I want to get a feel for the family dynamics in the room, some of our life experiences, real quick. So if you don't mind raising your hand a few times, just be prepared. Maybe alternate hands if you don't want one to get tired, you know, whatever works for you. But uh, but I'd love to know how many of us in the room grew up as only children. You were the only child. Not that many of us, wow. Um, how many of you were an only child for a long enough period of time that you kind of know what it feels like to be an only child? Okay? How many of you had siblings? That should be the rest of you, by the way. If there's not a hand raised yet, something's weird. All right, uh, there you go. Okay, out of the siblings, how many of you were the youngest? You're the babies of the family. Look at all the babies in the room. Man, when you're the baby, you got you got away with so much stuff that like your older siblings weren't allowed to do unless you had really terrible older siblings, and then your parents were more strict on you because of their mistakes. It can go both ways. Um, it's tough to be the youngest. How many of you are the oldest? You're the the oldest in the family, okay? The responsible ones, right? Or the ones that were supposed to be responsible and rebelled and and couldn't handle it, whatever. Yeah. Okay. How many of you are the middle, middle children? No one cares. No one cares about the middle kids. Doesn't matter. You just don't, there's just, you're just, you're just there. You know, you're just there. I'm teasing. I'm teasing. So just so you understand, I I middle kids, I get how you feel. It's it's interesting, actually. As I was thinking about it this week, I know what it feels like to be an only child, a youngest child, an oldest child, and a middle child. It's kind of weird. So my dad was married before he married my mom, and they had two children. It's my older brother, he's eight years older than me, my older sister's five years older than me. They're my my half-brother and sister. But growing up, my dad did not have custody of them. Uh, they came and visited us every other weekend. And so for my first six years of life, I was the only child at home. I was the only child, and I was my mom's only child. And so, you know, 12 out of every 14 days, it was just me. And that meant that I was lonely and bored, but I also had total control of the TV, and there were perks, you know, to being the only child. But then two out of every 14 days, my older brother and sister would come in and I would instantly go from being the only child, which was my norm, to the youngest child. And I would get picked on and bullied and all that fun stuff that youngest kids get, but I also had fun because they were there. Then they would leave and we'd be back to the only child thing. Then when I was about six and a half, my mom had my little brother, and I became the oldest child. So 12 out of every 14 days, from the time I was six years old on, I was the oldest child in the house. And so I got the I got that domineering nature from being the oldest child, and I got to have fun at my brother's expense. But I also had responsibilities, and my parents asked me to step up and do things. But then, two out of every 14 days, my older brother and sister would come and I would instantly be the middle child. And so my childhood was just all over the place. I know what it feels like to be all of those. I'm like the oldest, youngest, middle, only child in the family. You know, it's amazing how much my life and I'm sure all of our lives have been shaped by the people that we grew up with. I mean, think about how much your siblings shaped the person that you became. Or if you didn't have siblings, just imagine what it would be like if you had. Like you, you would be, if you grew up an only child, you would be a different person today if you had grown up with siblings. And maybe that would be for the better, maybe not. Some of us who have siblings wished we were only children, like multiple times in life, right? But my relationship with my brothers, with my sister, those relationships have shaped me as much as any relationships have. They really have. I mean, my my siblings have seen me at my best, my siblings have definitely seen me at my worst. My siblings have dirt on me. Like, how many of you have dirt on your siblings? If you wanted to, you could you could make their lives, yeah. How many of your siblings have dirt on you, though, right? How does that go? It goes both ways. It's called deterrence, right? That's how you uh like I have so I remember times that my brother and I would be in intense fights, but then instantly we would recognize that we needed to be allies, you know? Like one time we got in this huge fight, I think I was in high school, he was in middle school, and and and uh it ended with this giant hole being put into the wall, and we instantly went from fighting to like, okay, hold on, we've got to figure this out because we're we're both in trouble. Like, I'm not you're going down, I'm going down together. We gotta figure this out. And we we figured that if there was this one door that if we just kept it open, and it was this door in between our rooms. We had a door in between our rooms. We're like, we just keep this door open, it hides the hole. And so we kept that door open for two years. Two years. And my mom never never closed it, and we actually moved from that house and she pulled the door back. She's like, what in the