Let The Children Come: A Lesson On Child-like Faith

Jesus and the Children (Mk 10:13-14)


The Joshua Parallel (Mk 10:15)


Child-Like Faith Is:
Not trying to OVER-INTELLECTUALIZE the things of God.

HUMBLING yourself.

Taking God at His WORD.


Jesus Blesses the Children (Mk 10:16)

Guest Speaker - Levi Keller

Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
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• Audio Transcript

  00:00-00:01

  Well, it's good to be here.

  00:02-00:14

  Like Pastor Jeff said, it's been a long time coming, but finally we've arrived at the time where they will put a mic on my head and give me 30 minutes to talk, which is very dangerous.

  00:16-00:19

  I'm very excited to be continuing our study in the book of Mark today.

  00:20-00:26

  Today's teaching is going to be from Mark chapter 10, verse 13 through verse 16.

  00:27-00:33

  And just before we dive in, just to butter you up a little bit, I have a little story of when I was a child.

  00:34-00:39

  I was two and a half years old, and my mom was trying to get me to stop using diapers.

  00:40-00:44

  And so she decided that each day I didn't use diapers, she would give me a dollar.

  00:45-00:56

  And I was like, "Man, a whole dollar, wow." And so I did it, and each day, she'd take me across the street and we'd go and buy a little Hot Wheels car, because they were a dollar.

  00:56-00:59

  So each day I'd get a new car, so that was awesome.

  01:01-01:16

  And so one day, after probably three or four days of that, she said to me, "Levi, you know, if you save your money, "you can get an even bigger car." I was like, "Whoa, an even bigger one." And so I decided to save my money.

  01:17-01:19

  17 days later, I had $17 saved up.

  01:20-01:31

  We go to Target, and I had that $17 snuck, stuffed into my little Snoopy wallet, carrying it around, ready to go dish out some cash for the nicest car I could find for $17.

  01:33-01:36

  So we're walking through the store and she's like, Levi, you want me to carry your wallet for you?

  01:36-01:37

  And I said, no, I want to carry it myself.

  01:38-01:39

  Maybe not that many words, but.

  01:40-01:44

  And so she let me carry it myself, even though she thought it might get lost.

  01:45-01:50

  And so we arrive at the checkout and it's gone.

  01:50-01:53

  I was like, I don't know where it went.

  01:53-01:54

  I don't know.

  01:55-01:58

  And so we go around the whole store looking for it.

  01:58-02:01

  We check customer service, asking people around in the aisles and stuff.

  02:02-02:04

  And no one had seen it.

  02:04-02:04

  We couldn't find it.

  02:04-02:05

  It was gone.

  02:07-02:14

  And so we left, as I hung my head in shame, without a car, out to the parking lot, into our real car, probably a van actually.

  02:15-02:17

  And so we're driving away and I'm crying.

  02:17-02:25

  I'm saying, "Mommy, can we pray?" And I'm two and a half years old and I wanted to pray and have God help me find my $17 in my Snoopy wallet.

  02:25-02:27

  That was the most important thing for me at that time.

  02:28-02:31

  And so she pulled over, we were pulling out of the parking lot, she pulls over, we pray.

  02:33-02:36

  Turn around, go back into Target, and we find it.

  02:38-02:44

  And that's not the biggest thing in the world, $17 in a Snoopy wallet, but it was big for me at that time.

  02:44-02:52

  And I think God used that, even in my life up to this point, as a testimony that faith, he works through faith.

  02:53-02:54

  He works through my prayer.

  02:54-03:01

  I don't understand how that happens, but he worked through my prayer and my faith as a child, two and a half years old.

  03:03-03:07

  And so in the passage we're talking about today, Jesus addresses faith.

  03:08-03:09

  And he says that it's very crucial.

  03:11-03:15

  In fact, it determines if we're going to enter the kingdom of God or not.

  03:16-03:17

  And so let's read the text.

  03:18-03:20

  Let's dive in and then I'll have a word of prayer and we'll start.

  03:21-03:25

  So turn to the book of Mark, chapter 10, verse 13.

  03:26-03:30

  And they were bringing children to him that he might touch them, and the disciples rebuked them.

  03:31-03:35

  But when Jesus saw it, he was indignant and said to them, "Let the children come to me.

  03:36-03:39

  Do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God.

  03:40-03:50

  Truly I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it." And he took them in his arms and blessed them, laying his hands on them.

  03:51-03:52

  So let's pray real quick.

  03:53-03:58

  Dear God, I pray that you bless this portion of your word to us today.

  03:58-04:02

  I pray that we learn awesome things about you through it.

  04:03-04:14

  I pray, Lord, that you would speak through me today, help me to not give my own ideas, but to give the ideas that you put in your word and nothing else.

  04:16-04:19

  Lord, I pray that I'm faithful to the text and faithful to you.

  04:20-04:24

  And please open people's hearts and minds to receive this great word that you've given to us.

  04:24-04:26

  In your precious name I pray, amen.

  04:27-04:40

  All right, so from the top here, verse 13, "And they," stop, they were the parents, "they were bringing children to him that he might touch them.

  04:40-04:42

  And so the parents were bringing their children to Jesus.

  04:43-04:46

  And I just wanna talk about that word children there for a moment.

  04:47-04:51

  The word that Mark uses is a Greek word, and it's paideion.

  04:52-04:53

  And that word means a younger child.

  04:54-04:59

  Many study tools and concordances that I looked at said it would be likely around seven years of age or younger.

  05:01-05:05

  Matthew also uses the word child when he writes a parallel to this event.

  05:06-05:15

  But Luke, when he writes a third parallel, in Luke chapter 18 verse 15, he uses actually a different word there.

  05:16-05:16

  I mean child.

  05:17-05:20

  He uses the word brephos, and it means infants.

  05:21-05:22

  It could even mean an unborn child.

  05:24-05:29

  And so Luke writes in verse 15 chapter 18, they were bringing even infants to him.

  05:30-05:37

  And so this would have included infants, and possibly up to age seven-ish or younger of children.

  05:37-05:40

  And so just to get that picture in our mind.

  05:40-05:43

  And they were bringing children to him that he might touch them.

  05:44-05:49

  So why were the parents so set on Jesus laying his hands on the children?

  05:50-05:51

  Well, there's all kinds of reasons.

  05:51-06:01

  One Bible teacher that I listened to explained that it was a custom for the fathers and the elders of the synagogue to lay hands on children's heads and bless them and pray for them.

  06:02-06:04

  It was a Jewish custom in the day.

  06:04-06:06

  And so that was probably one of the reasons.

  06:06-06:08

  Jesus was a rabbi.

  06:09-06:12

  And so he obviously spent a lot of time in the synagogue.

  06:14-06:23

  Another reason, and I think a reason that stuck out to me the most after reading through Mark is that there was power in the touch of Jesus.

  06:25-06:29

  All throughout the Gospel of Mark, there are many, many references to Jesus laying his hands on someone and healing them.

  06:30-06:33

  And most of the time when he healed someone, He did physically touch them.

  06:36-06:52

  Actually in chapter 5 there's an event and it's a woman who's following him around and she says, "If I can even touch his garment, I will be made well." And so she goes up behind him and swipes his cloak and he felt power go out of him and heal her.

  06:53-06:57

  And he said, "Who touched me?" And the disciple said, "What do you mean who touched you?

  06:57-07:06

  You're in a crowd." And he said, "No, who touched me?" He wanted, of course Jesus knew who touched him, but he wanted her to come forward in faith.

  07:08-07:19

  And so she came forward and told him, "If I could even touch your garment, I knew I would be made well." And he said, "Your faith has made you well." And so some of these children might have been sick and needed healed.

  07:20-07:21

  His touch did indeed heal people.

  07:22-07:30

  Maybe their parents thought that if they had a well child, that if they brought him to Jesus would prevent disease for him to touch them.

  07:31-07:38

  And so there are many reasons, pick one, pick all the above, but there are all kinds of reasons for him laying his hands on the children.

  07:40-07:43

  And as they were bringing children to him, the disciples rebuked them.

  07:44-07:46

  And rebuked is a strong word.

  07:48-07:50

  Disciples didn't want the kids all up in their business.

  07:52-07:55

  And so what I picture is Chuck E. Cheese, okay?

  07:56-09:41

  rugrats running around picking their nose, stealing each other's pizza. And that's how the disciples saw the kids. They saw them as a burden. They said, "We don't want you here. Get out." That was their attitude. I think that at this time Jesus was actually in a house. Now I'm just speculating here, but if you go to verse 10 of chapter 10, it says, "And in the house the disciples asked him again about this matter." They were having a teaching time. Jesus was teaching his disciples about divorce. And if you just take out in the ESV there's a break there and with a new sub section or subtitle and that I mean that's not in the original text in the Greek so if you just let it flow they'd still be in the house. And so I think they were probably in the house the parents are barging in bringing their kids to him and they're like we have it we're having a teaching time here can't you see? We're important the children aren't. But Jesus didn't see the children in the same way the disciples did. He didn't see them as a burden, rather he wanted them to come to him. So verse 14, "When Jesus saw it, he was indignant and said to them, 'Let the children come to me. Do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God.'" That word "indignant," I don't know if I'd ever heard that word more than five times in my entire life before I read this passage, and so I didn't know what it really meant, but it's a very strong word. It packs quite a punch. It means he was angry. He was very angry at the disciples, and he said, "Let the children come. Don't hinder them, because to them and to such belongs the kingdom of God." And here we see a very important thing.

  09:41-09:52

  We see two sides of God that are shown all through the Scriptures. A righteous anger towards those who are opposing him in his own and love to his children.

  09:53-10:50

  He wanted those children to come to him. He says, "Do not hinder them." This reminds me actually of a sermon that was given two weeks ago. I encourage you to all go listen to it. It should be up on the website by now, the Harvest website. But in that text it said, "Better for a millstone to be tied around your neck than for you to cause one of these little ones to stumble." So Jesus doesn't play around when it comes to his children. In fact, he loves his children so much that he died on a cross for them, taking the punishment for their sins in their place, the wrath of God beating down upon him. And if you're a Christian, he did that for you. And if you're not a Christian today, repent, believe in him for the forgiveness of your sins and that love applies to you as well. We all deserve to go to hell because we've sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.

  10:51-11:07

  I just quoted a scripture there. But Jesus in his kindness and love came down from his throne, lived a perfect life, keeping every single one of God's laws, 613 of them given in the beginning of the Old Testament. He kept every one perfectly so that we wouldn't have to.

  11:09-11:22

  And he died upon a cross, taking the wrath of God for us, and was buried, rose again on the third day, defeating sin and death once for all, and now he's back on his throne and his message is to come.

  11:25-11:25

  Like a child.

  11:27-11:30

  For to such belongs the kingdom of God.

  11:31-11:45

  To such there means that it wasn't just specific children that were with him that day, rather to all who come to him with faith, helpless, not able to make it to heaven on their own, but needing Jesus.

  11:47-12:11

  The children couldn't keep the law at that age. They probably didn't know what it was. They might have known what it was, but they wouldn't have been able to keep it. I mean, you were just like, picture again Chuck E. Cheese. It's So we must come to Jesus because he's the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through him.

  12:11-12:14

  And you can't please God unless you have faith.

  12:15-12:18

  Hebrews chapter 11, verse 6.

  12:19-12:22

  This is an important one to underline in your Bible.

  12:24-12:28

  "And without faith it is impossible to please him.

  12:28-12:57

  For whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him. Romans 4 talks about Abraham being justified by faith, nothing else. The law wasn't even given at the time of Abraham. He didn't even know what it was, but he was justified by his faith and saved by his faith. That's how God still saves people today, by their faith.

  12:59-13:24

  So going on to verse 15, "Truly I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it." And so in verse 14, Jesus opens up the kingdom of God to all who are such as his children, as those children, helpless and in need of And here he makes it actually exclusive to that group.

  13:24-13:29

  If you refuse to humble yourself and have faith like a child, you will not enter the kingdom of God.

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  That's very scary.

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  Very scary.

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  And so at this point, we're probably wondering, do I have childlike faith?

  13:42-13:43

  How do I get childlike faith?

  13:44-14:01

  Jesus says it's necessary for us to enter his kingdom. And for this we're gonna hearken back to the Old Testament, the story of Joshua. Back in the book of Numbers, actually, I'm gonna turn there real quick.

  14:03-15:20

  All right, so back in the book of Numbers we find ourselves in the heart of the Pentateuch, which is the first five books of the Bible. And we're at the point where Moses, the leader of the Israelites, sends spies out to scout the promised land, which is the land of Canaan. So Moses sends out 12 spies, one from each of the tribes of Israel, after they were liberated from slavery in Egypt, and after 40 days they return bringing back these humongous fruits. I think they were humongous. The Bible says that he brought back, they brought back these grapes, this vine of grapes that took many people to carry. And so I picture that, not a small vine with small grapes that's just really like a lot of them. I picture it like a scaled version of a grape vine and like huge fruits like this big. That's just what I picture. And they say, "Indeed, the land flowed with milk and honey, but there was a problem. And the problem is that Canaan was occupied by many enemy peoples." And so all the, that 12 of there could focus on were the fact that they probably, they thought, would get overthrown by the enemy peoples in the land.

  15:20-15:25

  But two people who went to scout out the promised land had faith.

  15:26-16:09

  Numbers chapter 13, verse 30, "And Caleb quieted the people before the Lord," or I'm sorry, "quieted the people before Moses and said, 'Let us go up at once and occupy it, for we we're able to overcome it. Caleb was one that had faith. The other one that had faith was Joshua. And so when they said this, the people of Israel were like, "You guys are nuts. There's no way we can go into the land. We're just going to get beat up. Let's just go back to Egypt and be enslaved some more. It would be better if we would have died there instead out here. And these people were grumbling against God. They didn't have faith in Him.

  16:11-16:16

  So God did not allow anyone who grumbled against Him that day to enter the land that He had promised.

  16:17-17:18

  The only ones He allowed to enter were Caleb and Joshua. Numbers chapter 14, verse 30, this time, "Not one of you will enter the land, I swore with an uplifted hand, to make your home, except Caleb and Joshua. So he limits the ones who inherit the promised land to those who had faith, but not until after they suffered. They were to bear the punishment of the ones who grumbled in the current generation for 40 years in the wilderness, wandering around. I just want to relate that to following Christ. If we enter the kingdom of God, or if we will enter the kingdom of God, that is from following Christ and having faith in Him, but that's not an easy path to life. In fact, life will probably be a lot harder. As we saw in the videos today, bad stuff happens, but with faith in God we will get through those things and it will be well worth it, as we will soon see in our story here.

  17:19-18:14

  So we're just taking a—there's a lot of stuff that happens in the middle here, lots of laws given and lots of things that happen. We're just going to fast forward to the beginning of the book of Joshua. That's right after, it's two books later in the book of Numbers, so it's the sixth book in the Bible. And so we see that Moses has just died and Joshua assumes the position as the leader of Israel. And Moses, they're about to enter the Promised land, Moses could not enter the promised land. Why could he not enter? Well, that's because God had told him to speak to a rock that water would flow out of it. And Moses at this time is on some sort of power trip, and he decides to hit it twice with his staff instead of doing what God told him to do. Therefore, sort of taking credit for this miracle, and he also takes some credit for other things that had been done in the presence of the Israelites. And so God punishes him for this.

  18:15-18:54

  just a parallel that I thought of was us taking credit for our own salvation, thinking we can do it on our own. Well, if I'm a good person, I'll go to heaven. No, that's not what the Bible says. Joshua was able to enter the promised land through faith in God. We are able to enter the promised land, heaven, through faith in Christ, the same God. Moses there is a parallel to entering heaven by the law. And I'm not saying Moses didn't go to heaven, I'm saying it's just a parallel. Him not entering the promised land, the law was given through him.

  18:56-18:58

  That's just a parallel. He obviously went to heaven.

  19:01-19:26

  But Joshua there, entering the promised land through faith, is a parallel to us entering heaven through faith in Christ. We couldn't enter heaven by the law, not even if we tried, because we all sin and we're dead in sin from the time we come into existence. In fact, Ephesians chapter 2 says by nature we are children of wrath. Romans chapter 5, death came through Adam. We inherit that death.

  19:27-19:44

  But life comes through Jesus Christ. We have no chance to even be remotely good, and However, through Jesus, we can enter the kingdom of God just as the Israelites entered the promised land through Joshua's faith.

  19:45-19:57

  Just a side note there, Joshua's name, Moses changed it, it was a little bit different before Moses gave him a new name, and he made it into a divine name, and it's Yeshua, essentially.

  19:58-20:01

  Joshua, we just pronounce it Joshua, it was really Yeshua.

  20:02-20:05

  Jesus's name originally was Yeshua.

  20:05-20:07

  We call him Jesus, we speak English.

  20:08-20:09

  But his real name was Yeshua.

  20:10-20:11

  Joshua's name was Yeshua.

  20:11-20:13

  Joshua entered the promised land.

  20:13-20:15

  Through Jesus, Yeshua, we enter heaven.

  20:16-20:17

  It's a great parallel.

  20:18-20:19

  I'm not just making this stuff up, you see.

  20:21-20:22

  Jesus is a kind God.

  20:23-20:27

  As I said before, he died in our place, taking God's wrath for us.

  20:28-20:32

  We're legally justified if we have faith in him.

  20:33-20:36

  If you refuse to repent, turn from your sin and apologize.

  20:36-20:37

  God wants an apology.

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  If you refuse to repent and turn from your sin and embrace him by faith, he will exercise his judgment against you because legally he has to, he's just.

  20:48-20:49

  He is a just God.

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  And that judgment is a sentencing to hell eternally.

  20:56-20:57

  That's a big problem.

  20:59-21:00

  But Christ is a big solution.

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  So receive the kingdom of God by faith in Christ, please, please.

  21:08-21:12

  So through all of that, I know that was a little bit long, we get a lot of application.

  21:14-21:15

  So I have three main points.

  21:16-21:26

  The first one being, and these are all sort of going to come out of that illustration, the first one being, don't, and I'm changing this, you can put it up.

  21:26-21:33

  That one says, "Not trying to," what childlike faith is, "Not trying to intellectualize the things of God." I want to add a word to that.

  21:33-21:40

  I want to say, "Not trying to over-intellectualize the things of God." I'll explain what I mean.

  21:41-21:43

  What do I not mean, first of all?

  21:43-21:46

  I don't mean that we shouldn't study.

  21:47-22:01

  All said to Timothy, "Study to show yourself accountable." 1 Peter 3.15 says, "Always be ready to give a reason for the hope that is in you." We need to know things about the Bible.

  22:02-22:03

  It's a command.

  22:05-22:15

  What I mean is that we don't have to drive ourselves into the ground trying to over -intellectualize things like creation.

  22:16-22:19

  The Bible says that the earth was created in six days.

  22:20-22:22

  24 hour days, that's what I believe.

  22:23-22:31

  I don't have to come up with some cute explanation of the first chapter of Genesis in order to satisfy my limited finite mind.

  22:32-22:34

  I just believe it because God said it.

  22:37-22:40

  Old Testament stories, there's a talking donkey in the book of Numbers.

  22:41-22:42

  Water flowed out of a rock.

  22:42-22:44

  These things seem impossible.

  22:45-23:16

  the Red Sea parting? I believe it because God said it. And there's plenty of reasons to believe that this stuff actually did happen. There's plenty of evidence. All I'm saying is we don't need to over intellectualize. The Trinity, the Trinity is something that no one can ever grasp even if they tried to. Three separate persons all being God but not being each other. It's still one God but it's three persons, who can grasp that?

  23:16-23:17

  Nobody can grasp it.

  23:18-23:20

  But we just have to believe it because that's what the Bible says.

  23:21-23:30

  We can take comfort in Deuteronomy 29, verse 29, saying the secret things of the Lord are for him, the things revealed to us are for us to know.

  23:32-23:34

  God told us some stuff.

  23:35-23:36

  He can't be confined to the book.

  23:37-23:47

  In fact, the book of John, this isn't in my notes, but the book of John says that the things that Jesus did, even while he was on this earth, could fill all the books in the world.

  23:50-23:52

  So just imagine the things that an infinite God knows.

  23:54-23:56

  We just have to have faith.

  23:57-24:03

  The Israelites, over-intellectualized, when they thought, well, those peoples of Canaan, they're very strong, we're like grasshoppers in their sights.

  24:04-24:05

  They were large people, giants.

  24:07-24:14

  But God had told them that he would drive them out before them, and that they would have victory, They couldn't wrap their brain around that.

  24:15-24:16

  And so they didn't trust him.

  24:17-24:18

  That was a big mistake.

  24:20-24:24

  So first point, don't over-intellectualize the things of God.

  24:26-24:28

  Point number two, humble yourself.

  24:29-24:30

  And these all kind of run together.

  24:30-24:35

  They're kind of all together, not so much separate.

  24:37-24:37

  These three points.

  24:38-24:42

  But we must come to Christ humbly, realizing our need for a Savior.

  24:43-24:56

  First Peter 5.6 says, "Humble yourself therefore under the mighty hand of God, so that at the proper time, he may exalt you." Everybody in Israel thought Joshua was stupid for having faith in God.

  24:56-24:58

  They said, "Are you kidding me?

  24:58-25:03

  Those people are strong out there, especially the other 10 who had seen them." But Joshua had faith.

  25:04-25:05

  Caleb had faith.

  25:05-25:12

  They're the ones who entered the promised land, and if we have faith in Christ, as I've said a million times today, We will enter the kingdom of heaven.

  25:14-25:15

  We just have to believe.

  25:17-25:20

  Point one, don't over-intellectualize the things of God.

  25:20-25:22

  Two, humble yourself.

  25:23-25:25

  Realize that you can't do it on your own.

  25:25-25:26

  Joshua couldn't do it on his own.

  25:27-25:29

  But he had faith in the words of God.

  25:31-25:34

  Point number three, take God at his word.

  25:36-25:38

  God told the Israelites to trust him.

  25:39-25:41

  The ones that did entered the promised land.

  25:42-25:44

  He tells us to trust him too.

  25:44-25:52

  In fact, he makes that faith the deciding factor of our entering his kingdom or not.

  25:54-25:55

  He tells us to trust him.

  25:55-25:58

  If we don't have faith like a child, we're not going to enter the kingdom of heaven.

  26:00-26:02

  So we need to have faith.

  26:03-26:10

  Another thing that I didn't put on the slides because I just thought of it last night was I'm gonna go back to the book of Mark here.

  26:11-26:12

  A little detour.

  26:13-26:15

  Back to the book of Mark, chapter 10.

  26:17-26:18

  This is all from verse 15.

  26:20-26:25

  It says, "Whoever does not receive the kingdom of God "like a child," what do children love to receive?

  26:25-26:26

  They love to receive gifts.

