Abundant Life Christian Fellowship Service Live Stream

[Music] [Music] [Music] so [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] so [Music] [Applause] [Music] so [Music] [Applause] [Music] so [Music] [Applause] [Music] so [Music] so [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] me [Music] uh [Music] [Applause] [Music] hmm [Music] me [Music] foreign [Music] hey [Music] ready [Music] hey [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] so [Music] so [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] so [Music] everything we do flows from what we value authentic relationships intentional discipleship and sacrificial mission simply stated abundant life exists to know jesus and to make him known this is a lcm [Music] good morning abundant life praise the lord why don't you stand to your feet and let's go ahead and sing practice sickness [Music] sickness [Music] yes lord yes lord yes yes [Music] if [Music] for the joy [Music] [Music] we [Music] yes [Music] yes [Music] it's so good to know we can trade all of our sorrows all of our pain our sickness train all of that for the joy of the lord [Music] but joy comes in the my morning [Music] sickness [Music] let's sing that yes church come on say yes to the lord [Music] yes lord yes hallelujah we say yes to you lord yes to your will yes to your way father [Music] just center your hearts on the lord jesus christ inviting his holy spirit to move everything that needs to be pushed [Music] breathe on us [Music] the fragrance of heaven [Music] oh [Music] is [Music] [Music] is [Music] a fragrance [Music] the power of your presence [Music] foreign [Music] we can hear the wind blowing blowing move [Music] we upon hear the wind [Music] we can [Music] the power holy your presence [Music] so [Applause] please uh stay standing and let's pray [Music] god we ask for the very thing that we have just sung about we ask that you would pour your spirit out in this place god we come in with all kinds of junk from the week we come in with cares we come in with concerns we come with fears anxieties burdens and you tell us to cast our cares onto you so we ask god that your spirit would move in this room this morning we pray god that this would not be attendance at a performance but it would be an encounter with the living god we invite god your holy spirit here in this place we confess god that we are sinful people we have done things that we should not have done we have not done things that we should have done we have fallen short of the standard that you have set for us and yet we can still enter into your presence not because of anything we've done but because of the finished work of jesus christ on the cross and so we come and we stand on his blood this morning and we enter into your presence and we say god please feed us with the bread of life please give us water to drink that those of us who are thirsty may be fulfilled god there are many things we want to bring before you in prayer this morning as a body we don't only want to pray for ourselves we don't only want to remember ourselves internally we want to have eyes to see what is happening in the world and so god we lift up the country of haiti to you this morning god we pray that you would move in that place we pray god we pray if there are survivors who have not been found from this earthquake that they would be found god we ask that you would preserve life in that place god we pray that you would raise up peoples and nations across the world to come and help and support that country which has been through so much in these last years please be with the people of haiti this morning be with the people be with the church in haiti this morning as well and god we also want to remember the country of afghanistan this morning we are all distraught to see the news that is coming out of the country of afghanistan and i've even heard this morning personally from people who know folks who are there that there are already threats of recant your christian faith or face execution god pour out your spirit on the country of afghanistan now we ask you have many in that country who are yours and we ask that your spirit would guard them and protect them and strengthen them we do not believe god that anything in this world happens outside of your control that you decree it or that you allow it and so we don't believe that you are surprised by what is happening but we still come to you on behalf of our brothers and sisters in christ who are in afghanistan and our brothers and sisters in the human race who are in afghanistan god that you would bring peace that you would bring order that you would bring stability that you would bring the basic provision for the necessities of life food and clean water to that place give the world leaders wisdom as to how to act and what to do in light of the situation that is unfolding there and then finally god closer to home we know that a lot of our students are going back to school we know that a lot of parents are sending kids back to school a lot of folks who work in schools are going back to schools and we pray that you would cover that we pray for safety we pray god that you would guard the schools that you would that you would not allow the virus to spread there that you would allow the social interaction which so many have been longing for over the last year and a half to to to grow and develop in the way that you made us to live in community we pray for our students we pray for those in our body who are working in schools as teachers or administrators please be with them as they return to in-person learning and now god allow us to push out the distractions of our day the distractions of our week our worries and our cares our anxieties and allow us god to focus on you the author and perfecter of our faith we love you help us to love you more in jesus name amen you can be seated good morning we're gonna try one i mean it was okay we're gonna try it one more time good