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Good morning everyone and welcome to this beautiful day here at Wilmington Community Evangelical Church. The skies are wide open, they're crystal blue outside. It looks like it is It's so warm and inviting outside when it's actually 38 degrees. So I'm going to read a passage out of the book of the Song of Solomon, or Song of Songs from Solomon. And we don't really hear a lot of passages from there, but this is what it says. See, and this comes from chapter 2, verses 11 through 12, it says, see, the winter has passed, the rains are over and gone. Flowers appear on the earth, the season of singing has come, the cooing of doves is heard in our land. And if you drive around, you can see the yellow flowers, the daffodils blooming and the other flowering plants, and it seems like a time of renewal and revival and refreshing. And in fact, if you look at your calendar, something's going to— we're going to celebrate something in another 4 weeks. We're going to be celebrating Resurrection Day. The day that we celebrate the rising of the Lord from the grave, the rising of us from our graves, from our earthly sin that we were born with. So this is a time of just rejoicing, renewal, a time that we come together and fellowship and commune with one another in this time of just, it seems like, just all things are open, everything is possible when we see these beautiful days like today. When we look out our windows or we're driving with our cars, or if we're just walking along, you know, the pathways, it seems like anything's possible. It feels like we can accomplish anything, and we can through Christ, and we can through God. So we remember all those blessings that he's given, provided Maurice. We are thankful for that we can come into his house today. We're thankful that we could gather together, and we're thankful that he does renew and refresh us every single day of our lives. Join me in prayer, please. Father God, we just thank you for this beautiful day, this day that, uh, you have made, Father God, and we rejoice in it. We're thankful that the seasons come, the seasons go, Father God, but we do like the clear skies and bright sunny days, Father God. So we're thankful that we could be in your house. And Father God, as we come together and fellowship and, and just, uh, in communion together, Father God, we just invite you to be with us. We pray that you can, uh, uh, hear our, our praise of worship, Father God, and it's pleasing to you. So we just commit our time to you, and we ask all this in your precious Son Jesus's name. Amen.

All right, good morning everyone. Could you all please rise and join us as we worship?

Come let us worship our King. Come let us bow at his feet. He has done great things. See what our Savior has done. See how his love overcomes. He has done great things. He has done great things.

Oh.

Oh, hero of heaven, you conquered the grave. You free every captive and break every chain. Oh God, you have done great things. We dance in your freedom, awake and alive. Oh Jesus, our Savior, your name lifted high. Oh God, you have done great things. You've been faithful. Been faithful through every storm. You'll be faithful forevermore. You have done great things, and I know you will do it again, for your promise is Yes and amen. You will do great things. God, you do great things. Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh. Oh, hero of heaven, you conquered the grave. You free every captive and break every chain. Oh God, you have done great things. We dance in your freedom. Awake, —alive. Oh Jesus, our Savior, your name lifted high. Oh God, you have done great things. Hallelujah, God above it all. Hallelujah, God unshakable. Hallelujah, you have done great things. and break every chain. Oh God, you have done great things. We dance in your freedom, awake and alive. Oh Jesus, our Savior, your name lifted high. Oh God, you have done great things. You have done great things. Oh God, you do great things. Sing "Man of Sorrows." Man of Sorrows, Lamb of God, by his own betrayed. The sin of man and wrath of God has been on Jesus. To slay. Silent as he stood, silent as he stood, accused, beaten, mocked, and scorned, bowing to the Father's will, he took a crown of of thorns. Oh, that rugged cross, my salvation, way of love poured out over me. Now my soul cries out, hallelujah, praise and honor to thee. Oh, that rugged cross, my salvation. Way of love poured out over me. Now my soul cries out, hallelujah! Praise and honor to thee. Now my debt is paid, it is paid in full by the precious blood that my Jesus spilled. Now the curse of sin has no hold on me. Whom the Son sets free, oh, he is free indeed. Now my debt is paid. It is paid in full by the precious blood that my Jesus spilled. Now the curse of sin has no hold on me. Whom the Son sets free, he always free indeed. Oh, that rugged cross, my salvation. Your love poured out over me. Now my soul cries out, hallelujah! Praise and honor to thee.

Sing, see the stone.

See, the stone is rolled away. Behold the empty tomb. We sing hallelujah. Hallelujah, God be praised. He's risen from the grave, oh. Oh, that rugged cross, my salvation, where your love poured out over me. Now my soul cries out, Alleluia! Praise and honor to thee. We sing, oh, and oh, that rugged cross, my salvation. Salvation, where your love poured out over me. Now my soul cries out, hallelujah! Praise and honor to thee. Sing that last line again. Praise and honor to thee. Singing, oh, how great is the love of God. He paid our debt on that rugged cross. For all our days, we will sing our Savior's praise. How great is the love Love of God. We sing that again. We sing it. Oh, how great is the love of God. He paid our debt on that rugged cross. For all our days, we will sing our Savior's praise. How great is the love of God. Come on, sing one more time. We're singing Oh, how great is the love of God. He paid our debt on that rugged cross. For all our days, we will sing our Savior's praise. How great is the love of God. Single gift. What gift of grace is Jesus my Redeemer! There is no more for heaven now to give. He is my joy, my righteousness and freedom, my steadfast love, my deep and boundless peace. To this I hold, My hope is only Jesus, for my life is wholly bound to his. Oh, how strange and divine, I can sing, all is mine, yet nada, but through Christ in me. The night is dark. The night is dark, but I am not forsaken, for by my side the Savior, he will stay. I labor on in weakness and rejoicing, for in my need his power is displayed. To this I hold. My Shepherd will defend me. Through the deepest valley, he will lead. Oh, the night has been won, and I shall overcome. Yet not I, but through Christ in me. to overthrow the grave. To this I hold. My death has been defeated. Jesus now, whenever I plead, all the chains are released. I can sing, I am free, and none are but through Christ in me. With every breath. With every breath, I long to follow Jesus, for he has said that he will bring me home. Day by day, I know he will renew me until I stand with joy before the throne. To this I hold. My hope is only Jesus. All the glory, it'll go to him when the race is complete. Still my lips shall repeat, yet not I, but through Christ in me. When the race is complete, still my lips shall repeat, yet not I, but through Christ in me. Yet not I, but through Christ in me. Let's bow our hearts in prayer.

