By I appreciated the plug for Emmais in that song. I don't know if you caught that or not.
That was cool. And get set up here.
Oh no. Yeah.
This one.
Hey. There we go. Well, good morning, everyone. Thank you so much for welcoming, welcoming my family and I here.
Our first time here, Tawawatosa, I hope it's certainly not the last.
This has just been a joy to be here among you. My name is Patrick Clough and that's how you say it.
It's a weird one. Rhymes with rough or tough and I bring you greetings from the staff of the Mayas worldwide and also from my home assembly.
Cedar Rapids Bible Chapel in Cedar Rapids. And I have most of my family here this morning.
So guys, want you stand up. Let me introduce you. My wife Kerry of 21 years.
Silas and then we have Olive, Asher, Ezra, Myra, Judah, Boaz, and Baby Girl Number 9, Do the Spring.
And if you looked at the picture and you're like that math doesn't add up, there's an extra one up there, my daughter Keelan who's not with us today was just engaged to be married on Friday.
And so we're excusing her this morning of not being here, and that's her fiancee, Stephen.
So we are thrilled. So we're having a baby and we're having when married. I don't know how all this happened.
I'm not old enough for the married. One part that's for sure at least I don't feel like it but So that's my family.
Thanks so much for welcoming us here this morning. And I serve as was mentioned as the Mission Advancement Director for Mas Worldwide.
And I just started in September, so I'm really new at least as far as the on staff.
Although my family and I have known of a Mias, I still call it ECS sometimes, so you'll forgive me if I do that.
But we've known of the ministry and loved it for many, many years. And I don't have time to share my whole story whether you hear this morning, but my family and I came to find and immediately love MAUS correspondent school courses about 13 years ago.
We still use the materials in our home. Today, I think even on the trip here, there was an iPad with, with Golden Keys going on it.
So we use it as a tool. In our home to disciple our children. I've used it as an outreach tool before and I think that the material is is really flexible in that way.
So before I came to M worldwide, I spent the previous 16 years in a software engineering management career.
But the chance came available for me to join the team at a mass worldwide. I couldn't pass it up.
So now, you here at Wala Toast, I've been a long time supporter, supporter of a MAYS worldwide, but I don't want to assume this morning that everybody knows exactly what we do.
And exactly what it may us worldwide is. Are you part of the college? What, you know, what is what is the relationship there?
So allow me to take a few moments this morning to reintroduce you to the Ministry of Mas worldwide and give you some also some of the latest things.
That the Lord is doing. And to add a little fun to this as we go along today, I'd like to gamify it a bit and make it a bit of a quiz.
And so olive back there, my 11 year old daughter has the prize box. And I have prizes for correct answers.
We've got plenty of prizes and so if there's multiple correct answers. Rest assured, you will receive a prize.
So first, let's start with a warm up question, our name. Alright, MAS is a place in the Bible.
Okay, we're all on the same page here, right? How far was a mais from Jerusalem?
Who knows?
I hear 12. What? Did I hear? 12 who said 7.
Raise your hand. Mr. Ray upfront all have come give everyone nice hand ray 7 miles indeed very well done We find that in loop, 2413.
And do you remember what happened to the road on the road to a mass? This isn't worth a prize.
The Lord appeared, of course, 2 men, and he walked with them. And they didn't know that it was him for a while.
The word says that his, their eyes were restrained. Until at last he broke bread with them and their their eyes were opened And then they said to one another, this is loop 2432, did not our heart burn within us while he talked with us on the road and while he opened the scriptures.
To us. What a precious verse, right? And that's ultimately what, MAS worldwide why we exist.
That's why we're here. We want to open the scriptures to people all over the world.
And our mission statement says this it's on the screen to glorify God by providing biblically sound resources and structured study materials.
That teach people from every nation to accept Christ as their Savior and Lord, grow in Christ and share their faith with others.
I'd like to boil that down for you, cause that's a mouthful. And I'd like to say we equip people to know, grow, and go.
No, G, go. No, Jesus, grow to be more like him and go tell others about him.