morning it's it's amazing how the second time you just rise to the occasion it's so good to see all of you welcome to church my name is gary anderson i have the tremendous privilege of serving as a pastor here at abundant life christian fellowship and we are going to do something now uh as we have been almost like four or five months now that we've been back in person and we've been doing everything we can to keep the service kind of to a shorter length especially for those who are on the live stream welcome to those of you who are on the live stream what you are going to see is we're going to start adding back just a few elements we're not going long but just a few elements back into our service and one that i think is critical and i have missed and some of you who are new are going to be like i did not miss that one we are going to start welcoming people who are new to our church again in the service [Applause] so if you are new to abundant life if you are here either for the first time today or if you have come for the first time in the last few months since we have been back to meeting in person would you be willing would you be brave enough to stand up where you're at so that we can just welcome you and see who god is bringing to our body and we will welcome you absolutely [Applause] [Applause] that is awesome you can be seated welcome we are so glad that you are here and we are so glad that you have chosen to join us after the service we're asking everyone to exit the sanctuary as quickly as possible but you will notice when you leave today there is a tent set up out there that tent is not for all of you oh geez if you are new and would like to meet me i would love to meet you under that tent just get to know you a little bit answer any questions you might have about our church i'll shake your hand or i'll give you a fist bump or i'll give you a wave whatever you're comfortable with but if you are new to our church we'd love to meet you and get to know you just a little bit underneath that tent after service today we're now going to have our announcements for the week so if you will direct your attention to the screens we'll have them via video here's what's going on at alcf all safari kids classes are now open and pre-registration is required for more info about registration and safety precautions go to alcf.net forward safari kids worship team auditions are now open if you have musical or vocal experience and are interested in auditioning for our worship team please contact junior tagatta at jr.tagatta alcf.net alcf prayer gatherings provide opportunities to come together in prayer for our families communities nation and beyond please join us for one of our four regular zoom prayer gatherings and for more details go to alcf.net forward slash zoom stay informed and up to date on what's going on at alcf by signing up for our weekly newsletter at alcf.net forward slash newsletter abundant life exists to know jesus and to make him known [Applause] we're now going to continue our worship with the giving of our tithes and our offerings so if you would stand and say our giving liturgy which is up on the screen with me as for the rich in this present age charge them not to be haughty nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches but on god who richly provides us with everything to enjoy they are to do good to be rich in good works to be generous and ready to share thus storing up treasure for themselves as a good foundation for the future so that they may take hold of that which is truly life amen a body life is time to give you can do it online you can do it on our app or you can do it in any one of the giving boxes located throughout the sanctuary or in the lobby uh we just would ask that you would do that on your way out of the sanctuary at the end of service let's continue now with our worship [Music] is [Music] [Music] salvation [Music] purchase of god [Music] this is my story this is [Music] this is my story this is [Music] [Music] perfect [Music] [Music] is [Music] [Music] perfect submission is [Music] me [Music] is [Music] my story this is [Music] this is my story this is my song praising my savior [Music] this is [Music] glory to god [Music] uh this is a really cool morning uh as i share with the worship team in our pre-service huddle because our worship team this morning is entirely people from our congregation we have been praying that god would raise up a worship team internally from our church and he did it way faster than we could have expected so i want to say thank you to you all i want to say thank you to junior who has been instrumental in doing this and um i also want to remind you if god has gifted you vocally or instrumentally and you feel like he might be nudging you to potentially audition for our worship team we would welcome that let's pray god we ask now that you would quiet our hearts as we turn to your word your words are literally the words of life and we come to them this morning knowing that we do not have any life in and of ourselves the only life that we have is on borrow from you the author of life and so we asked god that you would speak into us this morning we need to hear from you we need to know you more we need to know you better because you are like our power pack you are where we get our our energy for life not in like a weird spiritual sense but in in a biblical godly sense so we ask that you would allow us to plug into you in this moment that you would speak to us that you would speak to our hearts that this would not just be an academic exercise in gaining more head knowledge about god but that this would be an experiential exercise in encountering the living god this is not about a performance god or a or a well thought through presentation of a passage of scripture this is simply to witness to the truth that you are life and we are lost without you so we ask that you would speak to us now speak through me i ask in jesus name amen you can be