["Pomp and Circumstance"]
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?
This is all my righteousness,
Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
All precious is the blood that makes me white as snow.
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?
All right, great scene. There's something wrong with the mic here.
I don't know if it's disconnected or not.
Brother Ulysses, where's Brother Ulysses at?
Brother Ulysses, why don't you come check it out as I give the announcement.
Just ignore him. He's going to be checking it out right now.
But I have my mic on right now, but this is not on at all.
So we're going to go ahead and just go through our announcements real quick.
If you did not get a bulletin, go ahead and raise your hand.
One of the ushers can get one for you.
Important information on there.
And of course, our prayer sheet's right there.
I'm actually going to be praying over the prayer sheet tonight.
So just letting Gio know he's scheduled to, but I'm going to do it for this evening.
Our services are as follows. Sunday morning is at 1030 Sunday evening at 5 p.m.
And then our Thursday night Bible study at 7 o'clock.
And then you see the First Works Family Nights summer schedule there.
This coming Sunday is the Kids Olympics.
And that'll be after the Sunday evening service.
And then on Friday is the church bonfire on August 4th.
Now tonight, Pastor Anderson was supposed to be preaching for us.
But as some of you have heard, he actually injured his back really bad.
I think it was on Tuesday.
He was traveling. He was about to travel to Holdfast.
And he just, his back spasmed.
And he's not doing very well.
He's in a lot of pain.
From the reports that I've gotten, basically, that his back went out on him.
And he was basically on the ground for like 40 minutes because he couldn't move.
And then they called the ambulance and they couldn't really get him on the stretcher.
And then finally they did get him on the stretcher.
They took him to the hospital.
And then he recently, within the last seven hours or so, was able to get an actual hospital bed.
But from what I've heard, the last couple of reports is that he's still in a lot of pain.
And so I'm going to be praying over him, praying over him through a prayer sheet here.
But please keep him in prayer.
And I know he's going through a really tough time right now.
And so please pray for him.
And so sorry guys, you're stuck with me tonight.
But I wanted to listen to him too.
And so, but Lord willing, sometime in the near future he can come and preach for us again.
But please pray for him.
And then you see the important reminders there at the bottom.
As I mentioned, the Kids' Olympics is this Sunday night.
Hold Fast Baptist Church is having a soul winning marathon on Saturday, August 12th.
So we're going to take a group out there.
We're actually just inviting ourselves to that marathon.
We didn't ask him or anything like that, but I'm sure he'd appreciate the company.
But they're actually celebrating their anniversary on the 13th.
And so they're going to be having a marathon on the 12th of August.
And actually we're going to be leaving here early in the morning to make it to the church building at 10 o'clock a.m.
Because Pastor Thompson is going to be preaching.
He's going to be giving a soul winning challenge that morning.
And then we're going to go out and preach the gospel.
And so if you'd like to participate in that, you can see Brother Ulysses Hernandez for more details about that.
Ladies' Prayer Breakfast is coming up on Saturday, August 12th.
And then if you can please RSVP for the bonfire which is, I believe the sheet is at the Usher station.
We just need to get a head count of everyone who's going.
We had a great time at the bonfire last year.
We went to Newport Beach and it was beautiful.
We had a great time.
And so we were going there far more prepared than we were last year.
Last year was a little crazy, but this time we were way more prepared.
And so one announcement that I do want to make though regarding the bonfire is, you know, last year a lot of people went into the water.
Nothing wrong with that, but I want to give a disclaimer to please be careful if you decide to go swimming.
Okay, a lot of people actually got hurt last year because the waves are pretty wild.
They're pretty crazy.
And so parents, please make sure you're keeping an eye on your kids and go swimming at your own discretion.
Okay, because it's pretty dangerous.
The waves are pretty wild there.
And I know a lot of people were dragged through and they hurt themselves and stuff.
And so us older folks are just going to stand by the fire and just play in the sand and eat and watch everyone else hurt themselves.
And so that's what I'm going to do.
And I will gladly do so.
And so if you want to be a part of that, just RSVP right there in the back so we can get a head count of everyone is going.
And that will essentially be the conclusion to our summer family nights.
And thank you, by the way, for praying for me.
We've got someone coming down the altar here, making a decision.
Thank you for praying for me.
Last week I was really sick.
I was really ill and it was a lot of pain as well.
And, man, it was terrible.
But thank you for praying for me.
And it's good to be back.
And with that also being said, this Sunday we're supposed to have men's preaching night.
But I've decided to kind of postpone that until the end of the year.
I feel like I've been away from the pulpit for a little too long.
And so I'm going to be preaching all the services from here on out if, of course, nothing else happens to me.
But thank you for praying.
Of course, the regular announcements there at the bottom.
Please make sure you have no food or drink allowed in the main auditorium except for water and coffee.
Don't loiter in the foyer or fellowship hall during the preaching service.
And, of course, you can use the mother baby room if you need to.
Quiet time, of course, on Sunday.
And then please make sure you silence your phones during the preaching so as to not be a distraction during the service.
You can look at your prayer sheet there.
Just pray for those needs corporately.
And, of course, there's specific prayer needs here.
The two that I'm going to highlight today is going to be, of course, Pastor Anderson and his situation.
And then Ms. Olivia Lee isn't doing too well as well.
She's actually in the hospital right now.
And she's going to be on bed rest for quite some time.
And there's a lot of complications going on with her.
And so the report that I got is that she's going to be on bed rest until the child is grown enough within her that they can deliver the baby.
And once the baby's close enough that she can deliver, they're actually just going to have her deliver the baby because it's a pretty precarious situation there.
And so please be in prayer over her.
And I'm going to be praying over her tonight as well.
And then if you have any additional prayer requests that you'd like to be mentioned, you can put that at the bottom and put it into the offering plate.
We'll make sure that it gets on there for the following week, all right?
And that is it. Let's go ahead and bow our heads and have a word of prayer.
Father, we thank you for our salvation.
We're so thankful for the blood of Jesus Christ and for the fact that salvation is a free gift, Lord, given to us by Jesus Christ.
And that someone came to preach the gospel unto us to make those things clear, Lord.
And we're so thankful for eternal life.
We're thankful for our church, our church family, Lord.
And we want to lift up these needs in prayer.
Of course, we continue to pray for our church, Lord, that you would be with us and continue to help us to prosper and succeed in the mission that you have before us.
Whether that be preaching the gospel to get people saved and discipling those who have gotten saved and helping them get integrated into church
and learning the ways of righteousness and living a life that's pleasing unto you.
Please continue to help us to further that agenda, Lord, and continue to turn people to righteousness and help people to serve you.
We do pray for our upcoming mission strip in November that you would soften the hearts of those in Belize to be saved, Lord, when we give them the gospel.
But, of course, we also pray for the converts that are out there that they would be a part of the service that we're going to have there, Lord, the preaching service.
And, Lord willing, if you would like, if it's in your will, Lord, that maybe a church can be started there.
And with the preacher who's able to kind of just head up the work there.
And I pray, Lord, that you'd prosper our work, that there be no hindrances and that you'd guide us every step of the way.
