Immediately Choose Your Side
Notes
Transcript
Opening
Opening
Today as we keep on Marching through Mark, as we have learned and are continuing to learn more about who Christ is and how we should want, as we learn more about the want to, as we learn to be doers and not hearers.
We come today to an impasse, a moment where we have to make a decision, as Joshua said Joshua 24:14-15
Now, therefore, fear the LORD and serve Him in sincerity and truth; cast aside the gods your fathers served beyond the Euphrates and in Egypt, and serve the LORD. But if it is unpleasing in your sight to serve the LORD, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living. As for me and my house, we will serve the LORD!”
God has called us as we have walked through this series to a higher calling, a higher life. As have learned who he is and what he has called us to be in him, we learned to love, we learned to rebuke, we learned to choose the right friends, we learned that we need to obey him in every way. We learned about his sabbath. and we are going deeper into all of these things every single week in our Pronomian Nazarene Foundation bible studies.
The time has come for us all to make a choice, and I hope that we will make the same choice that the Israelites did Joshua 24:16-18
The people replied, “Far be it from us to forsake the LORD to serve other gods! For the LORD our God brought us and our fathers out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, and performed these great signs before our eyes. He also protected us throughout our journey and among all the nations through which we traveled. And the LORD drove out before us all the nations, including the Amorites who lived in the land. We too will serve the LORD, because He is our God!”
He is the one who died for you to bring you out that bondage, your spiritual Egypt and he is the one that kept you from returning to your vomit, to your sin, to that old you. He is the one who cleaned you up and sprinkled you with clean water and made you new, drove that old unclean spirit out of you and make his abode in you.
Immediately Lose Your Mind
Immediately Lose Your Mind
We start this week with the Messiahs family speaking Mark 3:20-21
Then Jesus went home, and once again a crowd gathered, so that He and His disciples could not even eat. When His family heard about this, they went out to take custody of Him, saying, “He is out of His mind.”
He has been healing so the crowds are following him, he is showing his power, showing the spirit that is in him. He is healing, he is doing good, doing the fathers will, keeping the commandments. and his family thinks he is crazy, but don’t forget what scriptures say John 15:18-21
If the world hates you, understand that it hated Me first. If you were of the world, it would love you as its own. Instead, the world hates you, because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world.
Remember the word that I spoke to you: ‘No servant is greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will persecute you as well; if they kept My word, they will keep yours as well. But they will treat you like this because of My name, since they do not know the One who sent Me.
So if the Messiahs own family thought that he was crazy, that he was out of his mind, how much more should people think that you are out of yours. See the world has normalized sin to a point where righteousness looks crazy, even things that would have been commonplace in society 15 years ago are outlandish now. If you told somebody in 2010 that in 2026 that we would be trying to figure out if someone who was born a man can use the woman's bathroom, they would have thought you were crazy. If you would have told them there would be preachers with first husbands, if you would have told them that there would be Christians, believers supporting abortion they would have thought you have lost your mind, but today it is almost the opposite .
We you refuse to go to their parties, and drink you are out of your mind,
When you don't answer the phone to gossip anymore you are out of your mind
When you were not listening to that new drake that dropped last week you are out of your mind
When she throwing it at you and you aint catching, you are out of your mind
When he wants to fly you out and you don't go you are out of your mind
When you start keeping the sabbath of God you are out of your mind
When you tell them you don’t watch Porn you are out of you mind
When you tell them I don’t care how much it pays I am not doing only fans you are out of your mind
When you put the weed down you are out of your mind
When y'all have been dating for 6 months and you have not fornicated yet, you are out of your mind.
When you actually start living for God you are the crazy one, and that is as it should be.
Because of this, they consider it strange of you not to plunge with them into the same flood of reckless indiscretion, and they heap abuse on you.
If everyone can be around you, and you look act, talk, walk, live the exact same as them, then something is wrong, you should be living apart from the world, you should be living in a way that seems strange to them. Because the way of the Messiah should seem strange to the world. It is a scripture that we often overlook, and we just read it and move on but the bible tells us in Matthew 7:13-14
Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the way that leads to life, and only a few find it.
