Sermon Recap 2/22/26
When the World Thinks You're Crazy: Finding Clarity in a Delusional Age
We live in an era where people seem increasingly disconnected from reality. Turn on any news channel, scroll through social media, or listen to casual conversations, and you'll likely find yourself thinking, "That person has lost their mind." Political opinions, cultural trends, parenting philosophies, and yes, even religious beliefs—they all seem to be spiraling into territory that makes less and less sense.
But here's the uncomfortable truth: while we're busy pointing out everyone else's delusions, we might be missing our own.
The Family That Thought Jesus Was Crazy
In the Gospel of Mark, we encounter one of the most startling moments in Jesus' ministry. His popularity had exploded. Crowds pressed in so tightly that He and His disciples couldn't even stop to eat. The miracles were undeniable—demons cast out, blind eyes opened, lives transformed.
You'd think His family would be proud, right?
Instead, they showed up to stage an intervention. "He's out of His mind," they said. His own brothers—the ones who grew up with Him, shared meals with Him, knew Him better than almost anyone—thought He'd become a circus entertainer, an embarrassment to the family name.
Can you imagine? The Son of God, doing exactly what He came to earth to do, and His own family thought He needed to be reined in, brought back to reality, saved from Himself.
They misunderstood His popularity. They misjudged His purpose. They completely missed the mark.
When Intelligence Becomes Blindness
If the family's response was shocking, the religious leaders' reaction was even worse. The scribes—the scholars who had dedicated their lives to studying Scripture, who could recite passages backwards and forwards—looked at Jesus' miraculous works and concluded: "He must be possessed by Satan."
Think about that logic for a moment. Jesus was casting out demons, so they decided He must be working for the devil. It's like saying a firefighter must be an arsonist because he keeps showing up at fires.
Their intelligence had become their blindness. Their knowledge had made them deaf to the voice of God. They had studied the prophecies about the coming Messiah their entire lives, yet when He stood before them in flesh and blood, performing the very miracles foretold in Scripture, they couldn't—or wouldn't—recognize Him.
This is the danger of religious delusion: you can know all the right answers, quote all the right verses, attend all the right services, and still completely miss God.
The Unpardonable Sin
Jesus addressed the scribes' accusation with sobering words: "All sins will be forgiven the sons of man, and whatever blasphemies they may utter. But he who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness."
These verses have troubled believers for centuries. What exactly is this unforgivable sin?
Consider this illustration: Imagine standing at the shore, calling out to someone on a pier. At first, they can hear you clearly. But as they walk farther and farther out, your voice grows fainter. Eventually, if they go far enough, they can no longer hear you at all—not because you've stopped calling, but because they've moved beyond the reach of your voice.
The unpardonable sin isn't a single blasphemous statement. It's the gradual hardening of the heart that moves so far from God that His voice can no longer be heard. It's spiritual deafness combined with spiritual blindness, leading ultimately to spiritual death.
The good news? If you're worried you've committed this sin, you haven't. The very fact that you're concerned about your relationship with God proves your heart is still responsive to His voice.
The Priority Problem
When Jesus' mother and brothers finally got His attention, expecting Him to drop everything and come outside, He responded with words that must have stung: "Who is My mother, or My brothers?" Then, looking at those gathered around Him, He said, "Here are My mother and My brothers! For whoever does the will of God is My brother and My sister and mother."
Was Jesus being disrespectful? Not at all. He was teaching a crucial lesson about priorities.
The vertical relationship with God must take precedence over even our most cherished horizontal relationships. This doesn't mean we neglect our families—God created the family unit and values it deeply. But it does mean that when push comes to shove, our commitment to God comes first.
How much do you love your family? Enough to sacrifice for them, protect them, provide for them? Jesus says your love for God should exceed even that profound love.
Are We Too Comfortable?
Theologian A.W. Tozer once observed, "The weakness of many modern Christians is that they feel too much at home in this world."
That statement should make us squirm a bit.
