Harvest Pointe Methodist Church

We're going to be in the Old Testament. We're going to be in first kings today. First kings. Now, growing up, there was a couple words that my parents frequently mentioned. And when they would say these particular two words, I did not have to ask for a definition.

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I never asked what they meant by it. Usually it was spoken when me and my brother were in the back seat and we had had enough of each other and we were fussing. And usually I'm sure it was Adam's fault, and he was probably irritating me. But my parents, sometimes my dad would just magically look in that little mirror, and I could see his eyes, and he would say two words. He would say, that's enough.

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Y'all heard it, too. Y'all have dads like I have dads. That's enough. And, you know, something happens as you begin to parenthood. All of a sudden, you hear yourself saying words that you heard growing up, and then I'll look at my kids and I'll say, that's enough.

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And they don't have to ask, oh, what might she mean by that? They know exactly. You better stop what you're doing. I was asking my brother. I said, do you remember hearing, that's enough.

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I felt like we heard that all the time. And he said he was a wrestler, and usually he would be practicing his maneuvers on me, and all of a sudden, mom would say that, enough. It was getting too far. That's enough. On the other side, sometimes in life, we get to hear the words of Jesus at just the right time.

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He'll speak to our hearts. And I tell you, when you hear Jesus speak, it's enough. It's enough. No matter what you're going through, when you hear Jesus speak, it's enough. One year ago today, I was preparing to drop off my son at college.

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And I can tell you that that process, some of you know what that's like. Have you ever left a child at school before? Raise your hand? Some of you have. Yes.

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Yes. It's not an easy process. And so that process of dropping someone off is hard. And I was preparing myself. So I had prayed, and I said, you know what?

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I'm not going to be that mama that sobs as she leaves. And I had seen some Facebook pictures of moms with mascara running down their face. And Eli had warned me, he said, mom, please, please don't post that on Facebook. And I said, of course I wouldn't post that. I mean, who does that?

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Well, a lot of people do. Anyways, I had prepared myself, and I said, you know what, God, on the day I dropped him off at college will be a day of worship. I love to worship. So I'm going to worship my way to Tuscaloosa, and I'm going to worship my way home. That's what I planned to do.

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And so on that day, I did real good, and God helped me, and I dropped him off. And in his dorm, there's four. Four rooms, and everybody's. All the parents are there. His room is set up.

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And Eli gently looks at us and says, are you ready to go? And I'm thinking to myself, you know, there has to be a family that leaves first. Might as well be us. Okay? So we leave.

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And God helped me. And I tell you what, I did not cry. Did not break down until he turned around. And when he left, I did not get off campus before I broke down. And I am driving my dad's borrowed truck because you have so much stuff to take.

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And we learned a lesson, didn't we? We don't need all that stuff. Anyways, we dropped it off. And so as I'm leaving campus, I am sobbing, and I'm trying to cry quiet. Some of you women know what that's like when you try to cry quiet.

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You can't breathe, actually, and so you're trying. And I'm driving, and my youngest son is in the backseat, and my husband's beside me, and I'm pretending nobody can see me. And I've got my music on, worshiping, and I'm trying to cry quiet. And I remember praying. And as I'm in Tuscaloosa, not even

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So here to John, chapter six. So turn with me to the gospel according to. According to John, chapter six. As you know, there are four gospel accounts. And that's why we say the gospel according to.

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That's actually in the title of all of these in the manuscripts is in the ones that do have a title is according to. And a lot of them didn't. Just because we already knew who wrote them and the early church did. So once you find John six, go ahead and stand with me. We're going to, as you remember our gospel reading for five Sundays in a row.

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This is the second Sunday of. That are in John, chapter six. So the church obviously wants us to see what is happening here and the important of these events here. Notice John, chapter six. And we'll begin with verse 24.

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The next day, when the people who remained after the feeding of the 5000 saw that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there they themselves got into the boats and went to Capernaum looking for Jesus. When they found him on the other side of the sea they said to him, rabbi, when did you come here? Jesus said to them, very truly or amen. Amen. I tell you, you are looking for me not because you saw signs but because you ate your fill of the loaves.

