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[ Silence ] [ Music ] Sing unto the Lord a new song. Sing unto the Lord all the earth.

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Sing unto the Lord a new song. For he is worthy to be praised. Come before His presence with thanksgiving, Enter His courts with praise.

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Be thankful unto Him, and bless His holy name, For He is worthy to be praised. Sing unto the Lord a new song. Sing unto the Lord of the earth.

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Sing unto the Lord a new song. For he is worthy to be praised. Come before his presence with thanksgiving, Enter his courts with praise.

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Be thankful unto him and bless his holy name, For he is worthy to be praised. Come before His presence with thanksgiving, enter His courts with praise. Be thankful unto Him and bless this holy day, for He is worthy to be praised.

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Lift up holy hands and praise the Lord, giving thanks unto the Lord, he's worthy of all honor and praise. Lift up holy hands and praise the Lord, giving thanks unto the Lord. He is worthy of all honor and praise. Give thanks unto the Lord, He's worthy of all honor and praise. Give yon Holy Earth and praise the Lord, give thanks unto the Lord, he's worthy of all honor and praise.

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Lift up all the earth and praise the Lord. Give thanks unto the Lord. Lift up all the earth and praise the Lord. Give thanks unto the Lord.

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♪ Till the morning comes ♪ - Amen. There's a sky lock, the license number, 594-LOB, I believe it is.

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Your lights are on. Our scripture lesson has to do with Jesus' true family. It is recorded in the gospel according to Saint Mark,

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the third chapter, verses 31 through 35. "There came then his brethren and his mother, "and standing without, sent unto him, calling him. And the multitude sat about him, and they said unto him,

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behold thy mother and thy brethren without seek for thee. And he answered them saying, who is my mother or my brethren? And he looked round about on them which sat about him

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and said, "Behold, my mother and my brethren, "for whosoever shall do the will of God, "the same is my brother and my sister and my mother." The subject, who is my mother?

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There are conflicting reactions to the observance of Mother's Day. I have encountered those who feel left out in the celebration of Mother's Day because they have no children in the flesh. No child has come from their womb and so they are sad. Then there are others who are glad because of the fond memories associated with

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motherhood. There are two kinds of mothers on which we shall focus our attention in this message. and the first is the natural mother. Motherhood is the means of human reproduction. It is in keeping with the divine order to multiply and replenish the earth. Motherhood is considered honorable and a divine blessing. The psalmist says, "Lo, children are an

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heritage of the Lord. The fruit of the womb is his reward." In ancient times, people considered themselves abundantly blessed if they had many children round about the table.

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They considered themselves cursed if no children were born of the marriage. One of the primary expectations of the wife was to bear children.

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Sarah waited a lifetime to bear a son. Rachel cried, "Give me children, lest I die." Hannah in agonizing prayer pleaded with the Lord to give her a man child.

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On this day, we celebrate mothers who are notable examples of the Judeo-Christian family life. life, those values that are set forth in the scriptures, we celebrate those mothers who represent what is highest and best.

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Our society has undergone many changes regarding the attitude about children. It's reflected, I think, in sort of a nursery rhyme which has been paraphrased. There was an old woman who lived in a shoe. She had so many children, she didn't know what to do.

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And now there are those who are saying, "There was an old woman who lived in a shoe. She had no children. She knew what to do." So what we have done, we have come from families with many children to programs of Planned

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Parenthood to the establishment of abortion clinics. So this day ought to remind us of the virtues of motherhood. Motherhood is serving as a channel through which new human life enters the world.

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That is what we celebrate in the natural sense. It involves the proper functioning of the biological organs. Let us consider the mother of Jesus. Early in Jesus' public ministry,

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Mark records an incident where the family comes with designs to interrupt his ministry. Throngs surround Jesus. He heals many of divers diseases. Devils are cast out. out. His popularity increases in intensity like a mighty crescendo in

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such an atmosphere. The family of Jesus suddenly appears on the scene. Mary the mother of Jesus is accompanied by her sons the brothers of Jesus. Now mothers have a way of pulling rank. Parents often do that. Sometimes you may hear a mother say remember I am your mother.

