Where did it go?

Good morning, everyone. Welcome to "Try Jesus!" If this is your first time joining us, it’s great to have you with us. I would like to thank all the new members for joining "Try Jesus."

I would also like to welcome those in California, Nevada, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Florida, Illinois, and Tennessee. It is a pleasure to have you with us today. The Lord continues to expand his word!

"I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go into the house of the LORD."  (Psalm 122:1 KJV). The Lord is indescribable and uncontainable. We gather to seek him above all today. He is an amazing God!

The church (the body of Christ), his true born-again believers and disciples are still the answer for all the ills our nation is going through. Why? Because Jesus is the only answer for the sin-sick soul. The plan of salvation never changes.

Whether it's the tragedy in Louisiana or the fires in Los Angeles, or the crime that continues, Jesus is still knocking on the door of every heart that continues to trust the wisdom, science, and AI of man. (Matthew 11:28-30).

This is not an external change, but an internal transformation done by the power of God. All this, God does, simply because he loves his creation. He is completely focused on redeeming those who will turn to him.

God will never force his love on you. But he will shower his love on those who receive him as Lord. (John shows us this in 1 John 3:1-3; John 1:10-13). Jesus wants to remove the world's pain. Let's seek the God of love this morning.

"Heavenly Father, we thank you this morning for revealing your great love, grace, and mercy unto today. Thank you, Lord, for watching over our lives this past week. Thank you, Lord, for being our provider and supplying all our needs.

Lord, thank you for the people who have welcomed "TRY JESUS" into their state and community. I celebrate your goodness in providing friendships in our lives. Thank you, Jesus, for that one person who was kind enough to say hello.

Father, thank you for the Holy Spirit, who brings the gift of oneness to us in person and those who have joined on-line. Thank you, in 2025 for helping us by your Spirit to get to know new faces and people around us we do not know.

Help us remember that we are all one in Christ Jesus. Thank you, Jesus, for welcoming us and helping us to live out of gratitude for your hospitality. Open our hearts to have the willingness to get to know others as brothers and sisters.

Open the door to new friendships that are founded on you and prayer throughout this ministry. Let your love be our strong foundation to build on. Empower us to meet one new person at church this week.

Lord, we were not meant to be alone; we were made for unity. Help us to fight the enemy and our flesh that would tell us otherwise and welcome others around us. Help this not to be an individual effort, but a ministry-wide movement.

Fill us with your Spirit as we open your word, ready to learn. May our hunger bring blessing and remind us of your great love for us. We love you, Lord, we seek your presence, and we worship you alone. In Jesus name, Amen."

How many of you come from large families? There's so much happening, isn't there? There's so many things that can be going on, all at the same time. There's a whole lot of thinking and posturing throughout the day.

There's always something special about those who come out of large families. There are many memories and stories to share with friends and neighbors. However, there are many things that loving families keep under the roof.

In my family, we use to have those "Keep it in the house conversations." Large families have so much activity, that when good things are happening at the house, it seems everyone is attracted to go there.

I grew up in a home where friends were always welcome. My parents always had the "Welcome to our home" attitude for our friends. However, sometimes those invitations were canceled. Usually because we did something wrong.

There were many occasions when disciplines were handed out and the revolving welcome door was closed for the day. Even though I came from a family of nine (four sisters and two brothers), we fit the large family issues.

I say nine and not ten because parents who have ten or more children have this amazing talent to be able to maintain the family structure with intellectual "Stick-to-itiveness." They implement a plan and work it throughout together.

Throughout the raising of these love gifts, they ready themselves to deal with constant activity and noise. Their home is a bonding community, filled with love and understanding. Do things always go as planned, no.

Large families deal will shared responsibilities, creative meal planning, close sibling bonds, challenges with individual attention, potential financial strain, utilizing large spaces effectively, sibling rivalries, and tight schedules.

