Skip to content Mark 10:1-31 || The Book of Mark || Pastor Steve Smothermon Jun 20 · 45 min ...more
Mark 10:1-31 || The Book of Mark || Pastor Steve Smothermon
June 20, 2024 · 45 min
Series Patria Sermons June 20, 2024 · 45 min · Patria Sermons
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492K followers
Adam Mesa is Lead Pastor of Patria Church and speaks to a congregation of 12,000 about how the gospel of Jesus Christ brings purpose to every life. Patria
492K followers
A Radical Call of Discipleship 0:00 Amen. That's, pretty exciting. If there's, anybody that volunteers over in our outreach center, just raise your hand. Anybody here tonight? There's some people. Great0:12 job. Great job. Unsung heroes. But, you know, everybody's gotta find their place, in ministry to give back and to share and to do their part. So we just appreciate what0:24 everybody does in this church. And sign up or at least try to to be part of the praise and worship team? Any of you? 1 person, 2 person, 30:36 persons. I mean, he practically rolled out the red carpet asking me to come and try out. So, many of you guys don't know that I have a baritone voice when I0:48 sing. Yeah. And if you believe that, then you know what? You're really full of it tonight. So anyway No, I can't. Anyways but I hope you could go up there and you could sing. You know what? It is1:00 really our privilege tonight to have 1 of our friends of the ministry with us here all the way from Albuquerque, New Mexico. He comes every year, and he really does an amazing job. And I1:12 we learned every every time we get together how much our lives parallel 1 another that he's 8 days older than me, and he married an older woman, and, our both our wives are named1:24 Cynthia, and we went to the same bible school. And then we just found out that we have younger brothers 18 months younger than us. And so I'm probably missing something else that,1:36 but that really represents the kindred spirit that we have. And, he has I don't even know how many campuses you have, something like 8 campuses. He's the largest church in New Mexico. So it's a legacy church.1:48 Their, their main hub is Albuquerque, but they're spread out all through New Mexico with with they have an an amazing my favorite 1 is where they have a homeless center where people can1:59 come that are homeless, and then they rehabilitate them with education and job and feed them. And they're just doing tremendous work. And, he's gonna be a good sport because we challenged him. We2:11 said, you know, Wednesday night is the book of Mark, so I know you got a favorite topic that you preach all around the world, but you can't preach that tonight. You gotta preach the book of Mark. So he's a good guy. He's2:22 gonna do that. Let's stand on our feet and give pastor Steve Smothermon from Albuquerque, New Mexico a big, patriot warm welcome.2:35 Well, good evening. It is good to be back here in California, and as you're standing, can we pray? Father, in the powerful name of Jesus, I thank you for this great church. I thank you for2:47 pastor Diego and and pastor Adam. We just thank you for their leadership. We thank you, God, that you continue to bless and prosper this house. Bless the people. And we thank you,2:59 father. You said if we acknowledge you in all our ways, you'd lead and direct our paths and crown our efforts with success. So we acknowledge you in this place today that we would have ears to hear what the spirit of the3:09 Lord is saying. And father, we thank you for speaking to each 1 because I realize it's not so important what I say that matters. It's what you say to each individual that matters. So we thank you for being3:21 here. We thank you for your grace and your mercy. In Jesus' name, amen. Amen. Well, thank you. You know what, guys? Pastor Diego and I, we were just talking today, and we went and and we found out3:33 something else. We found out about our brothers, that, he's got 1 18 months younger than I do, and I'm like, man, Pastor Diego, we got we got so much in common, you know, we're just brothers from another mother. Right?3:44 So, and, but really, your pastor, Pastor Diego is an incredible friend, and, I've been picking his brain out, you know, as you transitioned, and, because I'm getting older too, so we're3:55 about the same age. I guess I'm a little older, 8 days you said, 8 8 days, yeah, 8 days. That makes me his senior, but he still didn't respect his elders, so I don't know. I don't know. But, it is4:07 an honor to be here. I love this church. I I do, and I, and I'm just grateful to be a part of this today. So they challenged me, they said teach on Mark 10. I'm like, I don't even know what this says, so I had to go back4:18 and read it. I'm, okay, kidding