  26:27-26:30

  The Bible, specifically what comes to my mind is the book of Romans.

  26:31-26:40

  Paul says over and over, "Salvation is a free gift from God, you can't earn it." It's a free gift, and here he says receive.

  26:41-26:45

  We must receive that gift like a child, excited, thankful.

  26:47-26:51

  Just picture a little giddy kid on Christmas opening his gifts.

  26:53-26:55

  We need to treasure God, treasure Christ.

  26:55-26:57

  He's the prize won for us.

  26:58-27:00

  That's the ultimate source of joy is Christ.

  27:03-27:07

  And if we receive this gift, We are going to heaven with Him for all of eternity.

  27:09-27:10

  How good is that?

  27:12-27:13

  So good.

  27:14-27:15

  So three points.

  27:16-27:18

  Don't over-intellectualize.

  27:18-27:20

  It's just gonna drive you into skepticism.

  27:22-27:26

  Point two, humble yourself, knowing we can't do this on our own.

  27:28-27:30

  Point three, take God at His word.

  27:30-27:33

  He makes promises in the Bible that are great promises.

  27:34-27:36

  And he can't lie.

  27:36-27:38

  We learn that in the Old Testament.

  27:38-27:40

  God can't lie because he is truth.

  27:40-27:41

  That's one of his attributes.

  27:42-27:43

  He's truth.

  27:44-27:45

  He can't lie.

  27:46-27:48

  And so believe him, add his word.

  27:50-27:53

  Receiving the kingdom of God with childlike faith.

  27:55-27:56

  Moving on to verse 16.

  27:58-28:02

  And he took them in his arms and blessed them, laying his hands on them.

  28:04-28:06

  Again, this shows Jesus' love for the children.

  28:06-28:09

  He did not see them as a burden, and he doesn't see us as a burden.

  28:11-28:14

  Instead, he loved them, and he loves us.

  28:16-28:21

  He loves us, not because of any performance we can give him, but because he does.

  28:22-28:24

  He just loves, that's how he is.

  28:24-28:27

  He is love, another one of his attributes.

  28:28-28:32

  He chooses to love us, not because we're good.

  28:34-28:39

  He loves us so much that he makes us his children through Christ.

  28:41-28:44

  So Jesus blessed the children, laying his hands on them.

  28:46-28:53

  And so really all of the application of this sermon comes from those three points into this question that I just want to leave you with.

  28:55-29:00

  Have you humbled yourself to God's word, believing Him there and having faith like a child?

  29:01-29:03

  If your answer to that question is yes, awesome.

  29:04-29:08

  If your answer is no, I hope you will.

  29:09-29:15

  I hope that we can all humble ourselves, believe God at His word with a childlike faith.

  29:17-29:23

  And just in closing, I think people are probably wrestling with faith here.

  29:23-29:26

  I wrestle with it myself, we all do.

  29:26-29:29

  Jesus was very clear in this passage about how important it is.

  29:31-29:32

  So we must take it very seriously.

  29:34-29:37

  We try to make things a lot more complicated than they are a lot of times.

  29:39-29:43

  Doing things to please God and get into heaven, maybe I check that off my list.

  29:44-29:46

  That's not how God works.

  29:47-29:52

  He works in the way of saving people through their faith in Christ.

  29:53-29:54

  That's the only way.

  29:55-30:08

  It's not that complicated. It's so simple a child can understand, but theologians for thousands of years have wrecked their brain every day trying to figure it out.

  30:09-30:12

  We just have to have a childlike faith.

  30:12-30:15

  It's not that complicated. So I just want to pray.

Small Group Questions (Whole Group):
Read Mark 10:13-16

1. What is it about children and their faith that make them a prime example for Jesus to use when talking about the type of faith we must have to enter the Kingdom of God?
    

2. Why don't adults have the same type of faith that as children do?
    

3. What is an area or situation in your life in which you have not had a child-like faith?What attribute(s) of child-like faith can you grow in to improve in this area?

Breakout Questions:
Pray for childlike faith in your group!

Marriage: God's Unchanging Plan

Why God Hates Divorce, and Why You Should, Too

1. Divorce is caused by SIN . (Mk 10:1-5)


2. Divorce destroys God's WORK . (Mk 10:6-9)

God's Plan for Marriage:


1. Will never CHANGE . (Mk 10:6a)



2. Is for a MAN and a WOMAN . (Mk 10:6b)


3. Is turning TWO people into ONE person. (Mk 10:7-9)


3. Divorce leads to more SIN . (Mk 10:10-12)

Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above with your cursor for answers!

• Audio Transcript

  00:00-00:04

  Turn in your Bibles with me to Mark chapter 10.

  00:05-00:07

  Mark chapter 10.

  00:08-00:12

  While you're turning there, do you know that Batman show from the 60s?

  00:13-00:13

  You know that show?

  00:14-00:16

  You remember that show, right?

  00:16-00:21

  Adam West, Burt Ward, and you know, Kapow, and you know, Biff.

  00:22-00:22

  Remember that?

  00:23-00:28

  Now, when I was a kid, that was my favorite show.

  00:30-00:35

  And my son Cade, who is eight, it's his favorite show.

  00:36-00:37

  They started bringing it back.

  00:37-00:39

  They're replaying it on TV.

  00:39-00:41

  I guess there was some legal battle or whatever.

  00:42-00:46

  And so they've been replaying that show, and it has become Cade's favorite program.

  00:47-00:50

  So much so that when we're in the car, that's what he wants to talk about.

  00:50-01:01

  He likes to play, you know, guess which character I'm describing, and he describes one of you, he likes the bad guys, obviously, if you know Cade, pray for us.

  01:01-01:08

  But he describes one of the bad guys, and then, you know, Aaron and I have to guess which one he's describing.

  01:08-01:21

  And Friday we were going to a small group picnic at the malls, and Cade was describing And Catwoman, I guessed it right away.

  01:21-01:25

  I'm really good at this game, just from the sheer amount of times that we've played it.

  01:25-01:49

  But then I said, "You know what, Cade, when I was your age, I thought Catwoman was the most beautiful woman in the world." And Erin turns to me, and she said, "And what changed?" And I said, "I met you." And she said, "That is the right answer." Why am I telling you that story?

  01:50-01:52

  Because today we're going to talk about marriage.

  01:53-01:56

  And from that little story you can tell I'm an expert.

  01:57-02:01

  You have to understand that I know what I'm talking about when it comes to marriage.

  02:01-02:02

  I say that tongue in cheek.

  02:02-02:07

  If you're visiting with us, obviously I have a lot to learn.

  02:08-02:09

  As we all do.

  02:10-02:12

  Which is why we take time to turn to God's Word.

  02:13-02:22

  Let's do a quick poll when we talk about marriage and divorce and sexuality and those kinds of things.

  02:23-02:29

  I'm going to make some statements and I want you to just jot down how you feel, but this is just your opinion.

  02:30-02:34

  Marriage is to be between a man and a woman only.

  02:35-02:37

  Do you agree or disagree?

  02:38-02:40

  Marriage is for a man and a woman only.

  02:40-02:42

  Agree or disagree?

  02:43-02:44

  I guess, undecided, right?

  02:44-02:45

  You have to give that option.

  02:47-02:51

  People of the same sex should be permitted to get married.

  02:52-02:53

  Agree or disagree?

  02:56-02:57

  What about reasons for divorce?

  02:59-03:04

  If someone has an affair in the marriage, that is a reason to get a divorce.

  03:04-03:06

  Do you agree or disagree with that?

  03:07-03:10

  If someone is unfaithful in their marriage, that is grounds for divorce.

  03:11-03:11

  Do you agree or disagree?

  03:13-03:18

  What about "falling out of love with the person"?

  03:18-03:19

  I don't love her anymore.

  03:20-03:21

  Or I don't love him anymore.

  03:22-03:25

  Is that a reason to get a divorce?

  03:26-03:32

  Do you agree or disagree that that is a valid reason just because you don't love each other anymore?

  03:32-03:33

  Is that a reason for divorce?

  03:34-03:35

  Agree or disagree?

  03:37-03:39

  What about irreconcilable differences?

  03:41-03:45

  Are irreconcilable differences a reason for divorce?

  03:45-03:46

  Do you agree that they are?

  03:48-03:49

  Or do you disagree with that?

  03:50-03:58

  When it comes to marriage and divorce, understand that when I ask you what you think about it, that's a trick question.

  03:59-04:12

  Because as much as I love you, and I say this with all the love that I can muster, it really It really doesn't matter what you think about marriage and sexuality and divorce.

  04:13-04:15

  What matters is what God thinks about it.

  04:16-04:24

  You're like, "Well, why did you take us through that little exercise then if it doesn't matter what we think?" The reason I did that was because I was trying to expose the problem.

  04:26-04:33

  The problem is that we dictate morality by our opinion, not the Bible.

  04:35-04:35

  That's the problem.

  04:37-04:43

  We have decided what is right and wrong is based on our feelings, our opinions, what we think, our world view.

  04:46-04:52

  When instead, God has determined what is right and what is wrong.

  04:53-04:59

  And you know church, when we talk about divorce, that is such a hot topic even in the church.

  05:01-05:12

  Because let's be honest, you've heard me say this a thousand times, Lord willing I'll say But isn't it true, Christians, that as people we have a tendency to go to the extremes on the spectrum, right?

  05:12-05:13

  Don't we do that?

  05:14-05:16

  And when it comes to divorce, that's what you see in the church.

  05:18-05:21

  On one hand, it's you can get a divorce for any reason.

  05:23-05:25

  Because God wants you to be happy.

  05:25-05:31

  And if being with this person doesn't make you happy, you know, God wants me to be happy, so God wants me to get a divorce.

  05:31-05:39

  I actually had a woman come in a previous ministry and she wanted to meet with the elders about her marriage.

  05:39-05:48

  And she came before the elders and said, "God told me to get a divorce." And my reply was, "No, He did not.

  05:49-05:56

  Apparently somebody told you that, but it wasn't God." But for some people it's any and every reason.

  05:58-06:01

  You know what else you see in the church is the other end of the spectrum, right?

  06:02-06:05

  There is never any reason whatsoever you should get a divorce.

  06:06-06:12

  And if you do get a divorce, you are scarlet-lettered for the rest of your life.

  06:12-06:15

  You are known as the divorced person in the church.

  06:15-06:23

  And you are like second-class, kingdom-of-heaven citizen, and you should wear that shame on you the rest of your life.

  06:23-06:45

  I have seen some churches do some horrible and hateful things to people that have been through a divorce, even not of their own choosing, left by their spouse, abandoned, and the church treats the victim like they're the one at fault.

  06:47-07:12

  And now you're no longer eligible to be part of any of our ministries, and you can kind come in and watch what's going on, but because of somebody else's life choices now, it's over for you. That is wrong. So, all in favor of getting God's Word on the matter? All in favor? Good.

  07:13-07:18

  I was really hoping, like if no hands went up, I was going to be like, It was an awkward Sunday at church.

  07:19-07:22

  Let's look at verses one and two in Mark chapter 10.

  07:23-07:35

  It says, "And he left there," Jesus, obviously, and his disciples, "and he left there and went to the region of Judea and beyond the Jordan, and crowds gathered to him again.

  07:35-07:41

  And again, as was his custom, he taught them." Okay, from this point on in Mark, we've talked about this.

  07:41-07:44

  It's marching to Jerusalem, going to Jerusalem.

  07:44-07:48

  Jesus knows when He goes to Jerusalem, He knows what's waiting for Him there.

  07:50-07:55

  Betrayal, arrest, beating, suffering, nailed to a cross, death, resurrection.

  07:56-07:57

  He knew that that was all waiting for Him.

  07:58-08:00

  And that's what Mark is telling us here.

  08:00-08:06

  Jesus is marching to Jerusalem and the crowds are still coming and He was still teaching.

  08:06-08:35

  And verse 2 says, "And Pharisees came up, and in order to test him, asked, 'Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?'" So the Pharisees' question, the Pharisees' confrontation is going to lead to this final word on marriage and sexuality and divorce.

  08:36-08:54

  Interestingly, you know Mark gives us a little bit of the geographical description, the setting of where Jesus is, and where Jesus was experiencing this confrontation was very close to where John the Baptist was beheaded.

  08:54-08:57

  And who remembers why John the Baptist was beheaded?

  08:58-09:01

  It is not lawful for you, Herod, to take your brother Philip's wife.

  09:04-09:09

  So here's somebody that stood up for righteousness in marriage and was beheaded.

  09:10-09:18

  And I don't think it's a coincidence that in this same area, the Pharisees come up and they're like, "Hey Jesus, what do you think about marriage?

  09:20-09:21

  Is it lawful?

  09:23-09:29

  Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?" Well, let's talk about divorce.

  09:29-09:30

  Do you have your outlines?

  09:32-09:36

  I believe it's Malachi 2.16, rather.

  09:36-09:37

  God hates divorce.

  09:39-09:50

  And you're going to see as we go through the text, the title of this message is "Why God Hates Divorce and Why You Should Too." Why God hates divorce and why you should too.

  09:50-09:51

  Jot this first one down.

  09:51-09:59

  Number one, God hates divorce because divorce is caused by sin.

  10:01-10:10

  "Earnest is caused by sin." Do you notice it says in v. 2 that they were trying to test Jesus.

  10:10-10:10

  Okay?

  10:11-10:19

  So understand, this wasn't some group of earnest seekers that came up to Jesus and they're like, "You're obviously a very wise teacher.

  10:19-10:25

  Can you instruct us on what is proper?" That wasn't their intention whatsoever.

  10:25-10:32

  They were trying to trap Jesus asking him a question about a hot topic.

  10:34-10:36

  You know, and I was thinking about that this week.

  10:37-10:40

  In modern days, it would be something like this.

  10:40-10:42

  You know, I'm going to trap you with a hot topic.

  10:42-10:45

  So I'm going to go up to-- I'm going to trap Justin, OK?

  10:45-10:49

  Because he's just like getting too big for his britches, and I'm intimidated by him.

  10:50-10:52

  And we're going to play a little game, all right?

  10:52-10:54

  I'm going to feed you your line, so don't worry, all right?

  10:56-10:57

  I want to trap Justin.

  10:58-11:00

  I want to make him look foolish.

  11:00-11:01

  I want to discredit him.

  11:02-11:04

  So I'm going to trap him in some hot topic.

  11:05-11:07

  Any hot topics we can think of to trap him?

  11:07-11:08

  Oh, I know.

  11:09-11:10

  Guns.

  11:11-11:11

  OK?

  11:12-11:16

  I'm going to ask you if you think that people should carry guns.

  11:16-11:18

  And we're going to play out both scenarios, OK?

  11:19-11:21

  So your first answer is going to be yes.

  11:21-11:22

  All right, you ready?

  11:22-11:23

  You know yes is your line.

  11:24-11:24

  OK, yeah.

  11:25-11:25

  You got that?

  11:25-11:25

  All right.

  11:27-11:31

  So Justin, do you think people should be allowed to carry guns?

  11:32-11:40

  Oh, OK, so we have all these people going around shooting up all the schools and movie theaters, and you just think everybody should have a gun.

  11:40-11:42

  He just thinks everybody should have a gun.

  11:42-11:43

  Did you see this?

  11:43-11:45

  He thinks everybody should have a gun.

  11:45-11:45

  Let me guess.

  11:46-11:48

  You think they should just hand out bazookas at the post office.

  11:49-11:50

  Is that what you're saying, Justin?

  11:52-11:53

  Trying to make him look stupid.

  11:54-11:57

  That's impossible to do for Justin Cady, right?

  11:58-11:58

  We're playing a game.

  11:59-12:00

  OK, now your answer is no, all right?

  12:01-12:01

  OK.

  12:03-12:08

  So Justin, you think that people should be allowed to carry guns?

  12:09-12:11

  Oh, so you think people should just be defenseless?

  12:12-12:14

  You think the government should just dictate everything?

  12:15-12:17

  You don't think the Second Amendment's important at all?

  12:17-12:19

  Why don't we just throw out the whole Constitution?

  12:20-12:21

  So do you see what I did there?

  12:21-12:22

  He couldn't win.

  12:23-12:27

  Or if Justin was like, "Oh, this is a trap, I don't know." Oh, you don't know.

  12:27-12:29

  You don't think it's an important enough decision to think about.

  12:30-12:32

  You don't think that you should really...

  12:32-12:34

  Thank you for playing along, Justin.

  12:35-12:40

  The point is this, this is what the Pharisees were always trying to do to Jesus and we're gonna see this some more.

  12:41-12:49

  It was, let's ask Jesus a question that he can't possibly answer because no matter what he answers, we're going to try to make him look dumb.

  12:50-12:52

  We're going to try to discredit him.

  12:52-12:53

  There's all these crowds, right?

  12:53-12:53

  We saw that.

  12:54-12:56

  All these people were around Jesus.

  12:56-12:58

  Let's make Jesus look foolish.

  12:59-13:03

  Let's make Jesus look like maybe He's not the rabbi everybody thinks that He is.

  13:05-13:07

  They try to do it here with marriage.

  13:08-13:11

  Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife, Jesus?

  13:11-13:12

  And you can imagine a scenario.

  13:12-13:16

  Jesus is like, "Yeah." Like, "See?

  13:18-13:24

  Even He doesn't think marriage is that important." And Jesus thinks if a woman is getting on your nerves, you should just dispose of her.

  13:26-13:28

  Which is what the Pharisees taught by the way.

  13:29-13:32

  But see I think they kind of knew what Jesus was going to say.

  13:33-13:37

  I think that they probably figured Jesus was going to lean towards no.

  13:38-13:45

  And the reason I think that is because of the next statement that they make shows that they were kind of loaded for the response.

  13:46-13:50

  So Jesus, do you think that a man should divorce his wife?

  13:50-13:55

  And Jesus is like, "No." Like, "Oh, okay, well Moses said it was okay.

  13:55-13:56

  Moses allowed it.

  13:56-13:57

  Hey, everybody, look.

  13:58-14:12

  Moses said this, but Jesus says no." "Oh, does it disagree with Moses, huh?" Everybody say, "Stop doing that." But you understand what's going on here?

  14:13-14:14

  Let's make Jesus look foolish.

  14:15-14:16

  Does this make Jesus look like He doesn't?

  14:17-14:18

  No.

  14:19-14:19

  Okay?

  14:20-14:22

  Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?

  14:23-14:25

  I love Jesus' response to the bait.

  14:27-14:41

  Jesus says in verse 3, "He answered them, 'What did Moses command you?'" And understand this question was intended to get people thinking about what the Scripture actually said.

  14:42-14:49

  Because Jesus here in this question was showing a complete disregard for cultural opinion.

  14:50-14:51

  Take note of this.

  14:51-14:55

  Jesus' response was showing a complete disregard for cultural opinion.

  14:56-14:57

  You can study this out.

  14:57-15:01

  In the first century, the rabbis taught this, ok?

  15:01-15:07

  It wasn't like secular, pagan, heathen society kind of embraced divorce.

  15:08-15:10

  The rabbis taught this.

  15:11-15:16

  But if your woman does not make you happy, you should get rid of her.

  15:18-15:21

  You should dispose of her, and they taught for any reason.

  15:22-15:22

  Any reason.

  15:23-15:24

  And they had a list of examples.

  15:26-15:27

  This is true, look it up.

  15:28-15:33

  If your wife burnt your supper, divorce.

  15:35-15:37

  I heard a couple of you say amen under your breath.

  15:40-15:44

  wife is gonna knock you out and I am going to do nothing to defend that.

  15:45-15:59

  There's some weird one about if your wife spins around and like exposes her ankles. Seriously, like divorce. If your wife speaks ill about your mother.

  16:00-16:09

  The rabbi said, "Show her the door." And they taught you can divorce for any reason.

  16:09-16:10

  Any reason at all.

  16:10-16:11

  Any reason at all.

  16:11-16:12

  They're like, "You know what?

  16:12-16:27

  You just need to be happy, and if your wife isn't making you happy, get rid of her." That was the cultural opinion, and that's what the religious leaders were teaching.

  16:28-16:31

  But notice what Jesus' reply was.

  16:32-16:34

  Notice He didn't say yes or no or maybe.

  16:35-16:38

  Jesus answered the question with a question back.

  16:39-16:48

  And He said, "What did Moses command you?" In other words, what Jesus said was something everyone in here needs to learn how to say when confronted with these issues.

  16:48-16:51

  Essentially, what Jesus was saying was what does the Bible say?

  16:52-16:53

  What does the Bible say?

  16:54-17:08

  I know a lot of Christians, even on the subject of marriage and divorce and sexuality, promote unbiblical views of those things.

  17:08-17:10

  And I don't understand the double standard.

  17:12-17:30

  Even people that wear the name of Christ saying, "Well, I think if a couple of the same sex really love each other, why shouldn't they get married?" And the answer is, "What does the Bible say?" That's the answer.

  17:31-17:35

  "What does the Bible say?" This is where Jesus took them.

  17:37-17:47

  Look at verse 4, it says, "They said, 'Moses allowed a man to write a certificate of divorce and to send her away.'" What are they talking about?

  17:48-17:49

  Jot this down.

  17:49-17:51

  I want you to look this up, this is homework.

  17:52-17:57

  Deuteronomy chapter 24, the first four verses.

  17:58-18:04

  Jesus is like, "What did Moses say about divorce?" Moses allowed us to write a certificate of divorce and send her away.

  18:05-18:07

  They were talking about Deuteronomy 24.

  18:09-18:20

  And I want you to read this, because when you turn to Deuteronomy 24, you're going to see that there was not a command about why to get a divorce in that passage.

  18:20-18:21

  There was not.

  18:22-18:23

  There was not.

  18:25-18:26

  Does that passage talk about divorce?

  18:26-18:27

  Yes.

  18:28-18:36

  That passage just simply says, if you send your wife away, if you divorce your wife - he's really describing a scenario.

  18:38-18:39

  Here's the command in the passage.

  18:40-18:40

  Take note.

  18:41-18:43

  This is the command in that Deuteronomy 24 passage.

  18:44-18:52

  God says if you send your wife away, if you divorce your wife, you cannot take her back to become your wife again.

  18:52-18:54

  Why would God make up a rule like that?

  18:57-18:59

  Because it's protection of women is what it is.

  19:00-19:02

  God was protecting women. Why?

  19:04-19:05

  Because men can be monsters.

  19:07-19:17

  And instead of viewing a woman as God does, men can view women as a means to satisfy themselves.

  19:19-19:22

  And Deuteronomy 24 was a protection against that.

  19:22-19:24

  Meaning this, like, you know what, Aaron, I love you.

  19:25-19:31

  And we've been married for a while and it's really not working out so good and I don't feel about you the way I did back when.

  19:31-19:33

  So I'll tell you what, I'm going to marry someone else.

