Water is Thicker Than Blood

Call to Worship and Songs of Praise

Good morning, and welcome to church at First Baptist Church of Aria. We're so glad you've joined us online and in our sanctuary. It's so good to see your faces. Our reading comes from Psalm 139:

Lord, you have searched me and known me. You know when I sit down and when I stand up; you understand my thoughts from far away. You observe my travels and my rest; you are aware of all my ways. Before a word is on my tongue, you know all about it, Lord. You have encircled me; you have placed your hand on me. This wondrous knowledge is beyond me. It is lofty; I am unable to reach it. Where can I go to escape your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to heaven, you are there; if I make my bed in Sheol, you are there. If I fly on the wings of the dawn and settle down on the western horizon, even there your hand will lead me; your right hand will hold on to me.

— Psalm 139:1-10 (CSB)

Join us as we worship the Lord this morning.

O worship the King, all-glorious above, And gratefully sing His power and His love; Our Shield and Defender, the Ancient of Days, Pavilioned in splendor, and girded with praise.

O tell of His might, O sing of His grace, Whose robe is the light, whose canopy space; His chariots of wrath the deep thunderclouds form, And dark is His path on the wings of the storm.

Thy bountiful care what tongue can recite? It breathes in the air, it shines in the light; It streams from the hills, it descends to the plain, And sweetly distills in the dew and the rain.

Frail children of dust, and feeble as frail, In Thee do we trust, nor find Thee to fail; Thy mercies how tender, how firm to the end, Our Maker, Defender, Redeemer, and Friend! Amen.

How I long to breathe the air of Heaven, To look upon the One who died to save me, And walk with Him for all eternity. There will be a day when all bow before Him, There will be a day when death will be no more, Standing face to face with He who died and rose again, Holy, holy is the Lord.

And every prayer we pray in desperation, The songs of faith we sing through doubt and fear, In the end, we'll see that it was worth it, When He returns to wipe away each tear.

There will be a day when all bow before Him, There will be a day when death will be no more, Standing face to face with He who died and rose again, Holy, holy is the Lord.

And on that day, we'll join the resurrection, And stand beside the heroes of the faith, With one voice, a thousand generations sing, "Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, forever He shall reign!"

There will be a day when all bow before Him, There will be a day when death will be no more, Standing face to face with He who died and rose again, Holy, holy is the Lord.

So let it be today we shout the hymn of Heaven, With angels and the saints we raise a mighty roar, Glory to our God who gave us life beyond the grave, Holy, holy is the Lord. Holy, holy is the Lord. Holy, holy is the Lord.

You are here, moving in our midst, I worship You, I worship You. You are here, working in this place, I worship You, I worship You.

Because You are Way Maker, Miracle Worker, Promise Keeper, Light in the darkness, my God, that is who You are. You are Way Maker, Miracle Worker, Promise Keeper, Light in the darkness, my God, that is who You are.

You are here, touching every heart, I worship You, I worship You. You are here, healing every heart, I worship You, I worship You. You are here, turning lives around, I worship You, I worship You. You are here, mending every heart, I worship You, I worship You.

Because You are Way Maker, Miracle Worker, Promise Keeper, Light in the darkness, my God, that is who You are. You are Way Maker, Miracle Worker, Promise Keeper, Light in the darkness, my God, that is who You are.

That is who You are, that is who You are, That is who You are, that is who You are, That is who You are, that is who You are, That is who You are, that is who You are.

Even when I don't see it, You're working, Even when I don't feel it, You're working, You never stop, You never stop working, You never stop, You never stop working.

Even when I don't see it, You're working, Even when I don't feel it, You're working, You never stop, You never stop working, You never stop, You never stop working.

You are here, moving in our midst, I worship You, I worship You. You are here, working in this place, I worship You, I worship You. You are here, touching every heart, I worship You, I worship You. You are here, healing every heart, I worship You, I worship You.

Following Jesus Through Opposition

We've gathered this morning to worship God, our Maker, Defender, Redeemer, and Friend. It's an amazing truth that we get to celebrate together this morning. If you have a Bible, go ahead and grab it and open it to Mark chapter 3. Mark chapter 3, we're going to be looking at the second half of the chapter, going to be looking at verses 20 to 35.

