Jeff Miller

November 23, 2014

Jesus On Tour

Religion: Damning and Destructive

Jeff Miller

November 23, 2014

Jesus On Tour

BEWARE of False Religious Teachers!

BEWARE! They DEMAND . (Mk 12:38-39)

BEWARE! They DESTROY. (Mk 12:40a)

BEWARE! They DECEIVE. (Mk 12:40b)

BEWARE! They are DAMNED. (Mk 12:40c)

"Do you see what I mean....?" (Mk 12:41-44)

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

00:02-00:06
Alright, open your Bibles to the Gospel according to Mark.
00:06-00:08
We're in chapter 12.
00:10-00:14
Are you with us so far in where we're at in the Gospel of Mark?
00:14-00:17
This year we're talking really just about three things.
00:18-00:26
As Mark takes us to the last week of Jesus' life, he highlights there's three things about Jesus that you need to know.
00:26-00:28
You need to know these three things.
00:29-00:31
First of all, He is the Lord.
00:31-00:32
He has all authority.
00:35-00:37
He should have authority over us.
00:37-00:38
He is the Lamb.
00:39-00:41
He is the Lamb of God who came to die.
00:42-00:43
Take away our sins.
00:44-00:45
And then finally, He is the life.
00:46-00:53
He came to not just die on the cross, but to resurrect from the dead so that we can have the promise of eternal life.
00:54-00:58
That we receive immediately upon belief of Jesus Christ.
00:59-01:12
So we've seen in this last week Jesus making His triumphal entry, riding into Jerusalem, announcing that He is the Messiah with that prophetic act - that prophecy-fulfilling act.
01:15-01:18
And Jesus immediately the next day cleansed the temple.
01:20-01:23
And then we went through a series of challenges.
01:23-01:32
People trying to discredit Jesus, asking Him all these questions and make Him look bad in front of everyone so that people would not believe in Him.
01:33-01:35
And Jesus answered all of their questions.
01:36-01:39
And that brings us up to verse 38.
01:39-01:39
Are you with me?
01:42-01:55
It says, "And in His teaching, He said, 'Beware.'" I want to stop there.
01:57-01:57
Beware.
01:59-02:00
That's the word of the day.
02:01-02:02
The word of the day is beware.
02:05-02:06
Beware is a serious word.
02:10-02:20
Back in 2010, to earn a few bucks on the side, I signed up to be a part-time census taker.
02:20-02:21
Remember the census?
02:21-02:29
Those people, if you didn't send your thing in, you had these annoying people show up at your door help you fill out the form. I was one of those annoying people.
02:30-02:31
That was me, okay? Sorry about that.
02:36-02:37
And I enjoyed it.
02:38-02:39
Sometimes.
02:39-02:41
It was nice to get out and meet the neighbors.
02:41-02:53
Let me tell you the times I did not enjoy. Pulling into a house and seeing a sign that said, "Beware of the dog!" Now you know me, I'm a dog person.
02:54-02:58
I am a dog person. I love dogs.
02:58-03:04
I'll be honest with you, seeing a sign that says "Beware of the dog" that communicates something, doesn't it?
03:05-03:27
And one of the people that I actually trained with went to a house up the road a little ways, where the guy came out with trained dogs sitting beside him and he said, "You have about 5 seconds to get off my property before I stick my dogs on you." Beware. It's a serious word. Okay? It's a serious word.
03:27-03:49
They don't just have a sign up that says, "Attention all visitors, we are dog lovers here too." Or, "Hi, we we own a lapso -apso." It says, "Beware of the dog," meaning, "You better watch yourself, Because my dog will attack you and hurt you.
03:51-03:53
So beware is a serious word, ok?
03:53-04:00
Sometimes we read through the Bible very quickly, and we can miss the impact of the actual words.
04:00-04:03
That's why at Harvest Bible Chapel, we study the Bible verse by verse.
04:03-04:05
All of the words are important.
04:06-04:14
And this teaching that Jesus is about to give all hangs on an extremely important word.
04:14-04:15
The word is what?
04:16-04:17
Beware!
04:18-04:19
Danger ahead!
04:20-04:22
Watch out for yourselves!
04:24-04:25
Because this is serious business.
04:27-04:27
Beware!
04:29-04:30
Beware!
04:30-04:31
It's a warning to the flock.
04:34-04:43
Jesus, verse 38, "And in His teaching He said, 'Beware of the scribes.'" We've talked about them.
04:43-04:45
The scribes were the experts Old Testament law.
04:46-04:55
These were the people that knew the Old Testament frontwards, backwards, plus all of their man -made laws that they added to it.
04:57-04:59
They were the religious experts of the day.
05:01-05:12
But before we look at these words, I want you to write a couple of things down about why Jesus gave such a serious warning.
05:13-05:22
us down. Number one, not everyone who says they represent God actually represents God.
05:24-05:42
Not everyone who says they represent God actually represents God. I don't care what the title is. I don't care how many people follow that person. I don't care what kind of fancy clothes they wear. Not everyone who says they represent God actually represents God.
05:43-06:10
We need to remind ourselves of this church because we live in a very ecumenical day. Let's accept everyone even if they teach unbiblical things, even if they practice unbiblical things. Let's just accept everyone. Several years ago at my old church, members of our church had the Jehovah's Witnesses knock on their door, and they said, "Hey, I want you to meet our pastor," and they brought these Jehovah's Witnesses to my office.
06:13-06:14
We had a lively conversation.
06:17-06:32
But when we left, when they got up to leave, they were nice people, when they got up to leave the man said, "You know, we're both really after the same thing." Like, no we are not.
06:34-06:38
I am after teaching people what the Bible says about Jesus Christ.
06:39-06:40
What were they after?
06:44-06:45
Sending people to hell, essentially.
06:47-06:50
Denying the truth of God's word, denying the truth of his son.
06:51-06:56
So this idea of, well, we're both going after the same thing, that's just not true.
06:58-07:03
Like, "Well, how can you say something like that?" Well, we skipped a couple of verses in the sermons.
07:03-07:13
I blogged this because we're not skipping anything intentionally, but I wanted to spend more time in Mark chapter 13, so make sure you get on our website.
07:13-07:23
But there's a blog about verses 35 through 37, and it all focuses on this issue, "Who is Jesus Christ?" Jesus said it's vitally important that you understand who He is.
07:27-07:28
And that's the problem with these cults.
07:30-07:32
Denying who Jesus is.
07:34-07:56
Saying, you know, like the Mormons, "Jesus is the brother of Satan, the brother of Lucifer, they're brothers." And the Jehovah's Witnesses denying that Jesus is God in the flesh, even though the New Testament, If it says anything, it says that, that Jesus is God in the flesh, denying the most important doctrine in the New Testament.
08:00-08:03
If you deny the person and the work of Jesus Christ, you're a missionary for hell.
08:05-08:09
So understand that not everyone who says they represent God actually represent God.
08:10-08:13
Jesus said the issue of who He is is vitally important.
08:18-08:19
Number two, write this down.
08:20-08:24
People use religion to manipulate and victimize other people.
08:26-08:36
Like, "Well, Pastor Jeff, that's a really weird thing to say in church on Sunday morning." People use religion to manipulate people and to victimize people.
08:40-08:41
That is a true statement.
08:43-08:45
But listen, not everybody.
08:46-08:47
Not everybody.
08:49-08:49
Jesus didn't.
08:53-09:02
There are many people out there who would use religion to manipulate you and to victimize you.
09:04-09:11
You're like, "Well, if not everybody's doing it, how can you tell?" How can you tell?
09:12-09:14
Well, that takes us back to the text.
09:16-09:28
In his teaching he said, "Beware of the scribes." In other words, on your outline, "Beware of the false religious teachers." Jot these down on your outline.
09:29-09:30
First of all, beware.
09:32-09:33
They demand.
09:34-09:35
They demand.
09:39-09:46
We're going to see here, Jesus said, "This is what you watch out for." They don't give.
09:48-09:48
They demand.
09:50-09:51
They're not humble.
09:52-09:54
They are self-exalting.
09:56-09:58
Look at what Jesus said first of all.
09:58-10:07
He says, "Beware of the scribes who like to walk around in long robes." What's up with the robes?
10:09-10:19
In Numbers 15, when God was giving the law, He told Israel to attach a blue cord to the tassels of your garment.
10:21-10:26
And when you look at that blue cord, it was to remind you to be obedient to the Lord.
10:28-10:30
It was like God's fashion accessory.
10:31-10:38
So just put this blue cord on and every time you see it, it's a reminder that I should to be obedient to the commandments of the Lord.
10:39-10:41
Well, over time, that got a little corrupted.
10:42-10:47
It became about the fashion accessory, not about what God said it meant.
10:48-10:51
And the cords got bigger.
10:51-10:52
And the tassels got bigger.
10:53-10:58
And the robes got bigger to the point in Jesus' day that that was sort of a status symbol.
10:59-11:06
If you had the biggest, most elaborate, long robe, that was just your way when you walked down the street, Everybody's like, "Wow!
11:08-11:13
That guy loves God, because look at the size of his robe.
11:14-11:14
Wow!
11:15-11:17
Did you see his robe?
11:17-11:21
It's got all kinds of sequins and bling and feathers on it.
11:21-11:24
It looks like Ric Flair walking down the street.
11:25-11:26
Wow!
11:28-11:35
Putting on a show with the clothes." I've got to tell you this story.
11:35-11:39
I laughed, not at the time, but many times afterwards.
11:39-11:42
We have this Thanksgiving service coming up, right?
11:42-11:49
And we had a meeting, several pastors that are involved in this community service, we had a meeting to plan the service.
11:50-11:53
The one pastor was talking about his congregation, got him a new robe.
11:54-11:59
He was going on and on about his, now listen, I'm not saying everybody that wears a robe is like of the devil, okay?
12:00-12:05
But I couldn't help connect the dots when Jesus was talking about the robe here.
12:05-12:07
Anyways, he was talking about his robe.
12:07-12:16
Well, later on in the conversation, all these other pastors started talking about me like I wasn't in the room, because I'm speaking at this service.
12:17-12:32
And the one pastor says, "Does Jeff wear a robe?" The other one says, "No, he doesn't wear a robe." And I'm like, "I'm right here." They kept going.
12:33-12:40
They said, "Does he have a robe?" No, he doesn't have a robe.
12:41-12:42
I kid you not.
12:43-12:56
And one of the pastors said to the pastor that was talking about his new robe, they said, "Can Jeff wear your old robe?" I'm like, "Still here." And he said, "No, I'm much taller than him.
12:56-13:05
"It would never fit him." I'm like, "I am not wearing a robe." I don't even have a bathrobe, okay?
13:05-13:10
I'm not wearing some kind of hand -me-down robe.
13:11-13:13
I'm not throwing anybody under the bus.
13:14-13:21
I'm just saying, watch out for the people that place the emphasis on the outward stuff, okay?
13:22-13:25
I'm not questioning any pastor's sincerity.
13:26-13:27
So I'm not doing any of that.
13:27-13:29
I'm just saying, watch out for the guy.
13:31-13:32
It's all about the outward.
13:33-13:35
Because that's what Jesus was talking about here.
13:36-13:38
They walk around in long robes.
13:40-13:55
Secondly, He says, "And like greetings in the marketplaces." Matthew chapter 23 really gives the full transcript of Jesus' teaching on this matter.
13:56-13:57
I'd encourage you to read that.
13:59-14:01
What Jesus is talking about here.
14:01-14:05
Watch out for the people that expect reverent greetings from everyone.
14:07-14:17
You know, these scribes in Jesus' day, you couldn't just if the guy's name was Joe, you couldn't just walk up and say, "Hey, Joe." You had to greet him with a reverent greeting.
14:18-14:24
Like, "Oh, great one." "Oh, most holy one." That's how you had to greet them.
14:25-14:26
And Jesus said they love that stuff.
14:26-14:27
They eat that up.
14:27-14:29
They're walking down, they've got their robes on.
14:31-14:50
People are like, "Oh most holy, great, reverent one." And they're just like, "I know they're talking about me." Jesus said, "Watch out for the people that insist on the titles." Jesus talks about this in Matthew.
14:51-15:14
Watch out for the people that are like, "Call me teacher." Or, "Call me father." Now you will refer to me as, "Father Jeff." Jesus said, "Watch out for the people that do that." And you're like, "Well, what should I call you?" You can call me Jeff.
15:16-15:18
And your kids can call me Pastor Jeff.
15:19-15:26
Not because I'm looking for some power trip from your children, but because I think parents should teach their children respect for all adults.
15:27-15:28
Ok?
15:29-15:41
And then look, verse 39, "And have the best seats in the synagogue, and the places of honor at feasts." In the synagogue there is a platform where the leaders sat.
15:42-15:45
And my title earns me honor.
15:47-15:53
Watch out for the people that don't lead with humility, but lead with expectation.
15:54-15:55
They demand. They demand.
15:55-15:56
They demand.
15:57-15:59
Insisting on everyone revering.
16:01-16:04
Making you feel down here while I'm up here.
16:04-16:05
Watch out for those people.
16:06-16:07
Jesus said beware.
16:12-16:19
Church, when the religious guy thinks that he's above others, always going to be trouble 100% of the time.
16:20-16:36
2014 has seen many famous preachers and teachers make a shipwreck of the faith because they thought their position gave them a buy on adultery and on abusing women.
16:38-16:51
And I'm not going to get into the names, many of you people know, but many famous nationally known preachers Have destroyed their ministry and their testimony.
16:54-17:01
Because you get to the place where you think, "I'm just a little bit above average, Joe.
17:03-17:04
I'm working for God.
17:05-17:11
The normal rules of conduct don't apply to me like they apply to other people.
17:11-17:16
And yeah, I have to preach this stuff because these people don't get it like I get it.
17:18-17:19
It's been a bad year for that.
17:20-17:29
And I would challenge you, or caution you rather, don't idealize or idolize any preacher or teacher.
17:30-17:33
Only Jesus Christ is worthy of such reverence.
17:35-17:37
Only Jesus Christ is worthy of such reverence.
17:41-18:05
It's just a running gag in our house because every time I do a funeral and the newspaper calls, "How do you want your name printed in the paper?" I say, "You just put Jeff Miller, Pastor of or Pastor Jeff." And I tell them, "No, not Aaron, every time, do not put Reverend, please." "Well, why don't you want Reverend?" "Because I believe that only Jesus Christ is to be revered.
18:05-18:13
I do not like to be called Reverend." And without fail, it's in the paper, the Reverend Jeffrey Miller officiating.
18:13-18:14
I'm like, oh come on.
18:15-18:16
I am so not worthy of that title.
18:17-18:18
No one is.
18:19-18:21
Jesus Christ alone is to be revered.
18:24-18:26
So Jesus says first of all, beware they demand.
18:26-18:27
Watch out for that guy.
18:27-18:29
Watch out for that guy that demands.
18:30-18:31
Demands.
18:31-18:34
Secondly, they destroy.
18:36-18:45
In verse 40, Jesus said, "Who devour widows' houses." Who devour widows' houses.
18:46-18:49
Jesus is saying this is what's going on behind the scenes.
18:49-18:51
This is the ultimate evil.
18:51-18:55
They are victimizing the very people that God said to care for.
18:56-19:04
In Jesus' day, these scribes would offer these poor widows legal help and care.
19:06-19:07
And guess what they wanted in exchange?
19:08-19:08
Can anybody guess?
19:10-19:11
Right, Peg.
19:11-19:12
They want this.
19:12-19:14
I'll take care of you, poor little widow.
19:14-19:16
I'll take care of you.
19:16-19:20
I just need you to compensate me for my services.
19:20-19:22
I'll watch out for you.
19:22-19:26
I just, there's just a nominal fee that goes with that.
19:28-19:28
You know what they would do?
19:29-19:32
Why did Jesus say they devour widows' houses?
19:32-19:39
What they would do is these scribes would take the widow's house in pledge for their services.
19:39-19:41
Well, I can't quite pay you what you're asking.
19:41-19:43
Well, put your house up for pledge.
19:44-19:45
I'll take care of you.
19:46-19:51
And then when the widow would die, the scribe would get the house.
19:51-19:52
It was all legal, right?
19:53-19:56
Because she signed it over to them.
19:58-19:59
Watch out.
20:01-20:03
Watch out for the religious people who are demanding money.
20:05-20:08
You see these charlatans on TV.
20:12-20:15
God wants you to plant an uncommon seed for an uncommon harvest.
20:17-20:19
And I don't care if it is your last thousand dollars.
20:19-20:23
You send it to me and God is going to give you a hundred thousand dollars.
20:25-20:27
That's the modern day version of what these scribes did.
20:28-20:30
There's nothing new under the sun.
20:32-20:32
Pay up.
20:33-20:33
Pay up.
20:34-20:41
You know the rabbis taught in Jesus' day that with alms, with alms you purchase salvation.
20:42-20:56
That's why in the temple, in the court of women, they had 13 receptacles, 13 little offering receptacles to make sure that these poor little widows would pay their alms, 13 of them.
20:59-21:01
Because with alms you purchase salvation.
21:02-21:03
Like, well, I'm glad those days are behind us.
21:03-21:04
Wrong.
21:06-21:14
Do you know that one of the largest churches in the world teaches a doctrine called purgatory?
21:14-21:15
Do you know what this doctrine teaches?
21:17-21:23
This doctrine teaches that when you die, you still have some sin on you.
21:25-21:37
And because God doesn't allow any sin into heaven, you go to this place called purgatory where the fire of purgatory burns the remainder of your sin off of you.
21:40-21:53
And after spending countless years in purgatory, burning, eventually you get purified enough that you can enter into heaven.
21:55-21:59
And do you know how you shorten someone's time in purgatory?
21:59-22:03
Do you know how you can get somebody out of purgatory a little quicker?
22:04-22:06
You can make the sign of the cross, that takes some time off.
22:06-22:09
You can pray the rosary in a family setting, that takes time off.
22:09-22:17
But one of the main ways is you pay the church to say a mass to reduce the person's time in purgatory.
22:18-22:28
Because if you believe that, if you believe that your grandmother who just died is burning, wouldn't you give anything to reduce that time?
22:30-22:31
Wouldn't you?
22:33-22:37
Anything I can do to, you know, poor grandma's burning and suffering right now.
22:37-22:41
I better fork over some money to the church to get her out of there.
22:41-22:42
That is a lie from hell.
22:45-22:48
You know, the Bible says that when Jesus died on the cross, do you know the last thing he said?
22:49-22:59
He said, "It is finished." So this idea that a believer in Jesus Christ has some sin remaining on their soul, that's a lie.
23:01-23:07
Because Jesus thoroughly and totally, 100% cleanses us from our sin.
23:07-23:08
The Bible says he takes it away.
23:10-23:14
So this idea that you have sin remaining on your soul, that's a lie from hell.
23:16-23:28
But there's a church that's making a lot of money because there are people that believe that lie because of the emotional reaction to it.
23:28-23:42
"I don't want my loved one to suffer." Here again you have a church or a religious organization making money, teaching people you can purchase salvation.
23:44-23:48
Jesus said, "Beware, they destroy." They destroy.
23:48-23:52
Watch out for the religious organization that just wants your money.
23:53-23:55
That preacher or teacher that just wants your money.
23:56-24:00
They'll devour you to get it, and they have no time for you if you don't have it.
24:01-24:02
Watch out for them.
24:04-24:06
Beware, they destroy.
24:06-24:07
They destroy.
24:09-24:13
"Beware, they deceive." They deceive.
24:14-24:16
Look at verse 40 again with me.
24:18-24:28
Jesus said, "Who devour widows' houses, and for a pretense make long prayers." They deceive.
24:29-24:30
Now, is there anything wrong with praying?
24:33-24:34
Not a trick question.
24:34-24:35
Is there anything wrong with praying?
24:36-24:36
No.
24:37-24:40
Is there anything wrong with praying publicly?
24:41-24:41
No.
24:42-24:46
Is there anything wrong with having a long prayer?
24:47-24:47
No.
24:48-24:49
Like, well, what's the problem?
24:50-24:51
The problem's in the word pretense.
24:53-24:58
Literally, the Greek means show, for a show.
25:00-25:02
They make everyone think they're so spiritual.
25:03-25:06
They're theological geniuses and people eat up the show.
25:06-25:10
He'd clean up the show, "Wow, did you hear his prayer?
25:10-25:13
Wow, wow, wow, he can pray.
25:13-25:14
Wow, he can pray.
25:15-25:24
Wow." Then word gets back to, "Oh, I just love when you pray." They're like, "Man, I'm gonna up my game.
25:24-25:25
You thought that prayer was good?
25:25-25:33
Wait till you hear the next prayer." Jesus said, "They're doing it for a show." Fake.
25:35-25:36
Please hear me.
25:37-25:45
I believe that most people think that they are sincere when they go into ministry.
25:48-25:56
I don't believe that there's anyone in seminary or in Bible college like snidely whiplash.
25:57-26:08
"He he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he I believe that those people are absolutely sincere.
26:11-26:18
I'm like, "Well, what happens?" They think they're sincere, but then the ministry becomes a job.
26:20-26:24
And in the ministry, the job requires performing for people.
26:27-26:34
So it's easy to just focus on the performance instead of focusing on my own walk with Christ.
26:35-26:35
You understand?
26:36-26:49
Instead of me on my face and praying and allowing Christ to continue to grow me and change me and teach me, it's just easier to get the performance down.
26:51-26:52
To put on a show.
26:54-26:55
But Jesus knows.
26:57-26:57
He knows.
26:58-26:59
And He warns us to beware.
27:02-27:08
Jesus' last warning here, "Beware, they are damned." They are damned.
27:08-27:12
Look at verse 40 with me again.
27:12-27:23
Jesus said, "They will receive the greater condemnation." This could be a whole other sermon, but do you know that there are different degrees of suffering in hell?
27:23-27:24
Did you know that?
27:25-27:26
You know that hell is not going to be the same for everyone.
27:28-27:30
There are different degrees of suffering in hell.
27:32-27:35
In our text today, what I want to point out is, who gets the worst?
27:37-27:38
Who gets the worst?
27:39-27:41
It's the guy who knows better.
27:41-27:43
It's the guy who reads and teaches the Bible.
27:44-27:47
And it's the guy that claims to represent God, but is faking.
27:49-27:52
Jesus said that's the person that gets a greater condemnation.
27:54-27:55
Don't follow them.
27:58-27:59
they're not going to end up anywhere good.
28:02-28:04
As we close, I want us to look at these last few verses.
28:07-28:14
And interestingly, one of our elders, Darren Keller, months ago, we were talking, do you remember this, Darren?
28:15-28:31
We were talking about this passage, and Darren had said that he was doing some studying and listening to a sermon, and he said, And you know, this passage is often very misinterpreted.
28:32-28:34
So I did a lot of study on this this week.
28:37-28:41
And I want to read it, and I want you to think about the sermon that you usually hear with this passage.
28:41-28:47
It says, "And he sat down opposite the treasury and watched people putting money into the offering box.
28:47-28:49
Many rich people put in large sums.
28:50-28:55
And a poor widow came and put in two small copper coins which make a penny.
28:55-29:07
And he called his disciples to him and said to them, "Truly I say to you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the offering box.
29:08-29:30
For they all contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had, all she had to live on." Usually, this woman, this poor widow, is held up as the poster girl for sacrificial giving.
29:32-29:35
So many sermons preached that way.
29:36-29:37
This is how you should give.
29:38-29:40
Look at this widow.
29:40-29:43
This widow is exactly how you should give.
29:45-29:49
Giving is not determined by how much you put in, but by how much is left over.
29:49-29:54
Do you see how she gave everything had to live on, you should give the same.
29:54-29:57
And how many people have heard a sermon like that?
30:01-30:14
Like I said, I've done a lot of studying this week and I encourage you to be a student of the Word and I'm convinced, and I would say thanks to the heads up from Darren Keller, I'm convinced that that's not what this passage is teaching at all.
30:16-30:25
In your outline, the last point, it says this, "Do you see what I mean?" Do you see what I mean?
30:25-30:27
I believe that that's what's happening in this passage.
30:29-30:35
Jesus said, "Watch out for these scribes." He already announced that this place is a den of robbers.
30:36-30:41
He talks about their phony religious acts.
30:42-30:44
He talks about how they take advantage of widows.
30:44-30:49
And then he sits down and sees a widow coming in and giving everything that she has.
30:51-30:52
And that's what Jesus is saying here.
30:52-30:54
He's pointing to that widow and saying, "See what I mean?
30:55-30:59
That's exactly what I'm talking about." Is that a stretch?
31:00-31:02
Well, look at the text.
31:02-31:05
Sometimes we make the Bible say things that it doesn't say.
31:06-31:08
But notice nothing is said about this woman's motives.
31:09-31:09
Nothing.
31:10-31:11
We don't even know if she knew the Lord.
31:12-31:13
We know nothing about this woman.
31:14-31:15
Nothing at all is said about her motives.
31:16-31:19
Jesus didn't say, you know, she had such a heart for giving.
31:19-31:21
Nothing at all is said about her motives.
31:21-31:23
Jesus only commented on her actions.
31:25-31:27
Nothing is said about her example.
31:29-31:36
If Jesus was holding her up as the supreme example of giving, shouldn't the next verse say something like, "Judas, go and do likewise.
31:37-31:40
Take our money and go put it in there just like this woman did.
31:40-31:52
put all of our money into the offering at the temple just like she did. Jesus didn't do that. And sometimes we read into this passage like these rich people were the bad guys.
31:52-32:05
Jesus didn't say that either. He didn't say, "Look at these hard-hearted, greedy Scrooge McDucks." He didn't say that. He didn't say anything about their heart either.
32:09-32:11
All Do you see what I mean?
32:14-32:23
Again if you look at the context, you look at the previous passage, already we've seen Jesus calls the temple a den of robbers.
32:25-32:34
He's already called the scribes out for being hypocrites, and he's already condemned them for being people who consume widows.
32:38-32:41
And Jesus sits down and watches a widow walk in.
32:43-32:43
You see what I mean?
32:47-32:48
Is this biblical giving?
32:51-32:53
Is this woman the example of biblical giving?
32:55-33:04
You have two coins left which, this is such a small amount of money that she was giving.
33:06-33:08
That you should give it all to the hypocritical crooks.
33:10-33:11
Is that biblical giving?
33:12-33:17
What we do see in the Bible over and over is God's concern that we care for widows.
33:18-33:20
Is this act commended by Jesus?
33:20-33:22
A widow that has to give up everything?
33:24-33:28
I'm convinced that she's not an example of giving.
33:29-33:33
I'm convinced that she's a victim of the very people that Jesus just said to beware of.
33:35-33:39
There's a woman who was duped and is now being destroyed.
33:40-33:41
Their condemnation is justified.
33:45-33:46
Beware.
33:46-33:47
Beware.
33:48-33:49
So why should I beware?
33:50-33:54
Jesus says, "Exhibit A." This is what phony religion does.
33:57-34:05
In representing the text, church, the message today is really just one word.
34:08-34:19
It's the word "Beware." Everyone out there wants your ear, they want your allegiance, and they want your money.
34:20-34:21
Beware.
34:23-34:27
Everyone out there wants you to believe what they believe.
34:29-34:29
Beware.
34:32-34:35
Those people out there are on a path to hell.
34:38-34:39
They want you to walk with them.
34:42-34:46
Jesus says, "Beware."

