Well, we're going to read about one of his mighty works in Mark 1, verses 29 through 31. Now, as soon as they had come out of the synagogue, they entered the house of Simon and Andrew with James and John. But Simon's wife's mother lay sick with a fever, and they told him about her at once. So he came and took her by the hand and lifted her up, and immediately the fever left her, and she served them. Father, I thank You for this, Your Word, and it is our desire to honor You with the responses that we have from it. May we never stop growing, and we pray that You would guide me as I preach Your Word, that I might faithfully deliver it. In Jesus' name, amen. I would like to go backwards a little bit and get the setting for this beautiful story of Peter's mother-in-law. I think that this background will help us to apply the story a little bit better. Verses 16 through 20 happened the day before, so it was Friday, and I'll start reading at verse 16. As he walked by the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and Andrew, his brother, casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen. Then Jesus said to them, Follow me, and I will make you become fishers of men. They immediately left their nets and followed him. When he had gone a little farther from there, he saw James the son of Zebedee and John his brother, who also were in the boat, mending their nets. And immediately he called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired servants and went after him." Now, these four men had already met with Jesus earlier. according to John chapter one, and they already knew that Jesus was the Messiah. So when Jesus actually came to them and asked them to follow him as his personal disciples, they were very, very enthusiastic. They jumped at this opportunity. And I'm sure Peter was still pumped the next day when he went to church. It was the Sabbath, and Sabbaths were ordinarily days. wonderful days of rest and worship, days to completely leave the business details behind and to focus upon the Lord and upon other people. And so the business of Peter, James, John, and Zebedee was completely shut down. All of the servants would have been going to church, what they called synagogue. And it might have been a couple of servants who had stayed behind to watch over the mother-in-law who was sick at home, or maybe Peter's wife stayed behind. Actually, it was so close, it was right next door to the synagogue, that they might have been able to pop in and out to check on her. But verse 21 says, It would have been wonderful to listen to this Messiah's teaching in person, and if the disciples thought that this was going to be an ordinary Sabbath, they were mistaken, because it proves to be a whirlwind of activity. Now there was a man in their synagogue with an unclean spirit, and he cried out, saying, Let us alone. What have we to do with you, Jesus of Nazareth? Did you come to destroy us? I know who you are, the Holy One of God." Did you know that demons have no problem attending church? That's what they were doing here. They were attending church through this man. But I think there's a lot of churches where demons actually are highly at work. There's no prayer hedge around that church to protect it. And the ministry of that church is not the kind of Spirit-empowered ministry that has any difference. But if Jesus is present, if the sword of God's Word is being powerfully applied, if the Spirit is powerfully at work, there are times where spirits are almost forced to what they call manifest, where they create a scene. I've had that happen a couple of times. And if that ever happens again, you don't really need to worry. Though the service might be interrupted for a while, demons can be dealt with. But the main point is that demons are okay with being in church, especially if they're religious spirits. Verse 25, but Jesus rebuked him saying, be quiet and come out of him. And when the unclean spirit had convulsed him and cried out with a loud voice, he came out of him and they were all amazed. So that they questioned among themselves saying, what is this? What new doctrine is this? For with authority he commands even the unclean spirits and they obey him. And immediately his fame spread throughout all the region around Galilee. Now verse 29 shows that it was still the Sabbath when they went into the house. Now as soon as they had come out of the synagogue, they entered the house of Simon and Andrew with James and John. Now this was my go-to verse when I would be criticized by FP legalists who said that on the Sabbath, you cannot invite people to your home. You shouldn't even be cooking any food. And the only things that you could do on the Sabbath were private and public worship. And I asked them, well, did you get dressed this morning? Did you shower this morning? Is that public or private worship? Did you cook your breakfast? And actually some of them did not shower because they thought that was violating the Sabbath. They did not eat any breakfast. Jesus didn't have any of those hang-ups whatsoever. He realized that the Sabbath in the Old Testament was intended to be a day of feasting and rejoicing and fellowship and refreshment and social interaction. It is listed in Leviticus 23 as the first and the chiefest of all of the