Have we become more comfortable with our possessions than with prayer? More excited about our hobbies than about holiness? More invested in our careers than in our calling?
For many believers, Sunday morning Christianity has become an insurance policy—something we maintain just in case we need it. We show up, check the box, and then live the rest of the week as though God were an optional add-on to our already full lives.
But Jesus didn't come to be our insurance. He came to be our assurance. Insurance is something you use when needed. Assurance is something you rest in constantly.
Heaven doesn't begin when you die. It begins the moment Jesus enters your life. The abundant life He promised isn't reserved for eternity—it's available right now, today, if we'll prioritize our relationship with Him.
The Body of Christ Needs You
There's something powerful about the family of God gathered together. When believers unite in worship, prayer, and fellowship, we become more than individuals—we become the body of Christ, functioning as He designed us to.
But when parts of the body are missing, we're incomplete. The empty seats in our churches on Sunday mornings and Wednesday nights aren't just empty spaces—they represent missing members of the family, brothers and sisters whose presence we need and whose gifts we lack.
This world is not our home. We're citizens of another kingdom, and it's time we started acting like it.
Finding Our Way Back
If you've drifted, if you've become delusional about what really matters, if you've let the vertical relationship slip while maintaining the horizontal ones—there's a way back.
It starts with repentance. Not the groveling, shame-filled kind, but the honest, humble kind that says, "God, I want more of You and less of me. I've gotten my priorities mixed up. I need You to be first again."
Revival doesn't require a special service or a visiting evangelist. It happens when individual hearts turn back to God with sincerity and surrender.
The question isn't whether God is still calling. He is. He always has been. He always will be.
The question is: How far out on the pier have you walked? Can you still hear His voice? And if you can, will you turn around and come back?
Don't wait until you're so far out that the voice of God becomes inaudible. Don't let spiritual blindness and deafness rob you of the abundant life Christ offers.
The family of God is waiting. The arms of Jesus are open wide. And there's room at the foot of the cross for everyone willing to leave what's behind them and come home.
We live in an era where people seem increasingly disconnected from reality. Turn on any news channel, scroll through social media, or listen to casual conversations, and you'll likely find yourself thinking, "That person has lost their mind." Political opinions, cultural trends, parenting philosophies, and yes, even religious beliefs—they all seem to be spiraling into territory that makes less and less sense.
But here's the uncomfortable truth: while we're busy pointing out everyone else's delusions, we might be missing our own.
The Family That Thought Jesus Was Crazy
In the Gospel of Mark, we encounter one of the most startling moments in Jesus' ministry. His popularity had exploded. Crowds pressed in so tightly that He and His disciples couldn't even stop to eat. The miracles were undeniable—demons cast out, blind eyes opened, lives transformed.
You'd think His family would be proud, right?
Instead, they showed up to stage an intervention. "He's out of His mind," they said. His own brothers—the ones who grew up with Him, shared meals with Him, knew Him better than almost anyone—thought He'd become a circus entertainer, an embarrassment to the family name.
Can you imagine? The Son of God, doing exactly what He came to earth to do, and His own family thought He needed to be reined in, brought back to reality, saved from Himself.
They misunderstood His popularity. They misjudged His purpose. They completely missed the mark.
When Intelligence Becomes Blindness
If the family's response was shocking, the religious leaders' reaction was even worse. The scribes—the scholars who had dedicated their lives to studying Scripture, who could recite passages backwards and forwards—looked at Jesus' miraculous works and concluded: "He must be possessed by Satan."
Think about that logic for a moment. Jesus was casting out demons, so they decided He must be working for the devil. It's like saying a firefighter must be an arsonist because he keeps showing up at fires.
Their intelligence had become their blindness. Their knowledge had made them deaf to the voice of God. They had studied the prophecies about the coming Messiah their entire lives, yet when He stood before them in flesh and blood, performing the very miracles foretold in Scripture, they couldn't—or wouldn't—recognize Him.