  19:35-19:38

  And I marry someone else and then I decide, you know what?

  19:39-19:45

  Erin was a much better wife than woman B here, so I'm going to take Erin back.

  19:46-19:47

  And what am I doing?

  19:47-19:51

  I'm just treating her like property.

  19:52-19:54

  That's why God wrote that, does that make sense?

  19:54-19:55

  That's why God wrote that commandment.

  19:55-19:57

  You don't treat women like that.

  19:58-19:59

  That was the commandment.

  20:00-20:01

  But you see what the Pharisees did?

  20:01-20:03

  They only saw one part of that.

  20:04-20:05

  Certificate of divorce.

  20:05-20:07

  They were like, "Aha, there it is.

  20:07-20:08

  Certificate of divorce, divorce, divorce.

  20:08-20:10

  Moses commanded divorce.

  20:10-20:19

  He commanded it." I actually had a man come to me totally justifying his divorce on the grounds that he did the paperwork.

  20:20-20:20

  Seriously.

  20:21-20:22

  He's like, "I did all the paperwork.

  20:22-20:29

  I know that my divorce is biblical because I did all of the legal paperwork, just like the Old Testament says, you do the paperwork.

  20:31-20:39

  I'm like, "Congratulations, you are a Pharisee." Because that's exactly what they thought.

  20:39-20:40

  Just do the paperwork.

  20:41-20:41

  Right?

  20:41-20:42

  Isn't that what Moses said?

  20:43-20:44

  You've got to have a certificate, right?

  20:44-20:45

  Suitable for framing.

  20:47-20:47

  Obnoxious.

  20:49-20:49

  Obnoxious.

  20:51-21:10

  But look at what Jesus said in verse 5, "And Jesus said to them, 'Because of your hardness of heart, he wrote you this commandment.'" They're like, "Moses said, 'Write a certificate of divorce,' and Jesus said, 'Do you know why?'" Because of your hardness of heart, he wrote you this commandment.

  21:11-21:18

  That's the grounds for divorce, that's why divorce happens, and that's why marriages decay is because of hardness of heart.

  21:19-21:19

  That's why.

  21:21-21:23

  Like why is my marriage falling apart?

  21:24-21:26

  Because one or both of you are hard-hearted.

  21:26-21:26

  That's why.

  21:28-21:29

  Why do I want to divorce my spouse?

  21:30-21:32

  Because one or both of you are hard-hearted.

  21:32-21:33

  That's why.

  21:34-21:38

  Like well, how do I know that I'm hard-hearted?

  21:38-21:41

  Or how do I know that my spouse is hard-hearted?

  21:43-21:45

  And biblically there are two evidences of hard-heartedness.

  21:47-21:48

  This is a whole other sermon.

  21:49-21:49

  Just jot these down.

  21:51-21:54

  There are two evidences of hard-heartedness and the first one is adultery.

  21:55-21:58

  Adultery, Jesus said it in Matthew 5:31-32.

  21:59-22:03

  The parallel passage to Mark 10 here is Matthew chapter 19.

  22:04-22:07

  But that's an evidence of hard-heartedness is adultery.

  22:08-22:25

  When you get to the point that you are willing to physically enter in a relationship with someone not your spouse, that's evidence that you have hardened your heart to what God says about marriage.

  22:25-22:26

  That's the evidence.

  22:27-22:28

  You have hardened your heart.

  22:29-22:32

  You have rejected what God said about marriage.

  22:33-22:36

  And you have decided to make yourself God and please yourself.

  22:39-22:40

  That's one evidence.

  22:40-22:47

  The other evidence, 1 Corinthians chapter 7 talks about it, Specifically verse 15, abandonment.

  22:47-22:48

  Abandonment.

  22:48-22:51

  When a spouse completely abandons another spouse.

  22:51-22:53

  That's an evidence of being hard-hearted.

  22:53-22:55

  Jesus said, "Why does divorce happen?

  22:55-22:59

  Because of hard-heartedness." How do we know someone's hard-hearted?

  22:59-23:03

  They sleep with someone else, or they abandon their spouse.

  23:04-23:05

  Just walk out.

  23:06-23:08

  A man just decides, "I can't take this anymore.

  23:09-23:09

  I'm leaving.

  23:11-23:13

  I don't care what happens to her.

  23:15-23:16

  Abandonment.

  23:17-23:18

  Her woman walks out on her husband.

  23:20-23:26

  If you're willing to just turn around and walk away, that is evidence of being hard-hearted.

  23:28-23:30

  The point is this, why does God hate divorce?

  23:30-23:32

  Well, Jesus highlights it for us.

  23:32-23:34

  Because divorce is caused by sin.

  23:35-23:36

  There's no way around it.

  23:36-23:38

  Why do people get divorced?

  23:39-23:40

  Because they're choosing to sin.

  23:41-23:42

  Because they're hard-hearted.

  23:44-23:51

  And I want to encourage you that these conditions, adultery and abandonment, those conditions do not obligate you for divorce.

  23:52-23:52

  Okay?

  23:53-23:57

  It's not like, "Well, my spouse committed adultery, therefore I have to divorce them." No.

  23:58-23:59

  You're not obligated to.

  24:01-24:07

  Divorce is motivated by sinful, selfish desires, treating people as disposable.

  24:08-24:17

  I would encourage you church, listen, I don't know what's going on in your marriage, but I do know this, no marriage is beyond saving.

  24:20-24:21

  No marriage is beyond saving.

  24:23-24:27

  Like we've been struggling for ten years!

  24:28-24:29

  We can't get eye to eye.

  24:31-24:33

  God has the power to save your marriage.

  24:34-25:08

  Pastors, if you don't understand, we've both done some stupid and irresponsible things. God has the power to save your marriage. Are you telling me that you've done something in your marriage that has been so bad that God is sitting up in heaven going, "Wow, there is nothing I can do about this one." I mean, obviously not. Your marriage can be saved. Your marriage can be saved. God's power. A couple words of encouragement to to that, and what do we do if our marriage is struggling?

  25:09-25:10

  What do we do if our marriage is struggling?

  25:10-25:11

  Jot these down.

  25:13-25:15

  First of all, I would commend this to you.

  25:17-25:18

  Do not use the "D" word.

  25:20-25:23

  Divorce, we're talking about it here because it's in the Bible.

  25:25-25:30

  But you are forbidden to use that word in your communication with one another, husbands and wives.

  25:31-25:32

  You are not allowed to use that word.

  25:33-25:35

  You are not allowed to hold it over as a threat.

  25:37-25:38

  You know what, why don't we just get a divorce?

  25:38-25:44

  If things are that bad, if I'm such a rotten person, if I'm so bad, why don't we just get a divorce?

  25:45-25:51

  You are not allowed to say that because you're making the out an option.

  25:52-25:54

  That's something that Aaron and I have done.

  25:54-25:57

  We're like, we're not even going to use that word in our house.

  25:58-26:07

  No matter how bad things may get, we are not even going to explore getting a divorce.

  26:08-26:09

  We don't use the word in our home.

  26:11-26:16

  I would also encourage you, you know Justin earlier was talking about small group involvement.

  26:17-26:19

  That's another encouragement for you.

  26:19-26:22

  If your marriage is struggling, you and your wife need to get to a small group.

  26:24-26:24

  Okay?

  26:25-26:32

  The Fidelity Fairy is not going to show up at your house and sprinkle dust on you and magically save your marriage.

  26:33-26:38

  If you're not pursuing Christ yourself, how do you think it's going to happen?

  26:39-26:43

  How do you think Christ is going to be the Lord of your marriage if you're not pursuing Christ being the Lord of your life?

  26:44-26:57

  You and your wife need to get to a small group where you're digging into God's Word together, and you have men keeping men accountable, and women keeping women accountable, and encouraging each other, and lifting each other up in prayer.

  26:57-26:58

  You need to be in a small group.

  26:59-26:59

  Okay?

  26:59-27:01

  The Sunday to Sunday thing doesn't work.

  27:02-27:08

  If you're like, "This is the sum total of my Christian walk "is the hour and so on Sunday." You need to be in a small group.

  27:09-27:11

  I would also, here's another word, write this one down.

  27:12-27:12

  Counseling.

  27:13-27:14

  Counseling.

  27:15-27:18

  That is going to take an act of humility.

  27:20-27:22

  I think that's why a lot of people don't do it.

  27:23-27:24

  What does the Bible say?

  27:25-27:28

  Over and over, humble yourself, humble yourself, humble yourself, humble yourself.

  27:29-27:29

  An action.

  27:31-27:32

  Humbling yourself is an action.

  27:34-27:41

  And if your marriage is struggling, an action maybe that you need to take, then you know what, we need to go talk to somebody else.

  27:42-27:44

  There is no shame in that.

  27:46-27:46

  There is no shame.

  27:47-27:51

  The shame is having a problem and refusing to deal with it.

  27:51-27:52

  That's shameful.

  27:53-27:58

  But there is no shame in saying, "We're having this problem and we haven't really been able to get on the same page.

  27:58-28:09

  Let's get somebody that can get us on the same page biblically and come and talk to me." Or, "There's wonderful Christian counselors." Don't be too proud to talk to somebody else.

  28:09-28:10

  We need each other.

  28:12-28:14

  Why God hates divorce and why you should too.

  28:14-28:17

  I have a hard time saying divorce because we don't use that word in our house.

  28:18-28:20

  Why God hates divorce and why you should too.

  28:20-28:22

  Number one, divorce is caused by sin.

  28:24-28:29

  Number two, divorce destroys God's work.

  28:31-28:34

  Divorce destroys God's work.

  28:35-28:38

  Look at verses 6 -9.

  28:38-28:40

  And revving up the context here.

  28:40-28:51

  Jesus said in verse 5, "Because of your hardness of heart, He wrote you this commandment." Verse 6, "But from the beginning of creation, God made them male and female.

  28:53-29:02

  Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh." So they are no longer two, but one flesh.

  29:02-29:08

  What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.

  29:10-29:12

  The divorce destroys God's work.

  29:13-29:15

  This is the problem with divorce.

  29:15-29:21

  You know for marriage, God has a purpose, God has a picture, and God has a plan for marriage.

  29:21-29:24

  And divorce destroys all three of those.

  29:26-29:28

  God has a very specific purpose for marriage.

  29:29-29:33

  And choosing divorce is a choice to destroy that purpose.

  29:34-29:35

  God has a picture for marriage.

  29:35-29:38

  We're going to talk about, just a couple of moments.

  29:41-29:43

  completely destroys the picture that God has for marriage.

  29:45-31:12

  The plan, let's talk about God's plan for marriage. Jot these down. You're going to see this is right from the text, okay? I'm not on a political platform here. This is right from the text. God's plan for marriage, letter A, will never change. It will never change. Like, oh this is so old-fashioned, Pastor Jeff. This is so old-fashioned. Look what Jesus said. He says, "But from the beginning of creation." Meaning when God created from day six, this has been the plan. God put this plan in motion from the beginning, and it is not going to change. And the audacity, the audacity that we would even as a people use the phrase "redefining marriage." That is so obnoxious to say let's redefine marriage. Who in the world do we think we The God of the universe has, from the very beginning of his creation, says, "This is marriage." And we come along and say, "No, it's not.

  31:13-31:16

  We're going to change the definition." Who do you think you are?

  31:17-31:19

  Do you realize how obnoxious that is?

  31:20-31:22

  That would be like, I would go to my brother Mark here.

  31:23-31:25

  I'm like, "Oh, Mark, I see you have your beautiful family with you.

  31:25-31:35

  This is Jack and Jesse, right?" "You know what? From now on, your name is Raymond and your name is Douglas.

  31:36-31:44

  Okay? With the power invested in me by Harvest Bible Chapel, this is Raymond and Douglas.

  31:46-31:51

  From now on, everybody call these two boys Raymond and Douglas." And what did you say, Mark?

  31:53-32:01

  Who do I think I am coming along and renaming the boys that Mark and Kristen named?

  32:02-32:04

  Who do I think I am to just come along and say, "Nah, nah, nah.

  32:04-32:05

  We're going to change that.

  32:06-32:08

  We're going to change that." Like I'm sorry, who are you?

  32:10-32:14

  You realize on an infinite scale that's what people are doing with the Word of God?

  32:16-32:17

  We're going to redefine marriage.

  32:18-32:21

  No, it doesn't have to be between a man and a woman, it can be between two men.

  32:23-32:24

  Did you run that by God?

  32:26-32:30

  Because if you didn't, you might want to check yourself on that one.

  32:31-32:43

  So notice, first thing it says is, "will never change." Jesus said, "This is the way it's been from the beginning." Secondly, that letter B is for a man and woman.

  32:44-32:45

  It's for a man and a woman.

  32:46-32:57

  Look at the next phrase in verse 6, "God made them male and female." Again, there's so much controversy about the issue.

  32:58-33:10

  I've had so many people say, "You know, Jesus never said anything about gay marriage." The answer is no, He didn't list all the wrongs.

  33:11-33:13

  He just declared the one right.

  33:14-33:16

  He didn't list all the wrongs.

  33:16-33:17

  He declared the one right.

  33:18-33:34

  Jesus didn't say, "Well, you know, from the beginning, it wasn't as if God created just two men or just two women, or God created like a man to be with an animal, or a man to be with three women, or a woman to be with eight men." He didn't give all of the wrongs.

  33:34-33:35

  He declared the right.

  33:36-33:38

  He says, "Here's how it was in the beginning.

  33:38-33:39

  Remember creation?

  33:39-33:46

  God created exactly one man, and then He created exactly one woman.

  33:47-33:50

  And God's like, "Here's the plan.

  33:50-33:52

  Man, woman.

  33:53-33:56

  This is it." It's God's design.

  33:57-33:58

  It's God's design spiritually.

  34:00-34:04

  Men and women by their makeup are meant to complement each other.

  34:05-34:09

  Without a biology lesson, God's designed physically.

  34:11-34:13

  Marriage is for a man and a woman, according to Jesus.

  34:13-34:14

  You see that?

  34:16-34:17

  You all looking at this in your Bible?

  34:18-34:27

  So the next time somebody is like, well, Jesus didn't really say anything about homosexual marriage, you can point them to this passage and say, look at what Jesus did say about marriage.

  34:28-34:30

  Male and female is how God created.

  34:30-34:31

  This is the plan.

  34:32-34:54

  Thirdly, God's plan for marriage is turning two people into one person. Turning two people into one person. We have in our presence today our adorable newlyweds Taylor and Kate Brown. They have survived one month of marriage.

  34:57-35:08

  What's that? That's a bit easy. I texted Taylor, remember like what a week or two ago, I'm like how's your marriage holding up and he's like it's so rough off, and I knew he was kidding.

  35:09-35:10

  So good to have our newlyweds.

  35:10-35:12

  Anybody here been married less than a month?

  35:13-35:15

  I told you I was going to quiz you guys on this.

  35:16-35:18

  Most important verse in the Bible about marriage, what is it?

  35:18-35:23

  And not only are you newlyweds and just heard this, but you're also studying to be a preacher, so no pressure.

  35:24-35:26

  Most important verse in the Bible about marriage?

  35:27-35:27

  Yes.

  35:28-35:29

  Genesis chapter 2, very good.

  35:29-35:34

  Alright, you can tell your professors that you get bonus points for that or something.

  35:35-35:37

  You know, he actually listened during counseling. Did you hear that?

  35:38-35:42

  The most important verse in the Bible about marriage is what Jesus quoted here.

  35:43-35:55

  "Therefore, for this purpose a man shall leave his father and mother and shall cleave to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh." You're like, "Why is that the most important verse about marriage?" Well, Jesus said it like Matthew 19, here Mark chapter 10.

  35:55-36:01

  And then when the Apostle Paul was talking about marriage, 1 Corinthians 6, take a guess which verse he quoted.

  36:02-36:03

  Genesis 2.24.

  36:04-36:07

  And then Ephesians 5, the Apostle Paul talks about marriage.

  36:07-36:11

  You are not going to believe which verse he quoted when he was talking about marriage in Ephesians 5.

  36:12-36:14

  Yes you will, it's Genesis 2.24.

  36:15-36:17

  This is the most important verse in the Bible about marriage.

  36:18-36:21

  And notice, it was Jesus' go-to verse.

  36:22-36:24

  But also notice his commentary.

  36:26-36:35

  He quotes, "Therefore, man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh." And then Jesus gives two sentences of commentary.

  36:36-36:37

  Why does God hate divorce?

  36:37-36:37

  Look at this.

  36:38-36:42

  "So they are no longer two, but one flesh.

  36:43-36:45

  But therefore God has joined together.

  36:46-36:47

  and not man separate.

  36:48-36:54

  God's plan is to turn two people into one person.

  36:55-36:56

  That's God's plan.

  36:58-36:59

  You also remember this from counseling.

  37:00-37:06

  I said from your wedding day forward, there is no difference between Taylor and Kate.

  37:07-37:10

  When people think of one of you, they should automatically think of the other.

  37:11-37:12

  Because you're no longer two people.

  37:13-37:14

  Now you are one person.

  37:15-37:20

  I said the same thing almost two years exactly earlier to Ken and Amanda.

  37:20-37:26

  "You are no longer two people from now on." Remember I said it's not Ken and Amanda, it's one word.

  37:26-37:28

  It's Ken -Amanda.

  37:28-37:30

  And actually that's what Cade calls you guys.

  37:30-37:36

  When he talks about you guys, he's like, "Ken-Amanda." He gets it because they're not two people, they're one person.

  37:36-37:41

  And he's like, "Well, can you explain that?" "No, I can't explain that." But that's what the Bible says.

  37:41-37:44

  God doesn't view you as two people, he views you as one.

  37:44-37:46

  They are no longer two into one.

  37:46-37:48

  And you can't divide one.

  37:48-37:48

  You just can't.

  37:49-37:52

  If you try to divide one, you are just going to get pieces of something.

  37:53-37:53

  Nothing whole.

  37:56-38:02

  And those of you blessed with children, you get a great representation of the concept of two becoming one, right?

  38:04-38:05

  And think of your kids.

  38:06-38:07

  What a perfect representation.

  38:07-38:09

  Two people becoming one person.

  38:10-38:15

  So the point is this, God's plan for marriage is turning two people into one person.

  38:16-38:18

  It's turning two people into one person.

  38:20-38:22

  Look at Jesus' last statement here in verse 9.

  38:22-38:27

  It says, "What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate." See what Jesus is saying?

  38:27-38:29

  He says God's doing this thing, right?

  38:29-38:34

  God has this project going where He's turning two people into one person.

  38:35-38:36

  That's what God's doing.

  38:38-38:40

  Are you going to step in and try to undo that?

  38:41-38:45

  You know, my brother, besides being a phenomenal musician, he's a phenomenal artist.

  38:46-38:52

  And imagine, he's also like phenomenally huge, and he's even stronger than he looks.

  38:52-38:56

  But I want you to imagine that, you know, he's up here painting something.

  38:56-39:02

  Like, "Darren, what are you painting?" He's like, "Well, I'm painting a happy mountain and a happy tree." He's been taking Bob Ross classes.

  39:05-39:13

  But imagine, you know, the 500-pound gorilla is up here painting, and you just walk up to him and take the paintbrush out of his hand and say, "You know what?

  39:14-39:21

  I'm making stick men and a wagon and a swing set." How many people would line up to do that?

  39:21-39:23

  To undo the work that he's trying to do?

  39:24-39:33

  You're like, "No, pass on that." Jesus said, "God," who's even stronger than Big Brother, "God is doing a work.

  39:34-39:35

  Do you really want to step in the middle of that?

  39:36-39:40

  Do you really want to step in and try to undo something that God is trying to do?

  39:41-39:42

  Bad plan.

  39:43-39:43

  Okay?

  39:44-39:45

  Really bad plan.

  39:47-39:48

  Why God hates divorce.

  39:49-39:50

  Get this project going.

  39:51-39:57

  When a person steps in to try to unravel that and separate the two that have become one, bad plan.

  39:58-40:03

  And then finally, and quickly, why does God hate divorce?

  40:04-40:05

  Because divorce leads to more sin.

  40:07-40:11

  In the house, the disciples ask Him again about this matter.

  40:12-40:26

  Okay, so Jesus deals with the confrontation and He makes these very bold statements that were just as bold in His day as they are when we read them today because people are so backwards about marriage.

  40:28-40:35

  The disciples were just kind of like, "Whoa." He really went against what the rabbis teach.

  40:36-40:59

  And as they asked him again about the matter, "Jesus, can we sort of circle back here and talk about marriage again?" Verse 11, "And he said to them, 'Whoever divorces his wife and marries another, commits adultery against her, And as she divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery.

  41:00-41:06

  You see that not only is divorce caused by sin, divorce just leads to more sin.

  41:08-41:12

  I referenced Ephesians 5 earlier, and we're not going to turn there.

  41:14-41:21

  But you have to know that the goal of marriage, Ephesians 5, 22 verses 22-33, write that down, look this up.

  41:21-41:27

  You're going to see that the goal of marriage, what's God's goal for marriage?

  41:28-41:29

  To make you happy?

  41:30-41:31

  That's not really the goal.

  41:33-41:33

  Do you have kids?

  41:34-41:35

  That's not really the goal either.

  41:37-41:52

  According to Ephesians 5, God's goal for marriage is that a husband and wife would would be a graphic display of the relationship that Jesus Christ has with His church.

  41:53-41:54

  That's God's goal for man.

  41:56-42:01

  In this picture, Paul says the wife represents the church.

  42:03-42:05

  What's the church attitude towards her Lord?

  42:06-42:11

  Love, submission, service, relationship.

  42:13-42:17

  The relationship that the church has with the Lord Jesus Christ.

  42:17-42:20

  And what's the relationship that Jesus Christ has with the church?

  42:22-42:22

  Servant leader.

  42:24-42:26

  The wife seeing herself as the submissive helper.

  42:26-42:33

  I wish I had time to talk about being submissive because it is not what 99% of people think that it is.

  42:35-42:44

  Actually, the Bible, Ephesians 5.21, the verse previous to this passage on marriage says that in the church we should all be submissive to one another.

  42:46-42:48

  It's a concept that we should be so familiar with.

  42:49-42:56

  But all of a sudden when we talk about submission in the home, it sounds like this radical right -wing concept.

  42:57-43:04

  But the picture is the wife is the submissive helper and the husband, representing Jesus Jesus Christ is the servant leader.

  43:05-43:10

  He has the only fulfilling roles for a marriage.

  43:13-43:15

  Divorce just ruins the picture.

  43:16-43:17

  Divorce ruins the picture.

  43:18-43:19

  Wife represents the church.

  43:19-43:20

  Husband represents Christ.

  43:21-43:27

  So for a husband to walk out on his wife, what does that do to the picture?

