Man, so good to be with you guys today. Good to just be able to open God's word, get to hang out today. I want to welcome everyone online that are watching, our online fam that's joining us from everywhere you can imagine. They're here joining us, and we get to be one family worshiping God together. Super excited about that. Hey, have you ever had something important to say, but not a lot of time to say it? Anyone here know what I'm talking about? Like, you're like,
man, I got really important things to say. I just don't have a lot of time. to say it, right? Usually this happens for me when I'm in line at the grocery store and I call my wife and I'm like, hey, did I get everything that you asked me to get? And she's like, well, let me tell you about my day. And I'm like, I don't got time. Like I'm getting close. I have a limited amount of time in order to tell you the things that I need to tell you. I think that was Jesus's
entire ministry. He had three years to tell us the most important information that this world will ever hear. He had only three years to pack in the most important information that we will ever hear. And he lived this story of his life. And in these three years we have recorded in the Bible, we can read about his life. We can read about his birth, a little bit of his raising, but his ministry primarily in the book of Matthew,
Mark, Luke, and John. And we see that, but we see everything that Jesus said was important. But when you get down to the end of what someone says, the last words, The last things that they're gonna say, usually that's the most important. All right, I'm gonna let you in on a secret here. The secret is when John and I prepare a message, we usually put the thing that we want you to remember the most at the very end. We're like, man, okay, all of it's great, but listen, this
is what I want you to hear the most. These are the last words. These are the important ones. All right, now that's not permission for you to check out. All right, some of you are like, all right, I can check back in in 25 minutes, right? Or if John's preaching, 35 minutes, I can check back in. I'm not saying that. All of it's good stuff. All of it's good stuff. But man, usually the last words are the most important ones. These are what I want you to remember.
I do that with my kids. When my older ones are watching my younger ones and I go, okay, I'm going to leave the house. I give them instructions, but I got to know these are the last words you need to know. These are the last words. Okay, the food on the counter, that's what you are going to eat. Do not open the door for anyone. I don't care who they are. Okay, keep the two -year -old locked in the cage. Ready, bye. Boom, right? Listen, I don't lock a two -year -old
in the cage that much, okay? I'm just saying, I'm just saying. No, I don't at all. Don't write me an email. I don't at all. But usually the last words are the important ones, man. This is what I want you to know. See, Jesus, he has a few last words that he says when he's in the end of his life. When he's on a cross, he says some things that, man, when you know you don't have a lot of time, those things are really, really important. What you say carries weight.
And so we're gonna look over the next couple of weeks leading up to Easter at Jesus's last words. We're gonna look at what he said and what we can learn as we look at just the end of his life, right? The end of Jesus's life here and how he handles those last couple of hours of his life. So before we hop into God's word, would you pray with me? God, thank you so much that we are here today. God, I pray that you would use me, speak through my words to our hearts.
I pray this in Jesus' name, amen. So Jesus is falsely convicted. Jesus is on trial and he's falsely convicted and he's sentenced to death, death on a cross. And so Jesus finds himself in this place where he is headed to a cross and he is nailed to a cross and he is hung on a cross. And there's different types of people around this area that are looking because Jesus, as he's nailed to this cross, he's at this place called Golgotha, which means the place of the
skull. And I think when we think of this place where Jesus was crucified, where the cross is, we think of the artist's rendition of this, where there's kind of a mountain and three crosses on top of this mountain. But when I was in Israel a couple of years ago, I was able to see the place they call the place of the skull, Golgotha. And really what it was, was this giant rock that resembled a skull. And they would crucify people
below this rock on ground level. In fact, it was right in front of this road, this main road, this main thoroughfare that people would go on. And the reason that the Romans did this is because they wanted people that were walking by to see the people that were crucifying and say, oh man, if that's the punishment, I'm not doing that. They get a front row seat to look at the punishment for if they mess up, if they do anything against what the Roman empire wants them to do. And so
