Who is my mother

WHO IS MY MOTHER A Sabbath Message to the FHaMIly and the Apostolic Assemblies First Harvest Ministries International Texts: Matthew 12:46-50 · Galatians 4:26 · Exodus 20:12 · Judges 5:16-23 · Revelation 3:11 I. THE QUESTION HE ASKED While YAHSHUA yet talked to the people, His mother and His brethren stood without, desiring to speak with Him. And one said unto Him, Behold, thy mother and thy brethren stand without, desiring to speak with thee. And He answered and said unto him that told Him, "Who is my mother? and who are my brethren?" He did not leave the question hanging. He stretched forth His hand toward His disciples and said, Behold my mother and my brethren! For whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in heaven, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother. Brethren, He was not shaming Miriam. He was enlarging the household. He took the most sacred word a man knows — mother — and He laid it upon the assembly of the called-out. He put the whole weight of the fifth commandment on the shoulders of the Body. So I ask you this Sabbath the same question He asked: Who is your mother? Because how you answer that question will determine whether you stand or whether you run. II. SHE IS ABOVE, AND SHE IS FREE But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all. — Galatians 4:26 Paul did not say the assembly is a helpful organization. He did not say it is a convenient association of like-minded believers that you attend while it suits you and leave when it does not. He said mother. She is not a building. She is not a corporation. She is not a bank account, a broadcast, or a name on a deed — though YAHWEH may give her all of those to steward. She is a living body, a spiritual organism, the Body of YAHSHUA the Messiah in the earth. She carries. She feeds. She travails. She bleeds. And YAHSHUA said of her: upon this rock I will build my assembly; and the gates of the grave shall not prevail against it. (Matthew 16:18) Hear me: that promise has never been revoked. Men have declared her dead in every generation. Men declared her dead when Stephen was stoned. Men declared her dead when the assemblies scattered under persecution. Men declared her dead when the faithful were hunted for keeping the Sabbath of YAHWEH. She buried every one of her pallbearers and she is still nursing children today. You do not get to attend the funeral of a woman YAHWEH has not killed. III. THE FIFTH COMMANDMENT HAS NO EXEMPTION CLAUSE Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which YAHWEH thy Elohim giveth thee. — Exodus 20:12 Now look what YAHWEH attached to that commandment. The land. The commandment about the mother is the commandment with the inheritance attached to it. Honor her — and you keep the ground. Despise her — and you lose your standing on it. So I want to ask the man who says he loves the brethren while he tears the mother apart with his mouth: How can you say you love the children and hate the woman who carried them? You cannot love the milk and curse the breast. You cannot claim the family and slander the household. If a man stood in your kitchen and spoke of your natural mother the way some speak of the assembly of YAHWEH, you would put him in the yard — and you would be right to. The mother may be wounded. The mother may be limping. The mother may be scarred by what men did to her. That is not permission to strike her. That is the reason to stand between her and the next blow. IV. WE ARE NOT YET BORN Understand where you are standing, brethren. Not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body. — Romans 8:23 Beloved, now are we the sons of YAHWEH, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be. — 1 John 3:2 We are not yet born. We are begotten, not delivered. We are being carried. The seed of the word has been placed in us, and we are being formed in a womb we did not build, fed by a bloodstream we did not create, protected by walls we did not raise. An embryo does not negotiate with its mother. An embryo does not evaluate its mother. An embryo does not announce that it has found a superior womb across town with better music and shorter services. An embryo that separates itself from the mother does not graduate. It perishes. And when men do that — when they detach themselves from the body that was carrying them and go looking for a womb more comfortable — I will not pretend that it is spiritual maturity. It is not. It is a severing. And I say it plainly because I love you too much to let you do it thinking it costs nothing. V. ISRAEL FOUGHT FOR THE LAND — SO DO WE And ye shall dispossess the inhabitants of the land, and dwell therein: for I have given you the land to possess it. — Numbers 33:53 Consider how Israel treated the earthly inheritance. YAHWEH gave them ground. Dirt. Hills, wells, olive trees, threshing floors. And what did they do with what He gave? They fought for every acre of it. They did not stroll into Canaan. They took it, and then they held it, and when an enemy came for a border town, they went out to meet him. And when Ahab the king came to Naboth and offered him money for his vineyard, what did that man say? YAHWEH forbid it me, that I should give the inheritance of my fathers unto thee. — 1 Kings 21:3 Naboth died over a vineyard. Not because he loved grapes. Because the ground was not his to surrender. It had been given. Now hear the application, FHaMIly, and hear it clearly. Everything YAHWEH has placed into the hands of First Harvest Ministries International and the Apostolic Assemblies — every congregation, every pulpit, every broadcast, every name, every record, every roof, every dollar, every soul on the roll — is inheritance. It is not property we accumulated. It is territory we were handed. And so we fight for every ounce of it. Not with the arm of the flesh — we do not war after the flesh. But we do not hand it over, either. We do not let a wolf walk into a fold and carry off a lamb while we discuss whether it is worth