Why Jesus Is Not Safe For the Entire Family | Matthew 10:34-42 | Pastor Neil McClendon

Listen very carefully because this is going to name something for some of you.

You were told as a little kid this is important, this should be a priority in your life, and so you made it a priority, and then you spent your whole life trying to make yourself love these things that should be a priority, and you do not love them.

You try, some of you, it's the Bible.

It's like, man, I know that the Bible's right, and I should read it.

Hey, you don't read it because you don't love it.

And I ain't mad at you about it.

Ask yourself this question: why do I not have affection in me for the Word of God?

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Let's pray together.

Lord Jesus, we understand that you're always on time because for you, time fills up.

For us, time runs out.

That's why we're always in a hurry, and you're never in a hurry.

Because the Bible says beautiful things like in the fullness of time.

And it in saying that, it is suggesting to us and telling us in no uncertain terms that you're the God who is over time.

You live in eternity, you're not limited by time.

And so, Lord, we want to stop hurrying.

We want to stop living in the tyranny of the urgent because you're always on time.

And so, Lord, you have a timely word for us today.

So speak to us now, Lord, from your word and by your spirit.

We pray in Jesus' name.

And all God's people said, Amen.

Before you have a seat, scoot in if there's empty seats around you.

We have people arriving late, and stop staring at me.

Uh go ahead and have a seat.

Take your Bibles if you would and open them up to Matthew chapter 10.

Matthew 10 · chapter mention

Now just imagine for a second if you invited my wife and I to dinner tomorrow night, and I showed up and you got little kids, and I showed up and I was carrying this.

And I said, I didn't bring a hostess gift, but I brought a sword.

Your kids would be like, I am so glad I'm here.

I'm gonna talk about this man tomorrow at school.

Little Johnny, what'd you do last night?

Well, my pastor came to my house and he brought a sword.

Now, the reason I have a sword is because we're gonna read in the passage this morning, and Jesus says these words.

He said, I have not come to do not think I've come to bring peace to the earth.

I've come to bring a sword.

There's a reason Jesus says that, and I want you to understand, and I go as far as to say, unless you understand that, you're gonna get it wrong about Jesus.

Because we think wrongly about Jesus, and then we live wrongly about Jesus, okay?

And so Jesus is gonna say, it's a pretty intense passage.

I want you to listen carefully.

I want you to pay attention to what is actually being said, because I want to talk to you for Matthew 10.

I'll start reading verse 34 about why Jesus is not safe for the entire family.

Jesus is not safe.

When I was in seminary in Fort Worth, uh there was a radio station out of Dallas, and their little tagline was safe for the whole family.

And I just pictured these kids riding around their mom's minivan, uh noshing on Chick-fil-A uh nuggets and hearing that this is safe for the whole family.

And I'm gonna submit to you that Jesus is a threat to the entire family.

And it's the best kind of threat.

You say, What do you mean?

Let's look in the Bible.

Matthew chapter 10, verse 34.

Matthew 10:34

Jesus said, Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth.

I have not come to bring peace but a sword.

For I have come to set a man against his father and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law, and a person's enemies will be those of his own household.

Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me.

And whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.

And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me.

Whoever finds his life will lose it.

And whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.

Now, in this next little section, before we start reading verse 40, because Jesus is sent the context, he's sending his disciples out.

And it's been pretty dire, pretty serious the past couple of sermons.

But then Jesus says, By the way, uh not everybody's gonna reject you.

Some people are gonna receive you.

And he says, There is a reward for those who receive God's messengers.

He says, Whoever receives you receives me.

And whoever receives me receives him who sent me.

The one who receives a prophet because he is a prophet will receive a prophet's reward.

And the one who receives a righteous person because he is a righteous person will receive a righteous person's reward.

And whoever gives one of those one one of these little ones, even a cup of cold water because he is a disciple, truly I say to you, he'll by no means lose his reward.

So Jesus is saying, hey guys, it's not all gonna be hard and harsh the whole time.

There are people that are going to receive you.

Like I have friends uh that that that that God has blessed them, they've done quite well, and they built on their property this building called the Prophet's Room.

