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One of the best ways for a young boy to know if he should take the route of becoming a pastor is to familiarize himself with the position in his local church. I remember growing up as a child looking up to my pastors.
I was born and raised in Mound, Minnesota and went to Mound Evangelical Free Church from birth. I was born on December 3, 1986 and was in church on Sunday, December 9. Pastor Tom Jensen was the pastor of Mound Free during that time.
At the end of the year, like many churches do, they had a business meeting and the pastor wrote an annual report. And this is what he wrote. The first quarter of the year began with growth. Dave and Karen Brickley were voted into membership at the annual church business meeting, January 22, 1987.
Then it said this, new babies were born. Thomas John Closs was born to John and Robbie on February 26 and Seth David Brickley to David Karen on December 3. And by the way, Tom Closs was my best childhood friend growing up.
I was later dedicated to the Lord by Pastor Tom Jensen. Pastor Jensen left in the early 90s and George Thompson, the preaching professor at Crown College, became the interim pastor of Mound Free Church.
His preaching brought people into the church. The interim label was dropped and he became the senior pastor. I remember him getting really adamant in his sermons and as a little child being terrified when he would start to scream during the sermons.
And because George Thompson was tied up with duties at the college and at the church, they called an associate pastor by the name of Dave Griever. What I remember about Pastor Dave Griever was his warmness.
He was such a gentle and kind spirit. He now lives in northern Minnesota and my parents are still friends with him to this day. But I have fond memories of those early years at Mound Free Church and I loved the pastors there.
Little did I know that I would one day become one. I stayed at this church, Mound Free, through college. I went to Crown College, the very same college that Pastor George Thompson taught preaching classes at many years before.
Crown was only 10 miles from Mound, so it made sense to continue to be involved with Mound Free. And when I was 24, I sensed the Lord was calling me into ministry. I became an intern and then officially became an assistant pastor on September 1, 2012.
Pastoring in the church that you were born and raised in presents unique challenges. One time I read scripture and a woman came up to me and said, I used to change your diapers. She was beaming with joy that I went from the nursery to being one of the pastors of the church.
But sometimes the people are not beaming with joy. It is etched in their memory that you are a kid. They remember the things you did as a child. And the level of respect can be difficult to attain between homegrown pastors and their congregation.
At Eureka Baptist, you never experienced the 12-year-old Seth. And you're very blessed that you did not. But you first experienced the 30-year-old Seth. The one who has been tested and God has done a lot of work on over the years.
Now why do I bring this up as an intro to this sermon? Jesus ministered in the region where He grew up. And what we are going to see this morning is that He had great difficulty with the people in His town and He had great difficulty with even His family.
There are lessons that we can learn from what we are going to see in Matthew today as we continue our sermon series through Matthew. So this time I encourage you to turn in a Bible with me to Matthew 13.
We'll be looking at verses 53 through 58. And if you're using one of those red Bible in the fuse, it's on page 974. This sermon is titled, A Rude Homecoming. And here's our big idea. This is the main idea of the sermon.
Understand that Jesus endured great opposition from those closest to Him. And we will see this brought out in these verses today. And I'm going to read the text as we begin. Matthew 13, 53 through 58.
And when Jesus had finished these parables, He went away from there. And coming to His hometown, He taught them in their synagogue so that they were astonished and said, where did this man get this wisdom and these mighty works?
Is not this the carpenter's son? Is not his mother called Mary? And are not his brothers James and Joseph and Simon and Judas? And are not all his sisters with us? Where then did this man get all these things?
And they took offense at Him. But Jesus said to them, a prophet is not without honor except in his hometown and in his own household. And he did not do many mighty works there because of their unbelief.
Once again, understand that Jesus endured great opposition from those closest to Him. And we will see two experiences how in this text this morning. But before we jump in and zero in on what this text is telling us, let me give you a little recap of where we have been.
