Matthew 2024

If you turn to Matthew chapter 12 versus 46 to 50.

While Jesus was still talking to the crowd, his mother and brothers stood outside wanting to speak to him. Someone told him your mothers and brothers are standing out your mother and brothers are standing outside wanting to speak to you. He replied to him, who is my mother, and who are my brothers, pointing to his disciples, he said, here are my mother and my brothers. For whoever does the will of my father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother. Great.

Thank you, Sarah. Thank you, Tom as well. My name is Chris. I'm 1 of the elders here at Cornerstone. A very warm welcome for me as well.

If you're here in the room, if it's your first time here, welcome to those who are joining us online as well. You are very, very welcome. This is quite a topical preach. There obviously isn't a huge amount of text that we just read out. But there is a really big topic that we tackle.

And what always lies behind topical breaches are loads and loads of bible references and verses. Now I've spared you, endless lists of burst is coming up on the screen behind me, that's all you're going to get. But what I would say is if you do want to, have any of the background thinking, I will be happy to share all the research with you. Just come and ask if that's something that you're interested in, and wanted to find out a little bit more, about, let me, let me pray as we start. Father, thank you, for tonight.

Thank you for everybody here. Thank you for everybody watching online. Thank you for the lord Jesus Christ being absolutely straight with us, and taking every possible opportunity to teach us truths that we often, would like to stick our head in the sand about and avoid. Help us now as we come to this passage, help us to take these words on board, take them to heart, and put them into practice. We pray these things in your name.

You probably heard the phrase blood is thicker than water. You probably heard that phrase before It's been around for we think about 800 years or so. So you've had enough time to familiarize yourselves, with it. But for those of us who maybe haven't, I'll quickly explain. It means that family relationships are more important and have more of a hold over us than any other kind of relationship.

It suggests that we will tend to support our relatives first, over friends or outsiders. Particularly in times of difficulty, and things like that. The motto is kind of family first, no matter what, family first, no matter what. And I want to say It's actually quite easy to understand this, isn't it? I think it is quite easy for us on 1 level to understand this.

So if I have to choose between my little girl my little 2 year old girl, and pretty much anybody else, guess who won't choose them. It's an obvious 1, isn't it? If I have to choose between my wife and somebody else, I'm gonna choose my wife. If I if I have to choose, between my mother, my sister, and so on, and so on, I'm more likely to choose there more often and go to greater lengths than I would for anybody else. Isn't that true?

Isn't that generally true? We gen we we generally understand that and know that. And the reason why is because these people are really important to me. I love them. We've shared many, many experiences together, the highs and the lows of life.

And because our families are a place that provide us with safety and comfort, at least at least they should be. They're meant to be places where we can be ourselves, where we can let our guards down, we can relax, we can know and be known by each other, without so many barriers in place as we have with, with other people. They provide stability. They are they are more likely to turn out, well adjusted, well balanced, confident children. We know this.

We know this. They're good for society as a whole There's all sorts of, data out there. There's more financial stability. There's the passing down of values and knowledge and all kinds of helpful information. There are so many studies that come to this same conclusion that the Nuclear family dad, mom, and kids are a force for good in this world, but they are actually a key part of the fabric of society.

And the scary thing is that the latest figures show that by the age of 12, by the age of 12, half of all firstborn children do not live with 1 of their parents. 1 of their birth parents, usually the father, is the 1 they don't live with. That's half of our current generation in this country is growing up without the presence of a solid family unit without the presence of a good often male role model. And there's plenty more data that shows the havoc that that reached upon us, and it's different for boys and girls, but equally equally as damaging. The ways in which they don't develop, the anxieties that form in their place, the point I'm trying to make is that families can be, families should be and are meant to be amazing things.

They are meant to be amazing things. So it's easy, isn't it for us to understand why we are so drawn to our family members? Or you could flip it and look at it another way. You may have difficult and strained relationships with family members, and I know many of us do. And yet you still feel that there is some kind of undefinable, unbreakable bond between you that stops you from cutting ties, you know, that compels you to make an effort that you you feel obliged in some way to keep on going with it, to, to, to make the extra effort, to help them when they need it.

And if they weren't your family, you probably would have walked away a long time ago. You probably would have walked away a long time ago indeed. That is what it means to say. Blood is thicker than water. We are deeply joined.