world? And and we're like, oh mom, what'd you do? Did you like, you know, what happened? Because when you know, when you're your siblings, you cover for each other. Or you throw each other under the bus. It really can go either way, it really depends. But your relationship with your siblings, it can shape who you are as much as any other relationship. Today we're gonna look at a story of a man in the Old Testament whose life was truly shaped by the relationship that he had with his siblings. It was the fact that he was a brother that really defined who he was. And before we jump into this story, before we kind of explain why we're talking about it, I just want us to understand something on the front end. There are no only children in this room if you've given your life to Jesus. Because you you have been adopted into God's family. Ephesians chapter 1, verses 4 through 5 says that long before he laid the foundations of the earth, God decided to adopt you into his family through Jesus Christ. It's what he had planned to do all along, it's what he wanted to do. You are part of a family. God is not like your father, it's not a metaphor. He is your father. And that actually means technically that Jesus is your older brother, and that everyone around you, if you belong to Jesus, everyone around you who does, you are all brothers and sisters. There are no only children in this room. And if you don't belong to Jesus, that can change in an instant. And I'm telling you what, there is nothing like being part of the family of God. Nothing I've ever experienced like it. We'll talk more about that a little bit later, but I just want us to understand as we talk about this whole sibling thing, you're a sibling. You are a brother and a sister in the family of God. And just like your natural earthly siblings shape who you are, the way you engage with your siblings of faith, with your spiritual siblings, the way you engage with them, it'll determine a lot about who you become. And so, for context, we're in a series right now called People God Uses. And what we're doing is we're looking at the family history of Jesus. Matthew chapter 1 gives us one side of Jesus' family tree, and it's filled with a lot of very interesting characters. I shared a few weeks ago about some of the really interesting characters in my family tree. Some of you guys have actually sent me emails and stories about the people in your family tree. By the way, keep those coming because there's some really interesting stories. Like I got this uh this Wikipedia link the other day from Stephanie Loggins. Stephanie and Aaron are an amazing part of our church, and uh, this is Stephanie's great-great aunt, and she was the first person that ever went down Niagara Falls in a barrel. Um, also one of the only people to ever go down Niagara Falls in a barrel. Who's who's been to Niagara Falls? Like you've seen it? That lady got in that barrel and went down it and lived. And and the reason she lived is because she was smart. She tested it first on her cat. And uh that's in the Wikipedia article. She sent her cat down in the barrel. Cat survived, she's like, good enough for me. Um and so if you have a story that's like that, you're related to someone who did something like that, I please share it with me. I would love to share it over the next few weeks because that's that's kind of crazy. No matter how crazy the the people in your family tree are, they probably don't compare to Jesus. Like his family tree is full of kind of a who's who of people from the Old Testament of the Bible, and not like a good who's who all the time either. It's not just like here are the best and brightest. It's filled with amazing people who did incredible things, people that God used to really make impacts on the world around them. Some of the people in Jesus' family tree, they're still famous today. Their fingerprint is still on history as we speak, but they're also deeply flawed people, extremely, extremely flawed people. Some of the people that are in his lineage are straight up evil. But trust me, if you really look at the stories of the people that that lead up to Jesus and recognize the fact that God used these people. Some of them he used in powerful ways while they were on the earth, but all of them God used to bring Jesus into the world. If he can use them, he can use you. That's for sure. So we're just looking at several of their lives and trying to learn what we can. Today we come to a man named Judah. And Judah's pretty significant. You may have heard the phrase Lion of Judah. If you've been in church for long, you you may have heard that in a song or something like that. Uh, Jesus is called the Lion of Judah, and he's called that because he comes from the tribe of Judah. Israel as a nation had 12 tribes, and Judah actually ends up being arguably the most powerful of those tribes. And Jesus comes from the line of Judah. He is the Lion of Judah. But like a lot of the people in Jesus' family tree, when you when you actually study his life, you might scratch your head a little bit and go, Why, why? Why this guy? I mean, I would rather Jesus' family lineage had gone through like Joseph, the brother of Judah, that we're gonna look at today. Or maybe Benjamin, someone else. But I like Judah, really? Like that's the one you picked? That's the one you want. Okay, God, you can do what you want to do. You can take whatever path you want to take. I'm just saying I would have picked a different one. Judah's