festival days. It was intended to be a festival day. not a day to be a recluse. It was a day of worship and fellowship with God's people. And by the way, if you want to know how to keep the Sabbath properly, just imitate Jesus. He properly interpreted the Old Testament Sabbath. Sometimes he would go on a walk. Sometimes he would spend time with a small group. He would eat. he would do different things, but he set the day apart, just like the Old Testament commanded. Anyway, Peter and Andrew invited Jesus over for lunch, and he didn't have any qualms taking them up on that. Notice that the text says they entered the house, or as some translated, the home of Simon and Andrew. And the reason I make that distinction is the Greek is different here. In Matthew and Luke, it makes clear that the house belonged to Peter, But here it says that Andrew lived there as well. Maybe he wasn't married yet. So Peter's house was home to both of them. And this shows a generous streak on the part of Peter. But so does the next verse, where we have the first mention of his mother-in-law. Verse 30 says, but Simon's wife's mother lay sick with a fever, and they told him about her at once. Now in the world, mother-in-laws are many times the brunt of bad jokes, but Peter had a wonderful relationship with his mother-in-law. I guess it's possible that Peter's wife had no brothers to take care of her, and so the responsibility fell to him. That would be really a rare exception, because ordinarily it would be one of the sons who would take care of a widowed mother, ordinarily. But in this case, for whatever reason, his home was the home of preference, the better choice. And it shows that Peter and his wife were very welcoming of others. They welcomed her mom into the home on a permanent basis. They welcomed Andrew until Andrew would get married. And actually, Andrew did later get married. There's other scriptures that talk about that. We won't get into it. And moved out. On this Sabbath day, they welcomed his business partners, James and John. They welcomed Jesus and any other apostles who had been called by this time. Sabbath hospitality is a great Sabbath activity. I highly recommend it. And just as a side note, we saw in a previous sermon that Peter, James, John, and Zebedee were all partners and they were likely very wealthy. And this was likely a large, spread out hacienda with plenty of guest rooms. The huge size of their house can be extrapolated from the four references to his house in Mark, where there's a lot of people that stay overnight. And there's even more guests that come into it. If you look at your second picture on your outlines, the ruins that are on the foreground were recently dug up, and they were right next to first century ruins of a synagogue. And it appears to be the only synagogue that was there. And so many, many scholars, evangelical and otherwise, say that this was probably Peter's house. If it was, it was a rather huge house. So anyway, I just thought you'd be interested in that. I think it fits all of the evidence. But let's think for a moment about the phrase Simon's wife's mother. It clearly indicates that Simon Peter was married. That's a rather embarrassing phrase for the Roman Catholics who insist upon celibacy for popes and priests. Their supposed first pope, Peter, was married. Now, they deny that, or they say, well, his wife must have died before he was called as an apostle. But that is flat-out contradicted by 1 Corinthians 9, verse 5, which says that Peter traveled with his wife, as did all of the other apostles. They were all married. And Roman Catholics will respond, well, in 1 Corinthians 9, it says he had a right to take his sister with him. And yet commentators say, well, that would be ridiculous. Did every apostle take one of their literal sisters with them around? No. Everybody, almost every commentary that I have says it's very, very clear that they took wives with them. And Roman Catholic Church then will say, well, okay, yes, he was married, but the Roman Catholic Church has the right to impose new rules upon the church. And yet, Peter says here, do we have no right to take along a believing wife, as do also the other apostles, the brothers of the Lord, the Cephas. Cephas is another name for Peter. And the word right there is exousia. Do we not have authority? So what the Roman Catholic Church is saying is they're taking away authority that God himself has given, and they cannot do that. And I will add that Paul in 1 Timothy 4, 1 through 5, calls the mandated celibacy of the Roman Catholic Church a doctrine of demons. Let me read that. It says, now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times, some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons, speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their own conscience seared with a hot iron, forbidding to marry, So there is the first in the list of things that are doctrines of demons, and if demons produce that doctrine of mandated celibacy in the priesthood, it's no wonder that you've got all kinds of demonic sexual perversion in the Roman Catholic Church that has been coming to light. Demons are going to be producing all kinds of problems there. Peter had nothing to do with such a false teaching. J.C. Ryle is right on target