To our family members, especially our immediate family, by something that seems to transcend just memories and shared experiences and personalities. Blood seems to join us together in a way that few, if any other things can. And I want to say a surprising thing at this point, but you're gonna have to hear me out until the end to fully understand my thinking on it. This is absolutely right. We should 100 percent prioritize our family.

Over those who are not, that's not to say that we don't have any time for those who are not. It's just that family should be prioritized That's a bit surprising, isn't it? You probably weren't thinking I was going to come out with that at this stage, but hear me out. Let's keep on going. This was absolutely no different in Jesus' time than it is now.

If anything, more so, So in Jewish culture, family was central to identity, absolutely central to identity, more so than even today. It was all about your inheritance, it was about your standing in the community. Your blood determined which tribe of Israel you belong to, and therefore where you lived, where you were from, who your ancestors were, what type of job you could do? So for instance, whether you could be a priest or not, was determined by your blood, by your relatives, by your family. Jesus' own bloodline is important in Scripture.

It's mentioned all the way throughout. It's traced from really early on down through David and incorporates many of the big important bible characters throughout scripture. So blood matters. Blood matters. It's thicker than water.

It matters today and it mattered back then. Nothing's really changed. So with that in mind, let's have a look at the first part of the text. While Jesus was still talking to the crowd, his mother and brothers stood outside wanting to speak to him, Someone told him your mother and brothers are standing outside wanting to speak to you. So this is a it's an example of exactly what we've just been speaking about, isn't it?

Family members versus other people. Who is going to come out on top, who's going to win in this struggle. So at this stage, we've been going through this series in Matthew. Jesus has been talking to lots of people He's been talking to lots of crowds. He's been incredibly busy.

He's been on the go, pretty much 20 fourseven. And here he is talking to another crowd of people yet again. And his family, I don't know, maybe they're not getting much of a look in. Maybe they want to speak to him. They want to exercise their family privilege over him to say, no, no, no, no, no, no, come and speak to us.

Can you just stop speaking to these guys for a second and come and speak to us? Now, Mark's account of this exact same event gives us a little bit more insights and information as to why they may have wanted to speak to him. And the reason Mark states is because they, they thought that he was out of his mind. They thought he was out of his mind. Why did they think he was out of his mind?

Well, they were likely concerned for his safety. I mean, we've been hearing in recent weeks about the hostility of the pharisees even plots to murder him. So what he's saying is provoking this response is putting him in in danger in harm's way. And you can just imagine how a mother and siblings would feel about that Imagine your mother, if you were putting yourself in harm's way, she's gonna want to speak to you about that. For sure, they were probably concerned for his mental state perhaps.

He was making some pretty seriously radical claims about himself. Maybe they thought, it's all gone to his head. Maybe we need to sort of steer him back on track, and put some sense back into him. And there may have been this cultural expectation of family. Perhaps there were family obligations getting left by the wayside.

Being neglected as he prioritized his ministry over and over and over again. And that would have been a big sticking point in Jewish culture. In other words, they're saying Jesus Come and speak to us, we, your family, your actual family, your blood relatives know what is best for you. We know what is best for you. And I think it's fair to say that his mother and brothers truly had his best interests at heart.

I think their intentions, their motives, actually weren't that weren't that bad, really, on the face of it, they weren't really all that bad. I mean, after all, are they not the best people to speak to him? Do they, do they not know him, better than most? His mother who delivered him in a stable, who experienced, angels appearing to her about him, who who nursed him, who watched him take his first steps, say his first what you can tell. I've got a toddler, can't you?

Taught him all kinds of things, including about the scriptures and about god. She would've had a big hand in in his early years. And then watched him turn into the man that he is. Surely, she knows best. Mother knows best.

Right? Well, yes. And I'm sure I'm sure Jesus would have listened to her about almost anything. Almost anything. I'm sure he would have deferred to her on almost anything, except when it interferes with his ministry.

He draws a line, and it happens a few times throughout scripture. And if it interferes with his ministry, then that's something that he's not willing to do. And at this point in time, it's safe to say that they just didn't understand what he was all about, really. They didn't really understand why he was there. They didn't really understand who he was And so I thought they had some kind of a hold over him.

If they had understood those things, would they have done this? I mean, he's there when you think about it, he's there to save sinners He's there to reveal god to humanity, to preach the good news about the kingdom of god, to fulfill prophecy in god's law, to defeat sin, death, and the devil. My goodness, these are big, weighty things, aren't they? To show us how to live. In the light of all of that, to give us eternal life, that's his ministry, that's his mission, that's what he's there to do, and all of these things require him to speak, to preach, if you like.