seated i'm not going to walk the aisles i just forgot my water i wanted to grab that uh we're continuing our series in mark called let's go and so uh we're just back in mark chapter three we're gonna start in verse 13 and we're gonna read through verse 35 mark 13 mark 3 13 through verse 35. i'll give you about five seconds to meet me there mark 3 13. this is what it says it says and he went up on the mountain and called to him those whom he desired and they came to him and he appointed 12 whom he also named apostles so that they might be with him and he might send them out to preach and have authority to cast out demons he appointed the twelve simon to whom he gave the name peter james the son of zebedee and john the brother of james to whom he gave the name boanerges that is sons of thunder how would it be to be called by jesus the sons of thunder i got a couple sons of thunder andrew and philip and bartholomew and matthew and thomas and james the son of alphaeus and thaddeus and simon the canaanian and judas iscariot who betrayed him then he went home and the crowd gathered again so that they could not even eat and when his family heard it they went out to seize him for they were saying he is out of his mind and the scribes who came down from jerusalem we're saying he is possessed by beelzebub and by the prince of demons he cast out demons and he called them to him and said to them in parables 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 that house will not be able to stand and if satan has risen up against himself and is divided he cannot stand but is coming to an end but no one can enter a strong man's house and plunder his goods unless he first binds the strong man then indeed he may plunder his house truly i say to you all sins will be forgiven the children of man and whatever blasphemies they utter but whoever blasphemes against the holy spirit never has forgiveness but is guilty of an eternal sin for they had said he has an unclean spirit and his mother and his brothers came and standing outside they sent to him and called him and a crowd was sitting around him and they said to him your mother and your brothers are outside seeking you and he answered them who are my mother and my brothers and looking about at those who sat around him he said here are my mother and my brothers whoever does the will of god he is my brother and sister and mother this is the word of the lord thanks be to god doug was born in new york city he spent his childhood in connecticut and the greater boston area he was a very gifted student and he went to dartmouth college and earned a degree in economics after dartmouth he went on to harvard where he earned an mba and after harvard he got a job at one of the largest and most prestigious investment firms in the world called pimco pacific investment management company and that job brought him out here to southern california and over the next few decades he worked his way up through the ranks at pimco until he was eventually named ceo chief operating officer and then a few years after that he was named ceo chief executive officer doug and his wife had five children and when his oldest a daughter was getting ready to finish high school and looking at college she wanted to go to georgetown or they wanted her to go to georgetown or both they wanted she wanted to get into georgetown about that time doug was introduced to a man who also lived in southern california named william singer he went by the name of rick and doug was told that rick could help him because he was a college admittance consultant he could help his daughter potentially get into georgetown and when he met when doug met with rick rick told him here's what i think we should do i think we should have your daughter apply as a tennis player as a tennis recruit to georgetown the problem was doug's daughter didn't play tennis oops but they went ahead with the plan anyway so they filled out an application they submitted even a picture of doug's daughter playing tennis and after a sizable donation to one of rick singer's non-profits doug's daughter was admitted to georgetown university they did it for another daughter who got into usc as a soccer recruit she didn't play soccer he did it for a son who got into usc as a football recruit though the highest level of football he had ever played was his freshman football in my manuscript i have in brackets insert usc football joke here so you played freshman football we'll take you as many of us know in 2019 this whole scheme came crashing down when the federal government announced the loudest loudest was loud the largest prosecution of its kind ever and dozens of individuals and families were uh accused and then convicted of cheating lying and stealing their way into elite universities all over this country doug hodge douglas hodge former ceo of pimco it cost him a lot more to send his children to some nice very elite schools than he expected it was more than just the tuition room and board and the donations that he made to rick singer's non-profit organizations it cost him nine months in prison 29 days of which were in solitary confinement because of covid protocols 750 000 500 hours of community service not to mention the loss of his reputation integrity and the public shame and humiliation that he had to go through when doug hodge met rick singer he was faced with a decision doug had gone to some of the finest business schools in our country frankly some of the finest business schools in our world so whether he knew consciously he was doing this or whether it just happened subconsciously doug hodge would have been very familiar with a concept that we call a cost benefit analysis now i see some of your eyes glazing over as i say that you're like i don't do spreadsheets i don't do numbers pastor don't be bringing this business stuff into church a cost benefit analysis is very simple to understand you don't have to go to business school to understand it here's