Marching to Zion IV

for[Music]hello welcomefriends hope that you had a good potluckthat's got to be one of the bestpotlucks I've had in standpoint so uh ifit wasn't good pray for us um anyway uhI'm very excited and hope you guys areto be able to continue our series withum Elder Vine um I really think that wehave an opportunityto get a wind a a window into the restof the world in the teachings that Elderrine is giving us as he has bestvisibility of anyone in adventism Ithink to what's happening on the missionfront and in our ministry to save Soulsso I really am blessed I feel blessedthank you Elder Vine for being here andum I think we all as a church shouldshould lift Elder Vine in our daily andweekly prayers um if the devil hassomebody that he wants to attack it'sgot to be adven his Frontier missions asthey are I believe the best missionaryservice we have in adventism and asElder Vine has been in charge of thatI'm sure the devil does not give himrest so we should pray for the Lord'sangels for his protection and that hisministry may continue to be a blessingand uh we look forward to being blessedagain now let's have a openingprayer dear Lord thank you for your wordand the truths that Elder Vine has beenable to share with us from it last nightand today we thank you for uh giving usthe road map for discipleship help us tohold to the commitments that your HolySpirit has given to each of us this dayand yesterday and may we walk out ofthis weekend changed people we pray foraous Frontier missions and themissionaries thatare posted throughout the world protectthem from Evil give them your HolySpirit to be able to reach souls andsave them for the kingdom and be withAller Vine and his family give him Graceand strength for all the attacks thatare coming his way in Jesus name amenall right good afternoon everybody goodafternoon allright that was a beautiful dinneryes yeah it was a real blessing I wantto say thank you to everybody who wasinvolved in the production of thatreally wonderful food um whenever I goto a potluck I never touch the salad soapologies to anybody who made the saladsum I always take the baked food becausethat's the safest food in my opinion anduh I I I have salads at home um I I eatsalads really for the conscience sakenot for the stomachsake and carbohydrates and protein forthe soul so anyway it's good to be withyou here this afternoon uh welcome backeverybody uh we're starting just abouton time here which is a good thing andum so just like a little health warningAdvance if I start slurring at any timethis afternoon I'm not drunk it's justthat the brain starts to run into likethe the um the the the mud you might sayand so it's just like the brain startsto slow up after a while so if I startslurring or the words don't come outright don't hold it against me um it'sjust that eventually like tiredness setsin on your brain so we're going tocontinue in our study here and uh let metry and find where we are we're going tobe looking at John Mark 10 now we'reinto the last the last uh two talks ofour time together and we're stillfollowing Jesus down to Jerusalem andJesus is still taking the opportunity toteach his disciples about what it meansto followhim and we're going to look in our firstsession this afternoon from verse 13where Jesus blesses little children uhdown to verse 31 which includes thestory of the Rich Young Rulerand we see what lessons Jesus has for usthere so we're still in the middle ofthe second passion prediction that westarted out with with our sermon todayback in Mark 9: 30 where the son of manis to be handed over into the hands ofmen and which is a very broaddescription that we're all responsiblefor his death one way or the other andso if we're all responsible for thedeath of Jesus because of our sins nowJesus is meeting people who want to besaved and we have little children wehave the Rich Young Ruler you have bmusand you have James and John in chapter10 all of whom want to be saved andthey're coming to Jesus in differentways okay so the first people we'regoing to look at the first character arelittle children of verses 13 through 16let's bow our heads and invite thepresence of the Holy Spirit Among Usdear heavenly father as we we studythese teachings of Jesus once againwe're asking humbly that um that we willourselves have the mind of Christthat we will relate to other people andwe relate to you as you havedemonstrated and modeled for us I prayLord that as we go through theseteachings of Jesus which relates to howwe deal with children and how we come toyou and and how we deal with money sowe're asking you Lord that um that wewill have the mind of Christ your spiritwill convict us of the ways in which weare to live of where we can grow what weneed to repent of what needs to changeand uh father we're asking that youguide that process for each of ourhearts and Minds today thank you Lordfor hearing this prayer in Jesus name Iaskamen okay soum clicker are we using this clickernow oh here it is yesthere's too many clickers here all rightso all right so on receiving the kingdomof God so we're going to if you haveyour Bibles with you go to Mark chap 10and verse 13 and this is the passage itsays people were bringing littlechildren to him in order that he mighttouch them and the disciples spokesternly with themnow in the previous chapter when peoplebring a child to Jesus they kind ofbring him to Jesus and then the peoplefade away and in this story here we seethat people are bringing little childrento Jesus in order that he mightwhat touch them they want the Assuranceof the blessing that only Jesus can giveuh they don't ask Jesus to pray overtheir children they ask for they askedJesus to touch their children and theaccused what is happening here is justtwo chapters before when woman says if Ican but Touch the Hem of His robe I willbe healed and the verb to heal in Greekis the same as the verb to save so whenJesus says go in peace your faith hassaved you that can also be translated asgo in peace your go in peace your faithhas healed you and so that there whensomebody wants to be touched by Jesusthey're wanting not just physicalhealing but they're also looking forSpiritual salvation and so these are uhwe presume parents it doesn't say whothey are it just says people we'rebringing little children children to himin order that he might touch them butthe disciples are really upset about itand they rebuke the parents and so ifyou look in chapter 8 and verse32um or before when they areangry let's try and find itbeforehand sorry where were we thismorning oh yes when Peter rebuked Jesussorry in 8 32 Peter Put Peter took Jesusaside began to rebuke him because hethinks that Jesus is speaking undersatanic influence when he says he has togo to Jerusalem and die once again thedisciples are are rebuking the parentswho are bringing their children toJesus and you say well why would they dothis maybe it's because and this is aTemptation that uh we've seen throughouthistory controlling access to God is avery powerful position to bein if you believe that you have theright to control all access toGod then you are in a very powerfulposition insociety the papacy had that attitudeduring the Dark Agesyes they controlled whether you werelost or saved if they put a town underwhat they called under the ban thatmeans nobody could be buried nobodycould be married nobody could bebaptized nobody could re receive thesacraments which are the means by whichGod's grace is given to you in Catholictheology and so therefore everybody wasin a state of being lost lost becausethe pope said this city