a little bit. So I titled this message for tonight, A Radical Call of Discipleship. And in Mark 10, it deals with4:30 3 subject of what I'm gonna cover, verses 1 through 31. It deals with marriage, it deals with children, and it deals with the cost of discipleship. And so we're gonna go through4:42 all of that today, and as we look at this, so we're gonna start in Mark chapter 10, and I'm gonna read verses 1 through 12. The Bible says, then Jesus left4:54 Capernaum and went down to the region of Judea and into the area east of the Jordan River. Once again, crowds gathered around him and as usual, he was teaching them. Some5:05 Pharisees came and tried to trap him with this question, should a man be allowed to divorce his wife? Jesus answered them with a question, what did Moses say in the law about5:17 divorce? Well, he permitted it, they replied. He said a man can give his wife a written notice of divorce and send her away, but Jesus responded. He wrote5:29 this commandment only as a concession to your hard hearts, but God made them male and female from the beginning to of creation. So just so we understand the way the5:40 culture is, God never made 1 gender. He made 2 sexes, male and female, period. All that other stuff is made up by the world, but5:52 not by God. And so this explains why man leaves Thank you. This explains why a man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his6:04 wife, and the 2 are united into 1. Since they are no longer 2 but 1, let no 1 split apart what God has joined together. Later when he was alone with his6:16 disciples in the house, they brought up the subject again and he told them, whoever divorces his wife and marries someone else commits adultery against her, and if a woman divorces her6:28 husband and marries someone else, she commits adultery. Now, Jesus was asked about divorce and He reminded everyone that marriage is a special6:39 union between 1 man and 1 woman, created by God and meant to last a lifetime. And divorce was allowed because of people's hard hearts and so6:51 when Moses said it, Jesus said it, the word hardness of heart or hard hearts means stubborn, unyielding. A heart that resists God.7:04 And people say, well, how how do I resist God? By resisting the Word of God. Because when you resist this, you resist God. When you try to change this, you're you're mocking God.7:16 This is the word of God and he said, and so that's what the hardness of heart means. It means that you know what, I'm stubborn, unyielding, and I resist, my heart resists God and His ways. In today's world,7:28 divorce can seem like an easy solution, but Jesus wants us to work on our marriages and stay committed. Now, we all know there's reasons. Sometimes you have no choice. Sometimes someone doesn't7:40 want you after they've been married. Sometimes maybe they do something that they shouldn't have done. But can I say this? No matter what anybody's done, we can still fight for our marriages if we want to.7:53 And when you, when we enter into marriage, you're entering in to a lifelong commitment. And and and and that's a long time. I got married at 24, now I'm8:05 63. And my wife is 60, almost 68. She's a cougar of cougars. She's like I told him last night, man, she looked when she was a senior in high school, she looked at that sixth grader and8:16 said, Baby, 1 day. And I told him, I said, I had it as a sixth grader and didn't even know what I had, you know. But she You say, does8:28 she get mad? No. My wife's cool about it. I laugh about it all the time. In fact, 1 day, she plays a little golf, not much. She'll go out with me every now and then, and she said, Hey, look what I bought. And she bought8:38 a golf bag, and on it said cougar. I said, yeah, baby, you know, you know. But it's worth fighting for with everything you have8:50 because marriage was established by God, And a lot of times, when we just walk away and say I'm done, we get mad at each other. How many of y'all have intense fellowship sometimes with your spouses? You say, what's9:02 that? Well, the world calls it arguing. We spiritual people call it intense fellowship because they're like, what is that? Because they can say all kinds of things, but we know it's because9:14 she's not acting right or something. But Jesus wants us to work on our marriages and stay committed. Marriage is a covenant9:26 of God that we should never take lightly. And when people get married, it should not be an option. You should take divorce out of the equation, and say, we're willing to do whatever it takes. Because I'm always amazed9:38 when I do weddings and how much they love each other, well, I love you, and they cry, and it's like, oh baby, I can't wait. And then about 3 years later, they come into my