the trouble. We do not let liars, harassers, or opportunists strip this assembly of one inch of what YAHWEH gave her while we stand at a comfortable distance calling our silence "peace." Peace that surrenders the inheritance is not peace. It is theft with better manners. VI. THOSE WHO CAME, AND THOSE WHO STAYED HOME Now let me take you to the oldest war song in Scripture, Deborah's song in Judges 5, because YAHWEH keeps a record of who showed up. Of Reuben: For the divisions of Reuben there were great searchings of heart. Why abodest thou among the sheepfolds, to hear the bleatings of the flocks? (v.15-16) — Reuben had a committee meeting while his brothers had a battle. Of Gilead: Gilead abode beyond Jordan. Of Dan: and why did Dan remain in ships? Of Asher: Asher continued on the sea shore, and abode in his breaches. (v.17) Business as usual. Boats to run. Shore to watch. Somebody else's war. Then the curse: Curse ye Meroz, said the angel of YAHWEH, curse ye bitterly the inhabitants thereof; because they came not to the help of YAHWEH, to the help of YAHWEH against the mighty. (v.23) Meroz was not cursed for fighting badly. Meroz was cursed for not coming. And then the other kind of man: Zebulun and Naphtali were a people that jeoparded their lives unto the death in the high places of the field. (v.18) Brethren, there are only two entries in that ledger. There is no third column for the man who watched. So look at yourself honestly this Sabbath. When the pressure came on this house — when the accusations came, when the harassment came, when it cost something to have your name attached to this body — where were you? In the high places of the field? Or in the sheepfolds, listening to the bleating, telling yourself the noise outside was not your concern? Some ran and rebuilt somewhere else. Ate well. Slept well. Never lost an hour over it. And I will not stand here and pronounce their eternal sentence — that belongs to YAHWEH and to no man in this room. But I will tell you what Scripture says about the ground they abandoned: it did not stop being His. VII. THE STEWARD GIVES ACCOUNT Occupy till I come. — Luke 19:13 Men are given charge. Over buildings. Over equipment. Over records and accounts. Over congregations. Over the sheep themselves. And in the day of reckoning the Master does not ask, Was it difficult? He asks, What did you do with what I handed you? The servant with the napkin had a reason. He always does. He had an assessment of the Master, a theory about risk, a well-rehearsed explanation for why he had let the thing sit. The Master did not accept the explanation. So I say to every man and woman who has been given anything in this ministry — a class, a camera, a key, a flock, a family: hold it. Not because I said so. Because you will be asked about it. Giving up is not humility. Letting go is not surrender to YAHWEH when the thing you let go of was the thing He put in your hand. VIII. DO NOT DESPISE THE ONE BLEEDING IN THE FIELD And now a word to the ones who never took the field but have a great deal to say about how the wounded are conducting themselves. There are people who sit in comfortable rooms and debate whether a member who has been savaged has the right to cry out. Whether her tone was appropriate. Whether he should have been quieter about it. Whether the blood on the ground is somewhat overstated. How dare you. Whoso hath this world's good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of YAHWEH in him? (1 John 3:17) When the sheep is in the mud and the wolves have opened her side, you do not convene a hearing on her volume. You pick up a rod and you go get her. IX. HOLD THAT FAST Behold, I come quickly: hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown. — Revelation 3:11 Notice what He does not say. He does not say, Go find something better. He does not say, Start over where the soil is softer. He says: what you already have, do not let go of it. And notice the warning: that no man take thy crown. The crown is taken by a man. Not by a demon, not by a government, not by a court. By a man who moves in when you have stepped back. Now some will tell you there is no point holding, because "this is only the Laodicean era, the age of lukewarm, it is all over anyway." Brethren, that is a doctrine of surrender dressed up as prophecy, and it does not come from the apostles. Hear the truth: the spirit of Philadelphia is carried inside Laodicea by a remnant. Different age, different hour — the same people. And of them He says, thou hast a little strength, and hast kept my word, and hast not denied my name. (Revelation 3:8) A little strength is still strength. And a little strength that stays on the field is worth more in the sight of YAHWEH than a great deal of strength that went home. X. THE CHARGE So: Who is my mother? She is the called-out Body of YAHSHUA the Messiah. She is the household you were begotten into. She is the one who fed you the word when you were too weak to feed yourself. And therefore: HONOR HER. No child of hers slanders her with his mouth and calls it discernment. PRESERVE HER. What was handed to us, we keep. Every congregation, every soul, every ounce of the inheritance. PROTECT HER. When the wolf comes, we are between the wolf and the flock — not upstairs with the door locked. FIGHT FOR HER. As Israel fought for the ground YAHWEH gave them, so we fight for everything He has entrusted to First Harvest Ministries International and the Apostolic Assemblies. Not one acre traded. Not one lamb abandoned. Not one inch conceded to men who never planted, never watered, and never bled for it. Watch ye, stand fast in the faith, quit you like men, be strong. — 1 Corinthians 16:13 We are not yet born. We are still being carried. And I intend to be found, when the day breaks, still standing in the high places of the field — holding fast — with my hand on what He gave us and my name on the muster roll of the ones who came. Amein. First Harvest Ministries International · Sabbath Message