is under a bannow so a person will be excommunicatedbut a city will be under a ban and sothe the desire to control access to Godis a desire that if it were true and itis not true but if it were true it givesthose individuals immensepower because they determine who getsaccess to God who can receive God'ssalvation and who can receive God'shealingtouch and these disciples were actingmuch like the popes did during the inthe Middle Ages they wanted to controlaccess toJesus and you notice this in verse 14the next verse it says there jesus'response to the the disciples is one ofanger we'll getthere there we are but when Jesus sawthis he was what he was indignant and hesaid to them let the little childrencome unto me and do not stop them for itis such as these that the kingdom of Godbelongs so the the verse there saysJesus was indignant just go forward inthat chapter to chapter to Mark 10 andverse 41 and the same verb is used whenJames and John come to Jesus NASA sit athis right hand and at his left hand whenthe 10 heard about this in verse 41 theybegan to be angry with James and Johnit's the same verb that is usedthere so the disciples are angry whenJames and John are they think James andJohn are kind of stealing an inside lineto get close to God and they'll have theprime positions in the kingdom of Godthat's what these disciples are upsetabout they're they they're angry becausesomebody's going to get ahead of them inthe race forpower and the same verb is used by Jesuswhen he says you're stopping childrencome to me that's what makes Jesusangry it's not whether we have positionsof power or Prestige or authority in thekingdom of God what Jesus what makesJesus angry is disciples who think theycan control access to Jesus and maybemonetize him in someway Jesus is indignant or he's angry orhe rebukes them because he doesn't wantolder disciples hindering the Walk ofyounger disciples to come into God'skingdom that's what makes Jesusangry so you understand why earlier hesays if any of you put a stumbling blockin front of these little ones whobelieve in me better Millstone be tiedaround his neck and be cast into theouter sea the dark the deeper sea jesustakes it really seriously when hisdisciples today as then put roadblocksin the path of people coming to JesusChrist now if that makes Jesus angry ifhe's indignant about that what does thatsay for how we relate to peopletoday do we put up roadblocks to peopleto come into the presence ofJesus do we say you have to come in acertainway do we say you're only acceptable inour church if you dress like this andsmell like that and so forth and soforth I once had a young man who was hestruggled with Alcohol Tobacco crack andmarijuana that's a lot ofthings and he wanted to be baptized butby God's grace he gained victory overthe alcohol now I've never tasted theStu so I don't know what victory tasteslike but he did then he gained victoryover the tobacco I say praise the Lordand then he gained victory over the thethird drug I mentioned but he struggledwithmarijuana and this guy had some chronicpain condition and he said pastor hesaid I either take opioids from thedoctor or I smoke marijuana what shouldIdo that's a hard call to make I'm not adoctor is it better to take marijuana orheroin what what's morally better onecomes in a pill one comes on the streetsthey all do the same function I'm nothere trying to promote marijuana youunderstand but when I saw the when I sawthe progress that young man had made andhe'd got victory over things I'd neverstruggled with at all in my life thingsI know will control many many people andDestroy them I could see the work of Godin that young man'slife but to get himbaptized was reallytough because he smoked marijuana andthe church didn't want a marijuanasmoking guy in the church despite thefact that half of them were onpainkillersthemselvesso this this kind of stuff does happenand when we look atpeople we can either take from afinancial perspective you can look atsomebody as a balance sheet or as anincome and expenditure statement let megive you an example if you have a set offinancial statements for for anorganization you have two primarydocuments you look at every month one isthe balance sheet and the balance sheetis a snapshot of your business as of acertain date it's not for a time perioda balance sheet is of like say 31st ofOctoberand then you have a balance sheet forthe first of November and a balancesheet for the second November and thebalance sheet is is it adds up all yourassets currents and fixed and all yourcurrent and fixed liabilities and aslong as your assets outweigh yourliabilities that means you're solventand you are not bankrupt but if yourliabilities outweigh your assets you'retechnically bankrupt but that's thatdoesn't give you the best picture ofhealth of the organization you also haveto look at an income and expenditurestatement and an income and expenditurestatement doesn't say as of 31st ofOctober it says is it says for the yearto date January 1 through 31st ofOctober and it tells you over the first10 months of this year what all youraggregate income was and what all youraggregated expenditurewas so one is like having a a pictureand the other's like having amovie and the reason you have both thosefinancial statements is because you onlymake sense of the Financial Health oforganization if you look at both thesnapshot and themovie that's when you can understand thehealth of an organization financiallyand it's the same spiritually speakingwhen I worked with that young man I waslooking at the movie of hislife and those who are opposed to hisbaptism were looking at the snapshot ofhis life you understand thedifference so if there is somebody whois coming to Faith In Jesus in yourcongregation or in your family numberone encourage them because Jesus getsangry with disciples who hinder the thepath of of people coming to him in faithbut two don't look at them as a seriesof snapshots look at them as a as a as aas a film because then you can see thejourney that they've been on and you cansee how the hly spirits have been atwork in their life and you're seeing thegrowth and the victories that the holyspirit is giving them and it becomesundeniable to you that this is a personin the process ofconversion so this requires careful I'mnot saying we should be baptizing peoplewith marijuana no I'm not saying thatbut I am saying that we need to thinkvery carefully about what barriers weplace in the path of people some of whomare making Journeys that we have nevermade in order to come to Jesus Christand Jesus is very clear about this he isindignant he is upset when he says letlittle children come to me do not stopthem for to such as these the kingdom ofGodbelongs so um verse 15 Jesus says thistruly I tell you whoever does notreceive the kingdom of God as a littlechild will never enter it there's aninteresting statement here we are we areto come to the kingdom of God we are tocome to Jesus Christ but merely to comeis not enough we must come as achild and what does that mean wellchildren have no claims to Authoritythey have no presumption ofself-importance they have no sense ofentitlement at least you hopenot maybe some Modern kids yes but ingeneral when a child says to you Dadcould I have some water he's notnegotiating with you and he doesn't sayDad I've been a good boy to say I got Ihave a glass of waterhe asks you on the basis of need this iswhat I need and he asks you as a parentbecause he trusts that you love himyou're going to give him something onthe basis of hisneed is that right yes so when we cometo God we come