The Church of Eleven22 - A Good Dad: Tetelestai - Wk 4

Episode Date: March 11, 2024

One of the best ways to understand the goodness and love of God is to remember that He is our Father. - The Church of Eleven22® is a movement for all people to discover and deepen a relationship with Jesus Christ. Eleven22 is led by Pastor Joby Martin and based in Jacksonville, Florida, with multiple campuses throughout Jacksonville and the surrounding areas. To find out more about how God is moving at Eleven22, go to coe22.com

Amen. Amen. The powerful testimony we just heard of Jeff and Joy brings to mind a few things. One, Jeff was my friend, and I miss him. And we miss him as a church. But we know in the family of God that goodbyes are not forever. They're only for now because of the hope that we have in Jesus Christ. And if you're here and you ever wondered what a godly man looked like, Jeff McCrae is what a godly man looked like. He was a good man, and he was faithful to his family. He was faithful to God. the call in his life. He was faithful in the church. Jeff served in our kids ministry at our Bay Meadows campus for years. Pastor Jobi years ago heard the voice of the Lord and he challenged men specifically in our church to step up and to step in and to be the primary disciple makers of raising one more

generation in the gospel of Jesus Christ. And Jeff heard that call and he responded. And because he did, a great number of children came to know the Lord through the ministry of Jeff McCrae. And praise God for that. Amen. Amen. One of the things that Joy said in that testimony is that it's often in the hardest times of life. It's often in the most brutal moments where we see the most beautiful evidences of God's grace. And even though that's counterintuitive, it's absolutely true. And that's where we've been over the last few weeks as a church, is that we've been studying the cross of Jesus Christ,

which is one of the most brutal and one of the most beautiful encounters that we can have in Scripture. And we have been specifically studying Jesus' 17. statements from the cross. And we were in the fourth week of this study. And so we're going to pick up in John chapter 19, starting in verse 23. And it says this, it says, when the soldiers had crucified Jesus, they took his garments and divided them into four parts. One part for each soldier, also his tunic. But the tunic was seamless, woven in one piece from top to bottom. And so they said to one another, let us not tear it, but cast lots for it to see whose it shall be. And this was to fulfill the scripture, which says they divided it.

by garments among them. And for my clothing, they cast lots. And so where are we in the timeline of the text and in human history? Well, we're in first century Rome. And so far in this part of Jesus's life, he has been betrayed by a follower and a friend. He has been wrongfully arrested. He has been wrongfully tried. He has been wrongfully accused and he has been wrongfully convicted. He was certainly divinely appointed, but as far as the plans of man go, Jesus had been wronged multiple times. He has been whipped. It's called flogging and it's awful and he's whipped so badly that he's unrecognizable as a man. He's been marched through the streets. He's been beaten. He's been humiliated. And now he has nails through his wrist and through his feet and he's hanging from a cross

in the middle of the street. And at the foot of this cross there are some Roman guards there. And the Roman guards are gambling for Jesus's clothing. And you read that and you think, how could you be so numb in your conscience to the human atrocities that are happening? Because it's not just Jesus hanging there, it's multiple people that are hanging on crosses. And you think, what has gone wrong that you would be so numb to this brutality? Well, to be Roman in the first century, this was just another day to these guys. You see, Rome, in order to understand the life of Jesus in the early church and the study of the New Testament, having the backdrop of the Roman Empire is pretty helpful.

Rome was massive. It stretched across 1.5 million kilometers at this point in time. There was about 50 to 60 million Roman citizens, and there were many, many, many tens of millions of people who were under Rome's subjugation or rule. And because Rome had such a strong-fisted rule, they were enforcing at all times a thing called Pax Romana, which means Roman peace.

And the way that they kept up, the culture of the Roman Empire, this idea of Roman peace, is that they never judged intent. They only judged action. And so they had no category for assault with intent to murder or a murder with intent. It was something they would have never considered. They only judged the action. And once you were convicted of a crime, they dealt with you swiftly and justly. And in the case of capital crimes, that almost always happened in the form of crucifixion. So here, these Roman guards were the enforcers of Roman peace. And they did this all the time. all day, every day. Rome was wildly successful. At this point in history, they're at the end of