what it is when you are faced with a decision it is simply trying to ascertain what will the costs of this decision be weighed against what are the perceived benefits of making this decision and then making your decision based on how you can perceive those two sides of the equation to come out if we could ask doug hodge today was it worth it to cheat to send your kids to these elite universities i think we know what his answer would be he wrote an op-ed in the wall street journal last year titled i wish i had never met rick singer the cost what he thought up front would just be not that big of a deal for someone of his wealth the the donations to the non-profit and the tuition and room and board didn't seem like that big of a deal in hindsight the cost was much greater than he could have ever anticipated the college admissions scandal of 2019 provides an amazing picture into the human heart amazing window into the human heart it does so for many ways and pastors and sociologists for decades to come we'll be using it as illustrations and case studies but the thing i want to point out today is this that college admission scandal speaks to the longing of every human heart we all long to be part of something special we all long to feel like we are part of something bigger than ourselves and in the case of the college admissions scandal it was for these kids in these families they wanted to go to an elite school and feel like they were some of they were part of something special but we all have that feeling inside of us we all have a longing to feel like we are part of something special like we are part of something bigger than ourselves it's why country clubs are so successful it's why swim and racket clubs are so successful it's why alumni associations and rotary clubs it's why peloton and soul cycle and crossfit are so successful because they scratch the itch inside each of our souls to feel like we are part of something bigger than ourselves the problem is none of those things can actually fulfill what the longing in our heart is they just begin to scratch the surface we're continuing today obviously in our series in mark called let's go and as we get to this section of mark uh mark has given us a picture through the first two and a half chapters of his gospel of who jesus is what he was doing and what he was claiming and the verses that we are looking at today are like marks i want to give you a heads up on something about what it means to follow jesus so mark has told us that that jesus has called some disciples to himself in the in verse 13 which we're about to dig into in just a minute or two he tells us that jesus has extended that call to more disciples beyond just the five that he already has named out by name and you can almost hear mark saying to the gentiles in rome that he is writing this letter to this gospel to he's saying hey look jesus may call you to be his disciple too but you need to know if you receive that call there are some costs and there are some benefits to becoming a disciple of jesus in these verses that we are looking at today mark is giving us he's helping us by giving us his cost benefit analysis for what it means to become a disciple of jesus christ and here's the first thing we learn the first thing we learn in this text is that jesus calls us to something special jesus calls us to something very special we turn back to the text if we look at verse 13 this is what it says it says and he went up on the mountain that's jesus and he called to him those whom he desired and they came to him we see in just that verse two aspects of what it means to be a disciple of jesus christ the first is this jesus calls disciples this is critical for us to get this is not a decision that we make it is a call that we receive from jesus christ dietrich bonhoeffer in his wonderful book the cost of discipleship says this he says discipleship is not an offer that man makes to christ we don't come to jesus and say i would like to be your disciple jesus calls us to be his disciples he initiates the relationship and the second thing we see in verse 13 is this what they came to him we have a choice to make we have a decision to make when we receive that call from jesus are we going to respond are we going to come to him so so discipleship is a call of jesus and a response and we're going to see two more aspects in verse 14. it says he appointed 12 whom he also named apostles so that they might be with him and he might send them out to preach and have authority to cast out demons so what is the essence of following jesus what is the essence of discipleship it is twofold it is one to be with jesus the call of discipleship is simply to be with jesus so that what so that he can send us out to do what to preach and have the authority to cast out demons now check this flipping back to mark 1 verse 38 verses 38 and 39 this is what jesus said early on he says he says to them let us go on to the next towns that i may preach there also for that is why i came out and he went throughout all galilee preaching in their synagogues and casting out demons so the call of discipleship is to be with jesus and then to do what to carry on the mission that he has started in the world he says in chapter one i came to do two things i came to preach and cast out demons and when he calls the disciples to himself here in chapter three he calls him to be with him and then he sends them out to do what to preach and cast out demons to carry on his mission in the world here it is the call of discipleship the call of jesus is to know jesus and to make him known the essence of following jesus is to know him and to make him known and i know for a lot of us who've been around church for a while it's like yeah gary i know i got that we i know that it's to be with jesus and to go out on mission for him but can we just pause for a second and realize how amazing that is it gets lost on us we lose the wonder of what that means when we've