Jesus Accused By His Family And By Teachers Of The Law | Week 26

Amen. Good morning. My name is Chase Denoux. For those of you who don’t know me, Tony told you that I’m going to give you a word, and I assure you I’m going to give you a few more than that. So you know, I have the honor of of leading the Youth and Family Ministry here in Broward.

Thank you. Along with Brittany Filipeli, who shared earlier with Zambia, who did a great job. And this past week we had our annual CIA camp, and you guys kind of saw the results of it this morning. Can we give a hand for the middle schoolers?

And our theme was worship for CIA. Jasan led our DeVos for the kids. We had some parent classes as well that were awesome. And it’s just a great thing to send your children to. If you have some kids that are in elementary school that are going to be moving up to middle school in the next couple of years, make sure you sign them up for CIA camp.

And these are the type of things that come from it, is what you saw this morning. We’re very proud of them. But today we’re going to be jumping back into our Ministry of Jesus series. We took a short break last week. Many of us were at WDS.

We got to be there for the Sunday service. Many of you watched here and it was a really encouraging time. To be in a room with several thousand people from around the world was quite amazing. It was emotional. The worship was unbelievable, and many of people here from Broward were heavily involved in that.

And that was really cool to see. And you go from AT Arnison to me, but that’s okay. We have the same spirit. We’re reading from the same book. So here we go.

Up to this point in the Ministry of Jesus, he is making headlines, right? If there’s a newspaper, then you might see things like new Priests takes over for John the Baptist. Man named Jesus is gathering disciples. Synagogues are talking about these disturbances from this man who’s bringing these radical new teachings. The Physicians Association is probably complaining that Jesus is taking all their business.

He’s healing people left and right. There’s a buzz going around about the name Jesus. See, people are amazed by Jesus, whether it’s the miracles and the healings, or whether it’s his teachings or even the way he spoke with authority, right? But the very things that have people amazed and standing in all of Jesus are also the very things that people are threatened by. And the same is true today.

If you’re a Christian here today, you’re probably amazed in which the ways Jesus has changed your life, right? You’re amazed that you can now disagree with somebody and not blow up in anger. Or you’re amazed that you can deny yourself and know that you can still live life to the full. You’re amazed that you can have healthy, pure relationships and friendships with the opposite sex compared to maybe how it used to be in the world. But there are people who feel threatened by those very things, right?

People want to blow up when someone disagrees with them. They want to get angry. People don’t want to deny themselves. They want to do what they want to do when they want to do it. And people don’t want to be patient in relationships in terms of being pure.

And so as we go through the lesson today, but also move forward in the ministry of Jesus, I want you to ask yourself this question and really meditate on it each and every Sunday. Do you embrace the teachings of Jesus or feel threatened by them?

And I want to be clear that challenged and threatened are two different things. You should feel challenged by the things that Jesus says. That’s the whole point. It’s to change. But you should embrace that. Threatened is when you feel like you have to defend yourself against Jesus teaching.

Does that make sense? So today that’s what we’re going to pick up on that thought. We’re going to be in Mark, chapter three. We’re going to be in verse 20 here in a moment. But earlier in Mark 3, those who do feel threatened by Jesus, the Pharisees and the Herodians, they start to plot a way to kill Jesus.

And so you have this group called the Scribes, whose job is to write down the Scriptures, copy it down, copy it down, copy it down so other people can read it. They’re coming down from Jerusalem and they’re trying to gain intel on Jesus in this plot to kill him. And we’re going to pick up in verse 20 of Mark, chapter three, we’re going to read to 35, so stick with me. It says, Then Jesus entered a house, and again a crowd gathered so that he and his disciples were not even able to eat. When his family heard about this, they went to take charge of him, for they said, he is out of his mind.

And the teachers of the law who came down from Jerusalem said, he is possessed by beelzebul, by the prince of demons. He is driving out demons. So Jesus called them over to him and began to speak to them in parables. How can Satan drive out Satan? If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand.

If a house is divided against itself, that house cannot stand. And if Satan opposes himself and is divided, he cannot stand. His end has come. In fact, no one can enter a strong man’s house without first tying him up. Then he can plunder the strong man’s house.

Truly, I tell you, people can be forgiven all their sins and slanders they utter. But whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven. They are guilty of an eternal sin. He said this because they were saying he has an impure spirit. Then Jesus mother and brothers arrived. Standing outside, they sent someone in to call him. A crowd was sitting around him, and they told him, your mother and brothers are outside looking for you. Who are my mother and my brothers? He asked. Then he looked at those seated in a circle around him and said, here are my mother and my brothers.

