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Empowering multimedia ministry for bold Christian living: Weekend Messages, Deep End Podcast, Deep Dive Bible Study. Tim Hatch, Lead Pastor, Waters Church, 26 years of pastoral ministry, book author.
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0:00 Jesus encounter part 4, and I will get to the message in just a moment. I wanna say something that is on my heart specifically for you here in North Attleboro, every other location, feel0:12 free to listen in on this on this conversation. We are excited, and we are 100 percent committed to planting a school, a Christian school in this location. And and like0:23 Cheryl just said, children are under attack because of education. But please remember that education was the fruit of the gospel taking root right here in0:35 Massachusetts. In 16 47, the Massachusetts legislature passed a bill called that old diluter satan act. Back in the old days, they came up with some weird names for laws.0:47 That old Deluder Satan Act established pub public funds to establish public education so that our children would not be diluted by Satan. That was0:58 the Massachusetts legislature. Oh, how far we've come. Now, some of you have asked this question, and I want to address this specifically again for this1:10 location. Pastor, can I make sure that my money that I give to really big things goes toward the school? Short answer, no.1:22 Long answer, please understand the connection between education and the gospel. And all we have to do here in Massachusetts is take a 45 minute drive1:34 north from this location to Cambridge, Massachusetts and step on Harvard University's campus, Or a 25 minute drive south of this location and step on Brown1:46 University's campus. And find that those institutions of higher learning, were founded for the express purpose of1:58 training pastors to preach the Bible. Okay? Do you know this? This history. They don't teach history in school anymore. They teach gender identity.
2:11 So it's up to me to teach you history. And so these institutions of higher education, which were products of the gospel, they were birthed
2:23 by the church. How many know the church has given birth to the greatest things the world has ever seen? Oh, I know we got our problems. I know we've got our faults and our failures in the past, but the church of Jesus
2:34 Christ has provided more good, more literacy, more education, more prosperity to the world everywhere it's free to go. In fact, the blessing that's upon America is because
2:46 of the church in America. And we've and and this country started those educational centers for the express purpose of the gospel, and guess what they did? They fell in love with education, and they forgot the gospel.
3:00 And now here we are 300 years later and realizing the results. You don't have proper education without the gospel. You don't. And so,
3:11 no, you cannot designate your funds for the school, but what you can do is get ahold of the reality, the vision. Jesus said, I did Jesus said, I will I will build my
3:23 church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. He did not say, I will build my school. So we're gonna build churches, amen? And then we're gonna plant
3:34 schools starting here. I'm hoping that 1 day, I don't know, it might be a long term 25 year vision, but we have schools at every location. But schools that are doctrinally tied,
3:46 and listen to this, this is my plan, fiscally tied to the gospel of Jesus Christ and the inerrancy of holy scripture. We're
3:58 gonna put it in our charter. We're gonna I'm I'm planning to put it in our charter that all the money from the church goes away to the school the moment the school starts to deny
4:10 any facet of this book in perpetuity. And per are are you hearing me this morning? Because it's so important. And so I really want you to understand my heart behind that.
4:22 Please do not elevate education in your mind above the church. And I know that's not what you're intending. Some of you are gonna you're gonna send you're gonna send an email to the church, and I'm never gonna see it. So
4:33 please don't get offended. I know you you get pastor Shane is gonna see it, and then he's gonna deal with it. So I'm asking you, don't send an email. That's not what I meant. I wasn't I'm not doing don't think I'm doing
4:43 that. I understand your your intentions are good, noble, wonderful. Thank you. But I'm asking you to understand that we don't have a proper school without the gospel of Jesus Christ. And we're 100 percent committed to
4:54 all 5 all 5 priorities. Travelers rest, a Tennessee location, new properties for Woonsocket and LaPala Beach and the school. All 5 are equal in my mind. We're gonna get them all done. In what order? I can't
5:06 tell you. Now here's what we're gonna do as well. We're gonna fast at the end of this month. Are you ready to fast and pray? It's not the end it's not the beginning of the year. It's kinda like almost, you know, 3
5:17 quarters of the way through the year, But it's back to school season in a couple of weeks. And so we're going to do a fast at the end of August, and we're going to have first Tuesday and Wednesday, and we're going to
5:25 pray for our school so that by this time next year, we are preparing to open our doors for the school here in North Attleboro. We want to but we've got to fast and pray. That's the plan so far in my mind. Anything could
5:37 change, but because we make plans, but God's purposes prevails. Yeah? So we're going to trust Him, and we're to believe in Him for great things. And everybody who is in agreement at all locations said amen. Amen.