250 straight years of war. And so they are in an industrial age in the Roman Empire, which means they're building and they're expanding and they're growing and they're financially flourishing. Everything is going really, really, really good for Rome. And when you think about Rome, you can't think about it in terms of like Rome was an agnostic or an atheistic empire because it certainly was not that. To be Roman, was to be religious. Rome had 12 gods, and they adapted much of this from Greek mythology. And so where the Greeks had Zeus, Rome had Jupiter. And then they had 12 other gods, and they all had really, really terrible names and really, really terrible backstories that were just made up. One of the Roman goddess's name was Minerva. And I've always thought this was the funniest name ever. And so if

your name's Minerva, my deepest apologies, I'm sure you're great. But I've just always thought it's the funniest name. And I also think that Jesus was funny. You ever read between the lines of the New Testament? You're like, Jesus, he had a sense of humor. Some of you all like, you can look at my life and tell that God's got a sense of humor. But I always thought Jesus had a sense of humor. But I don't think he was like stand-up comedian funny. I think Jesus was like dad joke funny. So I can always imagine Jesus and Peter walk in on the road and Jesus would be like, hey, Peter, tell me your thoughts about the Roman goddess Minerva. And then Peter would just start talking. And then after about two and a half hours of Peter saying words, Peter would look back at Jesus and be like, well, would you

you think about Minerva and Jesus would be like, she's really getting on Minervas. Oh, dad joke, what's up? Y'all know why they didn't let Jesus go into jewelry stores in Rome? Because he could break every chain. Come home, people. Let's go. Y'all got to keep up. Rome, to be Roman, was to be religious.

And Rome very much had a genie in a bottle approach to religion. And they would, if someone was sick in your family, if you have, had great need, if you were, if you had made a mistake, then what you needed to do was go to the appropriate temple, to the appropriate God, and make sacrifices or offer some worship, and maybe that God would, would be appeased, and then they would pass over, or you would get what you wanted in life. So it was very much a genie and a bottle approach to religion. Because of Rome's religious practice, the Jews and the Romans, there was no love loss between them, because the Jews completely rejected the Romans.

systems of religious and Rome completely rejected the Jews system of religion and so the Jews were a very very devout people and they had one God, the one true living God, Yahweh, the God of Abraham the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob and the God of Moses and they were devoutly

committed to Yahweh and because of all this religious tension the Jews and the Romans had no love loss between them so the Jews rejected Rome's God and Rome rejected the Jews God and right in the middle of all this religion and all this political tension, here comes a man, the man, Jesus Christ.

And he begins to walk around on the earth at about 30 years of age. And he begins to say, to the Jews, to their face, hey, listen, that Messiah, that promised one, the serpent crusher that you've been waiting on, the one that's been prophesied from generation to generation to generation that the Yahweh, the I am that I am, he is going to come to earth. Jesus began to say, I'm him. I and the Father, we are one. And Jesus began to make these radical claims.

And in the midst of making these radical claims, he was doing all these miracles and these signs and wonders, like raising people from the dead and healing the blind and things that the world had no category for it. And in the midst of this, Jesus is saying things like, I am the bread of life. I am the resurrection and the life. I am the way, the truth, and the life. And no one comes to the father except through me. As soon as Jesus introduced the idea that God, Yahweh, wanted to be known as Father, this was a revolutionary idea. Jesus looked at the Jews and says, when you pray, do it like this.

Our Father, who are in heaven, hallow it be your name. There is no other religious prescription in the world where the God wants to be in a relationship with his people. That is exclusive to Jesus Christ and God the Father. and the reason that is is because Jesus did not come offering a religious prescription. He came offering a relationship with a person. Jesus says that God is our father. He most wants to be known as father. This is a revolutionary idea.

My father was a good dad, and I went to college about two years, about two hours from where I grew up. And while I was in college for the first couple of years, my dad would drive. over regularly to have lunch with me. And he would always take me to the golden crowd because what says I love you like a buffet? You know, I mean, it's just what it is. Buttery, yeast rolls, and soft-serve ice cream. This is how you bond. And so he would come over and have lunch with me regularly.

And you think, well, two hours, that's not that big a deal until you realize that between he and I was the city of Atlanta. And if you haven't been through Atlanta in the last 25 years, then you're not aware that it is Satan's seventh level abyss. And he would willfully subject himself to this torture so that he could come and do what? Have a relationship with me. He's a good dad and he wanted to have a relationship with his son. Being a dad is a high and holy appointment.