That's our mission statement. All right, next question. How many years has a Mas worldwide been in existence?
Now here's a hint, our name only changed to a mass world wide in 2020. We were known as a Mayas correspondent school officially before that.
So who wants to take a stab? 1955, okay?
Oh, you said 55 years. Okay, and I'm not good at math, so I don't know what year that would be, but.
Somewhere somewhere. Back there, okay? I'm gonna say it's a little older. 80 years old.
That is pretty close. You're warm, you're real warm.
It's actually 81 years old since 1942 prize box up here all of you was the closest here's the closest since 1942 so that's 81 years now originated in Canada, where a Mayas Bible college initially started.
By Dr. Ari Harlow. Anybody ever have the chance to read or see or know Dr.
Harlow? Be the older ones among us if you were if you had that chance. And as worldwide began as assert as an outreach to servicemen in World War 2, they wanted to study the Bible take courses while they were deployed.
And so the correspondence school Let's start. So, that's what it's about.
So the, it's the Bible materials to encourage people to know. Grow and go. Well, how do we do that?
What are the specific ministries of Mas worldwide? Well, I'd like to at least share with you 2 of them this morning.
First our global ministry. Oh, we've got one more question for, sorry, one more question.
How many students across how many countries have studied a Mayas courses? Hmm.
Also, let's just start with the countries. Take a stab at the countries.
Okay, let's do multiple choice. Let's do multiple choice. 5,200. Or a hundred 10.
110 is correct. We have a worldwide network of over 300,000 students across 110 countries studying.
Mays Corps. Raise your hand, the prize box comes over here, olive. Prize box, yeah, thank you.
Yeah. And I think I doubled this this one up. So we'll we'll come back to that.
So yeah, so the exams are taken. The people take their course. They do an exam and and along with each student's comments, questions.
Their return to volunteers and Bible centers. The Bible centres create amazing opportunities for personal engagement, encouragement, and mentorship for those working through the courses.
Let me show you a little taste of what that looks like. We'll see if this plays.
It's a real line.
And tonight is going to be a graduation. Congratulations. Well done.
All right, now who is paying attention to the previous question and also to the video, what was the number of countries once again that study our courses currently?
It does tend to fluctuate. 100 and 10. Yeah. Yeah, the translation and the distribution of the global courses.
In all other languages besides English and Spanish are handled by local coordinators. In each region. The English courses, they're provided for free.
We've always had the arrangement ever since our Heart Ari Harlow started the ministry so many years ago that we won't charge you for the course, but you don't charge us for the translation.
And it works really well that way. We just asked the they send us a PDF of the translated copy when they're done for our files.
And that's the way it's been from the beginning. But there is a cost.
It does cost something. You might have noticed that maybe some of you know Jim Fleming. He's been our international coordinator for 20 years.
And brother named Marlon Govinder is going to be taking over for him at the start of the year, Jim's moving over to CMML.
So Jim spends it and then Marlin will spend a great deal of time on the road encouraging the local team members to.
To keep on going and that encouragement and that relationship building is really key. To getting the God's Word into the hands of these people that that are all over the world.
You might consider the Lord would have you partner in that encouragement. And to continue to see these Bible courses go out.
People who otherwise wouldn't have a way to study the Bible, that have no solid biblical resources to do so.
You might consider partnering with us to lengthen that that reach of God's Word through Mas worldwide courses.
And I have to tell you the exciting thing is, is that reach is really only growing. You would think all pandemic, you know, the way the world is right now.
No, actually things are really going well. Starting in 2,017 they're growing really well because we started putting our courses on a mobile app.
Is anybody here? Does anybody here know that in May as correspondence courses are on an app?
Just just my family. Yeah, well, I'm sharing with you something new today. So the idea of the app originated in 2015.
With the intention of reaching German refugees that were in Germany in their native language. But it also became quickly obvious that the app was really a useful tool for multi-lingual.
Missions worldwide. It also became apparent that the platform can now reach into parts of the world that it's very difficult to get paper courses or where there even isn't a a steady flow of electricity to run copiers and printers and things like that.
