The Touch of the Master’s Hand

0:44 Good morning and moms, happy Mother's Day to you. We thank God for each and every one of you. And because it's Mother's Day, I always like to think of my mom. I always like to bring a picture, kind of a show and tell. So here's my sweet little mama in front of her house. And just so you can see how tall she is. She was so tall. Next picture. Look at, she's like five foot one next to me. And, you know, I was just saying, I would give anything if I could just give her a phone call again, but that's going to have to wait till heaven. But would you turn in your Bibles, please, to the gospel of Mark chapter one. Gospel of Mark chapter 1, you're going to be very happy to realize that we are going to finish chapter 1 of Mark today after all these many weeks in this chapter. Mark chapter 1, we're going to be looking at verse 40 through 45 in just a moment. But I want to introduce this just by getting you aware of one of your greatest needs that you might not be aware of.

1:48 And that is the need for touch. Human touch is a biological necessity. It is essential for your mental health. It is essential for your physical health. According to psychology today, and I'm quoting, infants literally cannot survive without touch. Skin-to-skin contact in even the first hour after birth has been shown to help regulate newborns' temperature, heart rate, and breathing, and decreases crying. Also, it helps with the mother's relaxation hormones. Stanford University noted that touch significantly reduces cortisol. That's the stress hormone. It boosts the immune system. Human touch affects brain chemistry. It triggers oxytocin, which fosters feelings of trust and security. And doctors say that insufficient touch causes what they call skin hunger, skin hunger that leads to anxiety, depression, and immune disorders. They did a number of scans, PET scans. I don't know if you know what that is. It's positron emission tomography. And they studied the brains of patients and they noticed that the brain quiets when a hand is held. That if there is stress, if there is anxiety, that if you hold the patient's hand, they can see it on the PET scan, it significantly reduces and quiets stress.

3:40 The effect, they say, is greatest when somebody is holding your hand that you know and love, but it even works if it's a stranger holding your hand. Perhaps one of the greatest experiments on the need for touch happened in the 1960s, or the famous Harlow studies, the monkey studies, where Harry Harlow, University of Wisconsin, took baby monkeys and put them in cages and observed them. And what Harlow did is he put in the cage, in each cage with each baby monkey,

4:16 two surrogate mothers. One was made out of wire mesh. The other was made out of cloth. the wire mesh surrogate mother had the milk supply for the baby the cloth was just cloth it had a light bulb behind it to radiate heat and they observed these baby monkeys they discovered that the baby monkeys spent almost every waking moment between 16 to 18 hours a day snuggled up to the cloth surrogate mother. They would only go to the wire mesh mother for feeding and then back to the snuggly place. He continued with his experiments, and the most controversial part of his experimentation is he isolated and observed baby monkeys, putting them in isolation for 24 months with only a wire mesh mother with a milk supply for food.

5:24 They emerged from that deeply disturbed, cowering in the corner, screaming, and many of them did not survive. This is the reason many of us have pets, because just petting the animal, just that touch, calms the nervous system. And people in society have figured this out with these campaigns. Have you ever seen the free hug campaigns where people hold up a sign and say, free hugs? You might look at that and go, really? Like, I'm not going to go hug. I don't even know you. I'm not going to hug you. But a lot of people do that. A lot of people will do it. In fact, every July, the first Saturday in July is called International Free Hug Day. I know, they make a day out of everything, right? But International Free Hug Day, where in public spaces, in order to reduce people's anxiety and stress, they can get a free hug. Okay, now to our text.

6:30 one of the most notable features of Jesus' ministry is that he delighted in touching people. In the gospel of Mark, no less than eight times we are told that Jesus went to a person and touched that person and interacted with that person. The first we read about a few verses ago in verse 31 of chapter 1. Peter's mother-in-law, Jesus, took her by the hand and lifted her up. The second one is the text we're about to read in verse 41. The third incidence is with Jairus' daughter, the ruler of the synagogue. Jesus will take her, touch her, and say, Talitha kumi, in Aramaic, that means little girl, arise.