office and say, I hate that person. I can't9:48 stand them. And a lot of times, it's because sometimes we harden our hearts to God and resist Him, we'll resist Him in every area. Sometimes you get up here and you know, people resist Him in10:00 serving. I mean, I thought it was great what Pastor Adam did with, your worship leader about getting involved in worship. I mean, if you can sing, I mean, if you let me put this way. In my mind, if you can sing because10:11 someone else told you you can sing other than your mother, then you ought to go. Because you know moms, they're like, you're so good. Like, yeah, because you can't hear or whatever. But you should go, and you say, why?10:23 Because you step out of your comfort zone. But when you resist the Word of God constantly and continually, do you know your heart is being hardened every moment, every time? You can come here10:35 and and and pastor Adam and pastor Diego and the team can give you an opportunity to receive Jesus, and if you say, nope, not gonna do that. Nope, I'm not gonna do that. Nope, I'm not gonna do that. Nope, I'm not gonna10:44 do that. Nope, I'm not gonna do that. Nope, I'm not ready. I haven't had enough fun yet. Do you realize every time you say that, your heart gets a little harder towards God? You begin to resist Him, and it gets hardened10:55 towards the Holy Spirit's wooing of you to get it right? Because here's what I know. Some of you in here, God's already dealing with your hearts to get it right. You just have to choose to.11:08 When they talk about whatever, serving, don't don't say no. Say yes. Well, I don't know if I can. Why not? Well, I don't think I'm worthy enough. None of us are worthy enough. I'm not worthy enough to be11:20 up here. But Jesus died for my worthiness. I'm only worthy because of what Jesus did, not because of what I did. Well, you don't know, preacher, I've messed up a lot. So11:32 what? Everybody's messed up. And so, but still, God uses us. So be used of God, and because He uses you in a way that blesses you, never hurts you. People11:43 use you to get something. God wants to bless you. And so in marriage, don't harden your hearts. Work out things, resolve things. Deal with stuff, and you you're gonna be dealing with stuff the rest of your life.11:56 You know, the issues that my wife and I have today basically are the same, I mean, the same ones we had when we first got married. I mean, it's the same arguments. It's about some of the same stuff.12:08 It's nothing new. And we resolve it, then we go back, we resolve, and you just keep working on it. Why? Because it's worth it. It's worth it. It's worth it. And I get it, guys. Sometimes in our12:20 in our world, somebody just leaves. You can't do anything about that. If they don't want you, they don't want you, and it hurts. But we should fight to stay married. We should do everything we can. It shouldn't be just12:31 throw away relationships. I say this about friendships. In your life, you might have a handful of real friendships that will stick with you in your worst moments and12:43 in your best moments. Everybody else's are, everybody else's acquaintances. And when you have those friends, you should fight to keep them. Because you know how it is with friends. You get mad at each other,12:55 they tick you off, and then you call the next day and say, okay, I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said that, and then you keep going. And that's healthy. We should fight for those friendships. Your pastor's 1 of my greatest13:05 friends, and I've talked to him about a lot of different stuff. And and and you know, so you know, relationships are important, and marriage is a covenant that God established.13:18 Verse 13. 1 day some parents brought their children to Jesus so he could touch and bless them, but the disciples scolded the parents for bothering him.13:31 When Jesus saw what was happening, he was angry in his, with his disciples, and he said to them, let the children come to me. Don't stop them for the kingdom of God belongs to those who are13:43 like these children. I tell you the truth, anyone who doesn't receive the kingdom of God like a child will never enter it. Then he took the children in his arms13:55 and placed his hands on their heads and blessed them. Folks, and today, we need to understand that when when parents brought their children to Jesus and the disciples tried14:07 to stop them, Jesus was upset and told them to let them come. He said the kingdom of God belongs to those who are like children. What does that mean? Do we have to be little kids to come to Christ? No, we need to be like14:18 them though. Children trust, and for the most part, are humble, and then they depend on others. Do you know why