Lord, we thank you that we have this hope in you. Like, uh, like Don said earlier, we're awaiting anxiously awaiting the day of your resurrection, which we'll be celebrating in less than a month. Lord, I pray that you would prepare our hearts for that time, that every Sunday between now and then, and every day and every waking breath that we have would be used in remembrance of your love, the love that brought heaven down to earth, the love that gave up the most precious thing in all the universe. The death of Jesus Christ, which we could not have earned, which we wholly did not deserve because we are sinners undeserving of God's grace and love. But he showers his love and his grace upon us regardless, and we're thankful for that. So remind us of that this morning, Lord. Help us to enter your courts with thanksgiving and praise. Let your words of worship Songs of praise in your holy name forever be on our lips as we remember the sacrifice that you made for us, and that the hope we have in you is not a dead hope, it's not a vain hope, it's one that is living to this very day, that we can call on in this very moment no matter what we're going through, and you are gracious and powerful to hear us and respond and rescue us out of our situations. Lord, thank you for that. Would your presence rest powerfully over us this morning as we remember your sacrifice, as we live in the promises that you've given us. Help us to be present with you this morning, with each other, and to give you all the glory that you deserve. We thank you again in your holy and precious name. Amen. Before you're seated, just take a few minutes minutes to greet each other.

Good morning. Is this on? Yes. Okay. Good morning. Good morning. Uh, I'm Johnny Hoy. Uh, Kathy and I have been married for 4 years, and we have a 2.5-year-old named Nora. Um, during the English ministry Rest and Recharge event a few weeks ago, Jonathan brought to my attention that in a short period of time, I'll primarily be known to many people as Nora's dad. Um, God has used Father Parenthood to open my eyes to the heart of our Heavenly Father. I feel like every day has some small nugget of being a parent that's new, but I'll share two today. A few weeks ago, I was serving toast to Nora during breakfast, and she goes to hand me a large piece saying, "I want to share with you, Baba." Very cute, but actually I was about to say no thank "Thank you, you eat it," because I just gave it to her and we didn't have much time to eat. But God kind of paused me and I realized I want to encourage this attitude of giving in her heart. So I ripped a small piece and enthusiastically said, "I'll have a little bit and you eat the big part. Thank you for sharing with me. Mmm, this is delicious!" And she made a big grin and wrinkled her nose and shrugged her shoulders. I looked over at my plate and I could— we could both clearly see I had plenty of toast. And it just clicked in an experiential way how this must be a small glimpse of how God feels when we give generously. I didn't need any of Nora's toast, yet my heart melted when she thought of me and wanted to share with me. I want to encourage this loving and selfless attitude in her, so I joyfully receive her forgiving, and share in her enthusiasm so that her joy may be complete. She doesn't realize it, but we are practicing how to give joyfully, and it's heartwarming to see her do it unprompted. It's a small picture of how God may delight in our giving back to him when we joyfully give, and how he uses that to make our joy complete in sanctifying us. I know Christianity is a relationship with God, a religion where we follow rules to get something. But in that moment, it clicked in a fresh way how God's commands and calls to obedience are not so much a dictator on a power trip, but our Father teaching us what he values, like a heart of love and generosity, and how he— we can express our hearts in a way that he and others like to receive. I feel like God has also used his fatherhood like a mirror to convict me of my impatience and understand how patient God is with me. God has convicted me on multiple occasions when Nora has had big feelings. It's easy for me to want to raise my voice and demand compliance or just scoop her up and do what we need to do, and those may be appropriate at times, But in several situations though, I felt convicted that I would only be doing those things because I was succumbing to my big feelings of impatience and frustration. But I'm supposed to be the adult. I'm the father. I'm supposed to be teaching her how to manage her big feelings. And the best way to teach is to model. So if I act on my big feelings, I'm teaching her the opposite of what I want her to do. To do, and I'd be acting hypocritically. So God has been teaching me that to be patient here is to step into teaching mode when she has those big feelings. I have to manage my frustration and then teach her how to manage hers. It makes me think about how patient God has been with me over all these years. He continues to prioritize my sanctification, my growth, over any frustration he may feel from my wandering. When Nora figures out how to manage those feelings, it's so gratifying as it— as her dad, and it must be so pleasing to God when we listen and follow him and his model too. The joy of the Father is something I wrestle with understanding. It feels maybe a bit arrogant to think God could delight in me or something I did. But as a father now, I'm so proud of Nora, in the most silly things to the big milestones. And to think the God of the universe says he relates to me like my father who loves me means he also cherishes times I listen and follow, is frustrated when I don't, is patient to teach me, and joyful in my obedience. It's interesting how 1 Corinthians 13 says that love is two things and does and does not do a bunch of other things. It is patient and kind. It's two things we're trying to teach Nora. In the process, it's two things I'm seeing I'm still learning. God has given me this new role as her father to learn that in a fresh way. Fatherhood is one way God is empowering me to serve God intercross-cultural community through transformed living. Thank you.