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Do not work for the food that perishes but for the food that endures for eternal life which the son of man will give you. For it is on him that God the father has set his seal. Then they said to him, what must we do to perform the works of God? Jesus answered them, this is the work of God that you believe in him whom he has sentence. So they said to him, what sign are you going to give us then so that we may see it and believe you.

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What work are you performing? Our ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness. As it is written, he gave them bread from heaven to eat. Then jesus said to them, very truly, I tell you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven. But it is my father who gives you the true bread from heaven.

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For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world. They said to him, sir, give us this bread always. Jesus said to them, I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. Lord, thank you for your holy word, your divine revelation, written for us inspired by your holy spirit.

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Inerrant in all that it teaches. Help us now to be taught by the very holy spirit who inspired these words. We pray in your name. Amen and you can be seated.

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Our Old Testament reading today was from Exodus 16. And if you know the story of the Exodus and of the people of Israel, one thing kind of surfaces with them quite frequently, and that is they complain. Have you ever noticed that, like, over and over again we find them complaining? Now we looking back on them, sort of give them a hard time about this, don't we? What in the world, guys?

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Like, he just delivered you out of egyptian slavery, which would have been a superpower, okay? I mean, back in the day at least, would have been a superpower, and even during this time was a superpower in the world. And here, God delivers them, Yahweh delivers them out of egyptian slavery. And then with signs, remember ten plagues that were signs, okay? Miracle.

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Remember we talked about that term? Sign is miracle here, miracle is sign pointing to something more than just that event. And ten signs, okay? Gives them ten signs along with the Egyptians, and then they come to the Red Sea. Ah, you brought us out to kill us.

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And then he delivers them through the Red Sea on dry ground. You remember this, right? Like miracle upon miracle. And then they get out to the desert and we hear them complaining. Now the whole, you know, we wish we were back in Egypt eating flesh pots, you know, an

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To the gospel according to John. Okay? Gospel according to John. And I say that with emphasis because as you may know, we've been in, well, you tell me where have we been this year? In Mark.

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Right? So we've been in the gospel of Mark and in particular for the past three weeks we've been in mark six. And so now we jump over, the lectionary readings have us jumping over to John chapter six. And interestingly, we are going to be in John six for five weeks. Okay?

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Now, it is a long chapter and it is a pivotal chapter. It is really ground zero for our faith, all right? And it's ground zero for why we have the sanctuary set up in the way that we do, all right? It is the central, maybe if we could say it this way. Miracle and remembrance and command of Jesus.

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It is the exact way that we are told to remember him. And he tells us to remember him in this way. And so once you found, and if you would just. I'm encouraging here the past couple weeks just to grab a Bible. There should be one better.

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There's some behind you there, buddy, if somebody can hand you. But there should be one in the basket, one of the baskets there. Pull it up on your phone, whatever. I'd like for you to look at this with me. This is John, chapter six.

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And when you found that, go ahead and stand. So John, chapter six. And we're going to begin here at the beginning of the chapter. Notice these words. This is the word of God.

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Jesus went to the other side of the sea of Galilee also called the Sea of Tiberias. A large crowd kept following him because they saw the signs that he was doing for the sick. Jesus went up the mountain and sat down there with his disciples. Now the passover, the festival of the Jews, was near when he looked up and saw a large crowd coming toward him Jesus said to Philip, where are we to buy bread for these people to eat? He said this to test him for he himself knew what he was going to do.

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Philip answered him, six months wages would not buy enough bread for each of them to get a little. One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, said to him, there is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish. But what are they among so many people? Jesus said, make the people sit down. Now, there was a great deal of grass in the place so they all sat down, about 5000.

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Then jesus took the loaves. When he had given thanks he distributed them to those who were seated so also the fish as much as they wanted. When they were satisfied. He told his disciples, gather up the fragments left over so that nothing may be lost. So they gathered them up and from the fragments of the five barley loaves left by those who had eaten they filled twelve baskets.

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When the people saw the sign that he had done they began to say, this is indeed the prophet who is to come into the world. When jesus realized that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king he withdrew again to the mountain by himself. When evening came, his disciples went down to the sea got into a boat and started across the sea of Capernaum. Sorry, across the sea to Capernaum. It was now dark and jesus had not yet come to them.

