Five Myths about Salvation that Jesus Debunked
Myth #1 - People are GOOD . (Mk 10:17-18)
Myth #2 - I am GOOD . (Mk 10:19-20)
Myth #3 - REPENTANCE is optional. (Mk 10:21-22)
Myth #4 - I can SAVE myself. (Mk 10:23-27)
Myth #5 - It's not worth WORTH what you give up. (Mk 10:28-31)
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above with your cursor for answers!
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This is Harvest Bible Chapel and Bible is our middle name.
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So we encourage you to bring your Bibles with you.
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If you do not have a Bible, we have them in our information table and they are free.
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Take them.
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You need one, take one.
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You know somebody else that needs one, take one and give it to them.
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But we want to make sure everybody has a copy of God's Word in their hands.
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Open up to the Gospel according to Mark.
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And we're going to be in chapter 10.
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Mark chapter 10.
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We're going to be actually in verse 17, and if you were with us last week we had our Elder Installation, Big Sunday for Harvest Bible Chapel.
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Wasn't that a great service?
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The following passage I really felt like would be a more appropriate passage for Elder Installation.
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You know, greatness is in the one who serves and how Jesus modeled that.
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And we skipped a section and that's what we're going to be covering today.
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You know, we live in a day of information, do we not?
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How many people remember being in high school and having to use the card catalog?
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How many people remember doing that?
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Okay, young people are like, "What's the card catalog?" Right?
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We live in a day where we have in our hands access to more information than we could cover in a thousand lifetimes.
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But there's also a lot of misinformation that comes through that same technology.
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Do you know what I'm talking about?
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There's a lot of misinformation that comes through.
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And I was thinking about that this week.
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How many people have ever been to Snopes.com?
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You ever been to Snopes.com?
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All right, you're like, what is Snopes.com?
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Well, all this shows up on your Facebook feed or your Twitter feed, people reporting things in the news.
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Like, did you hear this happened?
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And did you hear that happened?
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And some people-- I don't want to mention names, not anybody here, of course.
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But some people believe every single thing that they read on the internet.
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Like, oh my gosh, that's terrible.
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Did you see?
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Like, on my buddy's Facebook wall, they reported this story.
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Isn't that just terrible?
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And I think Betty White-- I think Betty White died, like, seven times this year.
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And that stuff keeps showing up, right?
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And you're going to see it today.
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And every quotable quote has been attributed to Morgan Freeman.
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Have you noticed that?
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It could be something to George Washington or somebody.
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But Morgan Freeman seems to be-- there's a picture of him, and then there's really profound quotes.
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And I see that.
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I'm like, I think that's in the Bible.
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I don't think that was Morgan Freeman.
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And well, nopes.com is a website that verifies all these stories, all these news stories, all this information, Snopes takes these stories and verifies whether they're true or whether they're false.
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For example, here's one that really shocked me.
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A couple of weeks ago, I read that-- did you read about the teen got 25 years in jail for swatting?
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How many people saw that story?
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A couple of you did.
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Did you see that?
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A teen got 25 years in jail for swatting.
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You know what swatting is?
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It's these teens playing these online games.
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No, not with a fly swatter, Deb.
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You're probably still using a card catalog.
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I'm teasing.
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I'd never even heard this term.
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This was brand new to me.
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I'm totally teasing.
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But somehow these kids with these online games-- and this is way beyond me.
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Ben Murphy can explain it.
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But somehow they can use this technology to track these people that they're playing against.
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And they can put in these calls to the authorities get a SWAT team sent to their house, like with bomb threats and things like that.
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And it's like this big internet like prank. Like ha ha ha, you know made the SWAT team show up at somebody's house.
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And I read this article a couple of weeks ago where this teen did this and he was arrested and got 25 years in jail. And I thought, wow, that's a bad thing. But gosh, 25 years, that's such a chunk of somebody's life. And then I looked it up on Snopes.com and Snopes said, that story's not true.
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And they cite everything and say, here's, you know, we tried to verify this and it's not true.
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How about this one?
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Did you read where Obamacare is enforcing microchipping?
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Did you read that?
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Under Obamacare, everybody has to get a microchip.