an interesting person, and his life is ultimately defined by the fact that he is a sibling. That's what we're gonna call Judah, the sibling. And we looked at Abraham, who was the believer. We looked last week at Jacob, the wrestler. Today we're gonna look at Judah, the sibling. And here's kind of what you need to understand about Judah's life to really put us in the right spot. His family dynamics were nuts. Like some of us have some very odd family dynamics. You know, I was from the second half of a broken home because my dad was married before my mom, and that ended poorly and all that. But but, you know, that made for some interesting dynamics, like what I talked about, you know, every other weekend, everything changed. Some of you come from more interesting dynamics than that, more complicated, probably not as complicated as Judah's. Judah is uh the fourth of 13 children, 12 of which are brothers, one sister. And uh he is the fourth child of his mother, Leah, who is his father's first wife. Uh, his father's second wife was a woman named Rachel, who was Leah's little sister. And they were married at the same time. It wasn't like they got divorced and then that happened because 4,000 years ago, that was a thing. Okay? One of the beautiful things about the Bible is it doesn't erase the ugly parts. It doesn't edit that out. It lets us look at people making very dumb decisions, you know, and go, really? And they just did. It wasn't God's prescribed way of doing things. Not everything the Bible records is something that scripture condones. There's a difference, but that's just the way that it was. And so Jacob, who, if you were here last week, is like the worst. Jacob marries Leah, has children with her, but he also marries Rachel, who he loved a lot, lot more. And uh he also has a few other kids with a few other people, you know, just normal Bible stuff. And so uh Judah is the fourth. And if you want to talk about being a middle child, some of you raise your hands for being middle children, just imagine being in the middle of like 12 boys and one girl. Like, you're you don't even I mean, come on, you're not the first, you're not the last, you're the fourth. Like, how does that even factor in? To make things even more complicated, uh, Jacob played favorites big time. And so, because Rachel was his favorite wife, her children were his favorite children. And she didn't have kids until much later on, and so she actually gives Jacob his 11th and 12th, and he just loves them way more than the others. And he makes it very obvious. He doesn't even hide it. Joseph was the 11th, and Joseph was really an amazing kid, an amazing person. But Jacob put a favoritism on Joseph that was totally, totally inappropriate. Like he got things for Joseph that he didn't get for the other kids. One of the most famous stories, Joseph gets this coat, the Bible calls it a coat of many colors, like it was just a fancy coat. And he got that for Joseph, and he didn't get anything for his other sons. He played favorites with Joseph so much he gave him responsibilities and kind of put him in charge of his brothers at times when he shouldn't have been because he was much, much younger. And Joseph, he he doesn't really do himself any favors when he's young, like he has these dreams that he ends up becoming more important than his brothers, and he decides to share these dreams with his brothers. You know, guys, sometimes God might give you a dream and a vision that doesn't mean you have to tell every person in the world about it. Like, pray about that. Sometimes he gives you something for yourself. And so Joseph has this dream, and he's in a field, and he's got this bale of hay, and his brothers are there, and they all have bales of hay, and then their bales bow in reverence to his bale, and he shares with his brothers who, by the way, hate him. And uh he's like, What do you guys think about that dream? Pretty cool, huh? Wonder what that means. And they're like, We're gonna kill you. Uh and they're they're being serious. They hate, they hate Joseph because their father he showed such favoritism to him. And it all kind of comes to a head in Genesis chapter 37. The oldest brothers are out, they're tending to their father's flocks, and the father sends Joseph to go check up on him, which, you know, they probably loved. It says, when Joseph's brothers saw him coming, they recognized him in the distance. And as he approached, they made plans to kill him. Here comes the dreamer, they said. Come on, let's kill him, let's throw him into one of these cisterns. We can tell our father a wild animal has eaten him, and then we'll see what becomes of his dreams. But when Reuben, who is the oldest, heard of their scheme, he came to Joseph's rescue. Let's not kill him, he said. Let's not shed any blood, let's just throw him into this empty cistern here in the wilderness, and then he'll die without our laying a hand on him. Reuben was secretly planning to rescue Joseph and return him to his father. So when Joseph arrived, his brothers ripped off the beautiful robe he was wearing. Then they grabbed him and they threw him into the cistern. Now the cistern was empty, there was no water in it. Then, just as they were sitting down to eat, they looked up and they saw a caravan of camels in the distance coming toward them. It was a group of Ishmaelite traders taking a load of gum, balm, and aromatic resin from Gilead down to Egypt. Judah said to his brothers, What will we gain by