And at the foundation of godly parenting is this question for all parents. And the question that is distinctive to godly parents is this, do I want from my children or do I want for my children? Because if I want from my children, then based on their behaviors and their performance, everything is really about what I get out of it, what I think, what I feel, and how it makes me look. And inevitably, what will happen is I will put on them the burden of performance, which is just too much for them to bear. But if I want for my children, then what I want is to be in a relationship with them, to understand them, to hear them, to be near them, and to help them grow and flourish as God has designed them. I want opportunities for them based on how God has created them. Being a dad is a high and holy appointment.

God is the perfect father. He doesn't want things from us. He only wants things for us. Now, I know this as a dad. I cannot make my kids love God. I cannot do it. But I can do my best to set the table. I can do my best to set the environment.

Honestly, dads, a lot of this is on us. Now the truth is we're not God. And as much as we would want to be in control, we're not. We're not in control of outcomes. We're not in control of other people's decisions. We're not in control. But what we can do all day, every day, and as best as we can, as often as we can, as we can point to our perfectly heaven father to our children and say, you can trust him.

You can trust him. You can trust him. And one of the best ways to point to our heavenly father and say, you can trust him is for me to live trustworthy in front of my children. being a dad is a high and holy appointment and i i have found over multiple decades of being a child of god that god makes really good decisions he's just a good decision maker and god made the decision that you would be your kid's father and i think he made a good one do you do you receive that calling in jesus name are you walking worthy of the appointment that god has given you as father to your children. You may look at me and say, Pastor, you don't understand. It's complicated. It's

complicated. You just don't, you don't know all the details. And you're right, I don't. And there's a lot I don't know. And I don't know what happened yesterday. And I don't know what happened 10 years ago. But I do know what can happen today. And I know what can happen tomorrow, which is that you and I can wake up and be faithful to the mission of God and our families and that we can be humble and that we can be honest and we can operate with integrity. And where we haven't chosen faithfulness in the past, maybe we can start today resolving and consecrating ourselves unto the Lord and to the appointment that he has given us and we can walk faithfully from today and tomorrow into the into the future, knowing that God makes good decisions.

And for whatever reason, he picked us to be our kid's dad and we can walk in that in confidence in Jesus' name. And that often means we have to go first. You see, the Bible clearly says that we love God because God first loved us, that he went first. And as a father, we often go first. And this means going first in humility and saying, thank you a thousand times, saying, I love you a thousand times, and saying, I'm sorry a thousand times anywhere it's appropriate. So as dads, we've received this high and holy appointment to go first. And we have a good father who has gone first.

And Jesus teaches us all about this father who wants to be in a relationship with us. But he doesn't just want to be in relationship with us. He is also, because he wants to be in relationship with us, he is willing to do for us what we cannot do for ourselves. He's a good dad that can be trusted. My friend Henry's testimony is this, that when he was a teenager, he began to steal things. And he began to steal small things, and that turned into large things. And some of these large things were quite expensive.

And eventually, the people that he was stealing from got wise to what he was doing, and they came to his house to exact justice. And as they're banging on the door at his house and they're hurling accusations at him, Henry knows he's caught. He knows he's guilty. he knows he's in a mess. And as he goes to open the door to face his accusers and these people that he's stolen from, his father steps in front of him and opens the door and begins to take the accusations.

And as these men are coming to exact justice, Henry's father asked them, what is it going to cost in order for you to be repaid? What is it going to cost in order for my son's debts to be settled? And they gave him a number and his dad gets out his checkbook and he writes a check and he hands it to him. And all debts are settled. And Henry says that it was in that moment that I realized just a little bit of what God had done for me in and through Christ Jesus. That he had settled all of my debts. He had settled my sin debt.

A debt I could never pay. He did it for me because he's a good dad. And he wants to have a relationship with me. The Romans and the Jews were in different ways practicing religion trying to earn God's approval. And the simplest way to understand this is that ultimately they wanted to die and go to heaven. And so they were trying to earn their way into heaven. They were trying to do the right things to get there. And religion prescribes earning God's approval pretty much in two different ways.

One is either good works or the other one is good luck. And religion will tell you good works is a way that you can get God's approval. And the Jews are trying to do this by strict adherence to the law. And the Romans were trying to do this by appeasing their gods. And the challenge with a good works prescription is this. Which good work outweighs which bad work. And who decides? The real fundamental question is the fault in good works thinking is the idea how good is good enough.