Small Group Questions (Whole Group):
Read Mark 12:38-44

How can you tell if a religious leader is real or fake? What are some things Jesus said to look for?
Why would phony religious leaders receive "greater condemnation" (Mk 12:40)? What does that say about hell?

Breakout Questions:

Pray for one another!

Jeff Miller

November 16, 2014

Jesus On Tour

Priority: Loving God and Loving People

Jeff Miller

November 16, 2014

Jesus On Tour

One More Challenge... (Mk 12:28-34)

What Does it Mean to Love God?

Loving God involves my ENTIRE being. (Mk 12:29-30)

Loving God means loving PEOPLE . (Mk 12:31)

Knowing is not the same as DOING . (Mk 12:32-34)

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

00:00-00:04
Open up your Bibles to the Gospel according to Mark.
00:06-00:14
We're going to be in Chapter 12 as we continue our series that we started October of 2013.
00:15-00:24
Last year we followed Jesus through his earthly ministry leading up to this year in October when we launched the ministry year.
00:25-00:32
We're looking at three things as Mark takes us down the home stretch as Jesus fulfills the ministry that the Father gave Him.
00:33-00:36
Mark tells us that Jesus is the Lord.
00:38-00:39
And Jesus is the Lamb.
00:40-00:42
And Jesus is the life.
00:45-00:49
Your Bible is really more than just one book.
00:49-00:50
Did you know that?
00:50-00:52
It's actually 66 books.
00:52-00:57
actually a library in between two covers.
00:58-01:02
And if I were to give you the assignment, sum up the message.
01:02-01:09
66 books, about 40 different authors over a period of about 1,500 years, all inspired by the Holy Spirit.
01:09-01:13
They wrote this book under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.
01:14-01:23
And if I were to ask you - rather give you an assignment to say, Could you sum up this book in a five page essay?
01:24-01:24
Could you do that?
01:27-01:28
Could you do that?
01:28-01:29
Five pages?
01:29-01:36
What if I asked you, could you sum up what this book says in a paragraph?
01:37-01:38
Could you do that?
01:41-01:48
What if I asked you, if you could sum up what this book teaches in two sentences?
01:49-01:50
Did you do that?
01:51-01:55
We're going to see, as we turn to God's Word today, that's exactly what Jesus did.
01:55-02:02
He summed up everything that God is about and everything He calls us to.
02:03-02:04
He sums it up in two sentences.
02:05-02:09
Because He's facing another challenge.
02:09-02:15
Pastor Jeff, you preached on a challenge last week, and I'm pretty sure the previous two weeks you were talking about challenges.
02:15-02:15
Yeah.
02:16-02:17
You remember the story.
02:19-02:26
In this section of Mark, beginning in chapter 11, Jesus announces that He's the Messiah by riding on a donkey into Jerusalem, fulfilling prophecy.
02:27-02:32
And the people were cheering and shouting "Hosanna!" And everybody knew what He was saying.
02:32-02:36
He was saying, "I'm the Christ." And what did He do next, remember?
02:37-02:50
He went into the temple the next day where it turned into this big flea market where people were making money off of the Jews who were traveling for the Passover, it turned into a big money-making scheme.
02:51-02:56
Jesus went through the temple and just flipped the tables over and didn't let anybody pass through.
02:58-03:01
Well, the religious people that were making money were furious.
03:02-03:04
And they said, "We've got to discredit this guy.
03:04-03:07
We have got to make..." All these people are cheering for him.
03:08-03:11
"We've got to make the people think that this guy is stupid.
03:12-03:15
We've got to make the people think that he's nobody.
03:15-03:16
He's nothing.
03:18-03:20
That's what we've seen the last few weeks.
03:20-03:21
They keep coming to Him with these challenges.
03:22-03:25
They ask Him these questions that they think He can't answer.
03:25-03:27
And we have one more.
03:29-03:31
And actually, this is the last one.
03:33-03:40
Because in verse 34 where we're going to land today, it says, "After that, no one dared to ask Him any more questions." This was it.
03:42-03:44
This was the last round of stump Jesus.
03:47-03:48
Look at v. 28.
03:48-03:53
It says, "And one of the scribes came up and heard them disputing with one another..." Previous challenges.
03:55-04:07
"And seeing that he answered them well, asked him, 'Which commandment is the most important of all?'" So what is a scribe?
04:07-04:10
A scribe was the theologian in Jesus' day.
04:10-04:13
A scribe was someone who studied the Old Testament law.
04:13-04:16
In fact, a lot of the scribes were actually Pharisees.
04:16-04:20
We're going to see here this particular man seemed to have a sincere interest in the answer.
04:23-04:24
So what was the trap?
04:26-04:33
The trap here, he was trying to get Jesus to say something that was contrary to the law.
04:34-04:39
In other words, they were trying to get Jesus to say something that was anti-Moses.
04:40-04:50
If you would have gone to any Israelite in that day, and probably today, and said, "Who's the greatest Israelite of all time?" The top of that list is Moses.
04:51-04:53
I mean, the law came through.
04:53-04:54
They named the law after him.
04:54-04:58
The Mosaic Law led the Israelites out of Egypt, Ten Commandments.
04:58-04:59
You know the story.
05:02-05:10
So if we can get Jesus to say something anti-Moses, For sure, for sure, the Jews are going to hate him.
05:12-05:14
So let's ask him this question.
05:15-05:18
Which commandment is the most important of all?
05:20-05:23
In fact, in Jesus' day, that was something that the Pharisees argued about.
05:24-05:25
Which commandment was the greatest?
05:26-05:27
OK, let's play that game.
05:28-05:29
Which commandment was the greatest?
05:29-05:30
You know, the Ten Commandments?
05:31-05:36
OK, "You shall have no other God before me." "Do not make for yourself any idols." Do not use the Lord's name in vain.
05:36-05:37
Remember the Sabbath.
05:37-05:39
Keep it holy. Honor your father and mother.
05:40-05:41
Do not murder.
05:41-05:42
Do not commit adultery.
05:43-05:46
Do not steal. Do not bear false witness and do not covet.
05:46-05:47
Those are the ten commandments.
05:49-05:50
So of those ten.
05:52-05:54
Which is the most important?
05:55-05:56
Well.
05:57-05:58
Stealing is bad, right?
05:59-06:01
Stealing is bad, but let me ask you this.
06:02-06:02
Wouldn't.
06:04-06:06
Would committing adultery be worse than stealing?
06:06-06:07
I would think.
06:08-06:15
I mean, stealing is bad, don't get me wrong, but to be with somebody else's spouse, I think that's worse.
06:15-06:17
But what about murder?
06:19-06:24
I would think killing someone would even be worse than adultery, right?
06:25-06:28
I mean, murder is definitely worse than stealing, right?
06:29-06:35
And coveting - There's no way.
06:35-06:37
What about using the Lord's name in vain?
06:37-06:39
Sometimes we all say careless things.
06:39-06:43
I think murder is still worse than using the Lord's name in vain.
06:43-06:47
But like, what about right off the bat, number one, you shall have no other gods before me.
06:47-06:49
Like, that seems like number one for a reason, right?
06:50-06:51
And that was what they would do.
06:51-06:53
Which commandment was the most important?
06:53-07:00
But I understand it even got worse for the Pharisees because they didn't just argue about the ten.
07:01-07:03
You know how many commandments they argued about.
07:04-07:05
Here's what the Pharisees did.
07:06-07:14
If you look at the Ten Commandments in Hebrew, in Hebrew, if you spell out the Ten Commandments, it's 613 letters.
07:15-07:16
Spell those out.
07:17-07:20
So they wrote a commandment for each letter.
07:21-07:23
So they had how many commandments now?
07:25-07:26
613.
07:27-07:28
This is what they did.
07:28-07:29
They would just sit around and argue.
07:29-07:30
Which commandment is more important?
07:31-07:34
Commandments more important? Well, I think this one... No, no, no, that one's not more...
07:34-08:03
This one's more important. This is so dangerous, church, because this is where legalism comes in. You know what legalism is? Legalism is when you think that you can do something to earn God's favor, to earn God's grace, to earn God's love. God That's those things that we do to try to earn, right?
08:05-08:07
Well, here's where legalism comes from.
08:09-08:11
We start elevating certain commands over other ones.
08:12-08:14
Because let's be honest, we can't keep all the commandments, right?
08:15-08:18
We can't do it. We can't do it. We can't keep all the commandments.
08:19-08:25
So what the Pharisees did, and what the church has a tendency to do, is you highlight certain commands over other ones.
08:26-08:36
You say, "Well, we can't keep them all, but these ones are the really important ones." And like the Pharisees, sometimes church, we introduce things as commandments that aren't even in the Bible.
08:37-08:42
That's why at Harvest Bible Chapel you've heard me say, "Bible is our middle name." I don't care about all that extra stuff.
08:43-08:46
What I care about is what does the Bible say? Right?
08:46-08:47
What does the Bible say?
08:48-08:52
We're not adding man's commands and man's traditions to what we do here.
08:52-08:54
What does the Bible say?
08:54-08:59
When we start inserting man stuff, that's when we run into legalism.
09:01-09:02
Pretty good question.
09:03-09:06
If you wanted to trap someone, I think that's a good question.
09:07-09:25
Verse 29, Jesus answered, "The most important is, 'Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one, and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind and with all your strength.
09:28-09:30
The second is this.
09:32-09:33
You shall love your neighbor.
09:34-09:42
As yourself, there is no greater no commandment, excuse me, there is no commandment greater than these.
09:44-09:48
Jesus answer came straight from the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Bible.
09:50-09:55
His answer came, first of all, from Deuteronomy 6:4-5 about loving God.
09:57-10:01
The second commandment Jesus gave came from Leviticus 19.18.
10:03-10:09
"You will love your neighbor as yourself." Now why did Jesus quote this passage?
10:09-10:12
I mean, Jesus had a lot of things He could have picked from, right?
10:12-10:14
He had a lot of things He could have picked from.
10:15-10:18
Why did he pick Deuteronomy 6 right off the bat?
10:20-10:25
Just to give you a little context, in the book of Deuteronomy, Moses is reciting the law.
10:25-10:30
Moses knows he's not going to be able to enter the promised land with the Israelites, so this is his last charge to them.
10:31-10:36
He goes, "People, you are going into the promised land, and you must not ever forsake your God who delivered you.
10:36-10:38
You have got to obey Him.
10:38-10:39
You have got to trust Him.
10:40-10:43
You have got to..." He gets to Deuteronomy 6.
10:45-10:48
Jesus is showing the Israelites, you can't do this externally.
10:49-10:52
You can't be obedient to God externally.
10:53-10:55
You can't try to fulfill it.
10:56-11:05
Like, "Ok God, just give me the checklist and I'll do the things that You told me." "Ok, Ten Commandments, ok, let's check them off as we do them." You can't fulfill them that way.
11:05-11:09
He's showing that God's not about externals.
11:09-11:10
God's about the internal.
11:11-11:16
And when you enter this land, The most important thing that you need to know is that you need to love God.
11:17-11:20
You need to love God with your heart, soul, mind, and strength.
11:20-11:21
You have to love Him.
11:22-11:23
It has to come from here, people.
11:23-11:24
It has to come from here.
11:28-11:32
Because the Israelites like us have a tendency to get into legalism.
11:32-11:33
No, no, no, it's about love.
11:34-11:36
We are motivated by love, people.
11:36-11:38
That's why we do what we do.
11:40-11:40
Right?
11:43-11:46
Obedience can't be external, it must be internal.
11:46-11:48
It has to come from loving God.
11:48-12:00
And the motivator for us when we talk about loving God, the motivator for us is given to us in one of the epistles of 1 John 4:19.
12:02-12:08
It says that we love because He first loved us.
12:10-12:11
That's the motivator.
12:12-12:18
You can't go home and try to muster up enough love in and of yourself.
12:18-12:19
It has to come from the Lord.
12:21-12:31
But your motivator has to be, "I love God, because He first loved me." How did He love me?
12:31-12:32
Well, first of all, He created you.
12:35-12:40
You wouldn't be here unless God handcrafted you.
12:43-12:53
And somebody would say, "I didn't ask to be created." Even despite your rebelliousness and my rebelliousness, what did God do?
12:54-12:57
The Bible says, "For God so loved the world." He loved us.
12:57-13:06
He came to this earth as a man - Jesus Christ - to teach us about Himself and ultimately to die on the cross so that our sins could be forgiven.
13:07-13:10
God was punishing my sins on Jesus when Jesus was on the cross.
13:11-13:15
The Bible says that He was put in a tomb, and on the third day, He rose from the dead.
13:16-13:18
You see, spiritually, we are dead people.
13:18-13:19
We are zombies.
13:19-13:22
We're walking around, but we are dead inside.
13:23-13:26
Jesus Christ rose from the dead to give us eternal life.
13:27-13:29
Literally, the Bible says He gave us His life.
13:29-13:33
Jesus lives His life through you when you receive Him by faith.
13:36-13:37
That's the kind of love that God has shown us.
13:37-13:41
That while we were yet sinners, God demonstrated His love.
13:42-13:45
And church, that's the only motivation that we can have to love God back.
13:47-13:49
Is to examine what exactly He's done.
13:50-13:53
The magnitude of the grace and the gift that He's given us in His Son.
13:54-13:58
John says we love God because He first loved us.
13:59-14:00
Don't get that backwards.
14:00-14:03
It wasn't like we were on the earth saying, "God, look, we're so desperate.
14:03-14:16
We're trying to love You." God's like, "Well, okay, I guess I'll love you back." He initiated, God initiated, and that's why we love God, because He initiated unto us.
14:18-14:24
The question on your outline, at the top of your outline, what does it mean to love God?
14:26-14:28
What does it mean to love God?
14:30-14:33
Because I think most people would say that they do love God.
14:33-14:42
I imagine if you went to the mall or just walked, you know, out in the street, grab these people running their dogs all over the place, those dogs should be at home sleeping and those people should be worshiping.
14:43-14:43
Just saying.
14:44-14:46
Most people would say, "Yeah, I love God.
14:47-14:49
"I love God." But the question is, what does that even mean?
14:53-14:56
Because I'll be honest with you, I love a lot of things.
14:57-14:58
I love hockey.
14:58-14:59
Anybody else love hockey?
15:01-15:03
Do you see that game last night?
15:04-15:05
Did you see that?
15:05-15:08
I have never, and I grew up in the era of Les Magnifiques.
15:09-15:11
I have never seen anything like that.
15:11-15:11
Have you?
15:11-15:18
Where they like, the guy double hit the shootout and they called everybody back out.
15:18-15:19
It was crazy.
15:20-15:20
I love hockey.
15:21-15:22
Love it.
15:23-15:24
You know what else I love?
15:26-15:27
Pizza rolls.
15:28-15:29
Have you had these things?
15:30-15:36
They're like little tiny pillows of crust, but there's pizza stuff inside.
15:39-15:40
Thank you, thank you.
15:42-15:47
Yes, we are like 99.9% the same genetics, me and this guy.
15:48-15:50
He obviously has the big gene.
15:51-15:52
Pizza rolls are incredible.
15:54-15:55
I love pizza rolls.
15:57-15:59
But I don't love pizza rolls the way I love hockey.
16:00-16:03
I mean, I love them both, but isn't it kind of different the way I love one over the other, right?
16:04-16:06
I love hockey and I love pizza rolls.
16:06-16:07
You know what else I love?
16:09-16:10
I love church discipline.
16:11-16:12
(congregation laughing)
16:13-16:18
I love when our elders aren't afraid to give a harsh rebuke.
16:20-16:22
Love that, I love that about our elders.
16:24-16:25
Pit bulls every last one of them.
16:27-16:28
I love my dog.
16:29-16:30
I love my dog.
16:31-16:37
And if you've had the pleasure of meeting my dog, some of you have had the displeasure of being urinated on by my dog.
16:40-16:42
I didn't say he was smart.
16:42-16:43
I said I love him.
16:43-16:44
I love my dog.
16:45-16:45
I do.
16:46-16:48
He's just always right there with me.
16:48-16:49
Dog people here-- there's dog people here.
16:50-16:51
That dog just follows me around.
16:52-16:57
And he looks at me like I might spontaneously turn into a pile of milk bones.
16:57-17:01
He just-- I just love that dog.
17:02-17:03
He's such a good friend.
17:04-17:09
You know, when Aaron's at work and the kids are rough, and there's Gordy.
17:10-17:10
Love that dog.
17:11-17:12
But I don't love the dog the way I love hockey.
17:14-17:16
I certainly don't love the dog the way I love pizza rolls.
17:17-17:19
No idea how the dog tastes.
17:20-17:20
You know what else I love?
17:21-17:22
I love my kids.
17:23-17:27
I'm biased, I know, but I think I have the two greatest kids in the world.
17:29-17:33
And they're both so different, and they're both so unique.
17:35-17:40
While both have limitations like the rest of us have limitations in an area, both are so strong in other areas.
17:41-17:42
I love my kids.
17:43-17:44
We have a blast together.
17:46-17:50
Yesterday, drawing pictures and making stories with the story maker on the iPad, I love my kids.
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I don't love my kids the way I love my dog, or the way I love pizza rolls, or the way I love hockey.
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Though I have bit my kids before.
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You know what else I love?
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I love my wife.
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Again, I might be showing a little bias here, but my wife is just absolutely my most favorite person on the entire planet.
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You can line her up with every single other woman on the planet and I would still pick her a hundred times out of a hundred.
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I love my wife.
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I do.
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She is everything to me.
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But I don't love her the way that I love my kids, or maybe I should say I don't love my kids the way that I love her.
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We have a very unique and a very special love, the husbands and wives God intended for you.
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I don't love Aaron the way that I love my kids, or my dog, or hockey, or pizza rolls, or whatever else.
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So then we say, "Well, I love God" Do you love God the way that you love pizza rolls?
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Like no.
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Different isn't it?
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You love God the way that you love hockey?
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No.
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It's different.
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Do you love God the way you love your kids?
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No.
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It's different right?
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You love God the way that you love your spouse?
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Oh, it's different.
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So the question is.
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What does it mean to love God?
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What does it mean to love God?
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I want to give you three things here.
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According to Jesus, this is what it means to love God.
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Number one, loving God involves my entire being.
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Loving God involves my entire being.
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We already read the verse.
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I want to circle back and revisit it.
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Here's what happens with preachers.
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Preachers get focused on four words, heart, soul, mind, and strength.
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I'm going to talk about them really quickly.
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Preachers get focused on those.
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And I've been in those discussions actually when I was training in Chicago.
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James McDonald was preaching on this passage, and we spent like an hour or two just talking about these four words.
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What does it mean?
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What's the difference between heart and soul?
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Different preachers have different opinions, but like I said, I'm going to talk about them, But there's really two words in this passage that I want you to focus on.
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That there's no disputing what these words mean.
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But I think these are the two words that are the most important words in the passage.
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And the words are "all" and "and." First of all, let's talk about "all." Look at verse 30 again.
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"You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, And with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength - all.
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Not half-hearted.
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Not with half your soul.
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Not with half your mind.
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Not with half your strength.
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Not even with 99% of those things.
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Notice he says all.
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All.
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All.
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You sent in all of these categories everything you got into it.
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First of all, all your hearts.
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What do you mean by heart?
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Well, biblically, the heart is the core of who you are. Right?
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The heart is the core of who you are.
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In other words, your heart is your will.
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It's you as a person.
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this, you show love to God by your choices. And it's an objective test. Because Jesus said in John chapter 14, "If you love me, you will keep my commandments." And then he restated the same in the negative. "If you don't love me, you're not going to keep my commandments." It's an objective test. Loving God with your heart means you love Him with choices. I choose to love God and it's reflected in the choices that I make.
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How many of my choices? You tell me what's the word we're focusing on here?
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All. All of my choices should reflect that I love God. Look at your life. Do your choices reflect obedience to God? If so, that's indicative that you love God.
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according to Jesus.
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If you love Me, you'll keep My commandments.
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If you look at your life and say, you know what, I really don't make many choices that have really any regards to God.
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Jesus said if you don't love, you're not going to keep the commandments.
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That's just all there is to it.
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Love God with all your heart, all of your choices.
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Secondly, your soul.
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What is He talking about with soul?
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That's your emotion.
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emotions.
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Every week at Harvest Bible Chapel, we spend somewhere between 30 and 35 minutes in music.
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Why?
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Because music stirs your emotion.
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The reason we place such a premium on the worship set, and we spend so much time meeting and discussing it and going over it, and this worship team works so hard, they're incredibly talented, are also incredibly hard working.
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The reason they work so hard to maximize that time is because we want to love God with all of our soul, and what a forum that is to do that.
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The music.
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It's not just limited here.
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You can do this in your car.
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You can do this in your home.
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It's loving God with your emotions.
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Music is a great tool to help with that.
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Music itself isn't the worship, you understand.
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Music is a tool that helps you worship with your emotions.
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The biggest book in the Bible is the book of Psalms.
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Israel's song book set to music.
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What a great way to worship God.
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To love God with our emotions.
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Thirdly, our mind.
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That's our intellect.