killing our brother? We'd have to cover up the crime. Instead of hurting him, let's sell him to those Ishmaelite traders. After all, he's our brother, our own flesh and blood. And his brothers agreed. So when the Ishmaelites, who were Midianite traders, came by, Joseph's brothers pulled him out of the cistern and they sold him to them for twenty pieces of silver, and the traitors took him to Egypt. So this is the first time that we meet Judah, really, and uh he speaks up. That's something Judah does. He's actually a leader, he's an influential person. When he speaks up, he has the ability to uh to impress himself upon other people, to persuade people to do things. And the situation's really simple. The brothers are like, this is a great chance to get rid of this guy. Finally, finally, a chance to shut this kid up. You know, our dad, he loves him so much more than us. Let's get rid of him, and then we'll have more of our father's affection and attention. And Judah says, No, guys, come on, what are you thinking? What's wrong with you? We should not kill our brother. He's our brother. Let's sell him instead. You know? And I don't know if that makes Judah better than his brothers or the worst. Like, I really don't know. Because he's obviously not motivated here by some type of true conviction. You know, Reuben is, like, Reuben's kind of going along with it, but then he's gonna come in later and rescue Joseph. It just doesn't work out that way. But but Judah's not doing that. Like, he's not gonna sell them and then go buy them back and bring it back to his dad. He's like, let's make some money. Let's let's gain. He says, What do we gain if we just kill him? Like, how can we do this and actually get something out of it? That's Judah. But because he's persuasive, he's a leader, he convinces his brothers and they're like, Yeah, great idea, and that's what they do. So Joseph gets sold into slavery. And if you know the rest of the story, we touched on a little bit of it last week. He ends up going through horrific circumstances. He's accused of things he doesn't do, he gets thrown in prison, he spends years and years just tormented, and it's very difficult for him. But eventually God raises him up and he becomes second in command of all of Egypt. Meanwhile, Judah lives his life. And right after this happens, very shortly afterwards, he ends up moving away from his father. And you can imagine why. Like, just think about the guilt that you would live with day in and day out, watching your father mourn and knowing what you know. He couldn't handle it. He moves and he starts a life of his own, and he has a wife. He has sons, but his wife dies, and he has several sons that die young. There's a lot of tragedy in his life, things don't go very smoothly. He has a daughter-in-law named Tamar, and there's this incredible scandal that develops between him and Tamar, completely inappropriate, and it almost ends up being his undoing. But he does respond with humility when he's confronted with what he's done. And so Judah's life just kind of goes in that direction. Nothing's really going particularly well, and it all gets to rock bottom when a famine hits the land. It's a famine that's so bad that Judah has to move back to where his family is because they've got to try to pool resources together just to survive, just to have enough food. But even then it's not enough. And there's only one place in the entire region that has any food, and that's Egypt. And that place has food because Joseph's there, and Joseph happened to interpret a dream that was a warning from God that they needed to prepare for a famine. So Egypt has plenty of food, no one else does, and the brothers all learn that Egypt's got food. They're like, we gotta go, we gotta trade. And so their father lets them all go, except for Benjamin, Joseph's younger brother. See, after Joseph was dead in his father's eyes, the father just surrounds himself with Benjamin all the time. Benjamin's always there, he won't let Benjamin go. He loves Benjamin more than his brothers, and he's he's fearful and protective because of what happened to Joseph. And so he says, No, no, Benjamin stays with me. The older brothers they go to Egypt. And when they arrive, they they meet Joseph because he's in charge of the food distribution. But they don't recognize him because he looks like an Egyptian now. He's dressed like one, he talks like one. And it's been so many years, they're not expecting to see him, so they see him and they don't recognize him, but Joseph absolutely recognizes them, and he can count, you know, he can count to 10 at least, and uh and he's like, that one, that one, that one, that one, but he notices Benjamin's not there. And you can just imagine, picture you being you being Joseph. Like, man, I wonder if they did the same thing to Benjamin that they did to me. The last time I saw these guys, they they were deciding whether or not to kill me or to sell me. And so Joseph is very cautious of his brothers. And he starts asking them questions. They don't recognize what's happening, they think he's a governor. And he's like, hey, are you guys spies? He kind of accuses them of being spies. And they're like, Whoa, we're not spies, we promise. We're just we're from another place, we're here to trade, we're part of a big family. He's like, Well, tell me about your family. And they they happen to mention this younger brother Benjamin. And he says, Well, I don't believe you unless you bring this