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[ Silence ] [MUSIC PLAYING] ♪ Oh, where is your wonder ♪ ♪ Why don't you feel ♪

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♪ All the pain, Lord ♪ ♪ Oh, there's a love ♪ ♪ A love to live in the heart ♪ ♪ Never would love ♪

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♪ For the road we'll go ♪ ♪ For the road we'll go ♪ ♪ And it's ♪ ♪ For the road we'll go ♪

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♪ God bless America ♪ ♪ Dear old America ♪ ♪ Oh, living in a star-filled sky ♪ ♪ We are standing on high and proud ♪

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♪ For our glorious Color Guard ♪ ♪ Hallelujah, we are the stars of the sky ♪ ♪ Just in time ♪ ♪ To give up my brother ♪

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♪ Living in a sunshine ♪ ♪ We understand ♪ ♪ Oh, I love you ♪ ♪ When I'm alone ♪

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♪ There are no words ♪ ♪ If we don't hold on ♪ ♪ Lord and men ♪ ♪ Then do we wonder ♪

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♪ Why the stronger ♪ ♪ Lays so eager ♪ ♪ Here and right here ♪ ♪ Father of all ♪

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♪ Oh, all now ♪ ♪ Father of all ♪ ♪ We are one ♪ ♪ I'm just a child ♪

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♪ Cheer up my brother ♪ ♪ When the sun shines ♪ ♪ We'll understand it ♪ ♪ All by and by ♪

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- Our scripture lesson this morning comes from the Gospel of Mark, Chapter 31st through 35th verse. Now his mother and brothers arrived at the crowded house

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where he was teaching, and they sent word for him to come out and talk with them. "Your mother and brothers are outside and want to see you," he was told.

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He replied, "Who is my mother? "Who are my brothers?" Looking at those around him, he said, "These are my mothers and brothers.

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Anyone who does God's will is my brother and my sister and my mother. I read that from the Living Bible paraphrase. [MUSIC] [MUSIC]

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[ Music ] ♪ How sweet to walk in a place ♪ ♪ Now the way we meet ♪ ♪ On the everlasting ♪

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♪ On the everlasting ♪ ♪ Oh, from day to day ♪ ♪ We meet on the everlasting ♪ ♪ Of evening and evening ♪

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♪ Made land secure from all alarm ♪ ♪ He made, he made ♪ ♪ He made all the everlasting law ♪ ♪ What's the power of right to pray ♪

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♪ What's the power of right to fear ♪ ♪ He made all the everlasting law ♪ ♪ Why, yes, we wish to die ♪ ♪ Leaning on the everlasting arms ♪

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♪ Leaning, leaning ♪ ♪ Safe and secure from all the harm ♪ ♪ Leaning, leaning ♪ [music]

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The event which is the basis of our message today, centered in the early stage of the ministry of Jesus in Galilee, as recorded in the gospel according to Mark, the third chapter in the 31st through the 35th verses.

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Now Jesus' mother and brothers arrived at the crowded house where he was teaching, and they sent word for him to come out and talk with them. Your mother and brothers are outside and want to see you, he was told. He replied,

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Who is my mother? Who are my brothers? Looking at those around him, he said, "These are my mother and brothers. Anyone who does God's will is my brother and my sister and my mother." The subject of the message, family circle, family circle. A family circle is that which constitutes the entire unit which makes up the family. It includes the kinfolk,

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those who have common ties that bind them together, the family relations that we are prone to consider first are the primary family relationships that exist because of blood. We include those who are nearest such as father, mother, sister, and brother. These are referred to as the close kin and others are sometimes referred to as distant relatives. And we have

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had a great deal of concern by those who are related to us in any way, particularly in years gone by, sort of a manifestation of the extended family, we would address a relative by saying cousin so-and-so even, maybe a third, fourth cousin, even more, but we would still be recognizing some blood relationship. The Gospel of Mark presents to us a typical family situation. The members

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of the family have taken counsel together to consider what they deem to be a very serious problem. We don't know the names of the family members. We know some of them. We may safely assumed that included in the group is Mary, the mother of Jesus, the matriarch of the family. Joseph, the husband and father, is believed to be dead at this time. The brothers and sisters are

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are there. Matthew in his gospel gives us the names of the brothers of Jesus. They are James, Joseph who was probably named after his father, Simon, and Judas. We know that he had sisters, but we do not know the names of his sisters, neither do we know how many. So we may assume that the size of this family, as far as the children are concerned, including

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Jesus there were five boys and several girls. So now they are having a family conference concerning Jesus. Circumstances have caused them to get together to conduct, to discuss the conduct of Jesus, big brother. They're deeply concerned about his behavior. Gossip concerning him has spread not

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only in the neighborhood but in the surrounding countryside and they're disturbed because it seems that Jesus is marring the family image. He is beginning to blur what they consider the family name. Not only were the townspeople in Nazareth disturbed,

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but the word of Jesus' activity had gone beyond Galilee to Jerusalem. People were saying that the new preacher prophet, Tichahila from Nazareth, with his small band of disciples, was out of his mind, that he must be crazy.