We do want to pray specifically tonight for Pastor Anderson and pray that your hand of healing be upon him.
Please give him relief, Lord, and I pray that you would just touch his back and help him to recover.
And it's difficult. He's in Sacramento. He's away from home.
I know that he's with his dad, but I'm sure it's very discouraging to have such an injury come at a time like this or at any time, Lord.
And I just pray that you'd be with him. Please help him to recover. Please provide a miracle.
Be with his family, his wife and children, Lord, as he's away.
And I pray that you'd recover him speedily so he can go back home and be with his family and his church home as well.
And we do want to lift up Miss Olivia in prayer as well, Lord. Please continue to be with her and the baby.
And we just don't know sometimes why these situations arise.
And sometimes it's just by chance, Lord, and I pray, Father God, that you would work in their lives, Lord, and Brother Jonathan as well.
And I'm sure it's hard news to receive, but I pray that you'd be with her, Lord, help her to get the rest that she needs.
And, of course, be with the baby, that there'd be no further complications with the child, Lord,
that there would be a safe delivery of the child with no complications, and please just be with them both.
And I pray that you'd keep their spirits up, Lord, and help us as a church to encourage them via a phone call, a visit, a gift card or something,
just to kind of encourage them and exhort them and let them know that we're praying for them and we love them, Lord.
And I just pray that you help them to endure emotionally throughout this time, and may you be with them, Lord.
And I pray, Father God, that you bless our service tonight and all there is, Lord.
Continue to guide and direct us as a church and fill me with your spirit and your power to preach your word tonight, Lord.
Help me to be a blessing to the congregation. Bless all there is in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
Go ahead and take your song books. Turn to 120, Jesus, Savior, Pilot Me. Jesus, Savior, Pilot Me.
All right, song number 120, Jesus, Savior, Pilot Me. Song 120, Jesus, Savior, Pilot Me.
Everyone, all together, nice and strong, nice and loud on that first verse.
Jesus, Savior, Pilot Me. Over life's tempestuous sea, unknown waves before me roll.
Hiding rock and treacherous roll, chart and compass come from thee.
Jesus, Savior, Pilot Me. As a mother steals her child, thou canst hush the ocean wild, boisterous waves obey thy will.
When thou says to them, Be still, wondrous sovereign of the sea. Jesus, Savior, Pilot Me.
When at last I ne'er the shore and the fearful breakers roar,
Twixt me and the peaceful crest, then while leaning on thy breast,
May I hear thee say to me, Fear not, I will pilot thee.
Amen. This time the ushers will collect the offering. Tonight will be in Matthew chapter 13.
In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
Amen.
.
Good evening. We're in the book of Matthew chapter 13.
And the chapter reads, The same day when Jesus out of the house and sat by the seaside,
and great multitudes were gathered together onto him, so that he went into his ship and sat,
all multitudes stood on the shore, and he spake many things unto them in parables, saying, Behold, the sore went forth to sow.
And when he sowed, some seas fell by the wayside, and the fowls came and devoured them up.
Some fell upon stony places, where they had not much earth, and forthwith they sprang up, because they had no deepness of earth.
And when the sun was up, they were scorched, and because they had no root, they withered away.
And some fell among thorns, and the thorns sprung up, and choked them. But others fell into good ground, and brought forth fruit.
Some in hundredfold, some sixtyfold, some thirtyfold. Who hath ears to hear, let him hear.
And the disciples came and said unto him, Why speakest thou unto them in parables?
He answered and said unto them, Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given.
For whosoever hath to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance, but whosoever hath not from him shall be taken away even that he hath.
Therefore speak I to them in parables, because they seeing see not, and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand.
And in them is fulfilled the prophecy of his eyes, which saith, By hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand, and seeing ye shall see, and shall not perceive.
But this people's heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed.
Lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them.
But blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear.
For verily I say unto you, That many prophets and righteous men have desired to see those things which ye see, and have not seen them, and to hear those things which ye hear, and have not heard them.
Hear ye therefore the parable of the sower, when anyone heareth the word of the kingdom, and understandeth it not, then cometh the wicked one, and cadgeth the way that which was sown in his heart.
This is he which received seed by the wayside.
But he that received seed into stony places is the same as he that heareth the word, and anon with joy receiveth it.
Yet hath he no rooted himself, but doeth for a while, for when tribulation and persecution ariseth because of the word, by and by he is offended.
He also that received seed among the thorns is he that heareth the word, and the care of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, choke the word, and he becomeeth unfruitful.
But he that received seed into the good ground is he that heareth the word, and understandeth it, which also beareth food, and bringeth forth some an hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.
Another parable put he forth unto them, saying, The kingdom of heaven is like unto a man which sowed good seed in his field.
But while man slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went his way.
But when the blade was sprung up, and brought forth food, then appeared the tares also.
So the servants of the householder came and said unto him, Sir, didst not thou sow good seed in thy field?
From whence then hath the tares? He said unto them, An enemy hath done this.
The servants said unto him, Wilt thou then that we go and gather them up?
But he said, Nay, lest while ye gather up the tares ye root up also the wheat with them.
Let both grow together till the harvest, and in the time of harvest I will say unto the reapers,
Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat into my barn.
Another parable put he forth unto them, saying, The kingdom of heaven is like unto a grain of mustard seed which a man took and sowed in his field,
which indeed is the least of all seeds, but when it is grown it is the greatest among arms,
and becometh a tree, so that the birds of the air come and lodge in the branches thereof.
Another parable spake he unto them, The kingdom of heaven is like unto leaven which a woman took,
and hid in three measures of meal till the hole was leavened.
All these things spake Jesus unto the multitude in parables, and without a parable spake he not unto them,
that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying, I will open my mouth in parables,
I will utter things which have been kept secret from the foundation of the world.
Then Jesus sent the multitude away, and went into the house, and his disciples came unto him,
saying, Declare unto us the parable of the tares of the field.
He answered and said unto them, He that soweth the good seed is the son of man, the field is the world,
the good seed are the children of the kingdom, but the tares are the children of the wicked one.
The enemy that soweth them is the devil, the harvest is the end of the world, and the reapers are the angels.
As therefore the tares are gathered and burned in the fire, so shall it be in the end of this world.
The son of man shall send forth his angels, they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend,
and them which do iniquity, and shall cast them into a furnace of fire, there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth.
Then shall the righteous shine forth as the son in the kingdom of thy father, who hath ears to hear, let him hear.
Again the kingdom of heaven is like unto treasure hid in a field, to which when a man hath found he hideth,
for joy thereof goeth, and selleth all that he hath, and buyeth that field.
Again the kingdom of heaven is like unto a merchant man, seeking goodly pearls,
who when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had, and bought it.
Again the kingdom of heaven is like unto a net, that was cast into the sea, and gathered of every kind,
which when it was full they drew to shore, and sat down, and gathered the good into vessels, but cast the bad away.
So shall it be at the end of the world, the angels shall come forth, and serve the wicked from among the just,
and shall cast them into the furnace of fire, there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth.
Jesus saith unto them, Have ye understood all these things? They say unto him, Yea, Lord.
