Now, 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 after the custom of the Feast. And when they had fulfilled the days as they returned, the child Jesus carried behind in Jerusalem, Joseph and his mother knew not of it. But they supposing him to have been in the company when a day's journey, and they sought him among their kinsfolk and acquaintance. When they found him not, they turned back again to Jerusalem seeking him. And it came to pass that after three days they found him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the doctors, both hearing them and asking them questions. And all that heard him were astonished at his understanding and answers. And when they saw him, they were amazed. And his mother said unto him, Son, why hast thou dealt with us? Behold, thy father and I have sought thee sorrowing. And he said unto them, How is it that ye sought me? Wist ye not that I must be about my father's business? And they understood not the saying which he spake unto them. And he went down with them, and came to Nazareth, and was subject unto them, But his mother kept all these sayings in her heart. Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man. In these verses we have read this morning, we are given probably the only view into the childhood the Lord Jesus Christ we we dealt with and when he was around the age of two years old last week when he was Worshipped by the wise men, but then we don't have anything until this scene here in Luke chapter 2 and then we don't have anything else until he shows up again at the baptism of John and at the age of 30 years old. And the Lord gives us, for some reason, of all the things the Lord could have given us of the childhood, of the adolescent years of the Lord Jesus Christ, He gives us this story where Joseph and Mary leave Jesus at the temple. Now, that is every parent's worst nightmare, to leave a child somewhere. Thankfully, we have tried. I mean, we have not left any of our children anywhere, all right? You can take that for what it's worth. I tried to talk my mom and dad into leaving my brother and sister somewhere, but they never did go for it. But anyway, I know I have a pretty good friend of mine, They have five children at the time at that they know who I'm talking about at this time They only had three and they were at church one day and fellowshipping and shaking hands and just and having a good time And they get in the van and they're riding down the road and they look and they're missing one They had left they had left one at church and I told Mike Austin that I would never tell anybody who it was that did that but I They left. Now he's got five or six. He might leave two or three, Rick. I'm not sure. But what I'm saying is that is every parent's worst nightmare is to leave your child. But I'll say this. Jesus wasn't lost. They had just lost track of him. And I'm interested this morning at these thoughts that by way of introduction I see in verses 41 and verse number 42. There's a commendable practice in these verses. The Bible teaches us, now his parents went to Jerusalem every year at the Feast of the Passover, and when he was 12 years old, they went to Jerusalem after the custom of the Feast. Here's what I know, and here's what's commendable. They were faithful to the house of God. This Feast of the Passover was literally a celebration when they would remember the night that God brought them out of Egypt there in Exodus chapter 12, 13 and 14. Every year Israel would come together for the Passover and it would be a time of rejoicing, a time of worship, a time of praise, and they would all take place there at the temple at Jerusalem. You know what they were doing? They were going there and they were saying, thank God for the lamb and the blood that was put on the door lintel and we did not die and God got us out of Egypt. You know what that sounds like? That sounds like what we're doing here today. We are gathered here today saying thank you, Lord, for the sacrifice that you made so we would not have to die in Egypt, we wouldn't have to die in the world, but you brought us out. But you didn't just bring us out, but you brought us out. to bring us in. You know what they did? They would go and have that feast every year. Why'd they do that? They didn't want to forget about it. They did not want to forget what God... This ain't the message, but I'm feeling pretty good. They did not want to forget how they were in bondage, how they were taskmasters, how they were enslaved, how they had no hope, how they had no joy and no peace, and they called out to God, and God raised up a man, God raised up a man, and He called him out of the desert, and He sent him with a message about a lamb, and with a message about the blood of the lamb. And they walked out of Egypt that night saved, and they walked out across the Red Sea of deliverance, and they did not want to forget. forget about that. Oh, and may God help us. I didn't ever forget where God brought us from. How we were enslaved to sin. How we were in bondage under the elements of this world. Oh, but one day we heard a message about a lamb. We heard a message about the blood. And God brought us out. And He parted the waters of despair. And He made a way when there was no way. I don't know I don't ever want to get over that. That's why I come to church. That's why I rejoice. I want to remember what God did for me. That's exactly what they're doing in this text. They're commemorating. They are celebrating what God had done for them in days gone by. Oh, may we never forget in these days of the new year. May we not forget