If the whole world is living just like you, then I have news for you, that not the narrow gate that is the wide gate, the broad gate that leads to destruction. We have to make it a point to live our lives on that narrow gate, we have to Immediately Choose who we will serve even if you look like a fool to the world 1 Corinthians 4:10
We are fools for Christ, but you are wise in Christ. We are weak, but you are strong. You are honored, but we are dishonored.
For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.
Immediately Lukewarm
Immediately Lukewarm
Now after this they accuse Christ of Casting out the demons that he cast out by the power of Beelzebub Mark 3:22-26
And the scribes who had come down from Jerusalem were saying, “He is possessed by Beelzebul,” and, “By the prince of the demons He drives out demons.”
So Jesus called them together and began to speak to them in parables: “How can Satan drive out Satan? If a kingdom is divided against itself, it cannot stand. If a house is divided against itself, it cannot stand. And if Satan is divided and rises against himself, he cannot stand; his end has come.
Beloved, Darkness cannot drive out darkness, Sin cannot cast out sin, we cannot be Lukewarm, we cannot be half for Christ and half for the world, that does not work, in no wise. Revelation 3:15-16
I know your deeds; you are neither cold nor hot. How I wish you were one or the other! So because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to vomit you out of My mouth!
You can’t be apart of the world and a part of Christ, you have to make a choice.
You cannot go to the club every week and come to church every week, you have to make a choice
You cannot hate your brother and love God you have to make a choice ,
You cannot continue to live in fornication and serve God you have to make a choice
You cannot counite you lie and steal and cheat and be a part of Gods household that does not work you have to change. 1 Corinthians 6:9-11
Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who submit to or perform homosexual acts, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor verbal abusers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God. And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.
Paul here says we WERE some of these things, not that you still are. Some in the faith today have forgotten this. We have forgotten what is called discipleship. We are headstrong about the Gospel and rightfully so that is what will save your soul but we have become lax on something that we cannot. The Messiah did command us to go preach the Gospel, but that Gospel 1 includes the gospel that he himself Preached. Matthew 4:17
From that time on Jesus began to preach, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near.”
That word repent includes accepting the Messiah and accepting his sacrifice, what he did for you on the cross, but it also includes turning away from your dead works and turning to the laws of God. Repentance is to turn away from your sins, but how can we tell someone to turn away from their sins, but we do not tell them what sin is. The bible give us a very clear and easy defination of what sin is 1 John 3:4
Everyone who practices sin practices lawlessness as well. Indeed, sin is lawlessness.
Lawlessness, living a life that is against the laws of God, and it take discipleship to be able to teach a man not only the law of God, but the spirit of the law. How to not just obey the letter, but to obey the spirit in which it was written. The same as when The Ethiopian Eunuch was sitting reading the text in Acts 8:26-31
Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, “Get up and go south to the desert road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” So he started out, and on his way he met an Ethiopian eunuch, a court official in charge of the entire treasury of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians. He had gone to Jerusalem to worship, and on his return was sitting in his chariot reading Isaiah the prophet.
The Spirit said to Philip, “Go over to that chariot and stay by it.”
So Philip ran up and heard the man reading Isaiah the prophet. “Do you understand what you are reading?” Philip asked.
“How can I,” he said, “unless someone guides me?” And he invited Philip to come up and sit with him.
Don’t get me wrong brothers and sisters there is and there will always be room to grow in Christ, he does not require perfection from day one, but he does require a contrite heart that is ready to change and a broken spirit that is read to be made a new that is tired of the sin that it has been living in and is ready to become a new creation in Christ Jesus.
You can come as you are, but you cannot stay as you are, you have to change your ways.
The Modern Church wants all the benefits of being the body of Christ, but they do not want to accept the responsibility. The life that is required to say that you belong to Christ.
You know a lot of people say to take the name of the lord in vain is like stay GD or say OMG, and we should abstain from these things, but what is the spirit of that law?
Every time that you open your mouth, and you say I am a believer that then you cuss someone out you are taking the name of the lord in vain
every time that you slide into that inbox at 3am looking to do nothing good you are taking the name of the lord in vain.