We're going to move into our scripture reading. So let's all rise while we read God's word. It's a short passage.— here. Alright. Jesus said to them, and this comes out of Matthew 19:28-30, so Jesus said to them, "Truly I tell you, at the renewal of all things, when the Son of Man sits on His glorious throne, you who have followed Me will also sit on 12 thrones, judging the 12 tribes of Israel. And everyone who has left houses, or brothers, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or fields, who yields for My sake will receive 100 times as much and will inherit eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and many who are last will be first. Thank you. You may be seated.

Well, good morning. Today we have— we're following Jesus about just a short time before He is going to head to the cross. It's getting towards the end of the chapter of Matthew, and we have a message that's highly practical. So not very theoretical today because, uh, Jesus was going to be leaving behind these disciples. They had started out as fishermen and in various ragtag— uh, they didn't look like they were going to be the leadership of his new church going forward, so he needed to get them ready. So how did he do And I just, for the context, I want to remind us that when Moses and his brother Aaron went to the Israelites, at first they were all slaves. They were slaves in Egypt. And he made them a promise. He said, "I'm going to lead you out of this oppression and into this Promised Land, a land flowing with milk and honey." And they all said, "Go, let's do it." And he said, I will make a covenant with you. Now when you think about making a covenant, what does that, what does that really mean? And I want to substitute a different word for covenant today that I think we can understand a lot better, and that is a marriage. And the covenant or the commandments are like a marriage contract. And so God is saying, and you'll see this analogy used throughout the Old Testament, I'm not making it up, that Israel is his bride and that God is marrying— his people are marrying him, and that's what he's calling them to do when he leads them into the Promised Land. And that's what all this law is all about. You follow the law and I will do my part. God's part was to give them the land and to take care of them in the land. He is a good husband. So they say, let's go. But unfortunately, I'm going to cut right to the chase here. If you follow this story In the Old Testament, they have some good years, and they started to go places. But then in the end, they run into trouble. And God sends the prophets, but they do not listen, and Israel is destroyed. And then Judah, after it is destroyed, about 580 years before Christ. So the people of Israel, God's bride, goes into exile. And he says, I'm not going to take care of you because you blew it. You want a divorce? You've become a whore. You've committed adultery. And this is the accusation of the prophets. So the people go into this exile, at first only for 70 years, and then God says 70 times 7. In other words, 490 years you're going to be in exile, and then I'll send someone to restore Israel back to the land. And that is, in the words of Jeremiah, you've you've all heard it before, He says, "I'm going to give you a new covenant." In other words, "I'm going to remarry you." He got a divorce, or I should say the adulterous woman was cast out into exile, and He promised to bring them back and get remarried or renew their relationship in a new covenant. And the new covenant would be different from the original one. It would be better. So this is the context when Jesus is speaking or appearing, of course, John the Baptist before him, saying things like this, "The time promised by God has come at last. The kingdom of God is near." And in the context, this is a restoration of this glorious Israel and Judah that had been destroyed is going to be rebooted. In this new covenant that's going to be better than this first— the first time around. But you have to repent of your sins and believe the good news. You can't just happen by automatically just because you're born Israelite. You need to have it in your heart and in your mind. So he's calling people to make this choice. So here is a second Exodus, and you may have heard this, or the new Exodus exodus. It's like a rerun. The first marriage began with an exodus out of Egypt into the Promised Land, and this new exodus is an exit out of exile and into the kingdom of God, what is also called kingdom of heaven and other names. So this is the reboot, and even the gates of hell cannot stop us. And as we know from the book of Acts, that this kingdom of God is not limited to this little patch of land, in the Middle East. It's to all people everywhere. So now we finally get to this scripture that we read today, which is kind of cryptic. The first will be last and the last will be first. It doesn't make any sense, or what is it supposed to mean? And when we— we will see now in a moment exactly what it means. I skipped ahead here by going back again to the Old Testament to compare the Old the old and the new Exodus. So if you remember in the old Exodus, and many of you know this story, when the slaves are led out of Egypt through the Passover and across the Red Sea, they get into the land in between Egypt and the Promised Land, this no man's land or wilderness in between, and Joshua— excuse me, Moses sends 12 tribes into the Promised Land to check it out, the 12 spies. And they came back into the wilderness to give a report of what happened when they were there. And one thing they had was a lot of fruit. I'm sorry, this— you can't quite see, it's a beautiful painting. They brought so much fruit and they said, "This is a great land. It's going to be awesome." But then a bunch of the spies were saying, "Uh-oh, this is trouble." And you see the one guy is showing how tall— this is how tall those guys— there's giants in that land. It's not just empty and waiting for us to roll in. We're going to have a fight. And there's walled cities. And then this guy comes along, he says, yeah, they think we— in their eyes, we're about as big as a grasshopper. They're going to just stomp on us and we're going to be toast. So we can't go. And so 10 out of the 12 tribes said, we're going to turn back. And in fact, some of them wanted to go back to Egypt. But Joshua and Caleb, two of the spies, stood up and said, "Let's go at once to take the land. We can certainly conquer it." And they'd said in another verse, "Because God is with us. He's the one that took us out of Egypt. He got all the plagues and all of the miracles. He'll help us in the Promised Land too." But the 10 spies said, We can't. They're stronger than we are. And so here we see the decision that they have to make. It's not a matter of you're Israelite or not Israelite, you believe in God, you don't believe in God. That's not the issue. The issue is, do you trust that God will be with you? He promised. Now, are we willing to go out? Are we willing to take a risk? And Joshua and Caleb are in the mood. They're willing to take a risk. To take the risk. They know there's giants there, they saw them, but they also know that God is with them. They see a spiritual reality. They see the world with God in it. But the 10 spies, they've been grown up as slaves all their lives. They just don't see the world with God in it. They just see that they're grasshoppers compared to these giants. So they're afraid and unwilling to take the risk. So here they were then in