Whoever does God’s will is my brother and my sister and my mother. So before we jump in here, I know that when we read this passage, most people see this. They see blasphemes. Holy Spirit, never forgiven. Sorry, move back. Never forgiven. Guilty of an eternal sin. Those things just kind of stick out to you, right?

Even when I read it, I’m sure that passage, that’s when people are like oooh. And I get it. It’s a really strong statement and one we cannot ignore. And we’re going to get to it, I promise. But hang with me, because we’re going to walk through this passage together, and I want you to hear everything. I don’t want you to get distracted by the elephant in the room.

All right? Amen. All right. So as we look back through this story, we’re going to see three kinds of steps unfold. We’re going to see accusations against Jesus.

Then we’re going to see Jesus response to those accusations. And then we’re going to have a family discussion at the end. And I want to just explain to you that it’s kind of a weird writing style. As I was looking through this passage, I kind of read it, and I was like, this is a weird flow. Like it talks about Jesus family. Then there’s this middle part. Then it goes back to family again. And so it’s this thing called a mark end sandwich. We’re in the Book of March. It’s called a markend sandwich.

And the thought for this passage is that what’s said at the beginning and at the end is best understood by what happens in the middle. Does that make sense? So keep that in mind we’ll come back to at the end, but keep that in mind as we read back through. Okay, so let’s take a look at the accusations. The first, which comes from Jesus’family.

Okay, so it says, Then Jesus entered a house, and again a crowd gathered so that he and his disciples were not even able to eat. When his family heard about this, they went to take charge of him, for they said, he is out of his mind. So Jesus’s family, they’re coming. They’re on their way, and they call him crazy basically. He’s out of his mind.

And they’re misjudging Jesus, because at this point, they still don’t fully understand who Jesus is. It says they’re coming to take charge of him. And if you look into this a little bit, the translation, it’s the same kind of phrase that’s used when Jesus is arrested at the Garden of Gethsemane. Now, they weren’t coming to arrest Him in the sense of, like, they’re angry at Him, right? But they’re coming out of sympathy.

They aren’t there to rally around Jesus and to push his view forward and help with his teachings, but rather to round Him up and get him out of this situation. See, Jesus was so busy teaching and preaching that he couldn’t even eat. So the answer must have been that he’s out of his mind because he’s not even worried about eating food. Like, if one of us was just so busy and we just didn’t eat for whatever days, we’d be like, Bro, you’re out of your mind. You got to sit down and eat, because food is so important to us.

See, they didn’t understand, and even his mother, Mary was saying, he’s out of his mind. And being a mom, she was probably like, I need to feed my baby. I need to feed him. Mothers are always trying to feed everybody. Ivana is my same age, and she’s always trying to feed me, and I love it.

It’s just the motherly thing to do. That’s right. They want to take Jesus away, in part because he seemingly can’t even get a moment to eat. But check out what Jesus says in John, chapter four. He says, My food, said Jesus is to do the will of Him who sent me and to finish his work.

See, Jesus was so focused on the will of God the Father that it was more important to Him than the physical need. So I want to ask you and I’m not telling you to stop eating altogether. That’s not what I’m telling you to do. But does doing the will and the work of God sustain you? See, the point is that the things we crave in the world, whether it’s stuff, whether it’s experiences, whatever it is money, they will decay and fade away.

But true fulfillment comes from doing the will and the work of God. Earlier, in one of the announcements, we talked about how the 15th of every month we do this day of prayer and fasting, which is tomorrow, by the way. And that’s such a great opportunity to start to build a foundation of being sustained by the will and the work of God, right? So let tomorrow or if you need to meditate on it next month but start tomorrow, pray, let that be a starting point to build a foundation, to learn to rely on God more than the things that this world has to offer. Amen.

So Jesus fully understands this thought that the will and the work of God is so important when his friends and his family, they don’t so much that they accuse Him of being out of his mind. And then we get some more accusations thrown his way. And these are from a group of men called Scribes like we talked about earlier. So we’re going to look back at verse 22. It says, and the teachers of the law who came down from Jerusalem said he is possessed by Beelzebul. By the prince of demons, he is driving out demons. So his family thinks he’s crazy. And now you have these scribes, or teachers of the law and they make two more accusations and they’re much more serious than the first. So what are they? The first is that they say that Jesus is demon possessed.