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They called him a messenger of Satan. They said that he was demon possessed. It seems certain that Jesus is headed for serious trouble, and so the family comes together to discuss the matter. After the conference the decision is made that they will go into the house and interrupt Jesus in his teaching, that they would send a

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messenger there and ask him to come outside that they might talk with him. So the word that is sent to Jesus is the request that he would excuse himself and come outside, we want to talk with you. When Jesus receives this word was given to him, "Jesus your mother your brothers and sisters are sending for you they want you to come outside." Now Jesus knows their intentions,

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He knows that their intentions are good but they do not understand. He knows that they're somewhat worried, they're somewhat concerned about his welfare. They have good intentions but we need more than good intentions. We said that the road to hell is paved with good intentions. What they really need is to understand the nature and meaning of Jesus' mission. His mother and

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brothers are standing outside the door of the home waiting for him and listen to Jesus' response. He does not leave the room, he does not stop teaching, he continues doing what he's doing and he uses the occasion to teach a lesson on Christian family life. He asked this question, who is my mother, who are my brothers? They were looking at

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blood ties, the relationships in the flesh, the common bonds that we share as members of the same family. They were looking at this. Here they are brothers and sisters with the same mother. Each of them has been carried in Mary's womb. She has held each one of them in her arms, nursed them from her breasts, she has

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responded to each one's cries, she has rocked each one of them to sleep. Mary is the mother of them all. In fact Mary is recognized in the scripture as an outstanding mother. She receives a praiseworthy benediction from heaven. She She is honored above all women.

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And yet Jesus asked the question, "Who is my mother?" Motherhood is more than the ability to give birth to a baby. Motherhood is the gift of the Spirit. It's one of the greatest virtues.

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when Jesus asked the question who is my mother he's not being sarcastic he's not being sassy he's not getting his listeners ready for a for some kind of remark that would cause a great deal of misinterpretation what he's really doing is delivering what may be considered a pointed and pungent proclamation concerned with the abundant life. Mary, the mother of

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Jesus to whom the angel Gabriel appeared. Mary who endured the burden and joy of childbearing and yet Jesus asked a question who is my mother. Mary who walked the lonely road of sorrow, who heard what others did not hear, who saw what others did not see, and yet pondered

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all of these things in her heart, who is my mother? Mary the anxious mother whose firstborn child had to be born in a lowly cattle shed. Who is my mother? Mary, the devout mother, who on the eighth day carries her child of the temple to be consecrated to God. Mary, the anxious mother who is disturbed and grief-stricken when Jesus at the age of 12 is

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is lost from the family on the journey from Jerusalem to Nazareth and yet Jesus asked the question who is my mother? Why is it that Jesus here with all of this that has taken place has the audacity to ask the question who is my mother? I I heard one mother say some time ago right after she'd given birth to a child she said,

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"You know, Reverend, with all that I've been through bringing this child into the world, I don't ever want to hear any backtalk from this child considering the pain that I've been through." Well this isn't really any backtalk that Jesus is giving, rather it is straightforward talk. Mary and Jesus, brothers and sisters, are in the same family. They are kinfolk as we see it,

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looking at the blood ties, they think they have the right to tell him what to do because of their blood relationship. It is true that they have a common relationship as far as the womb is concerned, they are brothers and sisters on their mother's side. Jesus raises another question that has to do with the Father, the Heavenly Father, when he says who is my mother, who is my brother,

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who is my sister. And what Jesus is really concerned about here is a family circle, a family circle. Well sometimes we get all confused about the family circle, sometimes we really don't know one another. Sometimes I've been on a funeral occasion when the family is gathered together some from far and others nearby and they all get together

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and sometimes they're seeing each other for the first time and they're being introduced to one another you know this is so-and-so's child this is your cousin Now this is your aunt. They're getting to know one another as members of a family.

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Well, we can get confused about our relationships as a family. And they were confused about the relationship. And Jesus took an occasion to teach them a lesson. The story is told of a young man who was courting.