the wilderness. They'd already left Egypt, but they hadn't quite got to the Promised Land yet. And God said, "Okay, you're going to wander here for 40 years." And there is this time of testing, and you can read all the details in the book of Numbers about the sort of tests that they went through. And those are the years that God wrote out through Moses, wrote out the marriage contract and all the details. And so people are left with this question. Now, that is the pattern that we're looking now in the New Testament. New Testament where John the Baptist, when he talks to people, says, "Do you want to repent? Which side are you going to be on? Restoration's coming. Are you with us? Well, if you're with us, you got to go into the water." "Oh, why go into the water?" That's showing that we're ready to get remarried. It's like we're washing ourselves, washing our wedding garments. We're going to be married again. But some of those guys, maybe these guys in the back here, they say, "Oh, we don't We don't need to go in the water. Why not? Well, because we're priests or we already got our degree. I already went to college, so I got my degree, so I'm not going to go back in the water, start over. They don't feel the need. So there's a divide among the people, what were the people of God, those who were going to respond to the message, to John and then to Jesus, of course, and those who will not. And now part of the issue is whether they believe that he was sent from God, whether they believed he was raised from the dead. And so you had even among the 12, there is this one famous disciple who refused to believe until he personally could see Jesus and stick his finger into Jesus' side, the place where he had been wounded when he was crucified. At least that's what he said. I imagine in real life, as soon as he saw Jesus and heard his voice, he just boom, down on the ground. And I don't suppose he actually dared to put his hand into Jesus' side. He was convinced well before he actually touched him. But nonetheless, the painting— and the, the painter has painted this, which is showing how even, even those who would resist at first or couldn't believe at first just were given this sign of Jesus raising from the dead and the witness that we all may when those who saw him. So now we have in the new Exodus, there's also a wilderness time where we are given a choice. Are we going to believe and are we going to trust? And this is the choice that was facing all of the people in the time of Jesus. And as we know, there was a whole big crowd that decided, no, we're not. We're not going to trust him. We're not going to believe him. And these people actually resisted him and resisted his people, and what we call the Pharisees or the scribes or the leaders. These are the ones in this verse, "The first shall be last, the last shall be first." These are the first, the first. And it says in another version we'll see in a moment, they're called the important people of the time, are the ones that are going to lose their authority. They're not going to be important anymore once the world has changed and the See, they were important in the old marriage. They're like keepers of the Old Covenant. But the Old Covenant is going to be abrogated. There's a divorce going on. And during this apostolic age, there's this period of time this divorce is actually happening and the remarriage is happening. And so people have a choice. And they're either going to be in the first, going to be declining, or if they're the last, they're going to be on the Ascension. So it's these people who are listening to Jesus' teaching and responding to it that are the least important at the time. Do you see why? Because you have those, you have these guys who are the, they're the leaders, they have the degrees, they get the most salaries, they have the most important, they fly in first class. Okay, because they're the most important. But these guys, they fly in coach. They take the train. And in fact, they take the Greyhound because they're not important. But they're going to be in the new world. The new world is the new covenant, it's the new church where the temple is no longer in use. In fact, it was destroyed. So now we also read this verse, and a lot of times I think we'll kind of gloss over it, but this is the crux of the practical stuff. That I'm wanting to share with you today. And that is where Jesus says, in the context of first are going to be last, last are going to be first, "I assure you, when the world is made new and the Son of Man sits on his glorious throne, you who have been my followers will also sit on 12 thrones." Now, if we were in a Sunday school class and you would, "Oh, you're all going to sit on 12 thrones." Well, are you sitting on them right now? Which one of you is on a throne? Raise your hand. Hand? Well, how come nobody rose, raised their hand? We don't feel like we're sitting on thrones. And so this is going to be the, the point of my message, is when is that all going to happen? Well, it sounds like it's only going to happen someday in the by and by, because where's my throne? I'm still on a Greyhound bus, right? But let's look at the first part of the verse. It says, when the world is made new and the Son of Man sits upon upon his glorious throne. Where is Jesus now? He's at the right hand of God. Do you think there's a throne there? So I don't want to, you know, argue about it, but what I'm presenting today is that Jesus is indeed already sitting on his throne, and therefore he's already placed us, those who are his followers, on our thrones. But we're not used to that language, and so I'm going to suggest that this is another way of saying he wants us to make disciples. He wants us to make throne sitters. That doesn't sound quite as exciting or holy as disciples, but it's another way of looking at it. He wants us to take responsibility, to do something to build his kingdom, or to be involved as his partners in it. So that's what what we're talking about today. So we saw this very clearly in the first marriage, the first covenant. God gave them specific instructions how they're going to build this land and what they're going to plant there and how they're going to build a temple. And they have all the, the rituals and the festivals. It was all scripted. But now in this reboot, this remarriage, he's given us this new covenant with a whole new set of guidelines. Which are really kind of cool because they're really flexible. If you're like me, I like flexibility. They're so flexible they can adapt regardless of your historical background, cultural background. They are a lot more flexible than they were in Israel. If you wanted to be an Israelite— I had a Jewish friend, he said to me, you shouldn't want to become a Jew. Being a Jew is a pain in the neck, basically, because of all the, all the rules that they have to follow according Of course, that's the modern version. So this is what we're remarried into, an invisible spiritual kingdom, and therefore our throne is not made of gold or even made of wood. Our throne or our place or position in the kingdom is invisible too. And I want to recall this analogy back again to the wilderness story and just in the time close to again in the wilderness where there's a battle, surprise battle, and an attack. And Moses stood up on the mountain— remember the story? And he sent Joshua and his men into the field to fight. So Joshua's men are down in the valley fighting against the Amalekites. What's Moses doing? Why isn't Moses fighting?