  43:27-43:30

  Do you think Jesus Christ would ever walk out of His church?

  43:31-43:40

  "You know what, I've loved you and I've been alive in you and I've been providing for you and I'm sick of you and I'm leaving you." Is that Jesus?

  43:40-43:41

  Is that Jesus?

  43:43-43:48

  That's why when a husband does that to his wife, it grieves the heart of God because God says that's not the picture.

  43:49-43:49

  That's not it.

  43:51-43:58

  Or when a wife says, "I know that my husband is to be the leader, but nobody tells me what to do.

  43:58-44:00

  I don't care what he says.

  44:00-44:00

  He's an idiot.

  44:02-44:03

  Would the church say that about Jesus?

  44:05-44:06

  Would the church say that about Jesus?

  44:07-44:13

  I know that this is what Jesus said, but we're going to do what we want to do instead because we know better.

  44:15-44:16

  It ruins the picture.

  44:17-44:33

  I promise you, not on my integrity, on the integrity of God and His Word, that when you When you seek married people, when you seek people that are not yet married, but someday plan to be married, this is for you too.

  44:34-44:48

  When you seek to live out the roles that God has described in your Word, you will have a fulfilling and satisfying and God-glorifying marriage.

  44:49-44:53

  And when you try it your way, It's hard to kick against the goads.

  44:55-44:59

  So, I just want to close with a word.

  45:00-45:09

  For people here who have been through a divorce, I know a message like this because of what the text says, you could leave here feeling beat up.

  45:10-45:16

  Like wow, Pastor Jeff just spent like 45 minutes really making me feel like a loser.

  45:16-45:17

  And that is so not the intention.

  45:18-45:22

  The goal always is to reflect what the text actually says.

  45:23-45:25

  But I want to give a word for those who have been through a divorce.

  45:27-45:28

  There is healing.

  45:30-45:30

  There is healing.

  45:32-45:43

  Don't take this as permission, like, "Well, if there's healing, I was thinking about a divorce anyways, so I'll just divorce and experience the healing on the other side." Shall we continue the sins that grace may abound?

  45:44-45:46

  May it never be, God forbid.

  45:47-45:51

  I'd be one of those, "well, it's easier to ask for forgiveness than permission" kind of people.

  45:52-46:05

  But if you've been through a divorce, you know, there are parts of all of our pasts that there's regret and there's hurt, and we wish we could turn the clock back and do things a little bit differently.

  46:07-46:09

  The fact remains that we can't do anything about that.

  46:11-46:20

  We can do today, take an understanding of what God has said in His Word, and ask ourselves, what are we going to do about this today?

  46:22-46:24

  What are we going to do about this today?

  46:25-46:34

  If you've been through a divorce, we said this at the top, I want to say it again, you are not a second class follower of Jesus.

  46:34-46:35

  Your life is not over.

  46:36-46:39

  Your ministry is not over just because you have been through a divorce.

  46:40-46:42

  God is a God of healing and restoration.

  46:43-46:50

  I just want to simply close by asking you one question when it comes to marriage and divorce.

  46:51-46:53

  You have to pick what camp you're going to be in.

  46:54-46:56

  Are you going to be in the Pharisees' camp?

  46:58-47:00

  That says marriage is conditional on my happiness?

  47:02-47:03

  And people are disposable?

  47:05-47:06

  Or are you going to be in Jesus' camp?

  47:08-47:14

  Because marriage is created by God, defined in His Word, and displays His love.

  47:16-47:16

  Let's pray.

Small Group Questions (Whole Group):
Read Mark 10:1-12

1. Why did Jesus say divorce was caused by "hardness of heart" (Mk 10:5)? What does that say about how God views divorce?
    

2. Read Deuteronomy 24:1-4. What is the actual command regarding divorce? Why did God make such a commandment?
    

3. How would you respond to someone saying to you, "The Bible doesn't say marriage has to be between a man and a woman. If two gay people love each other, why shouldn't they get married?"

Breakout Questions:
Discuss how you can be a more godly spouse. Pray for strong marriages in your group!

Sin: Serious Business

Sin is Serious....

1. ...because it can INFLUENCE others. (Mk 9:42)



2. ...because it can DESTROY you. (Mk 9:43-48)



3. ...because it can rob you of POWER . (Mk 9:49-50)

Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above with your cursor for answers!

• Audio Transcript

  00:00-00:04

  And we're going to be in Mark chapter 9, sorry, verse 42.

  00:06-00:07

  If you would turn there with me, please.

  00:09-00:11

  It was in the news about a year ago.

  00:12-00:25

  A woman by the name of Sandra, and I'm going to try to pronounce this name carefully, Piovasan, from Salem in Westmoreland County.

  00:27-00:30

  It came out actually September 23, 2013.

  00:30-00:31

  Maybe some of you remember this story.

  00:33-00:48

  Sandra Piovasan was found in a caged rectangular enclosure in her backyard, which was actually the home for her pets.

  00:50-00:57

  She had nine half-wolves, half-dogs that were later euthanized.

  00:58-01:05

  The autopsy found that the woman suffered multiple soft tissue injuries.

  01:06-01:10

  The report says that aside from her animals, Sandra lived alone.

  01:11-01:13

  She lived in the same white house for many years.

  01:13-01:17

  neighbors said that she received visitors only rarely.

  01:20-01:25

  Family members knew something was wrong when she failed to show up for a breakfast meeting that they'd arranged.

  01:27-01:28

  Listen to this story.

  01:30-01:42

  It says, "Ms. Povison treated her wolves like children and said as much when neighbors asked about them.

  01:44-01:49

  The fenced-in area in her backyard was about the width of a three-lane road running the length of her house.

  01:49-02:02

  And the area was divided into section, one for her wolf dogs and one for her pair of Rottweilers and another for wolf puppies, with whom she'd play and romp.

  02:03-02:08

  She provided toys, a replica igloo, balls, a plastic playhouse.

  02:10-02:19

  Her neighbor across the street had asked her before her passing about her attachment to the animals.

  02:21-02:46

  And Ms. Piovesan said in response, "They give me unqualified love." neighbor also went on to say that she also had one wolf that lived in the house with her named Spirit. She had raised Spirit from a puppy and she kept that one in the house.

  02:48-03:03

  The police officer, Officer Gower, who was covering this incident said, she said that that she liked the wolves because they were pretty.

  03:06-03:07

  Why she would want them as pets?

  03:09-03:10

  That's beyond me.

  03:12-03:13

  That's a tragic story, isn't it?

  03:14-03:22

  Here's a woman who had these wolves that were very cute.

  03:26-03:34

  I would suggest like all furry animals, including humans, when they're very young and very small, they're very cute.

  03:34-03:35

  True or false?

  03:37-03:39

  Baby wolf pups?

  03:39-03:40

  They're adorable.

  03:44-03:47

  They were her children, so to speak.

  03:48-03:52

  And she lived with them and one actually lived in the house with her.

  03:54-04:09

  What you have to see from this story is her familiarity with the wolves reduced her awareness of the danger of the wolves.

  04:10-04:12

  I want to say that again. Listen.

  04:12-04:20

  Her familiarity with the wolves reduced her awareness of the danger of the wolves.

  04:23-04:26

  that didn't reduce the danger itself.

  04:26-04:28

  Do you understand that?

  04:29-04:36

  She became familiar enough with them that she was no longer scared of them for what they were.

  04:40-04:46

  When the fact of the matter is, they were just as dangerous as wolves always are.

  04:50-04:57

  And her failure to recognize the danger killed her.

  05:01-05:05

  This is a woman roughly in her own community.

  05:08-05:11

  You know there's entire TV shows centered around this concept.

  05:12-05:13

  What's it called?

  05:13-05:13

  My Wife Watches.

  05:14-05:15

  Is it Fatal Attractions?

  05:15-05:15

  Is that right?

  05:16-05:17

  It's on like the animal planet.

  05:17-05:20

  But these people get these animals.

  05:23-05:24

  Sometimes it's wolves.

  05:25-05:26

  Sometimes it's tigers.

  05:29-05:30

  Or vipers.

  05:32-05:35

  And I'm sure initially there was a little bit of fear.

  05:36-05:39

  I would be scared to have that thing bite me.

  05:39-05:47

  And that fear goes to familiarity, which goes to - I even heard the story of a woman.

  05:47-05:53

  A woman who kept a gaboon viper running around her house loose like a kitten.

  05:54-05:56

  And it bit her and killed her.

  05:58-06:09

  Because it was a viper, and she failed to recognize the danger, her familiarity reduced the awareness of the danger.

  06:09-06:11

  And church, listen.

  06:14-06:15

  This is what it's like with sin.

  06:19-06:27

  This is what it is like with sin in your life and in my life when we start to get familiar with our sin.

  06:28-06:38

  We start to get comfortable with our sin and at first it doesn't seem like that big of a deal and it might even seem a little cute and it seems harmless.

  06:43-06:50

  We become so familiar with our sin that it no longer seems dangerous to us because it's just been a part of our lives.

  06:53-06:55

  But the truth is, it hasn't lost its danger.

  07:00-07:02

  There's one thing you need to leave here with today.

  07:04-07:17

  And you know, we've been walking through the Gospel of Mark, and I certainly see some humorous encounters that Jesus had with people.

  07:19-07:23

  But honestly, this passage that we're looking at today is anything but humorous.

  07:25-07:29

  This is one of the most serious and sobering passages in your entire Bible.

  07:32-07:42

  This is one of the most serious things that Jesus Christ, God in the flesh, this is one of the most serious things that ever came out of His mouth when He was on this earth.

  07:44-07:51

  And I would encourage you to take His words for as serious as they are.

  07:53-08:36

  And I know we're in a warm auditorium, and I know some of us have had very busy weekends with picnics, but I would encourage you, one thing today, you have to leave with, it's on your outline, in your bulletin, here it is, this is what Jesus is communicating in this passage, sin is serious. Okay? Sin is serious. In church we've got to stop treating it like a wolf puppy. Sin is serious. Cute and harmless looking now, destructive later.

  08:38-08:49

  Sin is serious. I encourage you to take some notes. Why is sin serious? Number one, I want I want you to write this down.

  08:50-08:53

  Sin is serious because it can influence others.

  08:55-08:56

  It can influence others.

  08:56-08:58

  That was the first thing that Jesus said.

  08:58-08:59

  Look at verse 42.

  09:02-09:14

  Jesus said, "Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to sin..." Now stop here.

  09:14-09:16

  Why is He talking about this?

  09:16-09:16

  Well back up.

  09:17-09:51

  about last week. He talked about receiving, the last couple of weeks actually, verse 37, whoever receives one such child in my name. And then last week, well what about these people that aren't part of our team so to speak and are doing ministry and Jesus said don't stop them. The one who is not against us is for us. And then he says in verse 41, Whoever gives you a cup of water to drink because you belong to Christ will by no means lose his reward." So he's talking about other believers.

  09:54-10:00

  And he launches that teaching into an extremely serious threat.

  10:00-10:21

  He said, "Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him, if a great millstone were hung around his neck and he were thrown into the sea." Jesus talked about receiving his people.

  10:22-10:24

  He talked about not stopping whoever is for him.

  10:25-10:30

  And something you have to see in this passage, sin is serious because it can influence others.

  10:31-10:34

  And that's not even the most serious part of this verse.

  10:34-10:42

  The most serious part of this verse is this, Jesus loves His people.

  10:45-10:48

  Jesus loves His people.

  10:51-10:57

  In fact, Galatians 2.20 tells us that Jesus is alive in His people.

  10:57-11:18

  Jesus had already told us that how we treat His people is the way that we treat Him, and "Well, actually it's the way that you would treat the one that sent me." The way that you treat another believer is the way that you would treat God the Father Himself.

  11:19-11:20

  Jesus loves His people.

  11:20-11:22

  He's alive in His people.

  11:22-11:26

  And He is very serious about the way His people are treated.

  11:30-11:40

  He said, "If you, whoever, would cause one of these little ones who believe in Me..." Remember, He's not just talking about children, ok?

  11:41-11:43

  He's talking about born-again people.

  11:44-11:51

  He's talking about people that have dedicated themselves, have been born again in Him.

  11:53-12:00

  He said if you would cause one of them to sin, you'd better have a great millstone.

  12:02-12:08

  We're talking about a rock that was used to grind grain that would weigh tons.

  12:10-12:15

  Tied around your neck and the rock thrown into the sea, you being dragged behind it.

  12:16-12:21

  Here's the point, messing with Jesus' people messing with Him.

  12:24-12:25

  And that is a bad plan.

  12:28-12:29

  You're like, "Well, Pastor Jeff, what's this mean?

  12:30-12:43

  If you cause someone to sin, what exactly does that mean with the whole millstone around the neck into the sea?" And my word for you today is let's not find out.

  12:45-12:48

  For sure, it means this.

  12:49-12:51

  not be the cause of someone else sinning.

  12:52-12:53

  You're like, "Well, how does that happen?

  12:54-12:57

  How can I cause someone else to sin?" I want you to jot this down.

  12:57-12:59

  There's actually two categories.

  12:59-13:00

  There's two categories.

  13:01-13:05

  The first one, write this down, you can cause someone to sin indirectly.

  13:07-13:07

  Indirectly.

  13:08-13:09

  Like, what do you mean by that?

  13:09-13:11

  What I mean is just by your example.

  13:12-13:13

  Just by your example.

  13:15-13:37

  Your pride, your self-exaltation, your self-centeredness, your materialism, your personal compromise about sin, your personal lessening the seriousness of sin in your life, and that being an example for someone else, that's causing someone else to sin.

  13:37-13:43

  You can cause someone to sin indirectly by the example that you set.

  13:45-13:46

  That is serious business.

  13:48-13:54

  You're like, "Well, what I do, really it only hurts me." That's not true.

  13:58-13:59

  You have eyes watching you.

  14:02-14:04

  You can cause someone to sin indirectly.

  14:05-14:07

  Or you can cause someone to sin directly.

  14:10-14:11

  What's the mission of our church?

  14:13-14:15

  Our mission is to make disciples, right?

  14:15-14:19

  We want to glorify God through the fulfillment of the Great Commission and the Spirit of the Great Commandment.

  14:19-14:21

  In other words, our church is about making disciples.

  14:23-14:25

  But you can disciple people the wrong way.

  14:26-14:27

  You can disciple people.

  14:27-14:32

  You can teach people about taking shortcuts in life.

  14:35-14:40

  You can teach people that the integrity issues aren't really the important issues.

  14:42-14:43

  People are watching you.

  14:45-14:49

  And people are listening to you in your workplace.

  14:51-14:54

  You are the representative of Jesus Christ in your workplace.

  14:55-14:58

  You're like, "No, I'm not." You are.

  14:59-15:02

  2 Corinthians 5 says that we are ambassadors for Christ.

  15:03-15:08

  You're representing Jesus Christ to somebody if you bear the name Christian.

  15:11-15:12

  And people are watching you.

  15:15-15:18

  You are the representative of Christ in your neighborhood.

  15:21-15:22

  Taking it real serious.

  15:24-15:27

  You are the representative of Christ to your children.

  15:30-15:44

  And there's not an arena of life where the influence is more direct or more consistent than in your own home.

  15:46-15:47

  Because your kids are watching you.

  15:48-15:51

  Your kids are looking for hypocrisy in you.

  15:52-16:12

  You're looking for, "Well, Dad says this, but Dad does this." "Well, Mom says this is important, but Mom doesn't act like it's important." You're like, "Well, do what I say, not what I do." You're discipling your children to hypocrisy when you say that.

  16:16-16:18

  Sin is serious because it can influence others.

  16:19-16:21

  Jesus takes that very seriously.

  16:23-16:27

  Secondly, sin is serious because it can destroy you.

  16:31-16:33

  Sin is serious because it can destroy you.

  16:33-16:36

  Look at verses 43 down through verse 48.

  16:38-16:41

  Jesus said, "And if your hand causes you to sin, cut it off.

  16:43-16:53

  For it is better for you to enter life crippled than with two hands to go to hell, the unquenchable fire.

  16:54-16:57

  And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off.

  16:58-17:05

  It is better for you to enter life lame than with two feet to be thrown into hell.

  17:07-17:11

  And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out.

  17:12-17:29

  It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into hell, where their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched.

  17:30-17:32

  Sin is serious because it can destroy you.

  17:32-17:35

  Now listen, do not misunderstand.

  17:38-17:41

  Jesus is not saying that a believer can go to hell.

  17:41-17:43

  He is not saying that.

  17:43-17:44

  Okay?

  17:48-17:49

  This is a call to salvation.

  17:51-17:53

  Jesus had already made comments like this.

  17:53-17:57

  If anyone would come after Me, he must deny himself.

  17:58-18:00

  He must take up his cross.

  18:00-18:01

  He must follow Me.

  18:02-18:04

  And certainly, this is a call to salvation.

  18:05-18:13

  If you're sitting here today, and you have not come to Christ because you have found that some sin and your life is much more important to you.

  18:14-18:15

  This is a word for you.

  18:17-18:18

  You've got to cut it off.

  18:22-18:29

  He says it's better to enter life maimed than to be whole and go to hell.

  18:31-18:34

  But he's not saying that a believer will go to hell.

  18:34-18:36

  Like, you know, you're a follower of Christ.

  18:38-18:47

  You've just gone through a really tough season in your life, and you've fallen into sin, and now you're facing eternal judgment.

  18:47-18:49

  He is not saying that.

  18:49-18:54

  Everyone say, "He is not saying that." That is very important, ok?

  18:55-18:57

  Nothing can rob you of your salvation.

  18:57-18:58

  Nothing.

  19:01-19:05

  However, Jesus is...

  19:05-19:06

  Believers!

  19:06-19:12

  Jesus is still emphasizing the seriousness of sin.

  19:14-19:20

  Meaning this, obviously there are some disciples listening to this teaching, and here's the point, don't miss this.

  19:21-19:30

  He's saying you need to get serious about sin when you come to Him, and you need to stay serious about sin in your walk with Him.

  19:34-20:04

  John the Baptist comes on the scene. Matthew chapter 3 verse 8, John the Baptist said, "Bear fruit in keeping with repentance." So when we talk about repentance, I want you to think about repentance. Is repentance a one-time thing? Like you know what, when I I gave my life to Jesus, I gave my life to Christ back in 1995.

  20:05-20:06

  That was like when I repented.

  20:06-20:08

  Is that like a one-time thing?

  20:12-20:13

  Is it a yearly thing?

  20:14-20:18

  Every year at our church, we mark a week off of the calendar.

  20:18-20:20

  It's like repentance week at Harvest Bible Chapel.

  20:21-20:23

  Every year we set aside time to repent.

  20:26-20:28

  Actually, I don't think either of those are the case.

  20:31-20:32

  Repentance is a constant thing.

  20:34-20:37

  Repentance is a constant thing.

  20:37-20:40

  The word repent literally means to change your mind.

  20:42-21:22

  In other words, change your mind from your earthly, fleshly, sinful way of thinking and think the way God thinks, but continue to think the way God thinks. You constantly are repenting. That's why John the Baptist didn't just say, "Repent." He said, "Bear fruit in keeping with repentance." And it's for Christians too. In the book of Revelation, chapters 2 and 3, we talked about this. Jesus addressed the seven churches. To all but two of the churches, he said, "Repent. Change your mind. You're thinking about things wrongly.

  21:22-21:54

  You need to change your mind. Think of repentance like a diet." Right? If you were going to go on a diet, he said, "My diet starts today. I'm going to eat healthy today. And that will set me on the course of health for the rest of my life. Because today, what is this, August 24th? August 24th I started a diet. I dieted on August 24th and that changed everything.

  21:58-22:11

  So what happens tomorrow? The diet has to continue, right? You're changing your mindset about food and nutrition and what you should eat and the way you should eat. That mindset That has to happen tomorrow too, right?

  22:12-22:12

  And the next day.

  22:12-22:16

  If it's going to be effective, it has to be consistent.

  22:17-22:24

  It can't just be like, "Well, I know that I'm healthy because I went on a diet when I was a sophomore in high school.

  22:24-22:39

  So yeah, I'm on a diet." Like, "Well, where are you coming up with this?" The verbiage that Jesus uses in this passage is in the present tense.

  22:40-22:42

  Meaning this, keep doing it.

  22:43-22:45

  Keep dealing with your sin.

  22:46-22:50

  Always, when it shows up, when it comes up, keep dealing with it.

  22:52-22:54

  I think it's pretty obvious, don't you?

  22:54-22:57

  Jesus talked about verse 43, your hand.

  22:58-22:59

  Verse 45, your foot.

  22:59-23:01

  Verse 47, your eye.

  23:02-23:05

  He's talking about all areas of life.

  23:08-23:11

  Some sin is in what we do with our hands.

  23:13-23:17

  Jesus said if that's a source of your sin, you need to cut your hand off.

  23:19-23:20

  Some sin has to do with where we go.

  23:21-23:30

  Like I know I shouldn't go there, because every time I go there I act like an idiot and end up sinning and end up regretting it.

  23:31-23:34

  Jesus says if your foot's taking you there, cut it off.

  23:37-23:44

  For some it's, "Men, men, what you're looking at with your eyes.

  23:45-23:46

  I shouldn't be looking at this.

  23:46-23:48

  I shouldn't be watching this.

  23:50-23:52

  It's causing me to sin.

  23:52-24:02

  I shouldn't be watching these things." "Gouge your own eyeball out of your head," is what Jesus said.

  24:07-24:08

  Do you remember the story of Aaron Ralston?

  24:10-24:11

  You remember his story?

  24:12-24:24

  Back in 2003 in southeastern Utah, Aaron Ralston was doing what you call "canyoneering." What's canyoneering?

  24:24-24:26

  It's like traveling through a canyon.

  24:27-24:28

  It's more than just hiking.

  24:28-24:31

  It's also rappelling and swimming and rock climbing.

  24:32-24:34

  And you remember the story?

  24:35-24:40

  A boulder dislodged and trapped his right arm underneath it.

  24:42-24:49

  Aaron Ralston took a dull knife and cut his own arm off.

  24:52-24:59

  After being trapped for five days and seven hours, he cut his own arm off.

  25:03-25:09

  After freeing himself, he still had to get on a 65 foot sheer cliff in order to reach safety.

  25:10-25:12

  He actually attended Carnegie Mellon.

  25:12-25:13

  Did you know that?

  25:14-25:15

  Local flavor.

  25:15-25:20

  They made a movie about his life called 127 Hours.

  25:24-25:28

  You're like, "Wow, thank you for that gruesome story Pastor Jeff.

  25:28-25:31

  Where are you going with this?" Well, you see the point, right?

  25:32-25:40

  Aaron Ralston figured it was worth losing an arm if it meant saving his life.

  25:42-25:43

  Here's the thing.