I certainly went through the sibling rivalries more than once growing up. We were very competitive in the home and sometimes away from the home. Throughout our family traditions we maintained and focused on unity.

My parents kept boundaries that seem to keep us grounded. Like any large family, my parents tried to keep up with scheduling conflicts around school, activities, meals, and transportation, to avoid complex issues.

There certainly was competition for attention and resources that revolved around many activities, especially sporting activities. Of course, there was the constant reminder of shared responsibilities in the home.

The more kids, the more chores, right? Work smarter, not harder, right? I don't remember growing up working smarter. I used to clean my room by throwing everything under the bed. I just wanted to get outside and play. (Smile).

The younger siblings had to learn from the older. That was difficult and scary at times. My older siblings were not always kind and encouraging when showing me how to approach my chores. How many of you ignored your sibling’s advice?

Family management comes in different variations under every roof in your neighborhood. There are family traditions that may differ from yours. Some have differences in age when it comes to large families.

When it comes to individual attention, some parents may struggle with giving the attention to each child depending on their needs. Of course, the main challenge of large families is maintaining a positive finance foundation.

However, no matter the financial status, kids still want space and privacy no matter how big or small the home is. Siblings need that time to stop hearing words like, "Will you stop touching me!" And words like, "Go away!" (Smile).

But I've said all this to get to one of the most important functions in the family household. Before we do so, without asking those throughout TRY JESUS to divulge a lot of personal information, what’s it like to grow up in a very large family (like 10 kids or more)?

How do you maintain right standards in your home? Where does God fit into the gathering around important issues? How hard is it to get everyone to slow down and invite the Lord into the large blessing of gifts he's given you?

When I think of families lacking in wisdom and boundaries, I visually think of the "Home alone" disfunction and the animated movie "Bebe's kids." Even though there were only 3 kids, they did cause enough mayhem as a large group.

If you examine these two well-known family scenarios, the families seem to lack common sense answers to complex issues. That's a word I heard a lot growing up in my parents’ home. My mother would be ready with those words

"Why are you doing it that way?" "That makes no sense at all!" Lack of common sense can divide and crumble many laid-out plans families try to build on. What were common sense practices you laid out for your children when they were young?

Practical everyday solutions approached with common sense can bring peace of mind to your family. I'm speaking about ordinary everyday common sense. Common sense to act. We sometimes make excuses for lack of common sense

When we look at the worldly definition of common sense, it says it is sound and prudent judgment based on a simple perception of the situation or facts. But how do you achieve this sound judgement?

Not only achieve it, but continue to live under sound judgment. Prudent means to act with care and thought for actions that are taken. So, how often should you seek the ability to think and behave in a reasonable way to make good decisions

Before we open our Bible's to see how God views common sense, we have an abundance of leaders everywhere throughout every vocation in our nation. We have many "Hi I.Q." individuals who are extremely intelligent.

But did you know many of those with extremely smart intellect lack everyday common sense? People who have common sense jump into action when they're faced with any kind of challenge. Their minds work can work very quickly.

But they don't react with a jumbled mind of idiocy approaching complex situations. They're able to solve problems with efficiency and ease. They rely on rationality to guide their decisions, which helps them end up on t

Some mindful words associated with common sense are level-headedness. I mean if your heads not level, you can do grave damage to it, right? My dad had this old, old, toy called "Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robots."

It was a toy boxing ring in which the battling robots try to knock each other's blocks off. The game was won when one player knocked the opposing robot's head up and off the shoulders. It was usually a right blow under the chin.

Without your head, common sense is completely knocked out. Other words involving good common sense are
discernment, acumen, sharpness, sharp-wittedness, canniness, astuteness, shrewdness, judiciousness, and wisdom.

Here's a question for you, "Are any of these word's found in the Bible?" And how are you using them? So, what does the Bible teach us about common sense? Let's take a look and open our hearts to God's answer.

The word common in the Bible brings a mindful thought