Benjamin to me. And they're like, Oh, there's no way that's gonna happen. Our dad would never let him come. And he says, Well, here's what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna take one of you, and he takes this brother named Simeon. He says, I'm gonna hold him. He's my prisoner now. And if you want him back, bring this Benjamin. Prove to me that you are who you say you are. And so they leave, defeated. They get back to their dad, and their dad's like, How'd it go? And they say, I'm I'm mad living here, by the way, horrible. Uh you would not believe this governor in Egypt. He was a real jerk. He seemed to have it out for us, and we have no idea why. You know? And crazy thing, dad, he's got Simeon. Simeon's back in Egypt, and he's a prisoner, and the only way we can get Simeon back, the only way we can get enough food to survive trading with this guy is if we bring Benjamin back with us. And the dad says, not a chance. Like we looked at this last week. This is kind of Jacob at his low point. No way. I love him too much. He's all I have left. That's what he says. He's all I've got left. I don't care about you. I care about him. I don't care about Simeon. He can rot in Egypt for all I care. As long as I've got Benjamin, I'm fine, even if I'm starving to death. That's where the father's at. Some of the brothers try to convince him, but there's no convincing to be had until Judas steps in. In Genesis chapter 43, verse 8. Judah said to his father, Send the boy with me, and we will be on our way. Otherwise, we will all die of starvation. And not only me, but you and our little ones. I personally guarantee his safety. You may hold me responsible if I don't bring him back to you, then let me bear the blame forever. So, second time, we've got Judah speaking up, changing someone's mind, because Jacob relents and lets Benjamin go. But this this Judah seems a little different than the Judah that we saw telling his brothers to sell Joseph as a slave. Like now he seems like he's almost sticking his neck out there for his little brother. Say, I'll bear the responsibility. It seems like maybe something's changed. So they go, they go back to Egypt and they get there, and and there's Joseph and there's Simeon, and Simeon looks great. They're like, How's it been? And he's been awesome. He's like, I've eaten whatever I've wanted to eat. I haven't been like in jail at all. I've just kind of been hanging out here. It's been pretty cool. And Benjamin's just excited to be away from home for the first time. It's his first road trip. You know, he's pumped. And so they all hang out, they all have a meal, and at the end, Joseph says, Okay, you guys can now go. But he wants to test them a little bit more. He still doesn't trust them. And so he packs all of their bags, all their bags with more supplies than they can handle. But he tells his servants to put a really valuable item in Benjamin's bag. It's a silver cup. And none of the brothers know this is happening, and so he does that and he sends them on their way, and then he sends his guards out after them. And a short ways later they they catch up to him and they get accused of being thieves. And the guards are like, You stole from our master. And they're like, Look, we did we didn't do it at all. And they're all looking at each other, like, Did you steal anything? I didn't steal anything. Are you Benjamin? He's like, Of course not, you know? And so the guards say, Well, then let us search your stuff. And they say, Okay, fine, do it. And they get to Benjamin's bag, and there's the silver cup. And so the guard sees Benjamin and they bring him back, and the brothers follow. And Joseph is threatening to have Benjamin thrown in jail, locked up for forever until Judah steps in. Genesis 44, verse 30. Judah's talking to Joseph. He says, My Lord, I cannot go back to my father without the boy. Our father's life is bound up in this boy's life. If he sees that the boy is not with us, our father will. Die. We your servants will indeed be responsible for sending that grieving white-haired man to his grave. My Lord, I guaranteed to my father that I would take care of the boy. I told him if I don't bring him back to you, I will bear the blame forever. So please, my Lord, let me stay here as a slave instead of the boy. And let the boy return with his brothers. For how can I return to my father if the boy is not with me? I couldn't bear to see the anguish this would cause my father. It's interesting, right? Because you know, if Judah hadn't changed, he's got an amazing opportunity here. Because they they wanted Joseph gone. Joseph got on their nerves, he was annoying, and his father loved him so much more. And with Joseph gone, now it's just one brother, just Benjamin that the father adores and loves and gives all of his affection to, and here's this opportunity like out of nowhere, it's like a sign from God that they can be rid of Benjamin forever. And now their father can't have either Joseph or Benjamin. If Judah is the same Judah from before, here's his chance. Benjamin, gone, out of the picture, out of your way. But clearly, Judah is a very different person than he used to be. Because this time he used to be top and he says, I'll take his place. But I want us to understand this morning worshiping you guys to make your way out. The life that you experience. God has promised all of us a really, a really good life, not an easy life. There's a very big difference between good and easy. He has not promised