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Good morning, church! Our reading today begins in Mark 8:11.  While you’re turning there I want to take a couple of minutes to give you an update from the Southern Baptist Convention Annual Meeting this week.  My family along with Jerry Patton and his two oldest sons were able to attend.  We appreciate you sending us and we’re excited about what God is doing in our convention.

I’ll provide a more detailed review at our July members meeting, but there are three big picture things I wanted to bring to your attention.

The first, and the one that caught the most media attention, is that we solidified our commitment to a Biblical view of gender roles in church leadership.  Southern Baptists have always held that the office and function of the pastor are limited to Biblically qualified men.

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Good morning, church! If you're in kindergarten through the third grade you’re dismissed to go to children’s church at this time.  We’re going to start our reading in Mark 4 this morning.

That’s on page 890 in those black Bibles in the pew rack in front of you.  To be transparent with you, I believe this is the longest text I have ever preached as part of an expositional sermon series.  I have preached overviews of whole books, but I don’t recall ever preaching a text this long before.  And I’m going to endeavor to not make it the longest sermon I have ever preached.

And in case you haven’t been with us, this isn’t our typical expositional sermon series.  Based on the way we normally do things it would take us 50-60 weeks to get through Mark.  This summer we are doing it in about 16 weeks.  It’s still expositional, though, in that the point of every sermon is the same point that Mark is making in the passage.  We’re just taking a 10,000-foot view and picking up the big picture themes of Mark.

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We’re going to read a long passage this morning.  We’ll start out in Mark 3.  It’s on page ___ in the black bibles in the pew rack in front of you.  This week and next week are the two largest chunks of Mark’s gospel we’ll deal with in one sermon during this series.  I debated whether or not we should read the whole thing during our sermon time.  The more I prayed about it the more I felt convicted that we probably don’t read God’s Word out loud enough in our lives or in our worship gatherings, so we’re going to read the whole thing.

We’ll go from Mark 3:7 through 4:34.  While you’re turning there I want to tell you about the last time I made a fool out of myself. At least, the last time I know I made a fool out of myself.  My wife and children might have other examples.  But I know I went out of my ever-loving mind on October 15, 2022.  That’s the day we finally did it.

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Kids in kindergarten through third grade, you’re dismissed to go to children’s church.  We’ll be reading Mark 2:1-12 this morning.  It’s on page 888 in the black bibles in the pew rack in front of you.

While you’re turning there, I want to say I’m really thankful for the songs we sing.  Some of them are really old, some of them are pretty new and all of them teach us something.  The songs we sing when we’re gathered are one of the primary ways we teach theology, did you know that?  We don’t pick songs because we like them or because they sound pretty.  No, we pick the songs we pick because they teach our hearts something about God.  They express what we believe to be true in a poetic way, so our songs are worship—yes—but they’re also discipling our hearts as we declare truth.

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John DeLuca, church planter with the North American Mission Board, joins the FBC family to preach from John 4. For more information about John’s ministry visit https://thewellstl.org/.

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Good morning, church! We’ll be reading Mark 1:12-45 this morning.  It’s on page ___________ in the black bibles in the pew rack in front of you.

While you’re turning there, I want to let you know why we’re approaching Mark the way we are.  We’re covering the 16 chapter of Mark’s gospel in about 17 weeks.  If you’ve been at FBC very long, you’ll recognize that is moving pretty quick for us.  We spent 24 weeks in 1 Peter, 46 weeks in Ephesians over the course of two different years, and by the time we finish the Exodus study we do in the winter we’ll be well over 80 sermons.  We normally move a bit more slowly.  But that isn't the only way to study, nor is it the only way to preach.

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Good morning, church! Our plan was originally to have a guest with us to preach this morning, but circumstances arose that were beyond our control and so we will push forward with our series in Mark’s gospel today.

On the fourth and fifth Sundays our kindergarten through third graders who normally go to children’s church will be staying with us during the sermon.  Kids and parents, there are some sermon note sheets floating around.  It’s our hope that those will help you kids understand as we study and it will give you parents some ideas about how to follow up on the sermon or have deeper discussions at home.

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Good morning, church family! Our kindergarten through third grade students are dismissed to go to children’s church at this time.  While they’re heading out, please turn in your Bibles to Mark 10.

I’m excited to launch into something new with you this morning.  We’ll spend the rest of the spring and most of the summer in Mark’s gospel.  This is a bit of a soft launch into the series because next week we’re excited to have North American Mission Board missionary Phil Dooley with us.  Phil is from right here in Mid-Missouri, but he’s currently serving as a missionary in Montana.

Phil is going to preach for us next week in addition to sharing some of what God is doing through baptist churches in Montana.

As we consider Mark’s gospel we are starting in chapter 10 because it’s here we learn Mark’s reason for writing.  God has preserved four gospels for us in Scripture.  Each of those gospels were written by different men for different audiences all inspired by God Himself in such a way that we believe these words to be God’s own words.

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Happy Easter, Centralia!  At this time, our kindergarten through third grade children are invited to head out to children’s church.  We have adult volunteers who will share a gospel-centered message with them and they’ll be delivered right back here at the end of our time together.

I invite everyone else to join me in 1 Corinthians 15. You can find that passage on page 1020 of the black bibles in the pew racks.