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The sea became rough because a strong wind was blowing. When they rode about three or 4 miles they saw Jesus walking on the sea and coming near the boat. And they were terrified. But he said to them, it is I, do not be afraid. Then they wanted to take him into the boat.

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And immediately the boat reached the land toward which they were going. Jesus, thank you for your word. We pray now that the same spirit that inspired these words from the apostle John to us this morning as your holy, inerrant word, Lord, may that same spirit speak to us today. Heal us, transform us. Give us a sign today.

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We pray in your name

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To the gospel according to Mark, chapter six. The Gospel of Mark, chapter six. And you may be thinking to yourself, possibly, oh, we've been in mark six for a few weeks now, and that would be correct. We have been. And so grab a Bible there. There should be one in your, in the seat in front of you, or at least on that row that you're on. If you would just grab a Bible and just crack it open to Mark, chapter six. And when you found that, go ahead and stand with me. And then we're going to start reading at verse 30. And you can see that this is right after our lesson from last week, our scripture reading from last week with John and Herod. So notice these words as found in Mark, chapter six, verse 30. The apostles gathered around Jesus and told him all that they had done and taught. And he said to them, come away to a deserted place all by yourselves and rest awhile. For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat. And they went away in the boat to a deserted place by themselves. Now, many saw them going and recognized them, and they hurried there on foot from all the towns and arrived ahead of them. As he went ashore, he saw a great crowd, and he had compassion for them because they were like sheep without a shepherd. And he began to teach them many things. Then, if you will, drop down to verse 53. Now, when they had crossed over, they came to land at Gennesaret and moored the boat. When they got out of the boat, people at once recognized him and rushed about that whole region and began to bring the sick on mats to wherever they heard he was. And wherever he went, into villages or cities or arms. They laid the sick in the marketplaces and begged him that they might touch even the fringe of his cloak or the hem of his garment. And all who touched were healed. Jesus, thank you for your holy word. We pray now that the same holy spirit who inspired these words would speak to our hearts this morning. Lord, we need your voice in our life. Speak to us now. We pray in your name. Amen. You can be seated. Now, we've been all over chapter six, and in fact, we've read almost the whole chapter except for 17 verses. All right. I counted them up this morning and I said, interesting, what 17 verses here are we missing? And it really is between the space that we skipped over here. We read from 30 to 34, and then we picked up again 53 to 56. But is there anything that happens here, what we miss in these 70 verses? And most of the time, I would say that probably not much, you know, because sometimes when you're reading through there's just this moving here, moving there, whatever. But interestingly, today the church has us reading these particular verses. I say the church because the lectionary readings are hundreds and hundreds of years old. All right? And so it's not like I designed them to be matching right here today in this way. But rather they've been given to us and they're on a three year cycle like we always talk about. And these come about but they skip over 17 verses in chapter six. So we read the whole thing except for these 17 verses. And I said, what in the world are we missing here? And I thought to myself, probably not much, but in fact it's actually kind of a lot here in these 17 verses. You know, what happens is once he has compassion on them they then realize there's nothing to eat and no one has enough money to buy everybody food and cater it in. So what are they going to do? So Jesus, as you know, takes a little lunch, right? And he multiplies it. You remember this feeding? 5000 mendinh. Okay, now note, 5000 men. That means there's way more than that because the men are with their wives more than likely and with their children. Okay? So we're talking over 5000. But this is known as the feeding of the 5000. And then right after that, they get in a boat and guess what happens? Jesus is seen walking in the middle of the night when the sea is troubled on the water. So you have the feeding of the 5000, which

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Gospel according to Mark, chapter six. Gospel according to Mark, chapter six. And you'll know. And if you don't, you'll know now that in year B, which is the second of three years, we are primarily in the Gospel of Mark, which is one of my favorite gospels. To be honest.

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If you've never studied Mark, you really should give it a real go. It's the shortest of the gospels, but maybe the most powerfully crafted one in the sense that it's like a punch. He really, he gives us several times in his gospel, more detail, but then other times less detail. So the way he's writing here is obviously led by the Holy Spirit, but also very maximally impactful is the way I would say it. And so once you find Mark six, go ahead and stand with me as we read these words and really quite shocking words this morning.