7:28 That will be in chapter 5. The fourth example is in chapter 6, where we are told Jesus laid his hands on a few sick people and healed them. The fifth incident is in chapter 7, where he took a deaf mute by the hand away from the crowd, put his fingers in his ears and said, a word that means be opened. The sixth example is in chapter 8 in the little town of Bethsaida. There was a blind man. Jesus led him by the hand. Jesus took him out of town,

8:14 spit in his eyes. I wouldn't recommend that part, and healed him. The seventh example is Jesus took children in his arms in chapter 9 and chapter 10. And then in chapter 9, finally, he cast a demon out of a boy that convulsed that boy, took him by the hand and lifted him up. So that's a noticeable feature of Jesus' ministry is his touching of people. Here again in chapter one, beginning in verse 40, we have our Lord healing a man with leprosy and he touches him. I'm going to give you five stages to this healing miracle. And all five of these stages begin with the letter C. There's condition, cry, compassion, cure, command. The reason I do that is just for memory's sake. First of all, the condition.

9:10 Verse 40 says, Now a leper came to him, imploring him, kneeling down to him, and saying to him, If you are willing, you can make me clean. So right off the bat in this paragraph, we are given the condition of this man, a leper.

9:33 We are not told his name. We are not told his occupation. We're not even told exactly what town he is from. He is just called a leper. Why is that? Because his life has become defined by his disease. That's how severe it was. He, like many others at that time, were just lepers. Now, I want to just tell you about that term, leprosy in the Bible. It is a very broad term. pathologically speaking it is one of two very different conditions the first condition could be any kind of a skin disease eczema seborrhea psoriasis vitiligo it would be something that would be a condition that would come and go but it was it was placed under the broad category of leprosy but then the second category was much more severe it is what we call Hansen's disease. And it comes from a very particular bacterial infection known as Microbacterium leprae. Microbacterium leprae. It was the most feared disease of the ancient world.

10:52 You might as well go to the doctor and get a stage four malignant tumor diagnosis. to die. It is a death sentence. And leprosy, that form of leprosy, attacked the nervous system. It attacked the nerves so that eventually what happens is you lose feeling, your inability to feel. It acts as an anesthetic. And because of that, the victim would do things that would destroy his own body. He might pick up a hot coal. He might get cut and not realize it. He might fall asleep and vermin would chew at his toes or fingers, which was common in the ancient world. This man was a leper. The same story given to us in the gospel of Luke, and remember Luke was a doctor, so Luke adds a very important detail that Mark does not add. Luke says this man was full of leprosy, meaning he was in the advanced stages of this disease. Let me explain that to you. William Barclay writes this. It might begin with little nodules which go on to ulcerate.

12:14 The ulcers develop a foul discharge. The eyebrows fall out. The eyes become staring. The vocal cords become ulcerated and the voice becomes hoarse. The breath wheezes. The hands and feet always ulcerate. Slowly, the sufferer becomes a mass of ulcerated growth. The average course of that kind of leprosy is between nine and 30 years, and it ends in mental decay, coma, and ultimately in death. When a person had leprosy in those days, they could only quarantine them. Because of that, they were socially ostracized. They were kept outside of town, outside of the camp, away from people with others who had the same disease. In that kind of a state, a person would feel very, very worthless and live in despair. No hope. Leviticus chapter 13 has 59 verses that describe what the priest is to look for if somebody comes with a skin disease to be examined.

13:28 And it says, now I'm not going to read the whole chapter. I love you that much. But the chapter says, Now the leper on whom the sore is, his clothes shall be torn, his head bare, and he shall cover his mustache and cry, Unclean! Unclean! Twice. He shall be unclean. All the days he has the sore, he shall be unclean. He is unclean and shall dwell alone. His dwelling shall be outside the camp. That was to preserve the health of the rest of the community to quarantine the leper. So he has no social contact. He has no family life. If he wanted to go to the synagogue, there was a special room attached to the synagogue, but not really where you could fellowship with anybody.

14:24 It was called the Mechitzah. The mechitza was a 10 foot by 6 foot room where only lepers could go. So you could hear the service out one ear, if you could hear it all. As bad as that was, the ancient rabbis made it even worse. They added strict regulations to anybody who had leprosy. According to their writings in the Talmud, if a leper is coming and the leper is upwind of you, you had to stay 100 cubits away, 150 feet away from that person. If he is downwind, at least four cubits or six feet.

15:09 If a leper just stuck his head inside your house, your whole house is now deemed as unclean. it was illegal to even greet a leper. One rabbi said, When I see lepers, I throw stones at them, lest they come near me. Another rabbi said, I would not so much as eat an egg that was purchased on a street where a leper had walked. This man was full of leprosy, and this leper now comes to Jesus. That is his condition.