So far, we've been following Jesus in His ministry. He's just been ministering to the multitudes in Capernaum and near the Sea of Galilee, and now He's called His twelve Apostles to follow Him. And now we see people travel to investigate who Jesus is, to see who He is claimed to be. We see that in verse 20:

Jesus entered a house, and the crowd gathered again so that they were not even able to eat. When his family heard this, they set out to restrain him, because they said, “He’s out of his mind.” The scribes who had come down from Jerusalem said, “He is possessed by Beelzebul,” and, “He drives out demons by the ruler of the demons.” So he summoned them and spoke to them in parables: “How can Satan drive out Satan? If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. If a house is divided against itself, that house cannot stand. And if Satan opposes himself and is divided, he cannot stand but is finished. But no one can enter a strong man’s house and plunder his possessions unless he first ties up the strong man. Then he can plunder his house. “Truly I tell you, people will be forgiven for all sins and whatever blasphemies they utter. But whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin”— because they were saying, “He has an unclean spirit.” His mother and his brothers came, and standing outside, they sent word to him and called him. A crowd was sitting around him and told him, “Look, your mother, your brothers, and your sisters are outside asking for you.” He replied to them, “Who are my mother and my brothers?” Looking at those sitting in a circle around him, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother.”

— Mark 3:20-35 (CSB)

Let's pray. Lord, we know this morning that we are waging war against the kingdom of darkness. We know that You are our Maker, Defender, Redeemer, and Friend. So we ask this morning that You would speak to us from Your word, that You would help us, that You would guard us from distraction, and that You would help us to focus and see Your glory in this passage this morning. We pray this in Jesus' name, amen.

Jesus has continually interacted with different opponents throughout Mark's gospel, and now Mark has leveled up the people that have come to investigate and oppose Jesus. It comes from two unlikely sources: Jesus faces the most brilliant scholars in society, and He faces His own family. We ourselves face opposition as well in the war of faith. It can be difficult to stand firm and to believe the things that we believed. In our passage this morning, we learn from Mark that we are to follow Jesus through opposition. There are two points for us this morning: number one, we look at opposition from Satan, and number two, we see opposition from family.

Overcoming the Accusations of Satan

Let's look at the first point there: opposition from Satan. Read with me from verse 20. Mark says this: "Jesus entered a house, and the crowd gathered again so that they were not even able to eat. When his family heard this, they set out to restrain him because they said, 'He is out of his mind.'" He just goes into a house again. At this point, He is so popular they can't even leave the house to find food. And so news starts to spread, as it has been throughout the area, and makes its way all the way to Nazareth. His family hears about what Jesus is doing, and they think that Jesus has completely lost His marbles.

And so they go to get Him, and that word that they use there is that they set out to "restrain" Him—to use force or to use power to go and seize Jesus. His family is going out to find Him, grab Him by the ear, and drag Him home. We'll touch more on this later. And while the family is headed Jesus's way, another group arrives. You can see that in verse 22: "The scribes who had come down from Jerusalem said, 'He is possessed by Beelzebul,' and 'He drives out demons by the ruler of demons.'"

We know from last week that Jesus's ministry is continuing to spread, so now scribes—not just from anywhere, but scholars from Jerusalem—come down to see what the fuss is about. And that descent, that coming down, isn't just from Mount Zion. You see, these people who are coming to investigate Jesus are more than just your local church pastor or the teacher from your local synagogue. These people are the pinnacle of Jewish scholarship; they are the cream of the crop. The scribes come from the prestigious center of Jewish life.

Imagine if the Cardinals of the Vatican came in to investigate a parish, or if I was preaching a sermon this morning and suddenly all of my seminary professors came through the door and sat themselves right in the front row listening to what I had to say! See, for Jesus, the pressure is on. They're listening intently to what Jesus teaches and what Jesus does, and as they observe Jesus's ministry, they come to the conclusion that Jesus is driving out these demons because He Himself is possessed by a demon—that He's possessed by the ruler of demons, Beelzebul.