Then said he unto them, Therefore every scribe which is instructed unto the kingdom of heaven is like unto a man that is an householder,
which bringeth forth out of his treasure things new and old.
And it came to pass that when Jesus had finished these parables, he departed them.
When he was coming to his own country, he taught them in their synagogue,
in so much that they were astonished, and said, Once hath this man this wisdom, and these mighty works?
Is not this the carpenter's son? Is not his mother called Mary, and his brother James, and Joses, and Simon, and Judas?
And his sisters, are they not all with us? Once then hath this man all these things?
And they were offended in him. But Jesus saith unto them, The prophet is not without honor, saving his own country, and in his own house.
And he did not many works there because of their unbelief.
Let's pray. Thank you, Heavenly Father, for the King James Bible. Dear God, we thank you for every precious word.
Thank you for every precious soul in this church. We ask that you please bless Pastor Mejia tonight as he preaches your word unto us.
In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
Amen. Okay, we are continuing our series tonight with the book of Matthew.
And this is actually part two of Matthew chapter 13.
Two weeks ago, I was going over Matthew chapter 13, and I kind of jumped around a little bit,
only because of the fact that the last parable that we covered was the parable of the wheat and the tares.
And then there are two other parables that come after that, but then it kind of jumps back into the parable of the wheat and the tares, or the explanation of it.
And so tonight I'm going to cover the last six parables found in Matthew chapter 13, and what they mean, and give some application here.
Now look at verse 31, because this is that little interlude here that we see between the wheat and the tares,
and then the parable of the treasure and the goodly pearls.
We're going to look at the parable of the mustard seed and leaven.
Now, these parables that Jesus Christ is putting forth, he's essentially using earthly illustrations in order to communicate some sort of eternal truth.
And he's trying to convey to his disciples and those who have an ear to hear different elements of the kingdom of God,
and help them to understand what it means to be a believer, what type of service God expects from them,
and just again, different elements of heaven, of the eternal.
And in verse 31, really, in this particular parable, he's hitting on the resurrection.
Look what it says in verse 31, it says another parable, putting forth unto them, saying,
The kingdom of heaven is like to a grain of mustard seed, which a man took and sowed in his field,
which indeed is the least of all the seeds, but when it is grown, it is the greatest among herbs,
and becometh a tree, so that the birds of the air come and lodge in the branches thereof.
Now what does this have to do with the resurrection?
Well, in its literal sense, he's referring to the fact that when you sow a seed in the ground,
you know, when it comes out of the ground, when it's watered, when it receives the sunlight that it needs,
it's not going to come out as a huge seed, right? It's not this overgrown seed out of the ground.
It actually comes out of the ground looking completely different than that which went into the ground, right?
You have a seed, and then it becomes a tree, a great tree, even to the point where the birds of the air are able to lodge into it.
People benefit from its existence. That is essentially what's being spoken of here regarding the mustard seed.
And he says there, he uses the mustard seed as an example, and he says that it's the least of all the seeds, right?
Now if we were to compare this to what it has to do with us as Christians, you know, we're essentially like the mustard seeds of this world.
Why? Because we're the least in this world. We're the least esteemed human beings in this world.
You know, Christians aren't necessarily viewed in the eyes of the world as being important people or people that should be respected
or people that should be esteemed and, you know, just kind of, the world doesn't love Christians, right?
And so we can view this as referring to Christians that we're the least of all the seeds that are found in this world.
However, because we're saved, once we die and we're buried into the ground at the resurrection,
something completely different is going to come out, even to the point where it's going to be greater than all the seeds that are buried in the ground.
Why? Because of the fact that the meek shall inherit the earth, right?
The believers are going to be the ones who are ruling and reigning with Christ in the millennial reign.
And even though we don't have any lofty positions in political spheres today, and we're not necessarily esteemed in the eyes of the world,
we're the off scouring of this world per se, one day we're going to be the most important people in this world, okay?
Because we're ruling and reigning with Christ. We are going to be ruling with a rod of iron, the Bible says.
So that's why I'm not into politics today. I'm not into voting. I'm not into any of that stuff because that stuff comes later, amen?
And luckily, you know, there's no voter fraud in the millennial reign either, right?
You know, once we're there, Jesus distributes authority to the believers who have been faithful, those who have done the work for him.
We receive our crowns and then we get to rule over a portion of this earth and it's going to be awesome, okay?
I look forward to that particular day. Now, hold your place here. Go to 1 Corinthians 15.
1 Corinthians 15, because obviously 1 Corinthians 15 is your quintessential chapter teaching on the resurrection.
If you want to learn, if you want an in-depth study of the rapture slash the resurrection, you go to 1 Corinthians 15.
Now obviously, you can't go too deep because of the fact that we see through a glass darkly, right?
You know, people always say, what do you think the resurrected state is going to look like?
And it's just like, well, I don't know. I know what you're asking.
You want a six pack and you want long luxurious hair and you want to just have this perfect body.
But you know, those are all carnal things to look forward to because that's not necessarily what the resurrected state is.
The resurrected body is a body that is absent of sin. It's absent of corruption.
It's absent of death and it's capable of standing in the presence of God without being burned, you know, by his glory, amen?
It's capable of being in his presence.
And in 1 Corinthians 15, it gives that same example that we saw in Matthew 13 regarding the resurrection.
It says in verse 35,
But some men will say, How are the dead raised up? And with what body do they come?
Thou fool, thou which thou sowest is not quickened, excepted die.
Quickened means to be brought back to life.
And he's saying, look, in order for something to be quickened, to be resurrected, it has to first die.
It has to go into the ground. It has to perish first, physically speaking.
Verse 37 says,
And that which thou sowest, thou sowest not the body that shall be, but bare grain.
It may chance of wheat or of some other grain, but God giveth it a body as it had pleased him and to every seed his own body.
All flesh is not the same flesh, but there is one kind of flesh of men, another flesh of beasts, another of fishes, another of birds.
There are also celestial bodies and bodies terrestrial.
This isn't referring to aliens, by the way.
Terrestrial just means earthly, right?
Because, again, when we think about the resurrected state, most people think of, well, like, what does the body physically look like?
But he's saying, you know, you're focusing too much on the terrestrial aspect of the resurrection.
It's a celestial body, not to say that it's not physical, that it cannot be touched because we know when Jesus Christ resurrected, you know, he had flesh and bone.
The difference being with the resurrection is that it's not powered by blood as we are today, right?
We need the blood, the life of the bodies in the blood, but in the resurrection, that's not the case.
The spirit is that which gives life at that point and we no longer need that fluid of blood to maintain life because flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God.
It's an aspect of our being that is still corruptible and will not inherit the kingdom of God.
Therefore, it needs to be completely transfigured.
So he says in verse 40, there are also celestial bodies and bodies terrestrial, but the glory of the celestial is one, the glory of the terrestrial is another.
There is one glory of the sun, another glory of the moon, another glory of the stars, for one star differth from another star in glory.
Now, what is this referring to?
Well, it seems to indicate or imply that at the resurrection, there are certain believers that are going to shine brighter than others.