He has to preach constantly to the people around him. He has to challenge the authorities of the day of this world and the thinking of this world. To say and do things that are going to provoke anger from some, and ultimately are going to lead him to give his life. And his family are here trying to stop that from happening. Isn't that a completely natural thing for them to want to do?

To protect him? Of course it is, to avert the future they fear is closing in. The future where they have to endure watching him dead at the hands of a mob or the pharisees or both, courses out of his mind if this is the path that he's pursuing. It's out of his mind. We have to stop him.

We love him. We're his family. To us, he's just Jesus. He's my baby boy. He's my brother.

Now, Many of us have non Christian family and friends. And I'm not suggesting for a second here that Mary and Jesus' brothers didn't believe in him or come to believe in him, that's not the point, that Jesus' goes on to make here, but he uses this opportunity to teach us. He uses this opportunity to teach them, about the big difference here. But many of us do have non Christian family and friends. And it's worth making the point, at this stage, I think.

Many of whom probably think exactly the same thing about us that we are out of our minds for believing in Jesus. We are out of our minds for coming to church every single week, and putting so much time and energy into this. And we're completely out of our minds if we're giving money towards it. We've just been duped into a scam or we're in a cult or something. You know, it's going to have a detrimental effect on our lives.

It's going to stop us from achieving in our careers. It's going to take us away from family events and so on. You can just imagine the types of things that our non Christian family and friends might be worried about. And I wanna say, have some sympathy for them in this. It's not an easy thing for them.

It's only natural that they would feel this way just as Mary and Jesus' brothers felt about him. They don't understand what we are really all about because they don't understand what Jesus is all about. And so they would prefer it if we came outside of church to talk to them about it so we can come back to our senses perhaps. And I know many of you experienced this in all sorts of ways. I used to have a group of friends.

When I first became a Christian, it was back in 20 12. And I've been, I'd had this group of friends for years, you know, and we'd grown up through all sorts of things. And we were like brothers. You know, we lived out of each other's pockets. We saw each other all the time.

We spent entire weekends together getting up to all sorts of stuff we shouldn't have got up to. And then all of a sudden, it stopped. All of a sudden, I was changed. And I wasn't trying to antagonize them or anything like that, but I just wouldn't do something. And they felt like I was judging or or something along those lines.

I wouldn't join in with a conversation. I wouldn't say what they wanted me and I would say things they didn't want me to say. You know, I couldn't I couldn't win. It was impossible. And then I couldn't spend time with them anymore because, you know, Friday nights, I was doing youth work every Friday.

Saturday, I was trying to convince Bernadette to marry me. Sundays, I was at Churchill Day. Mondays, I was knackered. Wednesdays, I was at home group, and there was always something on, and And I just couldn't go to them because I was I was here. I was here listening to Jesus and trying to tell other people about him.

And despite the invites, they wouldn't come in. They wanted me to come outside so they could talk me back into my senses. We've all experienced this in all sorts of different ways. Anyway, that is all the introduction. So let's get into this.

My first point is, and I've only got 3, earthly blood, earthly blood. Your family is not your family, just because they think they are your family. Just mull that 1 over for a second. There is a big difference in the Bible between who your earthly family are and who your heavenly or spiritual family are. And this is the main point of this sermon.

This is the main it's really the only point Jesus is making here, and there's all sorts of implications and applications. He uses the opportunity to teach his family, disciples, and listeners about the kingdom of heaven and its family. So look back at the text with me. He replied to him, that's to this guy that comes and speaks to Jesus saying his mother and brothers are outside. He replied to him, who is my mother and, and who are my brothers?

It's a surprising answer, isn't it? Don't you know? If you lost your memory or something, pointing to his disciples, he said, here are my mother and my brothers. Okay. Well, he really is out of his mind.

And for and whoever does the will of my father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother. Now that that is a slap in the face. That that must have been a slap in the face. For his mother and brothers to hear that. It's a hard thing to hear, isn't it?

That's got all kinds of implications. It's striked directly at our nearest and dearest It sort of threatens them in a way. It feels like. And in fact, Jesus is saying that they they may not be on nearest and dearest at all. That titles of mother and brother and sister of those closest to us may actually go to people that we are in no way related to.

I don't even know that well. Jesus is saying that our mothers and fathers might not be our true family. He's saying that our own children may not be our true family. How is this possible? It's possible because the definition that Jesus has for family is very different to the world's definition.