when he says, let us not fail to observe here that Peter, one of our Lord's principal apostles, had a wife. How this fact can be reconciled with the compulsory celibacy of the clergy, which the Church of Rome enforces and requires, it is for the friends and advocates of the Roman Catholic Church to explain. To a plain reader, it seems a plain proof that it is not wrong for ministers to be married men. And when we add to this striking fact that St. Paul, when writing to Timothy, said that the overseer must be the husband of but one wife, it is clear that the whole Roman doctrine of clerical celibacy is utterly opposed to Holy Scripture. Of course, that's only one of many, many doctrines that are unbiblical in the Roman Catholic Church. And to me it is extremely sad to see so many Protestants who are becoming Roman Catholic thinking that there is a continuity with the Catholic Church. Nothing could be further from the truth. Rome has left the Catholic faith. They are utterly un-Catholic. We're the ones who are in continuity with the historic universal church. And so it's clear that Peter had a mother-in-law. Enough on that. Let's move on. Apparently Peter's father-in-law had died. It doesn't seem to be any other explanation for why she would be living in Peter's home. And from a phrase we'll look at shortly, we'll see that she served Peter and his wife very well while living there. We can also conclude that she was not independently wealthy, and so she was dependent upon Peter. But that didn't mean that she mooched off of him. She served as she was able. Now, I'll hasten to say there does come a time in some families where The parents become so enfeebled that they are as dependent as an infant was, right? So we're not talking about that, but as able. But now we get into her sickness and healing. It says, she lays sick with a fever. She was flat out on the bed. She did not have the strength to get up and move and do the things she was used to doing. Did Peter's wife stay behind during church to care for her? Did some servants? We aren't told. But life did go on for the rest of the family, not for the mother-in-law. She was completely at a standstill. Now Mark simply says she was sick with a fever. Luke adds that it was a megas fever, which could be transliterated as a mega fever, most translated as a high fever, right? And the law of God gave general guidelines that helped to distinguish three levels of fever. Kadachat, which refers to the beginnings of fever. Daleket, mid-range fever. Kharchor, which is a very severe burning fever, very high temperatures. And the latter fever lays people out, sometimes even makes them delirious, and that seems to be the kind of fever that the mother-in-law had at this point. So she was no doubt secluded in her bedroom with perhaps Peter's wife or some servants caring for her. Now it's interesting that Jesus and the apostles weren't afraid of catching whatever it was that she had. You know, Calvin and down through history, pastors have gone in, laid hands upon sick people, prayed for them. Now, you could argue that this may have been malaria, which was non-contagious, but I do find it interesting. Okay, she's secluded in a bedroom, but that doesn't mean that they didn't come over. Interesting. As soon as Christ entered the house, they told him about her condition, and Luke, it says, they made requests of him concerning her. Now, so far, the only healing that's been recorded was the casting out of the demons from the demoniac in that church, in that synagogue. But What basis would they have for saying that the Messiah could heal if this has not happened before? After last week's sermon about the woman who touched the hem of Christ's garment, Marianne pointed me to a tradition that quotes from Malachi 4, verse 2, which says that the Messiah would come with healing in his wings, and the word wings referring to the edge of the garment, possibly the tassels of the garment. And so the tradition says, yeah, there was a basis based on that passage for this woman to have faith that if she touched the wing of his garment, she would be healed. I thought that was cool. I hadn't caught that. So anyway, there are many other scriptures that talk about the Messiah healing, and I just think they have faith. If he's the Messiah, he's going to be doing the kind of healings that the Old Testament prophesied. Now, the moment he heard about her condition, he went to her room. So he came and took her by the hand and lifted her up, and immediately the fever left her and she served them. Now, the boldness with which Jesus expected immediate healing can be seen by the fact that he lifted her up, and it's while she is being lifted up that she is healed. Now, Luke 4 adds a very interesting detail. It says, Jesus stood over her and rebuked the fever. Luke 4, verse 39. Stein's commentary says, this is the only account in Luke where Jesus addressed his healing words to the disease rather than the person. The fever was rebuked as the demon was rebuked in Luke 4, 35 and 41. Does this imply that Luke associated this illness with Satan? Although Satan is often associated with illness, We will see in the next two verses that Luke did differentiate between illness and demon possession, so he leaves that question open. But I