that's where this place was. So there's onlookers that are in this place as Jesus is hanging on this cross. There's different groups of onlookers, right? You have the soldiers who are crucifying Jesus. And at this point, what they're doing is they're dividing up his clothes and they're casting lots to say, who gets the free clothes? This guy's not gonna need them. He's about to die. So who gets free clothes? So they're dividing
their clothes there. All right, you have a part of the crowd out there that's watching and they're looking. And these are the ones that are cheering on because they're like, man, kill this guy. We want him to be crucified. And you have this other part of the crowd that's there that's maybe just onlookers. They're walking past and they're looking. They're like, I wonder what's going on here. Doesn't look like a good day for that guy. They don't know what's going on, but they're
kind of just seeing what's happening. And then you have a small group of Jesus's supporters because most of them had scattered. You know, Peter, he's off denying Jesus somewhere. Thomas is probably off doubting somewhere. I don't know what he's doing. Come on, that's a church joke right there. Doubting Thomas? You all need to read your Bible more. But there's a small group of actual supporters that are still there for Jesus. And as Jesus is on the cross, he addresses
them in John chapter 19, verse 25. He says this, near the cross of Jesus stood his mother, his mother's sister, Mary, the wife of Colopus, and Mary Magdalene. He's looking at his little tiny group of supporters, and these are the ones that are still there for him. These are the ones that are still there in the midst of him being crucified on this cross. And he says something here that is completely unexpected, completely unexpected. Like Jesus is in a terrible situation. He's in
the ultimate tough situation. There is not one of us in here that can relate to what Jesus was going through because none of us have been crucified before. Jesus is crucified. He's on a cross. He's about to die. He's beaten, not just with physical pain, but with the spiritual pain of taking the sin of the world on him. And he's on this cross. He says something completely unexpected. See, when I'm in a tough situation, I say exactly
what's expected, right? Like I stub my toe and I'm not like, oh, praise Jesus right now, right? Like I say what's expected in that moment, right? Like if I'm driving and someone cuts me off, I'm not like, oh, but just blessings on your family right now, right? Like that's not me. I say what's expected, right? I usually wave at them with one finger. You know what I'm saying? Like, I don't do that. I don't do that. But some
of you do. And listen to me. You need to take that height sticker off the back of your car. Some of you driving with that height sticker and I'm like, yo, chill. Right, in those moments, I say what's expected, right? If I'm in the backyard and I'm playing cornhole and someone beats me, oh, come on, that's not happening. Come on, you know that. You know that's not happening. But I say what's expected in those tough situations, in those moments. Jesus here is in the ultimate
tough situation. And what he says is not expected. What he says is this in verse 26. When Jesus saw his mother there and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to her, woman, here is your son. And to the disciple, here is your mother. If you're taking notes today, write this down. Jesus is still caring for and focusing on others. Jesus is still caring for and focusing on others in the middle of this situation. Listen, he's worried about his mom. He's like, mom, what's
gonna happen to you when I'm gone? Because Mary, who's married to Joseph, we know the Christmas story, Joseph passes away, she's a widow now. And in that culture, you have to have someone to take care of you or you don't have shelter, you don't have food, you don't have a life. You need somebody to take care of you. And he knows the husband's gone, Joseph's gone. Jesus as the oldest son is the one taking care of his mother.
And if you look at this, if you know Jesus had brothers, and so the question a lot of times is, well, what about his brothers? Why would Jesus choose this disciple here for his mom to take care of his mom when it would just be the duty of the brothers to step in here? And we know from scripture, Jesus's brothers were named James, Joseph, Judas, and Simon. But here's the thing, they didn't believe in him. They didn't
believe. It says in John chapter seven, verse five, for even his own brothers, did not believe in him. And side note, I think this is one of the most incredible things about the resurrection that proves its validity, that proves its truth, is that Jesus' brothers did not believe in him before the resurrection. He said, hey, I'm gonna die and I'm gonna raise again. And his brothers are like, listen, you crazy, bro. That's not happening. I don't believe that. They weren't
even there. They weren't even present. Jesus couldn't even pass them on to his brothers. He had to pick a disciple here because his brothers weren't even there. But then after the resurrection, you can look in your Bible. One of Jesus's brothers wrote a book called James. It's in the Bible. And he believed. Jesus's brothers then believed after his resurrection. Listen, if your brother told you he was gonna die and raise again, you'd do the same thing they did. We don't believe