been around church for a while and we sometimes just need to be reminded of the things we already know jesus is calling us to himself so that we might continue his mission in the world you want to talk about being called to something special that is that there is nothing better and what we know from scripture and get this what we know from it doesn't it's not in these these verses but we know from the context of scripture is who jesus called to himself he did not call the rich he did not call the successful he did not call the influential or the powerful or the political leaders he did not call the usc grads and the georgetown grads he called the average he called the regular he called the common and that's good news because like 80 percent of us are average he called the poor he called the destitute he called the outcast he called the rejects he called the sinners jesus calls those who the world does not want to be with him and to carry on his mission in the world jesus calls us to something incredibly special when i was growing up i used to love i didn't love to watch it but i i i would watch when i was home sick from school or when i was at my grandparents house and just binging on tv and they didn't have cable my favorite show to watch was the price is right come on somebody knows and the best part the best part of the price is right was what it was when someone had gone through whatever challenge they went through and they weren't going to go on to the showcase showdown which we were all sad about that and there was an empty spot at the podium four people down front there was an empty spot and you would come back from commercial and the place is going nuts everyone why because they know everyone's in the running to get that spot down front and then rod roddy i had to look that up i didn't know that name off the top of my head the greatest game show pa announcer in the history of game shows he would come over the loudspeaker and what would he say crowds going wild and he would go gary anderson come on down you're the next contestant on the price is right and everyone goes nuts and gary hugs his friends and he comes running down hands up in the air and that is the call that jesus is making for you and for i jesus is saying come on down he is saying i have something incredibly special for you i'm up on the mountain come to me i want you to be with me so that i can send you out and here's the thing we don't have to lie on our application we don't have to submit a picture that's been photoshopped of us on a missions trip in mexico or at a soup kitchen feeding the poor all we have to do when we hear the call of jesus in our life is respond all we have to do is go be with him and after we have spent time with him after we have become his disciples he will give us a mission he will send us out into the world to do the very thing that he came to do god jesus both of them they're the same calls us to something very special so jesus calls us something special but here's the next thing we need to know it's the next thing mark shows us in this text there's a cost the call of jesus comes with a cost it's why we get in verses 20 and 21 what mark tells us now in my bible they kind of the esv they start a new section in the middle of that really 20 and 21 i think should be down with the rest of the verses talking about the scribes because here it is mark is saying to those the the people who are reading his gospel he's saying jesus calls people to be with himself and he gives them a mission and he's like you may hear that call of jesus and if you do you're going to have a decision to make you're going to have to perform a cost-benefit analysis as to whether you are going to respond to that call and let me just tell you up front there are some costs he doesn't give them give us all of them but he gives us a big one and here's what it is people are going to think that you are crazy if you are a committed follower of jesus christ if you are a committed disciple of jesus christ people will think that you are literally out of your mind why because jesus own family thought that about him verse 21 and when his family heard it heard what presumably everything mark has given us up to this point in his gospel they went out to seize him for they were saying he is out of his mind that word sees in greek is the same word that's translated elsewhere arrest they were not going to kind of have a have a talk with him they were going to have an intervention to arrest him if there was an institution they could put him in that's what they were heading for jesus own family those closest to him when they saw what he was doing and what he was saying thought he was out of his mind not only his family the religious leaders the the scribes the smart guys of the day especially when it comes to the thing came to the things of god they come down from jerusalem to see what's going on and this is what they say verse 23 he is possessed by bealzable and by the prince of demons he casts out demons so his family says he's crazy the religious leaders say what he's possessed now there's a lot of argument about what what what the use of the name beelzeball is here a lot of a lot the scholars do not agree on what that is but what they all agree on is this it's referring to satan and so here come the religious leaders of the day jesus family is saying you're crazy dude the religious leaders of the day are saying you are possessed by satan and jesus responds we don't have time to go through all of them in verses 24 through 27 with a series of parables basically saying this you guys who are supposed to be so learned make no logical sense if the things i am doing are from the power of satan if i am casting out demons in the power of satan that means satan's kingdom is already defeated because it is destroying itself the thing you are saying doesn't make any sense whatsoever and mark is saying if if you decide to answer the call of jesus to discipleship