And so anytime there's anybody in their church or in a church in the area, they can come stay there.

Matter of fact, if you're in ministry, you can go stay there for free.

And it is incredible, it's very restful, it's very peaceful.

They provide breakfast for you, they provide meals for you, and they say, hey, if you want to talk, if the porch slide is on, you can come talk, the coffee's on, but we will leave you alone.

Because and you ask them, why'd you do this?

You spent thousands of dollars to do that.

They said, We want a prophet's reward.

So here what we're hearing today.

It's not always going to be every day is gonna be terrible.

There are gonna be people that are going to receive you.

But why Jesus is not safe for the entire family?

Three reasons.

Number one, Jesus came to bring heaven to bear on earth.

Jesus came to bring heaven to bear on earth.

The key to understanding this passage is in the language that Jesus uses.

He warns us about how we think about him, because if you get it wrong in your thoughts, you will get it wrong in how you live.

Look at verse 34.

Do not think.

First thing he tells us is listen, do not think.

Don't think wrongly about this.

This is why the first recorded words of Jesus, best we can tell, or earlier in Matthew's gospel, chapter 4, verse 17, he says, uh, repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand.

That word repent is the Greek word metanoeo, and it means rethink your thinking.

Think differently, not react your acting.

You're doing bad, start doing good.

No, it said, change the way you think, because this reality called the kingdom is here and now and it's available.

And the same thing he says here, he says, Do not think I've come to bring peace to the earth.

I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.

Now, the again, the key is to understand the the words that he used, and basically what he says is, your thoughts about me do not become my job description.

Jesus' revelation of himself becomes our responsibility.

But there's a lot of people, they think things about Jesus and they just think, well, God's obligated to prove me wrong, otherwise, I'm gonna keep believing this.

I remember talking to a guy a while back and he said, Well, I mean, I think Jesus was a good dude, but that's about as far as it goes.

I think he's a good moral example, and the rest is up to us.

And I said, What do you mean Jesus was a good dude?

And he said, and I quote, I mean, if he's here right now, I'd smoke a cigarette with him and just kind of chat.

And I said, Well, it's kind of like your buddy.

He goes, Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

I said, So you don't think Jesus was really God?

No, I don't think Jesus was God.

Okay, so where did Jesus come from?

He goes, I just he was born, you know, some one of those Middle Eastern countries.

And I said, Well, in Matthew's gospel, it has this little phrase where Jesus says, Hey, don't think I have come to bring peace to the earth.

If he comes to the earth, where does he come from?

And he goes, I don't know, you're the preacher, you tell me.

Well, the Bible says he came from heaven to earth.

He's always existed.

It's not like Jesus is something God thought up when the Old Testament ended badly.

And he got, we got to do a do-over.

No, he's always existed.

He goes, What do you mean he's always existed?

Yeah, like in the book of Genesis, like in the very beginning, he says, Hey, come let us make man in our image.

That's the Trinity, that's the Father, Son, the Holy Spirit, uh, coexisting in perfect, eternal harmony.

And he's like, Whoa, whoa, easy, bro.

Big words, big words.

And I said, Maybe you smoke something besides a cigarette, okay?

Just stay with me here.

I said, because here's the thing: Jesus came to bring heaven to earth.

This is why he teaches us to pray earlier in Matthew's gospel.

When you pray, pray this way thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Do not think I've come to bring peace to the earth.

In these simple words, Jesus is telling us, hey, I am from heaven, not earth, and I came here on a mission to reconcile the two.

All right?

He is heaven-bent on this mission.

He's not just a prophet or a teacher.

He's come from outside the earth.

He wasn't educated here, he didn't grow up here, he doesn't think like us.

And the message he brings is going to cut like a sword.

He warns us.

He's not trying to frighten us, he's trying to say, hey, listen, you got to get your head around that.

But what we want to do is we want to take the sword and we want to dissect from Jesus this one part that we like the most and elevate it above all the other attributes of God.

And typically it's love, peace, grace, forgiveness.

And anything that doesn't feel like that or make me feel that love, grace, peace, forgiveness, it just can't be true.