we lift our hands to God? Do you know little 2 year olds,14:30 3 year olds, 4 year olds? What do they do to you when they come in, mommy and daddy? They they hold, they do this, they they want you to hold them, they want you to pick them up. What they're doing is saying, you you you14:40 you're the leader. You're the comforter. You're the 1 that helps me. I depend on you. That's why when you come to church and and they were saying lift your hands, I lift my hands because I want God to know I depend on14:51 you. And and we we have to have the same trust. Even kids, you can you can abuse them, you can hurt them, and they still come back to mommy and daddy and want your love.15:04 They're so forgiving too. It breaks my heart when kids get harmed. It it really does. It it affects me because And and and so Jesus is saying, you15:16 got to come to me like children go to their parents. Jesus wants us to have faith like children, trusting God completely and depending on him. You15:28 see in our world today, and I would venture to say most of us have food, most of us have a place to live, and I can see you have clothes.15:40 I always say thank God for clothes. Because I think clothes covers a multitude of sin, it just covers some stuff. I mean, how many of y'all can say amen to that? Like, you know, do I look good? Yeah, just don't take15:52 that off. You look great. And we need to understand that when we, when we live this life like we do,16:04 that a lot of times we really don't depend on God like we should. We're not thanking Him for the food, we're not thanking Him for our clothes, we're not thanking Him for our place to live. And we get16:15 to where we don't exercise our faith really in God. And so when you, it's time to believe God, you struggle. We struggle because we're not used to it. Some people in other places, they believe God every day just for a16:26 meal. And so when that food comes, they see the hand of God. God wants you and I to know that everything we have, everything He puts in our hands comes from Him. Your16:38 gifts, your talents. If you're smart, you ought to thank God for your intellect. If you built a business, you ought to thank God for the ability to build that business. See, that's the thing we kinda16:49 get away from. Even in giving, my wife and I, we used to give checks and we'd sit, you know, I'd be preaching all the services, so break our tithes and offerings down to several checks so I could always give a check-in17:00 the offering, and then the the electronic age came. And and all we do is give on online now. My wife does it, she's like, and she didn't even tell me, she just does it. But sometimes17:12 I I tell her, I said, have you you've been given, right? And she goes, oh, yeah. And I said, you know what we forgot to do is pray, because you get so used to it, you forget to believe God. We gotta believe God for17:22 everything. That's how we know we depend on Him. So when we when we give, my wife and I, whether it's electronically or, you know, used to be with the check, we pray over it. Don't just give it and not17:34 pray because then you you you'll think your blessings come from you or from the world or from somebody else. Everything we have comes from Him. Everything. I17:45 mean, I I I look in my, you know, in my backyard, my wife fixed it up, and we've had this house. We've lived in the same house for 22 years in Albuquerque. And and I always wanted a pool in my backyard. I always wanted17:57 that. My wife fixed it up for the kids and grandkids. And and 1 day I was standing with my younger brother, Pastor Troy pastors where I used to pastor in Roswell, and we're standing in my backyard when I first did18:09 it, and he and I looked over, and he has a tear. He is he's like a teary eyed. He's got tears coming down. I'm like, what's wrong with you? He said, Steve, don't you remember? I said, remember what? Because I18:21 don't remember a lot of my childhood. He said, don't you remember we were kids? I said, what are you talking about? He said, we would dream about a backyard like this. Remember we had talked about it. It'd be nice to18:32 have a swing set and a trampoline and a pool. We talked about it. And I said, so what are you saying? He goes, Steve, I can't believe that God gave you that. I had forgotten it was a18:43 desire. I didn't even think about it. And then you know what? Now I walk around my backyard sometimes just by myself, and I said, thank you God for this. It's not the greatest house, it's not the18:55 biggest house, but it's my house. Sometimes I back out of my driveway. I do this periodically, probably once a week and I start to drive off and I stop in front of my house and I say, God, thank you for that house.19:08 And you say, but