5:49 So I'm gonna talk to you a little bit today about the tie in a little bit between, education and the gospel. And and the title of my message, if you've got your notes out, like I said again, if you've got your notes out,
5:58 the title of my message is, who says who I am? Somebody say, who says who I am? Yeah. Matthew chapter 19, a Jesus encounter with an educated
6:10 man, with a man who wanted education, but but, really had to realize that, education wasn't everything, that education apart from Jesus was nothing. And so we're gonna read this
6:22 passage together, and then we're gonna talk about this passage. And I'm excited to get to this passage with you. So would you at all locations stand with me for the reading of God's word? Every location, we stand for the
6:31 reading of God's word. We'll go through this verse by verse in in just a moment, but we're gonna read together as 1 church. Matthew chapter 19 verse 16, and behold, somebody say behold.
6:43 Behold. A man came up to him saying, teacher, what good deed must I do to have eternal life? Now that is a big question. And he said to
6:55 him, why do you ask me about what is good? There is only 1 who is good. If you would enter life, keep the commandments. He said to him, which ones? And Jesus said, you shall
7:07 not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not bear false witness on your father and mother, and you shall love your neighbor as yourself. The young man said to him, all these I have kept,
7:18 what do I still lack? Jesus said to him, if you would be perfect, go sell your possessions and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven, and come follow
7:30 me. When the man heard this, he went away sorrowful for he had great possessions. And Jesus said to his disciples, truly I say to you, only
7:41 with difficulty, some other translations say how hard it is, only with difficulty will a rich person enter the kingdom of heaven. Again, I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for
7:53 a rich person to enter the kingdom of God. When his disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished saying, who then can be saved? But Jesus looked at them and said, with man, this is
8:05 impossible, but with God does anybody know this? All things are possible. Amen. Then Peter said in reply, see, we have left everything and followed you. What then will we have? And Jesus said to them, truly
8:17 I say to you, in the new world, when the son of man will sit on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will sit on 12 thrones judging the 12 tribes of Israel. I'm just gonna let you know, that's the 1 verse that
8:26 doesn't apply to anybody in this house, anybody at all of our locations. That's the 1 verse of this passage. You can just say, that's that's only for the 12. That's only for the 12. Of course, Judas leaves, then Matthias
8:36 comes and replaces him. And so the 12 sit on the thrones of Israel. But look at the next verse back to us. And everyone is anybody included in everyone? Okay. So and everyone who has left,
8:48 houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or lands, for my name's sake will receive a hundredfold and will inherit eternal life. But many who
9:00 are first will be last in the last first. This is God's word. Let's pray to God. Father, thank you for your word. Thank you for the moment that we have to gather around the scripture and hear you speak to us. I pray that
9:10 the words of my mouth and the meditation of all of our hearts are pleasing in your sight, oh Lord, our rock and our redeemer. And help us in this moment to see Jesus, Him and Him only. In His mighty name we pray. And
9:22 everybody said Amen. Amen. God bless you. Have a seat. So on the surface, this passage seems to be about money. And this is the scariest passage on money
9:34 in the Bible. Yeah? I mean, Jesus is asked the question, how do get to heaven? And he says, okay, this is what you do. And the guy says, well, I've done that. And he says, what else is there? And he goes, okay, now sell
9:43 everything and give the money to the poor. And then you'll have treasure with in heaven and follow me. It's scary verse. I don't like that idea.
9:55 And if this passage is about money, and if this passage is the way to get to heaven, then all of us are up a creek. Because raise your hand if you still
10:07 have a possession. Yeah. Every hand should be up unless you're borrowing your clothes this morning. Cause this is a possession,
10:19 these are possession. Yeah. But this passage is not about money. It's about identity. Because money can be an identity,
10:31 but so many other things can be. For this man, we're going to see money was his identity. What's yours? What do you think you are?