that unless he actually did it. Unless you see him afterwards and you go, wow, this is true. I believe this. But at the time of the crucifixion, Jesus is on this cross and he's going, listen, my mom's got nowhere to go. And Jesus, man, listen, he had every right to be selfish in this moment. If anyone has a right to be selfish, it's Jesus in this moment. I can imagine none of us would judge Jesus if in this moment you were to go, listen, I did nothing wrong to be hanging on
this cross right now. Like, mom, this is my time to hurt. Mom, this is my time. Like, hey, mom, I know, but listen, don't you realize what I'm going through right now? Jesus had all the right to do that, but he did not do that. Instead, he was focused on others. See, we go through victim mentality when we go through tough situations, though. In our life, when things get hard, we become the victim of it. Man, why is this happening to me? The world's just out to get me. Everything's
hard. Everything's tough. It's all about me. All right, this is me. When I go through tough situations, I get in the spiral. This victim mentality spiral. I'm like, man, I'm stressed about the bills that I have to pay. I don't know if I can do it. This is getting hard. And then I go, but I can't work anymore than I already am because work's really busy right now and work's so hard I can't even do it. And I have so many kids and I gotta take them here and there and
everywhere and life's so hard. And I get in this spiral, right? And I turn into this monster. Man, I'm so grateful for a wife that knows how to pull me out of the spiral that I'm in. She gets a tranquilizer and she shoots me and she puts me on the ground and she goes, listen, I need to speak some truth into you because you've
turned into a monster. And she goes, listen, your problem is this, is you're only focused on you instead of looking up and looking out and seeing about that there's plenty of other things around you. When we get in tough situations, sometimes we only focus on us instead of seeing the world around us, instead of seeing other people. All right, what Jesus does is Jesus shows us how to be others focused even in our pain. All right, even in our pain, he shows us how
to be others focused. He says, listen, it's not about you. We should have the same mindset that he had. Paul writes about this in Philippians 2. He says, listen, this is the mindset you should have. He said, make my joy complete by being like -minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and one of mind. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility, value others above yourself. Not looking to your own interests, but each of you to the
interests of others. being others focused. See, I think if we were to be people that took after Jesus and in the middle of our pain, in the middle of our struggle, we didn't just look at ourself, but instead we looked up at others, we'd find a way to get through what we're going through. It would start changing our mindset so that we could make it through what we're going through when it's not all about us anymore, but it's about other people. Jesus shows us here. Jesus
shows us how to be others focused. He says this, he looks at the disciple in verse 27 and to the disciple, he said, here's your mother. And it says this, from that time on, this disciple took her into his home. From that time on, he took her into his home. All right, number two is this, Jesus shows us what family truly looks like. Jesus shows us what family truly looks like. Listen, we talk about it all the time in here. We say, hey, you're a family. Heights is a family.
Welcome to the family. We're glad you're a part of the family. We talk about family all the time. And for some of you, you're like, listen, I grew up with a family that was whack. My family was cray -cray. They were nuts. Your family was like an episode of Jerry Springer. You know what I'm saying? You weren't raised. You escaped. You got out of there. I escaped. I'm done. I'm gone. That was you. And so for you, this is really
good news because you need a family. You're going, man, the family I was raised with, they're crazy. But this is the family. That's great news. See, others of you, you were raised in a family that was amazing. It was awesome. And so you know what it's like. So this is good news for you too, because you're like, man, I know what it's like to have a good family. And if this is the family, that's amazing. This is incredible. We
get to be the family here. And Jesus said this, this idea that we are family here is not one that we came up with. Jesus said it. In fact, Jesus was teaching one time. And as he was teaching, someone came up and they said, hey, your mom and your brothers and your sisters, they're outside. And Jesus says this in Mark 3, verse 33. He said, who are my mother and brothers? He asked. And he looked at those seated in a circle around
him. He looked at the church around him. He looked at the people of God that were right in front of him as he was teaching, just like we're sitting here today. And he says this. He said, here are my mother and my brothers. Whoever does God's will is my brother and sister and mothers. That's who it is. All right, whoever does God's will, that's my brother, that's my sister. All right, you ever been to an old Baptist church before? That's all they call you? Hello, brother. Greetings
