Absalom — Jacob Prasch

Thank you dear friends, good evening and greetings in Jesus, wonderful to be with you all. Heavenly Father, we ask you to meet with us now once more. As always, Lord God, we ask by your Spirit you speak to us from your Word.

And we ask, Lord God, that you would not simply increase our knowledge for the sake of increasing our knowledge, but to increase our knowledge to make us more like your Son, more effective in serving him and serving others.

In his wonderful name, the one who saved us, Jesus. Amen. You know, the pastor spoke of two things just now. Pastor Manuel spoke of the last days and of mission. And there's quite a relationship between the last days, the return of Jesus, and mission.

The Return of Jesus and the Great Commission

As you see over there, making Jesus, last of man, our first priority. I was speaking to some Christians on the other side of the bell the other night. And I pointed out that in Matthew 24, we're told directly that we will not know when Jesus comes.

We're told in verse 36, but on that day and hour, no one knows, not even the angels of God, nor the Son from the Father alone. Maybe Jesus knows now, in eternity, but when he was on earth, he didn't know.

And in verse 44, for this reason, be ready, the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not think he will. Whenever the Bible speaks of the return of Jesus, it's that of the Son of God, always the Son of Man.

Always with the Son of Man. We don't know when he's coming. Jesus didn't even know when he's coming. Why is that? It's because although the time is fixed in eternity, although the Father knows, relative to us, it's a variable.

It's not a fixed date set in time as we know time. In 2 Peter 3, verse 12, Peter says, looking forward and hastening the coming of the day of God. We can actually cause Jesus to come back faster by counting out the Great Commission, by doing what's on that banner.

It's a variable. We're not simply waiting for Jesus to come back. It says in Luke's Gospel, when the crop permits, he sends the Lord of the harvest. We're not waiting for Jesus, he's waiting for us. In the Song of Solomon, the bride doesn't know when the bridegroom is coming.

But the bridegroom says, do not await your mighty lover until she pleases. We're not waiting for Jesus to come for his bride, he's waiting for the bride to get dressed and be ready. That's the way it is.

We can hasten his coming, we can make him come back more. Making Jesus' last command our first priority. You know, I go to places like Africa and to Asia, and I see things in the developing world that I couldn't even explain to somebody in a country like Australia or Britain or America.

I saw such subhuman poverty in Africa, I couldn't even explain it. But what was shocking to me, as bad as those conditions were, you just say, thank God my kids don't have to grow up in this. There were actually people in other countries like Angola and Mozambique trying to come down from living in that poverty because it was even worse than other countries.

We take so much for granted. We don't know how many Christians. Why didn't we know how many Christians again are persecuted? Not far from here, just on Indonesia, is Brunei, a country where right today Christians will be arrested for being persecuted.

Nobody says much about it. Mission. Making Jesus' last command our first authority. You know, I'm very concerned for people in the developing world. Certainly, every day I try to pray for missions and evangelism.

Every day I try to pray for the persecuted church. Our ministry raises money for missions in the Middle East. For evangelism in the Middle East, that's where we operate as a mission field the most. I'm concerned with those things.

The Mission Field Begins With Family

But there's something that I carry with me every day. My family, our family is a mixture of Catholic and Jewish. Several weeks ago in America I visited my mother, she's getting older. My mother trusted a statue of Mary for her salvation instead of Jesus Christ.

Her Jewish family, obvious barriers with the Holocaust. To them, Christianity was Jews being persecuted in the name of Jesus. Every day we pray for our families. Every day you think about your own safe family too, don't you?

Notice when Jesus gave the final command in Acts chapter 1, He said, Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and Eden to the ends of the earth. In the book of Acts, we see so much of the emphasis was on family being saved.

Like Cornelius in Acts chapter 10. Families, the Lord is in the business of saving families. But that's so difficult. It's more difficult to witness to people who knew you before you were saved than it is anyone else.

You can witness to your children, but when you witness to your unsaved husband, who knew you before you were a Christian, or to your unsaved wife who knew you before you were a Christian, or to your unsaved parents, or even to your grown up children, that you were saved later in life.

Your siblings, your brothers, your sisters, friends you've known your whole life. It's usually easier to pray that God will send another witness to them, to witness to them than it is for you to do it.

You just have a lot of ammunition that you're holding to use, and that's what happens. And that's not to discourage witnessing to our loved ones, but so often it's so difficult. If you have a missions conference, it's good for you people to come to that conference.