10:44 Who do you think you are? I'll ask you the question of my eighth grade science teacher when I scribbled yellow highlighter all over the top of my desk. She said, who do you think you are?
10:56 I said, I I think I'm about to be punished. That's what I think. I don't know. That didn't sound so pretty. Who do you think you are? I want you to write this down. My identity is that which I want myself or others
11:08 to consider me. And many of us, all of us, have some semblance of an identity chase in our lives.
11:20 I want people to think of me as fill in the blank. I want people to think of me as capable. I want people to think of me as a loving
11:31 mom, a devoted husband. I want people to think of me as really smart, highly educated, successful,
11:43 astute businessman. Maybe you've got a combination of things, and so your life, you're running in all directions to kind of paint a bunch of different houses in your soul
11:55 that make up who you are. I wanna paint the house of being a good husband and the house of being a good businessman and the house of being a moral upstanding citizen and the house of being a, you know, board of director
12:06 on this organization. I wanna put all these things in front of people so that they consider me this. That's your identity chase. And everybody, whether you believe it or not or realize it or not,
12:17 you are in a chase for identity. This man came to Jesus with the chase. And the scripture says in verse 16, behold, a man came to him. Now Mark also tells us this story.
12:29 We're in Matthew's gospel, but Mark also tells us the story. And Mark's gospel tells us that this man came running to Jesus, running. In the ancient world, men did not run.
12:42 Same as today, by the way. You ever see a man run, you're like, what's up with that guy? Ancient people didn't run because they had robes and they didn't have pants. They had robes and skirts and kind
12:54 of stuff like that, not skirts, but coverings like that. So if you ran, you exposed your legs and maybe a little bit more. And people would be like, stop running, TMI. You know what I'm saying? And so this guy runs up to
13:04 Jesus, desperate. He's desperate. Kneels before him, Mark says. Kneels down on his knees before Jesus. Teacher, what good deed must I do to have eternal life? And Jesus' response, this is why
13:16 you need people like me, because the Bible is never cut and dry. It's never clean. It's It's always kind of confusing. Jesus confuses everybody with this next response. Look what he says. He said, and why do you call me
13:26 good? Why do you ask me about what is good? Mark's gospel says, why do you call me good? Jesus Mark's Matthew's gospel says, why do you ask about what is good? There is only 1 who is good. If you would enter life, keep
13:37 the commandments. And, so let's talk about this. Why does Jesus answer questions with questions? He always does this. You know what I'm saying? Why do you ask me about what's good? Because Jews believed that no 1 was
13:47 good. Psalm 52, Psalm 14 say that say as much. You can go back to Genesis chapter 5 and talk about how every intention from the thoughts of man's heart is only evil all the time. That's Genesis 5 6
13:59 verse 5. And so the Jews believed that there was only 1 who was good, and it was God. And so this this guy comes to Jesus and what what good thing must I do? And Jesus says, why do you ask me about what is good? There's
14:10 only 1 who is good, and that's God. And so what Jesus is doing is begging this guy to see Jesus as more than just a good teacher. And then he says, if you want to enter life, obey the commandments. Now the next
14:22 question is kind of funny. Verse 18, what does he say? Which ones? That's funny because I've read the Bible multiple times,
14:34 and I've not found 1 single moment where God said, you know, you could do this 1, or you could skip it.
14:48 There are 613 commandments in the Bible. There's the big 10 that Moses got on the mountain, and then there's 603 others. And God
15:00 was very clear. I wanna give you some passages to show you. God was very clear. You gotta obey anybody wanna guess? Of them.