You see, everyone knew that Jesus did mighty works. They knew that Jesus drove out demons from those who were possessed. And the scribes from Jerusalem don't even deny that those miracles had happened; they acknowledge that Jesus was able to do those things. The issue is not whether those miracles happened, but the source of the power for those miracles. How is Jesus able to do this? And their conclusion is that Jesus is able to cast out these demons because He Himself is possessed by Beelzebul. Beelzebul is that name that developed from the idol Baal, which you see throughout the Old Testament, and the name translates to "Lord of the Flies." And we know that it's referring to the ruler of the demons, or Satan the accuser, because Jesus identifies Beelzebul as Satan later.

So what's happening in the minds of these scribes as they're observing Jesus casting out demons and teaching and healing the sick is that they think all of this is a parlor trick. They think that's the king of demons playing around with humanity and casting out demons in order to deceive the masses. You know, you could try to explain away Jesus, you can oppose Him, question Him directly, question the work that He's doing, but one thing that you can't do with Jesus is ignore Him. You can't ignore Him.

Either Jesus is who He said He is—the Son of God—or He isn't. He's either telling the truth or He's a liar, but one thing you can't do is just brush away what Jesus does. There must be an explanation. Jesus is doing more than just pulling a rabbit out of a hat. He's casting out demons, He's healing the sick, He's forgiving the sins of others, He accepts worship from human beings, and, according to what the Bible teaches, He rises from the dead. And all of that is so that He can accomplish His Father's will to win a people to Himself, to redeem all of creation.

You have to figure out whether what Jesus says is actually true. He's either a fraud, a fool, or fact. As C.S. Lewis says, He's either a liar, a lunatic, or He's Lord. If you're not a Christian and you're with us this morning, I wonder who you think Jesus is. Regardless of who you think Jesus is, let me encourage you to discover what Jesus did before you dismiss Him—to discover before you dismiss Him. Take the time to evaluate His life and words before you deny Him.

There are few questions in this life more important to answer than who God is and what your purpose on the earth is, and I believe that Jesus is the answer to both of those questions. Don't let accusations from different authorities distract you from seeing for yourself. There's a reason why Christianity went from an insignificant sect in Jerusalem to a religion that's lasted for thousands of years with the same book, the same message, and the same Savior. And Jesus deserves your real, sincere investigation.

The scribes' answer, however, was not a real inquiry. When they arrive, they're not coming to discover what Jesus is doing, but rather to dismiss what Jesus is doing. And so they come up with an interesting theory: a theory of demonic kingship. And that theory might be kind of interesting to entertain, but it's one that actually doesn't hold any logical weight. And you see that in verse 23. This is Jesus's answer: "So he summoned them and spoke to them in parables: 'How can Satan drive out Satan? If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. If a house is divided against itself, that house cannot stand. And if Satan opposes himself and is divided, he cannot stand but is finished. But no one can enter a strong man’s house and plunder his possessions unless he first ties up the strong man. Then he can plunder his house.'"

Jesus's answer is pretty straightforward: Satan can't fight Satan. He's just not going to do it. What Jesus is doing is not compromising with His fellow evildoers, but rather conquering the prince of the age, submitting Satan to Jesus's supreme rule. And to show His supremacy over Satan, He's bound him, tied him up, and He's plundered his possessions. Jesus is taking human beings who are owned by the prince of this age, the ruler of the kingdom of darkness, and Jesus is proclaiming that "those people are mine." That's what Jesus is doing.

It doesn't make sense for Satan to disrupt the status quo when Satan's already winning. Why would he voluntarily give up conquered territory to himself? There's no reason for Satan to go out and lose battles that he's already winning. And the illustration that Jesus uses, the parable that He uses, is this image of a house—a house that is divided against itself cannot stand. If Satan fights Satan, if teams are caught with infighting instead of attacking their opponent, everything is going to fall apart. We've seen examples of divided houses collapsing under their own weight, haven't we?