read that comment because that rebuke, at a minimum, indicates that we ought to treat and see disease as an enemy that we come in opposition to. I think you can at least say that, right? It's intriguing, though, that at least sometimes disease and fevers can be caused by demons. But whether this particular disease was the result of a demon or just one of the general results of the curse of the fall, it is seen as an enemy rather than as a friend. Now, does that mean that God can't use disease to sanctify His people? Well, of course He can, just like He uses God's enemies and He uses Satan to sanctify His people, all of their opposition, right? But does that mean that we accept the disease, we submit to it? I've seen way too many people They've prayed and prayed, you know, for months, and then they just finally say, okay, it's God's will for me to be sick, and they submit to that disease. But I would say that's really not treating that disease as an enemy. And I think we should see disease as being an enemy. Yes, we submit to God's purposes in allowing us to have a disease, but that does not mean we cannot use every means at our disposal to try to get rid of that disease. Obviously God is sovereign, and I should add that in how, when, and if we will be healed, but we do need to look at every angle to make sure we've done all that is our duty to do. And I think rebuking a disease is one of them, rebuking them in the name of the Lord. By the way, if a disease is a result of the demonic, you can have all the medical procedures you want, you can take all the medicine you want, you're still going to have the disease because the demon has not been dealt with. And I would say also, we saw last week that sometimes disease is a discipline, whether it's brought by Satan or directly by God. As a discipline in our lives, until we confess our sins, we won't be healed of that disease. James is quite clear on that. There are many other scriptures. I've got a paper that goes through 20 different reasons why we have suffering. And sin is only one of them, right? So there can be different reasons out there. And I think we need to systematically rule all those out rather than just passively giving up and saying, I'm not going to pray against the disease anymore. In any case, it says that the disease left her. And that actually ties into what I just said as well, because the Greek word for left her is aphiemi. And it means this, here's the dictionary definition, to dismiss or release someone or something from a place or from one's presence. Now, it could have been just used metaphorically here, and it's not like the disease is going outside to somebody else or outside of the person, but it is interesting language. It's like the sickness is cast out. But not only was she instantly healed, but she was instantly strengthened. Some people who get rid of a disease do have the lingering effects of weakness. But she was able to walk, whereas previously she had been bedridden. So this is not a fake healing. This is not mind over matter healing. This speaks of the power of God's healing grace. And the last thing that it says about her is, and she served them. And I love that phrase. She had been served herself up to this time because of her sickness, but she now returns to what she was used to doing, which is serving. And I think this is just a lovely end to a short story. This shows that her natural impulse was to love serving. She didn't stop to feel sorry for herself. The moment she found herself well, She got going on helping with the dinner that everybody would be eating shortly and that the servants had no doubt prepared. Herbert Lockyer comments, serving was such an essential part of her makeup that even in the thrilling, excited moment of her recovery, she could not refrain from doing menial yet necessary tasks. And it might be asked, is cooking and serving food on the Sabbath breaking the Sabbath? Well, obviously not. It's, especially any service that's Sabbath-related, you know, the team back there that's, you know, serving and practicing, anything that's Sabbath-related to help us enjoy the Sabbath more is allowable on the Sabbath. But let's park a little bit longer on the word served. When God saves us, He saves us to serve Him. When He heals us, He heals us to serve Him. Our life is not our own. It's certainly not supposed to be consistent with laziness. If we are saved, we are God's bondservants to do His will. And it's interesting that the word for serve there is the same word that's used by deacons serving and pastors serving. Some have translated it, she ministered. We should not have a sacred-secular dichotomy where we think, okay, church work is service, but doing dishes and cooking, that's not service. No, all of our life is service to the Lord Jesus Christ. And to me, this is a wonderfully liberating concept. This is the Reformed concept. This woman gladly continued to serve in the rest of the book of Mark. For example, I want you to turn to chapter 2 and verse 1. This is such an interesting passage. I didn't discover this till this week when I was reading this sermon. But Mark 2, verse 1 says, and again, he entered Capernaum after some days, and it was heard that he was in the house. What's the house? Whether, you know, this is