my house is not that great. I don't care how great it is. We have to learn to depend on God. We have to learn to be thankful to God. We have to understand where our blessings come from. If you can19:20 work with your hands and you're skilled, you ought to thank God for that skill. Everything you have, He's given you. And let me say it this way to somebody. This way, I haven't given me much. Listen,19:32 I know pastors and people that are my peers, like your pastor, that have so many gifts and talents, so smart. And I think to myself, you know, I have a lot of pastor friends that can19:44 sing, they can, they're big, they're just whatever, they just, and they're smart. And I look at them like, man, God, why don't you give me some of that? I can't sing. In fact, my worship leader19:56 says, you can sing, Pastor, but you're in the all church choir. I'm like, What's the all church choir? Out there. And I've always thought, God, why didn't you let me sing? I've20:08 always wanted to sing. If I could sing, I would sing. I've always wanted to play an instrument. I just don't have it. And then 1 day I thought about this, or God gave me a20:20 thought like, Steve, quit worrying about what everybody else has. And I may be the 1 talent guy, not the 2 or the 5. All I have to use is my 1 talent, and if I use it properly God will bless me20:31 with more. And just maybe I'm the 1 talent guy, maybe you're the 1 talent person and the 1 with 5 is not doing their part and he says, you know what I'm a do? I'm a just go give him some20:43 more. Right. Amen. See, that's why we gotta depend on God. We gotta trust God. Amen. And we gotta come to him like children and and and then, you know, we have to20:55 we have to train our children. We don't deny them from coming to Christ. In our culture today, sports is more important than God. Every education's more important than God and we should be educated,21:07 but man we should be biblically literate. We should want our kids to know more about God than anything else. That's what we should do. And as a church, we should value and support our children,21:19 helping them grow in the faith and feel loved by God. We should be those people that train them, not just raise them. I'm shocked today when I see kids talk to parents,21:31 4 year olds saying no to daddy. My 4 year old said no to me 1 time. And I said, what did you say to me? And I drive that foolishness far from you. You won't say that again, boy.21:43 You don't tell me no. My kids didn't rule my life, I ruled their life. And today we give kids too much latitude. That's why God said train them. Training21:55 means it's no fun sometimes. If you've been in the military and you go into basic training, I don't know anybody that loved that. Push ups and running and they hated it, sergeants beating them22:07 up when they could beat them up. And and and it's so amazing to me how we we look at our children at 5 like Johnny, go do this, he throws a fit and we just submit to them. It's like, boy22:19 you better get up. I'm a give you a reason to throw a fit. See, we don't even think about that. I'm not talking about beating your kid. Don't beat your kids. But they have to know who's boss because listen, as you22:31 love them and they submit to you, you're training them to submit to God and He's the ultimate authority. And think about what God did in the book of Malachi, was the last book before the22:43 Old Testament, I mean the New Testament. There's no recording of God speaking for about 400 years till John the Baptist. 400 years. And you know 1 of the last 2 things he told22:54 people to do? Don't rob me with your tithes and offerings. Don't do it, bring them to the storehouse. You know what the last thing he said to do? Fathers, your hearts need to turn back to your children.23:06 You know in America today, the fathers' hearts are turning away from their children. Because if my 5 year old little boy come up to me and said, you know daddy, I think I'm a girl, I'd be like, I'll drive that far from23:17 you. I'd put that, but it'd be whoop. And it goes out like this, like you Yeah. Yeah. You know, because we we know what God made them. Amen. We give them too much, well, I don't23:29 wanna do that. Well, I don't care what you wanna do. You'll do what I tell you to. I don't understand where we miss this. And when I was raised, my dad was a sergeant in the military. Here's, when they had friends over,23:39 here's what we heard. You will go to your room, you won't, we won't see you, we don't wanna hear from you. And if we walked out, well, my dad would just give me 1 look, we'd be whoop, right back.23:51 See, we need to love our kids enough to train them in God's ways. We need to teach them to obey so they can obey God. And and I watch little kids at malls that, you know, at stores24:03 that throw a fit and their parents are wadda, they're wallowing on the floor, and I said, I tell my wife, Just give me that kid for 10 minutes. 