In the United States, the war that caused the most casualties in US history is our Civil War. Many churches have made an embarrassment of Christianity by dividing themselves with infighting and gossip. Families have been torn apart because of "he says" and "she says." We know from our own experience that a house that's divided against itself cannot stand. And the clearest example that we see of a divided house in Scripture is actually Israel itself. In 1 Kings 12, Rehoboam, the grandson of David, the son of Solomon, is an absolute knucklehead, and within his own lifetime, he's able to divide the kingdom into two separate nations: Israel in the north and Judah in the south, causing civil war amongst themselves. Because of that, Israel ends up being overtaken by Assyria, and Judah ends up being overtaken by Babylon.

Before these scribes should critique Jesus for dividing his house, Jesus is pointing out to these scribes from Jerusalem that they ought to be taking a look in their own mirror. And that's true in more ways than one. You see that in verse 28:

"Truly I tell you, people will be forgiven for all sins and whatever blasphemies they utter. But whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin"—because they were saying, "He has an unclean spirit."

Jesus makes mention here of an unforgivable sin: blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. Now, what is that blasphemy? A lot of people get confused and caught up with verses like these. They get fearful that there's some kind of ambiguous tripwire spiritually out there that you can somehow fall over and end up permanently sealing yourself towards hell. Is there some kind of line there that if you cross it, there's no return, no way of receiving forgiveness from God?

Well, we need to be careful when it comes to verses like this, that we apply it appropriately and that we use all of Scripture to inform our thoughts about this verse. We have to put it in its proper context. So, I'm going to break it down in a couple of steps.

First, we know that those who have placed their trust in salvation in Christ will be saved. We know that those who place their faith and trust in Jesus will be saved. Ephesians 1:4 says that God has chosen us in Him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in His sight. God has a plan, and if you came and you heard the call of salvation and you chose to follow Him, that was because God planned it to be that way. He's in control of all things.

Jesus confirms this in John 6:37 where He says, "Everyone that the Father gives to me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out." We know for a fact that everyone the Father gives to Jesus will hear the gospel call, will turn away from their sin, and will go to Jesus. And we also know that if we come to Jesus, we don't need to fear being abandoned by Him, because Jesus Himself says that He will never cast you out. So, the unforgivable sin is not something that you and I need to be afraid of as though salvation is something that can be lost.

We know that if we are faithless, He is faithful, because He cannot deny Himself. Paul shares his confidence in Philippians 1:6 when he writes to the Philippian church, saying that He who started a good work in you will carry it on until completion until the day of Christ. If you've turned from your sin and trusted in Jesus, you will make it to the end. You don't need to worry. There's no ticking time bomb; there's no minefield out there that you need to avoid. You're going to make it.

Second, there are those who appear to be Christians in this life who do fall away. There are those who appear to be Christians in this life who do fall away. You can see this in Jesus's parable of the sower: the sower sows many seeds, some are planted in good soil, others aren't. And while those plants may initially spring up and visually look like legitimate plants, they turn out to not be as time and trials pass. And the reason why these people fall away—these people who look like plants but end up falling away—isn't because they somehow lost the salvation that they obtained, but rather because they were never truly believers. Look at what 1 John 2:19 says:

They went out from us, but they did not belong to us; for if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us. However, they went out so that it might be made clear that none of them belongs to us.

— 1 John 2:19 (CSB)

So in this case, when John is talking about people who end up leaving the faith and denying Jesus, he's saying that what they do reveals who they actually are—that people who visually seem to fall away from Christianity were actually never Christians to begin with, that they would actually show themselves to not be true believers.

So, number one: those who are in Christ will never fall away. Number two: there are those who will claim to follow Jesus who will later abandon Jesus, but their leaving Jesus reveals who they always were—non-believers.