So the idea came up in about 2015 2016 that the, we would launch an app.
And printed courses, as I said, they're great if you have printer. They're great if you have ink or a paper or an office and a staff to do all those things and there's a little bit of overhead there.
With putting all that together. And we praise God for the people that have been distributing courses for that in that way for the last 80 years.
But the app is going places that paper and printers cannot go or aren't readily available. You know, I don't know if any of you have traveled to for world countries, places overseas, but it's amazing how many people there will have a phone.
Or a tablet. They may not have clean water to drink. They may not have a steady power grid, but they've got they may not have certain basic necessities, but they've got a phone.
Could it be that? God has done that for a reason. Could it be in part that Maybe mysteries like a mass worldwide could get his word to every nation tribe and tongue in that fashion that wouldn't have otherwise been able to go if it weren't.
For that technology. Let me show you a little bit. About what that what the app looks like especially since it seems like we're all mostly new to it so check this out
And that was a Mayas dash app. Com. If you're interested in downloading that and you can't remember that by the time we're done here today just come see me.
Love to share that with you. You know, one of the things we pray as a staff. And I think it's a good thing to pray is Lord show us where you're working.
And move us to work with you there. We want to work with the Lord where he's blessing.
Not necessarily do our own thing and, and then ask the Lord to bless that. Does that make sense?
And I can tell you with certainty. This morning, brothers and sisters, that the Lord is working through this app.
He really is. People from all over the world and new languages all the time are being delivered as Colossians says from the power of darkness and conveyed to the kingdom.
Of the Son of His Love. The Lord is using this this little app to draw people all over the world.
To himself, to enrich in their walk with him. To give them the good news of the hope of the gospel.
To give them a clear biblical understanding. Of who he is. Let me share some of the latest numbers with you.
Of course, in quiz form. All right, how many users use the app? Daily. Now this is daily.
7,300 or 700.
700. Correct. We have a who had 700 raise your hand get get your prize We don't want anyone to be priceless, okay?
Yeah, 700 on the app every day. Every day. And I can tell you with pretty good confidence that these are people that are not generally served by places where we have paper courses going in.
Yeah, praise God. Next one. How many courses have been started? Meeting I opened up a course and I started going through it on the app.
21 7 98 or 2 23 1.
2 23 one it is. So it sends 2017 and 6 years, 223,100 have started a course.
On the app. I think we have a prize a winner up here all if she's got her hand raised.
Yeah, there we go. Good.
How about languages? Just this week, this is exciting, I get to tell you this. We published TIE on the out.
The Thai language. It's our 20 ninth language on the app. We've currently, and forgive me one of these, but we currently, we're working on Hausa, Calbrew, Kiriwanda, and Tajik are in progress.
We're also taking first steps made in Donza, Kmer, Korean, Malay, Nepali, Serbian, and Shona.
These are all happening right now.
All right, next question. Which country is experiencing exponential growth in the usage of the app presently?
Zambia, Brazil, or Greenland?
Who said Brazil? Right here, Olive.
Believe it, believe it or not, Brazil. And, and when I say exponential, I mean, you know, those of you who are in business are used to like our bar chart our line charts right and the charts been doing a nice nice study and then Brazil all of a sudden popped in it's we had to we had to get a new scale for it.
So really the Lord is really doing things in Brazil and in the Portuguese language. And let me tell you a quick story of Brazil.
We have dear friends that are missionaries there. Ezra and Joanna Brainard and their beautiful blonde headed children.
Their missionaries in the Amazonas region of Brazil way, way, way up in the north.
Part of the country. And Ezra recently joined the Portuguese app team for MAS worldwide.
You know, he does his regular missionary stuff, but he also loves the courses and wanted to get involved and so he's part of the Portuguese app team there.
And now they're mentors for Portuguese speakers who are using the EMAS courses through the app.
My wife was chatting with Joanna recently and she shared this experience they had with working a student. I don't know if you can read that so I'll read it for you.
It says a guy named Pedro from Angola and you're thinking Angola, Brazil, it's going to have to in Angola was settled by the Portuguese years ago, so they speak Portuguese in the country of Angola, which is in Africa.