Last week, Carl Johnson preached in my place. And two weeks ago, I gave a sermon on baptism. And this has been a big baptism month as we had a baptism at the beginning of the month and we're going to have a baptism next week as well.
The last time we were in Matthew was on August 1st. And that sermon was titled, The Greatest Treasure. And we saw in Matthew 13, verses 44 -46 and verses 51 and 52, Jesus described two parables that showed the value of the Kingdom of God.
He compared the Kingdom of God to a man finding treasure in the field and then selling all that he had to acquire that field. He also compared the Kingdom of God to a merchant who found a precious pearl.
And this pearl was so precious that he sold every pearl that he had. What Jesus taught us is that His Kingdom is incalculably precious. We saw one reason why, and that is that the one who takes hold of the Kingdom of God leaves all else behind because it is that precious.
Nothing in the world compares to Christ and His eternal Kingdom. Now this leads us to our text this morning where Jesus receives, once again as we've seen, this poor reception. And let's begin by zeroing in on verse 53.
And when Jesus had finished these parables, He went away from there. Okay, well stop right there. We read that Jesus is leaving one place and He's going to another. The beginning of chapter 13 tells us that Jesus was near the Sea of Galilee as He taught these parables in chapter 13.
He went away from where He taught to go to His hometown. Now Jesus was born in Bethlehem as well known. Bethlehem was near Jerusalem. But His hometown is a place further north in the Galilean region known as Nazareth.
This is the place where Joseph and Mary settled after the time they fled to Egypt from Herod. This is the place where Jesus grew up. Nazareth. Matthew 4 .13 tells us that Jesus was living in Nazareth when He started His ministry.
That verse tells us that when He went to Capernaum, Capernaum was the central place of Jesus' ministry. This is the place where He and the disciples had a home where they spent much of their time. And that was their central landing spot where He went out and ministered to all the crowds in this region.
But before He ever went to Capernaum, He did have one experience in His hometown of Nazareth. And Luke 4 tells us about this. He went to the synagogue and He read the scroll of Isaiah from Isaiah 61. And what He said in verse 21 is, today, this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.
Could you imagine that? Someone stepping up to the pulpit and saying, I am fulfilling this Scripture that was written several hundred years ago, right now. That's what Jesus did in the synagogue. What the author of Luke notes is that the people marveled at His teaching.
But Jesus knew what was in their hearts. He knew the future of Israel. And in Luke 4, verses 23 through 27, Jesus predicts Israel's rejection of Him and He says the Gospel of the Kingdom will go to the Gentiles.
This made the people of Nazareth angry. The people who celebrated Him now didn't want Him. And what Luke writes in Luke 4, verses 28 through 29 is this, when they heard these things, all in the synagogue were filled with wrath.
And they rose up and drove Him out of the town and brought Him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built so that they could throw Him down the cliff. But passing through their midst, He went away.
So they wanted to kill Him. The first time, He went to His hometown where He started His ministry. But most of His teaching and His mighty works at this time were done outside of His hometown. But now Jesus is returning to His hometown and the reception once again is not a good one.
Let's read this in verse 54 and see their response. And coming to His hometown, He taught them in their synagogue so that they were astonished and said, where did this man get this wisdom and these mighty works?
Now previously, when Jesus came to the synagogue, as He would teach and do mighty works and He does the same here, as He teaches, they are amazed at His wisdom. The mighty works that He did would have been miracles to show that He truly was from God.
And when He taught, He taught as one who was educated and as one who had authority. This is something that people could not deny when they saw Jesus. We already saw what the crowd said when Jesus concluded the most famous sermon ever preached, the Sermon on the Mount.
In Matthew 7, verses 28 and 29, the crowds were astonished at His teaching. For He was teaching them as one who had authority and not their scribes. When the apostles preached in the book of Acts, they received the same response.