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Notice here in mark, chapter six, and then we'll pick up with where we left off last week. Really, almost the whole chapter is going to be read with verse 14. Notice these words. This is the word of God. King Herod heard of Jesus his disciples, for Jesus name had become known.

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Some were saying, John the baptizer has been raised from the dead, and for this reason these powers are at work in him. But others said, it is Elijah. And others said, it is a prophet like one of the prophets of old. But when Herod heard of it, he said, john, whom I beheaded has been raised. For Herod himself had sent men who arrested John, bound him and put him in prison on account of Herodias, his brother Philip's wife, because Herod had married her.

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For John had been telling Herod, it is not lawful for you to have your brother's wife. And Herodias had a grudge against him and wanted to kill him. But she could not. For Herod feared John, knowing that he was a righteous and holy man, and he protected him. When he heard him, he was greatly perplexed, and yet he liked to listen to him.

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But an opportunity came when Herod, on his birthday, gave a banquet for his courtiers and officers and for the leaders of Galilee. When his daughter Herodias came in and danced, she pleased Herod and his guests. And the king said to the girl, ask me for whatever you wish and I will give it. And he solemnly swore to her, whatever you ask me, I will give you even half of my kingdom. She went out and said to her mother, what should I ask for?

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She replied, the head of John the baptizer. Immediately she rushed back to the king and requested, I want you to give me at once the head of John the Baptist on a platter. The king was deeply grieved, yet out of regard for his oaths and for the guests, he did not want to refuse her. Immediately, the king sent a soldier of the guard with orders to bring John's head. He went and beheaded him in the prison, brought his head on a platter and gave it to the girl.

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Then the girl gave it to her mother. When his disciples heard about it, they came and took his body and laid it in a tomb. Jesus, thank you for your holy word. We pray now that as you have placed this story in the scriptures for a purpose, that you would reveal that purpose this morning and that you would speak to our hearts, and that not only would we listen, but we would obey. We pray in your name.

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Amen. You can be seated.

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One of the things that I love about preaching through the lectionary is that it forces you to preach on verses or pericles sections of scripture that you normally wouldn't. And I must admit, this is one that I would not have chosen myself to preach from. In fact, I've never preached from this passage of scripture before. And it's quite intimidating, really, to look at, and especially in light of the events of even yesterday, where someone was. Where former President Trump was almost assassinated, to quiet his voice, one would assume.

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And in this same way, certainly,

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Six. Go with me to mark the Gospel of Mark, chapter six. And you may know that as we are in year b of the lectionary cycle, that is a focus on the gospel of Mark, which is one of my favorite gospels, by the way, not just because it's the shortest, but because he really packs a punch, honestly. Like, when you read Mark, there's just certain things that he says differently than Matthew or Luke or John, of course, which is not one of the synoptics. But nonetheless, he says it in such a way that it just kind of gets you right in the.

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Almost like James. He reminds me of the epistle of James. Has anybody read that one? Boy, you really want to punch to the gut. You know, some of us like that.

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It's like, just give it to me, man. You know? Read Mark. Read James. Okay, let's all stand once you find Mark, chapter six, and we'll just start reading here from verse one.

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Notice these words. This is the word of God. Jesus came to his hometown, and his disciples followed him on the Sabbath. He began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were astounded. They said, where did this man get all this?

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What is this wisdom that has been given to him? What deeds of power are being done by his hands? Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon? And are not his sisters with us? And they took offense at him.

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Then Jesus said to them, prophets are not without honor except in their hometown and among their own kin and in their own house. And he could do no deed of power there, except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and cured them. And he was amazed at their unbelief. Then he went about among the villages, teaching. He called the twelve and began to send them out two by two and gave them authority over the unclean spirits.

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He ordered them to take nothing for their journey except a staff, no bread, no bag, no money in their belts, but to wear sandals and not to put on two tunics. He said to them, wherever you enter a house, stay there until you leave the place, if any place will not welcome you. And they refuse to hear you as you leave. Shake off the dust that is on your feet as a testimony against them. So they went out and proclaimed that all should repent.

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They cast out many demons and anointed with oil many who were sick and cured them. Jesus, thank you for your word. We pray now that the same holy spirit who inspired these words would inspire our hearts this morning. As you speak to us. We pray in your name.