  25:46-25:54

  Cutting off a body part is not going to stop you from sinning.

  25:56-26:00

  Because ultimately, point to where sin originates.

  26:00-26:01

  Point to where sin really affects.

  26:02-26:03

  Everybody point. Where does sin?

  26:03-26:04

  Right here, right?

  26:05-26:07

  This is where the problem is with sin.

  26:09-26:10

  It's a heart issue.

  26:12-26:15

  Jesus made this clear. Remember Matthew chapter 5?

  26:16-26:23

  You've heard that it was said, "Thou shalt not murder." But I tell you, if you hate your brother, you've committed murder in your heart.

  26:23-26:25

  Jesus said murder isn't just the act.

  26:27-26:47

  And here, Jesus said, "Thou shalt not commit adultery." Jesus said, "But I say to you, if you look at a woman lustfully, you've committed adultery in your heart." is emphasizing is how seriously we have to deal with sin.

  26:50-26:52

  Notice how many times Jesus mentioned hell.

  26:54-27:12

  If you're sitting here today and you haven't received Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, you have not accepted His death on the cross for the forgiveness of your sin and His resurrection from the dead to give you eternal life to restore the relationship with God, The rest you have to look forward to is hell.

  27:14-27:20

  And I'd rather not talk about that, but Jesus did.

  27:22-27:23

  Hell is a real place.

  27:26-27:30

  And real people are really going there.

  27:32-27:40

  That's why Jesus gave a threat first about causing a little one to sin, And here He gives a warning.

  27:41-27:45

  Your sin will destroy you.

  27:46-27:50

  The word that Jesus used for hell is actually Gehenna.

  27:53-27:57

  You can read about it in 2 Kings 16-21.

  27:57-27:59

  It's also called the Valley of Hinnom.

  28:02-28:08

  And it was a place where babies were sacrificed to Molech.

  28:09-28:11

  It became a place of human sacrifice.

  28:14-28:55

  People associated it with a place of death and destruction and screaming, crying babies murdered. A place so horrifying that you don't even want to think about it, let alone talk about it. Jesus said that's what hell is like. If you haven't received Christ as your Lord and Savior, I want to remind you again that you are one breath away from hell.

  28:58-29:05

  And hell is not some boogeyman that the church made up in order to scare people into obedience.

  29:07-29:10

  According to Jesus, hell is a real place.

  29:12-29:14

  And real people really go there.

  29:16-29:27

  And for Christians, those of you who have received Christ, we are not dismissing the seriousness of sin in your own life.

  29:28-29:30

  Christians, listen to me very closely.

  29:31-29:33

  Sin can still ruin your life.

  29:33-29:37

  It won't send you to hell, but it will ruin your life.

  29:38-29:40

  Sin will ruin your life.

  29:42-29:48

  If you are entertaining your sin like a wolf pup, it is going to destroy you.

  29:50-29:59

  You are one bad decision away from ruining your life.

  29:59-30:00

  Did you know that?

  30:01-30:05

  You are one bad decision away from ruining your life.

  30:06-30:07

  Think about it. Married people.

  30:09-30:23

  You get on social media The flame from the past gets in contact with you and you entertain the idea of just keeping conversation going.

  30:26-30:28

  That's a decision that can destroy your marriage.

  30:30-30:36

  You will look back at this time right now and think, man, I wish I would have listened.

  30:36-30:39

  I wish I would have taken this more seriously.

  30:39-30:42

  I wish I could go back to make a different decision.

  30:43-30:44

  That's how serious sin is.

  30:46-30:47

  It can destroy your marriage.

  30:49-30:54

  You're one bad decision away from destroying your job, your livelihood.

  30:55-31:00

  One little compromise here, one little shortcut here, one little integrity issue here.

  31:02-31:09

  You're one bad decision away from losing your job, which could mean income, insurance, Benefits whatever.

  31:12-31:14

  Families, that doesn't just affect you, does it?

  31:16-31:22

  You could be doing some major damage not only to your life, but to the people that God has entrusted under your care.

  31:23-31:27

  You're one bad decision away from allowing sin to wreck you!

  31:30-31:34

  You are one bad decision away from allowing sin to destroy your health.

  31:36-31:43

  up some habit, continuing some habit, overdosing through some habit.

  31:46-32:03

  Your one bad decision away from a police record, going somewhere, drinking too much, shouldn't drive, going to do it anyways, man I wish I hadn't made that foolish decision.

  32:05-32:11

  one bad decision away from doing some major damage in your life.

  32:13-32:17

  You know, like, "Pastor Jeff, you're getting a little too serious on us today, okay?

  32:17-32:23

  Can you go back to the jokes?" And no, because this is no laughing matter.

  32:25-32:42

  I've been torn up over these last couple of months, reading stories of very prominent and popular pastors who have shipwrecked their ministries.

  32:44-33:00

  I'm not going to mention names, but for the sake of sexual inappropriateness, for the sake of flat-out affairs and pornography and mistreating the people under these pastors' cares.

  33:00-33:18

  I've been reading these stories heartbroken to hear someone that God used so mightily to bring so many people to Him have left so many people in a wake of jaded, cynical towards the church.

  33:21-33:33

  And the reason I'm saying that, if that can happen to these guys who are rocking it with these churches of thousands and all these people around them with them and encouraging them and praying for them, if it can happen to these guys, it can happen to me.

  33:35-33:37

  If it can happen to these guys, it can happen to you.

  33:40-33:43

  Maybe keeping that wolf pup in the house isn't such a good idea.

  33:46-33:59

  So Jesus gives a call to what some people call, and I like this term, "radical amputation." As I said, obviously you don't literally cut your arm off.

  34:01-34:03

  But you certainly cut off some other things.

  34:05-34:07

  I had a parent come to me years ago, distraught.

  34:08-34:09

  This mother was just distraught.

  34:09-34:17

  She said, "I found out my son was looking at pornography." I said, "Well, what's going on?" He said, "We have this computer in his room and I found out that he was getting on there looking at pornography.

  34:18-34:19

  What should I do, Pastor Jeff?

  34:19-34:22

  What should I do?" I said, "Throw his computer out.

  34:23-34:28

  Take it out and smash it with a hammer." He's like, "Well, that sounds pretty extreme.

  34:29-34:32

  Like Jesus said to cut your arm off if it causes you to sin.

  34:33-34:43

  I think smashing your stupid computer is a little less extreme than that." For some of you, maybe you need to smash your stupid computer.

  34:44-34:48

  Or at the very least, get some accountability blockers on it.

  34:49-35:04

  You know, they have software that it'll send everything you look at on a computer, it'll send to somebody else to say, "Here's what he looked at this week." Parents, you should have stuff on your computer in your home that blocks that stuff from coming up.

  35:08-35:09

  Cut it off.

  35:11-35:12

  For some of you, maybe it's TV.

  35:14-35:16

  A lot of that garbage on TV.

  35:17-35:19

  Maybe you need to cut off the cable.

  35:20-35:22

  Cut off your dish subscription.

  35:24-35:25

  Cut it off.

  35:26-35:27

  That sounds awfully extreme, really.

  35:28-35:29

  As extreme as ripping your eyeball out of your head?

  35:31-35:35

  Because that's how extreme Jesus said to get when it comes to dealing with your sin.

  35:37-35:39

  For some of you, maybe it's a relationship.

  35:40-35:45

  You've been kind of flirting, been kind of keeping it on a string, keeping the conversation going.

  35:45-35:46

  You cut it off.

  35:47-35:50

  This isn't appropriate and it's not right.

  35:51-35:52

  Best of luck to you.

  35:53-35:53

  Goodbye.

  35:56-35:56

  Done.

  35:59-36:02

  As I said, for some of you, maybe it's a place that you go.

  36:05-36:08

  I know I shouldn't go there. I know I shouldn't go there. I shouldn't be around those people.

  36:08-36:10

  I shouldn't go there. Stop going!

  36:15-36:16

  Well, how do I do that?

  36:17-36:18

  Don't show up!

  36:23-36:25

  I call these spiritual insights.

  36:28-36:30

  But come on, seriously people, is it that hard?

  36:33-36:34

  Don't let sin entice you.

  36:36-36:37

  You are not a slave.

  36:37-36:39

  We just sang that this morning.

  36:39-36:40

  You are not a slave to sin.

  36:42-36:45

  You are a spirit-filled, born-again, adopted child of God.

  36:48-36:49

  And for some of you, it's time to act like it.

  36:53-36:59

  Sin is serious because it can influence others, because it can destroy you, and finally, because Because it can rob you of power.

  37:01-37:03

  Because it can rob you of power.

  37:06-37:07

  Look at verse 49.

  37:10-37:11

  This is a tough verse.

  37:12-37:20

  "For everyone will be salted with fire." Salt, what is he talking about?

  37:20-37:21

  Salt.

  37:22-37:34

  The Scriptures add, "And every sacrifice shall be salted with salt." What in the world is he talking about here?

  37:34-37:35

  Jot this reference down.

  37:35-37:37

  We're not going to turn there, but I want you to write this down.

  37:38-37:42

  And we do have people on our hospitality team that make sure you write these things down.

  37:43-37:44

  Right, Amanda?

  37:45-37:46

  You're standing at the door.

  37:46-37:46

  Let me see your notes.

  37:50-37:52

  hitting, sort of.

  37:53-37:55

  Write down Leviticus 2.13.

  37:56-38:03

  You know under the Old Testament sacrificial system, there are many different types of sacrifices, you know?

  38:04-38:07

  There was like the yearly sacrifice, Leviticus 16, Day of Atonement.

  38:07-38:09

  There were guilt offerings.

  38:09-38:14

  And if you read Leviticus chapter 2, one of the offerings was called a grain offering.

  38:14-38:16

  It was just an offering of devotion.

  38:16-38:19

  It was just Israel's way of saying, "We're devoted to you God.

  38:20-38:22

  We love you and we are dedicated to you.

  38:23-38:34

  But there's an interesting thing that Leviticus 2 talks about, and it says that the sacrifices all have to have salt added to the sacrifice.

  38:34-38:35

  Well, what's up with the salt?

  38:37-38:43

  Leviticus 2 tells us that the salt symbolizes the covenant.

  38:45-38:49

  In other words, salt symbolizes God's presence.

  38:51-38:57

  It's not like we're offering some sacrifice to some generic unknown God concept.

  38:58-39:05

  The salt represents the Lord Jehovah God's presence among us.

  39:06-39:08

  That's what the salt represented.

  39:09-39:40

  You're like, "Well, what does that have to do with me?" Romans 12.1 Christian says, "Present your bodies as a," who knows, yeah I heard a few people say it, right, "living sacrifice." In the Old Testament, the sacrifice was laid on the altar and it was killed and it stayed dead. But you and I, according to Romans 12.1, We are living sacrifices.

  39:40-39:44

  If you can get that picture, we're on the altar and we get off the altar.

  39:46-39:48

  Our lives are a sacrifice.

  39:51-39:52

  Living sacrifice.

  39:52-39:57

  Present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.

  40:02-40:05

  Salt is God's influence on you.

  40:08-40:26

  is that Old Testament sacrifice had to have the salt, the symbol of God's covenant, of God's presence. Here we are going to see that Christian salt refers to God's influence on you. In other words, God's salt in your life is walking by the Holy Spirit.

  40:28-40:35

  To put it another way, let me ask you this. How much does God influence you? How much How much does God influence you?

  40:36-40:39

  How much is God a factor in your life?

  40:42-40:46

  How much does God's presence flavor what you do?

  40:49-40:50

  Look at v. 50.

  40:50-40:52

  Jesus said, "Salt is good.

  40:56-41:04

  But if the salt has lost its saltiness, how will you make it salty again?" The church, in other words, God is not salting you.

  41:04-41:09

  If God is not the primary influence in your life, with what shall you substitute?

  41:11-41:12

  With whom shall you substitute?

  41:14-41:20

  If you're not walking by the Spirit, what is your plan?

  41:20-41:21

  Is there a plan B?

  41:22-41:32

  Like, well, yeah, God has some people walk by the Spirit, but God totally has me on this different track where I'm like still holy and righteous and really like awesomely godly, but it's a different way.

  41:32-41:37

  not by the Holy Spirit. God has this different track for me. Is that true? Absolutely not.

  41:38-41:56

  You've got to have the salt, man, right? You've got to have the salt. God's influence, God's presence. And Jesus said, "The salt has lost its saltiness, how will you make it salty again?" Meaning there's no substitute. There's no substitute for it.

  41:58-42:08

  You know, in the first century, sometimes they would mix salt with useless things like gypsum, which is sort of a filler.

  42:11-42:24

  There's a danger for us in mixing God's salt, God's influence on our lives, and putting our worthless filler, or living in the flesh.

  42:26-42:27

  That's the danger, isn't it?

  42:28-42:30

  Living in the flesh short circuits what God wants to do in you.

  42:31-42:44

  That's why Jesus said, "Have salt in yourselves." Just as the Old Testament sacrifices must have salt, you, New Testament living sacrifice, can't truly be a sacrifice without salt.

  42:46-42:51

  Meaning God's presence, His influence, His flavoring, His permeation in your life.

  42:53-42:54

  Look at the last phrase.

  42:57-43:04

  Jesus says, "Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another." What's He talking about?

  43:04-43:08

  Well, if you go back to verse 34, you see they were arguing.

  43:08-43:10

  Arguing, fighting, bickering.

  43:12-43:14

  Jesus was just making a direct application.

  43:18-43:25

  Saying, one of the ways that to see God at work influencing your life is when you're at peace with one another.

  43:26-43:27

  Stop the fighting.

  43:27-43:28

  Ok?

  43:29-43:31

  Let God have control of your life.

  43:31-43:35

  Stop the fleshly, self-motivating, "I'm better than you" stuff.

  43:38-43:42

  But I want to ask you, are you salty?

  43:45-43:52

  Has God's influence in your life led you to treat sin But it is.

  43:53-43:57

  Has it caused you to avoid being a sin-inducing influence?

  43:59-44:01

  Which is deadly serious to Jesus.

  44:04-44:05

  We're going to pray.

  44:08-44:11

  Is there any area of compromise in your life?

  44:13-44:16

  Is there any area of compromise in your life?

  44:21-44:26

  Is there any area of your life where you have allowed the weakness of your flesh to dominate you?

  44:28-44:34

  Any area of your life where you have refused to allow God to influence you?

  44:34-44:35

  Do you have an area like that in your life?

  44:36-44:45

  Where you're like, "God, I'm giving everything to you, but this one little thing in my life, nobody knows about it." I know you know about it, God, but this is something I don't want you to affect.

  44:45-44:50

  God, can we just not talk about this area?

  44:52-44:54

  We just keep this area, God, can we just keep this?

  44:57-45:00

  I want you to have lordship over everything else, God, but just not this thing.

  45:03-45:06

  What that thing is, is a wolf pup.

  45:09-45:19

  This thing that you are shielding from God, this thing that you are guarding God's influence over is a thing that is going to harm you.

  45:24-45:26

  But I am persuaded of better things for you.

  45:28-45:30

  Let this be a day of repentance.

  45:31-45:33

  Let this be a day of new things for someone.

  45:34-45:42

  Let this be a new chapter in your life where you say, "You know what, Pastor Jeff, you're I've been holding on to this pup for too long and I am done.

  45:44-45:45

  Come up and pray with us.

Small Group Questions (Whole Group):
Read Mark 9:42-50

Breakout Questions:

Pray for one another!

Unity: Whose Team Are You On?

Why Shouldn't I Oppose Other Ministries?

1. Because it's about Jesus' NAME , not yours. (Mk 9:38-39)



2. Because Jesus draws the LINE , not you. (Mk 9:40)



3. Because Jesus is the JUDGE , not you. (Mk 9:41)

Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!

• Audio Transcript

  00:00-00:05

  Turn in your Bibles to the Gospel according to Mark, in chapter 9.

  00:06-00:15

  I'm going to be honest with you, sometimes you come into church and there's like a little bit of an excited buzz and energy and then there's mornings like this.

  00:16-00:17

  We're in a bit of a lull this morning.

  00:19-00:19

  Anybody?

  00:20-00:22

  I see some heads nodding, okay.

  00:23-00:27

  So, I want you to turn to the person next to you and grab them and shake them violently.

  00:28-00:28

  No, don't do that.

  00:28-00:29

  No, no, no, no, no, no.

  00:30-00:32

  Some of you are a little too eager to take that opportunity.

  00:33-00:44

  Like, "I've been waiting for this and the preacher said I can do it." Well, it's a rainy day outside and some of us had a very late night last night and this is very important.

  00:44-00:47

  We're going to turn to God's Word and it's important to God.

  00:48-00:48

  Is it important to you?

  00:50-00:51

  All right, so let's go after it.

  00:52-00:54

  I know something that will shake us out of the lull.

  00:55-00:56

  You want to hear a joke?

  00:57-00:58

  You want to hear a joke?

  00:59-00:59

  All right.

  01:01-01:09

  So this guy was shipwrecked and got stranded by himself on this deserted island.

  01:10-01:15

  And he was at this deserted island for three months.

  01:15-01:16

  Three months he was there.

  01:18-01:28

  Three months by himself on this island, when eventually a team showed up, spotted him, and rescued him.

  01:29-01:33

  But when they came on the island to rescue him, they saw that the man had built three huts.

  01:36-01:40

  And they said, "Well, that looks very productive "for only being here for three months.

  01:41-01:43

  "What's this hut over here?

  01:43-01:46

  "What's this first one?" And the man says, "Well, that's my house.

  01:48-02:10

  "You know, that was the place that, you know, "at night I would go there, "and that's where I'd sleep, and you know, "that was my house." And they said, "Well, what's this hut a little bit to the right of your house?" And he goes, "Well, that's my church." You know, that was just a place that I built.

  02:10-02:18

  I would go there and I would pray, and I would think about Scripture and just sort of talk to God.

  02:19-02:21

  And that became my church.

  02:23-02:28

  And they said, "Well, what's this third hut over here?" And the guy said, I don't really want to talk about that hut.

  02:30-02:33

  What do you mean you don't want to talk about that hut?

  02:33-02:36

  The guy's like, it's a little bit of a sensitive subject.

  02:37-02:40

  And I'd really rather not talk about that hut.

  02:40-02:41

  And they're like, come on, come on.

  02:41-02:43

  Tell us what the third hut is.

  02:43-02:43

  Come on.

  02:43-02:47

  The guy's, no, I don't really want to talk about it.

  02:48-02:49

  Let's just let it go.

  02:49-02:51

  And they said, come on, please, tell us.

  02:51-02:52

  What is that hut?

  02:52-02:53

  We're dying to know now.

  02:54-02:55

  What is that hut?

  02:55-03:03

  And the man said, "All right, that's the church that I used to attend." How about another joke?

  03:04-03:05

  Okay, did you hear this one?

  03:06-03:08

  Since that one was like, "We're on a roll here," right?

  03:11-03:15

  So the story goes about this man who died, went to heaven, and Saint Peter was showing him around.

  03:16-03:18

  That's not theologically accurate, right?

  03:20-03:22

  But it's a joke, and you're going to get the point here in a second.

  03:24-03:32

  So St. Peter is showing this man around and Peter says, "Yeah, you know, we have heaven sort of divided up into neighborhoods.

  03:32-03:38

  Did you know that?" He goes, walking through here, he goes, "Right here, these are the Presbyterians.

  03:39-03:41

  Presbyterians have a nice little neighborhood here.

  03:41-03:42

  Yeah, these are the Presbyterians.

  03:42-03:49

  Say hi to the Presbyterians." And walking along a little further, Peter said, "These are the Baptists, okay?

  03:49-03:51

  This is the Baptist neighborhood.

  03:51-03:54

  It's a big neighborhood and it's a good neighborhood.

  03:54-04:22

  These are the Baptists." And he walked along a little further and a little bit further down the road, Peter turned to the man and he said, "This is where the Methodists are." The guy goes, "What?" The man says, "Well, why are you whispering?" Peter said, "Because they think they're the only people up here." Those are funny, right?

  04:26-04:36

  But, those jokes are actually very sad when that's actually a real attitude being reflected.

  04:38-04:44

  The question is, what do we do with these other churches? I mean, seriously, what do What do we do with these other churches?

  04:45-04:46

  There's a lot of churches in the North Hills.

  04:47-04:48

  There's a lot of churches north of Pittsburgh.

  04:49-04:51

  There's a lot of churches in the Pittsburgh area.

  04:51-04:53

  There's a lot of church plants in Pittsburgh.

  04:54-04:56

  What do we do with all these other churches?

  04:56-05:00

  What do we do with these ministries that are different than ours?

  05:01-05:07

  Well, just to remind you where we were last week in Mark chapter 9, look at verse 37 again.

  05:09-05:14

  Remember Jesus said, "Whoever receives one such child in My name, receives Me.

  05:14-05:57

  And whoever receives Me, receives not Me, but him who sent Me." Then in verse 38, John said to him, "Teacher, we saw someone casting out demons in your name." in my name." And John was like, "In my name, in my name." Receiving in Jesus' name, and in Jesus' name, and doing things in Jesus' name. And it seemed like that sort of kick-started a memory, a recent memory for John.

  06:00-06:12

  And John was like, "I need to confess something to And we tried to stop him.

  06:14-06:15

  Because he was not following us.

  06:19-06:27

  Notice it says "casting out demons in your name." So, this was somebody who was succeeding at it.

  06:27-06:35

  John didn't say, "we saw someone trying to cast out demons." We saw someone putting on some sort of a religious, spiritual show.

  06:36-06:48

  John said, "We saw someone actually casting out demons in your name." And here's what we did about that.

  06:48-06:52

  Notice John says, "We tried to stop him." Well, why did you try to stop him?

  06:55-06:56

  He wasn't following us.

  06:58-06:58

  Ok?

  06:58-07:15

  John says, "We tried to stop him because he wasn't following us." Imagine that scene where the disciples come across this man who's doing ministry in the name of Jesus and going up to this man, "Who are you?

  07:16-07:18

  Excuse me, excuse me.

  07:19-07:20

  Yes, I heard you mention Jesus.

  07:22-07:25

  And who are you?" Well, first of all, do you know who I am?

  07:26-07:28

  I'm like one of the twelve.

  07:28-07:30

  I'm sure you've heard of the twelve.

  07:31-07:31

  Okay?

  07:32-07:35

  We're even more popular than the Beatles, okay?

  07:35-07:36

  I'm sure you've heard of the Twelve.

  07:37-07:38

  And who are you?

  07:40-07:42

  And why are you doing this again?

  07:45-07:45

  I'm legit.

  07:48-07:49

  You have a license for that.

  07:51-07:53

  Listen, pal, you can't do that.

  07:55-07:58

  You can't just go around doing things in Jesus' name.

  07:59-07:59

  Why not?

  08:01-08:02

  Because you're not one of us, man.