10 minutes. It'll take me 10 minutes, and I guarantee that little boy, he24:14 might throw a fit and see me coming and be like, whoop, I'm good, I'm good, we're good. We need to love our children to train them. We don't let the world train them. We don't let the the the schools train24:26 them. We train them on what's right or wrong. That's the way God says to do it, and then we come to him and like, children, I trust you God even though I don't understand.24:39 I depend on you because I know everything I have comes from you. That's what God wants. And I humble myself. That means we're teachable.24:52 I'm just teachable, teach me God. Doesn't mean I always get it right. Doesn't mean you won't make mistakes. We've all sinned and come short of the glory of God. But But what it means is we just keep walking. You can25:02 think about quitting, just don't do it. That's a heavy revving, isn't it? You can think about quitting, but just never do it. You just25:14 keep marching on. Verse 17. As Jesus was starting out on his way to Jerusalem, a man came running up to him, knelt down and asked, good teacher, what25:25 must I do to inherit eternal life? Why do you call me good? Jesus asked. Only God is truly good. Isn't it amazing that people today in25:37 our culture, this is what Jesus specifically said, and what do people say? I'm a good person, surely I'm going to heaven. Aunt so and so, she was a sweet, kind person, so she went to heaven. Surely God let her25:49 in. Folks, let me tell you this, good people don't go to heaven. Nice people don't go to heaven. Generous people don't go to heaven. You say, who goes to heaven? Saved people go to heaven. So, ain't it funny, we26:01 call ourselves good and I I say this a lot, if you're gonna compare yourself to Charles Manson, you're pretty good. I guarantee you're pretty good. But we're not, we're comparing ourselves to a holy God. And Jesus said26:13 nobody's good, so no 1 gets to Heaven because you're nice or good. You get to Heaven because you got saved, you accepted Jesus as your Lord and Savior, because you realize all your goodness doesn't compare to26:24 God's holiness. See that's the reality, so anyway, that's a side thought. But to answer your question, you know the commandments. You must not murder, you must not commit adultery,26:36 you must not steal, you must, not testify falsely, you must not cheat anyone, honor your father and mother. Teacher, the man replied, I've obeyed all these commandments since I26:48 was young. Looking at the man, Jesus felt genuine love for him. There is still 1 thing you haven't done, he told him. Go and sell all your27:00 possessions and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven, then come follow me. At this, the man's face fell and he went away sad, for he had many possessions.27:12 Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, how hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God. This amazed them, but Jesus said again, dear children,27:24 it is very hard to enter the kingdom of God. In fact, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God. You know why? Because rich people start depending on27:36 their wealth, on their possessions, on their things, and so it's hard for them to transition and say, no, I'm gonna depend on God. The disciples were astounded. Then who in the world27:48 can be saved? Because they thought the same thing we think, that if someone's wealthy they're blessed of God. People tell me all the time, Bill Gates is so blessed, I don't get it, I serve God and I honor God. I said,27:58 who do you, how come you think God blessed him? He said, what do you mean? Why do we think God blessed him? He don't honor God. Why do we think that rich people, all rich people are28:10 blessed of God? We think the same thing they thought. And when Jesus said what he said, they said, well my goodness, then who can go to heaven? See we gotta understand there's a devil out there.28:22 That's right. And he prospers and lifts up people so they can use their wealth and influence to influence a culture for ungodliness. That's why God wants to raise up churches like this. Great, big, huge, and that's why28:34 you have so many things going on because they wanna help people. They wanna be the influence to influence people to Heaven, instead of letting the people influence others to Hell.28:48 Jesus looked at them intently and said, humanly speaking, it is impossible, but not with God. Everything is possible with God. Then Peter began to speak. We've given up