostile people and said, "Yeah, I don't want to kill this innocent man, but I'm gonna have to, even though I know he's righteous."

This whole story, Mark is indefinitely trying to point out that this is a foreshadowing of a greater tragedy. So I want you to, I didn't write this on your bulletin, but I want you to write this down: Our indecision regarding the truth leads to tragedy, but Christ's decision, his decisiveness to suffer tragedy leads to our triumph.

That right there is the gospel, folks. We might be indecisive, and we might fall off the wall and be broken, but the King of kings and the Lord of lords is saying, "Listen, you were indecisive and suffered tragedy. I made a decision before you were born, before the stars were formed. I made a decision that I was gonna come, and I would decisively die and suffer a tragedy. Why? So that you could have triumph."

That's the gospel, y'all. I'm talking about salvation here. Listen, if you're in this room today, and you've never asked Jesus to save you, I don't know what you're... I'm not dogging on you. You're just, you're like, "I know I need to do it, but I've been trying to fix myself. I fell off the wall a long time ago. I'm trying to fix myself. I'm broken. I'm busted. I need some rescue," and you're trying with all of your resources and all of your religion and all of your good works and all of your guilt and shame, and you're trying to work through that, and Jesus is all the while saying, "Listen, you may have suffered a tragedy, but I chose to die in a tragedy so you could be set free."

And that's the gospel. So if you've never done that, I'm telling you today, today, make the decision just to say, "Jesus, I want you in my life." You say it right there from where you're sitting. "Jesus, I want you in my life. I want a relationship with you. I want you to save me. I want you to come in and change me. Forgive, not just so that I feel bad about my sin, but so that you can, as the Bible says, set me free from sin, from slavery to sin, and give me, in exchange for my failures and my sin, you give me eternal life.

In exchange of my guilt and my shame, you give me forgiveness and cleanliness. Jesus says, or David said about God, that he casts our sin as far as the east is from the west. You can't do that in your own strength, but there was somebody that suffered a tragedy to put us back together. Christ.

So listen, if you've never made that decision, today, I'm telling you, it would be, it would be, it could be a tragedy to walk out this room and not make a decision. Just decide, "Jesus, I want you in my life." And you can cry that out here in a second as we're closing this message. You can cry that out to God, and then I would challenge you, if you make that decision, tell somebody. Tell one of us. "I want Jesus. I decided today I want Jesus in my life. I do. I did it. I did it. I chose that."

I'm gonna pray, and then just, we're gonna do a short time of reflection over this message. So will you join me in prayer?

God, again, honestly, this story, it's humbling because I can find myself in all three characters in this story, God. There's times where I follow you, and I'm living out the truth. There's times where I fall short, and I'm more like Herodias. I'm just blatantly evil. I'm just rejecting what you have to say. And then there are other times, Lord, like I'm like Herod. I know the right thing to do. I even like the right thing to do, but I just don't make a decision. I flounder. I teeter between two branches, and I'm bound to fall.

And Lord, truthfully, I've fallen so many times, and I have a sneaking suspicion that everybody in this room can identify with that. And so we would come to you today, Lord, asking that you would give us the ability to be decisive people, that we would choose the truth. We would first admit, yes, we have fallen. We've made a mess of our lives, but we've trusted the King to put us back together.

And so, Lord, I just pray you'd continue to piece us back together. Make us more and more and more and more like you. Because Jesus, I realize, and I think we all know this, that the moment we ask you to come into our life, you're not done fixing us. You continue to fix and continue to fix and continue to fix us.

And then in Philippians, it says that you will one day bring to completion what you have started in us. The work that you began in us, you will bring it to completion. And so we long for that. But in the meantime, we cooperate with that, and we ask you to fill us, Lord Jesus. We pray in Christ's name. Amen.