what God has done for us in 2023. How faithful He has been. How kind He has been. How merciful He has been. The commendable practice. But then in verse 43, there is the completed Passover. They go, and the Bible said in verse 43, they had fulfilled the days. And as they returned, the child Jesus carried behind in Jerusalem, and Joseph and his mother knew not of it. That word fulfilled, it means that they did what they were supposed to do. They fulfilled their obligation. They were obedient. They were not unfaithful. Boy, I thank God. By the way, when they went, the whole family went. Joseph and Mary, and they took Jesus. The whole family went, Amen. We ought to celebrate as a church and as a church family together about what God has done for us. But then they completed that. It was important to them. It speaks of their involvement. What I'm interested in this morning is the crucial problem, verses 44 and 45. But they, supposing him to have been in the company Watch this phrase, win a day's journey. You know what the problem was in this text? They were faithful. They went to church. They celebrated. They worshipped. They sang. They brought sacrifices. They'd done everything they were supposed to do. But then when they left, they went one day without the Lord. You know what? Our lives, obviously, are made up of days. If you've not already, I'm in the age of technology, all right, so I've got digital calendars, but I have a paper calendar. How many of y'all still use paper calendars? You know why? Because if you don't write it down, it ain't going to happen. There's just something different about writing it down and typing it out. And so I keep a paper calendar on my desk that I leave here at the church that has all my dates and has all the schedule for the church. And it's made up of days. And no doubt you probably already purchased your 2024 calendar. Some of you are so cheap you won't buy a new calendar. You'll just buy a 2023 on sale and just fill in the days. But anyway, our lives are made up of days. And Job said that man that is born of a woman is a few days. We don't really live that many days. The Bible, I was actually reading out of the Bible, I was reading this week that the average human life is 80 years or some 29,000 days that you live on earth. According to what I, according to the internet and counting everything up, as of this day, I have lived 11,780 days. That means on average I only have 17,220 days left if I live to be 80. You really want to add up the years that you have left at your age? Here's what the psalmist said. Teach us to number our days that we may apply our hearts to wisdom. You know what? We don't have much time left. The Bible said that life is just a vapor. It appears for a little while and then vanishes away. And we often preach that as a message to the lost, that don't waste time. You need to get saved now. And that is perfectly fine. But that context, he's writing to believers. And I wonder how many days we've wasted. How many days that God has given us. God gave us another sunrise, another sunset. God gave us another day. And how many of those days have we went without the Lord? You know what my prayer, my desire is that in 2024 we wouldn't go one day without the Lord. One day without the Lord. That's what I'm preaching on this morning. One day without the Lord. Notice a few things in this text this morning. First of all, There is the danger of supposition. Verse 44, But they, supposing him to have been in the company, went a day's journey, and they saw him among their kinsfolk and acquaintance. I wrote this down. You cannot assume spirituality. You just can't assume that you're going to wake up one day and be a Bible reader. You just can't assume that you're going to wake up one day and have a prayer time. You just can't assume that you're going to wake up one day and be filled with the Spirit. You have a responsibility. And in this text we know, first of all, they neglected their responsibility. Their responsibility, first of all, as parents, to keep up with their child. Now, we understand the Lord Jesus was no ordinary child. He was sinless, He was perfect. We do not believe that He became the Son of God. We believe that in Bethlehem that night He was the Son of God. He never did any sin, never did anything wrong, never disrespected His parents, never had a wrong thought, never done a wrong thing. I want to emphasize this was not His fault. They neglected their responsibility. I'm going to tell you where we get in trouble. When we go a day without the Lord, we start neglecting our responsibility. You know, we went to the store the other day, the mall the other day, and Grace said, she said, pray for me, my wife's getting old. She told me she was. That is a direct quote. She said, I know I'm getting old because I don't like being around crowds. That's what she said. Well, that's what I heard. But her point was, having these kids and trying to keep your eye on pretty kids with all the nuts and the morons around, trying to keep your eye on them. You know, I'm constantly, I mean, people think probably I have a disease or something because when we're walking around the store, I'm constantly doing this. Why? Because I've got Dax and a Sattler that could be, and now Judah, could be anywhere. Thankfully, Grace, she stays with me pretty good. I really don't have to, you know. Hey, honey, this way. Come back over here. Step away from the Janie and Jack. Step away from the Janie and Jack, you know. And then she says, step away from the Bass Pro Shop, all right? Bass Pro didn't have any case knives, by