And so if you're part of the Portuguese speaking team, you may get people from Brazil, Angola, other places in the world where Portuguese is spoken.
So anyway, Pedro from Angola had a question after one of the Bible courses. How can one have assurance of salvation?
Anybody asked you that in your day to day walk? What a blessing to be able to get to talk about this with people.
So Ezra got to send him a reply. The same student just finished a course on Galatians and in the comments he said, I've learned that we are saved not by works but by faith.
I'm placing my faith in Christ. Then Joanna says, Ezra and I tried cried for joy.
I mean, I know this happens all the time, but to get to hear directly from someone who's been born again after studying the word with these courses is so encouraging.
And I have to tell you, brothers and sisters, that your assembly here is apart. Of Pedro Story.
Your partnership with the Mas worldwide is helping people like Pedro get born again. Is there anything more awesome than that?
Is there anything more of spiritual value than that? Now let me tell you about the app a little bit.
You might have noticed in the video that it says it's freed. It's free. We normally charge a little bit for our courses, but on the app you don't have to pay.
You can go on there and use them for free. Don't tell the boss I told you that.
It's free for person. It's free for you in English. It's free for the person and Niger that speaks Hausa.
Which is one of our brand new languages. It's free for everybody as long as you speak one of the new 29 languages on the app, you can use it.
But there is a cost to developing it. To creating new courses to do the translation work. And much of this is done by volunteers who serve the Lord.
They love what he's doing. But we do need partners like yourself to come alongside us.
And work with us on this. Our partners with the Central African Mission or XAM. Maybe some of you are familiar with ZAM.
They've been so awesome in their work to get this app developed and partner with us in that way.
But perhaps you today take, take a moment and pray. That maybe the Lord would have you.
Partner in this area. One of the things we need are English speaking mentors. There's a lot of people who take the courses on the app that speak English.
I think most of us in here speak speak that although it's a Wisconsin dialect, I think it'll still work.
I'm sorry. Maybe that's an area where the Lord would have you partner. It's about a 1 HA week commitment.
So come talk to me if you're, you're interested in that. It's pretty doable.
We'd also like to hire a developer to come alongside and help lighten the load of the work that is, as you can see, is going on here.
We'd love to devote more advertising. More marketing to this. We'd love to get behind this initiative more fully with with resources.
Maybe you prayed about that, that the Lord would have you. Involved there. So whether it's on paper or through the exciting app.
Countless lives have been transformed through God's Word using the Mayas courses. And I just wanted to come this morning and first of all tell you, thank you.
For being a part of that. But there's also exciting things happening closer to home. The Lord is doing some really awesome things in prison across the US.
Most of you are probably aware that I may as courses have been going into prisons for a while, but did you know for how long?
Sounds like a good quiz question. So what decade I'm making a little easier here. We're on decade, not specific year.
Did a Mayas courses first start going into prisons? And also if you remember that we didn't start until the 1940 s so that narrows it down to what 77 decades Which decade?
Anybody want to take a stab?
1970, s give this man a prize right here all the Nailed it. First one I heard.
Yeah. 1970. So roughly, oh, 50, going on 50 years now. But just in the last 20 years, Mas worldwide is average sending out about 200,000 courses per year for prison use.
And now that's all the grace of God because we get emails and calls all the time about different prisons who get a new warden and you know things will happen and they always threaten no no we're gonna be done bringing papers paper courses into prison No, we found drugs on some paper.
No, you're not gonna, we're not letting you have the courses in. But time and time again, God keeps the door open.
And we've seen very few closures as a result of that. We're praising the Lord for that.
There have been had there have been a couple times where the leadership of a particular institution has made good on the threat of shutting down.
But over the, over the years, the Lord Jesus has sustained this ministry and we continue to see prisoners set free.
Even while they're incarcerated.
One of the exciting things that's currently happening with our present ministry right now is we've been working to launch our courses electronically.
And we do this by partnering with the tablet provider that already gives the inmates a tablet.