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And I looked that up on Snopes.com.
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True or false?
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That is false. Okay?
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According to Snopes, that is false.
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Here's another one.
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How many people read about in Oklahoma City, they discovered that a McDonald's restaurant in Oklahoma City was using human meat?
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And these little stories look so real because they have a picture.
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But this McDonald's was using human meat.
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Anybody else hear about that?
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True or false?
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That was actually false.
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The most important thing on the earth is also the most misunderstood.
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And just like Snopes sets out to debunk things that aren't true, this passage that we're going to look at today, we're going to see Jesus debunking myths about salvation.
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Salvation more than anything else.
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Salvation, eternal life, entering the Kingdom of God, how to get to Heaven.
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That is the single most misunderstood thing in the world.
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And I love this passage so much because in this one passage, Jesus debunks all of the myths that surround salvation.
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Look at verse 17.
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It says, "And as he was setting out on his journey," this is towards Jerusalem, "Jesus knew, 'I'm going to die.'" And that's what Mark is talking about here. Jesus knows what's ahead for him in Jerusalem. "And as he was setting out on his journey, a man ran up and It's always good to try to put yourself in the Bible story because sometimes we kind of read through things quickly and we don't really catch the impact.
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But this is actually kind of funny.
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Actually in Matthew 19, his account of this story, it says, "Behold, a man came up to him." And that "behold" is just like, "Whoa!" And you've got to kind of understand what's going on here.
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Do you know how undignified this would have been?
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In this culture, men just didn't run.
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That's something that children do.
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So kind of get the scene here.
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There's like Jesus with his disciples and the Bible says, all of a sudden this guy, "What must I do to inherit eternal life?" Like seriously?
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Seriously?
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It says he ran up to Jesus.
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I can just imagine the disciples kind of seeing this guy coming over the hill What's this guy doing? He runs up to Jesus. Hey, I'm gonna need a couple minutes to catch my breath.
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So this guy runs up to and knelt before him and asked him, "Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?" And I'm like, "Man!" Here's a story coming up about a young, wealthy, we'll find out, moral man Coming to Jesus, asking the world's greatest question.
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Like, how many people would think this is primo evangelism opportunity, right?
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Like how many people would love if this happened to you?
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Like you're just like going about your business, you're like standing in Walmart, and some guy's like running down the butter aisle, like what do I have to do to get to heaven?
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And you're like, this is perfect, let me tell you.
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So you read this, you're like, "Yeah!" And he didn't just go to some nobody like me.
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This guy went to Jesus.
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The perfect person to ask about eternal life.
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He went to Jesus.
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And like, man, Jesus is going to reel this guy in, right?
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On your outline, if you're taking notes, I want you to jot these down.
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Five myths about salvation that Jesus debunked.
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You're going to see it all right in the text, okay?
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Harvest Bible Chapel.
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I don't sit in my office and say, "I wonder what I think the people want to hear this week." We're going through the text and we let God's Word speak for itself.
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Amen?
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That should be your sermon evaluation.
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You should go home and say, "Is that what the text says?" Okay?
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That's what we're doing.
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We're just walking through the text.
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You're going to see these things.
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Just myth number one, people are good.
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Look at verses 17 and 18 again with me.
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It says, "The man ran up..." This is so important.
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Please don't miss this.
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This is so important.
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He said, "Good teacher!
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What must I do to inherit eternal life?" And Jesus said to him, "Why do you call me good?
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No one is good except God alone.
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You know, for a long time, that statement from Jesus bothered me.
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I mean, let's be honest. We can be honest here, right?
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Doesn't that seem a little weird?
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Isn't Jesus God?
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Right? Isn't Jesus God?
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Yeah.
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So, shouldn't Jesus have acknowledged that this guy was on to something?
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Dude, you nailed it.
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I'm God.
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And recognizing me as being good, you hit the nail on the head.
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But Jesus didn't say that.
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So why did Jesus make this statement?
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This is so important.
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Do not miss this.
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This is so important.
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First of all, Jesus knew that this man didn't know him.
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This man didn't know that Jesus was the anointed Christ, this God in the flesh. But here's the other issue. We're going to see this comes up here in just a couple of verses.