15:50 The second stage is his cry. Also in verse 40, a leper came to Jesus. Notice the next word, imploring. That's begging him. Kneeling down to him and saying, if you are willing, you can make me clean. That's quite a statement. This man recognizes the power and even perhaps the person of Jesus Christ. I don't exactly know how it happened, but I'm guessing that news travels fast. News of Jesus' healing power in the previous verses, the people he healed like Peter's mother-in-law, the people outside the house in Capernaum, that news traveled. And it came into the ears of a leper colony and one man heard those reports and hope began to well up inside of him.

16:51 And he thought, I'm going to go see him. Now that's against protocol. You have to be 150 feet away or at least six feet away. You cannot just run through a crowd and find somebody. But the gravity of his condition is matched by the intensity of his approach. He wants to see Jesus badly. His statement, if you are willing, you can make me clean, tells us that he is sure that Jesus can do it. He's just not sure that Jesus wants to do it, if he is willing to do it. but I want you to stop on that for a moment.

17:35 This leper would never have found out if Jesus was willing to heal him had he not asked. If he had just stayed in the leper column, I don't think anything's gonna happen to me. He may have healed other people. I'm not gonna risk it. He never would have known unless he would have come and asked. And doesn't the Bible tell us that in James chapter four, you have not because you ask not. And so he came and he asked. In Matthew seven, Jesus said, ask and it will be given to you. Seek and you will find. Knock and the door will be opened. For everyone who asks receives and he who seeks finds. And to him who knocks, the door will be opened. To his disciples, Jesus said in John 16, until now, you have asked nothing in my name. Ask, and you will receive that your joy may be full. Of course, that's not saying you can ask anything willy-nilly, whatever your little heart desires, but you ask it in my name.

18:46 that is according to my purposes and for my glory. Ask anything with that, and it's going to happen. But I say this because some people picture God with his arms folded, frowning at them. And when they come to him, they think God is looking at them saying, really, you again? Are you bothering me again? He is not at all like that. He didn't say, you got to go through my secretary first. You come directly. In fact, George Mueller said, prayer is not overcoming God's reluctance. It's laying hold of God's willingness. That's why the writer of Hebrews said, come boldly before the throne of grace, that you might receive mercy and grace to help in time of need. Not come timidly, not come fearfully, not come shyly, not come nervously, come boldly. You're a child of God. Come, ask, seek, knock. Charles Spurgeon used to liken prayer to ringing a bell, like pulling on a church bell. He said, prayer pulls the rope down below and the great bell rings above in the ears of God. Some scarcely stir the bell for they pray so languidly.

20:11 others give only an occasional jerk at the rope oh it's mealtime let's shoot up a prayer but he who communicates with heaven is the man who grasps the rope boldly and pulls continually with all his might so this man comes forgets the protocol rushes through the crowd to find Jesus So that's the condition and the cry. The third stage is compassion. The compassion of Jesus is seen in verse 41. Look at it. Then Jesus moved with compassion, stretched out his hand, here it is, and touched him and said to him, I am willing, be cleansed. I got to tell you, when Jesus touched that man, I'm guessing the crowd went, no, because they knew what the rabbi said. If you touch a leper, you will become defiled, ceremonially defiled. Well, that is true for everybody else but Jesus.

21:29 Because with Jesus, it works in reverse. When he touches somebody, they get healed. He doesn't get defiled. He touched him. Now think about that for a moment. Think about who this man is. He's a leper. As a leper, that man had felt no touch from a healthy hand in years. a hand across the... If he was married, he has not had the ability to hold his wife's hand for years. If he had children, no cuddle, no caress, no kiss, ostracized. Perhaps even now his children are adults.

22:11 I was reading this week a book by Kent R. Hughes, R. Kent Hughes. He said that he met a man who was not a Christian, had no church to go to. It was very, very lonely. And he got a haircut once a week just to feel human touch. Once a week, just so somebody could touch his head. Jesus touched him. That word for touch is sometimes translated to take hold of or to cling to. And the idea is that Jesus touched him firmly.