So, taking those two truths and looking at this verse again, what is the unforgivable sin? What does it mean to blaspheme the Holy Spirit? Well, if I were to try to sum it up in one or two sentences, I'd say that blaspheming the Holy Spirit is to see Christ's redeeming grace, His saving work, and to continually, persistently, and resolutely deny it. It explains itself in verse 30. It says, "because they were saying, 'He has an unclean spirit.'" They see Christ's work, His extravagant grace, and His ministry on the earth, and the scribes are looking at what the Holy Spirit is doing in the lives of those around them, and they're attributing it to Satan. They're flat-out denying Jesus, they're refusing to believe His work in their lives, and because of that, they have committed blasphemy of the Holy Spirit. To continually, persistently, and resolutely deny the Spirit's work is to commit that unforgivable sin.

In other words, by accusing Jesus of being possessed by Satan—by claiming that Jesus is only able to do this because He's possessed by the ruler of evil—the scribes have, ironically, permanently aligned themselves with the very enemy that they accuse Jesus of being with. By accusing Jesus of being with Satan, the scribes revealed themselves to be allies of Satan. It turns out that the scribes are the ones who are under the rule of the kingdom of Beelzebul. And if the leaders, the scholars of the people of God, are under the Lord of the Flies, then the divided house of Israel can't stand; it's going to fall apart.

What about you? The good news of Jesus is the greatest news that you could ever hear: that we're all under the bondage of sin, we're all shackled to sin, and Beelzebul has deceived all of us into rebelling against a holy God. And because of our disobedience, we deserve to be bound up and thrown into hell forever for our sin. But the good news of the gospel is that same holy God became a man, Jesus Christ, lived the perfect life that you and I could never live, and He conquered sin and Satan, and tied up the ruler of this age.

And the way that He binds Satan up is by being bound Himself, nailed to a Roman cross. And God poured out on Him the punishment that you and I deserve for sinning against Him, and He died, but three days later He rose from the dead, victorious over sin and death, so He can come and plunder Satan's house. So all of us who are sinners, who are enslaved to this Lord of the Flies, can be freed from our sin, forgiven of our sin, and whatever blasphemies we've ever uttered.

If you feel bound by your sin, if you feel tied up by Satan, unable to release yourself from your sin, unable to avoid the judgment that God will rightly levy against you, I have good news for you: the Lord of the Flies is no match for the Lord of lords, for the King of Kings! You can go to Him, and He will release you from the shackles of your sin. And you don't have to delay in fleeing to Jesus. Whatever shelter you're in right now that you think will protect you is going to fall apart, but in Christ we have a true refuge, a true protector, a Maker, Defender, Redeemer, and Friend. We have a good God who cares for us.

When Jesus comes, He directly opposes the kingdom of darkness and establishes His own. If you're not a Christian with us this morning, there's nothing else I'd rather talk about. I'll be right at the door at the end of the service; I'd love to talk to you more about what it looks like to follow Jesus, or you could talk to whatever friend brought you here. There's no subject that we'd rather talk about. There's no greater news on the planet than that you can be right with the Lord today. But Satan wasn't Jesus's only opponent. The next opponent that comes to His house came from His own home.

A New Allegiance and Spiritual Family

That brings us to point number two: follow Jesus through opposition from family. Verse 31:

"His mother and his brothers came, and standing outside, they sent word to him and called him. A crowd was sitting around him and told him, 'Look, your mother, your brothers, and your sisters are outside asking for you.'"

Jesus's family comes to get their boy, but their family status isn't enough to grant them entrance into Jesus's house. Instead, they have to send word; they have to play a game of telephone to get inside and to say, "Your mother, your brothers, and your sisters are asking for you." And then Jesus responds in verse 33: "He replied to them, 'Who are my mother and my brothers?' Looking at those sitting in a circle around him, he said, 'Here are my mother and my brothers! Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother.'"

Jesus is not going through some kind of familial amnesia here; He's trying to make a point. And as a side note, Jesus doesn't hate His family either. He's not trying to be some kind of spiritual bouncer blocking His family from ever entering into the kingdom of God. You see in other portions of Scripture, in the gospels, that Jesus does care for His family quite a bit. He goes into the temple at the age of twelve in the Book of Luke to be in His Father's house, but then He obeys His parents and goes right home. At the end of John's gospel, Jesus makes sure that His mother is taken care of by attaching her to John. And in 1 Timothy 5:8, in God's own word, Paul teaches that if a man doesn't provide for his own family, he's disowned his faith and is worse than an unbeliever. So Jesus is not advocating for some kind of abandonment of familial duties of love. If you have a family and you love them and you're caring for them, that's a good thing, and I would encourage you to keep doing that.