It's important that you pray for it, that you pray for missions, and that you support it financially. That's not an option the Lord gives us, it's a command, that's a command. It's not an option to support missions and evangelism.

But it's Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and even to the ends of the earth. It begins at home. You can't all go and be a missionary in Brunei, or in the Middle East, or Africa, or the Philippines, or in South America.

You know, in some of these impoverished countries, particularly in Latin America, and the Philippines, the churches are growing so quickly. I thank God for a church like this that is growing. But compared to what's happening in the Catholic countries of the Third World, this is nothing.

When you see the way God's moving in so many places, in Brazil, in the Philippines, it's absolutely amazing. I know one case where they planted a church within 18 months. That church had planted five other churches with at least 200 people in each of the northern churches.

And that's not untypical of what happens when God's Spirit moves. I believe the time is going to come when people in the poor countries will begin sending evangelists and missionaries back to the Protestant world, because they have no will to lose it.

Right now, the only thing keeping our missions going is the fact that we have the money that they don't have. But we forget that the reason God blessed countries like Australia is because there was so much Christian influence in it.

Now that that influence is going, God's going to bless them, those who preach the gospel faithfully. Already, one of the most difficult mission fields in the world is the developed world. And in poor countries, people are more spiritually aware, they're impoverished, they don't have much to hope in, trust in, or depend on.

They're open to the gospel in poor countries. Here, people don't think they need God, they don't think they need Jesus, they don't think they need salvation. I go to poor countries, and I grieve over the poverty of those people, and I think every day of the persecuted church.

But the most difficult mission field in seeing people get saved is countries like Australia, or Britain, or America. And the most difficult people that you will normally ever witness to are your unsaved family.

Absalom and the Grief of Unsaved Children

Turn with me, please, with these things in view. To 2 Samuel, 2 Samuel, chapter 18. Note the two things I get the most mail about, saved and backslidden children, and unsaved husbands. If the wife is saved, no easy way to see the husband saved, usually.

In most cases, where a husband and wife both get saved, it's usually the wife who gets saved first. If the husband gets saved first, most of the time the wife won't get saved. But when the boots are on the other feet, it can be more difficult.

But the grieving I've seen over Christian parents with children who are unsaved, who are backslidden, or people who were saved when their kids were already grown up, this causes people a lot of grief.

Let's look at 2 Samuel, chapter 18, verse 9. Now Absalom happened to be the servant of David, for Absalom was riding on his mule, and his mule went under the thick branches of a great oak, and his head bore fast in the oak.

He was left hanging between heaven and earth, while the mule that was under him kept going. And when a certain man saw it, he told Joab and said, Behold, I saw Absalom hanging in the oak. Then Joab said to the man who had told him, Now behold, you saw him.

Why then did you not strike him there to the ground? And I would have given him ten pieces of silver and a belt. And the man said to Joab, Even if I should receive a thousand pieces of silver in my hand, I would not put out my hand against the king's son.

But in our hearing, the king charged you and Abishai and Iqbal, saying, Protect for me the young man Absalom. Otherwise, if I had dealt treacherously against his life, and there was nothing hidden from the king, then you yourself would have stood alone.

Then Joab said, I will not waste my day with you. So he took three spears in his hand and thrust them through the heart of Absalom while he was yet alive in the midst of the oak. And David and the other men who carried Joab's armor gathered around and struck Absalom and killed him.

Then Joab blew the trumpet, and the people returned from pursuing Israel, for Joab restrained the people. And they took Absalom and cast him into a deep pit in the forest, and he wrecked it over him of every great heap of stones.

And all Israel fled each to his tent. Now Absalom, in his lifetime, had taken and set up for himself a pillar, which is in the king's valley. And he said, I have no son to preserve my name. So he named the pillar after his own name, and it's called Absalom's Monument to this day.

Then Ahimaaz, the son of Zadok, the king's righteous, said, Please let me run and bring the king news that the Lord has freed him from the hands of his enemies. But Joab said to him, You are not the man to carry news this day, but you shall carry news another day.

However, you shall carry no news today, because the king's son is dead. Then Joab said to the Cushites, Now a Cushite in the Old Testament in Hebrew is a black person, a black man. Joab said to the Cushite, Go tell the king what you have seen.

So the Cushite, or the advocate, bowed to Joab and ran. Now Ahimaaz, the son of Zadok, said once more to God, Whatever happens, please let me also run after the Cushite. And Joab said, Why would you run, my son?