This is the danger of religious delusion: you can know all the right answers, quote all the right verses, attend all the right services, and still completely miss God.
The Unpardonable Sin
Jesus addressed the scribes' accusation with sobering words: "All sins will be forgiven the sons of man, and whatever blasphemies they may utter. But he who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness."
These verses have troubled believers for centuries. What exactly is this unforgivable sin?
Consider this illustration: Imagine standing at the shore, calling out to someone on a pier. At first, they can hear you clearly. But as they walk farther and farther out, your voice grows fainter. Eventually, if they go far enough, they can no longer hear you at all—not because you've stopped calling, but because they've moved beyond the reach of your voice.
The unpardonable sin isn't a single blasphemous statement. It's the gradual hardening of the heart that moves so far from God that His voice can no longer be heard. It's spiritual deafness combined with spiritual blindness, leading ultimately to spiritual death.
The good news? If you're worried you've committed this sin, you haven't. The very fact that you're concerned about your relationship with God proves your heart is still responsive to His voice.
The Priority Problem
When Jesus' mother and brothers finally got His attention, expecting Him to drop everything and come outside, He responded with words that must have stung: "Who is My mother, or My brothers?" Then, looking at those gathered around Him, He said, "Here are My mother and My brothers! For whoever does the will of God is My brother and My sister and mother."
Was Jesus being disrespectful? Not at all. He was teaching a crucial lesson about priorities.
The vertical relationship with God must take precedence over even our most cherished horizontal relationships. This doesn't mean we neglect our families—God created the family unit and values it deeply. But it does mean that when push comes to shove, our commitment to God comes first.
How much do you love your family? Enough to sacrifice for them, protect them, provide for them? Jesus says your love for God should exceed even that profound love.
Are We Too Comfortable?
Theologian A.W. Tozer once observed, "The weakness of many modern Christians is that they feel too much at home in this world."
That statement should make us squirm a bit.
Have we become more comfortable with our possessions than with prayer? More excited about our hobbies than about holiness? More invested in our careers than in our calling?
For many believers, Sunday morning Christianity has become an insurance policy—something we maintain just in case we need it. We show up, check the box, and then live the rest of the week as though God were an optional add-on to our already full lives.
But Jesus didn't come to be our insurance. He came to be our assurance. Insurance is something you use when needed. Assurance is something you rest in constantly.
Heaven doesn't begin when you die. It begins the moment Jesus enters your life. The abundant life He promised isn't reserved for eternity—it's available right now, today, if we'll prioritize our relationship with Him.
The Body of Christ Needs You
There's something powerful about the family of God gathered together. When believers unite in worship, prayer, and fellowship, we become more than individuals—we become the body of Christ, functioning as He designed us to.
But when parts of the body are missing, we're incomplete. The empty seats in our churches on Sunday mornings and Wednesday nights aren't just empty spaces—they represent missing members of the family, brothers and sisters whose presence we need and whose gifts we lack.
This world is not our home. We're citizens of another kingdom, and it's time we started acting like it.
Finding Our Way Back
If you've drifted, if you've become delusional about what really matters, if you've let the vertical relationship slip while maintaining the horizontal ones—there's a way back.
It starts with repentance. Not the groveling, shame-filled kind, but the honest, humble kind that says, "God, I want more of You and less of me. I've gotten my priorities mixed up. I need You to be first again."
Revival doesn't require a special service or a visiting evangelist. It happens when individual hearts turn back to God with sincerity and surrender.
The question isn't whether God is still calling. He is. He always has been. He always will be.
The question is: How far out on the pier have you walked? Can you still hear His voice? And if you can, will you turn around and come back?
Don't wait until you're so far out that the voice of God becomes inaudible. Don't let spiritual blindness and deafness rob you of the abundant life Christ offers.
The family of God is waiting. The arms of Jesus are open wide. And there's room at the foot of the cross for everyone willing to leave what's behind them and come home.
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