You may or may not have been aware that in most institutions when an inmate checks in, they're issued a tablet like an iPad sort of a thing.
And through the grace of God, we have been able to get our Mas app on those tablets.
Pretty awesome stuff since September eleventh We started a 12 week trial period with a major tablet provider. Here's some of the numbers that we've seen and now just since September eleventh, what's that now?
1011 weeks. Since then, over 43,000 lessons have been started. 36,000 finished.
Over 366 prisons or prison networks across the US with more facilities being added weekly by the provider.
So that's an average of about 42 MAS courses taken. Per day. And again, we're just in the trial period here.
Praise God. Something else that's exciting about this is that many of the inmates were finding us on these tablets.
Are not currently served by MS worldwide at their facility. It may not even be in a part of a state that one of our people is currently working at.
These tablets, these courses are being taken up by the prisoners on these tablets because they're just sitting there.
They've got the tablet in their lap and they're looking for something to do on it.
And praise the Lord the the Holy Spirit of God is leading them. To the Mas worldwide courses.
So that means by getting our courses on these tablets, a whole new pathway, a whole new pathway that didn't exist up until this point.
To get the truth of God's Word has opened up. And so, if the Lord would lead you, you could help partner with us in this area to move from the trial period toward a full-fledged partnership.
With this particular tablet provider with a tool that will. It's gonna do amazing things. Through God's Word in a Mayas courses.
And we can get them into hands of almost limitless numbers of inmates that would otherwise not really have access to them.
Pretty amazing. I will tell you that the partnership with this tablet company The initial outlet is gonna be about $3,000.
And so it's not cheap, but if you think about the countless number of the number of impact, I mean, how can you put a price on that?
So that's that's what we're looking at right now. Maybe pray how the Lord would use you with that.
But you know these numbers are exciting and I got the very latest before I left the office on before the holiday because I wanted to, I wanted it to look as good as possible, but I can tell you probably already now these are out of date.
These numbers have already gone up. And they're exciting. The numbers are exciting. But as exciting as the numbers are, Each one of these 43,001 of these 3 36,001 of these 42 per day It represents a precious soul.
That was created in the image of God. One story I like to tell as I came, I came across it when I was first getting started with the ministry was an inmate named Matthew in Colorado.
He's been studying a Mayas courses from prison. Let me share with you what he wrote, wrote to us.
Says I want to thank you for getting these Bible courses to inmates. I'm aware that you all must be sending a great deal of time grading and mailing and such.
He's right. Those courses are truly a blessing to me. I'm finding direction in my relationship with God and understanding where I went wrong.
I wasn't putting my faith in him. I just can't thank you all enough for bringing the Lord back into my life.
God bless each and every one of you.
That's what it's all about. That's what it's all about. Matthew messed up.
He made a mistake. He landed in prison in Colorado. I don't know him. But my story is very similar.
Somebody once told me that we're all about 3 bad decisions away from being where Matthews at.
But not for the grace of God, go their I. So I pray as a Lord that Matthew has found the Lord.
Just like many of us here have. And as a result, you know, we've been born again, we've been changed and We're not gonna hopefully make those bad decisions that would end us up in a Colorado prison.
So the cost of getting Matthew and people like him, these courses, well, it's shared generally by a mass worldwide and by our prison ministry.
Coordinators and we rely on the Lord's gifts, the provision of the Lord and gifts.
Through folks like yourself to enable us to continue to publish and print our courses and and move toward putting them on the app as well.
We don't know the, the full price of what it's gonna cost to do the app.
I told you about the 3,000 to get started, but we're just trusting the Lord to show us what's next.
We're hopeful the Lord shows us who to work with. We know that there's right now about 10 or so players in the prison tablet game, if you will, that'll settle out to probably 2 or 3, just like everything else does.
We're pretty confident that the one we're working with is going to be one of those 2 or 3.
But if not, We'll back up Punt and go again. We're just trusting the Lord to bring us the right partnerships in his time.
So if you would pray about that for us, we'd really appreciate that. All right, one more final question here before we transition to opening God's Word together briefly.