  08:03-08:03

  That's why.

  08:04-08:05

  You're not on our team.

  08:07-08:08

  You don't have one of our jerseys.

  08:10-08:11

  You can't do that, man.

  08:11-08:12

  You just can't do that.

  08:12-08:14

  You just can't go around doing things.

  08:16-08:31

  So Jesus is talking about receiving others and John, he's like, "Well, here's kind of how we handled this situation and is that okay?" I think of verse 39 of Jesus' response.

  08:31-08:40

  It says, "But Jesus said, 'Do not stop him.'" "Do not stop him." I don't know what answer John was looking for.

  08:40-08:44

  Part of me thinks that John was looking for Jesus to commend him.

  08:46-08:47

  Like, you know what, John? You're right.

  08:48-08:51

  We just can't have people running out willy-nilly serving the Lord.

  08:54-08:55

  So John, good job.

  08:57-09:03

  And I would expect if it would come to violence, John, that you are ready to handle that.

  09:04-09:05

  Because we just can't have this.

  09:06-09:07

  But that's not what Jesus said.

  09:07-09:08

  You see what he said?

  09:08-09:10

  Look again, what does your Bible say?

  09:10-09:16

  Verse 39, "Do not stop him." Do not stop him.

  09:16-09:25

  So the question on your outline today, "Why shouldn't I oppose other ministries?" Why shouldn't I oppose other ministries?

  09:27-09:28

  Like I know what we're doing here, right?

  09:29-09:41

  And we're like really striving to seek the Lord and understand God's Word and apply God's Word and grow in that love relationship with Jesus Christ and to serve others.

  09:41-09:42

  And I know what we're doing here.

  09:43-09:48

  And these people down the road that, well they're not at Harvest Bible Chapel.

  09:50-09:53

  I mean you've got to go all the way to Monroeville before you catch the next one.

  09:55-10:00

  Pittsburgh language, you know, from here to Monroeville, they might as well be in Portugal, okay?

  10:00-10:05

  But still, who do these other churches think that they are?

  10:08-10:09

  So why shouldn't we oppose them?

  10:11-10:12

  I'll write these things down.

  10:12-10:19

  Number one, because it's about Jesus' name, not yours.

  10:22-10:25

  Because it's about Jesus' name, not yours.

  10:27-10:28

  Look at these verses again with me.

  10:31-10:49

  Verse 39, "But Jesus said, 'Do not stop Him, for no one who does a mighty work in My name will be able soon afterward to speak evil of Me.'" Okay, so understand, this is very important.

  10:51-10:55

  We're not talking about someone who's teaching a different doctrine, okay?

  10:57-11:05

  You know, battling false doctrine is why most of the books in the New Testament were written.

  11:05-11:06

  Did you know that?

  11:06-11:08

  Read Paul's letters.

  11:09-11:19

  The occasion for writing many of his letters was because someone was out there teaching false doctrine, and that is something that we must oppose.

  11:20-11:21

  That obviously is not what's going on here.

  11:22-11:25

  Did Jesus have a hard time opposing false teachers?

  11:26-11:27

  Did He have a hard time opposing?

  11:27-11:28

  Was Jesus shy about that?

  11:29-11:31

  Like, "Well, live and let live." No, not at all.

  11:32-11:38

  When someone was misrepresenting the Lord, Jesus was not shy about speaking up.

  11:38-11:39

  Read Matthew chapter 23.

  11:40-11:41

  Not shy whatsoever.

  11:42-11:44

  That's not what was happening here.

  11:46-11:48

  Ok, this wasn't some ungodly message.

  11:48-11:51

  This wasn't some anti-Jesus message.

  11:52-11:55

  What it all boiled down to for the disciples is this.

  11:55-11:56

  He was not with us.

  11:57-11:59

  This person just wasn't on our team.

  12:00-12:01

  We know the ones that you picked, Jesus.

  12:01-12:04

  We know you called us twelve.

  12:04-12:05

  He wasn't one of us.

  12:06-12:07

  That's why we opposed Him.

  12:09-12:20

  But you notice twice in this passage already, verse 38, John says that, "He was not with He was doing it in your name.

  12:21-12:27

  And then Jesus says again in verse 39, "No one who does a mighty work in My name." Did you see that twice?

  12:28-12:29

  Two times in two verses.

  12:30-12:32

  It's about doing a work in Jesus' name.

  12:33-12:36

  Which means you're accurately representing Jesus Christ.

  12:38-12:45

  Jesus said someone who's doing a work in His name won't be able to speak evil of Him soon afterward.

  12:46-12:52

  The problem is, really it just boils down to exclusivity.

  12:55-12:59

  For the disciples in their minds it wasn't about Jesus, it was about who?

  13:01-13:01

  About them.

  13:03-13:09

  They weren't concerned with Jesus' name, they were concerned with their name.

  13:12-13:26

  And I wish I could say that this problem was dealt with once and for all in this passage, but church, this is a snare that we can so easily fall into as a church and as Christians individually.

  13:29-13:32

  You know, you serve Christ because you love Him.

  13:34-13:36

  And you get into ministry because you love Jesus.

  13:39-13:40

  How does stuff like this happen?

  13:41-13:49

  Or all of the sudden you start out doing what you're doing because you love Jesus and now all of the sudden you're trying to stop other people from doing the same.

  13:49-13:52

  You're criticizing other people that are trying to do the same.

  13:52-13:53

  How does that happen?

  13:53-13:55

  I want you to write two words down.

  13:55-13:56

  I'll tell you exactly how it happens.

  13:57-13:58

  This is straight from God's Word.

  14:01-14:05

  First of all, write down the word "jealousy." Jealousy.

  14:07-14:15

  I wonder how much jealousy might have played a part in John trying to stop this man.

  14:16-14:16

  You know why?

  14:17-14:21

  Oh, do you remember way back when we were in chapter 9 and verse 18?

  14:21-14:27

  You remember the man had a son who was mute and he was deaf.

  14:28-14:28

  He had a demon.

  14:30-14:35

  And the man brought this son to the disciples to cast the demon out.

  14:36-14:38

  How did that work out?

  14:38-14:39

  Remember?

  14:41-14:42

  He said they weren't able to do it.

  14:43-14:51

  And I have to wonder how much that account plays into this, that were there some of the disciples that were like, "Wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute.

  14:53-14:59

  Obviously we're the real deal because we're the people that hang out with Jesus, so shouldn't we sort of have the market cornered?

  15:00-15:04

  This guy did something that we were unable to do ourselves.

  15:05-15:06

  I don't know.

  15:07-15:15

  But I do know for a fact, jealousy over the success of other people's ministry is destructive.

  15:17-15:19

  I'm not going to read this passage, but I want you to just jot this down.

  15:20-15:23

  First Samuel chapter 18 verses 6 through 9.

  15:23-15:26

  First Samuel chapter 18 verses 6 through 9.

  15:29-15:30

  You know what an earworm is?

  15:31-15:33

  How many people know what an earworm is?

  15:34-15:43

  A couple of you, I guarantee you all know what an earworm is, but you might not know what that term, might not know that the term is associated with that.

  15:43-15:48

  An earworm is a song that gets stuck in your head and you can't get it out.

  15:49-15:52

  How many people have had an earworm like in the last week?

  15:52-15:53

  Has that ever happened to you?

  15:54-15:56

  That happens to me all the time and it drives me insane.

  15:58-16:02

  Like, "Gotta stop thinking about that song." I actually looked this up online several months ago.

  16:02-16:04

  What are the most popular earworms?

  16:04-16:05

  You know what they are?

  16:07-16:08

  You know what they are?

  16:08-16:09

  Like, why are you sharing this?

  16:10-16:13

  Because I want to put some earworms in your head.

  16:14-16:20

  And I want you to be thinking about this sermon for like the rest of the day, because you can't get this song out of your head.

  16:22-16:23

  Here's some popular earworms.

  16:25-16:26

  YMCA by the Village People.

  16:29-16:29

  OK, you ready?

  16:31-16:31

  Ready?

  16:31-16:33

  It's fun to stay at the-- come on.

  16:35-16:35

  YMCA.

  16:36-16:36

  Oh, come on.

  16:38-16:39

  Come on.

  16:39-16:40

  Everybody now, come on.

  16:41-16:45

  It's fun to stay at the-- there you go.

  16:46-16:48

  Now good luck getting that out of your head.

  16:51-16:52

  I hate that song.

  16:54-16:58

  But if I'm flipping through the radio and I hear that, That song is tattooed in my skull.

  16:59-17:00

  Days.

  17:01-17:02

  That's a popular one.

  17:04-17:04

  Here's one.

  17:05-17:06

  It's a Small World.

  17:07-17:11

  You know that-- It's a small world after all.

  17:11-17:16

  It's a small world after-- You know that horrible, horrible song that we torture our children with?

  17:16-17:18

  It's a small world after all.

  17:18-17:20

  It's a small, small world.

  17:20-17:22

  We rode that ride at Disney.

  17:22-17:23

  Remember riding that at Disney?

  17:23-17:33

  Like, ah, you ride through this, this boat goes like, you know, one mile per hour through this endless maze and there's all these dancing puppets.

  17:34-17:43

  ♪ It's a small world after ♪ Oh look, they're singing it in Sweden and they're singing it in, you know, France and they're singing it in Moldova and, ah!

  17:47-17:48

  You're welcome for that one.

  17:49-17:50

  Here's another one.

  17:51-17:53

  Some of you are totally gonna get this.

  17:53-17:57

  young people, you know, grab somebody older to explain this to you on your way out.

  17:59-17:59

  Elvira.

  18:04-18:04

  Elvira.

  18:05-18:08

  I haven't listened to it in a while. I was going to sing it for you.

  18:08-18:10

  I'm sure I'm going to butcher it, but...

  18:11-18:13

  Eyes that look like heaven.

  18:15-18:18

  Yeah, lips like cherry wine. Remember that one?

  18:22-18:23

  Elvire up.

  18:25-18:26

  Come on, somebody do the low part.

  18:27-18:28

  Elvire up.

  18:30-18:31

  There you go.

  18:32-18:33

  Mbappamow mow.

  18:35-18:38

  For some of you, you're welcome for that one for the rest of the day.

  18:40-18:44

  And, uh, one more.

  18:44-18:45

  There's a whole list of them. One more.

  18:47-18:50

  You guys are going to be shopping for a new pastor after this one.

  18:52-18:58

  "Achy Breaky Heart" You can take my heart, my achy breaky heart.

  18:59-19:01

  I don't even know all the words, but that tune, right?

  19:03-19:06

  Might blow up and kill this man, or take the song with you.

  19:08-19:09

  Those are all earworms.

  19:10-19:30

  At our house, Owen doesn't talk very much, but sometimes he catches parts of commercial jingles and those become our ear worms. For the longest time it was "do a dollop, do a dollop of daisy" like he was singing that all the time and then I'm singing it "do a dollop of daisy" like why are you talking about this?

  19:32-19:48

  Because in what reference did I tell you, 1 Samuel 18? Saul the king and David the soon to be king, they were both were both being used by the Lord.

  19:49-19:52

  And your Bible says that the women started singing this song.

  19:53-19:55

  And it was "Saul killed his thousands.

  19:56-20:00

  David killed his tens of thousands." And that became an earworm for Saul.

  20:01-20:02

  That was all he could think about.

  20:03-20:05

  That song, he just kept hearing it in his head.

  20:05-20:06

  "Saul killed his thousands.

  20:06-20:09

  David killed his tens of thousands." That song drove him insane.

  20:11-20:17

  That song drove him to constant attempted murder of David.

  20:19-20:20

  That is a destructive ear worm.

  20:21-20:22

  But why?

  20:22-20:23

  Why?

  20:23-20:24

  It was over jealousy.

  20:25-20:36

  Instead of Saul saying, "I'm grateful that the Lord used me in this capacity, and I'm grateful that the Lord's using David in an even greater capacity." See it wasn't about the Lord's name.

  20:38-20:39

  For Saul it was about two names.

  20:40-20:42

  It was about Saul and it was about David.

  20:42-20:44

  And he couldn't handle it.

  20:46-20:48

  And that story still plays out.

  20:49-21:04

  I'll be honest with you, you hear other churches, "We baptized this many people and we just built our fifth edition to our wing and we're doing this and we're doing that." And it gets real easy to compare ministries one with another.

  21:05-21:13

  And to start to get annoyed with another ministry, because we think, "What?

  21:14-21:16

  No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, God should be doing that here.

  21:17-21:22

  Why is God doing that there?" The truth is, God is doing much here.

  21:23-21:26

  We have so much to be thankful for that God is doing right here.

  21:26-21:28

  We have so much to be thankful for.

  21:31-21:36

  And it becomes so easy to get our eyes off of what the Lord is doing here.

  21:39-21:41

  Or to be embittered towards what the Lord is doing somewhere else.

  21:43-21:47

  Because they are not Harvest Bible Chapel, we are Harvest Bible Chapel.

  21:50-21:53

  So jealousy, jealousy.

  21:55-21:56

  Write this one down.

  21:56-21:57

  Why does this happen?

  21:58-22:00

  Why do people start opposing other ministries?

  22:01-22:02

  Another one is pride.

  22:04-22:04

  Pride.

  22:05-22:07

  "Surely God is only working through me.

  22:08-22:09

  I'm the chosen one.

  22:09-22:13

  I'm the only one." That's pride, man.

  22:14-22:27

  Numbers chapter 11, verses 26 through 29, just to paraphrase the story, you can go back and read these, but there were two men in the camp of Israel, Eldad and Medad, and the The Bible says that these two men were prophesying.

  22:29-22:34

  Okay, and Joshua, you know, another guy brought the report back and Joshua goes to Moses.

  22:35-22:36

  He goes, "Moses, you're gonna stop them.

  22:37-22:38

  Do you hear what's happening?

  22:38-22:38

  Do you hear what's happening?

  22:39-22:45

  We got two guys in a camp that are prophesying and you're gonna stop them." You remember Moses' response?

  22:46-22:47

  He got it.

  22:48-22:52

  Bible says, "Moses said to him, 'Are you jealous for my sake?

  22:53-22:58

  Would that all the Lord's people were prophets, that the Lord would put His Spirit on them.

  23:00-23:06

  Like Moses, we have other preachers in the camp, and Moses is like, "Man, I wish we had more.

  23:07-23:16

  I wish the camp was 100% preachers, preaching." Like Joshua, you're jealous for my sake.

  23:16-23:17

  You're looking at this the wrong way, pal.

  23:19-23:20

  You're looking at it the wrong way.

  23:23-23:28

  God's agenda is bigger than your individual ministry.

  23:28-23:32

  God's agenda is bigger than Harvest Bible Chapel, Pittsburgh North.

  23:32-23:38

  God's agenda is bigger than Harvest Bible Fellowship 105 or whatever churches all over the world.

  23:39-23:41

  God's doing great things through this fellowship.

  23:42-23:46

  Great things, but I want to tell you God's agenda is even bigger than what He's doing in this fellowship.

  23:49-23:52

  And listen, I love you in the Lord, you know that.

  23:54-23:57

  But I have to tell you, you're not the only person that God's working through.

  23:58-23:58

  God.

  24:00-24:03

  The Apostle Paul got this, Philippians chapter 1 verses 15-18.

  24:05-24:18

  Remember, Paul said that there were some people who were preaching out of envy and rivalry, out of selfish ambition, and they were trying to afflict Paul while he was in prison.

  24:21-24:53

  As a preacher, I read up to that part, and I sort of get offended for Paul. Like, you know, that stinks. Here Paul's in prison for the gospel, and you have these other preachers out there preaching Christ, apparently not motivated because they love Christ. According selfish ambition. They are wanting to afflict Paul while he is in prison. And I am kind of mad for Paul about that, but Paul got it.

  24:55-25:14

  He said, "I am just happy that people are talking about Jesus." Read it. Paul said, "I am rejoicing that Christ is being proclaimed." Like, Paul, do you know that they are preaching Christ out of selfish ambition? And Paul is I stopped listening after you said, "Do you know they're preaching Christ?" Because that is awesome.

  25:15-25:16

  But their motives are messed up.

  25:16-25:18

  Paul's like, "Pfft, it's not about me.

  25:18-25:23

  It's about Jesus." Happy people are talking about Him.

  25:26-25:29

  It's about Jesus' name, not yours.

  25:31-25:36

  It's about Jesus' name, not Jeff Miller, not Darren Miller.

  25:39-25:42

  Jesus name, not Randy Campbell, not A.J.

  25:42-25:48

  Rotenberger, not Deb Simons, fantastic people that I love in the Lord.

  25:51-25:52

  It's not about that.

  25:53-25:53

  It's about Jesus.

  25:55-26:00

  It's not about Harvest Bible Chapel, Pittsburgh North, or Pittsburgh East, or Rolling Meadows.

  26:00-26:01

  It's not about victory.

  26:04-26:05

  It's not about Northway.

  26:08-26:09

  It's not about covenant community.

  26:13-26:15

  Those aren't the names at the end of the day that really matter.

  26:16-26:16

  It's about Jesus.

  26:20-26:21

  So why shouldn't I oppose other ministries?

  26:21-26:23

  Because it's about Jesus' name, not yours.

  26:23-26:24

  Secondly, write this down.

  26:25-26:26

  Why shouldn't I oppose other ministries?

  26:26-26:28

  Because Jesus draws the line.

  26:31-26:31

  Not you.

  26:32-26:54

  Look at verse 40. Jesus said, "For the one who is not against us is for us." "For the one who is not against us is for us." See, Jesus is saying, "Okay, well they're working in my name. This guy's working in my name. He's exalting me.

  26:57-26:58

  He's on my team.

  27:00-27:01

  What does it mean to be against Jesus?

  27:03-27:05

  What does it mean to be against Jesus?

  27:06-27:08

  Again, I mentioned earlier, it's false teaching.

  27:11-27:14

  You're against Jesus when you misrepresent Him.

  27:15-27:18

  When you deny the truth about the cross and the empty tomb.

  27:19-27:21

  When you deny the truth about who He is.

  27:23-27:25

  That's being against Jesus.

  27:27-27:32

  You're also against Jesus when you preach a gospel of hate, like the Westboro Baptist Church.

  27:35-27:40

  But again, I have to remind you that that's not what was happening here, or Jesus would have corrected that.

  27:41-27:53

  Jesus just simply said in verse 40, "For the one who is not against us is for us." Jesus took a specific incident, this man casting out a demon in Jesus' name.

  27:54-28:06

  He took that specific incident to make a general principle, and he's saying, "Disciples," and I'm echoing, "Church, it's time to expand your horizons." Because Jesus draws the line.

  28:09-28:10

  Because He is the line.

  28:12-28:15

  There's no neutrality when it comes to Jesus.

  28:15-28:21

  I don't want anybody walking out of here saying, "Well, Pastor Jeff was preaching this ecumenical message." Absolutely not.

  28:23-28:25

  This is a black and white issue.

  28:28-28:29

  There are people who are dead in their sins.

  28:33-28:35

  There are people who are born again in Jesus Christ.

  28:37-28:38

  There's no middle ground.

  28:38-28:40

  There are no people who are kind of saved.

  28:43-28:45

  The issue is ultimately heaven and hell.

  28:48-28:50

  Like, well, where does that line get drawn?

  28:52-28:59

  You know, I'm looking at our church, what we do, I'm looking at this church and like who's really with Jesus and who's not and where do I draw the line?

  28:59-29:01

  You don't have to draw the line.

  29:01-29:05

  Because Jesus drew the line because Jesus is the line.

  29:08-29:10

  The one who is not against us is for us.

  29:13-29:15

  And yet church, we are really good at criticizing, aren't we?

  29:16-29:19

  We are really good at looking at other ministries and criticizing.

  29:20-29:21

  I don't like their worship.

  29:23-29:25

  I don't like their music style.

  29:27-29:28

  I don't like the size of their church.

  29:32-29:39

  Listen, find a church that exalts Jesus Christ, plug into that church, but let's be done with the criticism.

  29:41-29:42

  Let's be done with the criticism.

  29:42-29:48

  I have heard more than enough criticism about other churches and about other ministries in my time.

  29:49-29:50

  Can we just be done criticizing?

  29:52-29:56

  You know this week I picked up another part-time job.

  29:58-30:01

  I've been helping out with the Three Rivers Festival of Hope.

  30:01-30:02

  Have you heard about this?

  30:02-30:03

  You know Franklin Graham is in town?

  30:07-30:09

  And I volunteered to help out because I think it's a good thing.

  30:11-30:24

  And we've already seen hundreds of people come down to receive Jesus Christ or to rededicate their lives to Jesus Christ or even to ask questions about what this all means.

  30:24-30:25

  Hundreds already.

  30:25-30:26

  I didn't even get a count yet.

  30:28-30:28

  But hundreds.

  30:29-30:30

  I have pictures.

  30:32-30:41

  But you know when it comes to things like the Three Rivers Festival of Hope or Promise keepers or things like that, there's always somebody that comes after that with the criticism.

  30:44-30:51

  I don't like how they do that. I don't like the way that they encourage shallow decisions.

  30:53-31:03

  You know, people just get caught up in the emotion of it all. I don't like that. You know how they do that. You know how they do that?

  31:03-31:08

  They get the counselors to grease the aisle. That's what they do. They send the down first and they greased the island.

  31:08-31:09

  That's why those other people come down.

  31:10-31:14

  So when you see all those people coming down, understand they're not all coming down because of Jesus.

  31:14-31:15

  Some of them are just coming down because they're working there.

  31:16-31:17

  I don't really like that.

  31:19-31:20

  That's not true by the way.

  31:22-31:25

  The counselors follow the people that are going down.

  31:26-31:29

  Those conversions that happen there, they don't last.

  31:30-31:33

  They're caught up in the emotion and boo-hoo and you know what?

  31:33-31:34

  They don't last.

  31:37-31:38

  They're not real.

  31:40-31:43

  Here's what I want to say about the Three Rivers Festival of Hope.

  31:44-31:56

  They have a system where they invite people to come, we're going to preach the gospel, and we're going to follow up with the people that come forward to get them plugged into local churches.

  31:57-31:58

  They have a plan.

  32:01-32:03

  And yet there's people that criticize that.

  32:04-32:09

  And my response to the criticism is this, you know, I don't really like this festival of hope thing.

  32:09-32:11

  I don't really agree with that.

  32:11-32:12

  I don't really go with that.

  32:12-32:13

  I don't really think that's a good thing.

  32:13-32:15

  Okay, what's your plan?

  32:16-32:19

  I want you to share with me how you're reaching people for Christ.

  32:20-32:21

  What are you doing to get the Word out?

  32:22-32:23

  Let's hear your plan.