He's drawing a distinction here between earthly and heavenly between physical and spiritual between temporary and eternal. And his definition of who family is are those who do the will of god, those who do the will of my father in heaven. And what is that you ask? Well, god, fortunately, says it quite a few times to leave us in absolutely no doubt as to what that is, at Jesus's baptism. This booming voice from heaven, you'll recall, says, and a voice from heaven said, this is my son whom I love with him.

I am well pleased. That has all sorts of implications. And then at the transfiguration, he hopefully clarifies a bit further. What that means when Jesus takes a couple of the disciples up the mountain, and they see who he really is. Again, this voice, of of god says, this is my son, whom I love.

With him, I am well pleased, listen to him. Listen to him. That's the will of God that you listen to his son. Listen to him. Do what he says.

And this is echoed by Jesus himself in passages, like Matthews chapter 7, not everyone who says to me lord lord will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the 1 who does the will of my father Jesus says. It means that my little girl whom I love more than anything, and I have to check myself because I sometimes wonder if I love her too much, you know, if I love her more than Jesus, rotten sinner that I am, but my goodness, it means that she might not actually be my little girl. How do I deal with that? I mean, she is now. She is here on earth, but but will she be with me and Bernadette?

And all of you who believe, will she be with us in glory? The answer is I don't know. I don't know. I don't know what she will grow to believe. I don't know what choices she's going to make.

I don't know what paths she will go down. I'm sure many that are gonna hurt me. So, you know, getting ready for that. I do not know If she will sit at Jesus' feet and listen to him, I don't know those things. I don't.

I don't know if she's going to be part of our heavenly family, god's family. And that, if I'm going to be completely honest with you all, absolutely terrifies me, and I'm sure parents in the room, I'm sure all of us can relate to that on some, on some degree or other. But that fear is not necessarily bad because that's the driver for us. That's the driver for me and Bernadette to tell her who Jesus is. It's the driver to to put her into Sunday school, to bring her to church, to pray for her, to model, Jesus's words and life as best as we can, and to trust in the lord with all my heart for her because he knows, he knows what I don't know.

I'd go as far as saying 100 percent of us who are believers experienced this. We all know people who we love, that do not and will not believe. Who would rather stand outside than come in and sit. It's the more painful aspect of this passage that our earthly families are only temporary if they do not listen to Jesus. But that pain should then drive us on to have sympathy for them and to witness and pray for them.

And this all raises another question about earthly families, doesn't it? You sort of end up saying, well, does that then mean that our earthly families don't really matter? Or do they matter less? Is Jesus totally trashing the traditional earthly view of a family? And no is the answer, Frank, no is the answer?

Absolutely no. Because the traditional earthly family is biblical. It's totally biblical, you know, father, mother, children. That is a, that's a biblical thing. You know, marriage is a biblical thing right from the get go.

You know, these themes, these ideas, they're all biblical ideas. And our earthly families, regardless of whether they believe in him or not, always have a role to play, always have a role to play. So you've flicked to, again, I said I'm not going to give you all of the chapter and verse, just come to me afterwards. But Jesus himself, when he was on the cross, ensured that his own mother, Mary, would be looked after by his brother. He was showing compassion and a sense of duty to his earthly mother, even in his final moments.

Now again, look, I'm not saying Mary wasn't also a believer, but you see, he cared for his earthly mother. He went out of his way in those final moments of extreme pain to make sure that she was cared for. In Ephesians 5 and 6 in colossians 3, we see all kinds of instructions, to, to earthly families. Husbands and wives are to submit to and love 1 another. Hospbons are not to treat their wives harshly.

Why? Why is that? Because marriage is is a picture. It's ultimately a picture. Of, Jesus and the church.

So how we relate as husbands and wives is how Jesus and the church relates. So don't treat each other harshly, submit to each other love 1 another. The church submits to Jesus and he loves it, and he's not harsh with it. Children are told to obey their parents. Father are told not to exasperate their children by onerous demands and, putting too much on them and saying 1 thing, but then doing none of themselves.

You know, they're they're they're why because the relationship between parent and child, particularly fathers, is supposed to be a picture of god and us. God is the father role, and we are the child role. We obey god, and he is perfectly just in his ways are always correct. His words and his action always align. He doesn't treat us harshly.