I mean, I couldn't tell you how many times people have said to me, hey, bro, isn't God like a God of love?

I mean, come on.

Yes, yes, yes.

The Bible, when the Bible says God is love, that's not a summary statement, it's a descriptive statement.

Uh, I had a uh a traumatizing experience when I was a 20-year-old college student.

I walked into a classroom, and our professor, who was, this is how old he was at the time, he carried a handkerchief in his back pocket.

And I just remember thinking, dude, what who does that anymore?

Uh but he walked in, picked up a piece of chalk, and he drew a cross on the board.

And he tapped the board and he said, Hey, what do you feel?

What do you think or feel when you see this?

And we started saying, love, grace, mercy, forgiveness, and then he would just shake his head.

And after about a minute of us blurting stuff out, he started crying.

And then we started adding adjectives to love, unconditional love, forever love, forgiveness, and then finally he took his handkerchief out, took his glasses off, and wiped his eyes, and he just tapped the board and he said, Is this all you see?

And then he, because he also had Tourette's, and his tick was he'd go, and he said, Uh, is this a mirror or is it a cross?

And I thought, uh oh, I think something happened, and something for sure happened.

And he tapped the board and he said, All you all can see is yourself when you look at the cross.

The best parts of the cross have nothing to do with you all.

Tears coming down his face.

And he tapped the board and he said, If God is not holy, then the cross is not necessary.

God can love you and not crucify his son, but because he's holy, he cannot violate his nature.

This is what the cross is about.

It is rooted in God's holiness and it is expressed in his love.

And I remember thinking, I don't think this is going to be on the final, but I want to write that down.

And I realized, oh my gosh, okay, there's something different about this.

We can't just cherry pick the parts, the love, the peace, the grace, and the forgiveness and elevate those above everything else.

Because when Jesus came to bring heaven to bear on earth, and here's the reason here's why that's hard, because we don't want that.

We want to just build our little kingdom and not worry about the kingdom.

Here's the second thing I want you to see in the text.

Jesus insists on being the affection priority.

He insists on being the affection priority.

Could you hear some of y'all?

Well, are they when I looked at Jordan and Gladden, who, by the way, they believe that about their son.

I love their son, Jackson.

But I meant what I said.

Well, it's right out of the Bible.

Look what Jesus said.

He says, For I've come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law, and a person's enemies will be those of their own household.

Whoever loves, this is the affection priority piece.

Whoever loves, verse 37, father and mother more than me is not worthy of me.

And whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.

Now, stay with me, okay?

Don't check out mom and go, oh, you're asking me not to love my kids.

No, we're asking you to love your kids appropriately.

And to love your children supremely is not to love them appropriately.

Uh uh John Piper was a writer and thinker and a pastor in Minnesota.

He helps us with passages like this.

He says, This Jesus talks in this radical, shocking, one-sided way.

Often he expects us to be startled, awakened, and made serious.

And then he expects us to put the proper boundaries around what he's saying by remembering what he has said elsewhere.

Now, by the way, my my my uh professor that cried that day because we were so self-centered, he also used to say this, hey boys, uh Bible counsels Bible.

And I remember thinking, what?

He said, Do not build a theology around one verse that you've taken out of context somewhere in the Bible.

The Bible, if it's said somewhere, if it's said anywhere, it's probably said somewhere else.

And then he said this, he said, the Bible is really about four or five things, and it just tells the same thing over and over through different ways.

Change the way I read the Bible, by the way.

He says, Bible always counsels Bible.

So when John Piper says, hey, if something sounds shocking, you should look and see where else does the Bible speak about this, okay?

Now when we talk about Jesus insists on being the affection priority, here's why.

Because, like in 1 John chapter 3, verse 1, he says this see what kind of love the Father has given to us.

1 John 3:1

See what kind of love.

That phrase, what kind of love, is the Greek word patopas.

And it literally means, hey, see from what country or nation of what sort or quality is this love.

And what the Bible's telling us all through is that Jesus is not asking us for anything that he's not already given us.

He has already brought this love that is from another world.

This comes from heaven and is brought to bear on earth, and it's got to be lived out here on the earth, and he expects us to do the same.