If you were to look at the stars, if you were to look at the moon, if you were to look at the sun, you see that their glory or their brightness, they all have a certain level of brightness to them.
But some are brighter than others.
Even if you were to look at the celestial bodies and the stars, you see that some twinkle far brighter than others.
Well, he's trying to relate that to the resurrection, implying that at the resurrection, there are certain individuals that will shine brighter than others.
And I'm not going to go into all the aspects as to why.
Obviously, this is referring to the fact that if you look back at Daniel chapter 12, there are certain individuals, because of the labor they put in this side of eternity, the work that they did, the sowing, the service for the Lord, they're essentially increasing their wattage for the resurrection.
Now, this tells me that the vast majority of believers in the resurrection are going to be dark.
Or there's going to be, it's just like a little night light or something like that.
Some little light that you can barely see, it's a little dim light, you know, it's like a dimmer or whatever.
They're not going to be shining bright at all. Why?
Because the glory of that resurrected body is dependent upon the works that you put in this side of eternity.
And people say, what specifically do I got to do?
Just give me the checkbox.
Well, there's no checkbox in the Bible.
The Bible is just filled with a lot of commandments, a lot of works, and he just expects for us to do it all.
Because of the fact that he wants us to be balanced Christians.
An imbalanced Christian only focuses on one aspect of the service of God, and essentially does not esteem the other commandments of the Lord.
Whereas God wants us to esteem all the service of God.
Do good unto all men.
Have your fishing pole and all types of ponds of the service of God.
Whether that be in your family, with your children, at your job, in your church, sowing.
Every single aspect of the Christian life is important.
Like what's the key? There is no key.
There's a bunch of keys to the Christian life.
There's a bunch of keys to the Christian life and you need to be able to open all those doors to serve God.
And you know what? That's the unfortunate thing with looking through a glass darkly.
Is that as we serve the Lord, we don't know how much our wattage is increasing, right?
We don't know what that glory shall be.
We just labor in faith and just keep serving the Lord.
And serve your husband, love your wife, raise your children in the nurture and the admonition of the Lord.
Just seek to be a good Christian.
And I found in my personal life, it's better to just strive to be a good Christian than to look for specific things that I have to do to get that reward.
It's just like, what do I specifically have to do?
You know it's a lot less stressful to just say, you know what? I'm just going to be a good Christian.
I'm going to strive to be a good believer, a good servant of the Lord and just serve God with my life.
That way I'm not stressing of, am I doing enough of this?
Am I doing enough of this particular service?
Just day in, day out, be faithful to the Lord.
Do what you know you're supposed to do.
Use whatever talents God has given to you to serve God, amen.
You know if you're talented in a particular instrument, hey, I'm trying to increase your wattage here by inviting you to start playing in the orchestra, amen.
You're like, well, you know, I'm just kind of shy.
Alright then, keep a little wattage on your bulb then.
You know, when we invite you to come out soul winning, we want people to get saved but we want to increase your wattage as well, right.
And so there's many areas that we can serve God in.
The point is that whether therefore you eat or drink whatsoever you do, do all to the glory of God, amen.
So he says there in verse 42, so also is the resurrection of the dead.
It is sown in corruption, it is raised in incorruption.
It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory.
It is sown in weakness, it is raised in power.
It is sown in natural body, it is raised in spiritual body.
There is a natural body and there is a spiritual body.
Now let me say this, let me just chase a rabbit here.
That's why I believe it's important that when someone dies we actually physically bury them, if they're a believer, amen.
Because of the fact that burying people when they're saved is essentially you aligning with scriptures
that you're burying that person in faith knowing that they're going to resurrect one day.
Because they're like that seed that's being sown into the ground.
I'm not for cremation at all.
Now don't get that mixed up and say are you saying that if a person is cremated that's going to affect their salvation.
No, nothing will affect their salvation because once you're saved you're always saved, right.
People bring this up all the time and it's just like what about if someone burns in a fire or something.
Well obviously those are the exceptions to the rule, to the principle that we see here.
If someone burns in a fire, never is your salvation ever affected in any sense.
I'm saying that if you have the liberty and the power to choose how your funeral is going to be, you should choose to be buried.
Because of the fact that you're saying I want to be buried because I know one day I'm going to come out of that coffin
not wearing that nice white suit, I'm going to be wearing a nice resurrected body.
And look, the subject of the resurrection is a very intriguing topic
because of the fact that it's a great motivator for Christians to serve God, really.
You know, hoping to have a better resurrection.
And it's not a competition against one another but it's a competition against ourselves
making sure that we do what we can with what God has given to us and that we're good stewards of that.
And so go back to Matthew chapter 13.
So he's saying there, you know, we're like that mustard seed that's being sown into the ground.
We're the least of all the seeds. However, when we, in the resurrection, we're going to be the greatest among herbs.
You know, even to the point where the birds of the air come and lodge in the branches thereof.
And I believe what that's referring to is the fact that, you know, in the resurrection,
three years after the resurrection, three and a half years after,
when the millennial reign takes place, the nation shall come to us for leadership.
We shall be teaching the word of God. We're going to be distributing the laws of God.
It's like the birds of the air come to lodge within the cities that we're entrusted in by the Lord Jesus Christ
and rule over them and teach them the laws of God, the word of God, things of that nature.
It's a very interesting parable there.
Verse 33 says, another parable spake he unto them, the kingdom of heaven is likened to leaven,
which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal till the whole is leavened.
And notice that he doesn't explain a lot of these parables, right?
But in this particular parable, he's basically saying that, you know, the kingdom of heaven or believer's doctrine,
the Bible, the gospel, can be likened unto leaven in the sense that, you know, you think to yourself,
what difference can I make in this city, right?
What difference can a small church like ours make in Orange County or in Anaheim or in California or in the United States?
What difference can I make? Well, this church is like that little leaven that goes into a city and what does it do?
It just permeates society with the gospel of Jesus Christ.
And it makes a great impact in the long run.
And so never think to yourself, oh, this is such a small church or I'm such an insignificant person in the grand scheme of things.
No, because you're like that leaven that goes to the cities and villages with the gospel of Jesus Christ and you can make a big impact.
The life of a Christian essentially operates as a rock, a pebble that's thrown into a pond and the ripple effect just continues to spread.
That's how you got to view it.
Obviously, leaven in the Bible is often likened unto sin because that's how sin is as well.
That once sin goes unfettered or undisciplined, it begins to spread in a church, in a particular human being, a particular Christian.
But in this particular case, he's referring to the positive effects, the spiritual effects that a Christian or a church can have in their immediate surrounding.
They can make a huge difference.
And if you think about it, we don't really know the great impact our church or you as an individual will make until eternity comes, right?
Until that resurrection, until the millennial reign, you don't know how many people you've reached with the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Sometimes you may think you go out there and your labor's in vain until you actually go to heaven and you realize, whoa, there's a lot of people that I reached.
There's going to be a lot of individuals, children, families, and you even think about the fact that if you stay faithful in the Christian life, the impact just gets greater.
Why? Because the person that you reach might reach someone else who reaches someone else who gets someone else saved and gets a family saved, gets a couple saved, gets kids saved, and it just continues to go on and on and on.