in the name of the Lord, brother. You're like, oh, sweet. Everyone's brother, everyone's sister. That's who we are. God says, listen, if you do the will of God the Father, you're my brother, you're my sister. We are a family. We are the family of God. Do you know what family does, though? Family sticks together. Because sometimes what we do as people, we go, okay, but here's the deal. Church is fine. That's what I do. Family, that's something else. And we like to separate
those two. We wanna keep those. We go, I got it on my own. The church is great. It's something that I go to, but I don't need a family. I got this on my own. And you don't understand the need that you have for this family. There's no such thing as being a lone wolf. They don't exist because wolves travels in packs. They understand why they need to be in a pack. We need to understand why we need to be in the family of God. There's
a need for you to be in the family of God. See, I think part of the reason why we don't embrace this idea of family is because church a lot of times is a checklist, not a lifestyle. And when church is a checklist, it's just something that you do to check off your list. I did it, I showed up, I was there, but it's not a lifestyle. Then you separate the act of going to church with being a part of the family of God. If we're gonna be a part of what God has called us to, we need
to be a part of the family of God. So what does the family of God do? The family provides for each other's needs. Mary was in a place where she needed some stuff. She needed food, she needed shelter. What John was doing, taking her in was saying, hey, listen, I'm gonna provide for your needs. The family of God provides for our needs. I remember when my wife was pregnant with our first kid that ended up being two, we had twins. And man, she was so sick. She was throwing up
nine to 12 times a day. It was wild. I'd be sitting on the couch watching TV and this commercial, the most beautiful hamburger you've ever seen in your life came on. I mean, it was gorgeous. I'm like, man, I'm getting so hungry right now. And she just gets up and runs to the bathroom. And I'm like, what are you doing? I would sit close to her, like closest in 10 to 12 feet from her. And she'd go, listen, you stink really bad. I'm like, I just took a shower. She's like, I
know, it smells horrible. I'm like, I love you too. Thank you. That's awesome. Right, everything made her sick. I couldn't eat because the house apparently would stink, right? And so I would be like in the bathroom eating cereal. Like I lived on that for like a month. I was like squatting in my own house. I was just eating cereal in the bathroom. That's how I lived. Like this isn't normal. All right, people in the church got wind of this and they were like, man, he might die
of starvation. And so they started showing up and they would bring me food and they would set the plate out on the front porch. And I would go outside and sit on the front porch and eat it like an animal, right? Right under my front porch. But listen, I had a need and the church said, we're gonna step into that need. I lived in the San Francisco Bay Area in California. And if you don't know, in the Bay Area, you have to make $10 million a year in order to live there.
And in case you're wondering, I did not make $10 million a year. I mean, if I'm honest, there was weeks where I truly didn't know if I was gonna be able to feed my kids. I didn't know if we were gonna have food. And there was a man in the church named Roland and he would knock on the door. He'd say, hey, I got a box of groceries and some gift cards to Safeway. See, what the church does is they show up for needs. About a year ago, I was speaking a message in here.
I was talking to you guys and I was telling you about my ghetto car. And I was telling you about this thing. It's missing a hubcap. It's got a list of things that's wrong with it. I mean, I was only telling you that because I was trying to get you to laugh about it. I never do that. I try never to make you laugh. But with that one, I was trying to. man, so many people came up to me and they said, hey, I wanna buy you tires. I wanna help you. I'm like, that's not
why I said that. They said, I know, but I heard of a need and I'm here to help. All right, that's what the church does. They step in. My wife is a leader in our youth ministry. She leads a group of girls and she was texting with her girls the other day, just saying, hey, how are you guys doing? Checking in on them. They were all checking in on her. And she said, my back really hurts.
I just threw my back out. And that night, one of her students, a high school student, with their own money, shows up and said, hey, we brought you dinner. I bought you dinner. I'm going to show up and give it to you. See, that's what the family does. The family provides for each other's needs. The family shows up and said, listen, I see a need. I'm going to provide for it. And listen, Heights has incredible ministries.