The Jewish leadership said this concerning Peter and John in Acts 4 .13. When they saw the boldness of Peter and John and perceived that they were uneducated, common men, they were astonished. And they recognized that they had been with Jesus.
When Jesus taught and when His apostles taught, they were different than what the Jewish people were used to. They were used to the dry teaching of unconverted rabbis. Not the powerful teaching that comes from the living God.
None of the people could deny the power and wisdom with which Jesus and His disciples taught. Jesus teaches the people in His hometown. And they couldn't deny this. And we can rightly assume that Jesus taught them everything that He knew.
Everything that He taught others wherever He went. One author I was reading noted this. He taught every subject related to life and death, time and eternity, truth and falsehood, righteousness and sin, God and man, heaven and hell.
The people of Nazareth heard the truth. They heard the Gospel. This is what the people of Nazareth heard. And yet, in the second half of verse 44, they acknowledged that what He spoke was quality. They acknowledged that it displayed wisdom.
They acknowledged that He spoke as one who had authority. But their response was the wrong one. Instead of believing in Him like one should upon hearing what He preached, they questioned Him. Let's read this in verses 55 and 56.
This is their response after hearing Him teach. Is not this the carpenter's son? Is not His mother called Mary? And are not His brothers James and Joseph and Simon and Judas? Are not all His sisters with us?
Where then did this man get all these things? You will notice what they say at the end of verse 56. They question Him. Where did He get this? We know this guy. And of course, the answer should be,.
God.
The reason He has authority, the reason He has wisdom, is because He really is from God. But they question Him. They have a hard time believing this. They are thinking about His credentials compared to what was accepted at this time.
He was a carpenter. He grew up among them. And they didn't like the things He said. And by the way, that's the root issue here.
They didn't like what He said.
They were comfortable with their life. And He challenged their current way of thinking. They watched Him grow up. Sure, He was more behaved than the other children. But what people are saying about this man is too far.
They're calling Him the Messiah. News spread to them that this man might be the Messiah, but they think, how could this be? We watched Him grow up. We changed His diapers. He was in our Sunday school class.
How could this man be from God? In first century Judaism, there was the establishment in Jerusalem. The chief priests, the scribes, the Pharisees. They were the establishment. The people all over this region took their word for it.
Most Jews followed a corrupt Jewish system. And it was comfortable to do so. Everyone was doing it. This corrupt Judaism was a religion of works righteousness. They thought they could earn their favor with God through works and not through the biblical way, which is by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone.
This is always how anyone is saved. Abraham believed in God. And it was counted to him as righteousness. But this false Jewish system.
Did not believe this.
The false Jewish system is no different from any other false religion. False religion teaches you earn your way to heaven.
You earn your own way.
Someone else does not have to do it for you.
You can do it.
And if the good outweighs the bad,.
You're good.
God will let you into His kingdom. But true believers know that this is not the case. In the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5,.
Jesus said,.
Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Who are the poor in spirit?
The repentant.
Those who see their sin. Those who know how bad they are. Those who know how wretched they are.
Those who recognize,.
I need rescuing.
I need a Savior.
Heaven is going to be full of people who know how bad they are. Hell is going to be full of people.
Who think they're pretty good.
The poor in spirit are those who humble themselves. The poor in spirit are those who recognize their sin and the need for the Savior. And this is what Jesus taught. But this is not what the locals wanted to hear.
They thought, Jesus was not trained like these rabbis were. The word of the chief priests, the Pharisees, the teachers of the law, has to be more reliable than Him. It's convenient too, because we don't want to do what He's calling us to do, to repent and humble ourselves, because people are prideful.
They were amazed at Him, yes. That's what the text tells us. But they didn't want His teaching. This was so often the experience of Jesus. And it must have hurt Him even more here than anywhere else, because He knew these people.
He grew up with them. He lived among them. They were His friends. They were His family. And what they should be saying is, I don't care what the established Jewish system says. What is the truth is where I should go.
Follow the facts.