Otherwise, how are people going to know what the love of God really looks like?

This is why when Jesus was asked for the greatest commandment.

I mean, think about this.

When Jesus was asked, hey, what is the greatest commandment?

He said this, Love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself.

Can you imagine your students, your your kids saying to you, men, hey dad, going to the new school year, what's the most important thing I should be about?

And you say, Love me with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength.

Your kids would walk out and go to their mom and go, Dad's a narcissist, we should get a counselor.

And yet Jesus says these things.

And by the way, he says these things all through the Bible.

And so the question, let me just ask if you're thinking it, how much do you have to think of yourself to say that?

How much do you have to think of yourself to say, hey, here's the most important thing in your life?

You make sure you love me with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength.

Now, there's a great scene from Top Gun Maverick, okay?

The movie opens, you're like, how'd you go to that, okay?

Uh the movie opens with Tom Cruise.

He's test, he's a test pilot on this experimental plane, and they gotta get up to Mach 10 to keep the budget.

And so he's Maverick, he gets going, he's 9.6, he gets up to 10, and they show the guy the control.

He goes, Don't do it.

And because he's Maverick, they show his little glove on the joint, he goes to 10, 10.1, 10.2, 10.3, and then the jet comes apart.

Poof! And I remember thinking, they killed him in the first five minutes.

This is not a good sequel.

Then the next scene, they show him walking into a diner.

He's got his flight suit on, he's got black soot all over his face.

He walks into a diner, he looks like an alien, and everyone just stops eating.

There's a little redhead boy at the bar eating his cereal.

He stops and Maverick points at a glass of water and drinks it and he goes, Where am I?

And this little boy goes, Earth.

That's the way people looked at Jesus.

They're like, dude, where are you from?

And he's like, Heaven.

And I brought heaven to bear here on the earth.

He realizes, hey, there wasn't a second to waste because he didn't want people to misunderstand him, why he had come and what he had come to make available.

And one thing he came to do was to change what we love and how we love it.

You do not have a priority problem, you have an affection problem.

Because long time ago, people didn't talk about Christianity the way we do.

Like conversion.

We didn't we say things like, well, he he he he he he he he was born again, she got saved, they gave their life to Christ.

But a hundred years ago, they used to say this phrase I was seized by the power of a greater affection.

And everybody knew what they were talking about.

I was seized by the power of a greater affection.

And here's one of those themes that Tank used to talk about.

If you read through the Bible, you will see that one of the ways that you know people know Jesus is how they love, who they love, and the manner in which they love the things that they love.

That's why the Bible says crazy things like, hey, by this all men will know you're my disciples, that you have love for one another.

Hey, I was seized by the power of a greater affection, and that has changed everything for me.

You see, we are a people of priorities, not affections.

And and you say, What do you mean?

Because we're a people of priority, we we think in terms of priorities, not in terms of our affections, what we love.

And so, because we do that, we've got it backwards when it comes to our priorities and our affections.

Because here's what we do uh listen very carefully, because this is gonna name something for some of you.

You were told as a little kid, this is important, this should be a priority in your life, and so you made it a priority, and then you spent your whole life trying to make yourself love these things that should be a priority, and you do not love them.

You try, some of you, it's the Bible.

It's like, man, I know that the Bible's right, and I should read it.

Hey, you don't read it because you don't love it, and I ain't mad at you about it.

Ask yourself this question: why do I not have affection in me for the word of God?

Why do why not?

What what what's wrong there?

See, we've been taught the system is and the church has done it.

The church is the church did math instead of music.

The church said, Hey, you want to go to heaven and you don't want to go to hell, so pray this prayer.

And so, hey, I better love heaven, and and I better I better be afraid of hell, and I better love heaven, and you don't have an affection for heaven.

So you're trying to love something that should be a priority, and this is a priority, but you don't love it, and so it feels like duty instead of delight.

But when you love something, because again, Jesus insists on being the affection priority, and it sounds terrible when we say if you love your son or daughter more than me, you're not worthy of me.

Here's what he's saying: when you love me supremely, you're a better mom and you're a better dad.

That's the punchline, boys and girls.