We have a ministry. Our local ministry feeds people and takes care of people and gives to the needs of the people in our community and in our church. And that's amazing. But I'm not talking about the ministry that the church provides because the church is not a ministry. The church is people. It's you. It's you looking over and saying, man, there's a need in the person that
is next to me. There's a need around me. Family steps in for the needs of the people around them, not point them to a ministry so someone else can do it. But then it's my job to step up and to say, hey, listen, we provide for each other's needs. Family is also there for each other. Family's there for each other. Man, Mary, her son, her
only son, her miracle baby. conceived by the Holy Spirit, who never did anything wrong, raised his entire life, is now on a cross in front of her, nailed and beaten and bloody and bruised to a cross. And she watched her only son die. I can only imagine the amount of emotional support that Mary needed. John didn't just take care of her physically and go, okay, yeah, yeah, I got you with a meal. I got you a bed over in the corner. You're good. No, he was there for
her. What he was signing up for was saying, hey, I'm here for emotional support. I'm here to help you. We are there for each other. There's a lady in our church who I really care about. She's a friend of mine. And this week is the anniversary of her mother's passing. And she also found out that her mentor passed away this week as well. And man, she's just, I know she was going through a lot and she was just heavy on my heart. And I reached out to her and I just said, hey, how
are you doing? How are you doing? I wanna be there for you. And she calls me and we were talking and. I said, how's your day been? She said, well, I was talking to some people from our church. She's talking to them and she's telling me about the conversation she had with them that were there for her, that were there to talk to her. And then I continued to talk to her and she said, hey, I have to go. I said, well, where are you
going? She said, I have to go meet up with someone else who's reached out to me and is here for me as well. So that's what the family does. The family is there for each other. They walk alongside. They're there when we go through difficult times. It is absolutely inevitable. In fact, Jesus said it, listen, in this world, you will have trouble. You're gonna go through it. But we have a family to walk alongside of us in it. That's why when we talk about life groups, we talk about it so
much. And some of you just let it go in one ear and right out the other. But life groups are so critical because that's who you do life with. That's who you walk alongside of you when things get hard. That's who walks you through when you have the death of a loved one. That's who walks you through when you have an illness. That's who walks you through when a divorce happens. That's who walks you through when things get really hard. We have people in our life to come
alongside. And that's what the family does. That's what the family does. And the family does not mean a pastor. Because a lot of times we think, okay, if the church is going to show up for me, if we're really a family, then I need a pastor to show up. I was talking to someone the other day and they're going, man, I'm going through this and the church just didn't show up for me. You say you're a family, but the church didn't show up. And I said, well, did this person show
up? And they said, yeah. What about this person? Yeah. What about this person? Yeah. But a pastor didn't. Listen, I'm going to tell you right now, if you're going through something, you don't want me to show up. You don't. I love teaching God's word. I believe it's a gift that I have to be able to teach God's word. I don't know what to do when I sit down with somebody who's going through a difficult time. I don't know what to say, right? I turn into Ricky Bobby.
I'm like, I don't know what to do with my hands right now. I'm just getting weird, getting awkward. I don't know what to do. You don't want me. But the family, that's who you want. The family of God does not mean a pastor. It means all of us. But here's the thing. A lot of times people get upset with heights because we didn't show up when we didn't know what happened. It's a two
-way street. If you don't let us know what's going on and you don't let us know the needs that you have, then we can't show up for you. If you never let anyone in, if you're not in life with anyone, if you're not continuing to walk in the family, but you've distanced yourself from the family, we won't know what's going on. It's not because we don't like you. It's not because we're like, oh, it's that person that needs something. We're not helping. That's because
we don't know. You have to let us know what's going on. We are not mind readers. There's not a single person at Heights that is a mind reader. You have to let us know what's going on. See, the church is as big or as small as you make it. I hear this all the time, and I understand people have different preferences when it comes to size of church, but I hear it all the time. This is just too big. I can't get connected here. And I need you to know that the church is as
big or as small as you make it. And I've worked on staff. I've been a pastor on staff of a church of 80 people. and a church of 7 ,000 people. And I'll tell you this, you can slip in and slip out of a church of 80 people and be just as anonymous and no one will know who you are if you're not involved. And you can also be a part of a church of 7 ,000 people and you can be as connected as possible. The church is as big or as small as you make it. Are you in a life group? Are
you on a serve team? Do you just slip in and slip out and say, I hope no one talks to me? Or are you involved? Are you getting to know people? Because the church was created to be a family. That's what we are. We are a family. When we say we're a family, that means families are here for each other. Next is this. Families challenge each other spiritually. Family challenges you spiritually to be better. It's calling you out and calling you up in love. See, some of
you, this is your favorite part. Calling you out, calling you up. I can do that. But it's not in love, and that's not a family. That's not what families do. It's in love saying, hey, I want the best for you. The reason I'm saying, hey, there's more for you. The reason I'm saying that there's standards in the way that you act needs to be this way is because I want what's best for you. All right, family doesn't mean
just doing what you want. I think a lot of times people weaponize this statement of we are family. I hear it often, people go, well, heights set of their family, but families don't. And then what they want is to do exactly what I want. And what they say is you didn't do what I wanted, therefore. You're not doing family. Families don't do what you want. Families want what's
best for you. I think the contrast that we see in this is that Jesus is on a cross and what is happening is the soldiers are dividing the clothes up and going, I want this, I want that. I want what I can get in this moment when the contract is the other side of it, the family of God that's concerned about each other's wellbeing. It's not about what they can get. It's about, man, how do I care for one another? How do I get what's best for you? I want what's best.