What?

He is fighting! What are you talking about? He's fighting on that invisible level. So Moses, and he was getting so tired, remember, was— as long as his arms were held high, the men in the field were winning. Why? There's something magical about those few inches. Well, I don't know, of course, because it doesn't say, but I imagine that Joshua and his men could see Moses up on the hill, and they could see when he had his arms up, they knew that he was praying for them. They knew that the spiritual battle is being fought on their behalf, and they got brave, and they went and they got the bad guys. 'Hey guys!' And they started to win. But then when they looked up on the hill, 'Oh, what happened to Moses?' He's, he's sitting down. They were like, 'Oh, we better, we better retreat.' Do you see the connection? So there's a spiritual battle and a physical battle happening at the same time. So there's happening on these two levels. And then also we see in the wilderness when Moses was worn out— this is not in the battle anymore, when all the people had issues, they wanted to talk to Moses. So they would get in this long line to talk to him. Poor Moses couldn't practically sleep because from morning until bedtime he was listening to disputes and trying to help people. And his father-in-law said, "You're gonna wear yourself out." And so he suggested that he appoint deputies. And so again, we see this as an analogy of how the spiritual kingdom is happening right now. That a lot of us— it says Moses got the small disputes to be settled by these helpers, and only the big disputes, the difficult ones, would come up to Moses. And that's kind of similar to what's happening now. We're in— we're able to handle a lot on our own, and sometimes we get in trouble and we need to get help. So this is partly how we sit on our little thrones, because we can handle some issues. So now let's get into— finally get into the meat. As Jesus in these two chapters is preparing his people His people to take responsibility, to become— to be sitting on thrones, to have authority within His church or within His— among His covenant people, He has these 3 talking points. One's about children, relationships, and wealth. And we don't have time to go through all of them in all the detail, but you can reread chapters 18 and 19 of Matthew on your own. To see them all, but one fits so well with what Johnny was sharing earlier about how his daughter has become his teacher, or God is teaching him through the daughter. And that's exactly what Jesus says. He uses children as an object lesson, you could say, and he says, let the children come to me. Because the disciples— he had all his men, right, his helpers, his administrators, chief of staff. And when people wanted to, they said, "Get those kids out of here," because they were wasting Jesus' time, right? Because Jesus is busy talking, healing, and administering affairs of state, right? "Don't let the kids in here. Send them off to the Sunday school." But Jesus said, "No, no." He must have been able to see they were shooing some kids away. "Let the kids come." And so he's teaching them. We need these kids around us. They're helping us understand, and they're a picture for us of how our attitude should be towards the kingdom. And what is it about children that we need to learn? Well, Johnny could have told us a lot more, and we could talk about that for a long time, but one thing is, if you're a child, what happens when you get hurt? You cry. What happens when you're an adult and you get when you get hurt? You just get bitter, right? You don't cry anymore. That's too bad because when we cry, what happens? We— yeah, we kind of get it out and then people see us crying and then they can come and comfort us and we can get over it, right? Now I'm not suggesting that we all should start crying in the middle of the service, but my point is that we can feel something wanting. And that's one of the things that children do very well. And Paul says that godly sorrow actually leads to repentance. When a child learns that they did something wrong, and they learn, "Ooh, that was wrong," they say, "I'm not going to do that again." They got burned. They touched the stove, it was hot. Pffft. They're never going to touch the stove again, are they? Or they sometimes do things right, like Johnny was saying, and she shared the toast, and we can Praise them. So kids are awesome. But then there was another moment also in these two chapters where the disciples— the context was they asked him, who's the greatest in the kingdom? They said, okay, we're gonna be on 12 thrones, but which is the greatest of the 12? They want a pecking order. And Jesus said, bring me a child, sit him on my knee. And he said, I'll tell you, unless you turn from your sins and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of God. And then he goes on to say, anyone who becomes as humble as this little child is greatest in the kingdom of heaven. So it's not kind of where we start, but how we proceed within the kingdom. And then he says, anyone who welcomes a little child like this on my behalf is welcoming me. Now, this figure of speech or the metaphor of little children is also used later in the New Testament New Testament to talk about new believers. And I think Protestant churches are pretty good about bringing in new believers and treating them kind of like spiritual children and giving them the tenderness and the care and the patience and the understanding and the love that we would give to children we can give to newcomers. In fact, I think that's— what is the— that's the theme for the spring retreat right? This neighboring. That'll be one of the things we'll talk about at the spring retreat. Alright, so then that was the one topic is about children. Another one is about relationships. So you can't basically— the way that we get married to our spouse is a one-on-one, right? But marriage with God is not one-on-one. It's one-to-many in the lingo of the IT world. One-to-many relationship. Relationship. So because we are a many, we have to rub shoulders, right? And because we're humans, we're going to bump into each other. Once we had the picture up of the rocks— you put the rocks in the rock tumbler, and when they go in, they're all rough, but then when they tumble together, they get smoothed out and beautiful. Well, this describes one of those times. If another believer sins against you, what does it say? You go directly to Moses and ask him to intervene, No, it says, "We have the responsibility to go privately and point out the offense. If the other person listens and confesses, you've won that person back. Sometimes it was half your fault anyway. But if you're unsuccessful, take one or two others with you and go back again. If the person still refuses to listen, take your case to the church. And then, if he or she won't