How do you actually balance the scales? Is it subjective to my opinion in my own life? Is it subjective to a collective culture's opinion? Because we all see how well it goes when we all just get together and make decisions on morality. So who decides how good is good enough? Good works is certainly not the solution. Well, good luck. Maybe you just align your destiny to the universe or maybe you meditate enough and

you reincarnated enough and eventually you hit heaven's golden lottery ticket. So it's not good works and it's not good luck. And here, good luck. Here comes the man, Jesus Christ and he says, no, he introduces the gospel of the kingdom of God, which is the good news of God. Christianity is the testimony of God as it plays out across human history. And he says, there's a good father. And the gospel of Jesus Christ rejects good works and it rejects good luck,

but it does teach us that we have a good dad. And he is a good God. Jesus shows us exactly what God is like. We don't ever have to wonder what is God thinking or what does God want or what is God's character like. Jesus shows us exactly what God is like. Hebrews chapter 1 says it like this. It says that Jesus is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature. And he upholds the universe by the word of his power.

After making purification for sins, Jesus sat down at the right hand of the hand, the right hand on the majesty on high. Jesus teaches us what God the Father is like. And one of the things we see in Jesus' life is that God is generous. Amen? Matthew chapter 20, verse 28, Jesus says, I did not come to be served, but to serve and to give my life as a ransom for many. He's generous.

When I was growing up, my dad was a pastor, and he would always take my brother and I or my brother or I on ministry visits with him. And so one day I was about 10 years old and he takes me to a hospital visitation with him. And so we pull up at the hospital and we park in the clergy parking. There's a sign that says clergy. And clergy is just a fancy way to say preacher or priest. And it's always on the front row right next to the handicapped people.

And I didn't have a category for what any of this meant. And so we get out of the car and I see the clergy sign and we're walking up the grass. And I'm like, Dad, why did we get to park up front next to the handicapped people? And he goes, well, to be in this line of work, something's got to be wrong with you. And then he kind of kept walking on. he kind of Dad jokes are bad but pastor jokes are even worse right

and so we go into the hospital and we're in the emergency room waiting room and I'm sitting there in the chair and my dad's over 20, 30 feet away and he's talking to the check-in attendant trying to figure out where the family is

that he's coming to sit with and minister to. And as I'm just sitting there the sliding glass doors to the emergency room waiting room open up and this man walks in and he's got a towel wrapped around his foot

and it's secured by an ace bandage and in his hand is a bag of ice that has his toe in it. He should have called a tow truck. Boom, dad jokes, people. Y'all don't even see it coming. You've got to do better. I'll be here all day.

So the man's standing there, he's got the towel, he's got a bag with his toe in it. As a 10-year-old, I am traumatized. Just like, what is happening? And my dad sees me out of the corner of his eye, and he's like, son, why don't you come with me? And I follow him back into the room where this family is in a very serious situation. And I'm kind of standing in the corner of the room and I'm watching my father.

And it was just like he was breathing in and out, the Word of God. He was engaged. He was empathetic. He was ministering effectively. He was shepherding well. And I just remember my 10-year-old self's imagination being taken captive. And we leave that and we get into the car and we're driving away and it's a few minutes down the road and my dad says,

hey Ryan do you have any questions about anything you heard or anything you saw and I began to tear up and I looked out the window of the car because I couldn't even look at my dad's face and I just remember saying dad I don't have any questions but I know this when I grow up I want to be just like you right well fast forward 25 years I'm sitting in a service and Pastor Jobi's preaching and he goes to quote John 316 a very, very familiar verse. And it says this, for God so loved the world, he gave. He gave. And it was like the generous heart of God just unlocked the transformative power

of generosity in my own life and my own heart. I immediately went back to that hospital room and God made the connection in me that when I sacrificially give of my time to bless others in Jesus' name when I sacrificeually give of finances to the kingdom of God and in the name of Jesus,

when I sacrificially give, what I am saying is I want to be like my dad. Because our good father, God Almighty, he is generous. There's no one more generous than God. Jesus shows us that God's heart is a generous heart. And God's not just generous, he's also holy. Jesus says in Matthew chapter 5, sermon he's preaching. He says, be holy as your heavenly father is holy. And to be holy means to be