the way. You've bought them all. All right, but no case knives. I went. I looked. But what I'm saying, why are you constantly looking? You want to keep your eye. Well, Mary and Joseph, don't you know they're the same way? If they didn't have their eyes on Jesus, I wonder what they'd be looking at. Could it be that at the temple they had their eyes on the church? I mean, I'm talking about the facility. It's one of the seven wonders of the world. Could it be they walked in, there's a soul looking around, look at our church, look at how great and grand it is. They got focused on everything around them, and they got their eyes off the Lord. There's a lot of people, they go a day without the Lord because they get focused on their surroundings. They get focused on everything around them. Could it be they had their eyes on the crowd? Jerusalem is packed right now with people. It is loaded with people. They're there for the Passover. And could it be they got focused on, well, did you see so-and-so? And did you see them over there? We haven't seen them since last year. And they got focused and excited about everybody else except Him. It's happened to us, hasn't it? We go to church and we'll say, did you see so and so? Did you see then? Did you see that? And then you say, but what did the Lord do today? Did the Lord help us? Did the Lord move? Did God speak in your heart? He can't because we're too distracted. We get so distracted with things. We get so distracted with people around us. It could have been that she had her eyes on her companions. The Bible said they sought Him among their kinfolk. They assumed somebody else has Him. Somebody else has him he's taken care of hey parents. You can't assume the other parent has a kid You better all I'm talking about practically you better make sure they have you just can't assume that all right Yeah, God gave you two eyes. You can keep them both on your kids somebody help me all right and He gave women four eyes They have eyes in the back of their head all mamas have eyes in the back of their head a man and I saw what later they had her glasses on that way, but I But some people, Andy Wells has eyes on top of his head, that's why he wears glasses, amen? But what I'm saying this morning, what I'm saying this morning is they assume somebody else had him. Let's make the application. Well, somebody else will pray for the service. Somebody else will pass out of track. Somebody else will give. Somebody else will have God. Somebody else will have a word of testimony. No, you can't assume spirituality. They neglected their responsibility. Number two, they neglected their relationship. Brother Tony, it's hard to lose track of somebody when you're talking to them. When you're having communion, when you're having fellowship with them, when you're talking with them. But apparently, communication had drifted. I'm going to tell you how you're going to go a day without the Lord, when you don't spend no time talking to Him, and you don't allow Him to spend any time talking to you. You're going to spend a day without the Lord if we're not spending time in prayer and we're not spending time in His Word. They've neglected their relationship. I wrote this down. The further they got from the temple, the further they got from Jesus. I just don't think going to church is important. Ask Joseph and Mary about that. Hey, now let me say this. I understand this New Testament dispensation of grace. You can't lose Jesus. If you're saved, He lives on the inside. But I'm talking about you hindering His presence and hindering His work in your life because you've gone a day without talking to Him. You've gone a day without worshiping Him. You've gone a day without being in His Word. There's a danger of going one day without the Lord. Y'all picking up what I'm laying down? The danger of supposition. Don't expect somebody else to pray for your family. Don't expect somebody else to pray for your children. Don't expect somebody else to take up the slack. You take on your personal responsibility in this. The danger of supposition. Number two, the decision that was stated. I know the desperation that is seen. Look at verse 45. And when they found him not. Ain't that a scary phrase? Ain't nothing more frightening in the world as a parent to be looking for your child and you can't put your eyes on him. Can you imagine how Joseph and Mary felt? Comically, one fellow said, think about how Joseph and Mary felt. God has one only begotten son. God has entrusted their son to Joseph and Mary and here they've lost him. Parents of the year, alright? But here's my point. You ever felt like you couldn't find him? Job did. Now I know sometimes God will do that, Brother Richard, because of trials, testings, He's proving us, but sometimes it's our fault. Because we've neglected Him and couldn't find Him. But I love, they got desperate. The direction they sought, they turned back again to Jerusalem, seeking Him. You know what they did? They began to retrace their steps. I love this now. They did not go ahead looking for Him. They've turned back. That looks like repentance. That looks like repentance to me. They're going this direction, the temple's that direction, and they've left Him, and they realize He's gone, and they don't say, well, let's keep on going this way, maybe we'll find Him. No, they turned around. They made a decision to repent and go back and retrace their steps. By the way, to go forward, sometimes you've got to go back. Amen. If you're going to go forward, if you're going to get where you used to be with God, you know what we