Since you will have no reward for going. But whatever happens, he said, I will run. So he said to him, run. He insisted. And Ahimaaz ran by way of the plain and passed up the Cushite. Now David was sitting between the two gates, and the watchman went up to the roof of the gate by the wall and raised his eyes and looked, and behold, a man running by himself.

And the watchman called and called the king, and the king said, If he is by himself, there is good news in his mouth. And he came nearer and nearer. The Hebrew word, or term for good news, is Besor. Besor.

It is also the Hebrew term for gospel. In Greek, it would be Evangelion, but in Hebrew, Besor, Besorah, is the word for gospel. Same exact word. Isaiah 52, How lovely are the mountains of the sea of Israel.

Besorah, the gospel, good news. We recall the gospel of John, for instance, in Hebrew, HaBesorah, the good news from the lips of John, according to the lips of John. Let's look. He came nearer and nearer.

And the watchman called and said, If he is by himself, there is good news in his mouth. And he comes nearer and nearer. And then the watchman saw another man running, and the watchman called to the gatekeeper and said, Behold, another man running by himself.

And the king said, This one also is bringing Besorah, good news. And the watchman said, I think the running of the first one is like the running of Ahimah, the son of Zadok. And the king said, This is a good man, and he comes with good news.

He comes with gospel. He comes with Besorah. And Ahimah, his call-god, said to the king, All is well. And he prostrated himself before the king with the space of the ground. And he said, Blessed is the Lord your God, who has delivered up the men who lifted their hands against my Lord.

This guy, Ahimah, outruns the African. And he must have had a really good pair of trainers to outrun his little brother, taking all the little girls in the Olympics. He said, When will the young man answer the law in verse 29?

And Ahimah answered, When Joab sent the king's servant and your servant, I saw a great tumult, but I didn't know what it was. Notice he knew very well what it was, but he didn't want to tell King David the bad news.

He only wanted to tell him the good news. So he begins to fudge the issue. He doesn't want to tell the bad news, only the good news. Then the king said, Turn aside and stand here. So he turned aside and stood still.

And behold, the Cushite arrived, and the Cushite said, Let my lord the king receive Misorah, good news, for the Lord has freed you this day from the hand of all those who rose up against you. And then the king said to the Cushite, Is it well with the young man Absalom?

And the Cushite answered, Let the enemies of my lord the king and all who rise up against you for evil, he is that young man. And the king was deeply moved, and he went up to the chamber over the gate and wept.

Thus he said as he walked, O my son Absalom, my son, my son, Absalom, I would that I had died instead of you, O Absalom, my son, my son. The Hebrew text is very emotive. V 'nifedi, Absalom, Absalom, V 'nifedi, oy Absalom.

Let's continue. I wish that I had died instead of you. We have to understand in typology the Old Testament symbolism pointing to Christ. David is the figure of Jesus. Jesus is called the son of David.

David was only able to wish that he could have hung on a tree on behalf of someone he loved. He wished he could have hung on behalf of the one he loved and been pierced instead of the sun. But the law can't say it.

While David could only have wished it was possible for him to hang on a tree and be pierced instead of the one he loved, Jesus, the son of David, actually did it. You understand? It shows that the law can't say it.

Now to a Jewish person, there's a verse in the Torah cursing everyone who hangs on a tree. It was not only death, but it was a kind of death that represented a terrible disgrace. It was the most humiliating way to die and it would have been a great source of embarrassment and disgrace for the surviving family.

Verse 19, almost finished now, of chapter 19, it was told to Joab, Behold, the king is weeping, and he mourns. Behold, the king is weeping, and he mourns. Perhaps so. And the victory that day was turned to mourning for all the people.

For the people heard him, and they said that day, the king is grieving for his son. So the people went by stealth into the city that day as people who are humiliated steal away when they flee in battle.

And the king covered his face and cried out with a loud voice, Oh my son, Absalom, Absalom, my son, my son. He just couldn't stop. Then Joab came into the house of the king and said, Today you are covered with disgrace, the face of all your servants, who today have saved your life and the lives of your sons and daughters, the lives of your wives and the lives of your concubines by loving those who hate you and by hating those who love you.

For you've shown today that princes and servants are nothing to you. For I know this day that if Absalom were alive, all of us were dead today. Then you'd be pleased. Now therefore arise, go and speak kindly to your servants.

For I swear by the Lord that if you do not go out, surely that a man will pass tonight with you and this will be worse for you than all the evil that has come upon you from your youth until now. So the king arose and sat in the gates.