And there is a parallel here with what we see in America right now. Listen to everything the government says. Listen to everything the media says. Listen to everything academia says. Listen to everything Hollywood says.
Listen to what mainstream Christianity says. Listen to the majority voice that pushes forward falsehood, but not the minority voice that teaches the truth. Jesus is the minority voice in Israel at this time.
It's not what the scribes are saying. He's saying something different. That's why they killed Him. So many Christian churches and Christian institutions have severely compromised with the world. That's the fact of the matter.
It should be no surprise since pragmatism rules the day in American Christianity. You might say, well, what is pragmatism? Pragmatism teaches give the world what they want. We want the world to like us.
We don't want them to look down on us. What happens when this happens is unhealthy churches, false conversions, because a perverted gospel is preached, or at best, Christians stay immature. Even more alarming is the willingness to embrace false teachings.
These include critical race theory, which is rooted in Marxism, compromising on the issue of homosexuality, compromising on men's and women's role in the church. We can't just say what the Bible says.
That's going to be too offensive. And we need to speak the truth in love, right? But still, it doesn't mean compromise. It doesn't mean water it down. It means, yeah, tell the whole truth. We want people to know we love them as we tell them, yes.
But don't water it down. Tell the whole truth. When we share the gospel with someone, by the way, tell them the whole gospel. Don't water it down to make it more palatable for them, more easy to accept.
We want people to truly come to faith in Christ. And false conversions happen when it's watered down. And recently I was watching a clip from a well-known missionary and preacher. His name is Paul Washer.
And he was asked the question, what do you think the greatest threat is to the church in our generation? And his answer might be a surprising one. He said, pastors.
The leadership.
He says, I am astounded at the lack of the fear of the Lord and the lack of biblical knowledge among those who call themselves ministers of Christ. He says, what you have is the atrocities that happened in America and in evangelicalism.
The church is not biblical because you have non-biblical elders. When many leaders are leading people away from fidelity to the Word of God, it is the responsibility of other pastors, like Chuck and I, to lead the flock of God to closer conforming into Jesus Christ through faithfulness to His Word.
And Paul Washer, by the way, is a man who fears God.
He's on YouTube.
Look him up.
This is a man who fears God. He doesn't fear man, and it's obvious by the way he preaches. I recommend his ministry to you. But we should not listen to false voices or unreliable voices who may steer you from God, but listen to the voice of the chief shepherd.
In John 10, 27, Jesus said, my sheep hear my voice. I know them and they follow me. I give them eternal life and they will never perish. Jesus' hometown of Nazareth did not hear His voice. They listened to the wrong voices of their day.
They listened to the false majority voice and it led them away from the living God. They listened to what they wanted to hear and not what they needed to hear. They held their false understanding of the Bible in high regard while rejecting the true understanding of the Word of God.
So what we see here is that Jesus endured great opposition from those closest to Him. And the first experience how is through questioning the reliability of His teaching. That comes out so clearly. The second experience how Jesus endured great opposition from those closest to Him is this, by rejecting Him for who He really is.
Rejecting Him for who He really is. In the previous point, we saw that they questioned His authority and the reliability of His teaching. And now in this point, we see how strongly they turned against Him.
Verse 57, and they took offense at Him. But Jesus said to them, a prophet is not without honor except in his hometown and in his own household. The Jews in His hometown synagogue, these people He knew, went from applauding Him.
Oh, this guy is great. We can see why everybody's talking about Him. He's a great speaker. He does these miracles. They could not deny the greatness was in their midst. Then they questioned whether He really was from God because His teaching was different from what they knew.
And the false ideas that they treasured in their heart they wanted to hold on to. He was not the comfortable majority voice that they were used to. He was a different voice. And what we see in verse 57 is that after questioning Him, they became angry at Him.
And we need to ask,.
What set them off?