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Amen. You can be seated.

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Well, what a passage. And one that upon first reading is a bit shocking, I might say, and maybe even confusing at a certain point. But I don't want to start here in Mark first, but rather go straight back to our Old Testament reading. And, you know, I'm not going to give you a test, but we always should be hearing the word of God because these Old Testament readings actually are going to always correspond in ordinary time or proper time, as we call this season of the church. They're always going to correspond with each other, working off of each other, as it were, I complementing one another.

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And so when we go back to that Ezekiel reading, as you may recall, it's interesting that this is actually Ezekiel's call. And of course, Ezekiel, you may remember, was trained for 30 years to be a priest. So he's actually trained to be a priest. And this would have been kind of from early childhood all the way up to 30 years old. And in jewish society in Israel, in the Old Testament at 30, you would have finally now been able to practice what it is.

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You're in that ordination track, and now you get to practice actually being in the temple, handling the holy things and so on and so forth. You would have officially became a priest. And isn

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To be back here. I was here at the end of May, and we did not know that I would be back at the end of June. So how gracious of you to allow me to be back. I do appreciate it. I am Emily.

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Justin was kind. He could have shared so much and he restricted himself. And I appreciate it. If you will stand with me, I'm going to read from the Gospel of Mark. Mark, chapter five.

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And I am reading from the Niv. And I start in verse 21. When Jesus had again crossed over by boat to the other side of the lake, a large crowd gathered around him while he was by the lake. Then one of the synagogue leaders named Jairus came, and when he saw Jesus, he fell at his feet. He pleaded earnestly with him, my little daughter is dying.

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Please come and put your hands on her so that she will be healed and live. So Jesus went with him. A large crowd followed and pressed around him, and a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years. And she had suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors and had spent all she had. Yet instead of getting better, she grew worse.

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When she heard about Jesus. She came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, because she thought, if I just touch his clothes, I will be healed. Immediately her bleeding stopped, and she felt in her body that she was freed from her suffering. At once Jesus realized that power had gone out from him, and he turned around in the crowd and he asked, who touched my clothes? You see the people crowding against you?

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His disciples answered, and yet you can ask, who touched me? But Jesus kept looking around to see who had done it. Then the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell at his feet and trembling with fear, told him the whole truth. He said to her, daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering.

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While Jesus was still speaking, some people came from the house of Jairus, the synagogue leader. Your daughter is dead, they said, why bother the teacher anymore? Over hearing what they said, jesus told him, don't be afraid, just believe. He did not let anyone follow him except Peter, James, and John, the brother of James. When they came to the house of the synagogue leader, Jesus saw a commotion with people crying and wailing loudly.

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He went in and said to them, why all this commotion and wailing? The child is not dead, but asleep. But they laughed at him. After he put all out, he took the child's father and mother and the disciples who were with him and went in where the child was. He took her by the hand and he said to her, talitha kum, which means little girl, I say to you, get up.

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And immediately the girl stood up and began to walk around. She was twelve years old at this. They were completely astonished. He gave strict orders to not let anyone know about this and told them to give her something to eat. Let's pray.

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Holy Spirit, we thank you for your presence in this place. And I pray God that you would use your word today. Would you bring truth in awareness of your presence? God, we give you all room to do whatever you want to do. May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight.

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Lord, you are my strength and you are my redeemer. Have your way in this place. We pray. Amen. And you may be seated.

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The title of the message today is, only believe. Only believe. When I was here last time, our passage was in Isaiah. You may remember, he saw the king. And it was only when the little cave king died did he get a vision of who the real king is.

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And he saw the king seated on the throne. And you have this scene where the seraphim, the fiery one, took hot coal from the altar and touched his mouth. It was interesting that while I was preaching tha

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He just wanted to help, man. I think we have an up and coming preacher, is what it sounds like to me. Hey, if you would turn with me to the gospel according to Mark, chapter four. The gospel according to Mark, chapter four. And as you know, in year b of the three year cycle of liturgical readings we're in, Mark.

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Mark is our main gospel. And so each year, your a, B, and C all have an emphasis. And so year a, Matthew B, Mark C, Luke, and all throughout all three years is the gospel of John spaced out. So it's kind of neat how they do that. And so, as we read through our readings each and every Sunday, we're going to get really in a.