22:51 He wanted the man to feel empathy. It's as if he's saying, I see you. I'm with you. I love you. Now, if you think about it, well, I'll ask you. Do you think Jesus needed to touch the man to heal him? Didn't have to. He could have stepped back like, just keep your distance, buddy. Remember the centurion who said, I'm not worthy that you should even enter my house. Just speak the word and my servant will be healed. Jesus could have just said something or nodded his head or waved his hand or just had a thought, but he didn't. He touched him.

23:32 He thought that was important to touch him. Why? We're told why in verse 41. Then Jesus, here's the phrase, moved with compassion. It's one of the great words of the New Testament, compassion. Let me explain the word to you. Let me tell you the word, then I'll explain it. Splanknizomai is the word. I'm not expecting you to remember that or write that down. Splanknizomai is the Greek word, from the word splankna, that means, you ready? Your guts, your intestines. That's the splankna, your intestines, your viscera, the internal organs in your abdomen. Splanknizomai is a word that is related to that. It means tender emotions, tender mercy, sympathetic emotions felt in the pit of the stomach. And the reason that word was chosen is the ancient peoples believe that your most intense emotions is felt in your gut, not in your head. If you have to speak in front of people, sometimes if you don't like it, you get butterflies.

24:42 Some people get nauseated. They feel it in the pit of their stomach. So Jesus moved with spalaknizomai, compassion, feeling that for him, stretched out his hand and touched him and said, I am willing, be cleansed. There is no one more compassionate than Jesus. Nine times in the New Testament, the authors make reference to the compassion of Christ. The first one is the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus sees a crowd coming toward him, swarming around him. The disciples are getting a bit nervous. He says, Jesus, seeing the crowd, was moved with compassion for them, for they were weary and scattered like sheep having no shepherd. The compassion of Christ.

25:39 In Matthew 14, he went ashore. He was in a boat, and he went ashore, and he saw a great crowd and had compassion on them and healed them. When he came to Lazarus' funeral, his friend's funeral, and all of the people were gathered around the tomb, it says Jesus was deeply moved in spirit and was troubled. And then when he finally approaches Jerusalem for the last time in his ministry, Luke chapter 19, he wept over it. He wept over it. And he said, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how often I would have gathered you as a mother hen gathers her chicks, but you were not willing. This is all the compassion of Christ. He loved people. He had compassion for them. You know the name Mother Teresa. You've heard that, or you've read about her, or you've heard her speak when she was alive. Mother Teresa worked with lepers in India, in Calcutta, India, in a leper colony. And she said, the biggest disease today is not leprosy, nor is it tuberculosis.

26:51 The biggest disease today is the feeling of being unwanted. That's what leprosy will do. And this man would have felt unwanted until that moment. Jesus touched the untouchables. Don't you think we should get better at doing that? Touching the untouchables, the marginalized, the lonely, the hurting in our society, just to let them know you can't stay isolated. I'm not going to let you stay isolated. I'm going to bring you in. The next stage is the cure. And for the leper, this is the best part. Verse 42, as soon as he had spoken, so he reaches out, touches him, and says, I am willing, be cleansed. As soon as he had spoken, immediately the leprosy left him and he was cleansed. Now you'll notice that Mark uses his favorite word here, and that's the word immediately. And I just want you to notice this. Go back to more of the beginning of chapter one, just so you understand this. I just want you to recognize verse nine. It came to pass in those days, Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John of the Jordan and immediately coming up from the water, he saw the heavens parted. Verse 12, immediately the Spirit drove him into the wilderness. Verse 17, Jesus says to his men, follow me and I'll make you fishers of men.

28:28 Verse 18, then they immediately left their nets and followed him. He sees the next two guys, the sons of Zebedee. Verse 20, and immediately he called them and they left their father. Verse 21, then they went to Capernaum, and immediately on the Sabbath he entered the synagogue. Verse 28, and immediately his fame spread throughout all the region. I mean, you get tired just reading this. 42 times in the Gospel of Mark, Mark says immediately, immediately, immediately. He is showing by his writing this way the fast-paced servant on the go. the servant of the Lord on the move from one place to the other, from point A to point B,

29:19 moving immediately, urgently meeting needs. This is the one who said, I must work the works of my father while it is day for the night is coming in which no one can work. So Jesus touched him, spoke a word, leprosy left. Immediately it left him. It was sudden, It was complete. There was no lag time. There is no recovery time. There is no rehabilitation time. I just want you to understand what this would have meant for a leper. His toeless feet grew five toes. His stubs grew five fingers immediately. Back comes his hair, his eyelashes, his ears, his nose. His skin is now soft and supple, and he can feel again. He has sensitivity. His nerves are back. He's no longer crying, unclean, unclean. Now he's crying, I'm clean, I'm clean.