They told all the people saying, Behold the king is sitting in the gate. All the people came before the king. Absalom, Absalom, Absalom, Absalom, my no good son, my worthless cripple son, my backstabbing son, my unsaved son, my murdering son, my conniving son, my absolutely terrible bad son.

But still, remember, even unsaved people have. The way you love your own children, God created to teach everyone's us. Even unsaved people. He creates that kind of love to teach how he loves us. He made me no good, but he's still my son.

She made me a bad person. She made me living with her boyfriend and on drugs, but it's still my daughter. Maybe he abused me, but he's still my father. Maybe, maybe she abandoned me, but she's still my mother.

Blood is thicker than water, isn't it? The emotional time, the pain of unsaved, of lost loved ones, the most difficult thing you or I will ever face as a born-again believer this side of eternity is the death of an unsaved lover.

Now ultimately, God only knows what transpires that fleeting millisecond between life and death, between here and eternity, only God knows, but you know there's only one deathbed conversion in the entire Bible.

People who tend to get saved on the deathbed are people who would have gotten saved had they had the opportunity sooner. Only one deathbed conversion in the entire Bible. Revelation, it says, will take away every tear.

Somehow, some marvelous way in eternity I will no longer think of my father who as far as I know is in hell forever. But I sure think about it now. You see your parents who are getting older, they're not saved, they don't believe anything.

You pray for them, but it just comes down to arguments and going back and forth and it's so frustrating. They knew you since you were a baby and you can't talk to them. This is the most difficult thing.

You dread the day, you dread the night, when the telephone is going to ring or the knock will come to the door. We're sorry to inform you. The phone call from the hospital. We're sorry to inform you. We never got along, but it's still my mother, it's still my father, it's still my son, it's still my daughter, no matter what they did.

There is nothing you or I will ever face as a Christian that will be more difficult than that. Mission begins at home. From Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, to the ends of the earth. And, oh friends, it's important that we all pray for missions, that we financially support missions, that we send missionaries to other countries.

Proclaiming the Whole Gospel

I go to other countries, I see missionaries, but every one of us is a missionary to the people around us, beginning with our families. I bet you even in a place like this, much of the growth in this congregation that's taken place in the last several years since I first visited it, has taken place with families and with neighbors and with people we know.

That's not to say we shouldn't do the other, but just like in the book of Acts, Cornelius' family, or the woman at the well in John 4, he goes to the people, led this rebellion, he bats with it, he died outside of God's grace, and there were two messengers, two messengers, they both wanted to tell King David the good news.

The good news that the rebellion had been put down. They both wanted to tell the truth. Only the African, the black man, was willing to tell the whole truth. Your son is dead. Ahimaaz only wanted to give half the truth.

Again, this or I. Evangelion. What is the good news that we send missionaries to preach? What is the good news that you and I need to tell our families, our neighbors, our friends, the people we work with?

A lot of us today are like Ahimaaz. Not enough of us are like Nekusha. This is free, but it is not cheap. It cost God everything when he gave his son to me. I couldn't imagine giving my son to me to die for the sins of people who hated me.

But that's what God did. Oh, it's free. Free for us. But it sure isn't cheap. What is this, this or I? Saint Paul tells us something very interesting in Galatians. Look what he says in chapter 1. ...which is really not another, only there are some who are disturbing you and want to distort the gospel of Christ.

In verse 6, by the grace of Christ, we're a different gospel. Now, it's not really a different one in verse 7, it just distorts the same one. But even though we, in verse 8, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to that which we have preached to you, let him be accursed.

Anathema in Greek. Somebody with a different gospel. There are a lot of different gospels today. In a church like this, where most people are from Roman Catholic backgrounds, or even if you are, and your parents were, you know about the Roman gospel.

You know about it. You know about purgatory, and about adulteries, and mass torts. You know about it. You know that's a different gospel. Shockingly today, so many evangelicals don't. And they're going down the ecumenical road into union with the same king you and your parents were saved out of.

And a church like this, with so many people saved out of Catholicism, needs to know that. We know that Jehovah's Witnesses have a different gospel, the Mormons have a different gospel, in fact, even have a different Jesus.

Even though they come from the same name. That's all true. But what Paul is warning about here is a gospel that is not totally different like that one. But in verse 7, it distorts the same one you and I believe.

It's those who only want to tell the good news. It goes something like this. God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life. He wants to bless you. Give your heart to Jesus. But it's only the good news.