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But this man was throwing a word around that gets thrown around even today, a lot.
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That's the word "good." Understand this church, Jesus was challenging this man's definition of good.
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That's why Jesus made this statement.
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He was challenging this man's definition of good.
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Because this man was throwing the word around like we throw that word around all the time, don't we?
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Oh, he's a good guy.
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You know him? He's a good guy.
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Oh, that kid, he's a good boy.
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He's a good dog.
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You're a good dog.
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We throw that word around all the time.
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Good. He's good. It's good.
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It's good.
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It's good.
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Notice Jesus said - parenthetically, I'm going to challenge your definition here - God alone is good.
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Meaning this, do you understand what it means to be good?
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God alone is good.
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Meaning God alone is inherently good.
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We're going to see here, this man had a concept of good that was very subjective.
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It was very much about a comparison.
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And this guy just thought Jesus was a good guy.
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Jesus was saying, "Do you understand?
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Only God is good." And that puts an absolute definition on good, not a subjective definition on good.
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Does that make sense?
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He was challenging what this man thought about the word "good" because that's exactly where this man ends up in this passage.
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That was the guy's first mistake.
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He's assuming that people are good.
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Jesus was saying, "Ok, only God is good." Does that change how you think of the word "good"?
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You understand it's an absolute truth, not a subjective truth.
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And you know, church, we look at humanitarian efforts, we look at charity events, and we look at our neighbors, and we redefine good.
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But the truth is, even the best person you know is not a good person inherently.
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Please hear me.
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want anybody to leave here saying, "Pastor Jeff hates everybody." Actually, at the volunteer banquet, Bob Mastorino said, "Is there anybody that you don't like?" I can't think of anybody. Okay, but understand that that's a myth to say that people are good. That's what pop psychology would say, and they're, you know, starting to go the other way on that. People are good. Deep down down inside, people are good, and that is just not true.
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People are not inherently good.
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And that's exactly where Jesus met this man.
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Jesus is saying, there is only one being in the universe that can be described as inherently good, and that is God Himself.
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Do you understand that definition?
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That's how you're using that word.
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The truth is, you can add the word "not" on your outline.
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If you do, scratch out the word "myth." The truth is this, according to the Bible, people are not good.
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Hear me.
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People can do good things on occasion.
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People can do good things, but people are not good.
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One of the greatest people I've ever met, one of the nicest guys, he would give you the shirt off his back, was a devout atheist.
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I'm not saying that no good can come from even somebody that doesn't know the Lord.
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What I'm saying is people, 100% of people, not good.
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We are not good.
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Just in case anybody wants to challenge that, I'd like to share with you, turn over a couple I know we rarely do a lot of cross-referencing, but sometimes I share this message and people challenge me.
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"You know what, Pastor Jeff, I don't think you met my Grammy, because my Grammy was good." "I'm sure your Grammy was lovely." This is what the Bible says.
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In Romans 3, picking up in verse 10, the Apostle Paul basically stuffs a bunch of Scripture in a shotgun and blasts us with it.
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To say here's the human condition.
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None is righteous.
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No, not one.
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No one understands.
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No one seeks for God.
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All have turned aside together.
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They become worthless.
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No one does good. Not even one.
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Their throat is an open grave.
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They use their tongues to deceive.
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The venom of asps is under their lips, their mouth.
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It's full of curses and bitterness.
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Their feet are swift to shed blood.
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And their paths are ruin and misery.
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And the way of peace they have not known no fear of God before their eyes.
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So according to God's word, how many people are good?
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A ton.
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You see, that's the first myth that Jesus encountered with this man.
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Understand what good is?
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Only God is good.
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This idea that people have inherent goodness, you better check yourself on there and that leads us right into number two.
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Myth number one is people are good.
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Myth number two is I am good.
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Like well what's the difference?
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Well some people might agree, you know what Pastor Jeff you're right.
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There are a lot of rotten people in this world.
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There are a lot of rotten people in this world.
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But I'm a good guy.
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Matthew verses 19 and 20, Jesus continues, "No one is good except God alone." And Jesus says, "How interesting, the guy says, 'How do I get eternal life?'" Look what Jesus said.