Every time you have that cross on in the club or while you are fornicating you take the name of the Lord in vain
Every time you make the choice to desecrate his sabbath, you are taking the name of the Lord in vain
When you cuss that waitress out you are taking the name of the Lord in vain,
When you have that Bible verse or that Cross or that fish on the back of your car and you cuss that man out you are taking the name of the Lord in vain
You cannot have it both ways. You cannot claim God while being a child of the devil, you cannot be both light and darkness at the same time. Romans 2:24
As it is written: “God’s name is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you.”
You cannot have Kingdom Benefits without Kingdom Submission, you cannot have the Messiah as Savior, but not have him as Lord over you life, and you OBEY your Lord, there things come as a package deal. There is no salvation without repentance , and there is no faith without obedience. Faith with out works is Dead, A house divided against itself cannot and will not stand.
Immediately Bind The Strong Man
Immediately Bind The Strong Man
Now how do you stop from being that hypocrite. how do we come to that submission that we are talking about. How do we rid ourself of that flesh so that we can walk in the Spirit as the Apostle Paul tells us Romans 7:21-25
So this is the principle I have discovered: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God’s law. But I see another law at work in my body, warring against the law of my mind and holding me captive to the law of sin that dwells within me.
What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God, through Jesus Christ our Lord!
So then, with my mind I serve the law of God, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.
He says that there is a law of sin working in him, that is driving a wedge between him and the laws of God, him and his full submission to God, him and that John 10:10 life.
The Messiah tells us how to get rid of that law of Sin Mark 3:27
Indeed, no one can enter a strong man’s house to steal his possessions unless he first ties up the strong man. Then he can plunder his house.
You have to bind that strong man.
You cannot feed that strong man.
You cannot have a problem with lust and be at the beach every weekend.
You cannot have a problem with Drinking and go out to eat at the bar
You cannot have an issue with anger and get on social media to look at something that you know is going to make you made
You cannot have a problem with Gossiping and be all on Facebook looking for the tea on that lady you don’t like
You are not binding the strong man, you are feeding the strong man, you are feeding the flesh.
You have to do what the scripture says 2 Corinthians 10:5
We tear down arguments and every presumption set up against the knowledge of God; and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.
You have to take your thoughts captive and make them obedient to Christ, and what follow the thoughts? When you take those thoughts captive the actions go right along with them.
You have to get yourself to the point where Paul was in Romans 7, he had taken his thoughts captive.
His mind was focused on the things of God, he had done all that he can do.
He delighted in the ways of God and sometimes he would act out those ways, but sometimes that old flesh would win, and that is the point some of you are at right now. You have bound that strong man, but some of you are still feeding him.
You are sitting on the couch with him, watching tv with him, massaging his feet.
I think I told this story a while back but it fits here.
There is a comedian named Theo Vaughn and he had a real moment one day on his show, not for comedy but a real break down, where he was thinking about his relationship with Christ in real time. He was ready the text where the Messiah ask tells a man if you want to you will be. It comes from this passage John 5:1–9
Some time later there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.
Now there is in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate a pool with five covered colonnades, which in Hebrew is called Bethesda. On these walkways lay a great number of the sick, the blind, the lame, and the paralyzed.
One man there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there and realized that he had spent a long time in this condition, He asked him, “Do you want to get well?”
“Sir,” the invalid replied, “I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am on my way, someone else goes in before me.”
Then Jesus told him, “Get up, pick up your mat, and walk.”
Immediately the man was made well, and he picked up his mat and began to walk.
Now this happened on the Sabbath day,
Some of us need to ask ourself that same question do you even want to be healed. Have you bound that strong man.
Do you actually hate that fornication, that porn, the promiscuous life style, that homosexuality
Do you actually hate that gossip and that slander and that anger, that backbiting
Do you actually hate that lying and cheating and stealing
Do you hate that heart of stone that leads you away from helping the poor and the needy and the oppressed.
Some of us actually love our sin, we come and we sit in church, but that sin you absolutely love that sin and you don’t really want to get rid of it.
This is why the bible says this Acts 5:32
We are witnesses of these things, and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey Him.”
The bible says the holy spirit is given to those who obey. In other words it is given to those who bind that strong man, and that house is clean and swept and ready for the holy spirit to come in and do more than bind the strong man. It will kill that strong man.
Not that you need perfection, but you need to be ready to receive the light.