15:11 Deuteronomy chapter 15 verse 5. If you will strictly obey the voice of the Lord your God, being careful to do what? All. Now the Hebrew word for
15:23 all in this passage means all. All this commandment that I command you today, for the Lord your God will bless you. Notice what is the
15:35 promise? You do it all, God will what? Bless you. As he promised you, you shall lend to many nations. You shall borrow from none. Oh, that America would learn that lesson right there. And you shall rule over
15:47 many nations, but none will rule over you. And Deuteronomy 28 is reinforced in verse 1. He says, if you faithfully obey the voice of the Lord your God, being careful to do what? All the commandments that I command you
15:59 today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth. This guy shouldn't have asked which ones, because the answer is all of them. So what's the
16:11 deal? Something was missing, because this guy had an identity, and his identity wasn't enough. Matthew tells us he was
16:23 young and rich, young and rich. Luke tells us he was a ruler. He was important. He was influential.
16:34 Not a synagogue ruler, probably more like a civic ruler. Young, rich, important. I call young, rich, important the holy, the unholy trinity of the American
16:46 dream. Yeah? We all want it, don't we? We all want money. We all want importance. And lately,
16:58 we all want youth. That's why we're nipping it, tucking it, and sucking it. And now we're shooting it, if you know what I mean.
17:11 We're doing everything we can to stay young. Plug the hair, stretch the skin, tummy tuck it up, whatever it
17:23 takes. Health, wealth, and a strong sense of self. The unholy trinity of America. If this guy was alive today, he'd be Elon Musk and Taylor Swift wrapped into
17:35 1. Some weird non binary gender fluid weirdo. Rich, handsome, or beautiful, and
17:47 important. I mean, this is what he had. He had it, and it's not enough. And I think there are people in this room, in every room
17:58 watching right now, That's you. You got it. You chased the education and you got the education. You chased the looks and you got the looks. You chased the husband
18:10 and you got the husband. You married the prince and you're waking up with a frog every morning. You got the money
18:23 and now everybody around you wants a piece of it. Chase what you will, get it, and it will still not
18:35 be enough. That's why this man says, which ones? In other words, the question is, I must be missing 1 of them because I got all that I should have, and I still don't
18:46 got it. And by the way, the Jews believed according to scripture that if you did obey God's rules, you were blessed. So this man is rich because, according to Jewish
18:58 scripture, he was blessed because he obviously obeyed the rules. So he asks which ones, and then Jesus answers again, Jesus with the strange answers. He says, here's the ones you want us to pay attention to. You shall
19:09 not murder. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not steal. You shall not bear false witness. Honor your father and mother and love your neighbor as yourself. Okay. How many commandments is that? 6.
19:22 How many out of the top 10 did Jesus list? Did anybody can we look at them? You shall not murder. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not steal. You shall not lie
19:34 on your father and mother. And then he tacks on love your neighbors yourself, which comes from Leviticus 19. So Jesus is kind of like all over the place. And 1 has to
19:45 wonder, Jesus, did you forget some? Because there's 10, not 6, and love your neighbors yourself is not in the top 10. Well, here's what Jesus is doing.
19:57 He's a brilliant tactician, and you never have a normal conversation with Jesus because he's God. So he's listing the I don't know if you noticed this,
20:09 the second half of the top 10. When Moses came down the mountain with the 10 commandments, right? He comes down with 2 tablets of stone. And he's like, okay, the first 4 are about what we do with
20:21 God. You shall know the gods before me. You shall not make any false idols. You shall, remember the Sabbath day and, not take the name of the Lord your God in vain and and remember the Sabbath day. And then the second
20:30 tablet of the law is how you treat each other. So here's how you could see it. The first tablet of the law is vertical. How do we relate to our God? And the second tablet of the law is horizontal. How do we relate
20:42 to our fellow men and women, our family, our neighbors? This guy responds to the second half of the law that Jesus has stipulated and says in verse 20, what? All
20:54 these I have kept, but what do I still lack? And the answer is in what Jesus left out of the list because he left out all the
21:05 commandments that have to do with putting God first. Having a relationship with God, wherein nothing becomes God except God. You
21:17 have to understand that you are always in a battle, friend. You are always in a battle with who's gonna be or what's gonna be your controlling influence in life. Who's gonna have the authority? Who's gonna call
21:29 your the shots? Who's gonna tell you where to go and what to do? How about this question? Who are you going to turn to when life falls apart for you? The bottle? Jesus. The drug?
21:41 The joint? The friend? The work, or God? Everybody in the sound of my voice is dealing with that struggle on a daily basis.