He treats us kindly. Do you see the picture, the image that's built into family, to earthly family? So, no, there is no undermining of this by Jesus. We are still to respect and obey our parents. We are still to love and submit ourselves to our spouses.

We are still to treat our children fairly regardless of whether or not they believe and all of the things Tom was talking about right at the beginning between older and younger and intergenerational and all the, all the rest of it, were to do all these things because they, in and of themselves, preach and teach about god. They all have a role to play. So that's earthly families. Let's move on to earthy blood rather. Let's move on to heavenly blood.

So your family is only your family if they are actually your family. Family is only your family if they're actually your family. Jesus defines family in this passage as those who sit at his feet, those who sit at his feet. Those who listen to what he has to say and who follow him, who who do it. He singles out his disciples amongst the crowd as being his mother, brothers, and sisters.

They're my family. These guys, They're everywhere with me. This is my family. And this means that there is a family that transcends earthly family ties It's not based on blood passed down from parents. It's not based on heritage or ancestry, but it's based on individual belief.

Those who listened to Jesus and followed him, are welcomed into god's heavenly family with god himself as father. And again, this has massive implications. It means that The person you know least in this room may be more important to you than the people you know best in your lives right now. They may be more important to you than you're close to family members, maybe. It means, in fact, that people you've never even met may be more important figures in your life, in your future than your own family right now.

That takes some getting your head around. Let's take it 1 step further. People who have been dead for thousands of years, and people who won't be born until after you die may end up being more important figures in your life than your own parents or your own children even. How is that possible? How is that possible?

Because if your own family don't believe you only get a very short time together, and then it's gone. You go 1 way, they go another, so witness to them while the sun is shining so that you might reaper harvest when the time is right, pray for them. But with believers welcomed into a heavenly family, we have an eternity to spend together. An eternity, an eternity is a very, very long time. So whatever happens when you come to believe and follow Jesus, your family expands to become countless numbers of people, countless numbers of people.

People of all different generations and ages. People of all different cultures. From all over the world, I mean, I mean, there's gonna be Romans. I'm gonna have mates who were Romans. You know, they died thousands of years ago.

I'm gonna spend all eternity with some of them because some of them were believers. And all sorts, they'll be Vikings. That'd be pretty cool, won't it? If you love history, you could sort of pick out of anything. Oh, that's cool.

I'm gonna get to know him. I can have a chat with King David at some point. That'll be cool. We did all sorts of awesome stuff. You know, there's there's so it expands.

This is the overpoweringly positive side of Jesus' statement. And I really wanna focus on that because I think it's so overpoweringly positive that that it kinda just wipes the floor with everything else when you really start to think it through. As painful as it is to have loved ones that don't want to follow Christ. I'm not belittling that in any way, shape, or form, but I do want to lift our heads up and maximize this truth. Every believer who has ever lived and will ever lived becomes your brother or sister or mother or father and so on and so on, isn't that amazing?

Isn't that an awesome thing And not only that, but imagine the depth of relationship that we are gonna have. I'm trying to think of someone. I'm gonna pick on Robin at the back there because me and Robin, we sort of know each other a little bit. We don't really know each other that well, not half as well as we probably like. But Robin, in a million years' time, you and I are going to know each other very, very well, my friend.

Probably, probably better than we'd like, actually. Just think. Just think for a second what our conversations will be like, you know, completely free of sin, completely free of sin. We won't have anything to hide. We won't have any fear.

Won't be any guilt. There won't be any shame. We won't have to guard our words. We won't have to worry if we upset 1 another or misunderstand each other, in in any way. We will only speak the truth completely all the time.

And we'll praise god together as we were made to do. We're doing that in a million years, mate. That's pretty cool. Yeah. You and I are gonna have a word of a time.

Trust me. Like, our best days are all ahead of us, and there there's a lot of them. Believe me. Now earlier I said that you should put your family first. They should be your priority before anybody else.

And I absolutely stick by that. I absolutely stick by that because when you apply it to your heavenly family, then it all falls into place. And what I really mean by that is when you apply it to the church, to the body of believers in the lord Jesus Christ. Paul in Galatians tells us to do good to everybody especially those who are in the household of faith. You see, he makes a distinction, especially.

So he's not leaving out everybody else. We should do good to everybody, but there is an elevated, especially. First and foremost, In John and Acts and elsewhere, the believers in the early church are told to meet each other's needs. Yeah? Meet each other's needs.