Final, grand question. And now I want to tell you about this this particular question. This is a grand prize.
You may or may not be aware that MASS Worldwide also publishes books. And one of the books that we just published brand new is called Glimpses of the Gospel.
It is an advent devotional. It's a it's a book of daily readings for Advent that you you and your family can read together.
And be encouraged of the Lord as we get ready for the Christmas season. And I brought a copy with me as the grand prize.
So be sure to get this one right. Okay, and I've only got the one, so it's gonna be the first.
The first one I hear and this is going to require you to know a little bit about our ministry. So, which a MAYS worldwide course has been taken by the most students.
Does anybody know?
I'll give you a hint. We have a lot of prisoners that use this course. And maybe you're not familiar with all of our courses, but I will.
Give you a moment to think.
It's called born. 1, 2. When? Born to win.
I guess I get to keep the copy of the book. Yes.
B to win over 2 million people written by a William McDonald. By the way, many of you know Brother Bill.
With the Lord now over 2 million people all over the world in prisons and in homes like yours have heard the gospel through born to win.
Many of them have given their lives to Christ as a result. And that's what we're all about.
It may us worldwide. It's all about What our mission statement said, teaching people from every nation to accept Christ as their Savior and Lord.
And we believe that scripture teaches passages like Romans, 1017, and other places that Faith comes by hearing and hearing the Word of God.
That's it. Reading, understanding, obeying God's word is how people are saving go to heaven.
Full stop.
That's why we're passionate about getting God's Word in the hands of people from Peru.
To prison and into Homes and Wawatows and Milwaukee.
So born to win, pretty awesome one. You know, this time of year we generally turn our focus to the incarnation of God of God coming to earth in the Lord Jesus Christ.
John, 1 14 tells us and the word became flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.
And so we want to be passionate about the Word of God because who's the Word of God? Jesus Christ is the Word.
And I would certainly say he was passionate about God's Word as well, which makes an account in the early earthly life of the Lord that my family and I read through a few weeks ago really interesting and I think instructive for us today.
Our family is going through the book of Luke. In our evening devotion time and we were in chapter 2 the other night in reading the account where the young Jesus lagged behind his parents while in Jerusalem.
Anybody remember remember this account? Let's turn to it. Let's look at it together.
It's in loop 2. Because I think it's relevant to what we've been talking about already this morning with God's Word and in eternal life.
Let's turn to Luke 2 starting in verse 41. And I know I certainly don't have enough time to properly.
Exposit this this morning. So we're gonna go briefly through this and and see how it relates to what we've been talking about.
Says his parents went to Jerusalem every year at the feast of the Passover. And when he was 12 years old, they went up to Jerusalem according to the custom of the feasts.
When they had finished the days as they returned the boy Jesus lingered behind in Jerusalem. And Joseph and his mother did not know it.
Let's supposing him to have been in the company, they went a day's journey. And sought him among their relatives and acquaintances.
So when they did not find him, they returned to Jerusalem seeking him. Okay, we'll hold there for a moment.
Now there were 3 annual festivals Jewish men Typically, we're required to attend Passover, Pentecost, and the Feast of Tabernacles.
Joseph seems as though he was a devout man because it says he took his family every year. So Jesus here is going up to Jerusalem with his parents.
And did you catch how old he is? He's 1212 years of age. Now this could well have been the first time Jesus would have been in Jerusalem for the Passover.
We're not told one way or the other. It was customary to go to the Passover at age 12 and preparation for becoming a Jewish man at the age of 13.
Which is when you would become a son of the commandment or as we have heard before called the bar mitzvah.
So this is a huge ride of passage for Jewish boys. And as you'd expect in Jerusalem during the Passover, there would be a lot of people there.
A lot of hustle and bustle. The perfect place to lose a child. Ever done that?
Anybody ever? I mean, raise your hand, be honest. You ever lost one of your kids?
Yeah. Even for just 30 s, 3 min, parents, yeah. It's breathtaking.
Isn't it? It feels like every minutes a year. You would imagine with my 8 children that we've lost one or time or 2 and I stand here in front of you today to say that is no I can't.