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that we think about what we put into our minds.
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Especially paying attention during the sermon.
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That is a great way to love God.
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Ok, he's talking, so I know I can kind of tune out and think about other things here for the next few minutes.
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Loving God with your mind means you're engaging yourself mentally in the message.
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What does the Bible say?
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What is God telling me?
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What is God communicating to me about Himself?
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What is God calling me to?
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What is He saying about His Son?
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And finally, strength.
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It is what it is.
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It's your physical body.
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Loving God with your strength.
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What does that look like?
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I'll show you what it looks like.
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Come and watch Mike Gates turn the school into a church.
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Watch Mike Gates and watch A.J. Rotenberger and watch the people on their team that come and work so hard to turn the school into a church Sunday morning.
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Why are they working so hard?
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Because they're loving God with their strength.
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Look at the people that come here early and go the extra mile in serving people.
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Especially our guests.
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Why do they do that?
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Because they're loving God with their strength.
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I talked about the word "all." I also want to talk about the word "and." I circled them in my Bible.
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You should in yours.
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Jesus didn't just say, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart." Period. And with all your soul. And with all your mind. And with all your strength.
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Meaning every arena of life is about our love relationship with God. And we can get very lopsided in this, can't we? Some people try to just love God in their We call them Bible fatheads.
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Don't mention names and certainly don't point to anybody, but I think we've all met people that love God with their minds and that's where it ends.
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And they can tell you the Bible frontwards, backwards, and sideways, but they have zero obedience to God's Word in their lives.
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They live rebellious, sinful, reckless lives, but they know the Bible frontwards and backwards.
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What's the problem?
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The problem is they took out the word "and." Like, I love God with my mind.
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I can tell you exactly what the Bible says.
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Hebrew, Greek, Aramaic.
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What do you want?
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What do you want?
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You're cheating on your wife, dude.
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Yeah, but I know the Bible.
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Upsidedness gets you in trouble.
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Some people just love God with their souls.
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They get all fired up and they get all emotional about it, but they're not grounded in the Word.
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And they learn to just swap out truth for feelings.
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That the elders of the church say, "Well, this is what the Bible says, this is what we're going to do." And they're like, "I don't like that." "Why?" "Well, not because of the Bible, because of how it makes me feel." That's a problem.
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You're loving God with your emotions, but you haven't been loving Him with your mind, is you're not letting the truth of God's Word be a part of how you love God.
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Another way we get lopsided - some people just love God with their strength.
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Meaning, they substitute work for relationship.
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Some people feel like as long as I'm working hard, God's happy with me.
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They substitute work for relationship, That is not how it works.
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You should do what you do because of Jesus and for Jesus and empowered by Jesus, not instead of Jesus.
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But if you just love God with your strength, that's what happens.
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You get lopsided.
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How do we keep ourselves from being lopsided?
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Again, it's that one word - and... and... and...
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Everything in you - The story of life should be about your love relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ.
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Every arena of your life, you should say, "I do it this way.
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I make these choices because I love God because He loves me." This should show up in your home.
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This is how we run our house.
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This is why we spend money the way we do.
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This is why our home It's a place of hospitality.
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Why?
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I do this because of God.
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Because I love God.
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The way that you love your spouse, married people.
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Why do you love your spouse?
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Why are you constantly pouring yourself out in love and respect and honor and serving your spouse?
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Why are you doing that?
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I'm doing it because of the way that I love God.
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If you just love your spouse based on the way they love you, It might change from day to day, right?
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It might not even be your spouse's fault.
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It might just be your feelings.
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Instead, you should love your spouse the way that you do because you love God.
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The way that you parent your children.
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Kids, the reason that we do these things, or kids, the reason we don't do these things is because of our relationship with God.
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Because we want to love God in the way that we love you.
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That's why we say no to some things, kids.
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At work.
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Why do you work so hard?
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The Bible says you're working for Christ.
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No, I'm working for Walmart.
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It doesn't matter who signs your check.
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The Bible says whoever you work for, you're working for Christ.
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Meaning, your love relationship with Jesus Christ should reflect the way that you work.
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Young people still in school?
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The way that you conduct yourself in school should be a reflection of your relationship with Jesus Christ.
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This is why I treat other kids in school the way that I do.
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This is why I make sure people aren't bullied or feel like they're neglected or feel like they're an outcast.
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I want to include those people. Why?
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Because I love God.
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And this is how God loves.
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This is why I do these things.
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So loving God involves your entire being.
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Secondly, loving God means loving people.
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Loving God means loving people.
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So this scribe asked Jesus for one.
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Do you notice that?
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He's like, which commandment is most important in Jesus?
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Verse 31 says, "The second is this, you shall love your neighbor as yourself." There's no other commandment greater than these.
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Like, "Well, I didn't ask for two, I only asked for one." Jesus said, "You're getting two." Why?
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Because the second one naturally flows from the first.
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1 John 4 says, "Whoever loves God must also love his brother." Whoever loves God must also love his brother.
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Like, "Well, look Pastor Jeff, God, to be honest with you, I hate a lot of people.
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John addresses that, 1 John 4, verse 20, says, "If you love God but hate your brother, you're a liar." That's what the Bible says.
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Nobody likes to be called a liar.
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So I'm not going to lie to you and tell you that the Bible is calling you a liar.
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If you claim that you love God, but you hate people, God says that doesn't work.
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As Jesus was pointing out here, one flows from the other.
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In other words, if you don't love people, you don't love God.
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You're like, well, love people how?
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Well, what did Jesus say?
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Again, quoting from Leviticus 19.18, how do you love people?
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The second is this, Jesus said, you shall love your neighbor.
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What are the next two words?
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Go ahead, say it out.
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What are the next two words?
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You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
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You love yourself.
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You do.
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You're like, "I hate myself." No, you don't.
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You don't know me, man.
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We just met.
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I hate myself.
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I think I'm a loser.
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There's nothing good about me.
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It's no wonder nobody likes me.
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I hate myself.
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No, you don't.
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Yes, I do.
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I just told you that I do.
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No, you don't.
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The people that say, "I hate myself.
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I'm such a loser." The people that say those things, what are they focused on?
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Me.
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Me.
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Me.
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Me.
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Here's how I feel.
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people think about me. Here's how I feel." You're still giving yourself way too much attention, which is proof that you actually love yourself. If you really hated yourself, you wouldn't think so much about yourself. So let's dispel this notion why I hate myself.
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No you don't. No you do not. Who do you spend most of your time thinking about? Yourself.
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Whose happiness are you after?
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Yours.
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Whose feelings are you always contemplating?
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Yours.
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Who are you always trying to benefit?
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Yourself.
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You see, by nature, we have this thing in us where we want to take care of ourselves and look after ourselves.
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Jesus reminded us from Leviticus that we're to love our neighbors with the same care and attention that we would give to ourselves.
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I'm to love my neighbor with the same care and attention and detail and fervor and passion.
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I'm to go after that the way that I take care of myself.
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Loving God means loving people.
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And finally, I've got this down, knowing is not the same as doing.
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Knowing is not the same as doing.
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That's the greatest commandment Jesus gives him too.
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"The scribe said to him, 'You are right, teacher.
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You have truly said that He is one, and there is no other besides Him.
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And to love Him with all the heart, and with all the understanding, and with all the strength, and to love one's neighbor as oneself.'" That was a really good recap, buddy.
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He says, "is much more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.
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That's a pretty significant statement that he made right there.
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Why?
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Where were they standing again?
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They were standing in the temple.
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And people were coming - it was Passover - people were coming and bringing all their animals and killing the animals and sprinkling the blood and burning the sacrifices.
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And all this was happening in the midst of this conversation.
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And this guy says to Jesus, you know what?
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Loving God and loving people is so much more important this stuff that people have traveled for miles to do.
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Loving is more important.
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Look at what Jesus responds.
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When Jesus saw that he answered wisely, he said to him, "You are not far from the kingdom of God." After that, no one dared to ask him any more questions.
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Notice Jesus says, "You're not far." He didn't say, "Congratulations, you've received the kingdom of God." He says you're not far.
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You're getting close.
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You're getting warmer.
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You're not there, but you're heading in the right direction.
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So what makes the difference?
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This guy totally agreed with Jesus.
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Have we seen this yet?
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Like everybody else was pretty antagonistic.
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And Jesus addresses this guy.
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This guy's like, "Dang, you're right!" Jesus says, "You're close." If he agreed with Jesus, why only close?
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Why not, you got it buddy, gold star, A plus.
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What's the problem?
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Problem is knowing is not the same as doing.
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That's the issue.
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I don't think it's a coincidence that this guy used a definite article.
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Did you see that?
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I love Him with all the heart, all the understanding, all the strength.
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He didn't say "my." He kind of detached Himself.
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Like if a person was to love God, these are the things that he should love God with.
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The heart, the soul.
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You see that?
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Jesus says, "You're not far." Meaning, knowing is not the same as doing.
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For my birthday, my wife for but this is what she got me my birthday this is called focus T25 like what is this well these are DVDs 25 is 25 minutes long these are 25 minute cardio exercises okay and they say with these discs you're going to be in the best shape of your life for only 25 minutes a day and I thought that is fantastic. So since she got these for me, most nights a week, I grab a bag of Doritos and a bottle of Pepsi and pop one of these monkeys into the DVR. I'll tell you what, this looks hard. I'm like, look at that guy. That guy's skinny and and his tongue's hanging on the floor, like this looks so hard to hang.
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I'm going to be honest with you.
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I really appreciated the gift.
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But I'm still fat.
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I don't know if Aaron kept the receipt, but maybe we can get our money back.
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Because it ain't working.
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It's not working.
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And somebody lovingly came alongside of me said, "Pastor Jeff, you're supposed to do the exercises with the guy on TV." I'm like, "What a crummy gift." No, this is fantastic. It is. But you understand the point, right?
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I can watch the exercises. I see how he does them. I see how he does them. And he's doing all these burpees and you know the what's it called the the inverted spoiled dog or whatever and the plank push-ups and all these crazy things. I see how he does them and I know the results that come from doing them.
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But if I just pop those in and watch them, all I'm doing is getting some head knowledge on how the exercise works. But that's not going to be effective at all until what?
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Until I put the Doritos down and get up and do them, right?
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And that's what Jesus was telling this guy.
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Look, knowing is not the same as doing.
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Having it in here is not the same as having it in here.
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That's the difference.
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The man had the correct information.
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Knowing is not the same as doing.
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And kidding aside, church, this is so serious.
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Because hell is full of people who are this close.
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Hell is full of people who knew what the Bible said about Jesus, who knew what the Bible said about the cross and the resurrection and the call to follow Jesus and to embrace the eternal life that He gives.
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They knew what it said, but they refused to do it.
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A good friend of mine said, "You know, some people miss heaven by about 12 inches, the distance from your head to your heart." And that's why Jesus gave a very loving word of affirmation/word of warning at the same time.
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He says, "You're not far. You're close. You're not there.
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that you're heading in the right direction.
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That's why we preach God's Word.
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My job is to inform you about what the Bible says.
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Your job is to evaluate yourself to say, "Did it get from here into here?
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Does it show up here?" I want to ask if our prayer team would make their way forward, and our elders, If you would come up, and the worship team, we're going to invite you to pray.
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Our worship team is going to come in just a moment.
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They're going to lead us in a closing song.
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But I want to invite you to come and pray.
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Is there someone here that knows what the Bible says, but has not been doing?
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I know I should love God, but I have not been loving God.
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Is there someone here that has not allowed God to be your very life?
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You need to come up and pray.
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Is there someone here that says, "You know what, I love God, but I'll be honest with you Pastor Jeff, I've been going through a season in my life where I have not been loving God with all of my heart." Maybe someone says, "I haven't been loving God with all of my soul.
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I haven't been loving God with all of my mind.
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I haven't been loving God with all of my strength." I'll be honest with you, I let one of those areas slip recently.
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Come and pray.
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This is a safe place.
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There's no judgment here.
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There's no condemnation here.
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This is a place of love and prayer and encouragement.
43:37-43:51
Maybe there's someone here that claims to know God, that claims to love God, but you If you hate another person, the Bible says that's incompatible.
43:52-43:52
It's not working.
43:53-43:57
Come and pray for God to change your heart towards that person.
43:58-44:06
If you have someone to pray for, if you have something to pray about, now is the time.
44:07-44:08
Come and pray.

Small Group Questions (Whole Group):
Read Mark 12:28-34

Sum up: How would you describe to someone what it means to love God with all of your heart, all of your soul, all of your mind, and all of your strength? What does it mean for EACH of these 4 things, and what does it mean for ALL of these 4 things (individually and corporately)?
Why did Jesus add "loving your neighbor" when the guy only asked for the greatest commandment? How do you love your neighbor as yourself?

Breakout Questions:

In which of the 4 areas (heart, soul, mind, strength = will, emotion, intellect, physically) do you struggle to love God the most?