In the first point, I made the argument that Jesus must have taught them what He taught everyone else. What Jesus taught in the Sermon on the Mount is what He told these people. You need to repent. If you don't repent, you won't be in the Kingdom of God.
And what we know from the parable of the sower as we've already seen in our journey through Matthew, we know from this parable that the response among people when they hear the Word of God is drastic.
The true believer gladly receives the Word of God, but there are some who do not receive it. There are some who are hostile when they hear the Bible, when they read the Bible, when they hear it preached.
The Gospel of the Kingdom is offensive because sinners don't want to hear how bad they are. They do not want to give up the idols that they hold to so dearly. The Gospel means good news, but you must first hear the bad news before you hear the good news.
Otherwise, the good news doesn't make any sense. The bad news is that you are a sinner who has greatly offended God, who will be punished by God in hell unless you repent. To repent is to confess your utter wretchedness before God and your great need for God.
And this is why Jesus went to the cross. He went to the cross because He knew that He was our only hope. Apart from Him, we would be in hell forever. That's the reality. But many sinners are offended when they hear this.
They say, I'm a good person. I don't need anyone to save me. Or they say that the cost of following Jesus is too much. I want to do what I want to do with my life. I want to live for this life. I want to have a good time.
I want to gain as much earthly pleasure as I can and not think about the life to come. I want people to like me. This is worldly thinking and many people think this way. And we've seen that in 2020. We've seen that in 2021.
People go where the society goes. They go where it's comfortable. Because when people are worldly minded, when they live for this life, when this is all there is, like the unbeliever lives, that's how people live.
And people like this don't want to hear the Gospel. They are comfortable. They want to continue in their sin. And the text does not specifically tell us what Jesus taught here. But we are right to assume that He told them of their sinfulness and they didn't want to hear it.
Their response is to get defensive. Their response is to get angry as the beginning of verse 57 tells us. They took offense at Him. The truth that Jesus spoke was a stumbling block to these Jews. The Apostle Paul described the Jews the same way in 1 Corinthians 1 .23.
We preach Christ crucified. A stumbling block to Jews. God in the flesh comes on the scene.
He teaches to them.
And He's a stumbling block?
Yes.
Because of what they were wrapped up into. Because of their idols. The Jews of Jesus' day largely relied on their own self-righteousness. And Jesus was not the Messiah they were looking for. He was too common for them.
He grew up in the backwoods of Palestine like they did. They thought the Messiah was going to be different. They thought He was going to come out like a bolt of lightning from heaven. Wipe out the Romans and say,.
I am here.
And give them what they deserve. And we are finally in charge. And that's what the fleshly heart wants. The Messiah was not to come from some obscure town like Nazareth. It would be like the Messiah coming from Eureka, right?
I thought He was going to come from New York City. When Nathanael heard about Jesus as the Messiah from Philip in John 1, Philip communicated that He was from Nazareth. And Nathanael responded, can anything good come out of Nazareth?
But this is very much how God works. He works in ways that humans do not. His wisdom and His power is shown through this. God planned that a man from Nazareth would be the most influential man, the most influential human in the history of the world.
Jesus' experience of having trouble with those He knows is a common experience that we can relate to. As I mentioned in the introduction, those who knew us when we were younger will have a harder time respecting our authority when we are older.
Respecting our opinions when we are older. Jesus not only had this experience with His hometown, but also with His own family. And we saw this recently at the end of chapter 12. There, Jesus was speaking inside when He got word that His family was outside wanting to speak to Him.
What is interesting is that whatever they wanted to tell Jesus Jesus rubbed Him the wrong way. And we see that from how He minimizes His biological family and lifts up His spiritual family in verses 48 -50 of chapter 12.
And this is the response that Jesus gave to pass on to His biological family.
He said,.
Who is My mother? And who are My brothers? And stretching out His hand toward His disciples, He said, Here are My mother and My brothers. For whoever does the will of My Father in Heaven is My brother and sister and mother.