accept the church's decision, treat that person as a pagan, like they're not even part of the church. And so you can imagine in your mind, if we gave you even just a moment, somebody that you have an issue with or some reason why you might avoid— maybe not in this room, but someone in your school or your workplace or one of your cousins or even one in your immediate family. Well, we don't talk very much. Why not? "Because..." and then blank, fill in the blank. And what are you waiting for? So this, of course, this is mentioning other believers. Maybe if it's an unbeliever, I don't know if it would always apply, but go privately. So in the youth group, I had a mother that told me that her son— I think she's here today— told me that her son is having an issue with another boy in the youth group and doesn't want to come anymore. Anymore. So that her implication was I should go talk to that boy or talk to that boy's mother and tell him he has to get along with this boy so that he can come back to the youth group, right? But no, according to this, we should tell the boy that doesn't want to come to— he has to go talk to that boy. You guys have to work it out together. You don't expect the parents to intervene, much less the pastor to intervene. Come What do you want? You guys are old enough to do it on your own. So I hesitated to get involved. And so I was waiting for the opportunity to see that boy and tell him. Well, he didn't come for like 3 weeks. But I prayed. I prayed for that boy and the other boy that somehow that they would get together and this wouldn't be an issue and wouldn't keep them away. So anyway, happy ending was— They both were there last week and they were chumming it up. They sat together in the same row and they, they worked together and were joking around together. So everything's good. Everything's good. We didn't have any drama just because they solved it on their own. And I could tell stories, but we don't want to be here all day about things we did wrong. And we had in our church in China, there was a man had a school and he'd hired a teacher. The teacher was also in the school. School, and he fired her. And she was not happy, and she thought it was very sudden and very unfair, and so her husband brought the wife to the church saying, "Tell that school that, you know, they're bad guys." And they wanted the church to do this big intervention or something. And I must confess, I think I made a mistake, because that principal had called called me on the day after he fired her to give me— to warn me that there's drama coming. He called me and said, you know, we fired this girl because whatever reason, and I'm sure she's— I said, well, why didn't you— didn't you make some kind of a deal or work it out or pay or something? Or he said, no, we just told her to get out because this, this, this, and that reason. Anyway, so that was my opportunity to tell them, look, you need to go talk to them now before it becomes a drama. But I didn't do that. I just— I was young, I didn't— I didn't know. So I let— I let it become a drama, and it was a big drama. If you want details, you can ask my wife Stacy. That went on and on. How many meetings did we have? We had like 3 church meetings and tears and everything else. It was awful for our poor little church. We should have been doing something anything else. Now it goes on about the relationships in the very next verses to say, I tell you the truth, whatever you— meaning you rulers, you guys on the thrones— whatever you forbid will be forbidden, whatever you permit will be permitted. In other words, you have a lot of freedom to make decisions, and if you guys will agree on earth concerning anything you ask, my Father in heaven will do He will do it for you. From this verse you can see the context is obviously decisions being made on earth. It's not talking about when your ruler's in heaven someday. It's talking about when your ruler's on earth, or rulers over the church, that is. You have freedom to make decisions, but he's— and he says, when you gather two or three together as my followers, I am there among them. So here again, I'm thinking about how Joshua's in the field and Moses on the hill. That when we're meeting as elders, deacons, or throne dwellers, or disciples, and we're trying to work something out in our group— it could be Sunday school, or small group, or this size— we need to see Moses is on the hill, right? We need to be in touch. We need to be asking for help. We're gathering as his followers. We're not just like a business meeting. And what's the difference? If someone were to walk in when we're having our conversation, probably looks like a business meeting. And one of the differences is that before the business meeting we pray, and at the end of the business meeting we pray, and during the business meeting we'll refer to the scriptures or lessons that we've learned in the church. So it's a different kind of— God's presence is felt, and that's— in that situation we can expect to to have harmonious or productive relationships, and that's really key in the restoration. And another example in the same context is this other famous story that we've all heard about a man who was forgiven a great debt, but then he also had debtors. So when he went around to the people owed him money and he started beating them and trying to throw them in jail. And he says, and he says, God is going to do the same thing to you if you refuse to forgive your brothers and sisters. Now, this is a confusing scripture because normally we think it's not by works, you know, we were by God's grace, we're in this church, not by works. But then he says, if you don't forgive people, I'm gonna not forgive you anymore. That doesn't make sense. But in the context, it's showing it's you priests, you Israel, you Old Covenant Israel who are getting divorced. You need to come out of it. You need to repent and join in, join in the new church. Then you'll be forgiven. But if you won't— you've been forgiven. You've been— excuse me, Israel has been forgiven of its adultery, and Jesus is welcoming back into the New Covenant. But these are the people who are not responding the way they need to, and that's the issue in this. They don't have mercy. The Old Covenant, you didn't need to have mercy We have mercy. In the Old Covenant, you find somebody and breaks the law, what do you do to them? Throw stones at them. And that's okay because that's the law, right? You're just implementing the law. But in the New Covenant, we have mercy. And so those people in the Old Covenant need to learn about it. And the final issue, this talking point, is about our possessions. And this is the— you've all heard and probably remember this story about how this man who's well off Paul goes to Jesus and he said, I've always followed the commandments, but what else do I need to do to inherit