That's how we see how the kingdom of God is likened unto that leaven.
It's really small. It's placed into three measures of meal, but it just spreads until the whole is leavened.
So great parables there. Look at verse 44. We're going to skip to verse 44 because I already explained the parable of the tares and the wheat two weeks ago.
Verse 44 says, again, the kingdom of heaven is likened to a treasure hid in a field, the which when a man hath found, he hideth and for joy thereof goeth and selleth all that he hath and buyeth that field.
Now, I don't want to spend too much time on this verse only because I literally just preached on this last night.
So I was at Holdfast Baptist Church last night, and I preached a sermon called, Buy the Field.
So whenever that's uploaded, you can watch it, but I'm going to talk a little bit about what I said in that sermon just because I really love this parable, this particular parable here.
Now, what's being stated here? Well, what we can extrapolate from this particular parable is the imagery that we're getting here is like a man is going through a field,
and, you know, he probably sees a little glimmer in the ground, something shines, goes over, and he finds himself a treasure chest of just goodly pearls, gold, silver, precious stones, and he's like basically hit the jackpot.
He's like, this is a lot of money. Only problem is he doesn't own the field.
So he's thinking to himself, finders keepers, losers weepers, but this field doesn't belong to me.
So what does he do? Well, he goes and he sells everything he has, all his possessions, all the resources that he has.
He takes all of that, sells it in order to purchase this particular field.
Now, you know, if we were to just kind of guess, you can say maybe this field, maybe it's barren, maybe it doesn't look very, you know, beautiful, maybe it's not necessarily, it doesn't have necessarily the good soil to plant things and to have crops.
So, you know, but he's investing in it, not because of how it looks or how big it is or what the soil can produce.
He's purchasing it because of the fact that he knows there's treasure there, right?
And obviously the verse finishes and it doesn't tell you what happens, but we know what happens.
He purchases the field and then he goes and gets that treasure and the implication here is that the treasure that he finds is a far greater value than the money he actually put in to buy in the field.
You understand?
And the principle that's being taught here is that the Christian life is not a sacrifice, my friends.
It's not a sacrifice.
Now, sometimes Christians want to make it out to be like a sacrifice.
Oh, I have to go to church, I have to go sowing, I have to read my Bible, I have to this.
Oh, such a sacrifice.
What this parable is telling us, it's an investment is what it is.
The field that we're looking at in the Christian life, for us to give all that we have to purchase that field, just realize this.
The treasure that's in that field is a far greater value than the money you put into purchasing that field.
You think of all the work you put into going to the field of sowing, right?
It's like, oh man, all these people, they're not receptive or just knocking on doors in the hot weather and preaching the gospel and getting rejected.
But hold on a second, you're not going to the field for the field, you're going to the field for that one treasure that you're going to find.
That one person who does get saved, right?
You know, the field of serving your spouse.
It's like, oh man, but he doesn't really deserve it.
He's just so mean or she just nags me or, you know, I'm just going to leave it at that.
You fill in the blank, okay?
But you know, there's a treasure that can be found in that field.
And so the principle that's being taught here is the fact that we need to change our view of the service of God and recognize it's not a sacrifice.
Now it may seem a sacrifice to you now because you're investing everything that you have, your time, your resources, your money, everything that you have into this field and to this barren, ugly looking field.
But you've got to realize that there's a treasure in there that is worth far more than the investment that you're actually putting into it.
And you know, the principle here that we see, I'm sorry, this is a principle that we see throughout the Bible that, you know, the Bible tells us that though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day.
And it says, for our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.
And you know, the Bible says in Romans chapter 8 that the sufferings of this present time, listen to this, are not to be compared to the glory that shall be revealed in us.
God pays well, amen.
And he says that he will pay well at the resurrection of the just.
And so whenever you feel like, oh man, I'm just tired of making all these investments, all the gas to come to church, all the time of just being here all day and sowing and serving my husband, serving my wife, my kids.
And just such a drudgery.
Hey, be not weary in well doing for in due season, we shall reap if we faint not.
You will get that treasure.
Now, let me share this illustration that I shared last night because I just can't help it regarding this parable because this is an awesome illustration.
Actually, I found out about the story about like 10 years ago.
There was in 1622, there was a ship that was sailing from the Keys to Spain.
And this ship had just an enormous amount of treasure in it, a lot of gold and silver.
And I think it was estimated between $400 to $500 million worth of treasure in it.
And it was supposed to go to Spain.
And in 1622, it started to travel and it hit a hurricane.
And the hurricane just completely decimated the ship.
A lot of people died and the treasure sank to the bottom of the ocean.
And I think the ship was called Nuestra Señora de Antocha or something like that.
Forgive me if I mispronounce that, but it's something to that.
Who cares? It's a sunken ship anyway, right?
Call it the Titanic if you want. Who cares?
It doesn't change history, right?
So, there's a man by the name of Mel Fisher who was born in 1920.
And Mel Fisher, he lived in California and he got involved in the business of scuba diving
and teaching how to scuba dive to people.
And he made a really lucrative business out of it.
He became very rich just from just teaching people, tutoring people how to scuba dive,
and taking them on trips on how to do that and all that.
And so, he just lived a pretty wealthy life based upon his business.
And he had a wife and he had kids.
But then he started hearing about these treasures and he was always intrigued about treasures.
And he heard about that particular story with that shipwreck in 1622.
And he made a decision, you know what, I want to go find that treasure.
And so, he basically sold his business.
He uprooted his family.
They moved to Florida.
I mean, this is a sacrifice, my friends.
Who wants to go to Florida?
That treasure better be worth it.
He moved all the way to Florida and eventually to the Keys, the Key Islands or whatever.
And he went there because he was just fixated on finding this treasure.
So, you know, he even invented a lot of these instruments that can find particular metals in the water
and, you know, gold of some sort.
And he had these machines that would blow, that would cause the clear water from the surface
to essentially travel to the bottom of the ocean to get better clarity of what they're looking at.
And he created these particular machines that would move the sand from the bottom
to kind of alleviate the work they have to do to kind of dig under there to find that treasure.
So, he invested a lot of money, like hundreds of thousands of dollars.
He had people working for him, you know, looking for this treasure.
And based upon his assessment, he thought to himself, because he knew where the ship was,
but obviously over the years, the currents move things, right?
So, even though the ship was wrecked in that particular area, it could be anywhere, right?
Because of the currents, it just moves things.
So, he thought to himself, it's going to take me six weeks to find this treasure, at least six weeks.
Well, it ended up taking 16 years, 16 years.
And every day he would go out, he would say, today's the day. Today's the day.
So, hundreds of thousands of dollars, uprooting his family, selling his lucrative business,
creating all these instruments, all these machines, moving his family.
Three of his crew members died, Scuba died.
One of them being his eldest son.
You're losing a lot over this, right?
And then finally in 1985, he hit and found what's known as the Big Pile,
which is basically the epicenter of the treasure.
Tens of thousands of coins in this particular area.
And he struck it rich.
Now, when he found this, you know, obviously the government came and was just like,
whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, you're stealing from us. That's ours.
You need to give it back.