  32:24-32:49

  If it's better than Franklin Graham's, I will call him personally and say, "Dude, you've got to hear what this person's...because their thing is way better than yours. What's your plan? But do you see how quick we were to criticize? There were somewhere around 1,100 volunteers there on Thursday night coming to train, giving up their time. Why?

  32:51-33:02

  Because they...I've talked to a lot of these people. They want to see the Pittsburgh area reached for Jesus Christ. They are like, "This is something that we can get behind." So what is your plan?

  33:05-33:08

  I would like to remind you that criticism is not a gift of the Holy Spirit.

  33:10-33:29

  When you read Galatians 5 and Paul lists the fruit of the Spirit, when you read 1 Corinthians 12, what are the gifts that God the Holy Spirit gives, criticism is not one of them. We need to get past the insiders versus outsiders mentality. We need to drop Draw the line where Jesus drew the line, because He is the line.

  33:31-33:38

  Like I said, church, I've been behind the scenes with the training and talking to the people organizing this.

  33:40-33:42

  There was no watered down gospel message.

  33:44-33:45

  And we've seen people respond.

  33:47-33:53

  Not to mention the fact that I know people personally, maybe you do too, that have given their lives to Christ through such a thing.

  33:55-33:57

  whether it's this or promise keepers or whatever.

  34:00-34:02

  Okay, so can we let Jesus draw the line?

  34:04-34:06

  Can we let Jesus be the line?

  34:08-34:12

  When He is, we find that we don't need to oppose other ministries.

  34:13-34:20

  And finally for today, because Jesus is the judge, not you.

  34:21-34:21

  Look at verse 41.

  34:22-34:31

  So truly I say to you, whoever gives you a cup of water to drink because you belong to Christ will by no means lose his reward.

  34:33-34:35

  Jesus is the judge, not you.

  34:37-34:38

  Exalting yourself gets you nowhere.

  34:40-34:49

  But an act of compassion in the name of Jesus sees reward, according to this verse.

  34:52-34:55

  Also notice, I'll jot this down, it's all important.

  34:57-34:58

  It's all important.

  34:58-34:59

  Like what do you mean by that?

  35:00-35:12

  If I said to you, "Which ministry is more important, sending Darla to Moldova or working in a local soup kitchen?

  35:13-35:16

  Which one's more important?" Ah, trick question.

  35:17-35:18

  They're both important.

  35:18-35:19

  See that?

  35:20-35:28

  Jesus said even the simple act of giving somebody a cup of water, He notices that.

  35:30-35:32

  I'd really like to serve Christ but I can't go to Moldova.

  35:33-35:34

  You don't have to go to Moldova.

  35:34-35:35

  There's need right here.

  35:36-35:37

  He's watching.

  35:38-35:39

  He sees it.

  35:40-35:41

  He notices.

  35:44-35:48

  Our problem is we fail to evaluate ministries as Jesus sees them.

  35:50-35:57

  And honestly I don't have the time or the energy or the responsibility to judge other churches.

  35:59-36:01

  The Lord called me to be here.

  36:02-36:03

  The Lord called me to plant this church.

  36:05-36:07

  I really only care about what happens at this church.

  36:08-36:11

  Don't get me wrong, I get a lot of wonderful pastor friends in the area.

  36:11-36:12

  I'm not saying I don't care about them.

  36:12-36:14

  You understand what I mean, right?

  36:15-36:17

  This is the church that I'm concerned about.

  36:19-36:25

  If you feel the need to evaluate, I just encourage you to use Jesus' checklist right from this passage.

  36:28-36:30

  Is Jesus' power on display in that ministry?

  36:32-36:34

  Is Christ being preached in that ministry?

  36:38-36:41

  The works of compassion being done in that ministry?

  36:44-36:53

  By that criteria, Jesus said, "For the one who is not against us is for us." Should you condemn what God may be doing there?

  36:56-37:00

  Or should you commend the things that God commends?

  37:01-37:03

  Our worship team would make their way forward.

  37:05-37:07

  I'll give you one more reference to write down.

  37:09-37:11

  Revelation chapters 2 and 3.

  37:14-37:22

  In Revelation chapters 2 and 3, those two chapters are really about one thing.

  37:22-37:25

  And that's Jesus evaluating His churches.

  37:27-37:28

  Read those.

  37:29-37:31

  Jesus is evaluating His churches.

  37:33-37:34

  He doesn't have a committee that does that.

  37:35-37:36

  I'm not on that committee.

  37:38-37:38

  You're not on that committee.

  37:41-37:45

  According to Revelation 2 and 3, Jesus Himself is the one that is evaluating churches.

  37:47-37:53

  Honestly, Harvest Bible Chapel, we have plenty to do here without trying to do Jesus' job.

  37:54-37:56

  So what about these other ministries?

  37:57-38:10

  So these other ministries, they seem to preach Jesus They seem to be empowered by Jesus, and they seem to be doing acts of compassion in Jesus' name.

  38:10-38:11

  What should we do about them?

  38:11-38:15

  The answer is, according to Jesus, don't stop them.

  38:17-38:19

  Don't even criticize them.

  38:21-38:25

  Let's just rejoice Jesus Christ is exalted.

Small Group Questions (Whole Group):
Read Mark 9:38-41

Breakout Questions:

Pray for one another!

Greatness: Last is First

Greatness is Demonstrated in the Way I Treat Others

1. Great people LIFT others, not themselves (Mk 9:33-34)



2. Great people SERVE others, not themselves (Mk 9:35)



3. Great people BLESS others, not themselves (Mk 9:36-37)

Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!

• Audio Transcript

  00:00-00:04

  Open up your Bibles to the Gospel according to Mark and chapter 9.

  00:06-00:12

  We're going to be picking up in verse 30. Mark chapter 9 verse 30. Are you there?

  00:13-00:24

  "As they went on and on from there and passed through Galilee and he did not want anyone to know." Why?

  00:24-00:44

  Well, because the public ministry of history was done at this point. This was private teaching for the son of disciples in this chapter of Jesus' ministry. As for he was teaching his disciples saying to them, "The Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men and they will kill kill him.

  00:45-01:29

  And when he is killed, after three days, he will rise." But they did not understand the saying and we're afraid to ask him. You're going to see this throughout Mark. Jesus was constantly reminding the disciples, "I'm going to Jerusalem and they're going to kill me and then I'm going to rise from the dead." And this wasn't even on the disciples' radar. Jesus already talked about this. And you see at this point he brings it up again. What does Bible say? It says they did not understand the saying. You can kind of see that, right? Because Jesus raised people from the dead, right?

  01:31-01:47

  So if Jesus died, then who was going to raise him from the dead? Like, remember like Superman 1? Remember the classic line from Superman 1? Like, how many people remember the first Superman before they did all these reboots?

  01:47-01:49

  The cool ones with Christopher Reeve, right?

  01:49-01:58

  Remember that classic line with Lois Lane's falling from the building and Superman swoops up and catches her and he goes, "Don't worry, I got you." And what does she say?

  02:00-02:01

  "Who's got you?" Right?

  02:04-02:06

  I think maybe some of that was going through the disciples' minds here.

  02:06-02:13

  Like, well, if you're going to die, who's gonna do this resurrection thing?

  02:13-02:16

  Because, I mean, we've seen you do that.

  02:19-02:21

  "Who's going to resurrect you?" They didn't understand.

  02:23-02:25

  And then it says they were afraid to ask him.

  02:25-02:26

  Now, why were they afraid?

  02:26-02:27

  They were afraid to ask.

  02:27-02:28

  I think that was one part.

  02:28-02:30

  I don't want to talk about it.

  02:31-02:34

  And I think it was another part, remembering Peter getting rebuked.

  02:34-02:35

  Remember that?

  02:35-02:38

  Last time Jesus talked about this, Peter pulled him aside.

  02:38-02:40

  Sides like, "Don't you talk like that, Jesus.

  02:40-02:41

  "That's not gonna happen, Jesus.

  02:41-02:53

  "Stop talking like that." And Jesus said, "Get behind me, Satan." That was probably fresh in their mind or minds like, yeah, Peter got rebuked pretty good for that.

  02:53-02:55

  So let's just not talk about it.

  02:57-03:05

  But look at verses 33 and 34, it says where it says, "They came to Capernaum." Okay, this is on the way to Jerusalem.

  03:07-03:08

  They came to Capernaum and came in.

  03:08-03:19

  When he was in the house, He asked them, "What were you discussing on the way?" They kept silent.

  03:20-03:26

  On the way, they had argued with one another about who was the greatest.

  03:28-03:30

  Okay, so they showed up at the house.

  03:30-03:33

  Some, most people, just people think it was probably Peter's house in Capernaum.

  03:33-03:41

  And Jesus said, "What were you talking about?" Now, how many people think that Jesus kind of knew what they were talking about?

  03:41-03:46

  When he asks questions, when God asks questions, understand, he's not looking for information.

  03:46-03:47

  What's he looking for?

  03:47-03:48

  He's looking for a confession.

  03:51-03:51

  But Jesus knew.

  03:54-03:57

  What were you talking about while we were traveling?

  03:58-04:03

  And they were so busted and they were so embarrassed and they kept silent.

  04:05-04:07

  At this point, they're thinking, we wish it was something wholesome.

  04:08-04:35

  Like, you know, we were just talking about fasting and praying, and like the Pentateuch, and we were talking about something really wholesome and spiritual, and it was actually, "Which one of us is the greatest?" And they were so embarrassed they didn't even bring it up.

  04:37-04:39

  But who's the greatest?

  04:40-04:42

  The question this morning is, what is greatness?

  04:43-04:45

  What makes someone great?

  04:47-04:48

  What is it that makes someone great?

  04:50-04:56

  That was a question that I was wrestling through this week, and when I have a really hard question like that, I just Google it, like you.

  04:58-05:02

  I went to this website that said, "What makes someone great?" Do you know what this website said?

  05:03-05:07

  It said, "These are the things that make someone great." Perseverance.

  05:08-05:10

  Someone that never gives up is someone who is great.

  05:11-05:19

  Or this one said, "Somebody who sets goals and strives after the goals that they set for themselves." That's what makes somebody great.

  05:21-05:24

  And one person said, "You know what makes somebody great?

  05:24-05:25

  It's punctuality.

  05:26-05:38

  Somebody that is on time." And I was looking through this list, and I am like, "Puh-lease." Seriously. Seriously.

  05:39-05:45

  In our culture, is that really what we think of when we think about somebody being great?

  05:45-05:46

  Let's be honest.

  05:48-05:51

  What does our culture equate with greatness?

  05:51-06:00

  Who are the people in our culture that we look at as, "They are great." It's not like, "Mr. Punctuality, right?

  06:00-06:01

  That doesn't happen.

  06:02-06:02

  That doesn't happen.

  06:02-06:03

  Come on.

  06:03-06:04

  Is that greatness?

  06:05-06:09

  It's like, oh, Randy "Candy" Campbell, you are so punctual.

  06:09-06:10

  Can I get your autograph?

  06:11-06:11

  Please.

  06:12-06:13

  I want it for my scrapbook.

  06:13-06:16

  Can I get a selfie with you, Randy, because you are so, so punctual?

  06:18-06:20

  That doesn't happen.

  06:22-06:23

  Who's considered great or great?

  06:24-06:26

  Tell me, who's considered great?

  06:27-06:28

  People that have what?

  06:29-06:32

  People that have lots of money are considered greater and greater.

  06:32-06:35

  People that have lots of stuff are considered great.

  06:35-06:42

  People that are known for great achievements or great talents, like musicians or athletes.

  06:43-06:47

  People who are popular, like movie stars.

  06:48-06:50

  Those are the people that we've described greatness to.

  06:51-06:57

  For some reason, it's their opinion that Hold so much weight.

  06:59-07:00

  Punctuality.

  07:02-07:05

  Greatness is something that we all want deep down.

  07:05-07:08

  And probably sitting in church, you're like, "Oh, not me, Pastor Jeff.

  07:08-07:22

  I'm con Come on, seriously, seriously, deep down, deep down there is something in you that wants to be great." Muhammad Ali, remember Muhammad Ali? What was his saying? What was his saying?

  07:24-07:26

  I am the greatest.

  07:28-07:31

  You know why you still remember that saying all these years later?

  07:31-07:34

  Do you know why you remember that saying, rather?

  07:36-07:43

  It's because he was making the claim that he was better than everyone.

  07:45-07:48

  And that's something that we sort of identify with.

  07:49-07:51

  When I was a teenager, I had a Muhammad Ali baseball hat.

  07:51-07:53

  And you know what it said across the back?

  07:53-07:54

  I am the greatest.

  07:55-07:59

  I was so proud of that hat because, like yeah man, that's me, I'm the greatest.

  08:01-08:10

  Muhammad Ali probably wouldn't have gotten as much attention if he would have come out for one of his interviews and went, I am not bad.

  08:12-08:14

  I am an above average fighter.

  08:16-08:18

  I am an adequate pugilist.

  08:20-08:22

  They wouldn't have sold hats that said that.

  08:26-08:30

  But for some reason he got everybody's attention because he said he was the greatest.

  08:32-08:34

  You know we don't give out trophies for last place do we?

  08:35-08:35

  Actually.

  08:37-08:39

  Nowadays kids get the dreaded participation trophy.

  08:41-08:45

  Look you do what you want in your household. I think the participation trophy is kind of lame.

  08:45-08:49

  I just do. And you know what I played a lot of sports when I was a kid.

  08:49-08:51

  I played baseball, and I played soccer.

  08:54-08:56

  And I won a couple of trophies, but I'll tell you what.

  08:56-08:58

  I lost more seasons than I won.

  08:58-09:00

  And I think it should mean something.

  09:02-09:07

  Nobody gives out the trophy for last place, the trophy that actually says last place.

  09:07-09:08

  Nobody's going to put that on their mantle.

  09:09-09:11

  Like, oh, Pastor Jeff, I didn't know you played baseball.

  09:12-09:12

  I don't.

  09:12-09:12

  I stink.

  09:13-09:13

  Ridic.

  09:13-09:14

  Read the trophy.

  09:14-09:15

  Oh, yeah.

  09:15-09:16

  Last place.

  09:18-09:18

  Well done.

  09:20-09:24

  Well, I know why you're in church today.

  09:24-09:26

  It's because you want to know what Jesus says about being great, don't you?

  09:27-09:27

  Don't you?

  09:29-09:30

  Well, three things for you.

  09:30-09:32

  It all falls under one heading though, and here it is.

  09:33-09:36

  If you missed this, you've missed everything, okay?

  09:36-09:38

  If you missed this next line, you've missed everything.

  09:40-09:45

  According to Jesus, greatness is demonstrated in the way that I treat others.

  09:46-09:48

  You're gonna see it in the text, okay?

  09:48-09:49

  I'm not making this up, you see it in the text.

  09:50-10:05

  Greatness is demonstrated, not in how I dribble a basketball or play a guitar, or perform a role in a movie, or the way that I swipe a credit card, that's not greatness.

  10:08-10:14

  We're going to see here that Jesus says that greatness is demonstrated in the way that I treat others.

  10:14-10:20

  So first of all, greatness, number one, Great people lift up others, not themselves.

  10:20-10:23

  Great people lift up others, not themselves.

  10:24-10:26

  From these verses that we had just read, I want to remind you, verse 34.

  10:28-10:33

  Okay, they kept silent when Jesus asked what they were discussing, why?

  10:33-10:34

  Look what it says, what it says.

  10:34-10:39

  They had argued with one another about who was the greatest, okay?

  10:40-10:43

  It says that they argued about who was the greatest.

  10:43-10:44

  That's a key word.

  10:46-10:49

  Because what that means is this kind of conversation wasn't happening.

  10:49-11:23

  It wasn't like this, like, "You know what, Jack? I think that I'm the greatest." And you're like, "Agreed to disagree. I'm the greatest." And I'm like, "I find it fascinating that Jack would think he's the greatest, when in fact I think that I'm the greatest, so agreed to disagree with you, young man." That wasn't the conversation. You know, the word "argue" I looked this up this week, it literally means to say thoroughly, meaning this, present your case.

  11:24-11:25

  It means to reason with someone.

  11:28-11:30

  You know another way the word argue can be translated?

  11:32-11:32

  Is preach.

  11:34-11:42

  Okay, so do you have this scene, they're walking along and they are preaching to each other about which one of them was the greatest.

  11:42-11:49

  They were actually giving each other little sermons about which one of them was the greatest.

  11:52-11:55

  You would think, well, they were having a bad day that day, right?

  11:55-11:57

  I mean, that's pretty tacky.

  11:57-11:58

  They're having a bad day.

  11:58-12:06

  I wish I could say this was an isolated incident, but the truth is, we're gonna cover this again in Mark chapter 10, verse 35, it comes up.

  12:08-12:14

  Luke chapter 22, verse 24 also is the Last Supper.

  12:15-12:25

  Jesus is hours away from dying on the cross and bearing the full wrath of God on himself for my sin.

  12:27-12:39

  And you would think the disciples would be coming around Jesus and let's pray and arms around and I know what you've been talking about Jesus and let's pray together.

  12:40-12:42

  You would think that would be the scene.

  12:42-12:44

  At the last supper, do you know what the disciples were doing?

  12:46-12:49

  Luke 22 says that they were arguing about which one of them was the greatest.

  12:51-12:56

  This was something that they constantly, constantly, constantly had going on.

  12:58-13:01

  Giving, arguing, presenting their case.

  13:03-13:05

  Who is the greatest at what?

  13:06-13:14

  I don't think they were arguing about who was the greatest tax collector, okay, because Matthew's like, "I can't even believe we're having this conversation!

  13:15-13:32

  I'm the greatest tax collector!" I don't think they were arguing about which of them was the greatest thief, because Judas would have been like, "Nobody's fingers are stickier than mine, okay? I'm the greatest thief of all y 'all." They weren't arguing about that.

  13:33-13:36

  I don't think they were arguing about who was the greatest fisherman.

  13:37-13:42

  Obviously, we know at least four of them would have been in the top running for that.

  13:43-13:46

  Peter and Andrew and James and John were all fishermen.

  13:49-13:53

  They were arguing about who was the greatest disciple.

  13:56-13:58

  Okay, so they knew that Jesus was the Messiah.

  13:59-14:02

  And some of them had just seen him transfigured.

  14:02-14:07

  So they knew this kingdom of God thing wasn't some concept, wasn't some fairy tale.

  14:07-14:11

  They knew this kingdom of God thing, this Jesus, Jesus is the Messiah.

  14:11-14:12

  They knew this was a real thing.

  14:13-14:23

  So they start thinking about, "Okay, well obviously Jesus is God, so where do the rest of us stack up there?" And you can imagine how these little sermons were going on.

  14:24-14:31

  You know, I'm sure Peter was like, "Well, you know, I was one of the ones that went up on the Mount of...

  14:31-14:35

  you know, where Jesus like showed his glory, I was one of the ones that was picked.

  14:35-14:38

  So, you know, James the Less, where were you on that one?

  14:39-14:42

  I think there's a reason they call you James the Less, okay?

  14:42-14:43

  Like less important.

  14:44-14:47

  You know, you know, pitch three tents idea, that was mine.

  14:48-14:56

  And he presented his case, and I'm sure there were, like, John, like someday I'm going to write a gospel, and I'm going to refer to myself as the disciple whom Jesus loves.

  14:58-14:59

  I'm the greatest.

  15:01-15:03

  Just went on down the line, didn't it?

  15:03-15:04

  I'm the greatest.

  15:04-15:06

  No, no, this is why I'm the greatest, greatest.

  15:06-15:08

  This is why Jesus loves me the most.

  15:08-15:10

  This is why Jesus thinks I'm the best.

  15:11-15:12

  This is why I'm the most humble.

  15:15-15:18

  We read this and we're like, man, we are way too civilized for that, aren't we?

  15:18-15:20

  Aren't we a little too civilized for that?

  15:21-15:23

  That's like first century stuff.

  15:23-15:24

  We don't do that.

  15:24-15:25

  We don't do that.

  15:25-15:25

  Do we?

  15:29-15:30

  Or do we?

  15:30-15:32

  I see a couple of heads going, actually, we do.

  15:33-15:34

  We do this from childhood.

  15:36-15:38

  I remember when I was a kid, there was a kid in my class.

  15:38-15:40

  I'm not going to mention his name in case he's listening to this.

  15:40-15:41

  He did this on the web somehow.

  15:43-15:45

  Excuse me, but he knows who he is.

  15:46-15:47

  I don't even know how it started.

  15:47-15:49

  This is like second grade stuff, OK?

  15:51-15:55

  I don't even know how it started, but he's like, I can run faster than you.

  15:58-16:08

  And I'm looking at this kid, this kid, I'm like, "No, you cannot." He's like, "I can run faster than you." I said, "There is no way you're faster than me.

  16:09-16:23

  No way you're faster than me." And he said, "I am faster than you because I am 63.77 Cherokee Indian." Like, what does that mean?

  16:25-16:30

  He goes, "Well, because I'm," whatever it was, "60-some percent, the number might be a little off.

  16:30-16:31

  Okay, it was second grade, okay?

  16:31-16:32

  It was like 30 years ago.

  16:32-16:38

  All right, all right." I'm like, "So you're part Indian?

  16:39-16:40

  Okay, okay.

  16:41-16:42

  That doesn't mean anything.

  16:42-16:47

  I'm faster than you." And he was just like, "I remember this day, so all day I'm faster than you.

  16:47-16:48

  I'm like, we're going to settle this.

  16:49-16:51

  I'll tell you what, I'll race you at recess.

  16:52-16:53

  And we did.

  16:53-16:57

  We were out at Shakur Elementary School, and we were at the kickball field, you know, in the back end.

  16:57-17:03

  And we stood in one end, and we said, OK, we're going to race down to that corner of the blacktop and back.

  17:03-17:03

  OK?

  17:04-17:04

  OK?

  17:04-17:06

  And we're going to settle this once and for all.

  17:08-17:12

  On your market set go, I was down and back before he was down.

  17:15-17:18

  Like 63.7% Indian.

  17:20-17:23

  Like, what's the other 37% tortoise?

  17:27-17:28

  So I'm at the finish line.

  17:28-17:32

  At this point, I made myself a sandwich and finished my homework, waiting for him to get back.

  17:34-17:36

  And I'm like, see, I'm faster than you.

  17:36-17:43

  He said, well, it's not fair, because I was wearing my cowboy boots today.

  17:45-17:49

  And I said, what's an Indian doing wearing cowboy boots?

  17:51-17:52

  I'm the greatest.

  17:55-17:58

  Maybe the current generation doesn't do this.

  17:58-17:59

  I don't know.

  18:00-18:03

  When we were kids-- some of you will back me up on this.

  18:03-18:05

  Remember, my dad can beat up your dad.

  18:06-18:06

  You remember that?