to Jesus as a child if weare to come into the kingdom of God as achild it means we come and receive fromGod without any presumptions ofself-importance without any claims ofauthority uh uh we come on the basis ofsheer need rather than any Merit that wethink we have in and ofourselves this is a rebuke to theself-aggrandisement of the disciples whowere standing there such presumptions toAuthority among disciples actuallypreclude entry to the kingdom of God sowhen the Pharisee come or the Publicancomes to the temple and he beats hischest and he says God have mercy on onon a sinner like me he goes awayJustified was the self-righteousPharisees says I oh God I'm grateful I'mI'm not like that Publican over thereI'm not a woman I'm not a gentile I'mnot a dog and so forth and I'm gratefulthat you're going to forgive me but I'mbasically a decent chap youknow he doesn't go awayJustified so when we come toGod we do not come to him and say LordI'm a tith returning vegan 7 theAdventist I serve on so many committeesetc etc you owe me mysalvation we come to God as sinners inneed of Graceand when I come to God as a sinner inneed of God's grace recognizing thatwhatever else I do in life first andforemost I a sinner lost without hope ofSalvation apart from the grace of God itmeans that when somebody else comes toGod as a Lost Sinner without hope ofSalvation apart from the grace of GodI'm willing to recognize in them akindred spirit and we're both in need ofthe same Grace so I'm not going to putbarries up to cause a be a cause ofstumbling for him just as I don't wanthim to put a cause barriers up in frontof me so that I can't enter the kingdomofGodso Jesus says whoever does not receivethe kingdom of God as a little childwill never enterit how do you receive God's Kingdom inyour life does God owe it to you aftersix years of faithful adventism is thatyour attitude I don't know do you thinkGod owes it to you do you think thatyou've earned it some way our gift ofeternallife the tendency is for all of us toactually think we do we have earnedit but Jesus is saying no no no no hesays these self-important disciplesthese conference in Union and GeneralConference presidents these these 12running around him he says unless youguys become like little children youwill never enter the kingdom ofGod what does it mean in Practicallife it means every morning I'dencourage you say Lord be merciful to measinner be merciful to me a sinner and inturn may I be merciful to any sinner whois coming to you aswell and rather than pointing out wherethey lack let me encourage what theyhave and rather than pushing them downand saying these are the problems inyour life I'm going to celebrate thatwhich is good in your life because thatwhich is good is the evidence of theholy spirit in theirlife so truly I say tell you says Jesuswhoever does not enter the kingdom ofGod as a little child will never enterit then in the next verse instead ofmerely touching because the parentsbrought the children to be touched butJesus does something more thanthat let's go back ofslide there's a missing verse there 16it says and he took them up in his armslaid his hands on them and blessedthem so instead of touching the childrenJesus carries them in his arms he layshis hands on them and He blesses themand so once again we see that Jesus isconcerned about the least significantmember of oursociety he's concerned about theoutcasts he's concerned about thehomeless he's concerned about the drugads that the teenage runaways he isconcerned about the those who areinsignificant in our Western Society hedoesn't just know about them he doesn'tjust know that they exist he takes themup in his arms the closest and most warmform of acceptance you can findtoday we also read that he blessed themyou know when when Jacob was about todie he laid his hands on the on his sonsand on Ephraim and Manasseh the sons ofJoseph now some people have argued thatthis passage here teaches us that weshould um baptizeinfants okay um so Calvin actuallyargued on the basis of this passage herethat um why should infants be deniedbaptism but the main point of thispassage this passage actually hasnothing to say about baptism it's simplysaying that if we're to come to thekingdom of God we need to come aschildren do which is on the basis oftrust and the basis ofneed so let me give you an example inpractice when I used to fly in theSoviet Union I used to fly in localAirlines um the theme tune of thoseAirlines was Nearer My God to thee um itwas a dodgy experience flying on thoseplanesum thank you thank you very much I usedto fly around on these planes and saidnear are my God to thee and um I carriedmy little boy with me on many of thoseflights and um he would be asleep in hiscar seat because he just he was just anewborn and I was very aware of the factthat these planes were coming down on aregular basis teves uans Yak 40s theseare dodgy planes there's nothingelectronic on them hardly anythingelectrical on them everything ismechanical the pilots were often drunkand you know we had all kinds of fun andgames with those planes okay um you knowthere was one plane that crashed nearwhere I was where it was the middle of asnowstorm and the guy who was plowingthe runway was drunk and he kind of fellasleep in his snowplow on the runway andthe plane came into land and hit thesnowplow it was another case in a localairport where I was where the localconscripts were bored and started takingpot shots to a local plane and it camedown with all passengers on board umthere are other cases whereum you get on a yak 40 Yak 40 is a smalltwin engine Jet and it can carry about30 people um and because everybody pileson so the officially it can carry 30people in practice it carries about 50and what the pilot says is everybodysitting in in their chairs and everybodyelse is standing in the aisle and whatthe pilot says is could everybody moveto the back of the plane so the frontwheels will take off you know so youknow that the balance isn't right whenthis is what you're doing on a planeokay and so you know these were manyyears of flying around planes like thisand having you know hair raisingAdventures wellum again why am I talking about thisthis this just sounds likeokay oh yes my boy yes my boy so I wouldcarry my boy with me in his car seatonto the plane and he sit next to me inthe plane and he'd be fast asleep now inthat part of the world most childrenslept very well on plan planes whybecause parents would give them athimble full of vodka when you get onthe plane and that child would sleepthrough whatever happened on that flightall right now my boy never got that weused to give him Gripe Water and then wediscovered that Bridges Gripe Water 6%alcohol in it which is twice as much asmost beers and so um we stopped givinghim Gripe Water after that but he wasalways a good sleeper on theplanes and um so anyway uh the point isthat I'd carry him on the plane and hewould be fast asleep and he knew thathis dad was near him and I knew theproblems that could have happened onthat plane and I was kind of thinkingabout things a lot and praying hard butmy little boy was sleeping peacefullywhy because he was in the presence ofhisfather and that's the kind of trust thatJesus is inviting us to have here in thestorms of life you can be peacefulbecause you're in the presence of yourheavenly father and as a childimplicitly trusts their mom and dad totake care of them so we are invited tocome to God and implicitly trust he'sgoing to take care of us the the nameNoah you know Noah in the Bible Genesis67 and 8 the name Noah it means um