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Sometimes when my wife calls one of the daughters on a job, the daughter's on a job and my wife leaves the message, tell her that her mother called. Well, whenever a child receives such a message,

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first reaction is I wonder what she wants. During this busy moment, however, before the mother arrives on the scene, it seems that the friends have already come with the intention of taking Jesus away from there. You know how it is when a man is drunk and his friends come and they want to take him

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home. Well, they think Jesus is mad. They think the man has gone off his rocker. And so they want to befriend him.

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want to see to it that he does not make a public disgrace of himself. And so they have come. Come on. Come on, Jesus. Let's go. They want to lay hold on him, the scripture says, and take him home. That's what the friends want to do. Now there is

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another group. A delegation has come, a delegation of religious leaders from Jerusalem. They have come. They're on the scene. And they are there in order to find something wrong and they find a great deal wrong as far as their outlook is concerned. They say this man is casting out devils but he's full of the devil

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himself. And how is it that he's able to do this? He's the prince of demons. That's their testimony. Now in the midst of all of his friends against him, religious leaders down there called, saying that his ministry should be officially discredited

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and now the family, the family. To add to the situation here is the family. Overriding all of the comments of the friends and the religious leaders is the appearance here

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of Mary, the mother of Jesus. Now Mary comes, she remains outside the house. outside the house. She does not wish to publicly reprimand her son, so she quietly sends someone in there, go in there and tell him to come out here, that his mother is sending for him.

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Tell him that his mother wants him to come where she is. Now Jesus received this message from his mother. What is his response? The record in the scripture is that he was an obedient child

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at the age of 12 when he was left at the temple, when they found him. And she said, "Now son, why have you done this?" That he went back home with them in Nazareth,

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and that the scriptures use the words, "And he was subject unto them." So he was an obedient child, that was his nature. You know, parental authority is a part of the heritage of the black family.

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Parental authority, respect for elders, children obey your parents, says the scripture. Parents do not provoke your children unto wrath. And of course, this respect of which I speak in my generation, you always talk to say, "Yes, ma'am," and "No, ma'am."

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We have outgrown that now, but that's the way it was. And if you said, "Yes," what did you say, boy? That's a part of the black family heritage. And of course, you may have thought a lot of things, but you did not talk back.

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That's what my grandmother and mother would say, talk back. In other words, if you talk back, gave them some back talk, you were considered sassy. Oh, that's a real fast young girl. She's fast.

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Oh, the young boy was getting too big for his britches. Well, here they are, Mary, the mother of Jesus, accompanied by the brothers. And the scripture gives us in another place the names of these brothers, James, Joseph, Judas and Simon.

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He also had sisters, but we don't know their names. They have come with their mother to help persuade Jesus to come home with them. They want Jesus to return to Nazareth,

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come back to the quiet seclusion of family life in Nazareth. Don't expose yourself to the rigor and ruthlessness of public life as a teacher, as a preacher, and as a healer.

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You know, because when you get out there in the public, the public has a way of devouring their leaders. Look at what is happening to President Clinton. We devour our leaders.

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In fact, a few years ago, one minister was accused in one of the tabloids, He was accused of having sex with his mother in the outhouse. And that was printed in the tabloid and of course the minister sued.

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And the basis was that you're a public figure and as a public figure they can say anything about you whether it's true or not. That's generally the attitude that people have. And they said, "Now son," the mother saying in other words by this action, "Son, don't

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get involved in all of that. Come on back home. A quiet secluded life. You have the training that your father gave you as a carpenter and you get enough work around Nazareth to take care of the family. Jesus you see is the head of the

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family. It is believed that Joseph is dead by this time and so the family responsibility is "Come home, son, come home. "Come home with us." So,

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Jesus responds to this invitation to retire. And in the face of opposition,

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in the face of misunderstanding, in the face of all of this public turmoil, come home! Come home. Listen to us, Jesus.

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Hear what we have to say, son. Remember, we are your own flesh and blood. We are your kinfolk. You've heard that many times.

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We kin. We got the same blood, we family! Come home. Well, let's keep the family together.

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Families are breaking apart today, breaking apart, becoming disintegrated because of violence, becoming disintegrated because of drugs. So we lack cohesiveness.

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We lack oneness and we have all kinds of discard. Husbands, raping wives, children abused by their parents, family discard. And Jesus somehow in the midst of all of this,

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as he hears them say, your mother, your brothers, your sisters, your family want you to come home. And Jesus says, who is my mother?