call it? We call it backsliding. But some of us need to slide back and get where... because we get ahead of God and we just go on and we forget the Lord. Amen. The direction, the direction they sought. Don't miss this. The duration that was spent. Verse 46. And it came to pass that after three days they found Him in the temple. How many days did they go without Him? They went one day without Him. But it took him three days to find him. It takes you longer to get back. Preach, I just went one day! Yeah, but it took him three days to find him. It took him three days to get that fellowship to find him again. Well, Preacher, it's just one day not reading my Bible. And I understand we all get busy, and life gets busy, but we ought to try to prioritize this year. And listen, we have the Bible reading schedules in the bulletin, and many enjoy that, but if you don't do the Bible reading schedule, if that's something you can't do, you ought to have some kind of schedule. Pick a book. Read it. When you get done reading it, read another one. Reading your Bible through in a year is a good practice, but it is not the only practice. Amen, but spend time in God's Word whether you do the chronological reading whether you do the Bible reading sketch of the Bible reading schedule Or whether you just pick a book of the Bible and say I'm well I'm gonna read a chapter of this book every day till I get it done now I'll pick another chapter read it till I get it done, but spend time in the word Because it's hard to get back Anybody know what I'm talking about hard to get back if you've been out You know how people get out of church one service at a time. I They start missing Wednesday night, and then they'll start missing Sunday night, then they'll start missing Sunday school, then they'll start missing Sunday morning, and they're out completely. And it's hard to get them back in that routine. By the way, you've got to watch that with sickness, too. You can get sick and be out of church and get in the habit. Some of y'all listen to me? Get in the habit of not going to church because you've been sick, but you're better now. We ought to come back to church. Amen. There's people still hiding out from COVID. My goodness. You're probably still riding around with a mask on in your car. Lord, help us all. Somebody said, I haven't seen a good shot in the arm. We've done had four, my goodness. I mean, what I'm saying this morning, you'll get that after a while. What I'm saying this morning is that they went one day without Him, but it took them three days to get back. Some of you that's been out in the world or got out of church for some period of time, you can testify it was harder to get back in that routine. It was harder to get back in that role. That's why it's good to never get in that rut. Then notice the discovery of the Savior, verses 46 through 52. Notice the incredible scene, verse 46. Oh, by the way, you know where they found Him? Exactly where they left Him, in the temple. And when they walked in that temple, verse 46, and it came to pass after three days, they found Him in the temple, sitting in the midst. It's hard to lose something when it's right there in the middle. I wonder where they looked for Him at. Or if they went to the market looking for Him. Or if they went to a family's house. You know, that's what people do. They look for Jesus everywhere but at church. If they just went back to church, they'd have found Him. He was sitting in the middle, in the midst of the daughters, both hearing them and asking them questions. And all they that heard Him were astonished at His understanding and answers. You know what he was doing? He was right there in the middle expounding His Word. You want to get back to the Lord? Get back in His Word. There's the Inquiring, verse 48. And when they saw him, they were amazed. And his mother said unto him, Son, why hast thou dealt thus with us? Behold, thy father and I have sought thee sorry. They're blaming it on him. Oh, but wait a minute. We do the same thing. Well, Lord, the reason I got out was because of this, this, this, this, and you could have stopped and you could have fixed that, but at the end of the day, it was Joseph and Mary's fault why Jesus stayed at the temple. I spoke with an individual this week at a place of business. He doesn't go to church here, but I was talking to him about church, and I asked him where he went, and he told me, and he said, yeah, we're just visiting there, and I invited him to come visit our church, and he said, yeah, we were in a church for a long time, and he said, we got hurt there. The preacher really hurt us. I said, well, I'm sorry to hear that. That happens a lot. And I said, but don't take it out on the next preacher. Just because one preacher hurts you doesn't mean all preachers are bad. Just because one church hurts you doesn't mean all churches are bad. I mean, I said, you know, there's bad plumbers out there. I've got a bad haircut before, but that doesn't mean all barbers are bad. That doesn't mean all plumbers are bad. Amen? I'm just telling you, I'm just telling you, they take it out. They try to blame it when it's really our fault. I remember. I've been thinking about Bobby Robertson a lot lately. I don't know why I just have Bobby Robertson on my mind. He preached here for Brother Rick for several years, and he preached for me every year until the Lord took him home, obviously. We've not had him back since he went to heaven. It'd be a little weird. I mean, it'd be good service, but it'd be a little strange. So he probably preached here for at least 10 