Jeff Miller

November 9, 2014

Jesus On Tour

Biblical Illiteracy: Battling the Skeptics

Jeff Miller

November 9, 2014

Jesus On Tour

Ask a silly question... (Mk 12:18-27)

5 Principles for "Bible Debates"

Be READY. (Mk 12:19-23)

Be CLEAR. (Mk 12:24, 47)

Be a Bible STUDENT. (Mk 12:24-26)

Be looking for common GROUND. (Mk 12:26)

Be focused on big ISSUES. (Mk 12:26-27)

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

00:01-00:03
Okay, open up in your Bibles to the Gospel according to Mark.
00:04-00:05
We're in Mark chapter 12.
00:06-00:20
We're in Mark chapter 12 and today we're going to look at a passage where Jesus is going to face a group of religious leaders who get in his face and challenge him on some things.
00:20-00:22
And you're like, "Hang on a second.
00:24-00:26
You talked about that last week." And somebody else is like, "No, no, no.
00:26-00:27
Hang on a second.
00:28-00:30
We've been talking about that for several weeks.
00:30-00:32
Well, that's what we see in the Gospel of Mark, isn't it?
00:32-00:36
Over and over and over, these people keep coming up to Jesus.
00:36-00:39
This is Wednesday of Passion Week.
00:39-00:45
All of these religious groups come up to Jesus because, quite frankly, they're sick of Him.
00:46-00:49
He came into Jerusalem riding on a donkey.
00:50-00:53
That was His public proclamation that He is the Messiah.
00:54-00:58
And then when He overturned the tables in the temple, like we have got to get rid of this guy.
00:59-01:01
It was a big money making thing for them.
01:01-01:02
They wanted rid of him.
01:02-01:06
So we see wave after wave after wave of challenges to Jesus.
01:07-01:08
And we're going to see another one today.
01:10-01:16
And I'd like to remind you church, when you deal with ignorant people, you are going to get ignorant questions.
01:18-01:19
It's going to happen.
01:20-01:23
Now please hear me because I don't want anybody to walk out of here and misunderstand me.
01:24-01:26
I'm not talking about when people have honest questions.
01:28-01:29
You see that in the life of Jesus.
01:29-01:31
You should see that in your own life.
01:31-01:38
There is a big difference between somebody asking you an honest Bible question versus the person that wants to challenge you to make you look stupid.
01:39-01:39
Right?
01:40-01:50
The honest question is like, you know, I know science talks about millions of years, but the Bible seems to talk about creation, six 24-hour days in the young earth.
01:51-01:53
How does all that work together?
01:54-02:01
There's a difference in the way that question is asked versus, "Oh, come on, you believe that the earth was created in 624 days, really?
02:02-02:04
I mean, come on, haven't you heard what science has said about that?
02:05-02:11
Now, do you see the difference?" So when we look at this passage, we're not talking about somebody that has an honest question.
02:12-02:14
Did Jesus handle honest questions?
02:14-02:15
Of course he did.
02:15-02:17
The disciples came to him, "Would you explain the parable to us?
02:18-02:25
Teach us how to pray." Jesus dealt with them appropriately, but we see in this passage, we're not dealing with an honest question.
02:26-02:31
We're dealing with people that are like, look everybody, I'm going to make Jesus look stupid.
02:32-02:41
Everybody watch this, because we're going to make Him look like a fool, and we'll get everybody around here realizing that maybe Jesus isn't so great after all.
02:41-02:43
That's what's going on in this passage.
02:43-02:44
So you get the difference, right?
02:46-02:48
You know the questions, right?
02:51-02:55
Questions like, "Who made God?" I've been challenged.
02:56-02:59
"Who made God?" We've dealt with that in the prison, right, Mark?
03:00-03:04
Mark Warren, he could get up here and preach this message a thousand times better than I could.
03:04-03:06
In prison ministry, you get a lot of this stuff, don't you, Mark?
03:06-03:08
People come in, especially at the old jail.
03:09-03:12
The only way you could get out of lockdown was to go to Bible study.
03:12-03:14
In the new jail, there's pods and all this stuff.
03:14-03:44
But the old jail, that was like a dungeon, if you were in lockdown, the only way you out of your cell was to go to Bible study. So we would get all these people come to Bible study to play what I like to call "stump the preacher." They had no interest in learning the Bible. They'd come in, and right, Mark, you could see it in their face. They're like, "Well, let me ask you a question. Who made God?" And I would say, "Well, if I gave you an answer to that question, you know what you would ask me?
03:46-04:09
Who made that guy?" So that there has to be somebody that's an uncreated creator, right? And the Bible says that God is that uncreated creator, right? Or these ones, "Can God create a rock that he can't lift?" Have you heard that one? "Can God create a rock that he can't lift?" Drop it on your head. I don't say that.
04:10-04:19
Mark, right, I don't say that. "Can God make a square with three lines?" God is a God of order, And He created order and logic.
04:19-04:26
And you're asking Him to do something because you know how to make an illogical sentence out of the English language?
04:28-04:28
Silly.
04:30-04:30
Or this one.
04:31-04:35
You're talking to people about their sin and their need for a Savior, their need for eternal life.
04:36-04:40
"What about that guy sitting in Africa that ain't never seen the Bible in their life before?
04:40-04:42
Have you ever heard that question?
04:42-04:50
What about that guy?" The best answer I ever heard to that question was a guy that went in with us, remember Frank, the one time the guy asked Frank, "Frank, let me ask you a question.
04:51-05:11
In the past week, how often have you thought about that guy sitting in Africa?" Like, "Well, I haven't thought about him at all." He goes, "Wasn't it interesting that I'm talking to you about your sin, and all of a sudden you're interested in some guy sitting in Africa somewhere?" And then here's, I've gotten this one so many times, "What about all the contradictions in the Bible?
05:13-05:14
What about all the contradictions in the Bible?
05:15-05:17
That is the easiest question to answer.
05:17-05:22
All you have to do is say, "Show me one and we'll talk about it." And I'm telling you, I am batting a thousand.
05:23-05:31
Because everyone who has ever challenged me and gotten in my face and asked me that question, "Well, show me one and we'll talk about it." They don't have one.
05:32-05:41
They heard on some program or some other guy said that there's contradictions in the Bible and they kind of strut in like, "Yeah, it's full of contradictions." Like what?
05:43-05:50
And then the answer is, "Well, I don't know off the top of my head what they are, but I know they're in there." Well, you know that they're in there.
05:53-05:56
So I guess the burden is on you to show me one so we can talk about it.
05:57-05:58
They never have one.
05:58-05:59
They never have one.
06:00-06:01
Never have one.
06:03-06:08
Those are the kind of challenges that we're talking about because Jesus faced such silliness too.
06:08-06:22
chapter 12, verse 18, it says, "And Sadducees came to Him who say that there is no resurrection, and they asked Him a question saying..." Let's stop here.
06:22-06:25
The Sadducees entered the next wave of challenges.
06:26-06:27
And you're like, well, who are the Sadducees?
06:28-06:35
Well, the Sadducees were this Jewish religious sect that actually ran the temple.
06:36-06:41
"Well, why haven't we seen the Sadducees so far in Mark?" Because they did their work at the temple.
06:42-06:48
Okay, like the Pharisees, they were scattered throughout, but the Sadducees did all their work at the temple.
06:49-06:50
That's why we haven't seen them before.
06:52-06:53
Through our study in Mark.
06:54-06:55
And who are they?
06:55-06:57
Well, Mark gives one word of clarification.
06:57-06:58
Did you see that?
06:58-07:10
Mark says, "The Sadducees are a group that say there is no resurrection." And more clarification, I'll jot this reference down. Acts chapter 23 in verse 8 talks about the Sadducees.
07:10-07:17
It says that they also don't believe in angels and they don't believe in spirits.
07:17-07:31
They don't believe in anything supernatural. That's who the Sadducees were. Like we live in this physical earth, but there's nothing supernatural. No angels, no spirit, none of That stuff isn't real.
07:32-07:37
So the concept of resurrection was foolishness to them.
07:38-07:41
Like, wait a minute, you said that they were a Jewish religious sect.
07:42-07:44
Doesn't the Old Testament talk about resurrection?
07:44-07:45
In fact, it does.
07:45-07:49
Psalm 16, Psalm 49, Psalm 73, Daniel 12.
07:49-07:50
Those are just a few.
07:51-07:53
I had a whole hunken list of them.
07:55-07:56
Those are just a few.
07:56-08:03
The Old Testament is full references of resurrection, life after death, being raised again.
08:05-08:10
You're like, "Well, then how did the Sadducees get off track?" Well, the Sadducees only believed in the Pentateuch.
08:11-08:14
That was the only part of Scripture they believed.
08:14-08:15
What's the Pentateuch?
08:15-08:17
Those are the first five books of the Bible, right?
08:18-08:25
Genesis, say it with me, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy.
08:26-08:27
Those were the only five books they believed in.
08:27-08:29
Those are also called the books of Moses.
08:29-08:31
So the Sadducees were kind of like this.
08:32-08:35
If it ain't in a book of Moses, it doesn't matter.
08:37-08:37
Right?
08:38-08:38
Right, Derek?
08:39-08:42
If it's not in the Pentateuch, we ain't talking about it.
08:43-08:43
It doesn't matter.
08:44-08:44
It's irrelevant.
08:45-08:47
That's who the Sadducees were.
08:47-08:54
And you're like, well, surely in the first five books of the Bible, resurrection is somewhere mentioned.
08:55-09:01
Well, they wrongly claimed that there was no resurrection mentioned in the Pentateuch.
09:03-09:05
Instead, they believed in annihilation.
09:07-09:12
They believed that when you die, it is over.
09:13-09:15
When you die, you cease to exist.
09:16-09:17
They put your body in a box.
09:19-09:21
You are no longer a thing.
09:22-09:22
It's annihilation.
09:23-09:23
You're done.
09:24-09:38
There was, stay with me now, there was no hope in what they believed because they didn't believe in life after death.
09:39-09:41
And that's why they were sad, you see.
09:43-09:45
I tried that on Erin earlier this week.
09:46-09:57
She goes, "You are not going to say that on Sunday." And I said, "That's good." "No, it's not good." You were right. You were right. I'm saying this publicly. My wife was right.
09:58-10:03
But they believe that when you die, it's it. It's over. It's done. There's no afterlife. Okay?
10:05-10:13
Thank you for humoring me. So the Sanhedrin got shot down. Where did you get that authority? And Jesus said, "Let's talk about something else.
10:13-10:49
Let's talk about John's baptism." The Pharisees and the Herodians got shot down. Should we pay taxes? Give the Caesar what is Caesar's and give the God what So it's like step right up. Who is next to stump this one who calls himself the Christ? So the Sadducees step up on your outline. Ask a silly question. What's the rest of that phrase? Well, not today. Usually you're right. Usually it's ask a silly question, get a silly answer. Today it's ask a silly question, look silly.
10:50-10:53
Because when you're challenging Jesus Christ, it's not going to take you anywhere good.
10:54-10:55
Let's look at the text.
10:57-11:00
It says, "And Sadducees came to Him, who say that there is no resurrection.
11:01-11:25
And they asked Him a question, saying, 'Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man's brother dies and leaves a wife, but leaves no child, "The man must take the widow and raise up offering for his brother." Do you understand what's going on here?
11:25-11:26
I'm going to explain that in a second.
11:27-11:28
Okay, so a guy has a wife.
11:28-11:29
The guy dies.
11:31-11:39
Biblically, if that guy has a single brother, he should marry that woman and have children to keep the family lineage going.
11:39-11:41
We'll talk about that in a second where that comes from.
11:43-11:45
There were seven brothers.
11:46-11:47
The first took a wife.
11:48-11:52
he died left no offspring. And the second took her and died, leaving no offspring.
11:53-11:57
And the third likewise. And the seven left no offspring.
12:01-12:12
Last of all, the woman also died. In the resurrection, when they rise again, whose wife will she be?
12:13-12:15
For the seven had her as wife.
12:16-12:17
Let's stop there for a second.
12:18-12:20
They didn't believe in the resurrection, right?
12:22-12:29
What they were trying to do here was to make having belief in the resurrection look implausible.
12:29-12:30
Are you with me?
12:31-12:32
That's why they mentioned resurrection.
12:32-12:33
They didn't believe it.
12:33-12:35
They were saying, "Oh, you believe in the resurrection?
12:35-12:41
Well, let me throw a scenario at you then." Like, where in the world did they get this scenario?
12:41-12:46
jot this down, Deuteronomy 25 in verse five and following.
12:46-12:48
This was part of Mosaic law.
12:50-12:58
Like I said, the purpose of the law was to provide for the family to make sure that the family name and lineage gets carried on.
12:59-13:00
So you understand what's going on.
13:00-13:12
If you read the passage in Deuteronomy 25, so Moses commanded, you know, the guy's married, has no kids, but the guy dies, But the guy has a brother who's single.
13:14-13:20
The single brother should take this woman as his wife so they have kids to carry on the name for the brother.
13:23-13:29
And in their little scenario here, they said, "Jesus, let's talk about resurrection.
13:32-13:34
You know the Levitical law.
13:36-13:43
What happens if seven guys all marry the same woman after each of them die?
13:44-13:45
And then she dies.
13:45-13:46
Oh, and then you have the resurrection.
13:47-13:48
Whose wife is she going to be?
13:50-13:51
I have a question.
13:53-13:55
What is going on in that house?
13:57-13:59
She went through seven brothers?
14:01-14:04
I mean, she must be the world's worst cook.
14:05-14:07
What is going on in that house?
14:08-14:10
And you can look this up, truth.
14:12-14:15
If a guy doesn't want to marry his brother's widow, he's like, "You know what?
14:17-14:38
Not interested." What they had to do, they took them before the elders at the gate of the city, and he had to say, "I do not wish to take this woman as my wife." And what they would do is they would bring the woman up, He would take his shoe off of his foot and spit in his face.
14:39-14:43
And that guy would be known as he who had a sandal removed.
14:43-14:45
It was sort of a public disgracing.
14:46-14:49
Like, shame on you for not carrying on your brother's family.
14:50-14:51
That's what they would do.
14:52-15:09
And I'm just going to be honest with you at the risk of sounding like I would be a bad Jew, if seven of my brothers married a woman killed over dead, I would be going before the elders like, "Here, here, here, here, here, spit.
15:09-15:22
Just start spitting." "I am not marrying that woman because I'd like to live to see another birthday." So that was their silly little scenario.
15:24-15:25
Look at Jesus' response.
15:25-15:32
Okay, so the question is, "Whose wife will she be?" Jesus said to them, "Is this not the reason you are wrong?
15:33-15:46
Because you know neither the Scriptures nor the power of God?" Jesus was like, "Listen, you don't know the Bible." Jesus was saying, in essence, "You don't even know God.
15:48-15:55
Because if you knew God, you would know the God who created, the God of power, The God whom nothing is too hard for, you would know Him.
15:58-16:00
He says you don't know your Bibles and you don't know God.
16:03-16:20
Jesus said, "For when they rise from the dead, they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven." And church, understand, marriage, sex, reproduction, That is for here and now.
16:21-16:21
Okay?
16:23-16:27
When we get to heaven, notice it says we're going to be like angels.
16:27-16:28
It doesn't say we turn into angels.
16:29-16:32
When I was a kid, I thought when we died, we turn into angels.
16:32-16:32
Why?
16:32-16:34
Because that's what happened on Tom and Jerry, right?
16:35-16:40
Like Jerry would do something to Tom and he'd get hit by a truck or something, and then he would turn into an angel.
16:41-16:44
And I've learned since that Tom and Jerry is a bad place to get theology.
16:47-16:48
It says you'll be like angels.
16:48-16:56
They're like, "Like angels, how?" Angels are glorious and eternal beings.
16:57-16:59
Church, understand in heaven, no one dies.
17:01-17:02
No one dies in heaven.
17:04-17:05
Death is gone.
17:06-17:09
Thrown into the lake of fire, ultimately.
17:10-17:11
No one dies.
17:11-17:13
But also, in heaven, no one is born.
17:15-17:16
And I don't understand it.
17:18-17:26
I believe it, but somehow in heaven, our person to person relationships are going to be absolutely perfect in every way.
17:27-17:30
We're not going to feel some kind of a lack of fulfillment.
17:31-17:33
Oh, just heaven would be better if I could just marry.
17:35-17:37
You're not gonna feel that.
17:37-17:51
Your relationships with everyone are going to be perfect, unmarred by sin, and so like marriage and reproduction, I said, "Yeah, that's for here and now." But in heaven, Jesus said, "It's not like that.
17:52-18:03
Everything's perfect, and our relationships are all going to be perfect, whatever that looks like, I believe it." But then look what Jesus says.
18:04-18:05
Let's take a quick turn here.
18:05-18:31
Jesus said, "And as for the dead being raised," have you not read in the book of Moses in the passage about the bush, how God spoke to him, saying, "I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob. He is not the God of the dead, but of the living.
18:33-18:46
You are quite wrong." Jesus was saying, "By the way, resurrection deniers, you believe That was all they believed in.
18:46-18:48
Jesus was like, "You believe in the Pentateuch?
18:50-18:52
"You know the passage with the bush?
18:53-18:54
"The call of Moses?
18:55-19:02
"Now answer me this, if these people so revered Moses, "do you think they were familiar with the passage "where Moses was called into ministry?
19:02-19:04
"Do you think they knew that passage?
19:04-19:11
"I guarantee they had it memorized." Like, that's my favorite passage, where God speaks to Moses through the bush.
19:11-19:12
Oh, I love that passage.
19:12-19:15
He like sees this bush aflame, that's not being burned up and take your shoes off.
19:16-19:17
They knew that passage.
19:18-19:41
Jesus took them right to their favorite passage and said, "How did you miss this?" God said, "I am the God of Abraham "and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob." Notice he says, "I am," not, "I was." Big difference, right?