everything to follow29:00 you, he said. Yes, Jesus replied. And I assure you that everyone who has given up house, or brothers, or sisters, or mother, or father, or children, or property for my29:12 sake and for the good news will receive now and return a hundred times as many houses, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and property along with persecution. And in the world29:23 to come, that person will have eternal life, but many who are the greatest now will be least important then, and those who seem least important29:35 now will be the greatest then. We have to understand, A rich young man asked Jesus how to get eternal life. How do you get eternal life? By asking29:47 Jesus to be Lord of your life. Amen. Jesus told him to sell his possessions, give the money to the poor, but the man couldn't. He couldn't put God before his wealth.29:59 And Jesus showed that following him means giving up everything that holds us back. For the rich man, it was his wealth. For us, it may be30:11 relationships, a career, personal dreams, our culture, and how about our traditions?30:24 Traditions are huge. It can be beliefs that are not biblical, that we hang on to, that are not biblical, because we'll say, well, my family's always believed this. This is the way I was raised. I was raised30:36 to not live for Christ. So when I got saved, it changed my whole life. My dad freaked out. Couldn't believe it. When I told him I was going to Bible school and quit college and30:48 go to Bible school, he really, he looked at me like, what? There was no preachers in my family. I went from being a knucklehead to not going out anymore and staying home and saying, I'm a I30:59 think I'm a go to Bible school and be a preacher. I remember 1 day I was laying on my couch watching WWF wrestling, back when you only had a few stations and it went off at a certain31:11 time. And my dad walked by and he just stopped, and he just stared at me for a second. He looked at me and said, this is his words, Steve, I know how the blank you are, and he used31:23 a certain adjective. And he said, I know the blankety things you do. And he said, I'm gonna tell you this 1 time, 1 time only. If this is real, it31:35 better be blankety blank real for the rest of your life. If it's not, you're not going. Then I just stared at him because he's never talked to me like that, using all the nice words. And31:47 I just looked at him, he looked at me and walked off, never said another word. But after that, when I got saved and went to bible school, my whole family got saved. My dad got saved before he died. You know why?32:00 Because there are people out there in your world that want you to succeed, they want you to do well because it gives them hope that there's a chance, there's something out there to hope for, there's a better way to live,32:09 and it's, and God is real. So if you're a yo yo Christian, you're hurting people. Up, down, in, out. And then we allow our traditions,32:21 Mark 7 13, from the NAB version says, you you nullify the word of God in favor of your tradition that you have handed on, and and32:33 yes, do many such things. And you do many such things such things. In other words, we can't let the way we were raised. I wasn't raised to be a believer. I wasn't raised to do32:45 what I'm doing today. I wasn't. In fact, my mom and dad said of the 5 kids, there's 5 siblings, they said the 1 we would we thought would never get up in front of people and talk is Steve,32:56 me, because I was terrified. But God can change us if we're willing to let go of things. Even if it's with our family, we let go of33:08 them. We must give up everything to follow Christ or willing to. Matthew 13 44 and 46 says, the kingdom of heaven is like a treasure. Looking for33:20 the clock. Where's clock? I don't know where the clock is. I'm looking. Look up? Down. Right there?33:32 There's nothing on it. Oh, then keep going then. Alright. The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure that a man discovered hidden in a field. In his33:44 excitement, he hid it again and and sold everything he owned to get enough money to buy the field. