Marked

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Growing up in a rural setting in the 50’s and 60’s was quite a bit different than what children and teenagers face today. For example, I can remember my family’s first television set. And, we only ever had one TV. It was very small by today’s standards and showed a fuzzy black and white picture. Most evenings we could get all three channels, NBC, CBS, and ABC, providing one of us would go outside and rotate the tall pipe that held our antenna while another family member stood inside and to direct the process. If we wanted to go to the other channel, we had to repeat the process and wait a few seconds after we stopped on the best picture to see if it remained clear after we took our hands off the pipe.

This made knowing what program you wanted to watch in advance very important. It could take several minutes to get that antenna in just the right place. Then we’d adjust the contrast and brightness knobs and make sure nobody touched anything until the family’s favorite program was over.

There were not many choices of programs since television stations came on air at about 6am and went off at 11pm or midnight. But, Bonanza, Gunsmoke, and the Big Movie on Tuesday nights were favorites at our house. We tended to enjoy Westerns, partly I suppose because there were so many of them. And then on Saturday mornings there were cartoons.

One of my very favorite weekly westerns was Branded. It starred Chuck Conners as Jason McCord, an Army Captain who had been wrongly court marshalled and branded for being a coward at the Battle of Bitter Creek. In 1965 and 1966 I watched it with my cousins every chance I got.

I can know most of the words to the theme song.

Branded … marked with a coward’s shame … do you fight for you name.

This evening, while we turn our attention to the Gospel of Mark, chapter 12, I’m going to ask you to consider: Have you been branded?

·        Who’s mark do you have on your life?

·        Has the world marked you as one of its own?

·        To whom do others imagine you belong?

·        Whose inscription do you bear, whose light do you shine?

·        If your co-workers, friends, or classmates were asked to describe you, would they mark Christlikeness as one of their top choices?

Mark 12 NKJV

13 ¶  Then they sent to Him some of the Pharisees and the Herodians, to catch Him in His words.

·        Of course they did …

·        It’s a measure of the end times.

o   The last days of Christ in many ways indicate to us what it will be like in the last days before His return.

o   There will be such a departure from God, in the name of God, for what the world says is the good of all mankind.

14  When they had come, they said to Him, “Teacher, we know that You are true, and care about no one; for You do not regard the person of men, but teach the way of God in truth. Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?

15  “Shall we pay, or shall we not pay?” But He, knowing their hypocrisy, said to them, “Why do you test Me? Bring Me a denarius that I may see it.”

·        Knowing their hypocrisy … like actors on a stage reading the lines and playing the parts into which they have been cast.

·        The director of this world’s stage is none other than satan.

16  So they brought it. And He said to them, “Whose image and inscription is this?” They said to Him, “Caesar’s.”

17  And Jesus answered and said to them, “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” And they marveled at Him.

Whose image and inscription is this? Even the Pharisees saw this truth.

In these days it is vital that we look in the mirror, take inventory of our lives, and make certain we are reflecting the image of Christ. 

To whom do your family and friends believe you belong?

·        They imagine you belong to the one whose image you portray.

When the world looks at you, whose image do they see? We have been given a chance to reflect the image of Christ. Tell me, does Jesus:

·        Cuss?

·        Lie?

·        Cheat?

·        Get drunk?

·        Do drugs?

·        Have sex outside of the holy covenant of marriage?

·        Intimidate, belittle, or abandon His children?

·        Betray His friends?

·        Abuse His spouse?

·        View pornography?

·        Dishonor His parents?

·        Riot in the streets?

·        Divide families?

No! and neither should any Born-Again Believer who is saved by His grace.

1 Corinthians 6:20  For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.

Romans 12

1 ¶  I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.

2  And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

Right now is the time for you to decide to clean your life up in the eyes of God and others. On top of being more pleasing to God, you will be a happier and more content person if you do. Make your decision right now!

To whom do you belong? Is it evident to others? Is your light shining? Is there a theme song that fits your life, or one you wish would?

If you are a Born-Again Believer, you will be branded by the world and by your friends. If they find out you’re a Believer in Jesus, you will end up either a coward or a Christian. You choose the brand you ride for …