completely complete. It means to be other. It means to be perfect. Jesus never sinned. He never sinned. We so often sin because we feel like we lack and we want to get in control of our lives and we want to control outcomes. And so from insecurity or immaturity or just a general lack and trust in God's plan for our life, we begin to start to grab and provide for ourselves. And as we do this, what we're doing is walking away from God's plan and walking toward a plan that we would forge for ourselves. And this is at the heart of what it means to be a sinner. And so we so often sin out of insecurity and maturity. Jesus never did this, ever. He never sinned. His best friend wrote these words in 1 Peter chapter 2. He said, Jesus committed no sin. And in him, no deceit was

found in his mouth. The details matter when you're studying the New Testament. This is an eyewitness account to someone walking around with their best friend for more than three years and giving the testimony that he never sinned. Could someone walk around with you for more than 30 minutes and be able to give this testimony? He never sinned. This is what was required in order for sins to be paid for. A perfect sacrifice must be made without the shedding of blood. There can be no remission for sins. The details matter. Jesus lived as a representative on the earth for everyone who will believe in him. when we place our faith in Jesus Christ, in his finished work on the cross, and in his resurrection victory, what we're saying is that my life now belongs to you.

I am putting the weight and the trust of my life on you and on your significance. And when we do this, we are adopted into the family of God. Our sins are forgiven. We become God's children and we will live with him forever enjoying the riches of his grace. This is the promise of the gospel. God is generous. God is holy. And Jesus also taught us that God is faithful.

John chapter 5 verse 30, Jesus says, I seek not my own will, but the will of my father. Just hours before in the Garden of Gassimony, Jesus said, if there be any way that this cup could pass for me, that'd be great, but not my will, your will be done. Faithfulness. Hebrews chapter 13 says that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. If he was faithful yesterday, he is faithful today, and he will be faithful tomorrow. And even when we are faithless, he remains faithful. We have a good dad. He's a good father.

Let me ask you this. Point blank, do you have a relationship with that God? I'm not asking do you have ideas or information about a Christian God. I'm asking you, do you have a relationship with that God? The one that Jesus came on this earth to teach us about. The one that is generous and holy and faithful. He wants to have a relationship with you. He wants you to know that you were known by him and you were loved by him.

He's a good father that wants to have a relationship with us. The Roman guards are at the foot of the cross. They're casting lots for Jesus's clothing, and this is in fulfillment of prophecy. They're completely clueless to the part they're playing, but make no mistake, they are playing their part. Every detail matters in the testimony of God, and God is sovereign over every single one of them. We continue in verse 25 of John 19, but standing by the cross of Jesus, where his mother and his mother's sister, Mary White, the wife of Clopis, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus saw his mother and the disciples whom he loved standing nearby, he said to his mother,

behold your son. And then he said to the disciple, behold your mother. And from that hour, the disciple took his, and from that hour, the disciple took her, Mary, into his own home. Standing at the foot of the cross, there are three Mary's, the most famous of which is probably the second most famous person from the Bible, which is Mary the mother of Jesus. What's better than a good mama? Nothing. I had a good mama. My wife is a great mom. I mean, how many of our testimonies here today is the reason that I'm here and the reason that I'm, I want to know more about God and the reason that I'm in a relationship with God is because my mom didn't give up on me. I mean, what's better than a good mama? If being a dad is a high and holy appointment, then being a mother is near and dear to the heart of God. There is no question about it.

And Mary was a really good mom. She was very, very faithful. She was not perfect. She was not divine. we do not pray to and we do not pray through Mary. 1 Timothy chapter 2 verse 5 says there is one mediator between God and man and it is the man Christ Jesus and he doesn't need any help. Mary is not divine but she was absolutely faithful. When the angel comes to

when the angel Gabriel comes to Mary to tell her that she's going to be pregnant with the Messiah she looks at him and she's terrified and she's like I'm so afraid but let it not be my way let it be according to your word I just want to do what God wants me to do and from the time that she was a teenager, until this moment in the cross, Mary has been walking faithfully as a mother. There is power in being a faithful mother in the lives of our children. I mean, this is a huge reason why we as a church-do prison campuses

because many years ago, we knew that there were some praying grandmas, and we knew that there were some praying moms out there that had some one-mores and had some loved ones that for one reason or another ended up as residents in Baker or Union or DCC. And they wanted, they're praying, saying, God, will you please send somebody? to remind my loved one that you love them. Will you please send somebody to tell them that when Jesus Christ died on the cross and he pushed up on those nail-pierced hands and feet

that it counted for them. Will you please send somebody to tell them that their life's not over, that you still have a purpose for them? And God heard the prayers of these praying moms and grandmoms, and he stirred the heart of a church in Jacksonville, and we said, we'll go in, we'll go tell people that God loves them. We'll be the ones that remind them of the gospel. We'll be the ones that remind that they have a purpose in the kingdom.