19:41-19:56
"Hey Moses, I was Abraham's God back when he was around, R.I .P." Jesus said, "No, I am." Jesus was saying that God spoke of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as still what?
19:57-19:57
They're still existing.
19:58-19:59
They're still alive.
19:59-20:00
He says, "I am their God.
20:01-20:10
And even though they're gone from the earth, I am still their God." He's not the God of the dead, he's the God of the living.
20:12-20:13
So you were quite wrong.
20:15-20:17
And so Jesus handily shoots down another challenge.
20:19-20:21
But I wanna ask you, church, what do you do?
20:24-20:29
What do you do when the skeptic is trying to make you look stupid?
20:31-20:32
Has that happened to you?
20:32-20:33
If it hasn't, it will.
20:34-20:35
I know it's happened to you.
20:35-20:47
I get emails, calls all the time like, "Hey, this guy asked me this question at work and I'm not sure how to answer him." Or, "Do you have any information about this?" You're going to be challenged about your faith.
20:47-20:49
You're going to be challenged about what you believe.
20:50-20:51
How do you handle that?
20:52-20:54
Whether it's that snotty co-worker that finds out you're a Christian.
20:55-20:55
"Oh, you go to church.
20:55-20:57
Oh, you're one of the leaders in your church.
20:58-21:02
They're just looking for a way to make you look bad." How do you handle that?
21:02-21:03
What about that family member?
21:04-21:05
You're the religious nut in your family.
21:07-21:12
And you have this family member that's like, "You really believe that book of fairy tales?
21:12-21:13
What about this?
21:13-21:13
What about that?
21:13-21:22
How do you handle them?" You know, what about you're signed up for prison ministry and you go in and the guy, we've been blessed with such a good season right now, haven't we Mark?
21:23-21:24
We haven't had people challenging us.
21:24-21:33
We've had people coming wanting to learn, but what do you do when you get that guy that's bored and wants to make you look stupid in front of all the other people that are there to learn?
21:33-21:34
What do you do about that?
21:37-21:38
What do you do when the Mormons knock on your door?
21:40-21:42
What do you do when the Jehovah's Witnesses knock on your door?
21:44-21:45
How can you handle it?
21:48-21:49
How can you handle it?
21:49-21:51
Listen, two things.
21:52-21:56
Confidently, but not arrogantly.
22:00-22:01
I want you to be confident.
22:01-22:03
I do not want you to be arrogant.
22:03-22:13
I do not want you to be a Bible fathead, that you pull out your Thompson, chain MacArthur study Bible hardback, of course, reinforce plates and start bashing them in the head.
22:14-22:16
And then you're so proud of yourself that you put that idiot in their place.
22:17-22:19
That is not a Christlike attitude at all.
22:20-22:25
Christlike attitude is confident, but not arrogant.
22:29-22:40
And as people who still dwell in the flesh, We have a tendency sometimes to gravitate towards pride if we're not careful.
22:41-22:44
So how do we handle these things confidently, but not arrogantly?
22:45-22:46
I want you to jot these down.
22:46-22:51
These are five principles for Bible debates, for lack of a better term.
22:52-22:54
Bible debate sounds so formal, doesn't it?
22:54-22:57
We each get a podium, we each get five minutes.
22:57-22:59
You know what I'm talking about.
23:00-23:03
Five principles, this all comes from the text.
23:03-23:04
Number one, be ready.
23:06-23:06
Be ready.
23:08-23:12
Obviously, Jesus was never caught uninformed.
23:13-23:14
You're like, yeah, but we are not Jesus.
23:17-23:21
I'd just like to encourage you, there are only really a handful of skeptic questions.
23:22-23:32
I've been in pastoral ministry for a long time, doing prison ministry a long time, And the truth is, there is actually a very small handful of skeptic questions.
23:35-23:40
They fall into a dozen or two buckets, maybe worded slightly different.
23:41-23:44
But there are not a lot of skeptical questions.
23:47-23:51
Things like, millions of years, like I mentioned, where did dinosaurs fit in the Bible?
23:52-23:53
What about Old Testament law?
23:57-23:57
What about hell?
23:58-23:59
Is hell a real place?
23:59-23:59
I don't think it's real.
24:00-24:01
I don't think a loving God would send people to hell.
24:02-24:07
The Bible's been copied so many times, how do we know that it says what it originally said?
24:09-24:11
If Christianity's the truth, why are there so many denominations?
24:14-24:17
I would encourage you to take some time and study up.
24:17-24:20
I could go through all of these things with you.
24:20-24:21
I'm not going to do that today.
24:21-24:28
We would be here for a month trying to tackle all the possible answers and replies to all of these things.
24:29-24:33
There are so many good websites out there that have resources.
24:34-24:40
You can watch these things on YouTube, you can get on Answers in Genesis, and so many great apologetics ministries.
24:41-24:42
Just do a Google search.
24:43-24:44
But I'd encourage you to be a student.
24:45-24:52
I have mountains of information to this, different ways to share the gospel with people and to handle these things.
24:53-24:55
I can give you different lessons and studies if you're interested.
24:56-25:00
But my point here for our purposes today is just simply this-- be ready.
25:00-25:01
You can be ready.
25:02-25:03
You can be ready.
25:05-25:06
Just take some time to study up.
25:07-25:17
And there's no shame-- if somebody asks you a question, even kind of a jerky skeptic question, there's no shame in saying, you know what, that's a really good question.
25:17-25:20
Can I do a little study on that and get back to you?
25:21-25:22
No shame in that at all.
25:23-25:24
But I encourage you to be ready.
25:25-25:26
Secondly, be clear.
25:28-25:28
Be clear.
25:28-25:31
I love it. Twice in the same passage, you know what Jesus said?
25:31-25:35
"You are wrong." Jesus was clear.
25:35-25:39
He goes, "You are wrong." And then He caps it off by saying what?
25:39-25:43
"You are quite wrong." You're not only wrong, you're quite wrong.
25:43-26:20
That's like "wronger." It's like truth, and then false, somewhere over here is like, "Wronger than wrong, that's what you are. Quite wrong." Done with ambiguity. This does an example of talking about hell. People say this all the time, "I don't think hell's a real place." And we could reply, "Well, there are different views about that one. Yeah, wow. I don't know. You know what? I guess I've just always kind I've kind of grown up to believe it.
26:23-26:25
It was something that the church taught.
26:27-26:29
I'm done with the ambiguity.
26:33-26:36
If God said it, stand on it.
26:38-26:40
And don't apologize for it.
26:41-26:43
Again, not arrogantly, but confidently.
26:44-26:46
When people challenge me about hell, do you know what I do?
26:46-26:54
In Matthew 5, the very last verse, Jesus talks about heaven being eternal, and then He talks about hell being eternal.
26:55-26:58
He uses the same word for eternal in both cases.
26:59-27:05
And I say, now let me ask you, do you believe or do you know anyone that believes that heaven is a temporary place?
27:06-27:06
No.
27:07-27:09
Do you believe heaven is a non-existent place?
27:09-27:10
Well, no, I believe in heaven.
27:11-27:15
Jesus used the same word to describe hell he used to describe heaven.
27:17-27:19
So I can confidently say I believe in hell.
27:22-27:23
Because Jesus did.
27:25-27:26
I'm in good company there, right?
27:28-27:33
The point is if the Bible says it, what's the first pillar of the Harvest Bible Chapel?
27:33-27:37
We proclaim the authority of God's word without apology.
27:39-27:42
Again, that's not arrogance, but that's confidence.
27:42-27:57
You can very humbly but confidently say, "You know what, I understand why you feel that way." But you know, God's Word says, God's Word says, that at the end of the day, at the end of the life, isn't that all that's going to matter?
27:57-28:00
Is that you stood on the Word of God?
28:04-28:04
Be clear.
28:06-28:07
God says that you stand on it.
28:10-28:12
Number three, be a Bible student.
28:13-28:14
Be a Bible student.
28:17-28:20
Notice the very thing Jesus rebuked them for right out of the gate.
28:21-28:22
Like yeah, you don't know the Bible.
28:23-28:26
Like well, whose wife is she going to be?
28:26-28:27
Yeah, you don't even know the Bible, do you?
28:28-28:30
And may that not be said about us.
28:32-28:33
There's no substitute for knowing your Bibles.
28:34-28:37
You should read the Bible with a mind to understanding.
28:38-28:40
It's about knowing Christ and growing in Christ.
28:41-28:48
And the only way that you're going to spot and rebuke falsehood is if you are familiar with the truth.
28:50-28:52
You should be a student of the Bible.
28:53-28:56
Like, "Well, how should I study the Bible?" There's a million formulas.
28:56-28:57
Can I just share mine with you?
28:57-28:57
What I do?
28:58-28:59
This is so simple.
28:59-29:00
Here's what I do.
29:00-29:01
My devotion, I have a Bible.
29:02-29:05
There's no commentary or any of that fancy stuff.
29:05-29:08
It's just a Bible that I read for my personal study.
29:08-29:09
Do you know what I do?
29:10-29:11
Just these four things, jot them down.
29:13-29:15
It could not get any simpler than this.
29:16-29:16
Four things.
29:17-29:23
First of all, when you study your Bible, underline the subject.
29:24-29:25
That's the first thing I do.
29:26-29:30
The subject meaning, who is in this passage?
29:30-29:32
Is it talking about Jesus?
29:32-29:33
Is it talking about one of the disciples?
29:34-29:36
Is it talking about one of the kings of Israel?
29:36-29:38
Oh, in this passage he's talking about faith.
29:39-29:40
What faith looks like.
29:40-29:42
Oh, in this passage he's talking about prayer.
29:43-29:43
How should we pray?
29:44-29:47
It sounds so simple, but sometimes we can get bogged down in the Bible that we're like, "Wait, wait, wait.
29:48-29:49
What's he talking about again?
29:49-29:52
Who is where?" So I go right after the subject.
29:55-29:57
What is being referred to here?
29:57-29:58
What is being talked about here?
29:58-30:00
Person, place, topic.
30:00-30:01
I go right after that.
30:01-30:03
I underline that green in my Bible.
30:04-30:05
So if I get bogged down, "Wait, what's he talking about?
30:06-30:07
Oh, okay, he's talking about this guy.
30:09-30:10
Okay." Go after the subject.
30:10-30:13
Second thing, what is it saying about the subject?
30:14-30:17
What's it saying about, what is God saying about the subject?
30:18-30:21
Meaning this, is God giving a command?
30:21-30:23
Is God giving a warning?
30:24-30:26
Is God saying you shouldn't do this?
30:26-30:29
Is God saying this guy is a good example?
30:29-30:31
Is God saying this guy is a bad example?
30:32-30:34
What is he saying about the subject?
30:36-30:37
You can use different colors.
30:37-30:40
I use different colored pens and highlighters and stuff.
30:42-30:45
Whatever system you have, you should have a system.
30:45-30:46
Make it your own, right?
30:47-30:50
What's he talking about and what is he saying about what he's talking about?
30:51-30:52
Super simple.
30:52-30:55
Thirdly, what does God want to teach me?
30:56-30:57
What does God want to teach me?
30:58-31:03
Okay, so prayer is the subject, and this is what he is saying about prayer.
31:04-31:09
Therefore, what is God communicating to me in this passage about prayer?
31:11-31:11
Right?
31:12-31:17
And the last thing, is I ask myself, how can I incorporate this truth into my life?
31:18-31:25
You know, James says, "Don't just be a hearer of the word, but be a doer of the word." So if this is what - okay, the passage is about prayer.
31:25-31:28
And he says, "This is what happens in prayer, what prayer is to be like.
31:29-31:37
So what does that mean for me, and how can I immediately start praying like this?" That is how you should study the Bible.
31:41-31:42
So be ready. Be clear.
31:42-31:43
Be a Bible student.
31:43-31:47
Fourthly, be looking for common ground.
31:49-31:53
Notice that Jesus used one of their favorite texts to discuss the resurrection with them.
31:55-31:59
Jesus quoted from - let's pretend it didn't happen, but let's pretend.
32:00-32:02
They're like, well, we don't believe in the resurrection.
32:02-32:09
And Jesus says, well, Psalm 16 very clearly says, "You will not let your Holy One see decay." What would they have said?
32:12-32:14
We don't really believe in Psalm 16.
32:15-32:18
And Jesus is like, I do.
32:19-32:21
And they're like, we don't.
32:25-32:28
Well then, okay bye.
32:29-32:30
Like where do you go from there?
32:30-32:31
You're at a standstill.
32:33-32:34
Instead what did Jesus do?
32:35-32:44
He went right to the heart of what they believed in because Jesus found common ground with them.
32:45-32:47
Oh you guys are about Moses.
32:48-32:53
Let's talk about the call of Moses because you're going to see resurrection very clearly in that passage.
32:53-33:44
life after death. Let me show you. On common ground, I had a guy at the gym for years hound me. Like you just need like I want to go in and work out and like this guy's coming and he's gonna help fuel my rage. But he would just always come to challenge, attack, debate, always, always, always. And he would say, he goes, "You believe that Bible was written by God?" Like, "Yeah, I do believe that. I do believe God wrote the Bible." "Oh, I can't believe that you believe that." And I would say, "Well, tell me what you believe." He says, "I believe in the Ten Commandments." And I would say, "And where do you read these Ten Commandments?" Well, they're in the Bible.
33:46-33:48
Like the Bible in which you don't believe?
33:49-33:51
Why believe in the Ten Commandments?
33:51-34:02
Well, at what point, or what criteria I guess I should say, what criteria do you use on which passage you should believe and which passage you shouldn't believe?
34:03-34:04
Let's talk about the Ten Commandments.
34:04-34:06
Do you know what the Ten Commandments says about you?
34:06-34:08
And I would walk him through the Ten Commandments.
34:08-34:09
You're a sinner.
34:10-34:11
And you need grace.
34:12-34:19
I would always get our arguments, whatever curveball he would try to throw to me, I'd get him back to the 10 Commandments.
34:19-34:19
Why?
34:20-34:22
Because that was something that we both believed.
34:22-34:23
Let's talk about the commandments.
34:24-34:24
You know what they say?
34:27-34:29
Same goes Mormons, Jehovah's Witnesses.
34:32-34:34
You know, if you have some Catholic family members.
34:37-34:44
You see, you already have a big advantage Because you and that other side would both say that you believe in the Bible.
34:46-34:48
So look at what the Bible says, right?
34:48-34:51
Right, Mormons, you believe that the Bible's a true book.
34:51-34:53
Well, let's talk about what the Bible says.
34:53-35:01
And as they try to get you directed to the Book of Mormon or the Pearl of Great Price or Doctrine and Covenants or there's other writings, now let's look at what the Bible says.
35:02-35:06
But that should be the focus of your conversation, that common ground.
35:07-35:09
You're not gonna argue the Book of Mormon with a Mormon.
35:13-35:15
You've got to find that common ground.
35:15-35:19
And finally, be focused on big issues.
35:21-35:22
You notice what Jesus did here?
35:23-35:28
So they asked this question that He shot down immediately.
35:30-35:33
Did you notice in verse 26, Jesus immediately steered the conversation.
35:34-35:36
Like, let's talk about the bigger issue.
35:37-36:02
Because they're like, you know, wife and she had all these guys that keeled over and like whose wife is she going to be and Jesus is like, "Eh, you're wrong, you don't know the Bible, here's the truth concerning that." By the way, let's talk about resurrection. See how he steered that conversation? Why did he do that? Because the wife and the dead brother's thing could have gone round and round and round and round, right?
36:05-36:05
And so what?
36:08-36:09
All of a sudden, the dead brother's wife Honestly, so what?
36:11-36:24
Hypothetically, if there was an answer to that ridiculous scenario, which there's not, but if there, according to how they were asking, I mean, they would have just gone round and round and round and round and round.
36:26-36:32
And Jesus gave them a short answer to that, but then he immediately turned to the big issue.
36:32-36:35
And I would encourage you, church, don't get caught up in the silliness.
36:37-36:38
Don't get caught up in the silliness.
36:38-36:44
"Can God create a rock that He can't lift?" Don't spend a lot of time on that.
36:44-36:47
That deserves maybe, maybe a sentence.
36:50-36:53
To acknowledge how silly it is.
36:54-36:59
But then, you steer the conversation to the important things.
37:00-37:07
You're like, "What are the important things?" There's two main things That's what you want to direct people to.
37:07-37:11
And that is the Person of Jesus Christ and the work of Jesus Christ.
37:11-37:13
That's what you want to direct people to.
37:13-37:14
Who is Jesus?
37:15-37:17
Let me ask you a question.
37:17-37:18
Who is Jesus?
37:19-37:21
You know what the Bible says about Him?
37:21-37:23
The Bible says He's God in the flesh.
37:23-37:28
John 1.1, John 1.14, Revelation 1, Colossians 1.
37:28-37:30
The Bible says He's God in the flesh.
37:30-37:31
Let me show you.
37:31-37:32
He's God in the flesh.
37:32-37:33
Do you believe that?
37:33-37:37
Focus on the Person of Christ Do you know why Jesus died on the cross?
37:39-37:45
He took the sin of the world on Himself, and God punished my sin on Jesus.
37:46-37:51
And if you believe in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, He took your sin upon Himself.
37:51-37:53
He took the sin of the world on Himself.
37:53-37:54
That's what the cross was about.
37:54-37:56
Do you know that's not the end of the story?
37:56-37:58
He rose from the dead to give us eternal life.
38:00-38:06
We forfeited life in the Garden of Eden when we sinned, but the purpose of Christ is to restore life to us.
38:08-38:13
This is the message of the Gospel, and I'd just like to turn that back to people and say what have you done with that?
38:15-38:17
This is who Jesus is and this is what He's done.
38:19-38:20
What have you done with that?
38:22-38:23
You steer the conversation.
38:25-38:31
As our worship team makes their way back up, I just want to encourage you church, you know, the cults are coming.
38:34-38:36
here at our house just a month or two ago.
38:39-38:43
Skeptics who know that you follow Jesus are going to be testing you.
38:47-39:08
But if you would commit yourself to be ready, be clear, be a Bible student, be looking for common ground, and be focused on big issues, You will handle these challenges in the same way that Jesus handled the challenges.
39:09-39:09
Let's pray.