you need to know there are some costs and again there are more than the ones that we are talking about mark is primarily here focusing on the social cost he's saying people are going to think you're out of your mind and some people are going to think you're working for the wrong team you need to count the cost before you answer the call of jesus to follow him my family and i thoroughly thoroughly enjoyed uh watching the olympics over these past number of weeks and apparently according to the ratings we were like some of the only people who did uh we love like everyone else does and like the networks know and it's why they do so many of them we love the back stories on how people got to the olympics here are people at the absolute pinnacle of their athletic performance and achievement and what we need to recognize is that at some point every one of those athletes that competes in the olympics they received a call they received a call it might have been from a parent it might have been from a teacher it might have been internal from themselves but they felt a call to become the best they could possibly be in whatever athletic event it was that they were gifted in and that call came with a cost particularly a tremendous social cost because most of them felt that call when they were like five and so when all their friends were out riding bikes and playing video games and going to the pool they were at practice and in college when all their buddies and and sorority sisters and roommates were going out to party and i'm not condoning that when they were going out to party they were going to bed early because they had a training session at 5am the next morning when they were out to eat and everyone was smashing wings and pizza and cake and ice cream they were eating broccoli and grilled chicken why because they had a call on their lives that was different than those who were around them and for most of those who were around them we look at their lives and we say what you're crazy you're out of your mind like why are you doing this and they're like i have a call that you don't understand and the same is true for the disciple of jesus christ we have a call on our lives we have a call to something special something bigger than ourselves and those around us are going to think that we are crazy because of the way we act when we are following jesus christ mark is saying just expect it if they thought it of the savior they are certainly going to think it of his followers and we live in a place here silicon valley where there is a real cost to being outed as a follower of jesus christ now look i know we have people in our congregation we prayed for afghanistan this morning we have people in our congregation who come from cultures and countries where if you decide to become a follower of jesus christ you are taking your life is at risk i'm not saying our lives are at risk necessarily here in silicon valley but there is a lot of at risk if people know us as followers of jesus christ you're going to lose friends you're going to lose opportunities you're going to lose opportunities for promotion you may lose a job because you are known as a follower of jesus christ there is a cost and so so what do we do let's keep it real so what do we do we just get real quiet about it we just get quiet about the fact that we are disciples of jesus christ and we live lives that are good and moral and you know kind of look nice from the outside but for an outsider looking in they don't look any different than the lives of our neighbors and our co-workers and the people that we go to the club with maybe we don't swear as much maybe we don't drink as much maybe we do maybe we show up to church two and a half times a month but on the outside on the surface there is nothing really that marks us out as being crazy but if that is how we are living we have missed the essence of what it means to be a disciple of jesus christ jesus does not call us to himself so that we can hide it you cannot go out on mission for him into the world doing the things that he does if you are not willing to expose yourself as to expose the fact that you are a disciple of jesus christ to those who are going to ridicule you for it call you a weirdo for it call you crazy for it and if they don't do it to your face they are certainly going to do it behind your back my hope and dream for us at abundant life is that we will be a community of people who the outside world says they are wackos and the demons are terrified of because we have counted the cost of going all in with jesus christ and we have made the decision and all over the bay area we are kicking in the gates of hell doing battle with satan and his demons because jesus has sent us to do it jesus calls us to something special but there is a cost now we got to take just a three-minute uh excursion so we're gonna take a three minute detour from the mainstream of the message right now and cover two verses which have given millions of followers of jesus christ an unbelievable amount of fear and anxiety over the last thousands of years and we got to talk just about for a minute about this idea of what it means to blaspheme the holy spirit and be guilty of an eternal sin i know that's that's scary let's talk about it i think i can clear it up for us i hope i can jesus says in verses 28 and 29 he says truly i say to you all sins will be forgiven the children of man and whatever blasphemies they utter but whoever blasphemes against the holy spirit never has forgiveness but is guilty of an eternal sin now what is that all about that seems to just run contrary to all the rest of this whole book of the bible like where does that fit in and what is going on couple things we need to recognize up front before we even talk about what it means to blaspheme the holy spirit the first is this nowhere in all of scripture anywhere is there any evidence of god ever not granting forgiveness to someone who has asked for it no