And he's like, you guys never look for this.
You know, Florida was just like, no, that's ours.
Give us 20% of that, you know.
And he's like, this was in the bottom of the ocean for the longest time.
You've never sought for it. I found it. It's mine.
And anyways, he ended up going to court for it, and then it went to the Supreme Court,
and they ended up ruling in his favor.
And they basically told him, the treasure is yours and the ship.
The ship is yours because you found it.
So, he ended up winning.
I love stories like that because the government lost.
We all like stories like that.
Now, here's the thing. That guy died and he went to hell, obviously, you know.
I mean, it's the truth. I don't think he was a Christian.
He spent his entire life seeking after wealth, and when he found it, I mean,
literally, what shall it profit a man if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul?
He tore down barns to build up greater, and, you know, his soul was required of him,
and of course, he died.
But you know what? It does give a great spiritual illustration there
because just as Mel Fisher was willing to sell everything he had,
sacrifice everything that he had, even the lives of his members
and the life of his son, selling his business, uprooting,
he did it because he felt that discovering that treasure was a far greater value
than the sacrifice that he was making to find it.
And folks, that's how it is in the Christian life. In fact, it's greater than that.
We should be willing to just give it all, right?
Our time, our resources, our talents, and if it takes 16 years, so be it.
If it takes you 80 years, so be it.
If it costs you and me our lives, so be it.
If it costs hundreds of thousands of dollars and time and resources and talents
and persecutions and sufferings and afflictions, so be it
because the treasure is so much greater than the so-called sacrifice that we're making, right?
And so it's a great parable just to kind of illustrate that point
where God is really trying to get across to believers,
hey, this field, you know, don't live for the field.
Purchase the field so you can find the treasure,
the treasure being the resurrection and that which we're going to receive.
Look at verse 45. It says,
Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a merchant man seeking goodly pearls,
who when he had found one pearl of great price went and sold all that he had and bought.
And of course, this is essentially the same parable in a different way.
The merchant man is bartering for pearls here.
And then, of course, he finds a pearl of great price,
had nothing to do with Mormonism, by the way.
You know, there's nothing great about that.
It's not even a pearl. It's just fake stones, you know?
But he finds it, and obviously it's in the hands of another merchant,
but the merchant who he's buying it from obviously doesn't know or doesn't see the value in that,
but he does, and he sells everything he has to buy that pearl.
And of course, the pearl could be, you know, it could be likened unto the word of God.
And you know what I've noticed is that Christians don't really esteem the Bible that much.
They don't see a good pearl. They don't notice a good pearl when they see it.
Most of Christianity, unfortunately, they don't esteem the King James Bible as it needs to be esteemed, right?
Therefore, these fake pearls like the ESV, the NIV, the NLT, and all these other fake modern versions,
these fake stones, these fake jewels,
we, on the other hand, recognize the value of the King James Bible as being that pearl of great price,
worthy of our excavation of God's Word to find those hidden treasures that are found in Christ, right?
And you know what? You can spend a lifetime scouring the Word of God to learn the Bible
and to find those precious stones, to find those pearls, and it would not be a wasted life.
You can spend your entire life, you can spend 60 to 80 years reading the Bible every single day
seeking for the treasures of God's Word and it would not be a wasted life because it is a pearl of great price.
It's worth our investment. It's worth sacrificing other activities in order to invest all that we can
into studying and learning God's Word to gain the wisdom and that hidden treasure that's found within the Word of God.
Great parables here. Look at verse 47, it says again,
The kingdom of heaven is like unto a net that was cast into the sea and gathered of every kind,
which when it was full, they drew to shore and sat down and gathered the good into vessels and cast the bad away.
So shall it be at the end of the world, the angels shall come forth and sever the wicked from among the just,
and shall cast them into the furnace of fire, there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth.
So this parable is basically saying that the kingdom of heaven, to a certain extent, is partial.
Not everyone is going to go to heaven. And the kingdom of heaven is selective.
In the sense that the only people who inherit the kingdom of heaven are saved people.
This goes against what people think today that, oh we're all going to heaven, everyone's good.
No, because even a fisherman, when he's casting a net into the ocean,
there's going to be things that he throws away because they're worthless.
Well in like manner, at the end of the world, at the great wine thrown in judgment,
there's going to be a lot of trash that is going to be thrown into the lake of fire to be burned.
Things that are reprobate, things that are worthless, things that God does not esteem as something that's redeemable.
It merits eternal fire. It should not be, it's not going to live, it's going to die forever.
And so this is what this parable is trying to get across here,
is the fact that at the end of the day, we're not all good people in this world.
There are certain people in this world that are wicked, that are bad, that are evil, workers of iniquity,
that God considers to be trash, they're refuse, they're a reprobate,
and one day when that net is cast, he's going to separate the sheep from the goats.
And the goats are going to be cast into everlasting fire, there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth.
And by the way, when it says there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth,
that's just more proof that hell is literal my friends.
It's spiritual but it's a literal place.
Oh that's symbolic. Tell me what wailing and gnashing your teeth is figurative of.
Well it just means they're going to be in pain, exactly.
Because they're burning, that's what getting burned does to you, it makes you weep and wail and gnash your teeth.
So this is obviously not a figurative mention of hell,
he's saying that in the lake of fire when people are thrown into there,
the pain will be so extreme that people will be screaming,
which means they're wailing, they're yelling, they're gnashing their teeth
because of the fact that they're in so much pain.
And so this shows us that God, in the end of the world, will be a respecter of people.
He's not going to respect all religions.
It's not like, well you know the Buddhists, they don't believe in my son, but they're good people.
They just got the re-off, this resurrection, but they thought reincarnation,
I get what they were meaning by that and therefore just let them in.
No, they're going to be cast in the lake of fire.
God is no respecter of people, but he is a respecter towards the end
where he only saves and essentially collects the just.
He says in verse 51,
Jesus saith unto them, Have ye understood all these things?
They say unto him, Yea, Lord.
Now why is that verse there?
Well if you remember, excuse me, my voice is cracking here.
If you remember from two weeks ago, he's saying, He that hath an ear, let him hear.
And what he's saying here is that if someone wants to understand biblical truths,
they will understand the biblical truth.
Obviously not right off the bat.
Some people it takes a little longer than others,
but in general, if you want the truth, you're going to get the truth.
So notice that some of these parables here, he gives no explanation to them.
He just kind of gives a story, he finishes off, and he moves on to the next.
Until the point where he gets to the end here and he says,
Do you understand all these things? And they're like, We get it.
What is it showing us? It's showing us that someone who's receptive to knowledge,
the knowledge of God's word, will eventually, the light will come on,
the Holy Spirit will guide and teach and they will learn.
So you have no reason to be stupid.
There's no excuse to be stupid in the Christian life.
Because if you truly want to understand, you will understand.
If you really want the knowledge of God, you will get the knowledge of God.
And obviously there's churches out there that maybe they teach a minimal amount of doctrine,
but you know what, I'm a strong believer that even in a church where they teach a minimal amount of doctrine,
you can still learn a lot.
So how do you know? Because I was in a church where doctrine wasn't necessarily exalted,
as it is here in churches that are like ours, but I still learned a lot.