They say he’s possessed by Beelzebul. So who is Beelzebul? There’s some different thoughts out there, but the one that seems the most coherent and makes the most sense is that the name derives from Baal, who we hear about a lot in the Old Testament, which means Lord. And then the second half is zebul, which means house or dwelling. So the name Beelzebul could be translated as Master or Lord of the house.

And Baal, if you can really call them this, is like the chief rival of God in the Old Testament. And we all know the story about Elijah, how he builds the altar, and then the all worshippers build their altar and they’re supposed to both call down fire and so they go and nothing happens. And then the other one is covered with water. And then God brings down fire and destroys the altar, sucks up the water, and it shows that God is the true God. The scribes here in Mark three would have known this story well, right?

They’re copying down the stories over and over and over and they’re accusing Jesus of being possessed. Really what they mean is being possessed by Satan. And then they take it a step further and they say, by the prince of demons, he is driving out demons. So they’re not only accusing him of being possessed, but also knowingly working alongside Satan to drive out demons. This is a wild accusation, right?

Think about all the things that we’ve discussed so far in this series. We’ve seen Jesus healed countless amount of people, raise someone from the dead. We’ve seen him forgive sins and have compassion on people that no one else wanted to have compassion on. The whole Sermon on the Mount. We could go on and on.

And after all these amazing things, why are these men making these accusations? Right? Because here’s the thing. They’re not denying that Jesus has power, right? They’re just denying where it’s coming from.

They’re saying it’s coming from Satan. So in my estimation, these men in this situation here, they have two options. Here they are. They can believe that Jesus is the Son of God and that’s how he’s able to do the things that he’s doing. But being spiritual men, they have to then follow him. If they believe that, right? They have to make changes. And then the second option they have is that they can reject Him and find an alternative explanation so they don’t have to change. So make sure that you’re not doing the latter. If you see people around you making changes in their lives, don’t just chalk it up to randomness or to some other power.

And I know this whole series we’ve been telling you that you’re not Jesus in the story, and that’s true. Don’t start thinking you are. But just for a moment, I want you to put yourself in Jesus shoes. Your family is calling you crazy. The teachers of the law and the scribes whose job is to copy down the scriptures are saying you’re possessed and you’re working for Satan.

Have you ever been falsely accused? It feels terrible, right? I have a good friend that helped me lead the teens in Gainesville for a year or so. And one night we’re talking with the teens, and we’re like, hey, the kind of like, cliche, get to know your question. Like, what’s your biggest fear?

And so I asked her, and she was like, Chase, my biggest fear is falling down the stairs and breaking my two front teeth. And I was like, okay. We kind of laughed it off. I was like, what’s really your biggest fear? And she said, Going to jail for a crime I didn’t commit.

And just the possibility, like, thinking about the possibility of going to jail for a crime that you didn’t commit. She was stressed. She’s like freaking out and being defensive. I’m like, hey, you didn’t do anything. You’re not going to go to jail.

You’re not going to go to jail. This is hypothetical, but that’s the state that we have, right? When we’re wrongly accused, we get hostile and defensive to try to prove our innocence. But how does Jesus respond? We’ve heard the accusations.

They’re strong. They’re kind of crazy, and let’s look at how Jesus handles them. We’re going to look back at verse 23. So Jesus called them over, and he began to speak to them in parables, as he often does, and he says, how can Satan drive out Satan? If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand.

If a house is divided against itself, that house cannot stand. And if Satan opposes himself and is divided, he cannot stand. His end has come. First of all, I just love how logical and straightforward Jesus answer is, right? Lots of times, he’s like, suppose a king has an army and you’re trying to figure it out, and he’s just like, very straightforward and logical right here.

And so often when we’re accused or we’re asked a question, we can feel this temptation to have this perfect, well thought out, scholarly answer sometimes, right? But a common sense, straightforward answer sometimes is all that the situation calls for. And I love that Jesus shows us that. Now there’s some depth and complexity to this. We’re going to get into it.

But it is straightforward at the same time. And so Jesus gives us this house divided can’t stand answer, right? If you had to boil it down, that’s what it would say. Like the license plates out there say house divided. It’s like two different colleges.

He gives us his house divided answer. So if you think about it, there are two ways that a kingdom or a government or a family can fall apart or crumble. They can either do so from the outside or from division within. An invading force from the outside or division within. And Jesus here is talking about the latter, right?

He’s talking about division within. And Jesus is simply saying a demon driving out demons is just illogical. It makes no sense at all. Why would Satan drive himself out? Civil war is devastating to a kingdom or a country.