  18:08-18:09

  Yeah, see, do people still do that?

  18:11-18:12

  People still do that.

  18:12-18:13

  My dad can beat up your dad.

  18:14-18:19

  And if they don't do that to you, your dad would mop the floor with their dad.

  18:21-18:21

  Amen.

  18:23-18:23

  See?

  18:24-18:24

  He knows.

  18:27-18:28

  Do you remember that?

  18:28-18:29

  My dad can beat up your dad?

  18:29-18:30

  Do you remember that?

  18:32-18:35

  And I'm like, your dad wouldn't want to beat up my dad.

  18:36-18:37

  Because my dad's a bank manager.

  18:38-18:44

  And when your dad comes into the bank looking for a loan, He's going to feel pretty stupid for beating up the bank manager.

  18:46-18:48

  Not that he could have anyways, for the record.

  18:50-18:54

  But as adults, we've so outgrown that stuff, haven't we?

  18:55-18:58

  Well, actually, we really haven't.

  18:58-19:02

  Because the truth is, we want people to think that we are the greatest.

  19:03-19:40

  And it shows up very subtly in conversation, trying to insert yourself, somebody sharing something with you, and you're looking for your opportunity to talk about how you understand, but you do it a little bit better, or you've been through a little bit more, or somehow you're just a little bit greater. Social media has really had a field day with promoting greatness. Self-perceived greatness. You know, you get on social media, you know, you present the perfect family. Here's my selfie. I have the perfect dog. I have the perfect cat.

  19:40-19:41

  I have the perfect kids.

  19:41-19:50

  I, I, there's still something in us that wants to say, I'm, I'm the greatest.

  19:51-19:52

  I'm the best.

  19:54-19:58

  The truth is the attitude causes nothing but childish, childish discord.

  20:00-20:03

  In fact, first Corinthians, you know, that's one of the reasons Paul wrote the book of first Corinthians.

  20:04-20:09

  He's, he says in chapter three, verse three, that there's jealousy and strife, strife among you.

  20:09-20:12

  They had this whole, you know, I follow Paulist, I follow, I follow Paul.

  20:12-20:17

  There was this whole, I'm better than you mentality that was just tearing the church apart.

  20:20-20:24

  And understand that greatness is not about exalting yourself.

  20:26-20:28

  Greatness is about lifting up other people.

  20:29-20:32

  Greatness is about lifting up other people.

  20:33-20:36

  Getting ready for Taylor Brown's wedding.

  20:37-20:50

  We were talking just a couple of weeks ago, and he said, I've got to tell you, I was going to quit ministry.

  20:50-20:53

  I was done before I came to Harvest.

  20:54-21:00

  He said, I was totally ready to quit before I came to Harvest.

  21:02-21:02

  And I said, well, you know what?

  21:03-21:23

  probably my biggest contribution to the kingdom. I was getting a guy that was going to be a pastor and decided he wasn't going to be a pastor and now he is pursuing the ministry again. I'm certainly not saying that to put the spotlight on myself. Here's what I want to highlight is this truth.

  21:23-21:42

  Someone in your life needs encouraged. There's someone in your life that needs encouraged. There's someone in your life that could be one step a step away from ditching their marriage. There's someone in your life that could be one step away from just jumping off of the sobriety wagon.

  21:44-21:59

  So instead of presenting your case for your greatness, worried about how you look, how do others perceive you, instead of that focus, Lift up others.

  22:02-22:04

  Because great people lift up others, no others, not themselves.

  22:05-22:08

  Obviously negative example here from the disciples.

  22:08-22:18

  So Jesus steps in, number two in your outline, write this down, great people serve others, not themselves.

  22:20-22:22

  Great people simply serve others.

  22:23-22:27

  Okay, so again, they didn't say what they were arguing about, right?

  22:27-22:32

  it says they kept silent, but obviously Jesus knew because look at verse 35.

  22:33-22:34

  "And he sat down and called the 12.

  22:36-22:51

  "And he said to them, 'If anyone would be first, "'he must be last of all and servant of all.

  22:54-22:56

  "'Great people serve others, not themselves.

  22:57-23:00

  The question, is it wrong to want to be great?

  23:01-23:02

  Don't answer too quickly.

  23:02-23:03

  I want you to think about that for a second.

  23:05-23:08

  Is it wrong to want to be great?

  23:08-23:08

  Great.

  23:10-23:12

  The answer is no, it's not wrong.

  23:14-23:16

  It's not wrong to want to be great.

  23:18-23:27

  Notice that Jesus didn't say, Jesus didn't sit down and say, "Okay, you 12, you 12, gather around." Why are you being so stupid talking about this?

  23:30-23:32

  This is an idiotic conversation that you're having.

  23:33-23:34

  Knock it off.

  23:34-23:35

  Jesus didn't say that.

  23:36-23:38

  Notice what he did say.

  23:39-23:51

  He said, "If anyone would be first." He was saying, "If someone really wants to be great, "here's how you go about it." Now, the desire to be great is not wrong.

  23:52-23:53

  God gave you that desire.

  23:55-23:57

  But understand, it's like sexual desire.

  24:01-24:07

  I grew up thinking that sex was a dirty, taboo thing.

  24:09-24:12

  When the truth is it's not, God created it, right?

  24:13-24:15

  God created it for a purpose.

  24:19-24:25

  And the problem is God gave us the desire And we misuse it.

  24:26-24:28

  We go after it the wrong way.

  24:28-24:29

  And so it is with greatness.

  24:30-24:31

  God gave us the desire to be great.

  24:32-24:35

  But the problem is we go after greatness in the wrong way.

  24:35-24:39

  We think greatness is about, put me on the pedestal.

  24:40-24:41

  Think much of me.

  24:41-24:42

  Think more of me.

  24:42-24:44

  Think great things of me.

  24:44-24:46

  That's the wrong way to go about greatness.

  24:47-24:49

  Jesus said, here's how you go about greatness.

  24:49-24:49

  Do you see that?

  24:50-24:50

  that?

  24:53-25:07

  If anyone would be first, in other words, you want to be great? He must be last of all and servant of all. You want to be first? Be last.

  25:09-25:14

  And that flies in the face of what people teach. Ugh, gag.

  25:15-25:21

  We hear it all the time. Here's three words of bad advice jot it down, jot these down.

  25:21-25:26

  These are three words of bad advice that people give in this regard.

  25:27-25:30

  You gotta, here's the first one, you gotta have more self-esteem.

  25:32-25:32

  You hear people say that?

  25:33-25:35

  You gotta have more self-esteem.

  25:36-25:37

  That's a lie.

  25:40-25:40

  That's a lie.

  25:43-25:45

  You already think too much of yourself.

  25:46-26:09

  And for the person that says, much of myself. I hate myself. You know what you're doing? You're giving yourself too much undue attention. You're so focused on yourself and these things in yourself that you perceive are hateful, it's self-absorbed, self-absorbed. I hate myself. You're thinking too much about yourself is what you're doing. Here's another one.

  26:10-26:12

  You need to learn to love yourself.

  26:17-26:20

  Same You already love yourself.

  26:20-26:23

  You love yourself too much. You give yourself too much attention.

  26:25-26:29

  That's almost as if, you know what, you just need to give yourself some more attention.

  26:31-26:33

  That is not biblical.

  26:33-26:34

  It is not biblical.

  26:35-26:39

  The Bible would say that we already have that problem of loving ourselves.

  26:40-26:42

  That's why Paul says in, what is it, Philippians 2?

  26:43-26:44

  Was it Philippians 2, 3?

  26:44-26:48

  He said you need to consider others as being more significant than yourselves.

  26:50-26:55

  Because our default mode is attention on me, attention on me, attention on me.

  26:57-27:00

  The last one, bad advice.

  27:01-27:05

  These are all very synonymous, but I want you to see these different facets.

  27:07-27:08

  Think more of yourself.

  27:12-27:19

  Several years ago I was standing outside a bookstore and there was the new Osteen book out.

  27:19-27:25

  It was after Your Best Life Now, but it was before Every Day is a Friday, whatever.

  27:25-27:27

  What was the second one?

  27:28-27:37

  I don't even know, but I picked it up and I'm flipping through it and I'm just like, "Lie, lie, lie, lie, lie." It was just full of lies.

  27:38-27:57

  of them is, he says, "You know what? God wants you to think more of yourself." Like, that is so not my problem. My problem is I already think too much of myself. This guy's coming along saying, "I need to think more of myself." What did Jesus say? You want to be first, you're going to be last.

  27:59-28:08

  You need to think more of yourself. Listen, I'm not saying, please understand, I'm not saying that you need to think poorly of yourself, okay?

  28:09-28:10

  I'm not saying that at all.

  28:12-28:15

  I'm not even saying you need to think less of yourself.

  28:15-28:19

  What I am saying is this, you need to stop thinking about yourself at all.

  28:19-28:20

  That's humility.

  28:21-28:30

  Humility isn't walking around, I'm dirt, I'm garbage, nobody likes me, nobody should or should like me because I'm dirt.

  28:30-28:31

  I already covered that.

  28:32-28:33

  I'm garbage, I'm repetitive.

  28:37-28:39

  You see the problem with that kind of thinking?

  28:41-28:46

  I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, you're absorbed with yourself.

  28:48-28:49

  That's the problem.

  28:50-28:53

  Inhumility says I'm not going to think about myself.

  28:56-28:58

  Because greatness is demonstrated in the way that I treat others.

  29:01-29:02

  What does it mean to be last?

  29:02-29:07

  Well, I believe when Jesus said, be a servant of all, he's clarifying that.

  29:07-29:08

  That's what it means to be last.

  29:11-29:13

  It means you are the servant, you are the slave of everyone.

  29:17-29:20

  We've all said that, and hopefully today's a day of repentance.

  29:22-29:24

  And your kids leave the socks on the floor.

  29:24-29:26

  Hey, pick that up, I'm not your slave.

  29:27-29:28

  Guess what?

  29:28-29:28

  Yes, you are.

  29:31-29:32

  Just kidding, kid, you have to pick your own socks up.

  29:33-29:38

  But Jesus said greatness is this, it's being a servant of all.

  29:40-29:43

  Not servant of the people that I like.

  29:45-29:47

  Or servant of the people that I respect.

  29:47-29:49

  He said the servant of all.

  29:53-29:55

  Jesus wasn't saying the people who serve become great.

  29:56-29:59

  He's saying great people are the ones who serve.

  30:00-30:06

  I want you to think about a time in your life that you poured yourself out serving.

  30:09-30:11

  Maybe it was when we went and worked down at World Vision.

  30:12-30:13

  Think of the prison ministry.

  30:13-30:17

  Think of those times in your life that you've gone into the prison pouring yourself out.

  30:18-30:20

  Think of a mission trip.

  30:20-30:26

  Darla, think of your time over in Moldova pouring yourself out and teaching and encouraging.

  30:29-30:37

  and think about the time in your life that you're like, you know what, I am doing this for other people.

  30:37-30:38

  I'm going to serve others.

  30:40-30:49

  When you think back to those times in your life, you realize that that brings far more fulfillment than any of the stuff of the earth can give you.

  30:52-31:03

  I think to some of the, especially the newer guys getting involved with prison ministry, Mark and I have been to jail a lot together, and I think some of the newer guys getting involved, coming out of jail going, "That was awesome!" Like, really?

  31:03-31:07

  You just got out of jail and you're like, "That was awesome?" What was so awesome about it?

  31:08-31:13

  Because I was in a position where I was serving people and sharing Christ with people and loving people to people in the Lord.

  31:14-31:20

  That kind of servanthood, that's how Jesus Christ defines greatness.

  31:23-31:29

  I read a quote from Mother Teresa one time where she was cleaning, cleaning the wounds of a leper.

  31:29-31:32

  And there was a reporter covering her story.

  31:33-31:38

  And this reporter saw her cleaning the wounds of this leper and was just kind of looking on with disgust, disgust.

  31:38-31:41

  And he said, I wouldn't do that for a million dollars.

  31:41-31:43

  Mother Teresa said, neither would I.

  31:46-31:47

  It's about serving.

  31:49-31:50

  Greatness is about serving.

  31:52-32:00

  And it's moving on from I have to serve, that's obligation, I have to serve, to saying I get to serve.

  32:02-32:18

  You see, we have opportunity here at the church to serve, whether it's the weekly kingdom responsibility that happens every Sunday morning, being involved with setting up and the sound and the music and the hospitality and the children, there's incredible opportunity to serve here.

  32:19-32:30

  There's incredible opportunity to serve to serve in a small group where you open up your home and you're pouring into other people outreach opportunities that we take as a church, opportunities to serve.

  32:30-32:41

  Every time someone in this church's church has a baby or is sick or has lost a loved one or runs into a financial issue, those are incredible opportunities where you can say, I get to serve.

  32:41-32:44

  I have an incredible opportunity to serve here.

  32:46-32:48

  I'd like to challenge you to evaluate yourself.

  32:51-32:59

  In your service, you have to ask yourself, here's three questions to ask, just ask yourself, I can't answer these, these are hard questions, you have to wrestle with the Lord through these questions.

  33:01-33:03

  Ask yourself, first of all, do I serve to be noticed?

  33:05-33:06

  Do I serve to be noticed?

  33:08-33:13

  Am I involved in the church because I want people to come up?

  33:14-33:17

  "Laura, this church wouldn't run without you.

  33:17-33:23

  "Lord, you are the backbone of this church." And is that why you do it?

  33:24-33:25

  So the people would notice you?

  33:28-33:29

  The people would think much of you?

  33:31-33:34

  Another question is, am I serving because I feel guilty if I don't?

  33:34-33:35

  That's how it is for some people.

  33:36-33:48

  I really don't want to, but I see like most everybody else around here is doing something, and I'm gonna feel really guilty if I don't serve.

  33:48-33:50

  Do you see how self is inserted there?

  33:50-33:54

  It's not serving, serving other people.

  33:54-33:58

  There you're serving yourself because you're trying to get rid of feelings of guilt.

  33:58-33:59

  You see that?

  33:59-34:00

  That's self-serving.

  34:03-34:04

  Here's another question.

  34:05-34:07

  Thirdly, do I get angry when I'm not acknowledged?

  34:10-34:12

  Do I get angry when I'm not acknowledged?

  34:13-34:17

  You know what, I helped out with this function at the church the last three times they did it.

  34:17-34:19

  I didn't get one thank you card for that.

  34:20-34:25

  I didn't get one gift certificate to my favorite restaurant for that.

  34:27-34:28

  What kind of a church is this?

  34:29-34:31

  Are you angry if you're not acknowledged?

  34:33-34:38

  You know, Pastor Jeff has not one time put me on the golden stool on the stage and said everybody be like this person.

  34:39-34:40

  He's never done that, done that.

  34:42-34:50

  Maybe you don't take it to that extreme stream, but is there something in you that feels like, you know, they really should parade me around at least a little bit.

  34:51-34:52

  Maybe a shout out in the bulletin.

  34:54-34:56

  My own webpage something.

  34:57-35:01

  Well, it's not about you, about you because you are last.

  35:03-35:03

  Right?

  35:05-35:15

  Jesus said, "If anyone would be first, "must be last, last of all, and servant of all." Not about you, about you, your last.

  35:15-35:16

  It's about the ones that you serve.

  35:17-35:21

  But great people serve others, not themselves.

  35:23-35:29

  And finally today, great people bless others, not themselves.

  35:31-35:38

  Yes Anonymous, we're going to see a slight difference here in the emphasis that Jesus was making.

  35:39-35:52

  Look at verses 36 and 37. Here Jesus is going to illustrate the point. It says, "And he took a child." Where did he get the kid from? Well, where were they at again?

  35:53-36:18

  They were in a house, and like I said, most scholars think that it was probably Peter's house. Was this one of Peter's children? Was it one of Andrew's children? Was it like Dennis the Menace, you know, the neighbor kid that's always coming over and I don't know but there was a kid in the house right right okay there's a kid in the house where did he get that kid from?

  36:20-37:16

  that's not the point here's the point he took a child a child and put him in the midst of them and taking him in his arms he said to them whoever receives one such child in my name receives me and whoever receives me is me receives not me but him who sent me what does it mean to receive Jesus said whoever receives such a child what does what does it mean to receive well it can be translated accept, it can mean welcome. You look at parallel accounts, for example, this account is also in Matthew chapter 18, and in the context there Jesus is also teaching about guiding and protecting young believers, okay?

  37:18-37:27

  So when you look at receiving, accepting, welcome, guiding, protecting, I just put that all under the heading of "bless." It's blessing someone.

  37:29-37:35

  It's benefiting someone. Motivated from love.

  37:37-37:48

  But understand that Jesus wasn't just talking about kids, right? Jesus wasn't like, "Here's my children's ministry seminar." He was using the child as an example.

  37:50-38:01

  Notice He says, "Such a And here's the point. It's blessing someone and expecting nothing in return.

  38:02-38:03

  That's why Jesus used a child.

  38:03-38:25

  It's blessing someone and expecting nothing in return. Why he used the child as an example? Because children are needy and dependent. Have you noticed? Has anyone noticed that? Children are so stinking needy and so stinking dependent.

  38:28-38:41

  My kids are nine and eight and I'll just be honest with you there are days that I'm just like come on I fed you yesterday. You're hungry already today?

  38:41-38:41

  Hey, hey!

  38:43-38:44

  What gives, man?

  38:45-38:48

  You're sucking me dry high here, come on!

  38:49-38:50

  Feel like you're Butler!

  38:51-38:53

  Gosh, will there be anything else, your highness?

  38:55-38:56

  So needy.

  38:57-39:00

  You know, I spent time with you last week.

  39:02-39:04

  You had a cup of water yesterday.

  39:05-39:08

  Come on, children are so needy.

  39:10-39:10

  That's the point.

  39:10-39:17

  I talked about my son Owen last week, and you know, Owen does nothing, nothing for me.

  39:19-39:24

  He does nothing for me. Oh my gosh, that's harsh. Just think about it.

  39:25-39:28

  Owen doesn't personally benefit me.

  39:31-39:52

  You see, it's not like Owen and I have this exchange agreement. I'm like, I'll tell you what, you mow the grass, you start researching for my sermon and you do my taxes and I'll feed you feed you today. It's like okay we kind of got this little bartering system going on where I do stuff for dad and dad and he does stuff for me. We don't have that going on.

  39:53-40:04

  Understand it's all going one way in our house, right? It's going from parents to child in the provision, in the blessing, in the who's benefiting and who department.

  40:06-40:31

  That's how it is with all children really. They have nothing to benefit you. No wisdom. I thought for sure I was gonna hear an amen from somebody on that one. All right, keep moving. No authority. They can't return the favor. And that's why I said in the point three, great people, people bless others, not themselves. You're like, what do you mean to bless yourself? What I mean is this.

  40:32-40:36

  It's blessing someone with no ulterior motive. That's what it means no ulterior motive.

  40:37-40:45

  Like, I'm going to be really nice to that guy because he has a swimming pool and it is hot, hot.

  40:46-40:47

  We do that stuff, right?

  40:48-40:50

  Hey, did you meet that new guy at church that has a pool?

  40:53-40:54

  No, but I want to now.

  40:55-40:56

  There's something in our minds.

  40:56-41:00

  If I'm nice to him, he'll invite me over for a pool party.

  41:03-41:12

  Or what if somebody visited this church and you found out that he was a very high and influential person in your line of work?

  41:14-41:18

  And you're like, I'm making it my mission to be nice to that guy.

  41:18-41:20

  I'm going to serve that guy.

  41:20-41:23

  I'm going to make sure that that guy sees how awesome I am.

  41:24-41:25

  That's ulterior motive.

  41:27-41:30

  You're not serving out of love, you're serving out of what?

  41:31-41:37

  I'm hoping that something in particular is going to be coming back my way on this.

  41:39-41:42

  That's why Jesus, such a warm picture in picture, isn't it?

  41:44-41:45

  There's the child in the midst of them.

  41:46-41:48

  What does your Bible say?

  41:49-41:51

  It says, "Took him in his arms." You see that picture?

  41:52-41:53

  Jesus taking his child.

  41:54-41:57

  And whoever receives, there's one such child in my name.

  41:59-42:03

  is there is nothing self-serving about serving a child.

  42:05-42:07

  Serving a child is done purely out of what?

  42:09-42:10

  Purely out of love, right?

  42:10-42:11

  Right?

  42:11-42:12

  We already talked.

  42:12-42:16

  Thompsons were blessed with a new daughter.

  42:19-42:25

  And I know Dan and Alicia, they're not like, well, we're sort of obligated to take care of the child now.

  42:28-42:29

  It's done out of love.

  42:30-42:35

  Like, okay, well, we're gonna take care of her this week, but next week she better start carrying her share of the load around this house.

  42:35-42:36

  It's done out of what?

  42:37-42:38

  Done out of love.

  42:39-42:40

  Done out of love.

  42:40-42:41

  So here's the point.

  42:42-42:47

  Jesus said, "Whoever receives one such child "of my name receives me.

  42:48-42:52

  "And whoever receives me receives not me." Whoa, whoa, whoa, what?

  42:53-43:07

  receives me receives not me but him who sent me." Here's the point. How you treat someone who can't repay and who can't reciprocate is how you treat Jesus.

  43:10-43:14

  According to Jesus, it even goes into another dimension.

  43:16-43:25

  How you treat someone who can't repay you or who can't reciprocate the favor is the way that you would treat God himself. I'd like to add one more thing.

  43:26-43:28

  You can't miss this.

  43:30-43:37

  When Jesus talks about how we should receive people, you realize that's how Jesus receives us.

  43:39-43:57

  That's how Jesus receives us. For those of you that are born again believers in Christ, how did Jesus receive you? Was he looking down saying, "You know what, that Paul Fields is pretty cool.

  43:58-44:04

  He's the kind of guy I want on my team." The truth is, I love you Paul, but the truth is you add nothing to Jesus.

  44:06-44:07

  You don't.

  44:07-44:13

  Jesus isn't any more awesome because you follow Him.

  44:13-44:18

  And if you chose not to follow Him, that wouldn't make Him any less awesome.

  44:19-44:21

  His degree of awesomeness is infinite.

  44:22-44:25

  So understand, we don't bring anything, anything to the table in that relationship.

  44:28-44:33

  What Jesus received us, He receives us purely out of what?

  44:34-44:35

  Purely out of love.

  44:38-44:39

  We don't add to Him.

  44:41-44:56

  We don't benefit Him in the sense of there is something He would lack if we didn't follow him. There is something he would miss out on. If we did, we didn't worship him. Jesus would call us to receive others the way that he received you.

  44:58-45:05

  Lift them up, serve them, and bless them because you love them.

  45:06-45:08

  That is great.

Small Group Questions (Whole Group):
Read Mark 9:30-37

Breakout Questions:

Pray for one another!