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You know the commandments.
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Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not bear false witness, do not defraud, honor your father and mother.
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Jesus took the last six of the Ten Commandments here actually.
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And interestingly, Jesus left out "Do not covet." I think that was intentional.
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He added, "Do not defraud." If you want to inherit eternal life, here's what you have to do.
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You have to keep God's Word perfectly.
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You know what the commandments are, right?
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That's how you do it.
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Notice the emphasis.
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That's how you do it.
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You're like, "Pastor Jeff, how can I get to heaven?
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What do I have to do to get to heaven?" My answer is, you have to be perfect.
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You have to keep every commandment of God and never slip up one time.
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That's how you get yourself to heaven.
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You look at the original statement the man made.
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What must I do?
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What must I do?
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There's your answer.
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What must you do?
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Well, if you're trying to get to heaven on your own, you have to be perfect.
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That's all.
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Look at the man's response.
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He said to him, "Teacher, all these I've kept from my youth." Let's stop there.
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is I am good.
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I am good.
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And it is the purpose of the Old Testament law to show you that you are not good.
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Jesus ran down, like I said, these are the last six of the Ten Commandments.
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How do you do on that test, by the way?
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Have you broken any of those?
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If you want to get yourself to heaven, you have to be perfect.
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So let me ask you, last six commandments, Have you always honored your father and mother perfectly?
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Have you done that?
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If you've ever failed to honor your parents perfectly, you are guilty and you are a sinner and you deserve hell.
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According to the Bible.
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Because you've rebelled against God.
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Have you ever committed murder?
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Jesus said if you hate someone, that's the same as murdering them in your heart.
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Have you ever hated someone to the point that, "I just wish that person didn't exist." That's murder.
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By God's definition, you're a murderer.
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Think you're going to heaven? Murderer.
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Seventh commandment, do not commit adultery.
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Jesus said if you lust after someone, you commit adultery in your heart.
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Have you ever done that?
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Have you ever lusted after someone?
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Then you are an adulterer, according to God's definition.
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You're guilty and you've rebelled against the Holy God and you deserve hell.
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You ever stolen anything?
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I have.
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Taken something that doesn't belong to you?
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You are a thief.
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You deserve hell.
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You ever lied?
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I imagine every one of us in here at some point has known the truth and chosen to say something different.
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In God's definition, you're a liar.
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You deserve hell.
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Did you see the problem?
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If you're trusting in your goodness to get you to heaven, is there anybody here that qualifies?
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Is there anybody here that says, "You know, Pastor Jeff, I'm disqualified because of my goodness, right?" We don't have it.
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We don't have it.
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That's where Jesus was challenging the man.
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You think you're good?
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You see, the problem is this man thought that he was.
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Jesus lays out the commandments, and this man said, "I've done all that." And you're like, "This story seems a little far-fetched.
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Like seriously, is there anybody that really believes they kept all the commandments?" Listen, yes.
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I kid you not.
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Years ago, at my old church, one of our church members called me.
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She says, "My grandma is in the hospital.
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She does not know Christ." And the doctor said, "She has maybe two days at the most.
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She does not know Christ.
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Can you share the gospel with her?" I went up to the hospital to share the gospel with this woman.
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You understand, you know, the reason Jesus came to this earth is because we are all sinners.
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Save us.
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And she said, "I'm not a sinner." She was offended.
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She said, "I'm not a sinner." And I said, "Well, ma'am, you know what the truth is?" I said, "I'm not picking on you.
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The truth is we're all sinners.
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By nature, I'm a sinner.
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Bible says by nature we've all done things that God isn't happy with." And I gave her part of the Ten Commandments like Jesus did to this man.
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I said, you know, like for example, have you always honored your parents?
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Always.
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She said, yeah.
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I said, you've never done anything that your parents disapproved of or had to discipline you for?
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She goes, no.
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I was like, well, you know, have you ever hated someone?
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I've never hated anyone.
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I'm like sweating at this point.
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So I'm like, okay.
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Everybody has told a lie at some point, right?
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I'm like, have you ever told a lie?
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Guess what she said?