30:25 Instant, total healing. This is not the fake healing of televangelists who carefully script and pre-screen people to keep up an illusion of healing. This is legit, miraculous healing. He is cured. It's a great story until we get to the next few verses. Then it's a little odd because we have a command that he gives. Verse 43, and he, that is Jesus, strictly warned him and sent him away at once and said to him, see that you say nothing to anyone, but go your way and show yourself to the priest and offer for your cleansing those things which Moses commanded as a testimony to them.

31:23 however verse 45 however he went out and began to proclaim it freely and to spread the matter so that Jesus could no longer openly enter the city, but was outside in deserted places, and they came to him from every direction. Now, frankly, I don't know how this guy is supposed to not tell anybody. Imagine if you're a leper and you're filled with sores, scabs, stubs, and now instantaneously you are whole. And so you're walking down the street and the first person you meet who probably recognized you said, man, you look terrific. What happened? I can't really say. Thank you.

32:20 so why did Jesus give him this command not to tell anybody let me give you a few reasons first of all for pragmatic reasons in ancient Jewish society he could not just re-engage socially once again he can't just show up at a exercise club you have to go through certain protocol. There's a whole chapter in Leviticus chapter 14. This is the law of the leper in the day of his cleansing, it says. And so you would go to the priest. You would introduce yourself. I'm a leper. I lived in this leper colony. Now I'm healed. Really, you're healed. So you'd have to bring two birds, sacrifice the birds, be quarantined for seven days. You'd be watched by the priest. He'd come out seven days later, look at you, quarantine you another seven days, look at you after that. And if you look better and look good, then you can go home.

33:18 You're clean. This is the law of the leper in the day of his cleansing. So Jesus is keeping the rules. Remember he said, I didn't come to destroy the law or the prophets, but to fulfill them. So do what the book says. Do what the Bible says. Go show yourself to the priest. That's social protocol. That's pragmatic. Second, broadcasting what just happened would attract multitudes of people who would want to follow Jesus for all the wrong reasons.

33:54 Or I want to follow somebody who's going to heal me, and they're going to be after him for the bread line or for the healing line instead of because he is the son of God, the savior of the world. So they would be interested only in physical healing. Third reason, it would attract unnecessary opposition by Christ's enemies, which is exactly what happens. He is now having to live outside the towns because of his popularity. But notice what he says. Notice what our Lord tells him. Don't say anything to anyone, which of course he didn't do, but go your way and show yourself to the priest and offer for your cleansing those things which Moses commanded. That's the sacrifices I told you about. And notice the next part as a testimony to them. That's what God wants. A testimony. If God does something for you, let's say God even gives you a miracle. The only reason you got that miracle is so that you can give a testimony about him. So he gets the glory. He didn't heal you and give you a miracle for your convenience or so that you get a better night's sleep. God wants to display his glory in front of people.

35:16 That's the testimony. The Bible says the eyes of the Lord go to and fro throughout the entire earth that he might show himself strong. That's what he wants to do, show himself strong. This is to be a testimony. For this leper to go to the priest and present himself is to say, you know what? There is somebody alive with healing power. There is somebody alive in our community who has messianic credentials In effect, sending a healed leper to the priest is like Jesus giving his business card to them. I'm here, I've come, I can do anything. I have power over demons, I have power over disease.

36:05 So Jesus says, say nothing, be quiet. It's interesting, really. Jesus tells this man to be quiet, he tells everybody. Jesus tells us to tell everybody, we keep it quiet. Now, let me just give you a little warning attached to this, because it is interesting that he tells a man who's had this incredible event to say nothing. It is possible by our witnessing to actually be a detriment to the gospel. if you're running around telling all the other people who go to all the other churches that they're dumb and their church is nuts and you could only be as smart as I am to follow my thing you're not helping you're being a nuisance quiet don't tell anybody here's an example I was once visiting some prisoners in a jail one time and um guy came up to me afterwards says pastor skip i'm a christian i go really did you just give your life to christ no i've been a christian my whole life okay but um and then he told me how we got arrested for this this and i remember i thinking i got to tell this guy don't tell anybody that you're a christian it's the last thing you need to do is be a witness with that track record where's the evidence of change And I'm going to look so good.