years between me and Brother Rick. Brother Bobby, if he told this story at one revival, he told it at every revival he preached, about riding down the road with Lester Roloff. And he said, we were just riding down the road, and it's hard for me to imagine all them older preachers being mine and Brother Richie's age, cutting up, because they were just so statesmen, you know. He said, we're riding down the road, cutting up, and he said, and I said something to Brother Roloff, he said, and boy, I've done this before, I've done this a lot. He said, as soon as I said it, and the words got out of my mouth, I thought, I shouldn't have said that. And he said, Brother Roloff, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said that. He said, Brother Roloff, you're my friend. I wouldn't hurt you for anything in this world. Brother Roloff told Brother Robertson this. He said, Brother Bobby, if you hurt me, it ain't my fault. It's your fault. It's my fault. Because I'm supposed to be dead. And you can't hurt a dead man. That's pretty good, ain't it? Brother Robertson always preached on die daily. Die daily. Crucify that flesh. Well, I'm telling you, here's why. Here's why I'm not in church. Here's why I'm not living for God. Here's why I'm not. I mean, I'm here, but I'm not going to get committed. I'm not going to get involved because X, Y, Z happened. You know what you're doing? You're doing what Mary and Joseph did. You're trying to put the blame off when you're the one that walked away. Hey, bad things happen in church. There are foolish things that happen in church, but not every church and not every preacher has done it. Amen. There's bad apples everywhere. But not every preacher covers up for child molesters. Not every preacher covers up for fornication and adultery. In fact, the boys that I run with, they may not survive, alright? Amen. I'm just telling you, not everybody's gone to war, not everybody's compromised. The inquiring. But notice the instruction that Jesus gives them. Watch what Jesus tells them. Verse number 49. And he said to them, how is it that you salt me? Wist ye not that I must be about my father's business? Now notice what Mary said. Mary said, thy father and I have salt thee sorrowing. And Joseph said, I must be about my father's business. Well, he wasn't in there building cabinets and benches in the temple. He wasn't running the carpenter shop. He was doing the father's business. Joseph was not his father. The instruction. Notice the ignorance. And they understood not the saying which he spake unto them. Verse 50. They still didn't get it. Verse 51, the involvement. And he went down with them and came to Nazareth and was subject unto them. But his mother kept all these things in her heart. He did what he did the whole time. He went home with them. They were ready to go home, but he wasn't ready yet. Boy, I wonder how many times we rush God. How many times we just rush out? Not just in a service, but even in our Bible reading time, even in our prayer time, we rush out, and he wasn't done yet. And then we notice the increase. The Bible says in verse 52, "...and Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature in favor of God and man." Of course, we know this is a reference to the physical growth of Christ, but the principle is this. If you allow Jesus to come home with you, He'll take up more space at your house. He'll take up more space. He'll increase. But you know what we're guilty of doing? We're guilty of leaving Him at the church. A lot of people have church religion, and then they go out and they live their life, and then they want to come back in on Sunday and just go, that's not the will of God. We're supposed to be lights. Every day we live, we're supposed to live out. Don't go, hey, if there's anything, if somebody said, do I have a theme this year for our church? I really don't, but I might have one. Don't go one day without the Lord in 24. That's a terrible rhyme, but let's not go one day without Him this year. Hey, let's purpose this year. Let's not go one day where we don't at least try to read the Word of God. I'm not saying you've got to read all the book of Psalms in a day. I'm not saying you've got to exegete a passage, but I tell you, we ought to commit as a church body. Wouldn't that be good, church? We ought to commit as a church body. By the grace of God, I'm going to read my Bible every day this year. And by the grace of God, I'm going to try to spend some time in prayer every day this year. I don't want to go one day without the Lord. Because it'll take you three days to get back. You know, you miss one day reading your Bible, it's easier to miss two days. It's easier to miss three. Don't ask me how I know that. Tony told me. Oh, no. No, I've been guilty. I've been guilty. I'm talking about my own self. You miss one day, it's easier to miss two, miss three, and go on. And then you're not even reading your Bible at all. Let's, let's, I don't, we don't make vows. Let's make a commitment to God this year. The last day of 2023. Tomorrow is a new day, a new year, a new start. Some of y'all are getting gym memberships. You'll be back here in February with the rest of us. That's fine. But let's make a commitment that I want to go one day without the Lord this year. I want to read my Bible. I want to pray. I want to walk with God every day. As we stand for prayer this morning, I appreciate your attention. I don't want to go one day without the Lord. I don't want to go one day without His presence. I know He lives in me. I understand that. But I'm talking about having that fellowship.