Why? Because I wanted the truth.
Now obviously if you have a choice, get your butt in the church that's teaching doctrine.
And you know, like what church? Like this one.
Just come here. It's not a sacrifice, it's an investment.
Come get the pearl of great price here.
But in either case, maybe you don't have a particular church in your area for those on the internet land.
Maybe you have an old IFP church or something.
There's nothing wrong with that. You can still understand if you really want to understand.
He that hath an ear, let him hear.
It says in verse 52,
Then said he unto them, Therefore every scribe which is instructed unto the kingdom of heaven
is likened to a man that is an householder, which bringeth forth out of his treasure
things new and old.
What he's basically saying here is that someone who's well instructed in the kingdom of God,
well instructed in the word of God, they're going to be well balanced.
They're going to compare scripture with scripture.
Because they're going to bring out things old and new.
Now this is important because of the fact that sometimes there are churches out there
that only want to stick to the New Testament and they don't want to delve into the old.
But in order to have a balanced view of the Bible, you need to read both.
The Old Testament is the New Testament concealed.
The New Testament is the Old Testament revealed.
And if you're only sticking to the book of John, you're only sticking to Romans,
you're only sticking to Philemon, and you're not digging into those Old Testament books,
you're selling yourself short.
You're not like that scribe that's filled with treasures and he's bringing out things old and new.
And really you're selling yourself short because of the fact that you're essentially
forfeiting a lot of knowledge that you can get by reading the Old Testament.
And one thing you'll realize the more you read the Bible is that a lot of the principles in the New Testament
are essentially fleshed out in the Old Testament as well.
The spiritual principles of the New Testament are often lived out per se in the Old Testament.
You read the Old Testament and obviously all scripture is given by inspiration of God,
it's profitable for doctrine, for proof, for correction, instruction, and righteousness.
So it's all intertwined, it's all teaching the same thing.
There's no contradictions in the word of God.
And it'll give you a greater appreciation if you read both.
And so read the Bible cover to cover.
Don't avoid the book of Leviticus.
Don't avoid 1 and 2 Chronicles.
Don't avoid the lengthy books of the Old Testament.
Maybe the parts of the Old Testament that might seem a little boring to you.
Don't avoid them.
Be like the scribe that's instructed into the kingdom of God that has a treasure
and you're just pulling out things old and new.
You're not afraid of the Old Testament.
You're not afraid of a sermon from the Old Testament.
You're not afraid of a sermon from the New Testament.
You can have both.
And so those are the conclusions.
That's the conclusion to the parables there.
Look at verse 53.
It says,
And it came to pass that when Jesus had finished these parables,
he departed the tents,
and when he was coming to his own country,
he taught them in their synagogue,
insomuch that they were astonished,
and said, Whence hath this man this wisdom and these mighty works?
Is not this the carpenter's son?
Is not his mother called Mary,
and his brethren James, and Joses, and Simon, and Judas,
and his sisters, are they not all with us?
Whence then hath this man all these things?
So he's teaching,
and the teaching is correct,
obviously.
I mean, this is Jesus Christ.
He's the Word of God made flesh.
And they're astonished,
not necessarily because of the doctrine,
because they're more astonished at the fact that like,
we grew up with him,
where is he getting this from?
Well, he's getting it from God.
He is God.
And he's like,
this guy's the carpenter's son.
We know his mom is Mary.
We know his brothers and sisters.
These are his literal brothers and sisters,
half-brothers and sisters, obviously.
So they're like, where is he getting all this?
Verse 57,
And they were offended in him.
So,
he's teaching all this great doctrine,
all these great parables,
and they're offended at that.
Now, this is a very much real thing even today.
Where it's just like,
you have biblical truth,
and you try to give it to those who
maybe have known you in the past,
and they can't seem to just glean wisdom
from the doctrine that you've learned,
because they're like,
where did you get this from?
I got it from God.
Got it from the Bible.
And they're like almost offended
that maybe you have surpassed them
in knowledge or something.
That's very much a real thing.
It's like they don't have the humility
to just be like,
you know what?
You just taught me something new.
I didn't know that.
It's more like, who are you?
I know your brother and sisters.
I know how you grew up.
I changed your diapers or whatever, you know.
I've known you for this amount of time.
Who's that? Is that my daughter over there
making that sound?
Bruce and Kyla, sit up straight.
You know, I've known you for this amount of time
or whatever.
How is it you're going to teach me?
They're like offended.
And why is that?
Because they're not esteeming the word of God.
Because any person who's a student of the Bible
who esteems the word of God,
they'll esteem it no matter who it comes from.
As long as it matches up with the Bible,
they're like, great,
but these guys are offended at that.
It says in verse number 57,
And they were offended in him,
but Jesus said unto them,
A prophet is not without honor,
save in his own country,
and in his own house.
Now what does this mean?
Well, think about this.
You know, a prophet,
he's obviously referring to himself,
but just a prophet in general.
You can just translate this as a Christian,
a believer, you know.
They have honor, okay.
You yourself, for example,
in your local New Testament church,
you probably have received honor in this church
for being a servant of God, a Christian.
People have shown you respect.
They esteem you.
They treat you with dignity.
They respect you because of your reputation as a Christian,
because of your service for the Lord.
You know, the Christian life is filled with honor
because the Christian life teaches us,
the Bible teaches us to give honor where honor is due, right.
So we have no problem giving honor to someone
who actually deserves it,
who is put in the work,
or they have a good reputation.
They're serving the Lord.
The Christian life is filled with honor.
Now obviously we're not referring to people in the world.
They don't honor us, okay.
You know, people in the world hate us.
They don't honor us.
We're talking about amongst Christians,
you know, there is a certain level of honor
that you will receive,
a certain level of respect.
And I would even say that there's probably people in here
that can testify and say,
I've been respected more here in church
than I ever have been at my school or my job.
Like people seem to actually esteem me
as being an important person.
And you are, amen.
You're a child of God.
You're serving the Lord.
You are a valuable person in the eyes of God.
You are a valuable person in the local New Testament church.
You're an asset to the service of God
and therefore worthy and you merit honor, okay.
And this is why he says a prophet is not without honor.
So he says a prophet will receive honor.
If he's preaching the word, if he's getting people saved,
he's being a blessing to other people,
you know, he's going to get some honor from those around him
and rightly so, right.
But then he says save in his own country
and in his own house.
Now what does he mean by that?
He's saying basically that the default setting
for every Christian who serves God
is that they're going to get honor
from those who are around them.
The exception to that rule is save those of his own household, okay.
Those of his own country and in his own house.
This is referring to the subject of familiarity, understand.
And everyone here to a certain extent
has experienced something like this
where, you know, someone calls you brother here
or sister here or ma'am or sir
but then you get around people who grew up with you or whatever
or they've known you for a really long time
and they don't really show you that level of respect.
They just kind of treat you like, you know, who are you?
They're like offended at you or something.
And don't feel bad when that happens
because they did it to Jesus and Jesus is God.
I mean if there's one person who deserves all the honor,
all the praise, all the worship is Jesus.