translated at home or in the house, commentators say this was certainly Peter's house, which was Christ's base of operations whenever he was in Capernaum. There's just no doubt about that. Verse 2, immediately many gathered together so that there was no longer room to receive them, not even near the door, and he preached the word to them. Then they came to him, bringing a paralytic who was carried by four men. And when they could not come near him because of the crowd, they uncovered the roof where he was. So when they had broken through, they let down the bed on which the paralytic was lying." That puts a whole new spin on this story. It's Peter's own house that they tore the roof up when they let the paralytic through. If I were Peter, I'd be a little bit upset because there's going to be major repairs that need to be done. Now, those friends no doubt paid for the repairs, but Peter and his wife and his mother-in-law would have some cleanup to do. And this is frequently the case when you open up your home for ministry, okay? We have gladly spent thousands of dollars on repairs over the years. And we gladly do it because it's a part of ministry. You count the cost. Many of you have had many, many dollars spent as people have tortured your furniture. But verses 5 and following say this, when Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, son, your sins are forgiven you. And some of the scribes who were sitting there and reasoning in their hearts said, why does this man speak blasphemies like this? Who can forgive sins but God alone? But immediately, when Jesus perceived in his spirit that they reasoned thus within themselves, he said to them, Why do you reason about these things in your hearts? Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, Your sins are forgiven you, or to say, Arise, take up your bed, and walk? But that you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins, he said to the paralytic, I say to you, Arise, take up your bed, and go to your house." Interesting. Immediately he arose, took up the bed, went out in the presence of them all, so that all were amazed and glorified God, saying, we never saw anything like this. Then he went out again to the sea, and all the multitudes came to him, and he taught them." So mother-in-law and wife may have been left behind to manage the mess. It's not always convenient to be related to a celebrity. But there were other occasions when this house was a buzz of activity. Turn to chapter 9. where Jesus and the apostles stay at the house, that's code for Peter's house, at the house overnight. And let me read that because many commentators have said this is proof positive that Peter had children. And I think they're exactly right, which means that the mother-in-law had grandchildren, right, that she was helping with. Mark 9, verse 33. Then he came to Capernaum, and when he was in the house, he asked them, what was it that you disputed among yourselves on the road? But they kept silent, for on the road they had disputed among themselves who would be the greatest. Now this indicates that Jesus is talking to the twelve privately. The crowds have not been invited in. He's gone in there to stay overnight with his twelve. There were enough rooms in that house for the twelve to stay there. He leaves the house in order to teach the crowds. Verse 10, so the crowds are not here. They're visiting his house, look at verse 35. And he sat down, called the 12, and said to them, if anyone desires to be first, he shall be last of all and servant of all. Then he took a little child and set him in the midst of them. And when he had taken him in his arms, he said to them, whoever receives one of these little children in my name receives me. And whoever receives me receives not me, but him who sent me. Now it's only the twelve who are being taught, but Jesus notices a child in the home, calls him over to make an illustration out of this child, and the child's obviously used to Jesus being around, he's not scared off, when Jesus Picks him up, you know, in his arms. He's used to Jesus, right? And then all of the other children immediately notice what's happening, and naturally they gather around, and Jesus points to those children, and he says, these children, these are the kind that are united to me in my kingdom. They're all clearly Peter's children. Now, we can infer from this that the faith was successfully passed on from grandparents to Peter and his wife and down to the children. Clement of Alexandria and the early historian Eusebius say that Peter and his wife had children. And this verse, I think, definitely confirms that. But what is cool is Christ says that those children were so united to Him that receiving those children was receiving Jesus, which in turn is receiving the Father. This not only speaks of covenant succession of God's grace—fantastic verse to claim, you know, on behalf of your children—but it also speaks of the significance of you mothers and you fathers' work on behalf of your children. It's a lovely passage that gives meaning. In Matthew 25, Jesus said, he tells you moms, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me. And the least of these is a reference to children. So when you're feeding them and caring for them and doing work for them, you're