Given the context, it is likely that Jesus' family is concerned for His safety. As we have seen so far in Matthew, Jesus has not held back His rhetoric since He started His ministry. And He has taken aim at the corruption that is present in the most powerful people.
In the Jewish community.
The self-righteous Jewish leadership are indeed a grave threat to Jesus' safety. We know how the story finishes. They will put Him to death. But Jesus is on a mission. His eyes are set on Calvary. But His family doesn't care about that.
His mother Mary was a believer at this time. We know that from the beginning of the Gospels where she rejoices at His birth. But the rest of His family at this point are not believers. They don't believe in Him for who He really is.
John 7, verse 5 tells us that they were not yet believers during His ministry. What they loved about their brother is that he was famous. We could ride on his coattails. Look at it. Everybody's talking about him.
If he's famous, I can become famous. Fame by association. But this irks Jesus. They want Him to tone it down because they're thinking, this guy's going to get in trouble. If he keeps calling out these corrupt Jewish leaders, we have a problem on our hands.
Because they knew what they had the power to do. But this irks Jesus. What His family says to Him is like a family member telling someone not to go to the mission field because it isn't safe. But what about God's will for the person's life?
That's what we should be thinking about. Do you realize that there are missionaries who go to places in the world where there are cannibals? Yes, there are tribes in the world that eat humans. And missionaries go to these people.
What if Isaiah decides he wants to go to that mission field? What's the will of God? Will that be hard?
But that's the will of God. Let's follow the will of God. Not safety. If safety is your top priority, God will not use you. And as Jesus is irked by His family members, this gives Jesus an opportunity to make a point about who He truly cares about the most.
He says, who is my family? There are people in His midst who were saved, who were truly His disciples. And He says, this is my true family. And what Jesus says in the second half of v. 49 in Matthew 12 is, here are my mother and my brothers.
Then Jesus says in v. 50, how to tell one who is in His family. Whoever does the will of God is His family. Whoever is truly saved is His family. Jesus is very clear here, and this would have been offensive to His biological family.
But we know that Jesus is not afraid to offend someone if the person needs to be offended for their benefits. And what Jesus wants everyone to know,.
Those listening,.
His biological family and everyone in this room, is that spiritual family must be more important for the Christian than biological family who do not belong to God. We are a church family. And it should feel like home.
I was talking to Eric yesterday. Eric said, hope loves coming to Eureka because it feels like home. That's how it should feel, right? And if it doesn't feel like home, there's something wrong. This should be a warm place where we love to fellowship together as the people of God.
And anyone who does not belong to God belongs to Satan. And you cannot have sweet, rich, intimate fellowship with one who lives under the power of the evil one. At best, your relationship is superficial.
But the ones we are closest to is the family of God. And Jesus knew this. But Jesus went through the grief of largely experiencing rejection from those closest to Him. They saw Him grow up, and yet, they didn't believe in Him.
And this is such a good lesson for us. You may have trouble with those who you know well from way back. Think of your hometown. Think of people you've known for years. You may have trouble with your biological family.
People you've known since you were a toddler. Take comfort in knowing that Jesus knows what you are experiencing. He experienced it Himself. Pray to God and ask for help. Remember that you are praying to God the Father through His Son who knows exactly what you are experiencing.
Do not be surprised if it is harder to share the good news of Jesus with those who are closest to you. Do not be surprised if it is harder to gain respect from those who knew you when you were younger and saw all your warts.
Your literal warts.
And your figurative warts. You may experience defensiveness and anger like Jesus did. Those who are close to us may be prideful or jealous that you have wisdom and they don't. But they don't want to admit that.
And what we must understand is that your biological family,.
A neighbor,.
Or a long-time friend will not get closer to God as they reject your message from God. They will miss out on much as the people of Nazareth did. And this grieved Christ, in verse 58, it says that He did not do many mighty works there because of their unbelief.
And what we read here.
In this verse.