Small Group Questions (Whole Group):
Read Mark 12:18-27

Why did the Sadducees ask Jesus a question about "life after death" if they didn't believe in it? What were the two problems they had that Jesus pointed out ? (Mk 12:24)
How did Jesus describe life in heaven? Is that different from beliefs that you have held?
Why did Jesus ask them a question after answering theirs? Why did Jesus take them to Exodus 3?

Breakout Questions:

How do YOU study the Bible? What techniques do you use to help you in growing in the knowledge of God’s Word? How can you be a better student of the Bible?

Jeff Miller

November 2, 2014

Jesus On Tour

Politics and Religion: Rendering What is Due

Jeff Miller

November 2, 2014

Jesus On Tour

  
    A "Foolproof" Plan to Stop Jesus. (Mk 12:13-15): 

 Jesus Gives the Final Answer on POLITICS and RELIGION. (Mk 12:16-17)

God ORDAINED government.

The government is not GOD and God is not the GOVERNMENT.

God's people PAY what they owe: 

-  To their GOVERNMENT 

  -  To their GOD

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

00:00-00:04
I'm going to open up to the gospel according to Mark, chapter 12.
00:05-00:15
Just to piggyback on one of the announcements that Amanda made, our mission as a church is to make disciples.
00:17-00:22
Your mission as a parent is to disciple your own children.
00:23-00:29
We don't believe it's our job as a church to replace you as parents.
00:29-00:42
You know, some parents think, "Well, if I just take my kids to church, that's how they'll get discipled." But the truth is God has given you the responsibility to disciple your own kids, and we want to come alongside and help you with that.
00:42-00:47
That's why when we do these cafeteria services, we give you these discussion questions.
00:47-00:53
Encourage your kids to take a couple of notes down, and through the week, talk about these things.
00:54-01:01
If you think take enough dough you'll buy them a happy meal or something after How does that would have motivated me so?
01:04-02:00
That's just a little tool to help you Decide for your own kids All right, let's pray Father in heaven we're about to turn to your word And there certainly is plenty to distract us But I pray God that your Holy Spirit would work in such a way right now that all the distractions Are gone we're not thinking about Whatever it is we left at home or some trial that's going on There are lives some issue going on at work, I pray father that you would Help us to shelf all those things That we can spend this time focused on your work The Holy Spirit be our teacher Hey Jesus All right, Mark chapter 12. Are you there?
02:03-02:41
If you've been coming to this church for any amount of time I Have not yet said something in the sermon that has offended you Today is your day Because the title of this message is politics and religion Believe me. I don't sit in my office and say gee I wonder if I can come up with something really controversial to you know Can I throw it to people this week? That's not the case at all. There's only one thing I'm really concerned about when I preach and that is this Am I accurately representing what the Bible says?
02:42-02:52
See so if there's something that offends you in a sermon you need to look at the text and say is this what the text says Or is this what Jeff said is this something that Jeff kind of made up and is kind of?
02:53-03:39
Forcing onto the text if that's the case and there's a problem But if you're offended by something that you look at the Bible and say well You know what that really is in the text. It really is what he is saying then It might be something that you have to take up with the Lord, but just no church As we go into a message concerning politics and religion I just want to communicate what the Word of God says all in favor Okay, how mark chapter 12 we're gonna be picking up in verse 13 um we're going to be looking actually at another conflict and you're like times in the past couple of months.
03:39-03:41
Like, what's going on with all the conflicts?
03:41-03:43
Why are there so many?
03:43-03:52
You know, as we're going through the Gospel of Mark, verse by verse, why is it in this section when we're talking about Jesus as the Lord, why are there so many conflicts?
03:53-03:57
Let me tell you why, because we're gonna see some more.
04:00-04:05
The conflicts between the religious leaders and Jesus accelerated because of two events.
04:06-04:13
The first of it was when Jesus rode on a donkey into Jerusalem, he was announcing that he was the Messiah.
04:14-04:15
And they knew that.
04:16-04:25
That was Jesus' way of saying, in case anyone is unclear on the declaration I am making concerning myself, here it is.
04:26-04:28
I am the Christ.
04:30-04:34
So that said to religious leaders, that already spiked their blood pressure.
04:36-04:43
If you remember the other event that would have really sent them over the edge, remember the next day, Jesus walked into the temple, remember?
04:44-04:47
And the temple was sort of set up like Rogers flea market.
04:47-04:51
They were just buying and selling, and people were using the temple to make money.
04:52-04:56
It became this big get rich scheme for the priests.
04:56-04:59
And Jesus saw this, and he said, "No, no, no, no, no, no.
04:59-05:01
"This is to be a place where people pray.
05:02-05:05
"You've made it a den of robbers." You remember what Jesus did?
05:05-05:12
The Bible says he went through and was flipping over the tables and wouldn't even let people walk through there.
05:13-05:21
So if their blood pressure was spiked on the announcement, crashing the temple really set them over the edge.
05:21-05:25
And at this point, it's reaching a fever pitch.
05:26-05:30
The first challenger has ever joined the baptism from heaven or from men.
05:30-05:40
Then last week, remember, Taylor Brown wrote the word, Jesus told a parable, the parable of the tenants, and he said, "This is you.
05:41-05:45
"This is you." And they knew that he was talking about them.
05:47-05:49
The question is, how are they going to turn the people against Jesus?
05:51-05:54
Well, number one in your outline, here's a foolproof plan to stop Jesus.
05:57-06:09
Verse 13 says, "And they said to him, Some of the Pharisees and some of the Herodians to trap him in his talk.
06:12-06:14
Okay, let's stop there for a second.
06:14-06:16
Who were the Pharisees and who were the Herodians?
06:16-06:18
Well, we know the Pharisees, right?
06:18-06:19
They were the religious leaders.
06:20-06:23
These were the ultra-religious people, the legalists.
06:26-06:27
But who were the Herodians?
06:28-06:32
Remember at this point in Israel's history, Israel was under Roman occupation.
06:32-06:33
Remember we talked about that?
06:34-06:44
Just as if Canada took over the United States and said, okay, you're under our government now, but we're still gonna let you live your lives and go to church and do your regular stuff.
06:44-06:47
But just know that we're in charge.
06:48-06:50
And that's kinda how it was for Rome over Israel.
06:50-06:57
You can live in your land, you can do your religious ordinances or whatever it is you people do, but we're in charge.
06:58-07:05
And if we catch wind that there's any thoughts otherwise, we're going to take care of it swiftly and violently.
07:07-07:16
So the Herodians were a group that were loyal to, just like the name implies, Herod.
07:16-07:24
These would have been a political group that would have aligned themselves with Rome.
07:26-07:27
Ultra-political.
07:29-07:41
Now, on a normal day, how do you suppose the very Jewish Pharisees got along with the I love Rome Herodians?
07:41-07:44
How do you think those two groups got along on a normal day?
07:45-07:48
Those two groups hated each other.
07:48-07:49
Hated each other.
07:50-07:54
Like, Steelers versus Ravens hated each other.
07:54-08:00
Okay, like penguins versus flyers hated each other, right?
08:02-08:03
These groups hated each other.
08:03-08:05
The Pharisees were all about the law of God.
08:05-08:08
They were all about, you know, we've got to keep the law of God.
08:09-08:11
The Herodians were like, it's all about the law of Rome.
08:13-08:16
The Pharisees were all about the nation of Israel.
08:17-08:18
The Herodians were all about Caesar.
08:20-08:26
While the Pharisees were all about religion, The Herodians were all about politics.
08:28-08:40
The Pharisees radio dial would have been tuned into 101.5, the Herodians would have been in, remember that Republican channel, what station was that?
08:41-08:42
It's not on anymore, is it?
08:43-08:45
104.7, is that still a thing?
08:46-08:47
Okay, okay.
08:49-08:50
It went over to AM.
08:51-08:52
I'm promoted to AM.
08:54-08:58
How many people have been on the AM dial like any time in the last 15 years?
08:59-09:00
Two of you, okay, very good.
09:01-09:01
(audience laughing)
09:03-09:05
But you understand the point, right?
09:05-09:07
You have this religious group, then you have this political group.
09:08-09:09
Normally they hate each other.
09:09-09:16
But what do you see in this passage that says that they were teaming up?
09:16-09:23
The Pharisees and the Herodians came together After Jesus, to trap him in his talk, it says.
09:25-09:26
Trap him in his talk.
09:27-09:28
What's going on here?
09:28-09:30
Well, here's the thing.
09:31-09:37
Israel under Roman occupation, how much did Rome really care about Israel's religious practices?
09:37-09:38
How much did they care?
09:38-09:39
Not at all.
09:39-09:40
They're like, you know what?
09:41-09:45
You want a temple, sacrifices, whatever it is you people do.
09:46-09:47
They did not care at all.
09:51-10:03
So, if they were going to get the government angry or out to get Jesus, what were they going to have to do?
10:05-10:09
They were going to have to see Jesus as a political threat.
10:11-10:12
Okay?
10:12-10:13
So this was the plan.
10:15-10:19
that Jesus is upsetting us, we're going to make sure he gets arrested.
10:19-10:27
If Jesus gets arrested by the Romans, that's going to prove that he's not the Messiah that's here to overthrow Rome.
10:29-10:42
So these two groups get together, and they're like, hey, let's get Jesus to say something that makes the government think he's a threat, and we'll get him arrested.
10:43-10:44
Like that's a foolproof plan, right?
10:45-10:47
We'll trap him in his words.
10:47-10:48
And oh, wait a minute.
10:50-10:53
Remember the last time they tried to trap Jesus in his words, do you remember that?
10:54-10:55
Like John's baptism.
10:56-10:56
(laughs)
10:57-10:59
Was that from man?
11:00-11:02
Or was that like from heaven?
11:02-11:06
Was that a God thing or was that just a man thing?
11:06-11:10
And Jesus totally turned the tables on them and they ended up looking pretty foolish.
11:11-11:16
I imagine they still remember that and they're like, well, that didn't go so well.
11:16-11:17
So how are we going to trap him?
11:17-11:18
Look at verse 14.
11:20-11:21
This was the first part of their plan.
11:23-11:35
They came and said to him, teacher, we know that you are true and do not care about anyone's opinion.
11:37-12:14
You are not swayed by appearances, but truly teach the way of God Flattery You know what they're doing here They were trying to butter Jesus up thinking that he would lower his defenses. They could get him to say something It would get him in trouble This is what okay so like you know imagine my friend Bob up here, we've we've had some issues, okay, and Every time we've gotten together, we've had these arguments, and I want to try to get him to say something stupid.
12:14-12:15
I'm going to butter him up.
12:16-12:34
"Oh, Bob, he sees me coming, and already he's on guard." Like, "Bob, Bob, Bob, your hair is looking fantastic." And I got to tell you, the way you play that guitar, man, I'll tell you what, man, I don't know if I've ever seen a better guitar player.
12:36-12:40
And all that, you have the prettiest smile I've ever seen, outside of my lovely wife, of course.
12:41-12:46
Bob, you are just, you know, all of a sudden, Bob's defenses are down.
12:47-12:49
And that's what they were trying to do to Jesus.
12:49-12:53
This stuff they were saying, they did not believe it for a second, okay?
12:54-12:56
They were just trying to butter him up.
12:58-13:01
The question, is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar or not?
13:02-13:04
Did we pay them or should we not?
13:06-13:13
Now I imagine, now something we don't know is the tone of voice, but I imagine this was presented to Jesus as an honest question.
13:14-13:18
Like, you know what, Jesus, I just wonder, do we pay taxes?
13:19-13:23
Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar or not?
13:24-13:25
Did we pay them or shouldn't we?
13:27-13:29
What were they talking about specifically?
13:29-13:33
Well, this was a poll tax that they were speaking of.
13:33-13:35
It was a tax that everyone pays.
13:35-13:37
It was one denarius a year.
13:40-13:42
Okay, so do you see the plan?
13:43-13:48
At the risk of sounding like I'm giving the devil his due, this is actually, from a human perspective, a pretty smart plan.
13:51-13:53
Because what if Jesus says no?
13:54-13:55
Okay, let's walk down that road.
13:55-13:57
That's what they thought he was going to say, by the way.
13:58-14:05
"We pay taxes." And Jesus says, "No." Well then what's gonna happen?
14:05-14:23
The Herodians are going to go tell Pilate, "Hey, we have a religious leader "that has all these people that are all excited about him, "and he's telling people they shouldn't pay their taxes." By the way, when Jesus eventually was arrested, he was falsely accused, you know one of the things they falsely accused him of?
14:25-14:26
Luke records it.
14:26-14:30
They said, "This man says we shouldn't pay our taxes." Complete lie, as you'll see.
14:31-14:36
But you see, he can't say no, because they'll go tell the government that he's a threat.
14:39-14:41
So what if Jesus says, "Yes, pay your taxes"?
14:43-14:44
What are the results of that answer?
14:47-14:51
All of these Jews are going to start disliking him, right?
14:52-14:53
Because they didn't want to pay the taxes.
14:54-14:57
How great would you feel, Remember our Canadian occupation scenario?
14:58-15:03
How great would you feel every year, it's time to pay the Canadian government the taxes you owe them?
15:03-15:05
How would you feel writing out that check?
15:06-15:07
Pretty miserable, right?
15:09-15:16
And if we can get Jesus to say, "Yeah, pay your taxes," then the Jews are going to turn against him.
15:18-15:23
There was a foolproof plan, except for the fact that they were fools themselves in thinking they could challenge Jesus.
15:24-15:37
Let's look at verse 15, it says, "But knowing their hypocrisy." By the way, this is just bonus.
15:39-15:42
But Jesus knows when you're putting on a show, okay?
15:43-15:43
He knows.
15:45-15:57
And you might be able to go to work, put on a good front, and you might even be able to come to church and put on a good front Does everybody think that you're this ultra super spiritual person?
16:00-16:02
Jesus knows when you're being a hypocrite.
16:02-16:03
He knows.
16:03-16:03
Okay?
16:04-16:06
And he certainly knew their hypocrisy.
16:09-16:15
He said to them, "Why put me to the test?" Look at this next statement.
16:15-16:26
Jesus said, "Bring me a denarius and let me look at it." So, interestingly, the Jews would not have carried the denarius with them.
16:26-16:26
Why?
16:27-16:31
Because it would have been stamped with Caesar's image on it.
16:31-16:33
And to them, that was idolatry.
16:33-16:34
You don't carry that thing around.
16:34-16:37
That's a little idol.
16:38-16:43
If they didn't carry this coin, they would have paid the tax with the equivalency of their own coins.
16:44-16:47
So you can imagine this scene as this crowd's gathered around.
16:47-16:51
Jesus said, "Give me one of the coins." You can imagine, does anyone have one of those coins?
16:51-16:52
Does anyone have one of those coins?
16:52-16:57
You can imagine somewhere somebody found one, like wait a minute, I think I might have one.
16:57-17:02
And it gets handed up to Jesus.
17:04-17:13
He said, "Bring me a denarius and let me look at it." Number two on your outline, Jesus gives the final answer on politics and religion.
17:15-17:17
So the question is, is it lawful to pay taxes?
17:19-17:21
Should we pay them or shouldn't we?
17:22-17:23
Look at Jesus' response.
17:25-17:30
It says in verse 16, "And they brought one, and he said to them, 'Who's like this?
17:31-17:36
An inscription is this.'" He holds the coin up.
17:36-17:37
Who's on here?
17:39-17:56
"And they said to him, 'Caesar's.' Jesus said to them, 'Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's.'" And to God, the things that are God's, and they marveled at him.
17:58-18:01
Jesus gives the final answer in politics and religion.
18:02-18:03
I wanna leave you with three things.
18:05-18:13
I want you to write these down, especially in the political climate of our day.
18:14-18:18
Somebody can look at this question and be like, You know what, that is a really good question.
18:20-18:21
What should we do?
18:22-18:26
How should we as Christians respond to a godless government?
18:29-18:31
There's three things you need to know.
18:33-18:36
Number one, two A rather, letter A is this.
18:36-18:39
God ordained government.
18:41-18:44
God ordained governments.
18:47-18:59
You're like, "Pastor Jeff, I believe that he used to, but there's no way what's happening in 2014 in the United States of America, there's no way that God ordained this government." Yes, He did. Yes, He did.
19:01-19:04
But this government is so corrupt, and do you see what's happening?
19:05-19:14
How more and more we're getting away from the beliefs of our founding fathers, and more and more liberal and more, this government is so corrupt.
19:15-19:18
How can you say that God ordained this government when this government is so corrupt?
19:19-19:26
My answer is, how about the government in which Jesus made this statement?
19:26-19:27
How corrupt was that government?
19:29-19:34
You know, Rome, Caesar that Jesus was speaking of, how corrupt was that government?
19:35-19:49
How corrupt is a government that would take an innocent Jewish man, trip him down, beat him within an inch of his life, nailed him to a cross to be publicly executed for what?
19:50-19:51
Exactly, what did he do?
19:51-19:52
What was the crime again?
19:53-19:54
What was the crime?
19:54-19:59
Oh yeah, there were all these false accusations and nobody was really sure why he was arrested.
20:00-20:06
But just to shut people up, up-ordained by God, I'm talking from a human perspective, are you with me?
20:07-20:09
Just to shut people up, they killed Jesus.
20:10-20:11
Is that a corrupt government?
20:13-20:19
That was the government that was in force when Jesus was making this statement, okay?
20:19-20:21
God ordained government.
20:23-20:26
You see, when they asked Jesus, "Should we pay our taxes?" Jesus wasn't like, "You know what?
20:27-20:30
"Let me tell you about Rome." The heck with Rome.
20:31-20:33
I don't even acknowledge their existence.
20:34-20:35
What did Jesus say?
20:38-20:39
I want you to write this down.
20:39-20:42
We're not going to turn there, but I want you to, this is homework for you.
20:42-20:45
Read Romans chapter 13 verses 1 through 7.
20:46-20:48
Okay, this would have been written after the days of Jesus.
20:51-20:52
Still in the face of a corrupt government.
20:53-20:58
Romans chapter 13 verses 1 through 7 says that God created and ordained government.
20:59-21:02
God created and ordained the government, all government.
21:04-21:09
In fact, do you know the very concept of government was invented by God?
21:09-21:09
Did you know that?
21:11-21:17
Bible students, what is the first man-to-man law that's written in the Bible?
21:17-21:18
Do you know what it is?
21:19-21:25
The first man-to-man law in the Bible, the first thing in the Bible where God says, "Okay, here's what happens.
21:25-21:29
If this crime is committed, here's how you deal with it." Do you know what that is?
21:29-22:02
It's Genesis chapter 9 verse 6 when Noah gets off the ark God instituted the death penalty. He says if you take someone's life that person's life should be taken from them That was the first man-to-man law. That was the first In a sense government law you like what do you mean government God says here is a law that you enforce for each other You enforce this You see this crime happening. You take this action to make sure that proper punishment is dealt out.
22:04-22:07
There's so much we can say about government, but here's the bottom line.
22:08-22:16
The real purpose, the ultimate purpose of government, the ultimate purpose of government is to deter sin.
22:16-22:17
That's the purpose of government.
22:20-22:24
Government was always meant to be a sin deterrent, and that's scriptural.
22:24-22:27
That Romans 13 passage talks about that.
22:27-22:31
It rewards right doing and punishes wrong doing.
22:31-22:34
The purpose of government is to deter sin.
22:35-22:36
Like what do you mean by that?
22:36-22:38
Well, let's pretend that there was no government.
22:39-22:48
Let's pretend that people could commit whatever crimes they wanted without any fear of being arrested, any fear of incarceration, any fear of paying fines.
22:48-22:50
What would this society look like?
22:53-22:56
If you have something I want, I will shoot you in the head and take it.
22:59-22:59
Right?
23:01-23:02
Right?
23:02-23:08
And that's the purpose of government is to deter sin.
23:12-23:15
That's why God ordained the government.
23:16-23:21
So secondly, letter B, please hear me on this.
23:22-23:24
The government is not God.
23:26-23:29
And God is not the government.
23:30-23:34
The government is not God, and God is not the government.
23:36-23:39
There are two very extreme sides of this argument in our day.
23:41-23:46
Both sides are guilty of missing this statement, but both sides are extremely loud.
23:47-24:26
We live in the days of the Occupy movement, remember that thing, the Occupy Wall Street Remember that and the Tea Party movement and then you have CNN and then you have Fox News and all of these voices clamoring very loudly But Jesus made one statement that is still the definitive answer look at this statement Jesus said rendered a seizure the things that are seizures and to God the things that are God's in other words I'm just restating what Jesus said in another way Jesus was saying the government is not God, and God is not the government.
24:26-24:31
These are two completely distinct institutions, right?
24:31-24:32
Do you see that in the text?
24:34-24:47
Government is an institution, valid, but then you have the religious thing, or we would say the church, that the government is not God, and God is not the government.
24:49-24:51
First of all, the government is not God.
24:52-24:56
Some people think the answer to our social ills is the government's.
24:59-25:03
A day of entitlements, I can't pay for my house, I can't pay for my student loans.
25:04-25:06
I'll just be honest with you, I don't understand that.
25:06-25:15
I don't mean to be intentionally offensive if you're in this thing, but you just hear all these people say, you know, the government's going to forgive your student loans.
25:15-25:17
The government's just gonna...
25:19-25:23
Almost to the point that the student loans are sort of painted out to be the bad guys.
25:23-25:25
Like these oppressive student loans.
25:26-25:31
You mean the same organization that was very gracious to loan you the money to go to school?
25:32-25:34
You were so thankful for that when you started school.
25:35-25:39
Now, they're the bad guys because they're wanting to collect the money that they loaned you.
25:39-25:40
I'll be honest with you, I don't get that.
25:41-25:44
I don't understand why all of the sudden I don't think I should have to pay that back.
25:45-25:48
I took the money, I used the money, I said I was gonna pay you back.
25:50-25:54
But the passage of a few years now has convinced me that I don't have to, I don't get that.
25:54-25:55
I just don't get it.
25:56-25:59
And if you can explain it to me, I would really like to hear it.
26:00-26:01
I just don't understand it.
26:02-26:05
We live in that day.
26:07-26:11
We live in a day of bailouts and legislating healthcare and defining marriage.
26:12-26:14
And you see, the government is not God.
26:15-26:18
It's look to the government, look to the government, more power to the government.
26:19-26:22
The government just needs more power, more control.
26:22-26:27
Listen, the government is not the answer to our problems.
26:27-26:28
It is not.
26:29-26:36
And there are so many people looking to Washington, fix the problem, fix the problem, fix the problem.
26:37-26:38
It is not going to happen.
26:40-26:42
You can't even fix potholes.
26:44-26:48
True or false, there's a group of people just looking to Washington, they're gonna save us.
26:50-27:01
At the risk of sounding overly political, when the newest president was put into office, there were people dancing in the streets like they just elected Superman himself into office.
27:03-27:09
Like Superman beats Donald Trump, like all our problems are solved, he's just gonna give us everything that we need.
27:09-27:14
And listen, the government is not God.
27:14-27:16
Government is not God.
27:18-27:22
Some of you right now that are saying "preach it," I gotta tell you something too.
27:23-27:24
And that is this.
27:25-27:26
God is not the government.
27:27-27:29
God is not the government's...
27:31-27:36
You see the immorality, the marriage issue, as I mentioned, the rights of the unborn.
27:37-27:41
And there are a group of people that think if we can change the laws, we can change the country.
27:41-27:43
Well, do not mishear me.
27:45-27:46
Yes, go vote.
27:47-27:48
Vote your conscience.
27:49-27:51
We as a church, we're not telling you who to vote for.
27:51-27:52
Look up the issues.
27:53-27:53
Vote your conscience.
27:54-27:54
But you should vote.
27:55-27:55
Okay?
27:56-27:58
I'm not telling anybody not to vote.
27:58-28:00
I'm saying yes, vote.
28:01-28:19
However, this idea that thinking that getting the right people in Washington, getting the right people in seats of political power It is not going to happen because God is not the government.
28:20-28:23
You really think passing a law is going to keep people from sinning?
28:25-28:26
You think that's going to happen?
28:26-28:33
Like, let's get to my politicians and if they ban this or ban that and make it illegal, people will stop doing those things.
28:33-28:34
Are we really that naive?
28:36-28:42
We're not going to stop people from sinning because God is not the government.
28:45-28:50
Do you think the right politician is going to turn the tide of immorality in this country?
28:51-28:52
It is not going to happen.
28:55-29:00
You know, God does have an ordained institution where people's lives are changed.
29:01-29:02
You know what that place is called?
29:03-29:03
It's called the church.
29:05-29:06
It is not called the government.
29:09-29:18
Government is a valid institution, yes, meant to be a sin-determiner, yes, Yes, it could be rightly honored, yes, but God is not the governor.
29:19-29:26
And you have to see here, church, Jesus was making it very clear that these are two separate things.
29:29-29:34
And somehow, it even happens in the church, we think we can meld the two.
29:36-29:44
Like somehow if we can get enough good God-fearing people in Washington, "We will have a Christian nation again," quote unquote.
29:46-29:47
It's not going to happen.
29:49-29:57
Human government is run by humans, fallen and corrupt, and no matter the moral basis it's founded upon, it's still going to be corrupt.
30:00-30:05
I would just challenge this church, can we stop making the government something it was never intended to be?
30:06-30:10
Can we stop thinking in our minds that it's supposed to be something it was never intended?
30:10-30:17
You know, in days coming, the Bible says, the days coming, Jesus Christ is going to return and set up a thousand year reign on the earth.
30:18-30:20
Then, then God will be the government.
30:22-30:26
Until then, take the government for what it actually is.
30:27-30:28
What should we do?
30:29-30:32
Finally, letter C, here's what you should do.
30:33-30:35
God's people pay what they owe.
30:36-30:38
God's people pay what they owe.
30:40-30:44
First of all, to their government, pay your taxes.
30:46-30:47
That's what Jesus was saying.
30:49-30:57
He's like, "Who's pictures on this coin?" They're like, "Ah, that's Caesar's." He's like, "Alright, well then give it to Caesar." Give the gods what is God's.
30:58-31:00
Jesus was saying God's people pay what they owe.
31:00-31:01
Pay your taxes.
31:02-31:03
You're a citizen of this government, right?
31:04-31:08
You drive on the roads, you use the schools, you're protected by the police.
31:11-31:12
Pay what you owe.
31:12-31:14
And there's no clause here, by the way.
31:15-31:22
Jesus didn't say, "Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, so long as you agree with his political platform." There's no clause.
31:23-31:28
Jesus just simply said that his people, the people who leave no debt unpaid.
31:32-31:35
It's just so hard with the corruption in government.
31:39-31:43
This, this is one of my least favorite times of the year.
31:44-31:54
Something even more scary and disgusting and revolting than even Halloween are these political ads on TV.
31:55-31:56
Have you seen these things?
31:59-32:00
I hate political ads.
32:01-32:05
I just, I mean, have you seen these things?
32:06-32:09
Okay, so you got like Tom Corbett, Tom Wolfe, right?
32:09-32:10
Have you seen their ads?
32:11-32:30
You know, Tom Corbett's like, he's like, "Tom Wolfe murders kittens "and eats them for breakfast every morning." Then Tom Wolfe is like, "Tom Corbett doesn't even eat the kittens that he kills.
32:30-32:32
He just kills them for fun.
32:33-32:49
And then Corbett's like, "Tom Wolfe doesn't rewind the videos when he rents them from Blockbuster." And Wolfe is like, "Tom Corbett still thinks there's a such thing as VHS and Blockbuster." And it just goes back and forth and back and forth.
32:50-33:02
I'd like to hear somebody just get on and say, "Okay, here's what I believe, and here's what I plan on doing." And I'd like to hear that, but true or false, Most of these political ads are just like, this guy is Hitler.
33:02-33:04
Like, well, this guy's Hitler's mother-in-law.
33:04-33:07
And it just goes back and forth, back and forth, right?
33:09-33:12
And there's a part of you that's just like, I just wanna check out of here, right?
33:14-33:17
Can I just get my, none of the above, how about that?
33:17-33:18
None of the above.
33:18-33:20
Let's just try it on our own for a while.
33:23-33:26
The question is, is there ever a time that we do not submit?
33:29-33:31
Is there ever a time that we do not submit to the government?
33:31-33:32
The answer is yes.
33:33-33:39
When you are being told to do something contradicting the word of God, then you appeal to the higher authority.
33:41-33:48
You honor the government so long as you are not being directly told to do something that contradicts the word of God.
33:48-33:51
When that's the case, you appeal to the higher authority.
33:51-33:58
And that comes straight from scripture, actually Acts chapter five and verse 29, remember Peter was told, "Stop preaching!
33:59-34:01
"You gotta stop preaching Jesus!" And you remember Peter said?
34:03-34:12
He said, "We must obey God rather than men." So when it comes to that, be prepared to say that, but also be prepared to suffer.
34:14-34:18
It could mean fines, it could mean imprisonment, much worse.
34:20-34:24
God's people pay what they owe to their government, and then finally got people to pay with their own money.
34:26-34:27
Caesar's image was on the coin.
34:30-34:31
Where is God's image stamped?
34:33-34:34
Caesar's image was on the coin, right?
34:36-34:38
They stamped his mug right on the coin.
34:39-34:40
Where's God's image stamped again?
34:42-34:44
God's image is stamped right on you.
34:46-34:47
You see the analogy.
34:48-34:51
The coin belongs to Caesar, you belong to God.
34:51-34:55
And you give to God what is God's and that is you.
34:56-35:01
Your time, your money, your will, your worship, your service, all of it is owed to God.
35:02-35:07
Listen, it's not a debt in the sense that your taxes are like a debt.
35:09-35:14
See your debt to God isn't like I'm paying this because I have to.
35:15-35:16
Like it's an obligation.
35:18-35:23
Your debt to God is done in an attitude of love, gratitude.
35:25-35:29
Lord created you to know him and to be blessed by him.
35:31-35:39
And even though we're so rebellious and wicked, the Lord bought you with the blood of Jesus Christ to forgive you and to restore you.
35:42-35:47
Jesus said, "Give to God the things that are God's." You're gods by virtue of two ways.
35:47-35:48
One is he created you.
35:51-35:52
The other is he bought you.
35:55-35:59
The church, politics, and religion, how do we sort through all of this?
36:01-36:03
Jesus summed it up with one sentence.
36:04-36:05
Give to the government.
36:05-36:08
You give to Caesar what you owe.
36:10-36:13
You give to God what you owe him.
36:16-36:30
Father in heaven, I pray, Father, that we would increasingly so be a people who are, yes, mindful of what is happening on our political landscape, but not concerned.
36:31-36:53
I know, Father, there was a time in my own life that it was so easy for me to get wrapped up in these things and to start to be in despair and thinking about what was predicted concerning our government and where we were headed and the people in office and the danger there is my eyes would have a tendency to get off of you.
36:54-37:00
Instead of trusting you, instead of fearing you, I started fearing your government.
37:01-37:03
I started looking at things from a purely earthly perspective.
37:05-37:07
So easy to get wrapped up in these things.
37:07-37:07
God, I pray.
37:09-37:14
We would get back to this one simple yet profound statement of Jesus Christ.
37:15-37:20
That we would be a people who yes, we honor and we submit and we give what is owed to our government.
37:22-37:25
We also give what is owed to you.
37:26-37:29
We would understand in our minds how these things are separate.
37:30-37:32
Father, we thank you.
37:34-37:37
We can even be said that we belong to you.
37:38-37:44
Let us as a church, Father, render to you the praises to your great Jesus.