Most people's relationship to most things in life is oh, it's a I know that's a good, I should have that, that's my priority, but you don't love what you've been told is a priority.

Instead, what you should do is be honest about your affections and then make priorities out of the things you love.

Let me say that again.

You should be honest about your affections.

This is what I love.

Like years ago, a man came to me and said, Hey, I'm getting a new motorcycle, I'm gonna give you my old one.

I say, Yeah, I got no affection for that.

And and the reason I don't is because I'm married to a woman who used to be a chaplain in a hospital.

And she said, We call those donor cycles.

You will not own a motorcycle as long as I'm married to you.

Now I know some of you men are like, hey, what about I put my foot down and tell my woman where to go?

It don't work that way in my house.

And I don't have affection for a motorcycle to begin with, and so I turned down an$11,000 motorcycle.

And one of my friends called me and said, Hey man, I'll tell them I'll take it.

And so I told the guy, and the guy said, Nah, I don't care about that guy.

Man, I gotta figure out do I lie and make up the story?

No, I just did.

One guy said to me, he's all into gaming.

He got he's got like the chair with the speakers and the system and everything.

He goes, dude, have you ever played online like Call of Duty or whatever?

Not a day in my life, not a minute in my life.

I've never played an online shoot-em-up game.

Dude, let me get you set up.

And I was like, come to your house and play.

He goes, No, no, no.

I will buy you everything you need.

And look at me, I have zero affection for that.

So, guess what?

I don't have a gaming system in my house.

I have a wife in my house.

That's a better use, that's a better expression of my affection than to be a grown man who abandons my family to play video games with my buddies in a headset where I talk to them, like, watch your flank, watch your six, they're coming around.

Here's my question: Where did you get affection for that?

And I'm being serious.

Uh again, you should be honest about where your affections are and then make priorities out of the things that you love.

Because this is this should be easy, because this is what people already do.

Again, you should, hey, where are my affections?

Uh oh, here they are.

Then these things become my priority.

Ask yourself this question before you go to bed tonight.

If I just sat down today, and by the way, if you want to have an interesting conversation, ask your spouse, hey, what do you really love?

What do I really love?

And then make because here's what you've done you you you figured out what you love and you made those things your priority.

You got things that are your priority, but you don't really love them.

And so you love things you shouldn't, and you order your priorities around those things that you love.

And Jesus came to change what you love.

Because to love someone is to want what is best for them.

So Jesus, ask yourself, what is Jesus telling me in this verse?

Because if it's true to love someone is to want what is best for them, what he's saying, look at me, is I'm loving me supremely is what is best for you.

He lays this claim down as the king from another kingdom on every human heart.

He says, This I am great, I am worthy of greater affection, greater love, greater allegiance than any member of your family.

Yes.

This is what Jesus says, and again, he insists on being the affection priority and.

And we are better off for it.

You're a better husband and a better wife and better sons and daughters, daughter-in-laws and mother-in-laws when we love God above everybody and everything else.

And this is one of those things that saw through the Bible.

My college professor was right.

He goes, the Bible, you see really about four or five themes, and that's it.

And one of them is love God supremely.

That's why the first two commandments say what they say.

First commandment, you shall have no other gods before me.

Why?

Because I'm the greatest thing in the world.

Look at me.

When the greatest commandment where Jesus says, Hey, love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, God loves God with all of his heart, soul, mind, and strength.

God is incredibly God-centered, and he invites you and I to be the same way.

That's the first commandment.

You will have no other gods before me.

Second commandment, he says, you shall not make for yourselves a carved image or any likeness of anything in heaven or earth, or bow down to serve them.

Why?

Because you're supposed to bow down to me.

Now, either Jesus and either God is a narcissist or he's right.

And this is the way you and I were created to live.

To be a Christian is to be someone who loves God supremely.

You say, I I don't I don't know.

Again, ask yourself this question: what is God telling us about himself with all this insistence that we love him supremely?

Here's the third thing, and this makes loving him possible.

Jesus came to ensure, this is why Jesus is not safe for the whole family.

Jesus came to ensure that everybody gets a cross.

Yay! Yes.