And I know you may be thinking, Chase the American Civil War, it freed people, and that’s true. But wouldn’t it have been better if there was never slaves in the first place? If we could just agreed and not had to have a civil war in order to get that right? See, civil war is never a great choice.

The kingdom is divided and it falls one way or another. If there is strife in a home and it leads to divorce, family unity is over. So Jesus is saying that if Satan is fighting Satan, then the end for his kingdom has come. But Satan is not that dumb to walk around and drive out his own workers. He doesn’t always just attack in this obvious way that you see coming from a mile away.

He’s not stupid. He’s not going to oppose himself. And Jesus is saying the kind of deeper implication that he’s saying is that you’re wrong, that this power is not coming from Satan, it’s actually a whole other power altogether. Which brings us to the second parable in this passage. So let’s pick up in verse 27.

It says, in fact, no one can enter a strong man’s house without first tying him up. Then he can plunder the strongman’s house. So the second way that a kingdom can fall, we talked about division within, right? Before we said it’s an invading force that’s stronger will come and attack it from the outside and defeat it. Do you see where this is going a little bit?

If you don’t. Let me tell you what Jesus is saying. He’s saying Satan is this strong man in this parable, but Jesus is the stronger man. And this is very encouraging, right when you’re going through a hard time, Satan is attacking. You have to remember this thought, and I know it can become cliche, but it’s true that Satan is strong, but Jesus is stronger.

And Jesus here is referring to a prophecy back in Isaiah 49. And it says this can the prey be taken from the mighty or the captives of a tyrant be rescued? For thus says the Lord, even the captives of the mighty shall be taken. And the prey of the tyrant be rescued, for I will contend with those who contend with you.

It goes on to say later in Isaiah 49, it talks about how he’ll save your children and then he talks about the oppressor. And at the end of the chapter it says, then all shall know that I am the Lord your Savior and your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob. See, Jesus is letting us know that I didn’t come to negotiate with Satan or to minimize his destruction or to manage his chaos. Rather, he came to crush Satan completely. And in doing so, he’s setting free the captives, like it’s talking about here.

That is what Jesus is communicating to the scribes and to the teachers of the law. It’s a reminder from Genesis three when God tells Satan, he, meaning Jesus will bruise you on the head and you will bruise him on the heel. This is a prophecy in Genesis about the cross. And God is saying, yes, you will bruise Jesus on the heel, but he is going to crush your head.

The cross was terrible and ugly, but remember that Jesus chose to go there. He didn’t get dragged there by Satan. No one forced him. He was not overpowered. He chose to go there.

Satan may have thought he won for a moment, but Jesus prevailed when he rose from the dead. See, after the cross, in raising from the dead, Jesus bound up the strong man so that we could be free. But I want to be clear, and I want you to catch this as well, that Satan is a defeated foe, but he is not a powerless one yet. See, Satan has been defeated, but he’s still running around wreaking havoc right?

The best way I can kind of illustrate this is to think back to World War II. My dad is a history buff and some of it rubbed off on me. And so World War Two is very fascinating to me. And on June 6, 1944, was D Day, right? We’ve all seen movies and all sorts of things about DDay.

The US troops, along with Allied troops, they stormed the beach of Normandy. And once they took that beach, the war was pretty much over. They established a line on that beach and they kind of were able to move and Germany and everyone else knew that they had lost. The problem is that the war went on for eleven more months. See, the Allied forces started going through different towns and cities and liberating the people, but there were still small pockets that were controlled by Nazi forces.

So battles were still being fought and people were still losing their lives needlessly, right? Because the war for the Nazis had been lost. But Hitler wasn’t going to roll over and concede defeat. Over 70 million people died in a six year span in World War Two. It’s over 10 million deaths per year.

So for eleven months people died because Hitler just didn’t want to concede defeat. And this is exactly what’s happening around us every day. Satan is a defeated foe, but he will not accept it. There’s still battles being fought, there’s still lives in danger, there’s still racism and hardening of hearts, causing divorce, poverty, mass shootings, human trafficking, all these things.

Satan has an agenda and it’s to take down as many people as possible before his inevitable end. Right? So Jesus, in very few words, is communicating all of this. He’s saying in no way is this power to drive out demons coming from Satan. It’s quite the opposite.