For you. I'd say probably the number one way that I'm challenged spiritually, that I grow spiritually is just reading the word of God. The word of God challenges me spiritually. It challenges me to be better. I read it and I go, man, God's calling me to more. But a very close second is the family of God. It's the people in my life that I do life with. It's the people like Pastor Bob and like Pastor Ben, like Pastor Jordan that I get to do life with and say, hey
man, I think there's more for you. And there's been so many times where I've been in a conversation with Pastor Ben and him and I are just challenging each other to be the best that we can be when it comes to our spiritual life. The family of God challenges us spiritually and moves us closer. See, God created this idea of family. Now, listen, I don't want anyone in here to hear me wrong. I did not say that family is perfect. Families make bad decisions. I'm telling you right now,
families make bad decisions. Pastor Jordan and I decided that this month we were going to grow mustaches. And some of you right now are like, oh, I noticed that thing is glorious. That's all I can stare at this whole message. You didn't even know I was giving a message. You were just looking at the stash the whole time. Listen, it's amazing. Pastor Jordan and I, we look like Mario and Luigi walking around here. He's Luigi, I'm Mario. You know what I'm saying? Man, it's
glorious, but here's the deal. It's a bad decision. It's a bad decision, not because it looks bad. You know it doesn't look bad. You're seeing it. You got eyeballs. It's a bad decision because I'm at a point right now where the mustache is eating more of my food than I am. You know what I'm saying? Yesterday, I had a bagel with cream cheese. I ate the bagel. The mustache ate the cream cheese. I was like, what is going on here? All right, in the middle of the night, I wake
up. It's in my mouth. I'm like flossing my teeth with mustache hair. It's awful. It's terrible. I go to kiss my kids and they run from me. They're like, you get that caterpillar away from me right now. Right? Listen, those of you who rock mustaches permanently, mad props to you. You are a better man than me. It's a bad decision. We make bad decisions. Listen, and not just on silly things. When it comes to church, we make bad decisions. Your leadership of this church is going to make
bad decisions. We will let you down. You know why? Because we are messed up humans. The church is made up of humans and humans are messed up and we will let you down. We will make bad decisions. The family will make bad decisions. We will make decisions that you will go, man, I didn't like that. I disagreed with that. That bothered me. That was hard for me. We will make bad decisions. That's going to happen. The family doesn't mean perfect, but it means perseverant. It doesn't
mean perfect, but it means perseverant. Listen, don't jump ship when we make a decision that you don't like. I'm out of here. I'm out of here. That's not what family does. Family does not mean perfect. It means perseverance. And we're going to move forward in this. And that means we're not going to jump ship. We're not just going to leave every time we disappoint you. Because we will. Listen, if we haven't disappointed you yet, you haven't been here long enough. Just
wait. It's coming. I was talking to somebody who's been at Heights for over 20 years. really long time. And they were saying people who've left often come to them and say, why are you still there? Haven't they disappointed you? Haven't they let you down? Haven't they made bad decisions? And she's like, oh yeah, they've made a lot. They made a lot. They go, why are you still there? She said, because they're family. And family doesn't just jump ship because it's not about
perfection. It's about perseverance. Jesus said, listen, you're a family. He shows us what true family is. Man, but there's something else I want you to notice here. There's something I want you to notice. Some of you might've picked up on this, but as you're looking at this passage, it says this, when Jesus saw his mother there and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to her, woman, Jesus, you just call your mom a woman? Really, bro? Are you serious, right?
Some of the moms in here, your blood pressure's rising. You're like, oh man, if one of my kids called me that, like the disrespect, Jesus, woman. Right? Some of you who have a mom in here, you're getting scared. You're about to go run and hide under a bed right now because she's coming with a belt. You know what I'm saying? You talk to your mama like that? Jesus, why are you talking about your mama like that? He calls her woman.