As you’re turning there, I want to tell you the story of two men.  These two men both had a great admiration for Jesus Christ of Nazareth.  They both claimed to be His followers.

One of them wrote the following statement, “to the corruptions of Christianity, I am indeed opposed; but not to the genuine precepts of Jesus himself. I am a Christian, in the only sense in which he wished any one to be; sincerely attached to his doctrines, in preference to all others; ascribing to himself every human excellence, & believing he never claimed any other.”

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Good morning, church! Happy Palm Sunday. Jerry read to us from Matthew 21 earlier in the service about how Jesus entered Jerusalem on the Sunday before Passover.  John’s gospel tells us the crowd laid down palm branches on the road as He entered the city, so the name Palm Sunday has stuck now for over 2,000 years.

We’re going to read from the prophet Zechariah this morning. That can be a tough book to find.  If you have one of the black pew Bibles, it’s on page 845 in that one.  If you don’t, the easiest way to find Zechariah is to open to the first book New Testament, Matthew, and then just turn back a few pages.  You’ll see Malachi and then Zechariah.

While you’re turning there I want to draw your attention back to a connection the Holy Spirit inspired Matthew to make in chapter 21 of his gospel.

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Good morning, church! Kindergarten through third graders, we’re excited that you’ll be staying with us for the sermon this morning.  In today’s bulletin there was a special note sheet just for you.  It has a spot where you can take notes and a really important section down at the bottom where it asks you to write down something that you didn’t understand and something that you learned.  On your way home today, show that part to your parents or whoever you came here with so you can talk about what God is teaching you and get help understanding things that aren’t clear the first time, ok?

We’re going to be reading from Exodus 20 in just a minute. It’ll be on page 64 of the black bibles in the pew rack in front of you.  We spent the last two weeks studying the 10 Commandments.  And now we get to see how Israel responds.

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Good morning, church! Kindergarten through third graders you're dismissed for children’s church at this time.  While they’re heading out, turn with me to Exodus chapter 20.  If you don’t have a bible with you, today’s passage can be found on page 64 of the black bible in the pew in front of you.  If you’re our guest, please know that we put those bibles out to be taken.  If you don’t have a copy of God’s Word that you can read and understand please take that one with you, or if the one in your pew is showing some wear, there are some brand new ones back in the back.  We want everyone to be engaged in God’s Word on a regular basis and so if that bible will be a help to you in that process, consider it yours.

This is the second part of a two-part sermon on the 10 Commandments.  We’ll begin reading in Exodus 20:12 and read through verse 17.  I invite you to follow along with me silently as I read out loud, then we’ll pray and ask God to bless our time together in His Word.

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Introduction

Good morning, church! Kindergarten through third graders you're dismissed for children’s church at this time.  You can head out through the doors in the back on my right.  Parents, they’ll be returned to you right here at the end of the service today.  While they’re heading out, turn with me to Exodus chapter 20.  If you don’t have a Bible with you, today’s passage can be found on page 64 of the black Bible in the pew in front of you.

We’ve arrived at one of the most famous passages in all of Scripture.  All of Israel’s experience so far in the book of Exodus has been preparing them for this moment.  God is going to speak to His people—not through Moses, not through signs and wonders, but He’s going to speak His Word to His people.  This is a vitally important passage in the canon of Scripture.  We call God’s Words here the 10 Commandments.

American Christians have memorized them, we’ve hung them on our walls, and we’ve fought all the way to the Supreme Court for the right to display them in public buildings.

But, I’m afraid we don’t really know them in the sense that knowing them matters.

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I had a high school principal who meant a lot to me and one of the things he always taught was what he called the 5 P’s.  “Prior preparation prevents poor performance.”

I thought I was prepared.  I really did.  I had 36 weeks to get ready.  Early in 2010 we found out Monika was pregnant with who we call our firstborn middle child.  That requires some explaining.  Sophia was born in September 2010.  She’s our firstborn, but not our oldest.  We just hadn’t met all our children yet.  We have seven kids, but she’s the first one we met and we found out she was coming in early 2010.

I’m a planner.  Prior preparation prevents poor performance.  So, I started getting ready.  We bought a house, planned out nursery decorations, packed the bags.  The hospital was an hour away, so I planned the route.  I was ready.

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Good morning, church! Our text today comes from Exodus 19, it can be found on page 63 of the black pew bibles in front of you.

Most Sundays, we dismiss our kindergarten through third graders right now for children’s church.  On the fourth Sunday we all stay together and I always like to take just a minute to talk about why.

Kids—we think a lot of you.  You’re not the church of tomorrow. You matter to God and to us right now.  And we want you to know and to trust God’s Word.  One of the things I love so much about the Bible is that even though it’s so deep that there are things in it you’ll never fully understand no matter how old you are, it’s still clear enough that any of you whether you’re in high school or you’re five years old you can understand God’s Word enough to know how to live a life that glorifies Him.

So today, we’re all going to open up God’s Word together and see what it says.  Kids, there are some sermon note sheets floating around. I encourage you to take one and write down some things as we go.  If I say something you don’t understand, write it down and ask your parents or your grandparents or whoever you came here with what it means after you leave, can you do that for me?

Ok, Let’s read together from Exodus 19:7-15.

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