precedent anywhere in all of scripture that god will not forgive someone who asked for forgiveness the other thing we need to recognize is in the verse that i just read jesus says all sins will be forgiven the children of man so which is it is it all sins or is there one that can't be forgiven here's what it is we need to recognize when we come to god's word that it is not i've said this before it is not a collection of memory verses randomly pushed together the books of the bible are inspired by god himself and they are amazing works of literature and theology we have to look at the context when we find something that we're confused about and when we look at the context of this statement about blaspheming the holy spirit just look a little bit before it look a little bit after it what do we see it is in the context of jesus or mark talking about the scribes coming to jesus and saying what he's possessed by a demon here are the scribes they have come to jesus they have seen or heard about the things that he is doing they have seen the evidence of god's good work in his life and they are saying what it's evil they are looking at the works of god's holy spirit and they are attributing it to satan they are calling good evil they are calling god satan so to blaspheme the holy spirit is to look at the good works of god and say that is the work of satan that is the work of the devil that is evil it is good and to call it evil and so so here's the deal why is it an unforgivable sin because someone who believes that has not asked for forgiveness if you believe that god if you look at what god is doing if you look at his works if you look at his son and you say that is that is evil you are not in a place where you are ready to repent and say i need you god i can't save myself if you've come to that place you will be forgiven so the reason it is an unforgivable sin is because you can't ask forgiveness if you are in that state of mind if you believe that scripture is clear in the end no one is going to be grandfathered into salvation because of their parents or their grandparents or because they showed up to church you are going to be granted salvation because you repented of your sin and asked god for forgiveness and if you do that you are guaranteed salvation so if you are worried about whether you have blasphemed the holy spirit that is enough evidence in and of itself that you have not done it the fact that you are worried about it shows that you are not guilty of it clear good all right jesus calls us to something special there is a cost but we're running a cost benefit analysis this morning so what there is also a benefit and that's what mark closes out this section with uh jesus is teaching or he's in a house his disciples are around him this is wider than the 12 apostles there's a big crowd of people there his mother and his brothers come they're standing outside someone's like jesus your family's looking for you and he's like they're here to put me in an institution i think i'm going to stay inside and and he says in verse 33 who are my mother and my brothers and looking about at those who sat around him this ragtag collection of misfits and sinners and underachievers he says here are my mother and my brothers whoever does the will of god he is my brother and sister and my mother you see what he's saying he's saying if you choose to answer the call of discipleship you choose to answer the call to follow jesus you may actually lose your biological family but you will gain a spiritual family yeah you can clap for that and that benefit goes a long way to to outweighing the cost that comes with discipleship jesus is saying you were made for community you were made for a family and when you answer my call you become a part of my family you gain spiritual brothers and sisters you gain god as your father you are adopted sons and daughters of the most high that's a huge benefit last sunday after service uh myself and two of our elders went to visit one of our members who was in the hospital and because of kovid uh only two of us could go up at a time so so we got to the hospital two of us went up one of the one of the other elders i was with stayed down and our plan was we'd stay up for a few minutes and then we'd switch someone would come down and another person would go up so uh we're up there in the room visiting with this person from maybe all of five or eight minutes and there's a knock on the door and another member of our church unbeknownst to us comes into the room and we're like oh we got three of us someone has to leave so one of the elders leaves and goes down and so now it's me and another member of our church and we stay for a little bit and then i go to to switch so that someone else can come up and i didn't even know it but on my way down another member of our church who i didn't know was going to be there was already on their way up and so we got two more up there there's two downstairs and i go down and when i come outside there's actually six because four more people from our congregation who we didn't know were coming we didn't plan it were there to visit this person in the hospital now i have lost count i think it was nine or ten that's nine or ten people it's like the fellowship time we have outside after service we just extended to the parking lot of kaiser redwood city it was an incredible picture of god's family and that is what you get when you answer god's call to follow when you answer jesus call to discipleship you gain a new family this is what we were made for this place these people these crazy weirdos you're looking at all around you right now for many of us this family is more impactful to us than our biological family you were made for this i was made for this we were made for this and if the extent of your engagement in this church or whatever church it is that you call your home is to come once a week or once every other week and and consume a few worship songs and a