When Christians take care of each other's needs, it demonstrates love. It shows unity, and the power of the gospel to transform total strangers' lives into this unique family that that go to great lengths to everybody for for other believers. It's a witness to the world, and a strong family can help others. And that is what the church is supposed to be. It operates from the strongest possible position to help the world around it.

And church gives us a taste for what the future has in store. It gives us, like, it gives us this little insight, this snippet, if you like, into what the future could possibly potentially be like, a really bad 1. So it's going to be way way better, but a glorious 1 nonetheless. When I, sorry, I've got a really tickly cough and had it for ages. I flew a couple of weeks ago.

And it resurfaces at the most awkward moments. When I joined Cornerstone, again, 20 12, at that moment in time, I have family around, you know, there was family around you know, not a million miles away, you know, somewhere interesting Chestington or whatever. But they weren't really part of my day to day life, you know, from 1 day to the next, not right at the beginning, not in those very, very early days. And all my immediate family, my mother, my father, my sister have gone. You know, 2 of them were on the other side of the planet, and 1 of them was in Birmingham, which may as well be on the other side of the planet.

And, Largely in a day to day capacity, I was a little bit sort of, alone in the world, really. You know, I had those friends that I talked about, but that was a strained relationship at that time and getting increasingly more strained. But when I joined Cornerstone properly, when I first came in, I mean, I remember the first Sunday, Pete, you were just putting bloke after bloke in front of me. And I think you said, oh, you met Abri. I was like, no, of course, I haven't.

I've never been here, but sure. And so I was talking to Abri and Matt Dreya, who are both over at the plant in, Tallworth. And so I was talking to them. It's like, oh, you met this guy. I barely had a conversation with these guys.

And then it was that. And then Tom gets shoved in front of me. Yeah. Really vivid memory of the first time I saw Tom. He's just standing there in front of me introducing himself, wearing some blue hoodie, I think.

And, Just a weird, vivid memory. It's my brother. My brothers, my sisters that I met. Suddenly, I had more of them than I knew what to do with. I, you know, I had I had father father figures coming out of my ears.

Good ones. Really good role models. I had mother figures. Grand no. I don't think we did at that time.

Not until we joined Cambry. Then we had some older people, and that was great again. You know, we gained all this wisdom and knowledge of these of these ancient believers who are just going for decades and decades, you know, could teach us all kinds of things. There were little kids. There were there were little kids.

Where is Levi here? Where is he? Levi? Mate, when I started, you were down here. You were tiny, and I was like your uncle or something, you know, you were, you were actually quite violent thinking back.

Yeah. Yeah. I remember the bruises. It was great. It was great.

It was an awesome time. Like, we we lived together. We rented houses together. We did all sorts of things together. You know, it it it's the family.

It's a family, and it's just the beginning. It's just the beginning. In a million years' time, you know, this period of time is going to be, you know, you're not even going to be able to think about it. It's going to be so far back. Some of you might remember, thelma, who remembers thelma?

So thelma, came to us in probably the last 5 or so years of her life. She lived just down the road. She was from a different time. She may as well been from a different planet. You know, she grew up in like, it was like the back end of colonial days in India.

You know, so totally different culture, totally different upbringing and all the rest of it. She was like something out of another time and place, like, out of a history book. And she came to us for those last few years of her life. And I, I remember being really really powerfully struck, at her 90th birthday party. We went out 4 of all things and all you can eat Chinese.

Why would you not want to do that for your 90th birthday party? And, so there were quite a few of us there. It was at the place in the rotunda, if any of you know it, it's upstairs. You know, it's very well known for giving people food poisoning. I'm slightly recommended.

I saw the bloke, no, you, Pete, saw the bloke come out the toilets. He'd just been cleaning, took his gloves off, and then started moving the food around. He couldn't wash his hands. He didn't take his gloves off. Well, there you go.

Even worse. It probably explains a lot. And those toilets were not pretty. Anyway, that's where we went for Thelma's 90th. And, the next person closest in age to thelma was Pete.

And he was 30 years her junior. So what that means and I, at the time, myself was 30 years old. So there was 90, 60, 30. So then that got me thinking. It's like, She lived to the age of 30 before the next closest person in age to her at her 90th birthday was even born.

And then she lived to the age of 6 see before I was even born, she lived to the age of 85 before she even met any of us, and all of the people that were at her 90th birthday, she'd met in the last 5 years, and all of them were from church. Not 1 member of her earthly family went. Not 1. She was with her heavenly family that day, and that I thought was awesome. Brad is used to go around.