21:53 Who will be first? And Jesus exposes this man's heart because what he lacks is God
22:06 who gave him all that he had. And it's a battle that we're always in because obeying God leads to blessing. I firmly believe that. But be careful lest the blessing you get from
22:17 obeying God becomes God instead of God. Good things in your life, listen,
22:29 can become God things in your life. Moms, your children are not God. They are little
22:40 devils whom God has given to you to develop patience and leadership and
22:52 multitasking skills that men will never have. Guys, the job, the sport is not God.
23:05 These are things that God can give you, but they cannot sustain you. Let me just lay it out for you. If you base your identity on family, family
23:16 eventually dies, leaves, divides, separates, changes, and some of you are living in nostalgia over what the
23:28 family used to be, and it's never coming back. And you're like hopeless about that. What am I who am I now? Well, you're not that. Life has broken you free from
23:40 that. Time to move on and find your identity somewhere else. If you put your identity in money, you can get a lot of it, but your relationships then become complicated. If you base your if you base your identity on your
23:51 job, eventually, and this is a sad truth that too many people never really realize, eventually, you can't do your job the way you need to do your job. You get old. It's 1 of life's cruelest
24:03 jokes. You're asked to do this job for 50 years and then eventually you can't do the job anymore. Now some of you, you don't like your job and you're waiting for that day. You're looking forward to that day. I
24:11 understand. But there's a lot of people who love their job. They make an idol out of their job. In fact, don't we do this? We make an idol out of our job. Here's how we know. We make an idol out of our job. The first
24:21 question we ask a new person when we meet them is what's your name? The second question we ask is, what do you do? Identity is tied to your occupation. If you make your identity about your looks, oh,
24:32 I really feel bad for these people. Because those don't last very long at all. They just don't. And the reality is that every other
24:44 source of identity fails. And it would and it and it even fails for those who have it because the young, rich, successful leader of his
24:56 community that came to Jesus in Matthew chapter 19 asked the question, what do I still lack? Point number 1, if you're taking
25:08 notes, write it down. An encounter with Jesus will challenge my self determined identity. An encounter with Jesus, you know that you're having
25:20 1, when what you want to be is challenged. Some of you are having that right now. Right now, God is doing, I'm so excited about that.
25:31 Because you're being challenged on the very things that you were trained to chase. Mom and dad told you to get the education. They told you to get the job. They told you
25:43 to get ahead in life. They told you to become the boss. They and you were trained by this system that is America. Now remember, America's not the kingdom of heaven. It's the kingdom of this world,
25:56 and it's the worst kingdom of the world except for all the other ones. So it's not, you know, the the absolute worst, but you know what I'm saying? It's not the
26:07 kingdom of heaven, and yet it's got a trajectory mapped out for you from birth. Walk. Oh, what a good boy or girl. Look at her walk. She's only 9 months. Look
26:19 at her. She's a genius. Go to school. Pay attention. Study hard. Do your homework. Go to gymnastics. I'll drive you back and forth to gymnastics. I
26:31 will be your personal 24 hour a day Uber service to make sure that you can put that on your application for college. I did gymnastics. Then you can go to college
26:43 and make sure you apply to be in every club imaginable, and then make sure you are an RA, and you're a leader, and you run for class president, and make sure you graduate top of your class, and then make sure you get the
26:53 internship with the law firm, and then make sure you get a law clerkship at the Supreme Court of the United States. And if you're lucky, you will 1 day sit in that glorious black robe and tell other people what to do.