doing work for Jesus. It changes your perspective on housework. But let me end by making two more applications. Jesus was obviously the Lord of Peter's home. As head of the home, he invited Jesus to come in and to use his home in any way that Jesus desired, even if it meant convenience. We've already pointed out there's plenty of inconvenience when you've got crowds around and when your roof is torn up, right? This would have cost money for Peter, but it would have also cost time and effort for everyone in that home, including his wife. his mother-in-law, and the children. Jesus was that home's familiar guest. And I would urge every home that is represented here to make Jesus your home's familiar guest. Let me give you six ways, illustrated by the home of Peter, six ways by which you can tell whether your home is Christ's familiar guest. And I will phrase each one of these as questions. First, does your home find great delight in going to church and listening to the scriptures preached? This home did in verses 21 through 28 of chapter 1. Second, does your home have the word of Christ discussed freely in it? Not just in devotions, but discussed in ongoing conversations. This home did in chapter one, in chapter nine, and other chapters in the gospels. Third, does your home find ways to serve Jesus? This home did. Even the children were no doubt part of the hospitality to the crowds that came. And by the way, you need to let your children know they are serving Christ. when they do their chores. Fourth, does your home bring its needs to Jesus in prayer? Or do you first go to the doctor, or you first go to something else? Okay, is prayer the immediate impulse of your home when a need comes up? In Mark 1 30, it says, they told him about her at once. I love those words, at once. And in Luke, it's clear what they told him was a prayer request. Lord Peter's mother-in-law is sick, needs healing. When the kids get an owie, make sure the first thing that they do is pray. Prayer needs to be part and parcel of everything in our home. That's one of the tests of whether Christ is the Lord of our home. Fifth, does your home experience regular answers to prayer? And does your home remember to praise God for those answers to prayer? This home did. They saw the mother-in-law healed. Later that evening they saw many people prayed for and many people healed. They saw answered prayer. And this is the kind of environment that will cause your children to see the reality of God's grace. Failure to let them know about answers to your prayers is robbing your children of this environment of grace that needs to be there. Regular answers to prayer are a huge faith booster. And we encourage homes to have times where the children, let's spend some time, children, in thanking God. Do you have any answers to prayer? Let me share an answer to prayer this week that came in my life, and you pray together. You might be surprised at the answers to prayer that the children will bring up that you didn't even realize were there. The more we do this, the more it induces a sense Christ is the owner, the mover, the shaker in this home. He answers prayer. Sixth, does your home instantly change when it realizes that it's out of accord with God's Word? This home did, as can be seen by the embarrassing, embarrassing confrontation of their pride in Mark chapter 9 verses 33 and following. Do we instantly change when we are confronted by the Word of God? Those six tests are good tests of whether Jesus really is Lord of your home. And when Jesus is the Lord of your home, huge changes can happen. Now, I will admit, sometimes it will spark rebellion and opposition. Over the 30 years of my ministry, I've had times where I've told husbands, that they're probably going to get some backlash, I guess is the word, if they start taking the leadership that they've been derelict in taking. And they're fearful of doing it, but I tell them, it's better to stand in the chain of command with Christ than to abdicate and stand outside of that chain of command. So sometimes there is backlash when Christ is the Lord of your home. Charles Spurgeon, when commenting on this passage, said, God has given us little kingdoms in which our authority and influence will tell for the better or the worse to all eternity. There is not a child or a servant in our house, but we'll be impressed for good or evil by what we do. True, we may have no wish to influence them, and we may endeavor to ignore our responsibility, but it cannot be done. Parental influence is a throne which no man can abdicate. The members of our family come under our shadow, and we either drip poison upon them like a deadly upas, or else beneath our shade they breathe an atmosphere perfumed with our piety. And so make Christ the Lord of your home and of your children. Make sure that everything in your home revolves around Jesus, and that includes the permanent guests in your home. If they're going to undermine your home, don't invite them in. That included, you know, the permanent guests here of Andrew and Peter's mother-in-law. They too were under Christ's lordship and submitted to Peter's headship. But last, let your home become a leverage point for Christ in society. I know many people who love the idea of having Christ blessing them