I mean this is a face palm here.
People are idiots.
They're just like saying all this stuff.
It's like dude, he is the word of God.
He can just like destroy you right now if he wanted to.
He can just like remove all the molecules in your body right now.
If he wanted to, he's God, you know.
He can just like transport you to Mars.
You're like oh, oh, you know, just like if he really wanted to.
He can transport you to the sun if he wanted to.
This is why I'm not God, okay.
But you know they're saying these disrespectful dishonoring things about him.
And they're like, you know, we grew up with you, you know.
But what he's trying to teach us here is the fact that even someone as Jesus Christ,
there's instances where his own countrymen and his own brother and his family even,
they didn't honor him.
You know, and I've experienced this.
I'm a pastor and to a certain extent pastors do receive double honor,
especially if they labor in the Word and doctrine.
And I put in my work.
I've worked hard at being qualified to be a pastor.
I've been faithful to the Lord.
I've raised, you know, I have a wife who follows me.
I have five children.
I have people who follow me and listen to my sermons.
And they give me a lot of honor and I'm thankful for that.
But, you know, then there's individuals who maybe have known me even prior to being a pastor
or being a younger Christian.
And to them it's just like, oh, hey, Bruce.
You know, that's like a dishonoring thing.
Because if a man works hard to become qualified to be a pastor
and to earn the title of a pastor, you should be called a pastor, amen.
You know, whenever people come to me and they're just like, oh, yeah, Stephen Anderson,
I'm like, Pastor Anderson.
Not because it's Pastor Anderson, but because he's a pastor
and he deserves that honor of being called a pastor.
You're like, oh, yeah, like Roger Jimenez.
You mean Pastor Jimenez.
You know, oh, yeah, I really like Jonathan Shelley.
Oh, yeah, I really like Pastor Shelley, too.
Because these men have put in the work to earn that title.
And so they deserve that honor.
But, you know, there's instances where people don't realize that because of familiarity.
Where they're just like, oh, hey, Bruce.
Now, don't mistake me.
I'm not against you calling me Brother Bruce or something like that, you know.
But I will say this.
There's been instances in the history of our church where people will do that
only because they don't want to call me pastor.
It's like they don't really want to cross that line or something, you know.
So they're just like, oh, Brother Bruce or something.
And I've seen that even in the history of our church.
But a lot of the times it's just the people who grew up with you.
And so, you know, you go home and your family doesn't show you that same respect
that maybe we show you here.
Don't feel bad about it.
They didn't show Jesus respect either.
His own brothers.
Now, James eventually had to eat crow because he didn't believe on him.
But then, you know, obviously later on he got saved and then he even became a pastor.
So somewhere in between that he had to realize, like, all right, my half brother is God.
You know, it's like, he is God, you know.
Which if I was James, I would like ask him all types of questions about the history of everything.
But, you know, he had to obviously humble himself.
And by the way, you know, it was obviously his younger brother.
But still, you know, I mean, sometimes younger brothers have a hard time remembering
But still, you know, I mean, sometimes younger brothers have a hard time respecting their older brothers.
As we clearly see in this particular case.
And so, you know, you do have honor here.
Obviously work at having honor in our church by the works that you do,
by developing a good reputation amongst the brethren.
But just realize this, not everyone is going to honor you outside of these walls.
You know, your mom is probably not going to honor you as much or your dad is not going to honor you as much.
Your brothers and sisters aren't going to show you that honor.
You know, sometimes that hurts a little bit and it bothers us.
Because it's just like, man, I've worked so hard at just being a functioning member of society.
You know, I'm a Christian, I'm a believer, I'm living out the Christian life.
But to them, it's just like, well, yeah, but I've known you since you're just a little baby or whatever.
You know, but a prophet is not without honor, saved in his own country and in his own house.
And it says in verse 58, and he did not many mighty works there because of their unbelief.
So because they chose to not esteem him as being the son of God, the savior,
but rather just a common man among them, he's like, I can't do any works here because of your unbelief.
And you know what, how does that apply to us?
Well, sometimes it's hard for us to reach those people in our family with our friends who don't really take us serious.
Right? People in our family, friends, and you know, we can preach the gospel to like a lot of people.
At some stranger's door, we can be as bold as a lion.
Just wax eloquent, win them to Christ.
They're like thanking us.
It's just like a crown of rejoicing.
And then, you know, they brag on you like, this young man is so well versed in the Bible.
And this young lady was such a blessing.
And they give you honor, but you can't really do that to like your family though, right?
Because they don't honor you.
That's sometimes how it is.
And you know, obviously there's people who have won their family members, their mom and dad, and thank God for that.
But in general, that's sometimes not the case.
And sometimes you have to be like Jesus where you have to wait a little bit until James comes around.
And they recognize, OK, you know, this my brother is from God.
My sister is of the Lord.
You know, she's a servant of God.
He's a servant of God.
He is serious about this.
And you know, Lord, when they get saved, they come around or whatever.
And then, you know, then then they can be a part of what's going on here and actually be a brother or sister in Christ.
And so great chapter here.
A lot to be had.
A lot to be said.
But if you take anything, just remember the Mel Fisher illustration, because it's a really cool illustration.
Let's pray.
Father, we thank you so much for your word, Lord.
Help us as your people to continue to have an appetite for the truth and that we would not disregard it or that we would.
Lord, help us to esteem it more than our necessary foods.
Lord, may we continue to have a hunger and thirst after knowledge, after the fear of the Lord.
May we constantly recognize the importance of digesting the word of God on a daily basis and searching for those hidden nuggets of truth in the word of God.
And I pray that you'd help us to do so, Lord.
Help us have ears to hear, whether that be in our Bible reading or even in the preaching service.
And Lord, I pray that you'd also help us to recognize that sometimes we have to be patient with friends and family who don't necessarily give us the honor that we think that we deserve.
And obviously we don't deserve anything, but sometimes we feel like we can't do many mighty works within our family and friends because of the lack of respect or honor that they give us.
It will take us serious.
And so help us to be faithful.
And often that's what it is.
It just takes consistency and faithfulness in the Christian life to help them to realize this isn't just a phase that you're going through, that we're going through.
This is a lifelong commitment that we have.
And through that, Lord, may we be able to win them in the long run.
And we love you and we thank you.
Pray these things in Jesus' name.
Amen.
All right.
One last song.
Song 45, when I can read my title clear.
Song number 45, when I can read my title clear.
Everyone all together nice and strong on that first verse.
When I can read my title clear.
Two mentions in the skies.
I'll bid farewell to every fear.
And wipe my weeping eyes.
I'll bid farewell to every fear.
And wipe my weeping eyes.
Should earth against my soul engage.
And fiery darts be hurled.
Then I can smile at Satan's rage.
And face a frowning world.
Then I can smile at Satan's rage.
And face a frowning world.
Let cares like a wild deluge come.
And storms of sorrow fall.
May I but safely reach my home.
My God, my heaven, my all.
May I but safely reach my home.
My God, my heaven, my all.
There shall I bathe my weary soul.
In seas of heavenly rest.
And not a wave of trouble roll.
Across my peaceful breast.