And if you're one of our brothers and sisters at Baker, Union, DCC, we just want you to know we love you. You are a part of our family. We are for you. And we want to partner with the ministry that God's guide for you where you are, because we know you have one mores that need to come to Jesus. And we want to be a part of them coming to Jesus as well. Don't tell me that there's not power in the prayers of a praying mom. Look, Pastor Job and I went to a restaurant one night after our 1122 service. and our 11, our 722 service on Thursday night.

And the meeting was long we had and it was like 11, 30, 12 o'clock before we were leaving. We walk out of the restaurant and it's just pouring down rain. It's the summertime in Florida and that's just what it does. And so it's pouring down rain and we're standing under this very large awning like big enough that you could drive through. And we're standing there just having a conversation because we don't want to go out in the rain because we're sweet and we might melt. And so we're just standing there. And there's these two men out there that do not know each other. They're standing 10, 15 feet apart.

They're just smoking cigarettes, and we're minding their own business, and they're minding their own business. And Pastor Jobby and I are talking. After a few minutes, the older of the two gentlemen looks over at us, and he begins to give us that look. And he looks at Pastor Job and he goes, Hey, man, are you 1122? And Jobi's like, well, I'm Jobi Martin.

I'm one of the pastors there. It's nice to meet you. and he was like, man, my ex-wife has been sending me your sermons for like two years. I can't explain it, man, but God's just using you to get me. Hold on. Ten feet away, there's a man this guy does not know. He's younger. He looks at Pastor Jobi, and he says, you're Jobie Martin?

Jobby's like, yeah, I'm Jobby Martin. It's nice to meet you. Now, let's just be real clear about who they weren't interested in. And so, y'all think. I don't know. I know. It's fine. It's fine. He says, you're jumping Martin? And he goes, he goes, yeah, I am. And he goes, man, my mom, my mom has been sending me your sermons for seven years. And I don't know that I have it all figured out yet, but God's using you to change my life. Now, I'm watching all this go down, and I knew immediately that we had to double down and triple down as a church into 1122 online and into digital resources so that we could get them in the hands of ex-wives and moms who could send them to people sitting on bar stools so that they could be, they could know the love of Jesus and respond to the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Don't tell me there's not power in a praying mother. From the time of the resurrection of Jesus Christ until today, the church has been advancing. Through the prayers, through the faithfulness, and through the godly leadership of women, there's no doubt about it. In Luke chapter 2, we're going to pick up in verse 25. Mary goes to the temple and has a very divine encounter. It says this. At that time, there was a man in Jerusalem named Simeon. He was righteous and devout and was eagerly waiting for the Messiah to come and rescue Israel.

The Holy Spirit was upon him and had revealed to him that he would not die until he had seen the Lord's Messiah. Verse 27, that day the Spirit led Simeon to the temple. so when Mary and Joseph came to be present, came to present the baby Jesus to the Lord as the law required. The details matter. This is how we know it's not just some made-up God, that the details matter. Jesus fulfilled every single inch of the law.

Every T and every I and every demand of the law of God has revealed through Moses. Jesus did every single inch of it. He never sinned. The details matter. Simeon Verse 28 Simeon was there

and he took the child in his arms and he praised God saying Sovereign Lord now let your servant die in peace as you have promised. What a prayer. I have seen your salvation which you have prepared for all people.

He is a light to reveal God to the nations and he is the glory of your people Israel. Jesus' parents were amazed at what was being said about him. Then Simeon blessed them and he said to marry the baby's mother. This child is destined to cause many in Israel to fall and many others to rise.

He has been sent as a sign from God, but many will oppose him. As a result, the deepest thoughts of many hearts will be revealed, and a sword will pierce your very soul. And this is where we find ourselves. Mary is standing at the foot of her son's cross, and she is dying a version of death with him. Can you imagine? How horrific.