Peacein the midst of the storm it's abeautiful name so Noah had peace in themidst of the storms that came to planetEarth it's one of the verbs used in thecreation story about about God blessingthe Sabbath day and one of the blessingsof the Sabbath is the Hebrew verb Noakwhich means that in the midst of astormy World God is going to give youpeace in the midst of the storm you cantrust in him that he's going to get yousafely through this storm so we are tocome to Jesus as a small child does toapproach Jesus as a child is not onlydoes not only bring you entry into thekingdom of God but it brings you fargreater blessings than you actually lookfor because these little children arebrought to Jesus in order that he mighttouch them when he receives them hetakes them in his arms he lays his handson them and He blesses them so when wecome to Jesus as children aware of ourneediness and not of our um ourworthiness for God's blessings when weare open when we're open and vulnerablewith God and say this is who I am thisis the reality of who I am we experiencefar greater blessings than we come toGod on the basis of NE of our ownMerit rather than our own need so I wantto encourage you as you just kind ofconclude this little these three verseshere to to just reflect that how are youcoming to God are you coming to God as alittlechild that you need him he has somethingthat you cannot contribute to you cannotearn it you cannot pay for it you cannotreturn enough tithe for it you can'tenough you can't eat enough veggie meatfor it none of that matters at the endof the day when it comes to whetheryou're saved or lost I sound like aheretic but it's true to enter thekingdom of God we come as a little childwho comes to his dad and says Dad I needsome water and that child trusts thatbecause your dad is good your dad isgoing to give you the the water on thebasis of need not on the basis ofMerit and that's how we come into thekingdom of God when we recognize ourneed of God so then Jesus meets thisRich YoungRuler now this guy here appears in Mark10:1 17 he also appears in Matthew'sgospel and also in Luke's gospel nowit's interesting we all know him as theRich Young Ruler yes but nowhere is hedescribed as the Rich Young Ruler wesynthesize the three stories in inMatthew in Matthew 19 he's a young manand in Luke 18 he's a ruler that's whywe call him the Rich Young Ruler butthere is not one single story where he'scalled the Rich Young Ruler even thoughwe all know exactly what we're talkingabout and this is where Jesus is movingon from he's been discussing removingcauses for stumbling he's beendiscussing needs to live at peace withone another he's been discussing thefact that if you enter his kingdom youmust come as a small child on the basisof need rather than need on the basis ofMerit and now there is a man who comesto Jesus and he asks Jesus the maybe themost important question that anybody'sasked Jesus in The Gospel so far and hesays good teacher what must I do toinherit eternal life that's a goodquestion yes wouldn't you like to haveJesus in front of me say Jesus what mustI do to inherit eternal lifeyou know I'm not sure how we asked thequestion but the emphasis makes a bigdifference if he said good teacher whatmust I do to inherit eternal life that'sdifference to asking good teacher whatmust I do to inherit eternal life isn'tit it's a slightly different meaning inthe phrase there and so this young thiswe're going to call him the Rich YoungRuler he he runs up and he kneels beforeJesus and it's expression of worship andhe uses the word agape agapos uh whichmeansgood now he's asking Jesus a crucialquestion what can I do to inheriteternal life remember Jesus has justtaught us that unless you come as achild you will not enter the kingdom ofGod so your your salvation in theprevious passage is not based on whatyou do it's based on how youcome and immediately after thatdiscussion that entry into the kingdomis based on the attitude of heart youbring rather than what you do to enterthe kingdom of God God this Rich YoungRuler who probably hasn't heard whatJesus has just been talking about hecomes up to Jesus and he asks thequestion that all of us want to knowwhich is what must I do to inheriteternal life and Jesus has just taughtus that it's not a matter of what you dowhether you inherit eternal life is theattitude of heart that you bring toJesus Jesus I am sorry I need yoursalvation I've got nothing tooffer so this young man is kind ofcontradicting Everything Jesus just beenspeaking about and Jesus Jesus says tohim why' you call megood now he's kind of questioning theyoung man here because the the the thedesignation good is normally associatedwith Jewish thought as refer referringonly to God himself so when the man saysum what good teacher what must I do he'sactually referring to Jesus as beingDivine so this is a guy who kind of getssomething about who Jesus really is andJesus says to him you see on the screenwhy do you call me good no one is goodbut God alone' you know the Commandmentsnow look at this list of Commandmentscarefully does Jesus add or detract fromThe Ten Commandments he says you shallnot murder you shall not commit adulterythe seventh you shall not steal youshall not bear false witness you shallnot what defraud honor your father andmother and he said to him teacher I havekept all these since my youth now doesthe Commandments Thou shalt not defraudappear in the TenCommandments nothis is Jesus giving us a hint andgiving this man a hint that the sourceof your wealth is because you've beingengaging in embezzlement or defraudingpeople because he lists Thou shalt notsteal so he's kept that commandment butJesus adds the Commandment you shall notdefraud so this guy is um a smart guyfrom Wall Street who's been you knowstealing people'spensions you might say this is a guywho's been engaging in fraud in asocially acceptable crime becausethere's no visiblevictim and we have plenty of crimes likethat in our Western society today we sayoh it's a victimless crime no there's nosuch thing as a victimlesscrime and so Jesus holds this man toaccount he says you shall not defraud hegives a clue as to the wealth where thewhere this man's wealth is coming fromand the man responds well Jesus teachersI've kept all these things since myyouth so the man is kind of veryself-righteous he assumes he's kepteverything and so uh the conversationgoes on and itsays Jesus looking at him loved him andhesaid and this is really important for usin2023 just loving somebody doesn't meanyou accept them as youare Jesus said he looked at him he lovedhim this is the only person in thesynoptics who says Jesus loved him as anindividual so Jesus loves this RichYoung Ruler who's guilty of defraudingpeople and hesaid I love you you may enter thekingdom ofGod no he says you lack one thing gosell what you own give the money to thepoor and you'll have treasure in heaventhen come follow me now the interestingthing about this is we are taught todaythat if you love people you accept themas theyare what this passage teaches us thatJesus loved this man enough to tell himthe truth about how he was going to beone lost or savedforever if Jesus just loved him and theman had said what must I do to ET obtaineternal life if Jesus had just loved himme told I love you therefore I acceptyou as I am that man would have beenlost and so if you love somebody itmeans you're willing to risk therelationship in order to tell them thetruth about their true spiritualcondition the wounds of a friend are tobe preferred over the kisses of an enemyto par paraphrase Proverbs you