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Who is my mother? And somehow he lifts, he lifts it to a new level when he raises the question, who is my mother? Who is my brother?

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Who is my sister? He lifts it to a new level. Because in the natural sense, we think of mothers as just those who bring someone into the world

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and they have now women acting as if they are machines. you pay this lady so much to have the child for you. And I read of one case where a grandmother was carrying the child for her daughter.

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All of these things happen today. But you've obsessed the question, who is my mother? In other words, is it just based on the ability to bring new life into the world in the natural sense?

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No, no, not in my kingdom, he says. Motherhood has a higher standard. Motherhood is not just something of the flesh. Motherhood has to do with the spirit.

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Kingdom of this world looks at the flesh, But the kingdom of God is not flesh. Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God. Though the family of the spirit

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is what Jesus is talking about. And so, you see, there are many women who never birthed a child in the flesh, who are mothers, who are true mothers.

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And I think in my own life as I remember the mothers of the church, that little church in which I grew up, some of those ladies didn't have any children, but they were the mothers of the church.

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They wore the white uniforms, they sat up front, what we call the Amen Corner. They sat up there and I can remember, I can remember that when I came

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and gave my hand to the preacher, my heart to the Lord, that there were those ladies and when I was baptized, I could still see them as they gathered around the lake.

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And they stood there on the banks and many of them shared tears and said to him, Marvin, this is a good thing that you have done today and God's going to be with you.

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And they were the ones that when they spoke to you, you knew to respond in the right way. They were mothers. So who is my mother and who is my brother,

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who is my sister? And the answer he says, is it whosoever does the will of God. The same is my mother,

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my brother, and my sister. Who's so ever? That's the family.

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That's the real family. That's the true family. Somehow if we are doing the will of God, We are related.

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So cast aside all these titles, Dr. Griffin and Dr. So-and-so and Mrs. So-and-so and Miss So-and-so. No, just brother and sister. That whoever, whoever, whoever, whoever does the will of God

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the same is my mother. We have the Spirit of God. Spirit of God. We are family.

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We're rightly related in the Spirit. We are family. That's what John says in his gospel. As many as are led by the Spirit of God,

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they are children of God. We are together as a family. And I'm so glad. I'm so glad, yes, I'm so glad I belong to the family of God.

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Aren't you glad? You know, I hear some people say, you know, Reverend, all my relatives are gone. No, all your-- if you're in the spirit, all your relatives--

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I'm by myself. No, you're not by yourself if you're in the spirit for as many as are led by the spirit of God, of the children of God.

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And I'm glad about that. Mother is gone on, father gone on. But the scripture says that when my mother and my father forsake me, the Lord will take me up.

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We will never, never alone. So I'm glad, what ought to be glad, that we belong to the family of God. children, uncles, aunts, cousins, all together in a new relationship that's above blood,

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above the flesh, a new relationship in Jesus Christ. As we sing the hymn of invitation, we extend the privilege of the church. Jesus, Savior, pilot me over life's tempestuous sea. A new family relationship.

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And we have our elder brother. Our elder brother is Jesus Christ, and he's there with us to pilot us over the troublesome seas of life, a new relationship above all human ties that we share in Jesus Christ. We extend the invitation to become a part of the family of God here at Ebenezer.

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As we sing this hymn, we invite you to come by letter, by Christian experience or profession of faith, restoration you may come. He has set before us an open door. We invite you to come. ♪ Jesus, Savior, have mercy ♪

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♪ Over us, in ecstasy ♪ ♪ All the waves before me roll ♪ ♪ Binding rocks and treacherous troll ♪ ♪ Jordan, God was found from thee ♪

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♪ Jesus, Savior, God of peace ♪ ♪ As the lovers kiss the child ♪ ♪ Thou hast touched the ocean wild ♪ ♪ Martial ways obey thy will ♪

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♪ In thy saints to them be still ♪ ♪ Wondrous song with boundless gleam ♪ ♪ Jesus, Savior, part of me ♪ In the glass by near the shore

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I don't know me, afraid of war 'Twixt me and the peaceful rest Infantly, dream of my breast May I hear He say to me, 'Till the world will follow Thee.

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Amen. [Applause] [BLANK_AUDIO]