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Anybody want to guess?
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I've never lied!
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And she sat there in that hospital bed, arms folded, with the look of, "How much longer until you're out of here because you are annoying me." In her mind, she was like this guy.
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I've never sinned.
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I've never sinned.
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Who do you think you are coming in here and telling me that I'm a sinner?
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She says, "I've done everything perfect in my life." So when I read this account, I'm like, "Yeah, I met somebody like this." Folks, there's a name for that.
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It's called delusional.
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It's called delusional.
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You mean that this woman died that night, by the way.
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I hope that when I left, she thought about things and repented and prayed and cried out for mercy.
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I don't know.
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This is the biggest delusion that sends people to hell.
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Right here, I'm good enough.
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I'm good enough.
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You're sharing the gospel with people, you need Jesus.
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Like, make me sound like I'm a card carrying member of ISIS or something.
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Like, why are you talking, I'm not a bad person.
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You know what, I love my spouse and I love my kids and I volunteer with the PTA I do all these things, why are you telling me that I'm a bad person?
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I'm a good person.
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I'm not hurting anyone.
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I'm not doing anything to take advantage of everyone.
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I'm a good person.
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That is the delusion that sends more people to hell than anything.
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I'm a good person.
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I'm a good person.
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The truth is there is only one type of person that goes to hell, and that's the person who thinks they don't need Jesus.
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who thinks they don't need Jesus is the person who says, "I'm good enough." That's a myth. I am good.
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You can add the word "not" to make it biblically accurate.
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I am not good.
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Myth #3 Repentance is optional.
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Repentance is optional.
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Look at verses 21 and 22.
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"And Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, "You lack one thing.
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Go, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven.
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And come, follow Me." Verse 22 says, "Disheartened by this saying, he went away sorrowful for he had great possessions." Again, this looks like a prime evangelism opportunity that we would all dream of.
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Jesus didn't say, "Oh, you want eternal life? Here, fill in this prayer card, or raise your hand, or repeat this after me." Jesus knew that there was something in the way.
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Jesus said to the man, "You need to repent.
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You need to repent." There is no forgiveness without repentance.
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Cover to cover in your Bible, every preacher, every prophet, Jesus Himself, every single one of them preached repentance.
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Meaning, you have to turn from your sin.
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The problem is people want saved in their sin, not saved from their sin.
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How do you know?
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It's the person that says, "Well, if I become a Christian, does that mean I have to give up?" That's called conviction from the Holy Spirit.
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Say no.
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You're going to have to give some things up.
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Is there anything in your life that is displeasing to God?
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Is there anything in your life that you know God would not want to be a part of your life?
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You need to give that up.
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Jesus knew this man's issue was his wealth.
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Jesus knew that, you know what, you love your money.
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And that's in the way.
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But Jesus said, "Here's what you need to do.
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Get that out of the way.
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Liquefy your assets and just donate it to charity.
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And follow me." Repent.
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Repentance literally means to change your mind.
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A lot of times we associate repentance with action.
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But listen, action, I can train my dog to do actions.
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Repentance has to start in here.
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Change your mind.
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This is wrong. This is sin.
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This is not honoring to Christ.
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I need to do something different.
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It starts in here.
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And it gets in here.
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And it works its way out here.
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This is wrong.
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I need to do the right thing.
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That's repentance.
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Jesus was challenging this man to repent.
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Like look, something's in the way, man.
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And you've got to get rid of it.
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Some would say, well, that sounds so harsh.
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Sell all that you have? That sounds so harsh.
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I have this underlined in my Bible.
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You should underline this in yours.
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Verse 21.
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Did you catch that?
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It says, "And Jesus looking at him..." What's the next two words?
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What are the next two words?
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I hear one of you saying it.
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What are the next two words?
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"Loved him." Did you see that?
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Gosh, that sounds so harsh.
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Give up everything you have.
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Now listen.
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Unloving is letting people to hold on to a sin that is destroying them.
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Unloving is letting people hold on to something that hinders them coming to Christ.
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The truth is if you're unwilling to repent, you're unwilling to come to Jesus.
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What's in the way for you?
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There's somebody sitting here today that says, "You know what?