Look at verse 38, it's right there in the Bible.

He says, and whoever does not take his cross, circle the word his or her cross, there's no family crosses.

Mom and dad, you can't like make a cross for your kids and then give it to them for their birthday.

No, whoever does not take his cross, her cross, and follow me is not worthy of me.

I remember I'd been a Christian about 10 years.

I was in a Bible study with a guy that had been a Christian about three months.

And he said, He didn't know the rules, so he would just ask questions.

And he would go, man, this the Bible talks a lot about, you know, taking up your cross.

We were in Luke and we were memorizing different portions.

We memorized Luke 9.23.

If any man would be my disciple, let him deny himself, take up his cross daily and follow me.

And he said out loud, How long we got to carry the cross?

And all of us experienced Christians would just put our hand over our mouth.

And the old guy in the group went, till you die, son.

He said, Well, I mean, I I mean, we're well, it's like it's like it's like we're dying a lot here.

I I don't know.

And he said, Yeah.

He said, Here's the thing: Christianity is a life that begins with a death.

And we were all like.

They don't talk about this in church.

Yes, yes.

Christianity is a life that begins with a death.

Not his.

Don't think, oh yeah, Jesus on the cross.

His death on the cross makes it possible.

Your death to yourself makes it personal.

And here's why Jesus came to give everybody to ensure that everybody gets a cross.

Because there's always something in your life you have to die to.

Like this week, I've been a Christian 44 years.

This happened three days ago, whatever Thursday was.

Is that three days ago?

Four days ago?

Thursday, this happened, okay?

Because I had a morning meeting, and then I had to take my truck to the dealership because the software had to be updated.

First world problem right there, okay?

Well, my wife is off on Thursdays, and so I had in my head, because I know none of you men are this way.

When I get my day lined out, I'm kind of like, oh, this is awesome.

This is maximum productivity.

And I said, Hey, can you follow me to the dealership?

I gotta take my truck, drop my truck off, and then bring me back.

And she said, No, I've got an appointment.

I was like, You're in my mind, I didn't say it that loud, but in my mind, I just thought, what do you mean you got an appointment?

You're off today.

And she goes, Well, I gotta go to this thing.

It takes about 15 minutes.

And I thought, because I'm so selfish, I thought, well, reschedule for later today.

And she said, I can't go at nine o'clock.

I can go at 10.

And I was like, and then I thought this is terrible.

But I did think this.

God, my wife is so selfish, so self-centered.

And I spent almost every waking moment from 9 o'clock till 10 when she called me and said, I'm done, I can meet you there, just praying for my wife's selfishness until about 9.47.

Yes, until about 9:47 when the Holy Spirit just kind of poked me and said, Hey, hey, I'm gonna suggest to you, you're the selfish one.

You want your wife to cancel her plans so you can go get the software updated on your truck.

And then where's the problem?

Because here's what I think.

I think what I've got going on is more important than what she has going on.

And I know none of you think that way.

Yeah.

And so this week I just said, Lord, I I I I I just I need to die.

What do I need to die to?

And he said, Yourself.

Because I'm like, well, I died to myself two days ago.

Well, you got back up.

Jesus came to ensure everybody gets a cross.

Why?

I love what R.C.

Sproul said about the cross.

He said the most obscene symbol in human history is the cross.

Yet in its ugliness, it remains the most eloquent testimony to human dignity.

You got to hold those two things in tension.

It's the most obscene symbol in human history, and yet it remains the most eloquent testimony to human dignity.

Mom and dad's cross is not gonna be enough for you, kids.

There's no family crosses in the kingdom.

You gotta find your cross, pick it up, and follow Jesus.

The cross refers to this understanding that to follow Jesus means you're gonna lose your life.

Because he is going to lose his on a cross, and that's not a bad thing, that's a good thing because in losing your life, Jesus says right here, you find it.

You cannot follow a God who loses his life and hold on to yours.

You just can't.

That's why Dietrich Bonhoeffer used to give the invitation.

He said, When God, when Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die.

Your problem is not you need to live differently, you need to die completely.

Remember years ago, a lady asked my wife, she said, you know, what's it like motherhood with toddlers and blah, blah, blah?