Jesus is, however, making a statement of allegiance—that a Christian's primary allegiance isn't to a physical family, but to God. Our lineage never trumps our loyalty to our Lord. There are some of us in this room who have had to sacrifice many different things in order to follow Jesus. Some of those sacrifices include even some of your own closest relationships. I can think of believers who have been disowned by their Hindu family members because of their conversion, LGBTQ family members who are heartbroken because they're listening to you disagree with what they consider to be the most central part of their own identity, or deconstructed atheists who can't believe that you'd be willing to participate in something as "despicable" as organized religion.

Whatever sacrifices you've made to follow Jesus, know that your Heavenly Father sees you. Thank you for being an example to this church of incredible faith—faith that truly believes that Jesus is better than whatever the world has to offer you today. Our family may desert us, your friends may abandon you, but the Lord stands by you and He will strengthen you, because He sees the cost of your allegiance and He is with you.

That allegiance that we make goes beyond just God and spreads out to others who have also made the same commitment. Jesus motions to those around Him and says, "These are my mother and my brother." Anyone who does the will of the Father becomes Jesus's mother, brother, or sister. We all become family. And that family is a valuable thing. Jesus says later in Mark chapter 10 that there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for His sake and for the sake of the gospel who will not receive a hundred times more now at this time—houses, brothers, sisters, mothers, children, and fields, with persecutions—and in the age to come, eternal life. He's not talking about some kind of prosperity promise of doubling your inheritance; He's talking about a new family line, a new community that we are a part of, a new family that we've been grafted into.

The idea of family has fallen into hard times. Society's understanding of family continues to crumble, ever since no-fault divorce, homosexuality, abortion, and not to mention there are just really cringe examples of workplaces trying to cover up taking advantage of their employees by saying, "You know, we're all family!" So when we hear Jesus calling His followers a family, and you have a difficult family life or a terrible work experience, it can just sound kind of cringe; it falls on deaf ears.

But Jesus's familial identity that He's talking about here isn't an aspiration; it's a reality. That's not just some kind of imaginative, hopeful thing. Jesus is trying to give us a tangible picture of what the Christian life is. He's not talking about some kind of future promise in heaven; He identifies that this inheritance, this hundredfold blessing, happens in this life—not just in the age to come, but in this life. When someone turns from their sins and trusts in Jesus, they don't just obtain forgiveness for their sins; they receive adoption into God's own family. If you're in Jesus, you've been included in a community that Ephesians 3 says displays God's glory to the rulers in the heavens. The way to join God's people isn't by your ancestry anymore, but by your allegiance to the Lord. You don't enter God's people by bloodline, by being an Israelite; you enter God's community by your belief, by your faith in Christ.

The church is the community of God, God's presence on the earth displaying His glory to a dark and dying world. The church isn't a building; it's a people. And it's not just a people; it's a family. The church is built around a real covenant, real commitments that reflect families at their best. When we come to faith in Jesus, we're baptized, which symbolizes new birth—new life that we have in Christ—but it's not just signifying new birth, that we go from death to life; it also symbolizes the new family or the new community that we've joined. When you join a church and you agree to that church's covenant and commit to one another, sharing your lives and living with one another in a significant, meaningful way, you're actually fulfilling what God expects you to be: to be a spiritual family.

Here is a part of our church's covenant. I don't know if you knew that our church had a covenant, but we do! Let me just read you a portion of it. It says this:

"We further engage to watch over one another in brotherly love; to remember one another in prayer; to aid one another in sickness and distress; to cultivate Christian sympathy in feeling and Christian courtesy in speech; to be slow to take offense, but always ready for reconciliation, and mindful of the rules of our Savior to secure it without delay."