within their family, but they get nervous at the thought of using their homes to reach their neighbors and their cities. Let me read you Mark 1, 32 through 34 one more time. At evening, when the sun had set, they brought to him all who were sick and those who were demon-possessed, and the whole city was gathered together at the door. Then he healed many who were sick with various diseases and cast out many demons, and he did not allow the demons to speak, because they knew him." The whole city was gathered at their door. That is tremendous influence. The home was influencing the entire town. Now admittedly, that's tremendous inconvenience too, right? There are a lot of inconveniences involved, including having their roof torn up. But it's impossible to have families into your home without experiencing some wear and tear to your furniture. Now, it doesn't mean you can't ask the parents to corral their children. In fact, actually, that could be part of your teaching. Every one of you could have a teaching moment at that time when the kids are abusing your furniture, going up to them and saying, look, your children are really misbehaving here, and here's what you need to do, and here's the discipline you need to impose upon your children. All of us can teach one another, exhort one another. Be as iron sharpening iron, right? And so it's not like you're just saying, oh, well, our home's going to get torn up. We're just going to let these kids carve their initials in every chair. No, you're not going to do that. But the point is, when we are sold out to the Lord in ministry, our house, our clothing, and everything we have is sold out to the Lord. And God will sometimes test whether you really are sold out to Him by giving you tests of loss and of expense and of inconvenience. And we just need to accept the fact that some loss is involved when we're trying to reach our community. My pastor in Escondido said the transition that really happened in his life was one day, I mean, they were really trying to use their home, but their home was so perfect. Everything was in its place, and they invited this drunk into their home, and he puked on their brand new sofa. And they're just cringing, but they're saying, okay, Lord, we did dedicate our sofa and our home to you. If you want it puked on, you can protect our sofa better than we can. So they just gave it to the Lord. Now, they did take precautions after that, I think, by putting things on their sofa. Where was I going with that? I don't know. But they wanted to reach this broken man. And after that, it was so much easier. Once they gave it over to the Lord and said, OK, Lord, you can protect our property, because it's your property, much better than we can. We're dedicating it to you. But the central issue that I see in this point is the potential power of the home as a leverage point. We underestimate the power of our homes. We really do. We have this tendency to think, if only we could have other leverage points. You know, maybe we could have Christians in the White House and Christians in Congress, and we could have billionaires who are Christian businessmen, you know, and we could control the media. God says, no, start where you are in your homes. Your homes can be leverage points of service and of influence and of advancing the kingdom if its occupants, all of its occupants, have the attitude of, as Karen Maines worded it in the title of her marvelous book, on hospitality. What is the name of it? Open Home, Open Heart, Open Home, something like that. Open Home, Open Heart, Open Heart, Open Home. Probably Heart comes first, right? Marvelous book. You need to pick that up. It'll give you a love for hospitality. Does Christ also bring division to such homes? Yes. Yes, there are homes where Christ's Lordship actually produces a great deal of pain. For example, Matthew 10, 25-39 says this, He who loves father and mother more than Me is not worthy of Me, and he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me, and he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me. He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for My sake will find it." And it's that last point that is key. When we are willing to lose our life for Christ's sake, and that may mean losing the favor of other people, losing money, losing comfort. When we're willing to do that, then we end up actually finding life and enjoying life to its fullest. And I'll end by saying that Christ redeemed us to serve, and there is great fulfillment in serving Christ and serving His representatives. I love that last sentence of Mark 131. I think it exemplifies what made Peter's mother-in-law so special. It says simply, and she served them. That's her in a nutshell. May we delight and find fulfillment in serving as she did. Amen. Father, thank you for the testimony of this woman that continues to live and speak into our lives. May we be a testimony that will continue to live and speak into the lives of our children, of our grandchildren, of our great-grandchildren. Father, would you use us as small leverage points, however small we may think ourselves to be, it doesn't matter. be willing to use our families to advance the cause of Christ in this city and in Iowa, and we pray all of this in the strong name of Jesus. Amen.