We have lost one or 2 and one time we lost Ezra. Ezra Wave, are you in here?
There he is. A few years ago, we lost Ezra for about 30 min.
It felt like 30 years. I was expecting to find him with a beard. I mean, all places and maybe this was the Lord's judgment we had decided one day to go check out a Renaissance fair.
And never again, by the way. But so we had all of these people like dressed as cats and knights and kings and and you know looking for our son calling Ezra you know and we well where was Ezra ultimately after all that he'd been in our van thinking that we had gone there so It was it was, it was tense.
We were this close to getting the police involved had they been there already. We would have had them involved and we were freaked out.
Fortunately, the Lord preserved our Ezra and he's still with us. And we're all mindful of keeping our eye on Ezra from, from here forward.
And look what it says, they journeyed about a day's journey. You know, away from Jerusalem.
I mean, that's like driving from Milwaukee to Minneapolis and forgetting you left a kid at home.
That'd be pretty rough, wouldn't it? Then have to drive back again. And only it's worse, they were walking, right?
They weren't driving. Let's keep reading. There's 46. Now it was after 3 days they found him in the temple.
Sitting in the midst of the teachers both listening to them and asking them questions. And all who heard him were astonished at his understanding.
And answers. I love this for a number of reasons. First they found him. Where was he?
At age 12. Was he at the video arcade? Was he at the swimming pool? Was he at the pizza place?
He's in the temple. Involved in the theologically rich Q&A session with the Jewish teachers.
Here's the Lord Jesus, and this is where my mind starts to lose all hope of understanding. But here's the Lord Jesus, the creator of all the universe.
Listening and asking and answering questions. It's amazing, isn't it? The mystery of how the divine and the human nature unites in the person of the Lord Jesus.
I don't think we'll fully comprehend that. Here in this life. And it just, it begs questions.
I have questions. I read this and I think. You know, we have too many to deal with with the time we've got left here, but how is it that the creator of the universe and omniscient God needs to sit at the feet of sinful finite fallen men that he created.
How can he be both the word? But take the time to ask questions and learn more about the Word.
If he is God. Well, how can he increase and wisdom as it says in verse 52 later in this chapter?
Mark 13 talks about how no one knows the hour of his return, not even the Son. I think this is what Paul meant when he said in Philippians too, though he was in the form of God, he did not count equality with God, a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself.
Taking the form of a servant. One of the things that Christ emptied himself of was of full omniscience.
He didn't count it equality with gotta be a thing to be grasped but emptied himself taking the form of a servant.
If you read the new living translation, it says when Christ entered our world, he gave up his divine privileges.
That's an interesting way to put it. Others say he veiled his glory and he chose to occupy the position of a servant.
And in this case, sitting under the feet of teachers. And yet in the course of the proceedings, he must have asked Ben asked some questions himself because it says that that he was listening to them and asking them questions.
And how do they feel about his answers? Well, it says they were astonished. I does answer.
Well, you'd expect that. Right. Well, I think for us today. We too can be astonished at his answers.
Right. And there's a few things here in verse 46 I want to point out real quick.
He saw out teachers and sat in their midst. He listened. He asked questions. He gave answers.
Pretty young people in the room. This would be a great list to write down. I think it's convicting this list.
Are you seeking the wisdom of solid Bible teachers? Do you listen? Do you read? Solid Bible teachers, books, courses, authors, things like that.
And I'll say this and maybe you won't invite me back, but I think this is true for all of our churches.
A lot of times our bodies show up here, but our minds don't.
Are you listening? Are you asking the questions? Are you giving answers? Are you always ready?
As first Peter 3 says to give a defense to everyone who asks. The reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and with fear.
If God the Son, the word incarnate, sought out teachers, listen to ask questions and gave answers about the things of himself.
I think we probably should too.
48 through 50 here. Let's read this. So when they saw him, they were amazed.
And his mother said to him, son, why have you done this to us? Look, your father and I have sought you anxiously.
And he said to them, why did you seek me? Did you not know that I must be about my father's?
Business, but they did not understand the statement, which he spoke to them.