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And so he came to his father and he said to his father, he said, "Father, I have met Susan "and I wanna marry Susan. "We've been courting now and I wanna marry Susan."

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And the father said, "Now, son, let me tell you something. "Your father hasn't always been such a good man. "When your father was young, he was a little wild "and he sowed some wild oats.

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And Susan is your sister. So you can't marry Susan. So then a little later he went on and he met another young lady. Her name was Ellen.

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So he came to his father and he said, "Father, I'd like to marry Ellen." He said, "Now son," he said, "I wasn't as good as I should have been. I sowed a little wild oats. And Ellen is your sister. sister you can't marry Ellen. He went on later he met Cheney May and he came to the father and the

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father told him the same thing you can't marry Cheney May because she too is your sister I sowed quite a bit of wild oats. So he was a little distressed so he went to his mother and he said mother you know I wanted to marry Susan and I wanted to marry Ellen I wanted to marry Cheney May and each time father said that I couldn't marry him because they were my sisters. She said

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son don't you pay anything any attention to what your father says because he's not your daddy. So many times we get rather confused. We get confused about our relationship as a family and This is what Jesus is doing. He's lifting up here this particular event that we might understand what our relationship to each other is in him. Who is my mother? Who are my brothers and

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my sisters? And so Jesus lifts this conversation to a higher dimension. It is a level of the Spirit The family circle and the family circle that Jesus is concerned about is not determined by physiological terms, so to speak, our relationships, it's not determined by a genealogical table, it's not determined by our roots and how well

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we can trace the family tree. Whoever does the will of the Father the same is my brother, my sister, and my mother. And so we are a family. We are a family if we do God's will. And that's why time and time again I refer to the family of God here at Ebenezer. God's people constitute a family. We are God's family. And ever so

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often someone says to me, "You know, Reverend, those, the people at Ebenezer, so many of them are related one to another. It's a family church. A whole lot of relatives are gathered together. We do have a lot of people that are related one to another, but I'm talking about a relationship here that Jesus is pointing

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out that's far above our blood relationships. We can have blood relationships and yet we can be as far as day is from night. And yet when we are together in the will of God, when we are together in His Spirit, we are one. There is unity. There is a family circle that binds us together because we are one in

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Him we are God's family and that's why Jesus taught us to pray our Father we are members of God's family and so who's in the family circle that's what Jesus is talking about who are the members of the family circle who is my mother who Who is my brother?

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Who is my sister? There's a little poem that says, "He drew a circle that shut me out. Heretic, rebel, a thing to flout.

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But love and I had the wit to win. We drew a circle that took him in." God has drawn a circle that takes us in. That's the love of God that somehow,

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no matter how we may be excluded and how we may be cast out and how we may be despised and rejected, that God, in his love and in his grace, that God has drawn a circle to take us in.

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When God made Adam and placed him in the paradise of Eden, God drew a circle that took him in. And God focused his attention, his love, his concern on the human family.

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God drew a circle that took us in. And when man sinned and somehow went outside the circle of God's will, God drew another circle to take us in.

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And God sent his son, who died on Calvary. God drew a circle that took us in. God loves us. And the blessed experience of God's grace

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is somehow recognizing and accepting the fact that we are within the circle of God's will. God drew a circle that took us in. And when God said in his word that if any person would

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be my disciple. That's what he says to us through his son Jesus Christ that if any person would be my disciple that means that he includes whoever will come whosoever will let him come. Jesus hands at the door and knocks he says behold I stand at the door and knock. If any person, any person who will come within that circle, the circle is drawn.

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to include you. If any man will hear my voice and open the door I will come in and sup with him and he with me. Thanks be to God that he has drawn a circle to take us in. Oh some of us may sometimes feel that we are excluded. Sometimes we may feel like well maybe I'm the ugly duckling in the family or I'm this or that, but in the circle

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of God's will all of us have the blessed opportunity of being included in his family. God loves us and God somehow hovers over us with his grace, with his forgiveness, with his care. God has drawn a circle to take us in. Who is my mother? Who is my brother? Who is my sister, whoever does the will of God, whoever makes that decision steps within the circle of that relationship with God and thanks be to God that it's open to every one of us. There is room for every person. No matter how crowded the circumstances may be,

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the crowded ways of life in which we are engaged, but somehow God has drawn a a circle that includes every one of us that we can say that there is room at the cross for you for God has drawn a circle a family circle those who would accept it are included God has drawn the circle to include every one of us and as

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As the choir leads us in singing the hymn number 166, "Room at the Cross for You," we invite you to come, for God has drawn a circle to include you, every one of us, if we would but accept it. [Music]

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