37:37 now that is the story and we finish it but I can't help but add one other c word even though it's not on your outline and that is the comparison you know there is a comparison what Jesus did with this leper to what Jesus does in our lives because in the bible leprosy is a type of sin it's very very analogous to sin and what Jesus did in healing the man is very analogous to salvation. So sin is like leprosy. At first, leprosy is invisible. You don't even know you have it. If you went to a doctor and he diagnosed you back then, you'd say, no, I feel good. I'm fine. Nothing wrong with me. That's how sin is. It's invisible. But eventually, like leprosy, it will show. It will show itself. The inward corruption will manifest outwardly. Also, sin, like leprosy, you start losing sensitivity. At first, when you do something wrong, it's like, oh, I feel so guilty, but you keep doing it and keep doing it. Pretty soon, your conscience gets seared, the Bible says.

38:54 The Bible speaks about those who are past feeling. They have become insensate. They don't feel how bad their lifestyle is. They're not bothered by it. And like leprosy, sin is incurable and deadly. Incurable and deadly. Apart from a touch of God, it will kill you forever. but like leprosy it can be cured in a split second split second a second of belief faith if you are willing you can make me clean one touch from the master's hand changes everything one of my favorite poems goes like this i even brought a prop "'Twas battered and scarred, and the auctioneer thought it hardly worth his while to waste much time on the old violin.

39:58 But he held it up with a smile. "'What do my bid, good folks?' he cried. "'Who'll start the bidding for me?' "'A dollar, a dollar, two, only two, two dollars. "'Who'll make it three?' "'Three dollars once, three dollars twice, twice and going for three but no from the room far back a gray-haired man stepped forward and picked up the bow and wiping the dust from the old violin and tightening up the loose strings he played a melody pure and sweet as sweet as the angels sing when the music ceased the auctioneer in a voice that was quiet and low said now what am I bid for the old violin as he held it up with a bow a thousand dollars two thousand who make it three three thousand once three thousand twice and going and gone said he and the people cheered but some of them said we do not quite understand what changed its worth swift came to reply the touch of the master's hand and many a man with his life out of tune, battered and scarred by sin, are auctioned cheap to the thoughtless crowd, much like the old violin.

41:21 A mess of pottage, a glass of wine, a song, and he travels on. He's going once, he's going twice, he's going and he's almost gone. But the master comes and the foolish crowd can never quite understand the worth of a soul and the change that is wrought by the touch of the master's hand. Jesus is in the business of transformation, touching a life, bringing hope. Father, we thank you for our Jesus, that he is so willing and so able to touch and to cleanse. And we remember the scripture, the blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, cleanses a man from all sin.

42:23 Thank you for what he has done in our lives. Do it in other lives. this morning, if you have gathered and you've never surrendered your life to Christ, now think about what I just said. You've never surrendered your life to Christ. Oh yeah, you believe there's a God up there somewhere. You have even gone to a church. You struggle even in your acknowledgement of, of God and his place in your life. You've never surrendered your life to him. Maybe you're at a place where you're willing to do that, to come to him for the first time in authentic, genuine sincerity, surrendering your life to him. you've been polite, you've listened to the message, some more interested in it than others, but now you're at a place where you are confronted with making a choice to say yes to him, and if not yes, then you are in effect saying no to him.

43:33 As he said, you're either for me or against me. and if you're willing to surrender your life to him or if you need to come back to him I'd like to pray for you I want to know who it is I'm praying for so our heads are bowed I'm going to leave my eyes open if you are willing to surrender your life to Christ raise your hand up raise it up in the air let me acknowledge your hand and I'll pray for you as we close this service raise it up high enough so I can see it yes sir to my left thank you God bless you and again to my left a couple of you anybody else you want the touch of the master to transform you and right where you're seated, just acknowledge him. Right where you're seated, just say this. Say it out loud if you'd like. Lord, I give you my life. I surrender. I know that I'm a sinner.

44:39 Forgive me. I believe in Jesus. I believe he died for me. I believe he rose again from the dead. So I turn. I turn from my past. I turn to Jesus as my Savior. I want to follow him as my Lord. Help me. Fill me with your spirit.