eternal life? And Jesus told him, if you want to be perfect, go and sell all your possessions and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me. Now, I haven't cleared this with the elders, but today I'm going to ask all of you to sell everything you and give it to the church in the name of Matthew chapter 19. Do I have any volunteers to go first? You would instinctively know that's wrong. But why is it wrong? Doesn't it say here that Jesus said, go and sell all your possessions and give money to the poor. Oh, don't worry, you'll have treasure in heaven. Now there, obviously there's a kernel of truth there, but something's not right. Now we know something's not right, and obviously is the context. And in the context, he's talking about what? So in this apostolic age, there were people who had to sell all their possessions and to lose all of their land. In fact, the entire Israel is about to lose their land. Jerusalem was about to be totally destroyed. If you had a deed for some land in Jerusalem and the deed was registered at the courthouse in Jerusalem, but then they burned down the courthouse, do you own land anymore? So it was about to become worthless. So this red period is kind of like going into the wilderness. So let's say you lived in Egypt, and let's say you were a pretty well-off slave because you were so good at your job, you're like the head of your former foreman. So Israel— excuse me, the Egyptian government paid you a little extra and you were like a slave foreman, so you had your own house. But when you're coming out of Egypt, what are you going to do with your house? Yeah, either leave it behind or sell it. If you had enough forethought, you would sell it first, or it'd be too late and you just walk away from it. So this is the kind of walking away that's happening, and this is the context that we can understand that indeed some people really did sell and really did give everything away. But that wasn't in order to become part of God's kingdom. But that was to be perfect, to have an extra role in the apostolic age, that some people did that. Whereupon Peter, hey, what about me? We've given up everything to follow you. What'll we get? And Jesus says, Everyone who's given up houses, or brothers, or sisters, or father, or mother, or children, or property for my sake will receive 100 times as much in return and will inherit eternal life. Now can I ask you to sell everything and give it to the church? Because you're going to get 100 times, 100 times more. Still doesn't quite make sense. So what is going on here? And he's specifically relating it to the disciples, not to that one guy that was asking about eternal life, but to the disciples themselves. And so my understanding is that he's saying that in this apostolic age, you're not going to have anything. You're going to be leaving it all behind, kind of like living in the wilderness. In the wilderness, they didn't build, they just lived in tents. In the wilderness, they didn't dig wells. In the wilderness, they didn't set up looms to make clothing. God said that the clothes lasted for 40 years. But then once they got into the Promised Land, once they crossed over the Jordan River, then they had to have normal life again. So life in the wilderness isn't normal, and life in the apostolic age is not normal. And so unfortunately, I think for Peter— Peter didn't survive. He was martyred somewhere before the end of this— it was this adulterous generation you hear talk about. He didn't quite make it, but his kids did. Was Peter married? Yeah, we know he had a wife. At least the scripture says he had a wife, but it doesn't tell us he had kids. In The Chosen, does he have kids? I've only seen one episode. Yeah, don't quote The Chosen. I don't know if he had kids, but if it was his kids that would have inherited whatever. So once the church church got through the Apostolic Age, just like the Israelites once they got through the wilderness, then life is kind of normal again. So if you're living in this interim, maybe it's the right thing to sell everything. But now that we're in— we're over here, it's not the time to sell everything. So your instinct to not sell everything and give it to WCEC was correct. It was correct, even though you might not have been able to reconcile with the Scripture, now you can. And so what you talked about, trying to take spiritual responsibility to include God in our lives, in our relationships, in our decisions, and to follow his guidance to have children in our lives. Now, some of us don't have children in our lives. I hope that, I hope that Johnny's message was enough to motivate some of you high schoolers to get married someday before too long. I used to teach my sons to get married early. Don't wait until you're 30 to get married. You get married around, you know, 20 would be okay. Then my son goes and gets married at 19. I said, I didn't say 19, I said 20. Too early. It's okay to get married early. There's a lot we can learn from kids, but you can learn from other people's kids. So some of your uncles and aunts and grandparents, and if you don't have children in your lives, volunteer for Sunday school. We have endless openings for the little ones or for the, or for the high school age, junior high school age. So in this process, every time we're trying to follow Jesus and do his words, we're going to be running up this relationship problem and our possessions problems, but we can do it. And again, just to, to summarize, we are given responsibilities, and we are— whether we're ready for it or not, we are on his throne to some level. And so we have what we sometimes call sphere of influence. Have you heard this word sphere of influence? So we all have people, even if you're a young young. You have younger siblings, friends at school, and so we have a great responsibility. Let's pray. Father, we are thankful for all that you've done, for all the lessons and the teaching you have straight from the Old Testament, and help us understand the New Testament, and how you've called us into a relationship with you as a group, to be married to you as in a covenant, a new Covenant, where our hearts are refreshed and renewed. And regardless of our ethnic background or our cultural background or our social status, that your promise is true and available. We're thankful that we are given grace to start that journey, and we're thankful for all the lessons along the way. Pray that we have received so much from you that it will give us the strength and energy to be merciful to those around us, to be able to forgive debts, to overlook grievances, and to be part of a church, uh, and to really enjoy it. Thank you in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Okay, could you all please rise and join us? So I don't think we've done this song in a while, but I hope you can all try to join along and sing.