What does that sound like to you? It probably reminds you a little bit of a marriage covenant, right? Vows that you make to help one another in sickness and distress, for richer or for poorer. It sounds like a real commitment. And the reason is because membership in a church is more significant than a Costco membership. It's a real friendship; it has real commitments, real sacrifice, real support. It's supposed to mean something. If you're not a member of a church and you're here this morning, let me encourage you that it is not good for a Christian to live alone. God has given us a real spiritual family to walk together. Look at what Hebrews 10:24-25 says:

And let us consider one another in order to provoke love and good works, not neglecting to gather together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging each other, and all the more as you see the day approaching.

— Hebrews 10:24-25 (CSB)

I love that passage because it encapsulates what the Christian life is supposed to look like. You don't neglect to gather together. Notice that even there in the early church, you have people who are flaking from Sunday morning! He's saying you need to show up, and you need to "consider" one another. And that word for "consider" is more than just being considerate or being kind or being thoughtful. The idea is that you're taking ownership of them, that you care for them in a real, tangible way, that you have an affection for them, that you're taking ownership of them.

And the way that considering plays itself out is by showing up, provoking love and good works in them, and encouraging them all the more as you see the day approaching. Because we're another Sunday down and we're another week closer to the day that we die and the day that Jesus comes back. That's why we have a Church Matters class every Sunday at 9:00 a.m., because I want to make sure that people who join this church understand what that commitment means—that it's not just something that you give lip service to, but that it is significant. We actually believe that meaningful membership in a local church is a central part of the Christian life, that we're not just part of a church institution, but we're actually a spiritual family.

For those of us who are members here, I just want to say I'm grateful for you. I recognize that I'm a young dude, right? I have a lot of spiritual grandmothers here, and grandfathers here, and fathers and mothers, aunts, uncles, brothers, sisters. I want to thank you for being here, for being physically present here, for your hugs, your encouragement, your hospitality, your care, your prayers. I need you every week. You guys are living examples, reminders to me that for the Christian, water is thicker than blood.

We are in Christ, and God is our Father, and when we're in Jesus, all of us are family. We can face real opposition from Satan, the world, even our closest relationships, even our own family, because we have Jesus and we have each other. And we can trust the Lord and look around and echo Jesus's own words: "Here are my mother, my brothers, and my sisters."

Let's pray. Lord, we thank you for the grace that you've shown our church for 75 years. We pray, Lord, that you would give us strength to be able to encourage one another, to have real Christian community, and to endure through opposition—to fight with our faith the attacks from Satan and even those that are close to us. Help us to trust that you are good, that your ways are true, and we ask that you would come again quickly. We pray this in Jesus' name, amen.

Welcoming a New Member and Church Announcements

We're going to start our announcements with something unusual that we haven't done for a long time. We are voting someone into membership at our church, so we are going to ask Jim Armstrong to leave the room. I banish thee into the hallway! All right, and we'll go ahead and get started. Let me just pull up my notes here. See you, Jim!

Okay. Jim—or James William Armstrong—was born in Newport, Arkansas, in 1940. He moved to Southern California as a kid, kind of came back and forth, and ended up settling in L.A. He grew up in Montebello. He heard the gospel as a teenager and came to know Jesus at Greenwood Baptist Church and was baptized at that church after hearing the gospel at sixteen. He worked as a supervisor for L.A. Public Works for the city of Downey for thirty-five years before he retired. He believes the gospel—that he's a sinner and that Jesus died for him and rose for him. He agrees with our church's statement of faith and our church covenant, and he's happy to commit to our church in membership.

So at this time, I'd like to ask all the members of our church to please stand. If you're a member of our church, go ahead and stand. I'm happy to recommend that Jim Armstrong be added to the membership of our church for us to take responsibility for him as he takes responsibility for us. Since I'm the only guy making that motion, I need a second.

"Second!"

"Second!" Great. Any discussion, questions, thoughts about Jim?

Okay, cool guy. Thank you for that. Yeah, well, we haven't voted yet, Laura, we'll see! He has a very... yeah, Jim's been a close friend of mine for eight or nine years; he's a cherished brother for me. Seeing no more discussion, all those in favor of taking in Jim Armstrong as a member of this church say "yes."