I’ve come down to bound the strong man so that those who have been trapped in Satan’s tyranny can be freed and be encouraged, because that is why we have the opportunity to have the family that’s around us, that we have the opportunity to change our lives that Satan once controlled. And a quick aside, a few chapters later, there’s this story about Jesus stepping off this boat and immediately he’s met by a man that’s full of demons.

And I’m going to summarize it for you, but this is one little passage in it, remember that Jesus came to bound up Satan. It says in Mark chapter five about this man with the demons. No one can bind him anymore, not even with a chain, for he had often been bound with shackles and chains, but he wrenched the chains apart and broke the shackles and pieces. No one had the strength to subdue him. And obviously Jesus comes along and releases the demons.

See only Jesus can bound up Satan. See, Jesus in Mark 3 is telling the teachers of the law that Satan is the strong man, but I am the stronger man. And he demonstrates it just a few chapters later.

So we’ve talked about the accusations and we’ve looked at Jesus response and now we’re going to get into the warning, the elephant in the room. Let’s look back to verse 28. It says, Truly, I tell you, people can be forgiven all their sins and every slander they utter, but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven. They are guilty of an eternal sin. He said this because they were saying he has an impure spirit.

Okay, you ready? What is blasphemy against the Holy Spirit? Well, what’s been going on here? What’s been going on this whole time that Jesus has come on the scene? Jesus is casting out demons.

He’s performing these healings and all sorts of miracles by the power of the Spirit of God. We all believe that, yes? Cool. In Luke’s account of the same passage, Jesus says this but if it is by the finger of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you. And what Jesus means here is that if I’m doing this by the power of God, then the kingdom has come and I am the king.

It’s a strong statement, but the scribes are coming along and they’re saying, you aren’t doing this by the power of God. You’re doing this by the power of Satan. So basically what these men are doing or what they’re saying is that this work, that’s the Spirit of God, they’re attributing to Satan. Just imagine that Jesus was here in the room and he did all these things. He healed people, made food appear, all these things.

And you looked him in the eyes and you said, this is by the power of Satan. Jesus is saying that’s something that cannot be forgiven if held onto. If you hold on to that belief, it won’t be forgiven. So despite seeing the things that Jesus is doing with their own eyes, they refuse to believe that they are being done by the power of God. Now, having studied out this passage over the past month or so, many people believe that we cannot commit this sin today because we can’t physically see the work of Jesus and refuse it.

But I want to be clear. I want to quote a Bible teacher that I love. We don’t know. Joe Stearns. But what is happening here, if you really break it down, what’s happening with these men? These men are refusing the work and the calling of the Holy Spirit of God that is pointing to the work that’s being done through Jesus. Does that make sense?

I know it’s kind of a tongue twister. Jesus, I think that can be done today. You can look at the work that’s being done through the Holy Spirit and through Jesus and you can say, that’s not done by the power of God. Now, is it immediately unforgivable and something you can never come back from again? I don’t know. But what I do know is that if you continue that mindset throughout your life, in the end it’s going to be the same result.

You know what I’m saying? So make the change now. There’s a lot that we don’t know about this passage for sure, but there’s one thing I want to tell you with all certainty, is that you have to be careful about accusing God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit. Be careful about what you accuse them of. And the last thing I want to say about this section is that Jesus never said these words to make a sincere seeker insecure, right?

This is not like a specific sin that I need to avoid. It’s actually a condition of the heart, right? And if you’re refusing the work of the Spirit, then you are in unforgiveness. But if you have a change of the condition of your heart, then you can be forgiven. Anyone can have a change of heart and be a part of God’s family.

Amen. And that leads us to the last section here where we have a family discussion. In verse 31, it says, then Jesus’mother and brothers arrived. Standing outside they sent someone in to call him.

A crowd was sitting around him and they told him, your mother and brothers are outside looking for you. Who are my mother and my brothers? He asked. Then he looked at those seated in a circle around him and said, here are my mother and my brothers. Whoever does God’s will is my brother and my sister and my mother.

Excuse me. Okay, so this passage may seem really random at first glance. We’re talking about driving out demons and Jesus being accused of working for Satan. Then we have the unforgivable sin. And then there’s this passage about family.

But remember, what happens at the beginning and what happens at the end is best understood by what happened in the middle, right? Because this insection actually makes perfect sense when we understand what Jesus is fully communicating in the middle. See, what Jesus is saying here at the end is that there is this family that goes deeper than blood and DNA. There’s a new, different kind of family that’s being formed through him. But there are two and only two families, and there are two and only two kingdoms.