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If you stay with us for three years, you will have read almost all of the gospels. Okay? Together, we all read it publicly from our mouth. And so this particular story here, when you find Mark four, if you would stand with me for our gospel reading this morning. This particular gospel is actually found in Matthew eight and Luke eight, as well as Mark four.

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So all three of the synoptics, you remember the synoptic just means similar gospels contain this story. They actually have this story. And so notice these words here as found in mark, chapter four, verse 35. When evening had come, Jesus said to his disciples, let us go across to the other side. And leaving the crowd behind, they took him with them in the boat, just as he was.

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Other boats were with them. A great windstorm arose, and the waves beat into the boat so that the boat was already being swamped. But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion. And they woke him up and said to him, teacher, do you not care that we are perishing? He woke up and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, peace, be still.

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Then the wind ceased, and there was a dead calm. He said to them, why are you afraid? Have you still no faith? And they were filled with great awe and said to one another, who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him? Jesus, we thank you for your word.

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We pray now that your holy spirit would come among us and teach us, enlighten us, encourage us, rebuke us, and turn us to Jesus. We pray in your name. Amen. And you can be seated.

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Well, what a story. If you were to ever come into my office here you will see two pictures, paintings, I should say, that are on the wall. Big size paintings, both of them I purchased. And, you know, they weren't just cheap, either, because they're kind of big, and they're, of course, replicas. Okay.

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They're not original Rembrandt paintings. Okay? So don't think I spent, like, a lot of money on them somehow. A hundred in dollars or so, okay? But I got these big pictures from, like, art.com, and they're paintings, and both of them really mean something to me.

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But both of them came out of a very difficult season in my life, a time where I was in a storm, and I really didn't know if I was going to make it. I really didn't. I wondered about if I was going to drown. And both of these paintings in my office represent certain parts of that journey, parts of that season. And one of them is called Hope.

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And you've probably seen it before, and I've talked about it before, but you can imagine how that helps in the storm, hope, it's all dark, it's all dreary, but there's one little star at the very top of the painting, almost off the border of it. If you don't have a careful eye for the painting, you really won't even see it. It's just a little. One little star, but it's enough to give you hope. All right?

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And that's kind of the point of the painting. And then the other one is actually by Rembrandt, and it is Jesus on the stormy sea. And it's a very famous painting. In fact, if you can recollect the painting, maybe from art appreciation class or something, you'll know that it's the disciples in

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Whenever you get there, please stand and then drop. Down to verse 26.

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Jesus said, the kingdom of God is as if someone would scatter seed on the ground and would sleep and rise night and day, and the seed would sprout and grow. He does not know how the earth produces of itself. First the stalk, then the head, then the full grain in the head. But when the grain is ripe at once, he goes in with his sickle, because the harvest has come. He also said, with what can we compare the kingdom of God?

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Or what parable will we use for it? It is like a mustard seed, which when sown upon the ground, is is the smallest of all the seeds on earth. Yet when it is sown, it grows up and becomes the greatest of all shrubs and puts forth large branches so that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade. With many such parables, he spoke the word to them as they were able to hear it. He did not speak to them except in parables, but he explained everything in private to his disciples.

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You may be seated.

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Jesus talks a lot about the kingdom of God. And if you don't know what the kingdom of God means, then you can get pretty confused, especially in today's reading. And, you know, before studying it last time, I really thought that the kingdom of God was heaven. It seems to make sense, considering that the kingdom of God and the kingdom of heaven are used interchangeably. And, you know, it does have the word heaven in it.

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But when we look at the actual context around the kingdom of God and the kingdom of heaven, we get into the deeper meaning of it. The first thing I want to say about the kingdom of heaven or the kingdom of God is that Jesus is not talking about heaven. He's not describing physical aspects when he speaks about the kingdom of God. Instead, it is meaning is a little bit closer to home. The kingdom of God is God's reign on earth, which, of course, he reigns over everything.

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But how can we spread the kingdom of God if he already rules everything? Well, to understand that, we have to understand that you can reject the kingdom of God. Rejecting the kingdom of God leads to sin, while accepting it leads to a relationship with God and to heaven. When we are saved, we enter into the kingdom of God. We can't be a part of the kingdom of God without being a follower of Jesus.