Immediately Blasphemy
Immediately Blasphemy
Now we get to a portion of scripture that many people speed past, we do not understand it. We say it a lot right because all sin can be forgiven, there is nothing that you can do that cannot be forgiven except one thing. One thing that the messiah says cannot and will not be forgiven on the day of judgment . Mark 3:28-30
Truly I tell you, the sons of men will be forgiven all sins and blasphemies, as many as they utter. But whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven; he is guilty of eternal sin.”
Jesus made this statement because they were saying, “He has an unclean spirit.”
What did the pharisees do here that was so bad that Christ said it would not be forgiven ? They associated that which they knew full well came from God to Satan, they said that the holy spirit that was upon Christ was an unclean spirit. They are rejecting the holy spirit, they are rejecting the one who gives them life.
As long as you stay in that state of rebellion that the scribes and the pharisees where in there is no forgiveness for you, that does not mean that you cannot turn back and accept the holy spirit, it means if you have heard the gospel and you rejected it calling the Holy Spirit unclean then you will not be forgiven.
You see light and you call in darkness, You see obedience and call it legalism, you see a person changed and call them brainwashed, but as a Elder of mine Texas would say we are brainwashed, because while I was in the world and separated from Christ my mind needed to be washed because it was filthy, now in the Messiah it has been washed and made a new.
Now before we go any deeper, I do want you to understand that I'm not saying because you struggle with sin, or because you struggle to understand something in the text, you wrestle with some things you are blaspheming.
We all struggle with sin, we all have some things in the text that may on the surface bother us, go against what we think is right, but we understand that God is just and holy and righteous and everything that he does will follow that pattern, once we began to question that, once we began to see the things of God as wicked, once we began to associate good with evil so we turn to the evil that is when we enter that stage of Blasphemy. We have a harden heart towards God.
The book of Hebrews gives us some stern warnings not to end up in this position. Hebrews 6:4-6
It is impossible for those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, who have shared in the Holy Spirit, who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the coming age— and then have fallen away—to be restored to repentance, because they themselves are crucifying the Son of God all over again and subjecting Him to open shame.
The writer here tells us that if we have been Enlighted, if we have tasted those heavenly gifts and have then turn back to the vomit, we have then we back and rejected Christ we have then we back and began to call good evil and evil good. If we understand who the Messiah is and who The Father is and then we decided that we want to reject them and accept evil then you fate is sealed not by God rejecting you, but by you rejecting God.
Now again this is not you struggling with sin, falling and getting back up, this is you saying I understand who God is and what he stands for but I believe that he is wrong, I believe that what he told us to do, how he told us to live, is wrong and I am deciding to go another way, the way of the evil one. Not because I am misled, not because I am confused, but because I believe that the God of the bible is not a righteous God.
A good example is a man named Alister Crowley, he was the self-described right-hand man of Satan, and he says that he knows Lucifer, and he knows Adoni meaning the God of the bible and he just chose to serve the devil.
Not many of us will end up all the way here but we sometimes get close, when you find yourself questioning God, when you can read a scripture and say this is not right, here is what I think. The scriptures say do not fornicate, you say love is love, the scripture says do not sin in your anger and you say well he cussed me out first, the scripture says honor the sabbath, you say I got stuff to do. The scripture says honor you mother and your father, you say I don’t feel like going to see them. I say it all the time and I will say it again. We cannot be like the first Adam the one that brought death. The one that was Disobedient, the one that said I know what's best for me. The one that ate from the knowledge of Good and Evil because he wanted to be like God, he wanted to make his own rules, no we must be like the Last Adam like Christ, like the one who was a spotless lamb the one who submitted himself to the father in every way, that walked in the commands of the father his whole life.
If we deliberately go on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no further sacrifice for sins remains,
We cannot go on living like we have not received the knowledge, the grace, the favor that we have received. We have received the power from on high, we have received the holy spirit now we MUST walk in that holy spirit.
Immediately Family
Immediately Family
Now finally here we get to the apex of the story, the same family that some of were trying to take custody of Jesus at the beginning of the story. Now have come to try to speak to him again and look what the Messiah says. Mark 3:31–35
Then Jesus’ mother and brothers came and stood outside. They sent someone in to summon Him, and a crowd was sitting around Him. “Look,” He was told, “Your mother and brothers are outside, asking for You.”