moderately entertaining message and then go you're missing it because that is not what god made this place to be this is a place where you are to be known and to know this is a place where you are to be loved and to love this is a place where you are to weep with those who are weeping to rejoice with those who are rejoicing this is a place where you are to have people weep with you when you are the one weeping and rejoice with you when you are the one rejoicing this is a place where you are to find love and support and help in your time of need and it is a place where you are to give love and help and support in your time of need and if it's just a show you come to once on sunday mornings you are missing it because you cannot get anywhere else what you get in the family of god the country club cannot give you what you get here your place of work cannot give you what you get here your rotary club can't do it peloton can't do it as much as ali love inspires you she can't do it crossfit can't do it you cannot find what god designed you to be a part of except here in his family and that is an enormous benefit to outweigh the cost of what you might have to give up should you answer the call to discipleship god calls us to something incredibly special it is the longing of our heart is fulfilled to be a part of something bigger than ourselves when we become a member of his family there is a cost but there is a benefit and what i love about jesus we're wrapping up right now what i love about jesus is that he does not ask us to do anything that he hasn't done himself [Applause] jesus had his own cost-benefit analysis to run through jesus had his own call from a mountain it was a hill and it was a hill called calvary and the call was for him to come and lay down his life to suffer and die to feel the full wrath of god poured out on him so that you and i might be adopted as sons and daughters of god and in the garden the night before he was to go to the cross he did his own cost-benefit analysis he looked at the suffering he looked at the potential the the the assurance that he would be separated from god the father he looked at the fact that he was going to take all the sin of the world onto himself and then he looked at the fact that by doing so he could redeem those who were held captive by satan and transformed them into sons and daughters of god and when he asked himself is it worth it the answer was a resounding yes and praise god that it was each have to ask ourselves the same question is it worth it there is a cost to following jesus christ with your life people will think you are crazy and a bunch of other stuff but there is a benefit as well you you become part of god's family and not only do you find joy fulfillment peace in this life but eternal life in the life to come [Applause] i can't answer for you what the right decision is for you but i can tell you that as for me 1 000 times over the benefits of following jesus with my life have made the costs pale in comparison there was a famous missionary uh back in the middle of the 1900s name is jim elliott he died he was killed by the people in central america that he was bringing the message of jesus christ to he famously wrote in his journal which was published after his death this line he said he is no fool who gives up what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose he is no fool who gives up what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose the benefits outweigh the cost jesus is calling come on down let's pray god we thank you that you have placed inside of us inside of each of us a longing for something that we cannot find within ourselves a longing for something bigger than us a longing to be a part of something that is outside of us and we also thank you god that nothing can fulfill that longing except you and so i pray this morning god if there is someone here in the sanctuary today if there is someone watching on the live stream today and they have been sensing that you are calling them and they are not sure how to respond i pray that you will move in their heart in such a way that today is the day that they can say i have decided to follow jesus no turning back we need to be quiet for a moment give you an opportunity here in the church and at home there's business you need to do with god this morning to do it now it may be that this is the moment to decide to follow him it may be that this is the moment to recommit to following him that this is the moment to say god help me help me be a fool for you help me care more about what the creator of the universe thinks of me than what my neighbors or co-workers think of me god is a privilege to know you it is a privilege to walk with you and we ask that you would allow us to be a people who are radically on mission for you to know you and to make you known we pray all of this in jesus name amen please stand for the benediction you can clap when you stand you don't have to but you can if you want again just a reminder after service if you could those of you who are here in person if you could just exit the sanctuary as quickly as possible if you are new here in the last few months i would love to meet you there should be a tent or a banner out there and i'll be out there as soon as i can to say hello uh and if you have felt like god is calling you to make a decision this morning please find me please find one of our elders we would love to talk to you about that pray with you about that receive the benediction the lord bless you and keep you the lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious unto you the lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace until we meet again or until our savior comes and then forever amen you're loved and you are prayed for and you are sent [Applause]

Channel: Abundant Life Christian Fellowship

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Id: 8nSWDurVtUc

Length: 80min 40sec (4840 seconds)

Published: Sun Aug 15 2021