—Well, creation suddenly articulate, with a thousand tongues to lift one cry. Then from north to south and east to west, we'd hear Christ be magnified.

Were the whole earth—

Were the whole earth echoing his eminence. His name one blast from sea and sky. From rivers to the mountaintops, we'd hear Christ be magnified. We're singing, oh. <LYRICS>Sing it, oh, Christ be magnified. Just let his praise arise. Christ be magnified in me. Oh, Christ be magnified from the altar of my life. Christ be magnified in me.</LYRICS> When every creature— When every creature finds its inmost melody, and every human heart its native cry, oh, then in one in wrath should he and we of praise. We'll sing Christ be magnified, be magnified in us. We're singing, oh, Christ be magnified. Just let his praise arise. Christ be magnified in me. Oh, Christ be magnified from the altar of my life. Christ be magnified in me.

Sing, I won't bow.

And I won't bow to idols. I'll stand strong and worship you. If it puts me in the fire, I'll rejoice, 'cause you're the I won't be fooled by feelings. I hold fast to what is true. Since the cross brings transformation, you can hang me there with you. 'Cause death is just a doorway into resurrection life. If I join you in your sufferings, then I'll join you when you rise. And when you return in glory with all the saints, The angels and the saints, my heart will still be singing. My song will be the same. Oh, Christ be magnified. Just let his praise arise. Christ be magnified in me. Oh, Christ be magnified from the altar of my life. Christ be magnified in me. Oh, Christ be magnified. Just let his praise arise. Christ be magnified in me. Oh, Christ be magnified. The altar of my life. Christ be magnified in me. You may be seated.

Good morning. Make a few announcements. And wow, that was quite a ride of different things this morning from Johnny to the talk about children and the message with Paul. I'll have to give some reflections later on when Paul asks me to share some time. Anyway, I'm still kind of— Well, maybe I have something to talk about now. Yeah, in terms of announcements, if we could have the next slide. If we have anybody visiting today, We have a gift for you. So if you'll raise your hand, we'll get that to you. And, um, yeah, just raise your hand. If not, um, if you could go to the next slide. We have a lot of things coming up. Uh, as of course we're eating in church this Sunday, so, uh, youth help with tables and chairs after the message. Mom Co will be meeting at 6 PM on the 25th in the lounge. And, um, something Something that you may not have been expecting is the Red Clay Valley cleanup at 8 AM at Ashland Nature Center next Saturday. Is that correct? Is that— yeah, okay, I didn't put the date. And if you need service hours, especially Scouts that need environmental service hours, this would be your opportunity. But Wendy and I took the kids out and did this years ago, and so it's a great time to get out and see the Red Clay Valley area. Area near Ashland Nature Center and also help cleaning up the environment there. Then the last thing is the Salt and Light Fellowship on the 29th, also at 4:00 PM, so the same day. And not the last thing on there, but the— I do want to put a bug in your ear. And basically, if you don't know what that is, you'll— a bug in the ear is just something to remind you or think about. Coming up on the retreat that Paul had mentioned, Memorial Day weekend, we're going to start something new in the time when we normally do a workshop. And that is we're going to have a book club. And so I'm not going to give you too many details since you already know about all these other things. I don't want to cloud your mind with all that. But it will be open to both high school and adults, especially would like to get adults reading. A lot of high school people have to read. It's their requirement in school. And I just want to encourage also adults to be thinking about books they're reading. We'll give you some more details on that later. But anyway, if you would please rise for the doxology.

No one will be able to defeat you as long as you live. I will be with you as I was with Moses. I will always be with you, and I will never abandon you. So be determined and confident, and make sure to obey the whole Bible. You've been given. Do not neglect any part of it, and you will succeed wherever you go. Be sure that the Bible is always read in your worship. Study it day and night and obey everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful. Remember that I have commanded you to be determined and confident. Do not be afraid or discouraged, for I, the Lord your 'God am with you wherever you go.' Amen. Go.