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I've thought about being a follower of Christ, I'm not sure I want to give up.
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Maybe for you it is stuff.
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Maybe you need to get rid of your stuff.
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Like this guy.
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Maybe for somebody else, maybe it's a relationship that you shouldn't be in.
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You know what, this isn't honoring to God.
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God doesn't want me doing this.
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I'm stopping this relationship right now.
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Somebody else, maybe it's the God of football.
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Sports or whatever.
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Something - and see there's nothing inherently wrong with some of these things, right?
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But there was nothing inherently wrong with this man's money either.
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The problem was his attitude towards the money.
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That was the problem.
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And if you have something in your life that maybe it's not wrong but you've elevated it to idol status, that's the thing that needs torn down.
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If you're going to follow Jesus.
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Jesus doesn't say, get a wagon and stick your idol in it and then follow me.
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Get rid of it.
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If there's something in your life that is hindering that, get rid of it.
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But the truth is, repentance is not optional.
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Like, "Oh, Pastor Jeff, I hear what you're saying, but repentance is hard." It is hard.
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That's why the Bible says God has to grant it.
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That's why you need to pray, "God, I want to repent, but I can't do it on my own.
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I can't do it in my own strength." That too is a work from God.
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He will work that out in you.
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But you have to want a heart that wants nothing more than to pursue Jesus Christ.
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Repentance is optional? That's a myth.
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That's a myth.
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What are you holding on to?
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What are you holding on to that is worth forfeiting heaven and all the promises and blessings God wants to give you in Christ?
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What are you holding on to that is worth giving up heaven for?
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Horrifying to think that there are people in hell right now.
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You know that?
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There are people in hell right now now, that we'll have the rest of eternity to consider. I esteem that there is something on the earth more important than Jesus Christ. Repentance isn't optional. These are myths.
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People are good.
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Well, maybe not people are good, but I'm good. Myth number two. Myth number three is repentance is optional. We have so watered down the gospel in our culture.
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Just believe.
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Just pray this.
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We never challenge people to repent, which is a necessary part of coming to Christ.
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Myth number four is I can save myself.
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Look at verses 23-27.
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Interestingly, side note, verse 22.
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Remember this guy initially ran up to Jesus because he wanted something so bad, And Jesus held it out to him.
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And then it says that he went away sorrowful.
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He was unwilling to take what Jesus had.
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Bad story.
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But here's the fourth myth I can say myself.
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It says, verse 23, "And Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, 'How difficult it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God.' The disciples were amazed.
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This is kind of a cultural thing because let's be honest, we're all wealthy.
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We're all wealthy people.
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Jesus' culture, there would have been people that had nothing.
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Typically those people would look at the people who did have some, and say those people have everything.
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Those people have everything.
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Even some of the rabbis that taught, There were ways that your wealth saved you.
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And Jesus lies in the face of all of that.
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"The wealthy have everything." Jesus made this statement.
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It's difficult for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God.
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Notice it says the disciples were amazed.
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What?
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What?
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It's hard for rich people to go to heaven?
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Are you serious?
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Jesus knew that he was striking a chord with them.
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But Jesus said to them again, "Children, how difficult it is to enter the kingdom of God." Notice he doesn't talk about wealth here, he's just talking about in general.
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Then back to the wealth issue, verse 25 says, "It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God." They were exceedingly astonished.
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Let's pause here.
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Jesus said, "You know how hard it is for a rich person to go to heaven?
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It's like a camel going through the eye of a needle." Now, there are like 80,000 different interpretations of that verse.
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I'm going to tell you the right one today.
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Ready?
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Jesus was talking about a camel, actual camel and he was talking about an actual needle.
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I've heard so many really weird things about this passage.
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Like, you know, there was this gate in Jerusalem called the needle gate.
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And in order for camels to go through the needle gate, they had to get on their knees and go through it.
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That's what Jesus was talking about.
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I'm like, "What?
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How many people have seen a camel shimmying around on its knees?
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Have you ever seen that?" I did a lot of studying on this.
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You know what Jesus was saying?
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He's saying it's easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle.
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Exactly what He said, okay?
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Take it at face value.