Is that this may have been, in fact, a mercy. Because what the Bible teaches is that the more exposure you get to the Word of God, the greater punishment you will receive later on. That's one interpretation of this.
But it also might be a bad thing because the less you hear the Word of God, the less opportunity there is to believe in Christ. But either way, the people missed out on this opportunity to believe in the true Messiah.
This little boy that they saw grow up among them who is the Savior of the world, who is the King.
Unbelief always leads.
To lacking God's blessing. While believing always leads to being under the Lord's blessing and experiencing the true joy of living in that, where He shows so much of Himself to you and you enjoy this rich fellowship with the living God.
But the people of Nazareth missed out on this because of their unbelief. So he moves on and he goes to a different place. So what we have seen this morning is this. Understand that Jesus endured great opposition from those closest to Him.
And in this text, we've seen two experiences how.
The first is through.
Questioning His reliability. And the second is through rejecting Him for who He really is. As Jesus endured hostility from those closest to Him,.
So will you.
This is the human experience in this fallen world. But we need to trust God to guide us through. This is not hopeless. He can use us in the lives of our loved ones who need Christ. And as I mentioned, it can be difficult to influence Christian family.
But that too is not impossible. But let's be encouraged that we can make inroads. What's so neat about the story of Jesus' family is that they eventually do become believers. In Acts 1, verse 14, we learn of this.
It says that Mary, the mother of Jesus, and His brothers, they prayed together. The first church that was formed after Jesus' ascension, Jesus' family is there. They eventually believe in Him. And this is encouraging us because you might have unbelieving family.
You might say, there's no hope.
Don't give up.
It's hard to influence them for Christ's sake. And another way to pray,.
By the way,.
Is to say, Lord, it might be hard for me to communicate to them, but send someone else who they might listen to.
Better than me.
But don't even give up on yourself sharing Christ with people. And by the way, it's not just sharing the gospel. It's also offering your advice, offering counsel. Sometimes that's even hard. But you can do that by God's grace.
Pray for that.
But always remember that the difficulty that comes with it is something that Jesus Himself experienced.
Now, next Sunday,.
As we continue our sermon series.
Through Matthew,.
We will look at John the Baptist once again. And what we're going to see is how his life ended. And there's going to be so much to see in this text. And I look forward to doing that with you next week.
But this time, let's bow our heads in prayer.
Father in heaven,.
Thank you for your word. Lord, this is so often our experience with those closest to us. They might say, you know, you're just a kid. I remember all your warts. Why would I listen to you? And Jesus didn't have any warts.
And there was still difficulty in listening to Him.
But Lord,.
May we be encouraged today that even though it's difficult to communicate truth with those closest to us, it still can be done. You can still use us in other people's lives. And so may we press on in this.
May you use us to do great things in the lives of our family members and the lives of our neighbors and in the lives of those we've known for so many years. And may we always remember that Jesus was not welcome in His hometown.
And so when we are rejected, we are rejected as He was rejected. And we can take great comfort in that. Apply this, Lord, to everyone right where they're at this morning. In Jesus' name.
Amen.
As we announced, we do have a baptism next week. And so I want to highlight that again. If you are interested in baptism, we're going to be going to Sconewood after our service. And we're going to have a picnic.
We're also going to have a baptism. So it'd be great to hear from you. If you've ever been baptized, we'd love for you to be baptized based off, of course, your sincere faith in Jesus Christ. And one thing I mentioned before, too, is that it's optional to give.
If you want to give a little public testimony, that's optional. But what we will do is I will give words. And you have to affirm the words that I'm saying. And then we will forward with the baptism.
I do need to meet with you.
Before the baptism on Sunday. And Mark and I, either Mark or I, to hear your testimony of faith in Christ. So please see us if you are interested in that.
But as we close,.
Please receive the benediction. The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord cause His face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. The Lord turn His face towards you and give you peace. Go in peace.