Where is he? He's hiding. Yeah. There he is. He's hiding right in the middle of the room.

Used to go around and do her garden mate all the time. You're not related to her, are you? Not unless we don't know about it. So there's some sort of connection, and how So, actually, why? Because she's your grandmother in in your heavenly family.

So why would you not? Why would you not? Isn't the church an incredibly powerful thing? Isn't family an incredibly powerful thing? So I just want to, I just want to end with this final point, and it's not a long 1.

Had earthly blood, we've had heavenly blood, royal blood. Royal blood. Earlier I said that blood is thicker than water. Well, there's another way of saying that, and it goes like this. The blood of the covenant is thicker than the water of the womb.

It's like, ugh. But some people actually think that this might have been the original saying. And I'm not so sure about that, but whatever the case whatever the case may be, it's quite a helpful way actually for us to think about the whole the whole thing, isn't it? That the blood of the covenant, which is the blood of Jesus himself shed on the cross to pay for sin, the ultimate sacrifice for the ultimate payment is thicker than any other kind of relationship we may have. And those who are bought by this blood payment is us.

We are bought by this payment in blood. It's very bloody in fact. It's horrendous when you read the accounts. God buys our eternal life with blood His blood, his son's blood for our eternal life. That's stunning.

That's absolutely stunning. Therefore, Okay. Therefore, you were bought with royal blood. And not just any royal blood. He's the son of the living god.

You've heard what he came to do earlier. He's the creator of the heavens and the earth. John tells us that all things were created, buy him through him for him in him. He's the creator himself Jesus. The creator of all humans.

He put the lifeblood in your veins. You know, he invented it. His imagination came up with that. And we all share that, by the way. It's no different.

The blood that Adam and Epad is the same as we have. We're actually all related anyway. If you think about it that way. He makes earthly things look like ants. So, Trump Putin, Xi Jinping, eat your hearts out.

You know, when you have to stand in front of him and explain your actions, you're gonna soil yourselves. He's a real king. He's real royalty, you arrogant little men. Our king, Jesus Christ doesn't shed other people's blood. He sheds his blood for us.

So we're all blood relatives. We're all blood relatives, and we all now share in the royal bloodline. And we're all immediate family. We are brothers and sisters. Mothers and fathers to 1 another, so we are called with Jesus himself as our brother, and we are co heirs with him.

We are told we are co heirs with Christ. We share in his inheritance, which is a place in the new heaven and the new earth. And we shake this 1 off. The blood he sheds to achieve that The blood that he sheds to join us all together with him in eternity makes our earthly blood as thin as water. There's no comparison able to be made.

It's not even close. Blood is thicker than water, but only the blood of Christ. So let's be serious about telling those who don't yet know, who haven't yet heard and who don't yet believe. Let's be serious about loving and serving our church family. You know, let's put our time and energy.

Let's, let's bend our will to serving that, strike a blow to our bodies and discipline them and get stuck in. Think about what you can do for the kingdom, and let's be serious more than anything else about coming together to sit at the feet of Jesus, to listen to what he has to say. For those are the ones he calls, mother, brother, and sister. I'll finish with something I said at the start, but this time, have in mind Jesus and the church, as we say it, we are deeply joined to our family members, especially to our immediate family, by something that seems to transcend memories and shared experiences and personalities Blood seems to join us together in why that few other things can, but only the blood of Christ. Let me pray.

Further, we, we bring ourselves before you because so often, for all of us, this is hard to put into practice. We so often neglect our church family, our brothers and sisters in you, those who we're actually going to be spending all of eternity with. We so often prioritize our own families to the detriment of all kinds of things, father we pray that you would help us to have the wisdom to find the right balance in all of these things. To not neglect our earthly families in any way, shape, or form, to honor them, but we honor them by telling them about your son. So help us to find the courage and the words to do this.

Help us to help us to live lives and, and have actions that that preach that message that they would see that this is a better way that there is, there is something in this, in this Jesus. Maybe I want to come in and sit and find out wouldn't that be great if we could do that for all of our family's father? Please help us if we, you know, we've got loved ones who are close to us that don't yet know you. I know many of us do help us to be sensitive to this, drive us on to share the message with them. But father, please just help us to enjoy the family of God, help us to enjoy this church.

And help us to help us to get stuck in, and help 1 another, love 1 another. Because Jesus says what you do for the least of these you do for me. We pray that you'll be glorified through this in your name,