get thatthe wounds of a friend are to bepreferred over the over the um kisses ofanenemy when somebody who loves you tellsyou something true about yourself that'shard be grateful for thatindividual because they're risking therelationship in order for you to hearsomething that you really need tohear you might turn it the other wayaround if Jesus didn't care about thisman's eternal life he wouldn't have toldhim how to find eternal life he wouldn'thave been honest with him he wouldn'thave given what was effectively a rebuketo this young man so love and acceptanceare not the same thing in the gospels ifI love you I'm going to tell you thetruth about your true spiritualcondition in order that you might findeternal life and if we risk therelationship in the process as happenshere the man walks away sad from Jesusif that if that breaks the relationshipat least I've told you the truth thatyou need to hear and it's because I loveyou that I tell you the truth and if Idon't love you if if I say I love youbut I don't care enough about you totell you the truth in order if you toreceive eternal life that questionswhether I love you at all in the firstplace so in thechurch there is space for truthtelling but the truth telling is givenon the premise that I love you and youknow that I love you I'm telling youthis in a way that is calculated to helpyou find eternal life my truth tellingis not designed to knock you down ormake you feel bad about things my truthtelling and risking our relationship isspoken in such way that you find eternallife why because if I tell you the truthand you you repent of whatever is goingon in your life maybe we're going to beneighbors for heaven we're going to beneighbors in heaven foreternity that's the possibilityhere Jesus lovesus we know that inscriptures and he tells us the truthabout our own spiritual condition not inorder that we might bedepressed but in order that we mightfind eternallife so if he speaks you through hisSpirit like today or tomorrow or lastnight he's telling you things that youneed to hear in order that you mightreceive eternal life that there'ssomething there a fly in the ointmentthat comes between you andGod and when he speaks you through hisSpirit he's speaking to you in orderthat you might have the assurance ofeternal life does that makesenseso Jesus says to him go and sell all youhave give the money to the poor you'llhave treasure in heaven then come andfollow me now the question here isshould we all go and sell what we haveand give to thepoor is this a general principle thatJesus is laying out here is Jesus sayingto the members of standpoint go homecash out your IRAs cash out yourwhatever you have you see G yourcharitable remainder trust and yourcharitable lead trust and all yourfinancial instruments go home cash themout and give them to the local foodshelter or animal shelter orsomething is that what he's saying andeverybody is thinking he says no pleasesay no PastorVine please that may that not be thecasewellum it's interesting that you know inwhen Jesus is speaking at this time manypeople would give money to the templemany people gave money to the ainesthose are the the Breakaway group fromJudaism down in kumran that's right downby the Dead Sea you can go to the youcan go to the the kumran community todaythey were washing five or six times aday it was very common in those days forpeople to give money um maybe to assuagetheir guilt they give it to the templethey give it to the Asen they give it toa rabbi a traveling preacher or teacherand then they would feel good aboutthemselvesso Jesus is speaking to a society wherethe wealthy would come and drop largesums of money in the temple treasury wesee that at the end of this gospel hereum in fact why don't you turn thereright now in Mark chapter14 the when Jesus sees the um the theWidow give her two mites let's try andfind ithere Mark chapter no it's Mark chapter12 Mark chapter 12 veres41-44 it says that he sat down oppositethe treasury and watched the crowdputting money into the treasury manyrich people put in large sums a poorWidow came and put in two small coppercoins which are worth a penny then hecalled his disciples and said to themtruly I tell you this poor Widow is putin more than all those who arecontributing to the treasury for allthem have contributed out to theirabundance but she out of her poverty hasput in everything she had all she had tolive onnow what Jesus is speaking here ishaving a divided heart let me give letme illustrate this if the offering platecomes round and you reach into yourpocket and there's the only thing youhave in your pocket is a $100bill some of you are smiling alreadyyou'rethinking$100 $100 that's a lot of money eventoday I mean you can fill at least likeone tank of gasoline with$100 you reach into your pocket andthere's a$100 but because everybody's looking atyou kind of smile and you put the $100in the offering plate and you mentallycut down on your food budget for therest of themonth but then if you reach into somethe next week somebody comes by theoffering plate comes by and you reachinto your pocket and there's two $50bills in your pocket it's the sameamount ofmoney same amount of money but you putbothin that says a lot more about yourattitude to God than when you put the$100 note inwhy because you could keep one 50 andgive the other 50 so in the process ofgiving two $50 notes so let's say makeit more simple the process of giving two$5 notes that shows more about yourcommitment to God than giving one $10note which is the only note you hadavailable to give so when this womanbrings two mites the might is about thisbig I have some at home and um the tinylittle things that I mean you they looklike little like chips from the groundsome of that you noticed them at all andshe brings in two mights that's all shehas to live on when she gives both ofthem she's saying that my heart isentirely undivided towards God becauseshe could have kept one and given theother and nobody would have criticizedher so it's not just a matter of howmuch you give is the attitude of heartwhen yougive I have an undivided heart towardsGod I'm going to give him the best thatIhave Malachi talks about this phenomenonin Malachi 1 2 and 3where God says to the people of Israellike like you're complaining about yourcrops not being good and so forth butwhen you bring your animals you'rebringing blind and diseased animals toThe Altar and I never asked for thatyou're supposed to bring your bestanimals to TheAltar and so what we bring to God is anexpression of what's inside our heartbecause that woman brought two littlemites that's all she had and she gavethose two little mites she gave more toGod because those wealthy people gaveout of their wealth and they didn't giveall they had they just gave a portion oftheir wealthso as you look through the the the restof jesus' teachings on wealth in theGospels it doesn't Jesus doesn't comeacross either as an out andoutcapitalist nor does he come across as anout andoutsocialist now there's a really good bookcalled Rich Christians in an age ofhunger has any of you ever read thatbook you should take a look at that itwas published in the 1980s but a lot ofit still applies to us today RichChristians in an age of hunger it'swritten by a guy called called Cider s id r it's a very good book and itdiscusses in some detail jesus' attitudetowards wealth andmoney now when zachus received salvationdoes Jesus say to him give everythingyou have to thepoor no he says if I've defraudedanybody I'll repay them four times overand I'll bless other people but no