It's Ahi Mahas. Anyway, you'll be happy to play that. Don't tell me what happens if I reject it. Don't tell me that it will split my family. Don't tell me I'll have to break off my engagement with my unsafe girlfriend unless she comes to faith.

Or it goes something like this. Every eye closed. Every head down. Just accept Jesus in your heart. Put your hands up. Thank you, brother. Where did Jesus or the apostles ever preach like that? The apostles said directly, save yourself from this perverse generation.

Repent. Repentance is at hand. Said John the Baptist, there is no cheap grace. It's free. Unless you tell people the bad news, they will not know how good the good news is. Today we have signs and wonders gospels.

That becomes the emphasis instead of repentance. People don't notice. Jesus had healings, but he never had a healing crusade. He had miracles, but he never had a miracle crusade. These signs follow. He had a repentance crusade.

I'm not talking about the turn or burn stuff. That's witnessing at people. That's not witnessing to them. What I am talking about save yourself from this perverse generation. In the same epistle Paul tells us in chapter 3 the purpose of the law of God in verse 24 it's our tutor, our Pythian in Greek to lead us to Christ.

To show us we need to be saved. The law of condemned look with me please to Matthew chapter 11. It's the same message in verse 12 from the days of John the Baptist until now to keep the repentance of his violence and violent men taken by force for all the prophets and law prophesied unto John.

John represents the law the epitome of righteousness under the law. None born among women is greater than John. He was the best somebody could be under the law. But he who is born again is greater than John because it's the righteousness of Jesus instead of religious righteousness.

The law was preached until John, then the gospel because the law shows us we're condemned. If you don't tell people the bad news, they won't know how good the good news. It says the kingdom suffers violence and people force their way into it.

You know what that means? If you were taking a ferry boat from Melbourne through Phillips Bay across to Tasmania and a strong southerly came up and the boat began to sink in a storm. A lot of them like those God forbid for everybody on the vessel although by law there has to be.

People would be fighting over those life jackets. They'd be forcing their way into those boats. Unless people know they're in trouble, they won't want to get saved. It's important for man once to die and after this the judgment.

But today it is only Ahimah running with the gospel. He's only giving the good news. They don't want to tell people the bad news. I got a letter from a couple of lecturers at a Pentecostal Bible college in Auckland some months ago.

He and his wife resigned. They were told that this particular denomination was not the Assemblies of God. No longer believe in preaching repentance because that's a negative message. We need a positive message.

We believe in grace. Unless you understand law you won't know what grace is. You won't even know you need grace. I'll give you good news. Signs and wonders. We can do that. Step Jesus into your heart.

We can do that. Be saved from this perverse generation. It's important for man once to die and after this the judgment. Yes, but what about my unsaved family? I'm sorry. What about Absalom? Oh, I don't want to say that.

That's negative. We need a positive message. Something terrible has happened. When you look at the preaching of the apostles or Jesus or the Jewish prophets. When you look at the preaching of the men of God who God has used to bring real revival.

Charles Spurgeon or D. L. Moody or John Wesley or George Woodfield, they didn't preach that ramby-ramby stuff. They were not like Ahimamas. They were like the black man. They told the whole truth. Unless you know the bad news, you won't know how good the good news is.

Today, instead of the unadulterated gospel, so much of evangelism and mission is predicated or based on top psychology. The fieldman type. And they have music and programs and stuff to get people swished up emotionally so they'll respond to an altar call with very little clear presentation of the need for repentance.

Discipleship, Trials, and the Cost of Following Christ

Jesus never once said to make converts. Never. He never said to make a convert. He said to make disciples. But discipleship comes with a price tag. The first biblical step of discipleship is baptism. You won't find that in an altar course.

You'll find it in the Book of Romans. You'll find it in God's course. But you won't find it in theirs. You won't find it in the pop gospel we have today. That's a negative message. It divides. Baptism is supposed to divide.

It's a funeral. It cuts off the dead from the living and the living from the dead. We don't want that. That's a negative message. I, myself, from the day I was first saved by the mercy of God, have believed in the gifts of the Spirit.

For me, the idea that the gifts of the Spirit ended with the apostles is totally unbiblical and totally untenable. The Word of God tells me different, and my own experience measured by the Word of God tells me different.

I believe in the gifts of the Spirit. But you know what? The charismatic movement, by and large, and even now, much of Pentecostalism has people in it who are never saved. Many people who come forth at stadium rallies.

I don't care how many come forth at a rally in the Melbourne cryptogram are committed to Christ and going to a church and witnessing the people a year, two years, five years later. You'll find it's much smaller.