any of us an easy life. Jesus did not live an easy life, he lived a good one. The way that we decide to engage with one another as brothers and sisters in the family of God, it's gonna it's gonna go a long way to determining exactly what kind of life with God we actually experience. You are a brother or a sister. If you've given your life to Jesus, you are a brother or a sister. If you haven't given your life to Jesus, I highly recommend you do it right away. Because number one, you'll experience a love and a forgiveness and a mercy that you can there's no comparison to in the rest of the world, and you will be part of a family unlike anything else that has ever existed. But if you've given your life to Jesus, you are a brother and a sister, and the people around you right now, those those are not strangers. They're not even neighbors, they're not even fellow churchgoers. Those are your brothers and your sisters. But I think one of the biggest challenges that we face as to be honest, modern disconnected American Christians is that we live as if we are spiritually only children. And we're not part of that's just cultural, part of it's the way that we tend to see the world around us, for example. We read a lot of scriptures very individualistically, even though they're they're not written that way. Uh Jeremiah 29, 11 is probably the greatest example. Classic verse. Many of you have been encouraged by this verse, and rightfully so. God says, I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord. They are plans for good and not for disaster to give you a future and a hope. Now, what I what I love about this verse is everyone loves it, right? Like some of you, I'm not gonna ask you to raise your hand, it's your favorite verse. Actually, I will. Who's like, this is my favorite verse? Like, I love Jeremiah 29. Okay, good. A couple of you are like half raising your hand because you don't know if I'm trapping you, I'm not. I promise. Kind of. But like, no one, no one says that's their favorite verse in context. Because the actual context here is God is telling the nation of Israel that, hey, it's guys, don't worry about what's happening. 70 years from now, it's all gonna work out. And we don't read that verse and be like, man, I just love that verse because it just reminds me that, you know, a few decades from now, maybe after I'm dead, everything's gonna be better. And that just gives me so much hope. You know? No, we read that verse like God is gonna do something big for me tomorrow. That's what that means. And we don't just read it with immediacy, we read it with an individual perspective. We look at that you, I know the plans I have for you, and we're like, me. But the you that is used there is not a singular you, it's it's plural. We have a great word for that in Georgia. Y'all. Like, it's actually appropriate to read this verse, for I know the plans I have for y'all, says the Lord. Like, that's actually what it says. It's a plural you. God is not speaking to one person, he's speaking to multiple. In fact, pick up the New Testament, read it. Almost, almost every single you in the New Testament is plural. There's almost, there's almost no singular you's. So every time you you open up a letter from Paul and he's saying, and and you, and remember what God did for you, it's not you individually, it's it's you together. Even whenever Paul says that you are the temple of the Holy Spirit, he doesn't mean you personally are the temple of the Holy Spirit, he means us corporately are the temple of the Holy Spirit. But we tend to read all those family words as if it's just us. We have kind of an individualistic mindset, and so we end up living spiritually as if we're only children and we're not. We're brothers and we're sisters, we're family, but we have to choose to live like we're family. It's a choice that we have to make, and sometimes that means we take advantage of church programs, and you know, we have community groups and we have teams and classes and all kinds of things that you can engage with, and that's good. But guys, it's not it's not about programs at the end of the day, it's about a condition of our heart. Do I actually care about the people around me? Do I care enough to engage? There's probably people that have sat pretty near us for a long time, and it's like, I I recognize this person, they sit seven feet away from me every Sunday, but do I know their name? Do I care to? Have I ever asked in their name? Can I can I take a few moments to talk to them? What if I said, hey, you ever want to get lunch? You want to ever meet up? I'd love to get to know you and how I can help you out. Like Stephen Crane, Steven's a friend. Sorry, Stephen, I didn't mean to put you on the spot, but you're sitting where you sit, and usually you sit over there, now you're over here, so it caught me off guard. But uh maybe, maybe he didn't like one of his brothers or sisters that sits over there now. Maybe it was, maybe it was you guys. I don't know. Um season. But but Steven last year, really incredible. Steven decided at the beginning of 2019, he said, you know what? I want this to be a year that I really connect with people. And so every correct me if I'm wrong, every single week you decided to have a meal with someone that maybe you normally wouldn't have, right? 