wheredoes Jesus require zakus to giveeverything he owns to thepoor and Jesus was was followed in thisgospel by women who paid for him out oftheir privatemeans when Jesus is on Calvary he'ssurrounded bywomen um chapter 15 and verse 40 andMary Magdalene Mary the mother of Jamesthe the younger and of joses and salomithese were women who used to followJesus and the disciples and theyprovided for them out of their privatemeans so Jesus was not opposed toprivate wealth among thedisciples but the disciples are shockedto what Jesus says because in theirminds in verse 23 if you're wealthythat's the sign of God'sblessing and if you're poor it's a signof God'scondemnation so Jesus looked around andsaid to his disciples how hard it willbe for those who have wealth to enterthe kingdom of God and the disciples areshocked because in their mind if youhave wealth it means you're alreadyinside God's kingdom God's blessed youand if you're poor it's because God hasnot been blessing you so when Jesus sayshow hard it will be for those who havewealth to enter the kingdom of God he issaying a truly shocking thing to thesedisciples they really struggle tounderstand what is Jesus talking abouthere temporal wealth may be understoodas a sign of God's favor pointingforward to the end of all things whenJesus comes again and the promise ofetal eternal life but Jesus is talkingabout the fact that wealth may actuallystop you entering the kingdom of God whybecause the wealthy tend to be much moreself-sufficient the wealthy lack a senseof their need of Godoften when you live in the westernsociety when there are so many safetynets under you there are so many safetynets you really don't sense the need ofGod on a day-to-daybasis and when you go as a missionary tosay Marley and you're just on a roadsomewhere and there's jihadis out thereyou suddenly realize it's just you andGod whether you're going to get homethat nightalive so take if you if a Westerner istaken out of a comtable westernexistence and is dumped in the middle ofthe mission field all of a sudden theybecome very dependent upon God becauseall the social safety mechanisms havebeen StrippedAway so Jesus says here that it's veryvery hard for the rich to enter thekingdom of God how hard it would be forthose who have wealth to enter thekingdom of God and the disciples wereperplexed at these words and so Jesusexplains to them again he says childrenhe says little children how hard it isto enter the kingdom of God it's easierfor Camel to go through the eye of aneedle than for someone who is Rich toenter into the kingdom of God now peoplehave tried to interpret this verse oneway or the other but the bottom line isif you take it literally a camel cannotget through the eye of a needle so thefact that if I am wealthy it means it'svery very difficult for me to get intothe kingdom of God why because I'm notcoming to Jesus on the basis of need I'mcoming with all that I can offer him I'mcoming with a sense of self-sufficiencyI'm coming with a sense that hey Jesuslet's be partners in the kingdom of GodI can contribute this and you cancontribute this and together we'll do agood deal together the kingdom of God ismore a joint venture rather thanprivately ownbusiness so it is hard for the rich toenter the kingdom of God that's whatJesus says and the disciples areastounded they think it's reallydifficult they said to one another thenwho can be saved because in theirworldview if you were Rich it was a signof God's pleasure and if you were poorit was a sign of God's displeasure so ifthe rich can't get into heaven then thensay well who then can be saved and Jesuslooked at them and that famous phrasesay for Mortals it is impossible but notfor God for God what kind of things arepossible all things are possible thebeautiful saying of Jesus there allthings arepossible so the still so it's hard forhuman to enter the kingdom of God butfor God all things are possible what youhave here is the basis for what Pauldiscusses later is the doctrine of God'sgrace we are saved by God's grace we'renot saved because of what we bring toGodyou cannot rely on your 60 years ofsitting in the pews and returningfaithful tithe to be the basis for yoursalvation it's not and it never will beyou may built for the you may paid forthis church to be built but it doesn'tget you any closer into the kingdom ofGod it's a blessing to everybody elsewe're going to see in a minute whythat's important but it doesn't affectwhether you're saved or lost at the endof the day so Peter begins to say toJesus in verse 28we can go to verse28 Peter began to say to him Lord lookLord we've left everything and we'vefollowed you and see he speaks for allthe disciples they've left everythingfor Jesus unlike the Rich Young Rulerwho just came to Jesus who's walked awayin great sorrow because he had manypossessions so Peter is saying lookJesus this rich young man came to youasked how to get eternal life and yousaid give up everything you have give itto the poor and come and follow me andnow Peter says well look Lord we've doneexactly what you said to that Rich YoungRuler what about us are we going to besaved he wants to know Peter and theother 11 disciples have done exactlywhat Jesus said to that Rich Young Rulerhe says put look says Peter we have lefteverything and we followedyou and Jesus gives a beautiful responseto the disciples he said truly I tellyou there is no one who has left houseor brothers or sisters or mother orfather or children or Fields Fieldswould be businesses you might say todayfor my sake and for the sake of theGospel who will not receive a hhundredfold now in this age housesbrothers sisters mothers children andFields with persecution and in the ageto come they will receive eternal lifebut many who are first will be last andthe last will befirst so Jesus here lists all thebarriers to discipleship that peoplehave including your family your homeyour livelihoods which disciples mustovercome if they are to deny self andfollow him what you notice here is thatwhen people enter the kingdom of God andyou enter the the the the body of Christyou suddenly have access to all thethings that you left before which meansthat people still own these thingswithin the body ofChrist what you find here is that youmay leave things for Jesus but when youenter the body of Christ you gain themmany timesover like um how many brothers andsisters were you bornwith I've got one brother and twosisters but if I'm a member of thischurch I have 200 brothers andsisters I came from onehome and if that home were destroyed bya hurricane my family would bedevastated but because I'm in the bodyof Christ I'm in the kingdom of God ifmy home gets burnt down look at allthese other homes where I could staybecause I'm part of God's kingdom thatmakesense I may have been born intopoverty but when I come to a Church likethis a beautiful sanct like this andthere's a school here and there's agymnasium and all the rest of the thingsthat are going on so I benefit from thegenerosity of other Christians whoputting in place services and and andinfrastructure and programs that willbless me and my family even though I wasborn in poverty I've now come into thekingdom of God and we're all liftedtogether by thatprocess so when we enter the kingdom ofGod Jesus isn't saying that for everyChristian must give away all theirwealth to to the poor he's saying whenyou enter the kingdom of God you enter aCommunity of Faith where people do haveassets but those assets are used for theglory of the kingdom of God and for thepeople in the kingdom ofGod does this all makesense so when