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That's what He's saying.
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It's easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a wealthy person enter heaven.
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And verse 26 says, "And they were exceedingly astonished and said to Him, 'Who can be saved?'" They were floored by Jesus' words.
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Who can be saved then?
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You're telling me this guy who runs up to you and asks you the right questions walks away from you.
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Who in the world can be saved if getting into heaven is this hard?
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Here it is.
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Jesus looked at them and said, "With man it is impossible, but not with God.
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For all things are possible with God.
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I can save myself.
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The truth is you cannot save yourself.
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Not your good works, not trying to keep the commandments, not your church attendance, not dedicating your life to helping little old ladies cross the street.
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That will not save you.
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Because Jesus made it very clear that salvation is a work of God.
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With man it is impossible.
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See, that's the whole premise of this.
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The man says, initially, he said, "What must I do to inherit eternal life?" Jesus was like, "Yeah, it's impossible for you to do it." "Well, then who can be saved?" Jesus said, "With God all things are possible." Salvation has to be a work of God.
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Turning a dead sinner into an alive child of God, you can't do that.
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You can't do that for yourself, and you can't do that for someone else.
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Only God can do that.
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Only God can give somebody eternal life.
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All things are possible with God.
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And finally, final myth, it's not worth what you give up.
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It's not worth what you give up.
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The last myth.
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By the way, if you're going to correct number four, obviously add the word "not." I cannot save myself.
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Myth number five, it's not worth what you give up.
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Peter, we can always trust Peter to speak up and say something borderline inappropriate, right?
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Peter began to say to him, I'm kidding, kind of, Peter began to say to him, "See, we have left everything and followed you." The disciples are watching this whole exchange take place and Peter's like, "Um, we did it.
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We left everything to follow you." Jesus said, "Truly I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands, for my sake and for the gospel, who will not receive a hundredfold, now and this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions and in the age to come eternal life." So Peter says, "Well, this guy is unwilling, and Jesus, we jumped out in faith." And listen, you don't come to Jesus with an attitude of "gimme gimme." Somebody could look at this passage and say, "Well, here's why I'm going to follow Jesus, because it says right here, if I follow Jesus, He'll give me a hundred houses.
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Isn't that what the Bible says?
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I'd like the hundred house plan, please." What Jesus is saying is you're going to be more than taken care of.
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But then we have people on the other end of the spectrum that say, Oh yes, there is great reward for following Jesus when we get to heaven.
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I want you to look again at what Jesus said.
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So there's no mistaking, we're debunking myths today, right?
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No mistaking, look at verse 30.
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"Who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time." Is there reward for following Jesus while you're still on the earth?
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Yes or no?
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Yes. Now in this time.
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And then he says, "And in the age to come, eternal life." Is there blessing in heaven for following Jesus Christ?
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Yes.
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But notice, church, as Peter's like, "Well, we left everything to follow You." Jesus said, "You're going to be rewarded now." How is that fulfilled?
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I'll show you how that's fulfilled right now.
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If I drove home today to discover that my house burned to the ground, by show of hands, is there anybody in this church that would put my family and I up in your home for a while until we could get back on our feet?
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Raise your hand if you'd do that.
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All right, now look around.
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See how many houses I have?
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See how many houses I have?
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Yeah, and there's people, right Jay, there's people that aren't even here that would think about letting me stay with them too.
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They'd be like your family maybe, but not you.
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But do you see that?
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Or if I said to somebody, you know what?
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Our car broke down and we don't have a car.
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Is there somebody here that would loan me a car?
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Is there anybody here that would loan me a car for a while, anybody?
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Hey, look at how many cars I have.
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Get the point?
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Jesus was talking about the blessing of the church family.
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This is the blessing of the church.
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And see, it's not just me.
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If Paul and Carrie went home and found their house burned down, how many people would put them up?
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See? See how many houses you have?
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This is the blessing of the church family.
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This is exactly what Jesus was talking about.
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You are covered.
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You are totally covered.
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God will provide for you.
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You know, since I became a Christian, not only have you seen how many houses and cars I have, you know what else I have a lot of?
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I have a lot of grandmas.