"Yes!"

And those opposed say "no." So ordered! You may be seated. Someone get him back in here! I wonder if he's standing in the hallway if he's able to hear us, you know, when kids plug their ears but they're actually listening to everything you have to say. Yeah, welcome to the family, Jim!

Some churches extend the right hand of fellowship. I know that Jim would hate that, so just know that he's sitting in the back corner and you guys can all dog-pile him after the service!

A couple of announcements for us: in light of that, if you're interested in becoming a member of our church, the way that you do that is by coming to our Church Matters class every Sunday morning at 9:00 a.m. in this back room. You can just go into the hallway and follow your way around. There's only one hallway in this building; it wraps all the way around. We're in the Bible study room in the back. We have six classes, and you can come and learn more about what it looks like to be part of our church.

We also have a Bible study that Irwin teaches through the Book of Mark, so that's in the library right over here. It starts at 8:45 and ends at 9:30. All are welcome to come to that as well.

There is no Wednesday night Bible study this week because Pastor Steve and I will be at the California Southern Baptist Convention, so if you show up, you can pray outside! But there will be no Bible study.

Yeah, and also there is a seventy-fifth anniversary coming up this next Sunday, and some of our members were here yesterday faithfully serving on workday to make this place look more presentable. So if you were here yesterday serving us, could you please stand so we could thank you? Thank you so much, thank you for serving us so well! I felt so guilty because I was just in my study working on my sermon, but I'm grateful for all of you. You guys are examples of service to me.

That seventy-fifth anniversary is this coming Sunday, so if there's anyone that you haven't invited, or things that you'd like to get done, or if there's something you'd like to contribute and you haven't talked to Billy yet, you need to talk to Billy and make sure you do that. We're really excited. There'll be lunch afterwards, and we'll be able to celebrate God's grace at this church together.

Also, if you'd like to give to our church—I almost forgot—you could give either in the offering plate in the back or online. The Lord says in His word that He loves a cheerful giver. Paul often wrote a lot of his missionary letters that became the New Testament books that we have in our Bible. Did you know that the Book of Romans was actually a mission support letter? He explains all that God does in the first half of the book, he spends chapters 11 through 14 explaining how that good news of the gospel is applied to the Gentiles, and then in chapter 15, he tells these Romans, whom he's never met before, to make sure that there's enough funds for him to pick up so that he could go to Spain and share the gospel there. In 1 Corinthians, Paul talks about how he's entitled to money from the church but willingly gives it up to be an example, to be a tentmaker. It's the same way for us: when we contribute funds to this church or to any gospel ministry, what we're seeking to do is advance the gospel to the ends of the earth, and we get to participate in that together.

Let's go and pray and give thanks to God for our offering. Lord, we know that you could do all the work yourself and not include us. We know that you don't need any cent from our wallet or from our bank accounts, but we thank you, Lord, that we get to participate in your ministry together. So we ask, Lord, that you would be able to use our offering to advance your kingdom, to bring many others to know you, and to help this church flourish in its discipleship of one another. We pray this in Jesus' name, amen. Amen.

Closing Benediction

And now may the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with us all, amen. Please stand.

O You've come to bring peace, To bring love, to be nearer to us. You've come to bring light, To be light, to shine bright in us.

Deliverer, You are savior, In Your presence we find our strength. Over everything, our redemption, God with us, You are God with us.

For You've come to bring hope to this world, For Your honor and name. And You've come to take sin and shame, And to conquer the grave for man.

Deliverer, You are savior, In Your presence we find our strength. Over everything, our redemption, God with us, You are God with us.

You are here, You are holy, We are standing in Your glory. You are here, You are holy, We are standing in Your glory. You are here, You are holy, We are standing in Your glory. You are here, You are holy, We are standing in Your glory.

Deliverer, You are savior, In Your presence we find our strength. Over everything, our redemption, God with us.

Deliverer, You are savior, In Your presence we find our strength. Over everything, our redemption, God with us, You are God with us. You are God with us.

Amen. Have a blessed week!