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant on the lookout for choice pearls. When he discovered a pearl33:56 of great price or great value, he sells everything he owned and bought it. It's like when you find something, it's like a guy going forward and saying, I'm gonna seek for the pearl of great price. I'm gonna seek34:07 it, seek it, and seek it. And finally he finds it, and when he finds it, he asked the owner, how much does it cost? And he goes, it costs you everything. He said, what do you mean it costs me everything? He said, do you34:18 have a house? Yeah. I have a house. It's gonna cost you that. It's gonna cost you my house? Yep. He goes, is that it? No. Do you have cars? I got 2. It'll I'll take those. He goes, you34:30 want my house and car? That's what it's gonna cost for me to get this? And he goes, oh yeah. He said, oh by the way, do you have a wife? Yeah, I got a wife. I'm gonna take her. How many kids do you have? Well, the 2.734:40 they say we have. Well, I'm gonna take those 2.7 kids too. Is that all? And he goes, I don't know, do you have a dog? Yeah, I'm gonna take your dog. What God is saying34:52 and Jesus is saying is that when you come to him, it costs you everything. You don't get to hold back. You gotta, it'll take you everything if you want the pearl of great price, which is the Lord Jesus Christ.35:04 That's what he's talking about. That's what this book is saying in Mark 10, that you gotta be willing to give up everything. He wants us to honor marriage, train our children, and35:15 fully commit to following him. And some of us in this room need to reevaluate our priorities and commitments. Who are we the most committed to? And when you follow God, it's not35:27 always gonna turn out like you think. And the people you think do you wrong, sometimes it could be God leading them to help you learn. There was this bird in Canada. He was with his bird35:39 friends and starting to get a little chilly and all the other birds were chirping and said, you know, we gotta go south, it's getting cold, we gotta go, we gotta go. And this 1 bird said, I don't think it gets that cold35:50 here. I'm staying. They said, you better come on man, we gotta go south. So all his bird friends flew south, he said, I'm gonna hang, I'm tired, I'm not flying anywhere. So he36:02 he stays and all of a sudden in Canada, you know the weather can turn like that. Well the weather got cold and he was like, oh, it is cold. He said, I gotta go south and he starts flying south. He crosses the American36:13 border and it starts raining, freezing rain and sleet and it's so cold and this and this bird goes, oh no, it's freezing. And then he starts, he's flapping, he goes, oh no36:25 no no no. I I can't flap anymore. He freeze. He's frozen. And he's like, I'm gonna die. I'm gonna die. I'm gonna die. And then he he just lights because he's guiding and he and36:37 he lights in this barn. He said, no, not I'm not gonna die, I'm gonna die in this stinky barn. Well, about this time, a cow come walking over him. And when the cow got right over36:49 him, he just put a plop right on him. And the bird said, oh no, I'm not gonna die in this soy stinky bone. I'm gonna die with this plop stuff all over me. You know what that is, right? And37:02 then all of a sudden he noticed something. He's like, oh, I'm warming up. And he starts chirping, I'm warming up. I'm gonna live. I'm gonna live. I'm gonna live. He starts, I'm gonna live.37:15 And about this time this old barn cat heard him. And the old barn cat went and licked the stuff off, saw it was a burden and ate the burden and killed him right there. You say what kind of story is that? Here's what you37:26 learn. In life following Jesus, not everybody who plops on you is your enemy, and not everybody who cleans it off is your friend. And when you do get plopped on, learn37:38 to keep your mouth shut and quit chirping, so you can keep living and go forth. Thank you guys. Yeah.37:51 That's what it means. Y'all be thinking about that tonight. Some of y'all be going to bed laughing like, man don't be plopping on me man, I don't like being plopped on. But life is not fair.38:03 So we just say, God, I'll purpose to do what you want me to do. And when I make mistakes, I'll repent, because I recognize I depend on you. I need you. Father, in Jesus'38:15 name, I thank you for this great church. Thank you for pastor Adam and pastor Diego and their families. I just thank you, God, for all the people who came out on a Wednesday night to hear38:27 the gospel, to hear what the spirit of the Lord is saying to them. So I thank you, you spoke to people in this place, and you're speaking to them, so they can reevaluate. And for some of us,38:39 we just gotta make tweaks and transition and changes just to to so we can get more in line with you and your word, God. For some of us, we need a life change. We need to experience you in a real38:51 way. For some of us, we need to submit ourselves to you and humble our hearts and ask you to forgive us, and for some, ask you to save us, because we know you will.39:04 So bless each 1 that's here today. Everybody who's watching online, thank you, God, for speaking to each 1 and helping us, because we needShow more In this video 0:00 A Radical Call of Discipleship1:02:32
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