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I could give you a list of people that are like grandma to me with no blood relation.
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I have a lot of fathers.
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You know, I have a great biological father.
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He passed away a few years ago, several years ago.
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I have a lot of spiritual fathers.
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I have a lot of dads in the faith.
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I have one biological sister, but in the church - do you see how many sisters I have?
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Do you see how many brothers I have?
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Are you getting the point?
43:00-43:05
She's like, "We left everything." Jesus is like, "Yeah, and look at what you're getting.
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So much more than you left.
43:10-43:14
I left home when I was about 20 to go to Bible college.
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I left one house.
43:16-43:29
Look how many I inherited." So the idea, it's not worth what you give up, there is no one who has ever sincerely followed Jesus Christ and ever looked back and said it has not been worth it.
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You can scratch out the word "not" if you're wanting to correct the myths. It's worth what you give.
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And finally, look at verse 31. This was a favorite saying of Jesus.
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He said, "Many who are first will be last, and the last first." That's a neat saying, right?
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What's that mean?
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Well, think about it.
43:58-44:10
If we were all going to race, and you've all had a sample of how fast I am, but if we were all going to race, and like Justin's like-- here, he's not sick, right?
44:10-44:12
So Justin's like, who won the big church race?
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And we were like, well, the person that came in last also came in first.
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And the person that actually came in first also came in last.
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What does that mean?
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What does that mean?
44:26-44:27
It means we are all tied, right?
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We all cross the finish line at the exact same time.
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That's what Jesus was highlighting for these disciples.
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Remember, they were just about to get into another argument about which one of them had the highest degree of awesomeness.
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He said, "You're all equal.
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Heaven is going to be just as awesome for me as it is for you.
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Heaven is going to be just as awesome for you as it is for me.
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And we're not going to be looking around heaven going, "This is okay, but I really wish I had what that guy had." First will be last and last will be first.
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It's all going to be equal.
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The question, is it worth it?
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It's worth it for every single person who comes to Jesus.
45:15-45:37
Going back to the beginning, the man asked Jesus again, "What must I do?" And if you're sitting here today thinking that salvation is something that you attain, salvation is something that you have to bring something to the table, I'd like to remind you that Jesus gave the church two ordinances to remind us who it's really all about.
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The first one is baptism.
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In baptism we identify with Jesus, death, burial, and resurrection.
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Baptism is the public profession of faith.
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It's a picture of dying to yourself and being raised in the newness of life with Jesus Christ.
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I love that picture because nobody that gets baptized says, "Here's how I saved myself." What they get up to say is, "I just had to let go and fully trust in Jesus Christ.
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I died to myself." That's baptism.
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Have you made that step?
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Have you been baptized?
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If you have not, we are baptizing this Saturday at 5 o'clock at Northway Christian Community.
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We already have some people who are interested and some people who are going to get baptized.
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And I would encourage you, now is the time.
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If you have never made the public profession of faith in Jesus Christ, you need to contact Contact me immediately.
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Amy, after church, my contact information is in the bulletin.
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We need to have this happen now.
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The picture of identifying with his death, burial, and resurrection.
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And as our ushers come forward, we're going to receive the Lord's Supper today.
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You know, 1 Corinthians 11.26 tells us that every time we do this, We proclaim the Lord's death until He comes.
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And just as there is nobody in the baptism tank that has something to brag about, there is no one who receives the Lord's Supper that can think that they bring anything, giving themselves eternal life.
47:20-47:32
We remember that this is the body, the blood, this symbolizes the body and the blood of Jesus Christ He laid down his life to pay for it.
Small Group Questions (Whole Group):
Read Mark 10:17-31
Why did Jesus tell this man to sell all he has before becoming a follower? Is this a requirement for everyone to follow Jesus? Why or why not?
What do you think most people (who aren't born again believers) are trusting to get them to heaven? Why do seemingly most unsaved people think they are "good"?
Why do you think Jesus preached the OT Commandments to this man?
Jesus said in Mark 10:23 it is difficult for "those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God". Why do you think that is? What does this say about our culture, where everyone has wealth, even the "poorest" in our society?
Breakout Questions:
Pray for each other.