How brutal. this moment is? No, it's beyond words. It's beyond words. And one of the things we say here all the time as a church is that there's no pain like kid pain. There's no pain like

kid pain. And maybe that's the season you're in where there's just some family hurt going on. Maybe it's physical. Maybe it's emotional. Maybe it's spiritual or mental. Maybe it's a combination of all these things. And I know that the plea of

Many parents over the years has been God, whatever's going on. God put it on me. Put the suffering on me. Please spare my child. And this prayer is a gospel prayer because this is exactly what God did in and through Jesus Christ. He put the weight of the worst suffering imaginable on Jesus so that through Jesus he could usher in a new kingdom. And one day, that kingdom will be all that we know as believers. And in his kingdom on that day there will be no sorrow, there will be no pain, there will be no sickness.

and there will be no tears. God understands kid pain. Mary understands kid pain. Maybe you're here and that's a part of your testimony right now and I would just, I just want to offer this prayer over you.

It's just a blessing. Many years ago, God gave me this prayer and I've prayed it many dark nights of the soul in my own life. And Isaiah prophesized about the coming Messiah, Jesus Christ, and he calls him the prince of peace. And when you translate that, what it means is that Jesus is the commander of the armies of peace.

There's something to that. So I just want to speak this over you. If you're walking through one of those seasons, maybe it's not kid pain, maybe it's parent pain. And that's heavy and that's hard. I just want to speak this blessing over you. And it's this, that Jesus, you are the prince of peace, and your kingdom is the kingdom of peace. And so I pray the peace of the kingdom of God over my brothers and sisters. I pray it over there yesterday.

I prayed over there today. and I prayed over their tomorrow. I prayed over their families. I prayed over their generations. I prayed over every inch of their life, heart, soul, mind, and strength. In the name of Jesus, that they would be filled with the peace of your kingdom.

And all God's people said, Amen. Jesus is the Prince of Peace. Mary stands here at the cross, and oftentimes the hardest thing in the world to trust God with is our children, but she's doing it. Often one of the hardest things to do

is to trust God with our kids, but we can trust him because he loves our kids more than we do. Mary doesn't have a 401K. She's not invested in the stock market. She has no social security. And Jesus sees her hanging from the cross. What she does have is she has a son who cares deeply for her so deeply in fact that in the midst of his own unimaginable suffering, he sees his mom, he looks her in the face and he says, mom, it's going to be okay. You can trust me. And then he looks to his friend John. And he says, John, you are now going to take care of my mom. John was on Jesus's inner circle. He was one of Jesus' closest friends.

He was the son of a man named Zebedee, who was a very successful fisherman, and it was out of this family business that Jesus called John. And it says that John dropped his nets as soon as Jesus said, come and follow me, and he began to follow Jesus. And he did this week in and week out, day in and day out, for the next three years. John and Jesus' relationship is defined in John Chapter 13 in a hug. John leans into Jesus and says, is going to ask him a question that says that John

leans into Jesus' bosom, which means that they didn't have like the brohug thing where they put their arms up between each other just to like keep it not from being weird. These brothers treated each other like they were family. They knew each other very, very well. One of my favorite verses in all the Bible is the last Bible verse in the book of John, in the gospel of John, and it says this. It says that I totally lost it. Oh, here it is.

It says this, last verse in the book of John. Now, John writes this. Now, there are also many other things that Jesus did. Were every one of them to be written, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written. This is another eyewitness account. Details matter. This is Jesus' best friend saying he healed so many people.

He changed so many lives. He did so many signs and wonders. He raised so many people from the dead that if we were, were to actually write it all down, the world's not big enough to hold the books of this man's testimony. That is significant. And here's what John knew from the beaches on the sea of Galilee and to this moment at the cross. What John knew and he learned and he stepped into was that friendship with Jesus came with responsibility because living a life of purpose always does. Friendship with Jesus came with responsibility. Forgiveness of sins is absolutely free.

There's no doubt about it. It costs us nothing for our sins to be. forgiven. It costs Jesus everything, but it is free to us in order for our sins to be forgiven, but a life following Jesus will cost us everything. It offers something far better, but following Jesus is intentionally costly. Jesus says it like this. He says, if anyone would come after me, he must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. If we are not careful, we can fall into the trap of being the kind of Christian that wants the reward of the cross without being willing to carry one in this lifetime. The Apostle Paul writes it like this and he says, I have been crucified with Christ.