Small Group Questions (Whole Group):
Read Mark 12:13-17

What are some things that a Christian should "render to God"?
God ordained the government. Read Romans 13:1-7 and note all the words used to describe the government (Discussion leaders: hint - appointed, servant, avenger, ministers). Is this true even if the government has no regard for God? How should Christians be subject to the government, even if it is corrupt?

Breakout Questions:

How does this message change the way you view submitting to the government and paying your taxes?

Jeff Miller

October 26, 2014

Jesus On Tour

Rejected: From Cast Aside to Cornerstone

Jeff Miller

October 26, 2014

Jesus On Tour

Guest Speaker: Taylor Brown

Jesus's story: FRUITLESSNESS leads to destruction. (Mk 12:1-9)

God's plan in the story: REJECTION leads to exaltation. (Mk 12:10-11)

Audience reaction: HARDHEARTEDNESS leads to rebellion. (Mk 12:12)

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

00:00-00:05
Just to give you a quick update on me, I'm sorry if you don't really know me, you don't really care about an update, but I'm going to make you sit through it anyway.
00:06-00:10
Well, for those of you who know me, I just got married three months ago today, actually.
00:10-00:11
Thank you, thank you.
00:12-00:14
So I pretty much have this whole husband thing down.
00:15-00:17
I think I have it pretty well down.
00:17-00:18
And yeah, Kate's just like...
00:20-00:24
Yeah, but it's been a great three months, and we've been living in Louisville, Kentucky.
00:24-00:26
I'm going to seminary, we're both working.
00:26-00:33
It's been challenging, but we've been enjoying ourselves, and we are hoping to be able to back to Pittsburgh in the near future because who doesn't want to live in Pittsburgh, right?
00:34-02:01
Okay, let me just ask you a question. Have you ever put your heart and your soul into a relationship, a career, or a life dream only to be rejected? Maybe for you it was a romantic relationship. For weeks or months or even years you put all you had into that person and they break your heart and they cast you aside. Or maybe for you it was your dream job and you leave that interview thinking, "I really nailed that interview. They're definitely to hire me. You're waiting by the phone for the next couple of days and you finally get the call or you get an email and they say that you're not what the company is looking for and they're going to go in another direction. As human beings we live in fear of and experience rejection on a daily basis and many of us have been so damaged by others or our past experiences that we close ourselves off from the world because we don't want to feel that pain and that rejection that we felt before. You know, personally I've been denied from dozens of ministry opportunities and jobs and every single email or call or letter of rejection like stings and leaves a mark on my soul. And those of you know me, well I love to read, I love to go to bookstores and my dream job a couple years ago was to work at Barnes & Noble. So I get, I'm pretty sure I wore this shirt. I wore my nicest pants, wore my nicest tie and I go in and I'm talking to them and stuff, "What's your favorite books?" I'm like this, "Oh that's great, we like that too." And I'm like, "Wow "Wow, this is going really well." And so I go home expecting to get a call back from Barnes & Noble and a couple days later I'm going through the mail and there's a postcard in the mail.
02:02-02:05
I turn it over, it's from Barnes & Noble and it's a rejection postcard.
02:06-02:16
And okay, that sounds bad enough but it wasn't like a personalized, like they read out like, "Oh, Taylor, it was really nice to meet you." It was like a typed, formatted rejection postcard with a little blank where they wrote in my name.
02:17-02:23
So if you wanna let somebody know that you don't really care anything about them, Send them a rejection fill in the blank postcard.
02:23-02:25
That's pretty much the best way to show them you don't care about them.
02:26-02:30
No, but in all seriousness, we all know what it feels like to be rejected or not considered worthy enough by someone.
02:31-02:40
While all of us actively live in fear of rejection, we serve a God who came to this earth and sought it out so we could be accepted into his presence.
02:40-02:50
We all deliberately rebelled against God and sinned against him, but he sent his son to this earth to experience the ultimate rejection so we could have salvation and the church would be built up.
02:52-03:03
Today we're going to be continuing our series in the Gospel of Mark, and we're going to be diving into Mark 12, 1 through 12 today, which details a parable that Jesus told to religious leaders while he was in the temple.
03:04-03:12
In this parable, Jesus reveals that through his soon-to-be rejection and crucifixion, he would accomplish the Father's plan of redemption.
03:13-03:17
Anyone who refuses him will experience judgment and everlasting punishment.
03:18-03:23
As you'll see, this is a parable and this is a story of both extreme hope but also severe judgment.
03:24-03:37
I've just been praying over this message for weeks and I'm just praying that God would use this story in our life, my life, your life, to cast a spotlight on Christ and his position as the foundation of our lives.
03:38-03:48
As we're going to see in this passage, if Jesus isn't the foundation and the center of your life, you'll never experience true life and you will be lost.
03:49-03:52
Please stand in reverence for God's word as we read Mark 12, 1-12.
03:55-03:57
And he, Jesus, began to speak to them in parables.
03:57-04:06
A man planted a vineyard and put a fence around it and dug a pit for the winepress and built a tower and leased it to tenants and went into another country.
04:06-04:15
When the season came, he sent a servant to the tenants to get from them some of the fruit of the vineyard, and they took him and beat him and sent him away empty-handed.
04:15-04:20
Again he sent to them another servant, and they struck him on the head and treated him shamefully.
04:20-04:22
And he sent another, and him they killed.
04:23-04:26
And so with many others they beat and some they killed.
04:26-04:29
He still had one other, a beloved son.
04:29-04:36
Finally, he sent him to them, saying, 'They will respect my son.' But those tenants said to one another, 'This is the heir.
04:36-04:43
Come, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.' And they took him and killed him and threw him out of the vineyard.
04:45-04:46
What will the owner of the vineyard do?
04:47-04:50
He will come and destroy the tenants and give the vineyard to others.
04:50-04:51
Have you not read this scripture?
04:52-04:55
The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.
04:56-04:58
This was the Lord's doing and it is marvelous in our eyes.
04:59-05:02
And they were seeking to arrest him, they were seeking to arrest Jesus.
05:03-05:04
But they feared the people.
05:04-05:07
For they perceived that he had told the parable against them.
05:08-05:09
They left Him and went away.
05:10-05:10
Let's pray.
05:11-05:15
Lord, I thank You so much for this awesome opportunity I have to preach Your Word.
05:15-05:19
Lord, I pray that You would just have me behind Your cross and all the words that I speak would be Your words.
05:19-05:22
Lord, I pray that I remember my place in this message.
05:22-05:26
My place isn't to convince, it isn't to convict, it isn't to transform.
05:26-05:28
Only Your Holy Spirit can do that.
05:28-05:30
All I can do is faithfully declare Your Word.
05:31-05:37
Lord, I pray I just preach it with boldness and I pray that everyone in this room will receive it and use it in their lives.
05:37-05:39
In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.
05:41-05:45
So first we're going to start out in this passage with the parable that Jesus tells.
05:45-05:50
So Jesus' story, which shows us that fruitlessness leads to destruction.
05:52-06:03
So we enter into the story today, two days after Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem, and also the day after his cleansing of the temple, both of which death has been preaching about over the past several weeks.
06:03-06:14
In this passage we see Jesus engage in arguments with the Pharisees and the Sadducees and all the other religious leaders as they severely question his authority and his identity as the Son of God.
06:16-06:25
All throughout chapters 11 and 12, Jesus answers ridiculous question after ridiculous question by the religious leaders that are meant to trap him and make him look like an idiot.
06:26-06:31
But Jesus offers a perfect answer at every single turn and he makes the religious leaders fall in their own trap of foolishness.
06:32-06:33
It makes them look stupid.
06:35-06:49
But in this passage, Jesus takes a break from the question and answer for him, and he decides to tell a story or a parable that is meant to reveal the hard-heartedness of the Pharisees and also reveal his identity as the foundation of God's kingdom at the same time.
06:50-06:56
So in order to properly understand this parable, I'm going to have to unpack the different key characters and setting of the parable.
06:56-07:40
So first we see Jesus say that a man planted a vineyard and put a fence around it, dug a pit for the wine press and built a tower and leased it to tenants and went into another country. So first and foremost the owner of the vineyard represents God himself and the vineyard he plants stands in for Israel or God's blessing upon his chosen people. It kind of loses its impact for us as 21st century listeners but upon hearing this parable and this parable about a vineyard every single Jew in the audience would automatically picture the words of Isaiah in Isaiah chapter 5 in which Israel is compared to a vineyard that God carefully grows up and attends to and cultivates, but instead of producing good and healthy fruit, they produce wild and undesirable filth.
07:41-07:49
And this yielding of undesirable fruit represents Israel that constantly disobeyed the Lord and didn't obey His commandments and worshiped false gods.
07:50-08:01
And for years and years, God sent prophets to them to give them gracious but stern warnings that judgment is coming if they don't turn away from their sin and be fruitful.
08:02-08:16
After all these years, God finally uses pagan nations to destroy them and exile them to foreign nations as slaves. So every single Jew in the audience would automatically know that Jesus is saying that there is judgment coming for those who aren't fruitful or unfaithful.
08:18-08:26
The owner carefully and methodically builds up and cultivates his vineyard. It says he puts a fence around it to defend it. He digs a pit for the wine press and builds a tower.
08:26-08:29
He puts his time, his money, his effort into it.
08:30-08:34
And he decides to lease it out to tenants who are still worth the land and give him his share of the harvest.
08:36-08:42
As we see, instead of being faithful and fruitful servants of the owner, the tenants decide that they owe him nothing.
08:43-08:47
And they decide to hoard the harvest for themselves and their own purposes.
08:48-08:58
And it becomes abundantly clear in this passage, Jesus isn't very subtle about it, that he has cast the religious leaders he's speaking that story to in that moment, as the wicked tenants in the story.
08:59-09:05
As they constantly used the temple to sell goods and make money off of people, and they paraded themselves around as religious superheroes.
09:06-09:08
They had taken God's good gifts and abused them.
09:09-09:18
Going back to the story, the owner in his mercy and his patience with the unfaithful tenants, sent servant after servant to collect what was owed to him.
09:19-09:25
We see in verse two, when the season came, the owner sent a servant to the tenants to get from them some of the fruit of the vineyard.
09:26-09:29
They took him and beat him, sent him away empty-handed.
09:30-09:35
He sent to them another servant, and they struck him on the head and treated him shamefully.
09:36-09:41
He sent another, and him they killed, and so with many others, some they beat and some they killed.
09:42-09:53
These servants in this parable stand in for the many prophets and messengers that God sent to Israel, called them to repent, to turn from their sin, and turn back to God or that judgment is coming.
09:55-10:03
Even John the Baptist, who we discussed earlier on in this gospel, who prepared the way for Jesus, he was beheaded for confronting sin and calling people to repentance.
10:04-10:15
After many of his servants are beaten and killed in his frustration as a last ditch effort, the owner of the vineyard decides that he will send his one and only son to collect what was owed to him.
10:16-10:21
He says in verse six, He still had one other, a beloved son.
10:21-10:25
Finally, he sent him to them saying, they will respect my son.
10:27-10:33
But upon seeing the son approach the vineyard, we get to listen in on the conversation of the tenants.
10:33-10:36
They say amongst themselves, this is the heir.
10:37-10:39
Come, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.
10:40-10:48
Now as I was reading this, which wasn't really tracking with me, I didn't really understand why, if they killed the owner's son, that they would somehow magically get ownership of the vineyard.
10:48-14:05
really work itself out in our lives today? Like, Kate and I as landlord, do we like, I murder his son and then I get the house? Like, it doesn't really make sense, but as I was studying this out, I read that the tenants would assume that the arrival of the son to collect their debt was a symbol that his father had died. So he as the one and only son, the sole heir, would be in possession of the vineyard and all that his father had. And the ownership of the vineyard would fall to those who been working the land for years. So in hopes that they can legally take hold of the vineyard, they take the son and they murder him and they shamefully deny him a burial by throwing him outside the vineyard like a worthless piece of garbage. I think it's obvious to all of us in this room today that the son in this story obviously stands in for the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who came to do the Father's will, was cast out of the gates of Jerusalem to be publicly beaten, mocked and crucified. How will the owner of the vineyard respond to this? How will he respond to the shameful killing of his one and only son? Jesus asked the same question in verse 9. What will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and destroy the tenant and give the vineyard to others. So finally the owner of the vineyard, his patience has finally run its course. He's given these evil men chance after chance after chance do the right thing, but they have repeatedly disgraced him. They now even killed his one and only son. So he gathers the remainder of his servants together and he goes to the vineyard to deal justice and kill the men who repeatedly made him look like a fool. I feel like if my son had been murdered of this vineyard, I just wanted to just destroy it and just get rid of it and not deal with it at all. But the owner decides he's going to hire out more reliable and faithful tenants to work the land and who will actually pay him what he is owed. In the same way, God took away his blessing from the religious leaders who failed to properly steward what had been entrusted to them. Now God has given his blessing, his acceptance into his presence and into his family to those who instead of reject his son, reject Jesus Christ, they place their faith and trust in him. Now God calls that as his church, those who have been into his vineyard, those who have been accepted into his presence to be fruitful, to fulfill his purposes, and to give him the honor and the worship that he alone deserves. Anyone who does not do so and rejects God's Son will be cast out of the vineyard, cast out of God's presence for their unfruitfulness and their unwillingness to submit to him. You know, while I was studying this passage, I was greatly impacted. I was greatly moved by the owner's patience toward these men. How would all of us respond in our human nature? You know, after the first servant comes back, you know, bloody, beaten, and empty-handed, how would we respond? I know I would want to get all my guys together, go to the vineyard, and just get what was owed to me and punish those who made me look like a fool. That's not what he does, is it? The owner of the vineyard shows these sinful tenants great mercy and and compassion by sending servant after servant after servant to collect what was owed to him.
14:07-14:25
The owner's compassion may seem foolish and naive to us, but doesn't his behavior reflect how God relentlessly pursues us as sinners every single day? We constantly rebel, reject, and sin against God. He patiently pursues us and lovingly calls us back into relationship with him.
14:26-14:41
Like the tenants in the story, we so often believe that all the gifts that God has entrusted to us are to do with as we please. We owe God nothing. He has given us life, He has given us breath, He has given us all that we have. Who does God think He is to demand anything from me?
14:42-15:09
This is my life, this is my finances, this is my family. You know, a lot of us in this room would say, "I would never say that." Yes, how often do we live like that? Instead of humbly serving God in his church, our time, our talents, our treasures, our finances, we focus upon ourselves and lose sight of what is truly important. We reject God's plans for our lives and instead live however we want to live.
15:12-15:28
You know, for years and years I rebelled against God in high school. I lived how I wanted to live. I constantly pushed down the conviction I felt over my sin. Every I would lay my head down on my, lay my head to my pillow, and the busyness of the day would end.
15:29-15:33
And all these conviction, all these feelings of guilt would just fill my mind.
15:33-15:38
And some nights it got so intense that I would have to put on an audio book or music just to drown that out.
15:38-15:50
I was stubborn, I didn't want to change, and this self-hatred took itself out at school where I would belittle those who were weaker than me and make fun of people who were really, truly hurting behind closed doors so I can get a laugh from my friends.
15:50-15:57
You know, my friends thought I was hilarious, I was a quick-witted guy who can always make fun somebody really fast, but on the inside I was miserable.
15:58-16:03
You know, after years and years of patient waiting and calling, God finally got my attention.
16:04-16:10
I was able to, with His grace, with His help, I was able to rid myself of several consistent routine sins in my life.
16:12-16:24
You know, I really am a living testament to the faithful and relentless pursuit of a loving father for his lost child as he gave and continues to give me chance after chance after chance.
16:25-16:34
It really is true, brothers and sisters, as Paul says in Romans, that it is the kindness of God that is meant to lead us to repentance, that is meant to lead us to turn from our sin and trust in Christ.
16:36-16:45
While this parable shows the amazing patience and long-suffering of God, it also demonstrates his anger and his wrath toward human rebellion and sin.
16:45-16:54
So for those of you who do not know Christ in this room today, do not test his patience any longer by continuing to walk in sin and failing to trust in Christ.
16:55-17:02
But the tenets and the story of God's wrath and judgment is coming for those who reject him and fail to give him what he is due.
17:04-17:10
Don't live one more day in rebellion against a merciful God who offers us a chance to repent every single day.
17:12-17:18
For Christians in this room today, God has saved you, He has forgiven you, He has given you new life.
17:19-17:27
Please don't abuse the grace of God any longer by continuing to walk in that consistent and unrepentant sin you're living in, whatever that may be.
17:28-17:33
Maybe some of you in this room today are harboring a secret sexual sin that you don't want anybody to know about and you're ashamed.
17:33-17:43
If anybody found out, you'd be completely ashamed for the rest of your life, but today Today is a day to confess that to someone, to repent of it, and seek healing from family and from friends.
17:44-17:46
Maybe for some of you, you've been hoarding your resources.
17:48-17:50
You're failing to steward the money that God has given you.
17:50-17:53
Don't wait another day to be faithful.
17:53-17:54
Don't wait another day to give.
17:55-17:56
Don't make another excuse.
17:56-18:01
Please just give generously to the church today or help that person that God has brought across your path.
18:02-18:04
And maybe for some of you, it's your marriage.
18:05-18:08
Maybe you've been living in bitterness and anger for years and that person's wrong.
18:08-18:10
I'm not, I'm right.
18:10-18:11
They've been wronging me.
18:11-18:12
I don't want to change.
18:13-18:15
Please stay just release that bitterness.
18:16-18:18
Repent to God and say, "What have I done wrong?
18:18-18:28
Own what you have done wrong." Whatever your situation or sin pattern is, don't wait another day to repent and turn back to God.
18:29-18:31
Because God has forgiven us.
18:31-18:32
He set us free.
18:32-18:39
He's assigned to us certain gifts, talents, and resources to use for His kingdom, for His glory, and for other people's good.
18:41-18:44
Don't waste the resources and salvation that God has given you.
18:44-18:48
Do not keep refusing to give the Lord what He has owed.
18:49-18:54
First we talked about Jesus' story, which shows us that fruitlessness leads to destruction.
18:55-19:02
And secondly, we're going to talk about God's plan in this parable, God's plan in the story, that rejection leads to exaltation.
19:04-19:07
We see in verse 10, Jesus says, have you not read this scripture?
19:08-19:10
The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.
19:11-19:12
This was the Lord's doing.
19:12-19:13
It is marvelous in our eyes.
19:15-19:16
This passage is kind of strange.
19:16-19:19
Jesus says a complete 180 and he's just like, I'm gonna talk about a vineyard.
19:19-19:21
No, wait, I'm gonna talk about a building and a bunch of stones.
19:21-19:22
That's okay, I'll follow you.
19:23-19:31
But Jesus quickly changes metaphors and he goes on to quote from the same Psalm The crowd shouted upon his entrance into Jerusalem.
19:32-19:32
Psalm 118.
19:34-19:39
Those who were listening to the parable would automatically picture the temple, the religious center of worship in that time.
19:40-19:45
As Psalm 118 details, people going up in the temple to worship God where his presence dwelled.
19:46-19:55
And amazingly, while standing in the temple, Jesus declares to the religious leaders that a new structure, a new temple is gonna be built and he will be the central point of it.
19:56-20:01
Yet again, this doesn't really impact us as 21st century hearers, and this doesn't really mean a lot to us.
20:02-20:10
But this would have shocked his listeners and greatly angered the religious leaders, because as we saw before, they were using the temple for their own selfish gain.
20:12-20:19
Jesus states that through his rejection by the religious leaders, he will become the cornerstone of this new temple or this new building.
20:20-20:23
So in all honesty, we're in church today, who really knows what a cornerstone is?
20:23-20:24
Like, raise your hand.
20:24-20:25
I know exactly what you're talking about.
20:26-20:27
Okay, thank you for your honesty.
20:28-20:40
Now, for the rest of us who are really honest, who says, "I kind of know what you're talking about, but not really, like I kind of understand the concept." Yeah, 'cause I was pretty fuzzy on this too, I really didn't truly 100% understand what he was talking about.
20:40-20:41
So I brought pictures.
20:41-20:45