Look at this contrast immediately in verse 48 where Mary says your father. And then in verse 49 where the Lord Jesus says, My father.
In other words, Jesus has chosen this critical stage of his young life on earth. At the brink of manhood.
To tell his parents in an unforgettable way that he knows who his actual father is and what it's going to mean for his mission.
Jesus recognizes his unique sonship to God and that his mission that he was sent to earth to do is going to require of him a devotion to God's purposes that takes precedence over even close family ties.
He must follow his calling, even if it brings pain and understanding to those who love him. And this way, Luke sets the stage for the adult ministry of the son of God, which kicks off right after this in chapter 3, which ends up being about 18 years later.
And this last statement in verse 50 is really neat. It says they did not understand. The statement which you spoke to them.
I think it's Luke's way of saying to the reader, there's more here than meets the eye.
This is the point. Don't miss it. They were searching and searching and searching and after 3 days they find him in the temple.
Did they search on the playground? Did they search like I said at the at the pool at the bakery?
Jesus answers you shouldn't have had to seek at all. For you know that I must. Be about my father's business.
And that is the question I want to end with today and leave us with today is. Are you about your father's business?
Jesus says, I must be. About my father's business. There is no other option. This is my life, my soul, my all my mission, why I'm here.
I think it's the same for us.
This is how we're to live. This is what we're to be about to. And as we see in this account, what is the business of the father?
What is his father's business? It starts with his word. Starts with learning it being devoted to it discussing it and ultimately obeying it
That's why a mass worldwide exists. That's why my family and I have loved and used worldwide materials for so long.
Decided change careers as a result of it, to take a step of faith and serve the Lord full-time through a mass worldwide.
This is what we why we do what we do because we believe in the power of God's Word, brothers and sisters.
God's Word is the power to salvation. Faith comes by hearing the Word of God.
God has provided no plan B.
So would you pray this morning?
Really seek the Lord if you're truly about your father's business. Pray how you might get involved in that business.
Maybe you'd like to start going deeper in your walk with Christ. We have materials that can help with that.
Maybe you'd like to reach out to a friend or a neighbor. And share God's word with them, but you don't know where to start and like what book do you use?
We have materials that can help you with that. Maybe you're not satisfied with the type of Bible learning your kids are getting at their school or even in your home school.
Maybe you're not satisfied with the curriculum they're using. Maybe the, The Bible teaching your kids or your grandkids are getting at at their Christian school.
Isn't the way you'd like it? We can help. Maybe you'd like to help prisoners, people in another country.
Get God's word into their hands so they can study it and come to faith. Come talk to me.
Whether you use materials from a mass worldwide, whether you partner with us or you're doing it in some other way, I really don't care.
What I care about is that we all must be about the father's business. I hope you are.
I want to thank you this morning for inviting my family and I here to share what the Lord's doing.
We're so excited about it and I hope today maybe you a little bit of that rubbed off on YouTube.
Love to talk more about this with you. We've got probably some extra prizes back there if you want one.
Also, if you'd like to sign up to be a part of our prayer our weekly prayer email, I'd love to get you on that or be a part of our other news.
Items and sales that we have going on. We've got a sign up sheet for that.
All of will have that. And I really do hope that this is the first of many times we'll be seeing each other.
Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we are so thankful for you. Sending your one and only precious son, Jesus Christ, to come into the world.
Oh, to lay down his life, Lord, to be an example to us in so many ways and show us that he was about your business.
Oh Lord, we know we need to be 2. So I thank you Lord for sustaining the Ministry of Mas worldwide for over 80 years now.
I thank you for this assembly of believers that has supported it over the years. I pray that partnership continues Lord and that you would provide blessing.
All around Lord as we get excited about the stories of what you're doing. And I pray Lord that each of us here would, would find ways to go deeper with you and being more about your business.
I pray your blessing on these dear ones here this morning and that Lord you would all send us on our way home this evening and this afternoon.
With in your love and in your grace. We pray this through the power of the name of Jesus Christ, the Word of God.
Amen.
Thank you, everyone.