52 meals last year. Did you pay for all 52 of those meals? No. Hey! Brilliant, see? Steven's smart. He's like, I'll probably get a bunch of free meals in the process. No, I'm teasing. And so Steven's like, no, no, this year I want to engage. I want to be a brother to the people around me, not a stranger, not even a distant cousin. I want to be a brother. And so he set out to have 52 of those meals. It's funny, he was telling that story. And I, it was like a few weeks back, and I was like, why didn't you do one of those with me? And he's like, I did, like one of the first ones. And I went, oh yeah, I remember that. Yeah, just a long time ago. But that like, that's the kind of stuff that being a brother, it just means you engage. It just means that you take the time to engage with the people around you and you recognize the fact that there's probably someone in this room that needs you. Yeah, it's it's such a different mentality, and I'll be honest, like one of the biggest things we've got to fight as American Christians is kind of this consumer mentality with church and with God, where everything's like a vending machine and we want things our way. I hear so many people when it comes to things like joining a team or or or even a community group, and and look, you don't have to do those things. Again, it's not about programs, but usually when people say they don't want to do that, because it's like, I just don't know if I need that right now. I don't know if if I have time for that. I always want to be like, well, what if someone needs you there? Like, what if it's not, what if it's not about you? Preposterous. You know? There's strength that comes in living as a brother or sister in your faith. They say that blood is thicker than water, faith is thicker than blood. But you gotta choose to live as a brother or sister. You have to choose that. And there's a powerful strength when you do. You know, the the largest organism on the planet is actually a grove of trees. It's really interesting. We have a picture of this specific grove of trees. I think they're in Wyoming. The trees are called aspens. And what's really crazy about this grove of trees is that genetically speaking, it's one tree. You look at it, and uh it looks like just hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of trees, but genetically speaking, every single one of those is the same tree, and their root system is completely intertwined. And so it's a single organism from a scientific perspective. And that makes, you know, that that makes that organism in some ways vulnerable. Because if if a disease hits one tree, it really affects them all. Sometimes I think, guys, we need to remember that the way we live our lives doesn't just affect us, it affects our brothers and sisters, both the good and the bad. But it also makes those trees really strong. Because you can't you can't just like chop one down and it's dead. The strength is in its numbers, and our strength as believers, in part, is in our numbers. I mean, Paul wrote this in uh not Paul, it's like one of the books he didn't write. Uh Peter wrote this in 1 Peter. You know, it's by Peter because it's in the name. Chapter 5, verse 9, he says, Stand firm against him, talking about the devil. Be strong in your faith. Remember that your family of believers all over the world is going through the same kind of suffering that you are. Like, don't forget that you've got a family of believers all over the world. And I'm telling you guys, I see this, I see this all the time, and it's part of the unique perspective I have as a pastor. But I can promise you, today, if you're going through something very difficult, you're not alone. If your marriage is falling apart, you're not the only one. If you have a situation with a child and there's there's all kinds of hurt, you're not the only one going through that. If you've been diagnosed with cancer, you're not the only one in this room going through that. If you have a disability or a child with a disability, you're not the only one. You're not alone. If you're addicted, if you're depressed, whatever's going on, you're not the only one. So don't choose to live as if you are. Be a brother, be a sister, engage. That means that if you have a need, if you need help but you don't share it with us, like, don't do that. Let us know. Let someone that's part of your church family know, hey, I'm going through this so that we can come alongside you. We love to do that. It's not always easy, and we don't always know what to do. Sometimes it means you just have someone sitting in a hospital room with you for a few hours. Sometimes it means you have people praying with you constantly. But like you need that. Don't live as if you're an only child because you're not. You're a sibling. Be a sibling. One more thing, and we'll wrap up. One other implication of this. When you choose to really see yourself as part of the family of God, when you really see yourself like that, you recognize that that God is your father. You're not like your father, he is your father. And that Jesus is your older brother. Like that's that's a really powerful thing to think about. Jesus being your older brother. Because there's something about there's something about the the older brother. That's a really important relationship if you have that. You know, the the oldest in the family has a tendency to kind of affect the whole family. Like, for example, I'll show you a guy's a picture of Liam when he was younger. Uh we've had some snow in Georgia, and uh, it's awesome when it snows. And so whenever there's snow, we make sure to take a picture of our kids. And so there's that