So, first and foremost, we can get the first picture on there.
20:46-20:55
Okay, so some people believe that this cornerstone is talking about the keystone or capstone in an arch, whereas other people think it means the large stone at the corner of the building's foundation.
20:56-20:56
So that'd be the next picture.
20:57-21:02
So for the corner of the foundation, every single stone is built in reference to that stone.
21:03-21:10
So if that is laid down improperly, the structural integrity of the building is in question, and it could just completely fall apart.
21:12-21:17
So where this passage is pointing to a cornerstone or a keystone, the meaning remains the same.
21:18-21:27
Jesus is boldly stating that he is the most essential piece to the plans of God, and without him, this new temple, this new building will fall apart.
21:28-21:29
I know this is a lot, but please stick with me.
21:30-21:39
Jesus is shockingly telling these religious leaders that their center of worship, where they believe God's presence dwelled, will be completely destroyed and rendered useless.
21:40-21:47
He's saying that through his rejection, crucifixion, and resurrection, he would build up a new temple, his church.
21:48-21:55
No longer would people have to make a journey to the temple to worship their God, but he would finally dwell in their hearts and be with them always.
21:56-22:02
Through Jesus, God was building up a new kingdom and a greater way to experience relationship with him.
22:03-22:07
Here it talks about this in 1 Peter 2, 4 and 5.
22:08-22:14
He writes, "As you come to him, Jesus, a living stone rejected by men, but in the sight of God chosen and precious.
22:16-22:24
You yourselves, like living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God.
22:25-22:32
So we as Christians are being built up upon Christ the cornerstone to build up a new temple where God will dwell with us always.
22:32-22:36
He wants to do life with us and empower us for ministry.
22:37-22:38
Such a beautiful and amazing picture.
22:40-22:42
But the religious leaders wanted nothing to do with this.
22:43-22:53
Because Jesus' building plans drastically differed from their own blueprints of arrogance and pride and self-centeredness, and Jesus found no place in their building plans.
22:53-22:58
They went to whatever, they went to the most evil of extremes to cast him aside.
22:59-23:08
And it's kind of funny, ironically by trying to cast Jesus aside, they actually secured his place as the cornerstone, as the foundation in God's new building plan.
23:09-23:29
By attempting to craft their own building of arrogance and pride, they unintentionally helped Christ accomplish his plan of redemption because their rejection of Jesus was essential to the Father's plan to exalt Him and make Him Lord, King, Christ, and Savior, because this plan could not be accomplished apart from the rejection and murder of Jesus Christ.
23:30-23:35
As we see in verse 11, this rejection, Jesus says, this was the Lord's doing.
23:36-23:51
So unlike the parable where the owner of the vineyard didn't intend or in his wildest dreams expect that his son would be murdered, God the Father sent his Son into the world for the sole purpose of being rejected and murdered, salvation could be possible and the church could be built up.
23:53-24:01
A couple hundred years before, Isaiah prophesies of the Messiah's death and declares that it was the will of the Lord, it was the will of the Father to crush him.
24:03-24:07
And Jesus says in the Gospel of John, "I lay down my life and I may take it up again.
24:07-24:14
"No one takes it from me." So Jesus wasn't murdered by accident, wasn't unintended on his behalf.
24:14-24:18
He wasn't yet another young brilliant mind who was killed before his time.
24:18-24:21
His death was purposeful and planned by the Father.
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Jesus actively pursued rejection for our sake and for the glory of his Father.
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Going back to what I was talking about, being in the message, all of us in this room today, we do whatever we can to avoid rejection at all costs.
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But if Jesus, our Lord, our example, as we've seen now, our cornerstone and foundation, If he was hated and rejected, why would we expect to be treated well by others?
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I dare you to find one passage in the Gospels where Jesus promises his disciples that they will enjoy a life of ease, where they'll enjoy the praise and acceptance of others.
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I dare you to find that because I've been looking for it for a long time and I can't find it.
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But Jesus says later on in the Gospel of John, "A servant is no greater than his master.
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If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you." If you think about it logically, we serve a Savior who is hated, he had the flesh ripped from his body and he had three nails driven into his hands and into his feet, yet we expect the world to love us and think we're great.
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I just think it's so funny that we think, we're almost surprised when people don't like us, we're surprised when the news casts us as the villains in the story, because you know what?
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People don't like being told that they're sinful.
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People don't like being told that they're broken and need Jesus' help and need His mercy and need His forgiveness.
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People don't like that.
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But they're going to do whatever they can to suppress the truth that we're proclaiming.
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You know, I used to work as a debt collector.
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People are already laughing, but as I can't even begin to describe to you the ridicule and the rejection I face on a daily basis, if you don't really believe that people are sinful and messed up, work at a debt collection call center, and you'll see what people are really like when you tell them, "Hey, you owe money." People will just transform right in front of you.
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who had the nicest old woman transform into a monster on the phone.
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I mean, I was cussed out like 10 times a shift.
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I was called names I didn't even know existed, like, "Oh, wow, that's a new one." And to be honest, you know, some nights the rejection really got to me, got under my skin, and it became a heavy burden to go to work.
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I knew every single call would be hostile.
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And there's one call, this guy was like, "Do you know who I am?" I'm like, "No." He says, "I'm a lawyer, and I'm going to ruin your life.
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I'm going to take every cent you have." "Okay, well all you know is my name is Taylor, so I don't really know how you're gonna do that, but okay." But that still does hurt though.
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You notice every single call is gonna be hostile, and people are gonna hate you, they don't even know you.
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But I remember one day I had to come to terms with the fact that people weren't really rejecting me.
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Not really, they weren't rejecting me as Taylor the person.
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They were rejecting the company I represented and the message I was delivering to them.
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So when people reject us in this life because of our faith, They're not really rejecting us as people.
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They're not really rejecting us as human beings.
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They're rejecting us, they're rejecting the Lord that we serve and the message that we are proclaiming.
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Even if and when our coworkers, our friends, and maybe even our family reject us because of our faith, we can take hope in the reality that Jesus faced the ultimate rejection so we could be accepted into the family of God.
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Next time someone belittles you or mocks you, he maybe even harms you for your faith, your Christ-like behavior, just remind yourself, Jesus was rejected so I could be accepted.
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Jesus was cast aside so I could be drawn in to a relationship with the Father.
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Jesus was killed so I could have true and everlasting life.
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Knowing and trusting and living in light of this reality will free us from the opinion of others which so constantly enslaves every single one of us.
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This will empower us to be bold in our witnessing.
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It'll empower us to be courageous in our evangelism 'cause no matter what, that person rejects us.
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God loves us.
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God accepts us.
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So first we talked about Jesus' story that fruitlessness leads to destruction.
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Then we talked about God's plan in the story, God's plan in the parable, that rejection leads to exaltation.
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I'm gonna close out the sermon.
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we're going to talk about the audience's reaction to the story, which shows us that hard-heartedness leads to rebellion.
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I don't know if you noticed, but Jesus wasn't exactly subtle in this message.
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It was very obvious to the religious leaders that he had cast them as the wicked tents in the story, and he had spoken the parable against them.
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We see in verse 12, "And they, the religious leaders, were seeking to arrest him, but feared the people, for they perceived that he had told the parable against them, So they left him and went away.
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Instead of allowing conviction to settle in their hearts and respond with humble repentance, they shut off their hearts from Jesus, they held him at arm's length, and they grew very bitter towards him.
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They desperately wanted to shut him up and throw him in a jail cell.
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They knew that if they did so, they'd have a ride on their hands 'cause the crowd at that time couldn't have enough of Jesus.
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You know, as I was studying this passage and meditating upon the religious leader's dismissal of Jesus, I couldn't help but think about my high school graduation.
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And just to be transparent with you, I was a very socially awkward teenager.
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And some of you think you still are, but even more so, 10 times more.
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And I used to always find myself in the most embarrassing public situations.
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I feel like I still do.
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I'm always like, why does this always happen to me?
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But my graduation proved to be no different.
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Now I went to a small Christian high school and there was 18 of us graduating and seven of us went to the same college together.
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So any small little mistake will be seen and scrutinized and mocked and remembered for years to come.
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We had about 200 people in the auditorium and we even had a stealer named Daniel Sepulveda.
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I don't know if you remember him.
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He played for the Steelers and we had him come and speak.
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So we actually had a practice the day before and to tell you how small our school was, we actually sat in folding chairs on the front of the auditorium, on the front stage they built.
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It was that small.
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18 of us in about three rows.
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We practiced the day before and we're supposed to sit there, and then we have to call our names, just to walk across the stage, go over to our principal, shake his hand, grab the diploma, smile for the camera, turn to the commencement speaker, shake his hand, and finally turn to our school president and shake his hand.
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Then I go back to my seat, I sit down.
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It's pretty simple, right?
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Well, it proved to be very challenging for me, apparently.
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So I'm sitting there, I'm so excited, I just want to get out of there, get out into the real world and I hear my name called. I stand up, go to my principal, grab the diploma, shake his hand, smile for the camera, turn to our school president, shake his hand, go back to my seat. And I'm going back to my seat, I see my friends laughing hysterically and I'm like, "No, please, what did I do?
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Not again. Why today?" And my friend, my one friend leaned in and said, "Bro, you stiff Sepulveda." And my heart, like, my heart just stops as I realized I had forgotten gotten to shake our commencement speaker's hand, I had stiffed a player from the Steelers.
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And that's like the worst thing you can commit living in Pittsburgh, right?
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You know, my friends still make fun of me, and it got worse a couple weeks later.
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We were at my friend's house, and we watched the replay video, and you actually see him, like, he's like right here, and he's just like super happy, and he's holding out his hand, and I'm just like this.
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Go to the third guy and just walk back.
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I just completely blow past him and ignore him.
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You're thinking, "Taylor, this is a funny story, but why are you telling us this?" On a much greater way, how often do we just completely ignore and blow past Jesus, Lord of all, when he offers us his loving embrace and his forgiveness? He reaches out his hand to us and we just completely ignore him and blow past him and go about our daily lives. You, some of you in this room today, like the religious leaders in this story are ignoring or trying to ignore the conviction you you feel over your sin, you've completely sidestepped Jesus.
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Some of you may blatantly say you're not a Christian, you don't believe in Jesus.
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Others might say, you know what?
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I've known Jesus my whole life.
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I read my Bible, I do good things.
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I go to small group.
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But your heart is hardened.
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Your heart is closed off from Jesus.
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In all these years, you've been trusting in yourself and your own works and what you do.
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And you try to add Jesus onto your life instead of making him the foundation that it's built upon.
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You kept him at arm's length and never trusted him as your savior and as your Lord.
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Please don't go another day without turning to Jesus for salvation and restoration today, because we don't know if we get tomorrow.
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Maybe some of you in this room are realizing that this parable is spoken against you.
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You read the Bible and heard many gospel presentations, and you've shut off your heart from Jesus and deemed him as unimportant to your life.
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Even now as I'm preaching this sermon, you're going angry and resentful towards me.
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And you're doing whatever you can to push down that conviction that you feel.
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And you're not going to listen.
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You don't know what you're talking about.
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But I beg you today, don't make the horrendous mistake that the religious leaders made in this story.
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Not harden your heart against Jesus and reject him as they did.
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Because the Bible says, today if you hear his voice, not harden your heart.
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Please turn to Jesus, the one who was rejected, so you could be accepted into the family of God.
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So in conclusion, the question that this text asks each and every one of us in this room today is simply this, is Jesus the foundation and center of my life, or isn't he?
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It's really that simple.
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Other religious leaders have you cast Jesus aside and deemed him as not useful to your life and try to add him onto your own building project, whatever that may look like for you.
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Or have you made him the foundation that your life is built upon, that your life is all about Jesus and for Jesus?
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A lot of people claim in this country and in the church they believe in Jesus, but they attempt to add him onto their lives, which are centered upon themselves, other people, and the things of this world.
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But Jesus is Lord.
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Jesus is the cornerstone who demands to be the center of our lives, and he refuses to be an extra addition to or an extra room in our own building project.
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He demands to be the foundation.
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It's only Christ, the foundation and cornerstone, can handle the weight of our lives, our expectations, our trials, and all that we go through on a daily basis.
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Everything else will crack under the immense pressure.
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Please don't leave this room today thinking about this message or asking yourself simple question, is Jesus the foundation of my life? And if he isn't, what is?
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I promise you this, if I know anything in this life, whatever that thing is, that person, that job, that money that you have, it will fail you. Because Christ is the only sturdy foundation for our lives to be set upon. Please do not reject him today. Please do not blow past him or ignore him. Place your faith and trust in him and make him your foundation.
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Let's pray.
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Dear Lord, thank you so much for all that you've done in our lives today.
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I pray that this message wouldn't stay in this room, but it would impact lives and transform hearts, Lord.
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I thank you that it's not my job to convince, it's not my job to convict, it's not my job to transform.
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I thank you that your Holy Spirit does that.
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Lord, I know that there must be people in room this size who do not truly know you.
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I pray that your Holy Spirit would be moving and working in their lives and opening them up to the gospel and I trust in your Holy Spirit for that.
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I pray for Christians in this room today who have been living in sin and not living for you and they're living in shame right now, God.
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I pray that they would come back to you today, Lord.
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They would turn from their sin and turn to Jesus.
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I pray that every single one of us would take a personal inventory today and ask ourselves, is Jesus really the foundation of my life?
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And if he isn't, we would take steps by your grace to make sure you are.
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Thank you for your grace.
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I thank you for your mercy.
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I thank you that you pursue us even when we've rejected you.
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In the name of Jesus, amen.

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

Like the wicked tenants in the story, why do we so often hoard the resources God has given to us and live as if we don’t owe God anything? Discuss some steps that you as a small group can take to be more faithful stewards of your time, talents, and resources on a daily basis.
Why do we live in fear of rejection so much as Christians? What are some ways you can begin to experience freedom from the enslavement of other people’s opinions of you?
Is Jesus the foundation of your family, your career, and every other aspect of your life? If Jesus isn’t your foundation then was has taken His place as the central point of your life?

Breakout Questions:

Pray that Jesus would be the foundation your lives are built upon.

Religion: Damning and Destructive

Priority: Loving God and Loving People

Biblical Illiteracy: Battling the Skeptics

Politics and Religion: Rendering What is Due

Rejected: From Cast Aside to Cornerstone

Upcoming Small Group Questions CLICK HERE

How much of the Bible have we covered since 2011?

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