27:05 That's the road map. Some of us checked out on that road map a long time ago. We found another 1 because we're all chasing an identity. But
27:17 when Jesus shows up, he challenges. And here's what he says, are you sure you want that? And the answer for honest is no. Actually, I'm not. But somebody told me to chase
27:29 it. In verse 21, he says, okay. Now let me give you another option. Are you ready? If you wanna be perfect. Sell what you have. Give the money to the poor. You
27:41 will have treasure in heaven, and then come follow me. Now allow me to bring you some calm to this passage. This is the only person that Jesus tells to do
27:53 that. And everybody with a car said, phew. Thank God. I get to keep my car today. The reason why Jesus
28:04 tells this man to do those things is because he is systematically deconstructing this man's self made identity. What was he? 3 things, what
28:16 was he? Rich. Young. Important. Popular. The unholy trinity of the American dream. So Jesus says, if you want to be perfect, sell. There goes
28:28 his wealth. Give it to the poor. There goes his youth, because he's going to have to start all over again, isn't he? And follow me. There goes
28:40 his importance. Because the moment he hitches his wagon to Jesus of Nazareth, he's an outcast to everybody in his community. Ain't it
28:52 amazing how quickly Jesus shoots down all the items of his heart? Pew, pew, pew. I love
29:04 it. Ever take Jesus to a carnival, he'll put you to shame. And then he says this line, which we all forget in the midst of it
29:16 because we're all taken aback by the fact that we gotta sell our stuff and give it to the poor, and what's the top of that? And follow you, I get that, but wait, stop. Lean in closer. And you will have
29:29 treasure. Where? In And every 1 of you, I guarantee you think, I know, If I give what I have
29:40 now, I'll get treasure when I die. I know. All right. What does Jesus mean by heaven? And some of you are under the false impression that he
29:52 means then, but he actually means now. And I'm gonna prove it to you with a pro tip of bible study. Are you ready? Number 4, pro tip of bible study.
30:03 Take note of repeated or key phrases in the book you are studying. Now this 1 is a I I wanna let you know I've been giving you level 1 bible study tips this series, but this
30:15 is a level 3. Not many people know this 1. It's really bringing you behind the curtain to see the wizard. Okay? Take note of repeated or key phrases in the book
30:28 you're studying. What book are we in today? Matthew. Matthew. Do you know that Matthew is the only book in the New Testament? Oh, no. No. No. Matthew is the only book in the entire Bible
30:41 that uses the phrase kingdom of heaven. Luke doesn't use it, John doesn't use it, Paul doesn't use it. The only place you'll find the
30:52 phrase kingdom of heaven is in the book of Matthew. Now, let me pause here for a second because some of you are overwhelmed with these Bible study tips and you're like, how am I supposed to find that out? Get yourself a
31:03 study bible. They're available in our lobbies, I believe, for sale. At cost, we don't make any money off of you getting a hold of the bible. And go to the beginning of the book in the study bible, and you will see that
31:14 there will be a state there will be a section called key phrases or key themes. And if you read that section, it'll tell you that the gospel of Matthew has a key phrase called the kingdom of
31:26 heaven. So if we're going to understand what Jesus means when he says treasure in heaven, we have to let scripture interpret scripture and Matthew interpret himself and show us what
31:38 Matthew means when he records Jesus saying, you will have treasure in heaven. So what does Matthew record about the kingdom of heaven elsewhere? Well, let me give you some some verses to show you what that looks like.
31:49 Let's look at Matthew 13 24. He put another parable for them saying, the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field. And in that parable, Jesus says that the kingdom of heaven, you know,
32:00 when somebody takes the gospel and they scatter, they tell a bunch of people the gospel, and there's 4 kinds of soils. Right? There's a soil on the path. There's a soil on the stones. There's soil on the thorns, and
32:08 there's soil that's good. And and not every soil gets the gospel. Right? When do we spread the gospel? In the afterlife or in this life? This life. Oh, so the kingdom of
32:19 heaven is now. Don't believe me? Let's go to another passage. Matthew 16 verse 19. Peter says, thou art the Christ, the son of the living God. And Jesus says, blessed are you bar John Simon Bar Jonah because
32:31 flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my father was in heaven. And then he says this, and I will build my church on this confession. Then he says in verse 16 19, he says, and I will give you the keys of the
32:40 kingdom of heaven. There it is again. And whatever you bind in earth shall be bound in heaven, whatever you loose in earth shall be loose in heaven. And Peter gets the keys to the kingdom of heaven. When does that start?
32:52 As soon as Peter preaches on the day of Pentecost, and he proclaims the first gospel message, and 3000 people enter the church, Peter took the keys and
33:03 preached Jesus and opened the door, and 3000 people walked into the kingdom of heaven. And every preacher of the gospel who holds faith in Jesus Christ has the keys to the
33:15 kingdom of heaven. We open the doors that no man can shut in Jesus' name so that people can come out of darkness and into God's marvelous light.