But Jesus replied, “Who are My mother and My brothers?” Looking at those seated in a circle around Him, He said, “Here are My mother and My brothers! For whoever does the will of God is My brother and sister and mother.”
Here we see the key, we see the glue that hold the body of the Messiah together, the glue that hold the true Children of God, the true Israel together. The one that do the will of the father, the ones that have decided that not matte what for God I live and for God I die, the one that has the same profession as Paul To live is Christ and to die is Gain , the ones that have the same profession as Peter that we ought to obey God rather than man.
A lot of us we make connections even in the faith, by how long someone has been so called in the faith, how do they serve in church, do they look on the outside like they are believers, but the messiah told us very plainly, you shall know them by their fruits. This is why some of you are always hurt, this is why your children get hurt, this is why you don’t have a lot of trust for anyone, because you did not judge based on the fruit and someone who you considered family hurt you or your family. We should judge people by their actions, specifically those integrity actions, the things that they do when they do not think anyone is watching. This is where you see the value in a man or a woman, this is where you see if they are your mother or brother or sister. Our faith is not in man is in Christ, but the reason I can have faith that this man or this woman will do right by me is I see the evidence that Christ lives in them , he is working through them so I can trust them. The Messiah says this Matthew 7:21-23
Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?’
Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you workers of lawlessness!’
The same as the Messiah is not accepting empty words and allow the lawless ones, some translations say you who do not keep Gods laws into the kingdom. The same as you should not let those into your life in a deep way who do not profess the Messiah with their mouth and with their actions.
I love my momma, I love my sister and I love my wife, but the first time they try to lead me away from God will be the last time that they try to lead me away from God. Because what My God did for me they would not do for me, and I love my God too much to let anything come between us. The Messiah tells us that you must love him more than family. he says if you don’t love him more that mother or father more than me you are not worthy of me, if you love son or daughter more than me you are not worthy of me. The Messiah has to mean more to you than anything else.
This is what makes someone family, this is what makes someone Echad or one. The bible tells us plainly our profession of faith Revelation 14:12
Here is a call for the perseverance of the saints who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.
Now are you here today or watching online and you are looking for that family, before you can find that family, and we would love to be that family. You have to meet the head of the family. Before you can become a part of the bride you have to meet the groom, and we want to introduce you to him today. We want to introduce you to a man, and came down from on high, down from heaven to live among sinners, a man that lived a perfect life, and taught a perfect doctrine. A man that taught us to treat the orphan and the widow with respect and to care for them, a man that taught us to visit those who are sick, give to the poor, feed those who are hungry, give clothes to those who are naked and to give water to those who are thristy, a man that taught us to respect and honor our wives and not to even look at other women with lust, a man that taught us to make peace with our brothers, and to care for our brothers, a man that taught us to love God with all our heart mind and soul and a man that taught us that love for him means taking care of the less fortunate. Now if that sounds like a man you want to follow, I have even better news for you, for teaching these things to the world this man was betrayed by his friend, he was put on trial , he was fasly convicted, he was mocked, he was beaten, he was spit on, the was sentanced to death even though the judge said he did no wrong and he did all this for you, he did all this so that you could receive grace , a pardon for the sins that you have commited and from death, the punishment for those sins. After he was beaten he was made to carry his own cross up a hill, he was place up on that cross, they put nails in his hands and nails in his feet, the put a crown of thorns on his head to mock him, and for me and you he bleed and he died. They lifted him up, but they forgot something that he said. He told us and them that if he was lifted up he would draw all men unto him, he also said destroy this temple and I will raise it up in 3 days, so he stayed there for 3 days and 3 nights but on that 3rd day he rose with all power in his hands power to pardon you, power to save you from the sin that you are in and power to give you the holy spirit so you don’t go back to that sin, so if you are tired of the condemnation and the weight of that sin, if you are tired of the fornication, the hate in your heart, the pain that you cannot let go, the envy, the lying, the adultery, the addition, whatever you are dealing with the messiah says this Matthew 11:28-30
Come to Me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”
So come to him today he is waiting Revelation 3:20
Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in and dine with him, and he with Me.
Become a part of The Family today, become the Messiahs, brother, or sister or mother by accepting him and doing his will.