we come into the church Imean we walked into this building todayit's a beautiful building yes I have noidea who paid for this building but I'mtruly grateful that somebody somewheredid and we had a lovely lunch in thefellowship room somebody paid for thatand God knows who those people were andpeople will be blessed for decadesunless Jesus comes sooner because oftheirgenerosity and when we have a schoolhere not everybody puts the same amountinto the school I understand that it'sthe same in every church but every childis blessed because collectively we cando more together than we can on our ownso when we enter the kingdom of GodJesus is is challenging us not to useour funds for our own and Grand uh ourown um expenditures for our ownentertainment for our own gratificationfor our own self-exaltation we'rechallenged to use our assets for thegood of our Brothers and Sisters inChrist we're to look out for oneanother now if you're a typical WesternChristian and you come to church andyou're behind on your rent and yourelectricity's been cut off and you got apain in your back and they say to youhow you doing say so I'm just fine thankyou how is anybody just going to knowwhether they can help help you ornot if we are closed with each other sowe never let anybody know what's reallygoing on in our lives we actually closeoursel off to the possibility ofsomebody helpingus so in order for me to help you whenyou're in need so it's like it's like aglobal insurance policy I contribute tothe budget that the church has let's saythe the the worthy student fund thedaers fund all the rest of it Icontribute when I can because I knowthat when I can't and I need help thereis a fund there that can help me we helpeach other out we're a blessing to oneanother and it may not be immediate butit goes through the churchdecision-making processes so that thepastors will know and the elders willknow who's really struggling financiallyor healthwise in the church how can thechurch be a blessing to thisindividual and so the church is kind oflike the first mutual fund you find inhistory which the first kind of likeGeneral insurance policy that we have inhistory when we end into the church wehave access to the assets of all themembers of thatchurch so if you're thinking of gettingthat new car maybe put it off a yearhelp somebody whose car isbroken you're thinking of that cruise inthe Alaska or the Caribbean wherethere's three kids need to get throughschool this year not your kids what areyou going to doI can tell you this those who don't havewealth they never losewealth but those who do have wealthoften do lose their wealth and it's ashocking thing to go from a life ofwealth to a life of relative povertywhen people make that journey in life itmay come through bankruptcy or somethingelse it can be profoundly shocking andthen they're very very happy to receiveassistance from people they Proby wouldnever have associatedwith so if we enter into to the kingdomof God and we havewealth Jesus is challenging us here touse that wealth as a blessing for ourBrothers and Sisters inChrist and if nobody knows you wellenough and and you're not you're neveropen with people and never vulnerablewith people and you're never willing totalk about what you need and what'sgoing on in your life don't complain ifnobody offers you the hand ofhelp I'm not saying we should all goaround like weeping like on an OprahWinfreyshow all right the Oprah win forcationof America you might say or GeraldSpringer ShowNo but in your if you're in a group offive or six people and you're meetingevery Tuesday night for prayer togetheryou're praying with each other and foreach other and you know what you can bepraying for on behalf of your brothersand sisters after the first two or threeweeks you've got to get real andauthentic with people when you're realand authentic with people and and theyknow the struggles you're going throughyou'll you'll find that people starthelping you in Hidden ways but if younever meet with people to pray with themand to ask them to pray for you andyou're praying for them and you knowwhat those needs are if you're notpraying for each other you're not goingto know what what the real needseverybody has within thechurch so you can come to church onSabbath and you can sit and listen andgo home and often times nobody knows andsometimes nobodycares but if you're in a small group offive or six people meeting let's saySunday morning at 6:00 a men's group andyou meet you know at a DIN and you havesome have a meal together then you goout for a walk and you pray togetherafter the first couple of weeks of doingthat you get beyond the formalities andyou get to be discussing what's reallygoing on in yourlives and it's in that moment that thatthose small groups of vulnerability andauthenticity that I get to know who youreally are and what your needs are andvice versa and I can offer help for youwhen you need it and vice versa so Iwant to encourage you if we are toexperience this forourselves we need to be authentic andvulnerable with one another about what'sreally going on in our Livand what our needs really are and alsohow I can be a blessing toyou so Jesus says you will receive H 100folds now in this age it's true if thereare 100 houses represented in this roomhere today you came from one house butby virtue of being in the in the thischurch here if your house were to burndown you have a choice of hundredothers that's a really good insurancepolicy it lowers the stress of lifedo you realize that if you're a singlemother in thechurch and you're living on thefinancial margins and your washingmachine breaks on a Sundaymorning having two Elders or deacons ordeaconesses who can come by and fix itfor free it's an absolute gift from Godas opposed to paying $150 an hour forsomebody to come and try and fix it foryou it's a blessing the church can doone of the fastest growing churches inCanada was the church in the valley upin AB for and what they did there wasthey they built two car stalls like likecar Bays for like get in a garage andthey offered free oil changes to all thesingle Ms of their cities two days aweek that church went from about 50 toover 600 in a few years why because whenthe mothers the single Ms came in for anoil change for free which was worth Idon't know $50 $0000 then they would sitin a side room and there was a constantVBS going on for all their kids and thekids started coming to church onsabbaths after that but the single momsknew that they are one of the mostvulnerable parts of our society theyknew there was somebody in theircommunity that cared enough about themto do this forthem and so they joined the church andthe church grew and it grew and it grewJesus also says there's going to bepersecution when you enter the kingdomof God but persecution does not meanthat you've been rejected by God itsimply means that you're participatingin his sufferingstoday this may not mean much to us in2023 standpoint but to the Christians ofRome who are facing the Lions of Nerothis passage they receive persecutionsis a very true statement and then Jesussays and in the age to come they'llreceive eternallife so the fact that things are goingwell for you in life materially does notnecessarily mean that things are goingwell for you withGod and the things that the fact thatthings appear to be going bad for you inmaterial termsdoes not mean that God has abandonedyou what you see is not necessarily thetruth if you face persecution and youleave you lose everything for the nameof Jesus Christ you still have thepromise of eternallife so we're not to judge your