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We also have to understand the difference between spreading the gospel and spreading the kingdom of God. Many people often talk about spreading the gospel, but not as many people talk about spreading the kingdom of God. Well, we should spreading the kingdom of God is something Jesus talks about a lot, actually, so we too should be kingdom oriented. Of course, Jesus kingdom is not a physical kingdom with knights and regiments of Calvary. Instead, it is a spiritual kingdom.

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It is seen through the eyes of faith, not by sight. There is a king in this kingdom, and he is the king of kings. Jesus. There are also servants in this kingdom. We are the servants of the king, serving under his rulership.

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So back to the original question, how can we spread the kingdom of God? It's by spreading the word of God. It is by teaching people about the gospel and by bringing them to Jesus. Now we understand what it means by the kingdom of God. But what about parables?

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What are they? And why does Jesus teach in parables? Parables are stories that teach something both morally and spiritually. St. Mark, believe it or not, actually, the person who wrote the Gospel of Mark actually discusses Jesus use of parables in these verses.

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In verse 34, he says, in fact, in his public ministry, he never taught without using parables. But afterward, when he was alone with his disciples, he explained everything to them. So why did he only teach in parables? Well, one reason is that p

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Me to the gospel according to Mark, chapter three. The gospel according to Mark, chapter three. You remember that in year b we're in the Gospel of Mark primarily. And so once you have found Mark three, verse 20, go ahead and stand with me for our gospel reading this morning.

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Notice these words as found in mark three. And then, starting with verse 20, the crowd came together again so that Jesus and his disciples could not even eat. When his family heard it, they went out to restrain him, for people were saying, he has gone out of his mind. And the scribes who came down from Jerusalem said, he has beelzebul. And by the ruler of the demons, he cast out demons, and he called them to him and spoke to them in parables.

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How can Satan cast out Satan? If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. And if a house is divided against itself, the house will not be able to stand. And if Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand. But his end has come.

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But no one can enter a strong man's house and plunder his property without first tying up the strongman. Then indeed, the house can be plundered. Truly, I tell you, people will be forgiven for their sins and whatever blasphemies they utter. But whoever blasphemes against the Holy spirit can never have forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin. For they had said, he has an unclean spirit.

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Then his mother and his brothers came, and standing outside, they sent to him and called him. A crowd was sitting around him, and they said to him, your mother and your brothers and sisters are outside asking for you. And he replied, who are my mother and my brothers? And looking at those who sat around him, he said, here are my mother and my brothers. Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother.

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Jesus, we thank you for your holy word. We pray now that you would send your spirit to enlighten us today and speak to us as those who would do the will of God. We pray in your name. Amen. And you can be seated.

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Last week, I mentioned marking time that every day is not just the same as the other day, but rather we're actually called to mark certain days as unique. And some of you are celebrating birthdays or anniversaries. I've seen all kind of stuff on facebook, and it is good to mark certain days. And we, too, as Christians, we mark certain days in a liturgical calendar. So it's not just that we follow the gregorian calendar, which, again, is a christian invention.

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You got to look that up sometimes because it's very precise mathematically. In fact, it's the most mathematically precise calendar that has ever existed in humanity. All right? And there's been a lot of calendars, by the way. Okay?

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And Muslims, as you may know, still follow a different one. But the gregorian calendar, christian invention, they are based on marking certain days. All right? Now, we also have what we call, though, as I said, a liturgical calendar. Now this term, liturgy.

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And we oftentimes will say that, you know, liturgical paraments or the liturgical colors or what have you, this term just means the work of the people. And that is to say that when we worship, there is something that a leader would do, or an officiant or a clergy member, or as the song just said, the preacher. It's me who's standing in the prayer, not the preacher alone. Right? Not your neighbor boy, that's a good message, isn't it?

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It's not so and so. That's the problem. It's right here. Point those thumbs right back to yourself. Right.

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I'm in the need of prayer. Right. Okay. Well, liturgy means the work of the people, which is to say that when we worship, you have a part as much as I have a part, as much as the music team has a part, as much as Derek had a part this morning, y

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