33:27 Still don't believe me. Let's go to Matthew eighteen:four. Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest. Where? In the kingdom of heaven. Notice that
33:39 Jesus does not say, Whoever humbles himself like this child will be. Oh, not future tense, present tense. Ladies and gentlemen, please do not miss this. If you miss anything else,
33:51 Jesus is telling you that the kingdom of heaven is now. It's here and is now,
34:03 and it's what I belong to. Oh, I'm an American, born and raised. I'm I'm not ashamed to be an American. I'm proud to be American. I love America.
34:15 And I I love I love America every time I leave America because I realize how great America is. And I'm a man, and I know that because I have at
34:27 least a 60 level IQ. I didn't go to Harvard, so I know how to figure this out. And I like to be a man, and I'm
34:39 glad I'm a man. I'm half Italian. I'm proud of that. I belong to the family of hatches. I married into the family of the geysers. I'm proud of
34:50 both, but ultimately and infinitely more important than all those identities as you sit in darkness.
35:04 Sorry, other locations. There was a glitch here. Is I belong to heaven. And this world is not
35:16 my home. See, we got to realize this or else we're gonna miss it. Jesus is not asking us to be poor because poor is spiritual. And he's not asking
35:28 us to chase wealth because wealth will make you happy. Here, I want you to write down. The point is not God wants us rich or poor. The point is God wants our trust.
35:42 God wants our trust now. Who we are is who he has made us to be. So that brings me to point number 2. Write this down. True identity comes from what God makes us,
35:53 not what we make ourselves. That that's where true identity comes from. Who God makes us is more important than what we make for ourselves. So the chase, I'm asking you to consider
36:05 that maybe your chase is misguided. Maybe your goals are not actually of God. They could be, but they might not be. And God can use your goals and God can use your chase, but
36:17 ultimately, who He wants you to be is far more important than what you wanna be. And so in verse 22, the young man heard this, and he went away sorrowful for he had great possessions. You
36:29 know, he's the epitome of the Kenny Chesney song. Everyone wants to go to heaven. Have a mansion high above the clouds. Everybody wants to go to heaven, but nobody wants to go
36:41 now. I'm interested in that afterlife. I'm interested in yes, I will. After I'm done doing what I wanna do, you don't even know if you're gonna be able to do what you wanna do. So
36:52 verse 23, Jesus has this opportunity now to teach the disciples. He says, okay. Listen. Truly, I say to you, it's very hard for a rich person to enter the kingdom of heaven. And the disciples are taken aback in verse 24.
37:02 They say, wait a second. Wait second. Then who can be saved? Because he says, I have the needle camel, the whole deal. And let me just let me just absolve you of some, faulty interpretive techniques that have been used
37:11 about this passage. Some of you have been taught that there was a gate in Israel that was called the sheep gate, the needle gate. I'm sorry, the needle gate. And it was very low. And so it was for sheep only and no
37:22 camels. And so for a camel to go through the avenue, well, he could if he got down on his all fours and he's like hunched down. And first of all, when would you ever see a camel do this? That's what I ought to ask you.
37:30 When would you ever see a camel be like, yes, I'd like to go through very small gate. That doesn't happen. And then some people have mistrued the idea that the Greek word for camel and needle is different than what it
37:40 says. No. No. Jesus is saying it very plainly. Camel needle, impossible. Here's what he's saying. Rich people, it's impossible for you to get into heaven if you base your
37:51 identity on your riches. If you are trusting in what you can do and who you can become and what you have to make you who you are, you're going
38:03 to miss the kingdom of heaven. And likewise, poor people. Poor people, listen. If you think that because you're poor, you're extra spiritual, and then God loves you more,
38:15 you're trusting in who you are and not who he is to make you who you are. Ultimately, what Jesus is saying categorically is you cannot trust
38:27 your good works, doing, your living to get you into the kingdom of heaven. And so the question is, well then who can be saved? Which is exactly what theShow more
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