book byits cover which is still to trust thatthe one who came for us will get usthrough to eternal life then heconcludes this statement by saying butmany who are first will be last and thelast will be firstand so those who are in the context thispassage many who are wealthy and arerich and rulers in society they may findthemselves outside the kingdom of Godand those who are the poorest of thepoor and who are insignificance insociety it is to such as these that thekingdom of Godbelongs so where are you in thisstory are you the Rich YoungRuler are you the disciples who've givenup everything for Jesusyou see the Rich Young Ruler he wants toknow what he can get from Jesus thedisciples say well we want to geteternal life from Jesus and Jesus turnsit around at the end of this passage andsays well yes your salvation is a giftfrom God it's a miracle from God it's amiracle of Grace but I want you to knowthat when you in my kingdom it doesn'tjust mean that you get get get meansthat when you're in my kingdom you giveand take as based onneed you look out for each other youencourage one another I noticed in yourbulletin today that you've got a a youngperson wanting to go off to NathanielTaylor needs to raise $1,450 to go on amission trip to bise with with theacademy that's the kind of thing thatthose who are older those of us who areolder can help pay for encourage youngman in his walk with God to be ablessing to somebody else and maytransform that young man's life just anexample here of what it means to be inthechurch that this young man needs fundinghe has Youth and energy but not moneyand many of us no longer have Youth andenergy but we havemoney and we all contribute somethingand God's kingdom grows as aresult so it is not it is not immoral tobe a richChristian but it is wrong to be aChristian with wealth who will not usehis or her wealth to be a blessing tothose inneed so I'd like to challenge you todayas we bring this segment to a close I'dlike to challenge you today to thinkabout your budgets athome like when you put your monthlybudgettogether let's say you have a monthlybudget you pay for mortgage or rent youpay for food you pay for utilities andgasoline you pay for cell phones you payfortaxes do you have anything in yourbudget that you give on an annual on aregular basis that is given for thosewho will never help you inreturn are you giving to the worthystudent fund are you giving to the Dorasfund are you giving to a local um foodstore or food food bank I want toencourage you to start doingthat let your money be an expression ofyour spiritualvalues you can tell the state ofsomebody's heart by how much they spendon themselves and how much they spend onthose in theirsociety a heart that is wholly devotedto God like those wealthy people givingthe temple they give a little bit butthey keep the rest for themselves butthat rich young that poor young widowshe gives everything she has for God andshe's the only one that receives God'sblessing in thatprocessso my dad used to say that a man'sbudget or a family's budget is anexpression their spiritual values ifyou're spending $100 on cable TV but onnothing to help the poor then you needto take a long hard look in the mirrorand cut that cable and help those inneed in your communityit's as simple as that let people knowthat it is a it is more blessed to givethan toreceive experience the joy ofgiving experience the joy of knowingthat that the pastor made anannouncement and you came to the pastorat the end of the service said here's acheck for a certain thing I don't wantthem to know where it came from but thenyou can see that something happening inthat young person's life or that youngSingle mother's life you have the joy ofknowing that you made that possible andthe God who sees What You Did In Secretwill also reward you when he when Jesuscomes again you have the promise of areward fromGod experience the joy of givingexperience the joy of blessing those inneed in your congregation experience thejoy of coming to church with money everyweek and you're saying Lord who do Ineed to give this totoday who do you want me to give this totoday you can give it directly you cangive it via the pastor on the elders orthetreasurer but make it a habit of yourstogive because as V vonbrand once said hesaid 99% of Christians Will Survivepersecution but 99% of Christians willnot survive materialwealth so when you return a faithfultithe and you give to the poor that isthe greatest antidote you'll have tomaterialism on the hold of money on yourheart and if money doesn't have a holdon your heart then mandates an edictsfrom governments have little impact onyou so I conclude with this finalthought in Stalin's prison camps theyoften gave the prisoners one personalitem a pen not like this maybe apencil maybe a comb why because thestalinist system knew that for fear oflosing one material possession you couldguarantee compliance from thoseprisoners for the next 10years one possession was all it took tobuy a human being compliance in thegulag for 10years so don't tell me that materialpossessions have no hold on your lifethey do so learn to give be systematicin your giving we used to call itsystematic benevolence it's Fallen awaybe systematic in your benevolence giveanonymously give directly if absolutelynecessary but you will receive ablessing from God in eternity and you'llreceive the joy of giving and helpingtransform people's livestoday so this is kind of where therubber meets the road yes when it hitsour bank account ourfaith but each one of us sitting heretoday is blessed because somebody putthis churchtogether we're allblessed and we want to pass thoseblessings on to the next generation andacross northernIdaho so for God all things are possiblejust because you're rich doesn't meanyou get entry into the kingdom of God weare to come into the kingdom of God as alittle child on the basis not of ourwealth or our Merit or our goodness orour faithfulness to the scriptures orthe faithfulness of the church we comeinto God's kingdom because we need hisgrace and we have nothing to offer himwe come as children and we receive onthe basis of his grace and his Mercy tous because he's a loving father and hewants his children foreternity let's bow our heads and closethis section with a prayer HeavenlyFatherwe've just been chewing over some ofthese teachings of Jesus right now andfather I thank you for theseteachings I thank you Father that Jesusdid not beat about thebush I thank you Father that there issomething in these teachings for each ofus heretoday thank you Father that whetherwe're rich or poor young or old whateverpart of the world we may comefrom we can all enter into your kingdomtoday and Father I'm asking that eachone of us will come into your childrenin your into your kingdom as a littlechild thisafternoon we're bowing our heads fatherand we simply saying father I'm asinner have mercy uponme have mercy upon us dear heavenlyfather and as we enter your kingdom byfaith I'm asking that we will be a forcefor good and the assets we own will bemultiplied hundreds of times over sothat many other people may enter yourkingdom and experience the Abundant Lifetoday and experience eternal lifetomorrow so Lord as we conclude thissection here and take a short break mayyour spirit not cease to strive with ourhearts and Minds Lord may we not justlisten to what what we sharing today butmay it make a practical difference inhow we live our lives in our familiesmarriages and our local congregations inthe name of Jesus I prayamen so we'll take a 10-minutebreak and then we'llcontinue for