picture there. I got a couple more. There you go. Here's one. That's awesome. That little snowsuit, little ears. I love that snow suit. Here's another one, one more. Alright. Okay, now I'm just gonna, it's kind of a trick. Because that was actually three of my children. Um, in those pictures. Yeah. We have the same snowsuits beauty of living in Georgia. You just need one, you know, that baby size, and over the years we've had multiple snows, and we just put the kid in the same. So our kids look alike. They don't look like me, they don't look like Megan, but they look like each other. And so I really hope that Liam turns out to be a good-looking kid because the others are gonna look just like him. And, you know, if if he's not, I'm gonna be like, guys, I'm sorry, but y'all, you you take after your brother, you know? The way our genes mixed, it's just Liam set the tone. But you know, it's interesting because genetically speaking, you are more alike your siblings than anyone else on the planet. Which is why if you ever need like a an organ, you're gonna look to your siblings because they're the most likely match. It's kind of normal to look like your siblings. We have the ability through a relationship with Jesus to look like our brother. To look like Jesus, to spiritually begin to take after him. But that will not happen if we live self-focused. That will not happen if we live as if we're the only one that matters. We're encouraged, heavily encouraged in our culture to live self-focused. I mean, geez, we have an entire word that was invented in the last five years called selfie. You know? You know, when when for thousands of years, when when people had paintings and and cameras, they were obsessed with capturing what was out there. And then something about our generation, our time is like, what if we just focused on this? You know, let's live that way. We look we're encouraged to live self-focused. Jesus did not live self-focused at all. Not in the slightest. How many miracles did Jesus do? Countless, right? I mean, it says in the end of the gospels that they couldn't even write all the things that he did. How many miracles did Jesus do for his own benefit? Everything he did was for others. Because Jesus saw himself as, he trust me, he knew who he was. He knew for a fact that he was the Son of God. He did not, he did not doubt, he did not struggle with that identity, but he also knew that he wasn't the only one. He knew that this family that God wanted to build through him was larger and greater than anything anyone had ever imagined. And so Jesus lived as the Son of God, but not as an only child. He was not focused on himself, he was focused on everyone around him. And if we live that way, we begin to look like our brother, we begin to look like Jesus. But we have we have to choose to. You are not an only child, so don't live like one. Be a brother, be a sister to the people around. Be a part of the family of God. And again, if you haven't done that yet, if you haven't joined, uh there's no weird initiation process, there's no fees. It's really, it's really easy. Um you just you just commit your life to Jesus. He's the best. There's no one like him. And here's what's great is you're accepted. He's not gonna look at you and say, No, sorry. He's not gonna look at your past and say you're disqualified. You look at the people that bring him into the world, they're messed up. Join the family. Give your life to Jesus. The first thing you do when you do that, actually, is you you go all in and you get baptized. And actually, we have two people doing that right now. And so as we wrap up this morning, what I want to ask is that here's the thing really important. When we have a baptism, stay, stay for it. Stay for it. I know it's like we're busy, and uh, I know I have a tendency to go like a little long, but guys, it's only a little long. It's like five minutes long, it's not ten. Okay, so but it's so vital that when someone is is getting baptized, and those of you who get baptized, you guys can come out. It's so vital that what they what they don't see are backs walking away from them. But brothers and sisters looking at them, committed to help them and support them. Okay? So let's pray and let's celebrate with some uh some new members of our family. Lord, thank you so much for uh for everything you're doing. Thank you so much for bringing us into a family that we could never have have claimed to be part of. I mean, who of us could could ever have said, I deserve to be part of the family of God? I deserve to have God as my father. No one would say that. We would be audacious to say that. It'd be wrong to even think that. Yet, Lord, you have said that we're worthy. You have said that we belong, you have invited us into your family through the blood of Jesus, our big brother in the faith. And Lord, I just pray in your name that we would live this way. And I say that for myself, Lord, because I'm focused on me way too much. Lord, that we would live desiring to help our brothers and sisters, desiring to help those around us, that we would live not as only children, but we would live as a family. Make us a family, Lord. Bond us together closer than we've ever been. And as these awesome people go on with you, Jesus, help us see them as who they are our brothers, our sisters. And Lord, help us commit to serving them and coming alongside them throughout their entire journey of faith, following you. We pray all this in your name, Jesus. Amen.