And in the culture, you have to understand that wasn't a term, it wasn't disrespectful what Jesus was saying. But we do see him, Jesus, do this another time in scripture. Right? They're at this wedding and it is the beginning of Jesus's public ministry and Jesus hadn't done anything yet to show. His divinity. He hasn't showed his miracle power. He hasn't showed any of that. And they're at this wedding. And this is what
it says in John chapter two, verse three. When the wine was gone, Jesus' mother said to him, they have no more wine. Woman, why do you involve me? Jesus replied. My hour has not yet come. See, and in both instances, Jesus is about to do something that only the Lord of the universe can do. In both instances, he's about to do something that only the Lord of the universe can do. Nobody in the history of the world has turned water into wine and nobody will since. It's not gonna
happen again. He's doing something only the Lord of the universe can do. And then again, we see him on a cross, dying to purchase and redeem humanity with his blood, something that only the Lord of the universe can do. And so in this moment, what Jesus is doing is he's going, hey, mom, hey, mom, recognize what's about to happen. And he switches. He switches from speaking to
her as a son to speaking to her as Lord. And in this moment, what Jesus shows us is that his departing words to her, his departing words to humanity, his last words, man, this is what I want you to get. Jesus says to her this, mom, these are not words of love for a mother, but rather a symbol of the love and provision of my redemption. for the weak and the vulnerable whom I'm purchasing with my blood. Last is this, write this down. Jesus's care and compassion
is for your soul. That's why Jesus went to a cross. His care and compassion is for your soul. Jesus went to a cross because he said, listen, I loved you enough that I'm willing to go to a cross. And it's not just about providing for your physical needs. It's not just for you to show up to church on a Sunday and check it off your list. It's because I am. purchasing your soul. Can we just talk about adoption for a moment?
Listen, I have five kids and they're wonderful and they're beautiful and I didn't choose any of them. It's just what I got. But when you adopt someone, you choose them. You pay the price for them. You go through a process for them. And when you've gone through the process, when you've paid the price, when you've chosen them, you get a legal document, you get a piece of paper. And on that piece of paper, they have your name.
They get your name, which means that they have access to everything that you have access to. Which means that they have an inheritance and a right to everything that is yours. It is theirs because they've been bought. They've been purchased. They've been brought into your family. Listen, Jesus adopted you. Jesus went to a cross and Jesus said, listen, I'm purchasing you. I'm paying the price. I'm going through the process and I'm willing to give you my name and give you.
to everything that I have, to stand on the name of Jesus and the grace that is only found in Jesus. Because on the cross, what he did is he wrote an invitation, an invitation for adoption. He wrote an invitation for adoption. And he said, listen, this is a free invitation to you, to me, to everyone. And he's saying, come to my family. My care is for your soul. The call is to run to his family. Man, I wonder who in here today needs to make some decisions this morning.
I wonder who in here today needs to accept the invitation for adoption and say, listen, I know that Jesus died on the cross for me. I know that he gave his life for me to purchase me with his blood. I'm tired of doing it on my own. I wanna take the invitation and step in to his family. I wonder who in here today needs to start living like they're a part of the family. And maybe you've already accepted that invitation, but you've pushed church away and you need to start
living like you're a part of the family. All right, next week, we're gonna have life group signups. We're gonna have opportunity for you to sign up for Growth Track. And we talk about life groups, we talk about Growth Track, we talk about that all the time. But for some of you in here today, your step is to pray about what it would look like for you to sign up and say,
God, is this what you want? Do you want me to take this step to join, to get to know more about the church, to get to know more about living in community and being with people and going through life with them and allowing people in so that I'm not just a participant of, but I'm someone who's actually a part of what's going on in this church. Listen, you are loved by God, a God who sent his son so that you could be a part of the family. Let's pray. God, thank you
so much for the invitation to adoption. Thank you, God, that when you went to the cross, you were extending an invitation. God, I pray for the people in here today that need to accept that invitation. I pray for the people in here today, God, that need to say, listen, I am done trying to do it on my own. I want to accept you. God, I pray for those of us in here that have been avoiding family, but know that we need to come to the family. That need to change church
from a checklist to a lifestyle. God, I pray for those in here today. that need to take the step of joining a life group, that need to take the step of living out the faith within the family. But ultimately, God, we just praise you. We thank you. We thank you for who you are. We thank you for what you have blessed us with, what you have given us. We thank you for the invitation to be a part of the family. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.