It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives within me. What Paul is saying is that on that cross, on that day, on Calvary's Hill, it was a co-crucifixion. That I, Ryan Britt, in the flesh, died that day on that cross. All of my personal, me-first, selfish ambitions were nailed to that tree. All of my self-love and living my preferred version of my best life at the expense of anyone. and anything was crucified on that tree. All of my feeble attempts to make myself significant in this world crucified on that cross. Any identity I would for sure myself apart from God, nailed to that tree, dead. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives within me. It is no longer about my dreams

in this life anymore. It is about a reality better than a dream. And that reality is of Christ ruling and reigning on the earth and every tribe tongue and nation being gathered around the throne, singing, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty and the one who was and is to come. Jesus Christ is the point. It is no longer about my name. It is about the one name under heaven whereby men and women can be saved, and it is Jesus the Christ. It is about Him. It is about Him. It was a co-crucifixion that day on that cross. I have learned that the process of Christian growth is the crucifixion of me wanting to get my way so that I can embrace a better way. which is his way and it's the way that only leads to true life.

John held his post in the kingdom for a very, very long time. He walked faithfully in the responsibilities that God had given him. He lived for at least another 60 to 70 years, and he cared for Mary until she died. Why did Jesus wait until this moment? He could have told John this the night before. He could have done it a month before. He knew where he was headed.

He knew what was going to happen. Why wait to this moment? And why did Jesus not trust Mary's care to that of his brothers? We know for sure Jesus had brothers. Why not do what the practice would have been, which is trust Mary's care to them? Well, Jesus' brothers were not yet believers. They were not yet followers in Jesus. It wasn't until after the resurrection that any of Jesus' family began to follow him.

Because when you see your brother nailed to a Roman cross and then you see him buried in a grave, and then your brother comes walking out three days later and you see him alive, it has. has the ability to change things. What's the picture that we see here at the cross? Well, one time Jesus was asked about his biological family and he said, do you know who my mother and brothers are? Anyone who does the will of God. Anyone who does the will of God, that's who my family is. Jesus gives the fullest definition of what family is in that statement and he demonstrates what it's supposed to look like from the cross with Mary and John. The bond that ties believers together is blood. It is Jesus's blood, which is stronger than even my generational family.

You see, the church is not primarily a place that you attend. It's a people that you belong to. The church is not primarily a place that you attend. It's a family that you've been adopted into by the blood of Jesus. And inside of the church's purpose, inside of the church's significance, inside of the church is generosity, inside of the church is care. So just as Jesus cared for Mary from the cross, and just as Jesus trusted his friend John from the cross, this is how we're going to close today, is we're just going to be family.

And one thing healthy families do is that they pray for and they pray with each other. They pray for and they pray with each other. And so I just want to invite us into a time of prayer. In your seat back in front of you, there's a respond card. It's big. It says the word respond on it. You can't miss it. I would love for you to grab one of those.

And even if you're like, I'm fine, everything's good. Man, just grab the card. And begin to fill it out. All we need is your name and your email address. And on the back, it says, how can we pray for you? We would love to do that. Our team, our staff, our elders, we pray over these cards. And we believe that prayer is the most powerful weapon we have in the kingdom of God.

The most loving thing that I can do for you is your brother in Christ is to pray for you. is to put you in God's hands and to trust and to invite God into whatever's going on in your life. And so we're going to pray by filling out respond cards. And we're also going to pray like we always do by coming down to the altars. And so we would invite you to come and put your body in the posture that you want your life to be in, which is under the rule of God in prayer. So we're going to pray together. We're also going to sing.

We're going to say true things about God believing that the more true things we say, they're going to get down into our soul and be formative to our thoughts and our life. And we're going to bring. We're going to bring our ties and offerings, our first and best financially because God, when he gave, he didn't give us a second-rate citizen of heaven. He gave us his first and best in and through Jesus Christ, and we respond to him through generosity saying, I want to be like my dad. And so we're going to respond by praying, by singing, and by bringing. Let's pray together. Father, we love you.

We welcome your nearness. We welcome your kindness. We know that you first loved us, and it's because of that, that we can love you. you. And we know that Jesus, you told us that the way that we will be known is by our love for one another. And so as we spend this next few minutes praying, we pray that you would help us to believe and receive your love well, and you would help us to love each other well. And Spirit, would you give us the words to pray for each other even when we don't have them? God, we pray that you would be glorified in the next few minutes as we sing and bring and pray. And we pray that you

would convict and comfort as only you can. We trust you and we love you. And may that not just be something that we say, but it's something that you make true in us and of us as your people. We pray all these things in the mighty and the victorious name of Jesus, and all God's people said, amen. Would you stand with us? We're going to respond in worship.