He never said to make, never said to make converts. He said to make disciples. They always want to tell you about the good news. But not that you'll have tribulation in the world. Not that your friends won't like you anymore.

Not maybe that your family will be divided always. Not that Satan will attack you. Not that because you're God's child in a fallen world, and this is not your home anymore, you're not always going to have it easy.

That's negative. We don't want that. They can play the music as loud as they like and sing the choruses as much as they want. When you're facing trials as a Christian, that psychological manipulation is not going to get you through it.

Because you are only told the good news. If you don't know the bad news, you won't know how good the good news is. You might be sitting in that white rat waiting for the boat to go down on your way to Hobart.

It wouldn't matter to you how cold you are, how wet you are. As long as you are safe, you're not going to complain. But when people are told the whole truth, when they're only given the good news without the bad news, what's the good news worth?

Look what Joab, he was a wise man, told Ahimaaz. Why do you want to go? Why do you want to do it? Verse 22, you'll have no reward. Those who preach a cheap gospel, a watered-down gospel, a compromised gospel, a psychological gospel, a gospel that doesn't tell people the whole truth, that doesn't tell them the bad news, they'll have no reward.

I don't care how many conform to all the calls of the stadium rallies or join a movement. Matthew 7, 22, depart from me, I never need you. Not that you're backslidden. A lot of you people were never saved.

I never need you. The charismatic movement is filled with people who have some kind of religious emotional experience, but their lives haven't changed significantly. And you know, speaking as a more conservative Pentecostal, this frees me because I know what the old-time Pentecostals were like.

They lived and preached holiness. It was power in the blood. They really believed a true gospel. Now that gets diluted and diluted and diluted. Not in this church, but in a lot of Pentecostal churches you'll find it's going the same way with all the hype and all the pop psychology and the feel-good factor reigns supreme.

There's people in the states and the church here in Chicago, this is what they, they're purpose driven, they say. Do your market research. If the people want smoke machines and flashing lights to get the kids in, get that.

If the people want a food court, get that. If they want an alcoholic synonymous, get that. Get them whatever they want, find out what people want and give it to them. But the statistics of the church growth themselves show that most of that growth is people leaving one church for another.

It's not a lot of people getting saved and repenting of their sin. They only want to give the good news. We don't want to make it easy. You'll have no reward if you're an optimist. But that African, you know the first non-Jew, total non-Jew, saved in the New Testament was a black man, an African, wasn't he an Ethiopian?

The word for Ethiopian inclusion is the same word. The first non-Jew saved. Take the gospel from Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria, now you're dealing with what could probably be considered the Jewish world.

To the end of the earth, the first man saved who was outside of the Jewish area was a black man in Africa. That's important. Churches today in Africa are growing astronomically. The good news. Let's understand this a bit further.

The Eternal Family in Christ

I can understand why King David was grieved as he was. God forbid that you or I should have one of our children die prematurely, especially if they die unsaved, but that does happen to Christian families.

How do we deal with this spiritually? How do we deal with this even emotionally? David wouldn't listen. If God forbid it happened to you or I, we wouldn't want to listen either. We would say, my son, my son, my daughter, my daughter.

No blood, but still mine. That's the way it is. Look what Jesus said in Matthew 12. Verse 47. Verse 46, sorry. Matthew 12. While he was still speaking to the multitude, behold his mother and brothers were standing outside seeking to speak to him.

And someone said to him, behold your mother and your brothers were standing outside seeking to speak to you. But he answered the one who was telling him and he said, who is my brother? Who is my mother?

Who are my brothers? And stretching out his hand towards his disciples he said, behold my mother and my brothers. Whoever does the will of my father, who is in heaven, he is my brother and sister and mother.

If you're a Christian, you have to come to terms with the facts. It is a wonderful, wonderful blessing when your biological relatives are saved. I thank God for my wife. I know that if the Lord doesn't come first, I die, she dies.

That's not the end. We'll be together in Jesus someday. Let my children believe. I thank God for my sister in Colorado police. My mother, my granny, I never met you. I wouldn't even know you perhaps, or you wouldn't know me if you fell over me on College Street next week.

But you know what? If you do the will of my father, you're closer to me than my own mother. You're closer to me than my own brother. Than my own unsaved sister. Because a million years from now, our relationship will continue.

Not the one with my unsaved loved ones. Spiritually and theologically, I can cope with that. Intellectually, I can cope with it. But emotionally, when that coffin goes into the ground, that was still my father.