There’s the kingdom of darkness and there’s the kingdom of light. Whether you like it or not, you’re in one of those two families. You’re either under the dominion of Satan or you’re in the Kingdom of God. It says it like this in Colossians one, he has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. See, he, being God, has delivered us from the reign of Satan, and it says that he’s transferred us, if we’ve come to Jesus, into the kingdom of Jesus.

So what this passage is saying is that until you meet Jesus and decide to follow Him, you are clearly in the kingdom of darkness. See, when Jesus sacrificed himself on the cross, he gave us the opportunity to be free. Remember he said he bounds up the strong man so he can plunder the house. You still have to leave that house with Jesus. You have to leave Satan’s house.

And you have to be honest with yourself about which kingdom you’re in right now, because you can’t be in both.

In Ephesians, it talks about how we were dead in our sin when we followed the course of the world. And so you have to ask yourself, are you living to please the world or are you living to serve God? And I want to be clear. I think sometimes those of us who have been baptized and we call ourselves a disciple or Christian, that we can kind of tune this part out like, I’m in the kingdom of the light.

But that doesn’t mean that you can’t follow the course of this world. It doesn’t mean that you can’t step back into the kingdom of darkness just because you’ve been here for a long time or just because your parent is a disciple, it doesn’t mean that you’re in the Kingdom of the light. Just because you come to a church that believes in Jesus doesn’t automatically make you a part of the kingdom of light. We all have to make our own choice. We have to choose to be in the kingdom of the light and we have to choose that daily.

And I want to be clear as we wrap up here in a moment that Jesus is also not bashing or belittling the physical family, your biological family. Jesus is perfect and he knows the law and the commandment about honoring your father and mother. Jesus is simply saying that there’s going to be a priority and a connection that can’t be matched with the people that do the will of God. And that is amazing. I know that there’s all different types of family dynamics in this room and in the world, but no matter what your physical family situation is, you can have a family that goes far beyond blood.

So what are some takeaways from this unique passage of scripture? I just want to give you some things to think about as you go home. Take time to consider the will and work of God. Again, I’m going to keep reiterating it. Tomorrow is a day of prayer and fasting for the Broward Church.

Take some time tonight or tomorrow morning as you get your day started to really pray and meditate on what God’s will for your life is and what areas that you need to put in some hard work to make some changes in your life. Amen. Number two, satan is defeated but not done. I want you to take courage and have confidence that Satan has lost. But don’t be naive because he’s still trying to take you to the losing side with him.

See, Jesus has bound Satan to plunder his house. But like I said a few moments ago, you still have to leave that house. You have to get up and leave that house and go with Jesus. And the last thing, two kingdoms, one choice. See, we will always have the option to choose the dominion of darkness or the kingdom of light.

There’s no dual citizenship. Jesus has bound up Satan so that we can be freed from a life that could have only led to destruction before. And he’s given us the opportunity to have new life, to have new family, all of those beautiful things. So for those of you who are seeking that new life or want to renew that new life or that new family, I want to leave you with the passage that we focused on in CIA camp this week with our middle schoolers and with the parents. It’s Psalm One and I’m just going to read it for you.

It says, blessed is the man who walks not in the council of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers. But his delight is in the law of the Lord. The person is blessed that delights in the law of the Lord. And on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season and its leaf does not wither.

In all that he does, he prospers. The wicked are not so, but are like chaff that the wind drives away. Therefore the wicked will not stand in judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous. For the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish. You know, if you delight in the law of the Lord and meditate on it day and night, you can never go wrong.

My words and your words, they’ll falter. And maybe they even did today. But the word of the Lord never will. Amen. Amen.

Let’s pray for communion together.

Dear Heavenly Father, thank you so much for sending your son God, for allowing us to have the choice between two kingdoms and not be doomed to one. God, I pray that as we take communion together this morning, that we remember that Jesus died on the cross so that Satan would be bound up, so that we would have the opportunity to choose your kingdom, so that we would have the opportunity to have this new family that sits around us this morning. God, that we would have the opportunity to have life to the full. God, I pray that we never look at your power and the things that you’re doing in our lives and attribute it to anything else. God, I pray that we can pray and fast tomorrow and rely on you that we can really want to do your will and do your work.

God, I pray that we never take for granted your family. I pray that we never take for granted your son. God, I pray that our hearts never become like the scribes in this story, but rather, we will know that your son is God, and that’s how he can change lives. That’s how your words can turn someone’s whole life around. God, we love you, we praise you.

It’s in your Son’s name we pray. Amen.