And my wife just said, it's a slow, painful, anonymous death.

No parenting tips.

You know, I have some me time, and then we have toddler time, and then play time, and then on the belly to strengthen the back and the core muscles.

No, it's a slow, painful, anonymous death.

And the hard part is the anonymous.

Nobody knows.

You don't have adult conversation all day.

Who wants to have kids now?

Yes.

And the late next time I saw the lady, she was like, Yeah, I I don't think I want to talk to your wife anymore about parenting.

Oh, it's okay, great, great.

Because she says crazy things like, yeah, and just when you think you're done being selfish, you realize how selfish you are, and it has to get burned off of you.

You gotta fall to the ground and die some more.

And so she would say things like, Oh, it's easy once you die to yourself.

You see, and here's the thing: this is necessary because we were born into a life that really isn't life.

And again, this is all through the Bible.

I've already given you three themes that are all through the Bible.

Here's why you gotta die.

Because you were born into a life that is not really life, it's not real, it's not sufficient, it doesn't do it for you.

You say, What do you mean?

Jesus said in John 10, I came so you could have life and have it abundantly.

What?

These people are alive.

They say, Hey, I came to have life.

First John 3 says this.

We know that we have passed out of death into life because we love the brothers.

Whoever does not love abides in death.

If you passed out of death into life, that's what Christianity is.

It's not, hey, bad people, act like good people.

It's hey, dead people, have you ever been made alive into this life that is really life?

1 Timothy 6 says this as for the rich in this present age, that's all of us.

Charge them not to be haughty, nor to set their hope in the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly provides us with everything to enjoy.

They are to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share, thus storing up treasure for themselves as a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of that which is truly life.

Is that a last phrase?

You do these things so you can take hold of that which is truly life.

You're smart people.

If there is a life that is truly life, then there's a life that's not really life.

And that's what you were born into.

That's what I was born into.

Now you may be thinking, I don't get this.

Let me quote, don't put it up yet, guys, in the back.

Let me quote a man that I think I'll bring it home for most of you men in this room.

This man, so far in his short, he's 29 years old.

He has so far made$116.4 million.

He makes$30 million of dollars a year in endorsements from Taylor Maid, Nike, and Rolex.

When he wins a tournament, Rolex gives him these rare watches to put on and hold up the trophy.

That's his job.

As you set her in this room, he's leading the golf tournament that's going to be on today.

He's the number one golfer in the number one ranked golfer in the world.

And by the way, at golf tournaments every week he goes to, they drive new cars.

And they just drive them, and then the dealer mocks them down, and you get a discount.

His name is Scotty Scheffler.

And he's a godly man.

He loves Jesus.

And he rocked the golf world earlier in the summer when he said this.

And I quote 116.4 million dollars, 30 million dollars a year just for wearing clothes.

I'd walk around naked for that much money.

This is what he said about this life.

Look at me.

You were born into this life, and it's not sufficient.

That's why you gotta die.

He says, This is not a fulfilling life.

Let me try it on.

This is not a fulfilling life.

It's fulfilling from the sense of accomplishment, but it's not fulfilling from a sense of the deepest places of your heart.

There's a lot of people that make it to what they thought was going to fulfill them in life.

And then you get there, and all of a sudden you get to number one in the world, and win, and then they're like, What's the point?

I really do believe that because what is the point?

Golf riders were freaking out.

And Scottie Scheffler's up there with his arms folded, like, I mean, what is the point?

I mean, you win a tournament, it's like for two minutes, and then what are we gonna do for supper?

Again, it's fulfilling from a sense of accomplishment, but not fulfilling from a sense of the deepest places of your heart.

You gotta die.

Jesus came to ensure that everybody gets a cross.

This is why he says, hey, whoever does not take up his cross, her cross, and follow me is not worthy of me.

Why?

Because you're not imitating the Savior who dies.

Whoever finds his life will lose it.

Whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.

Have you ever found life?

I remember what shaped my thoughts about the cross happened when I was seven years old.

I've told you before at this cookie church, my parents used to go to my dad and stepmom were getting a drunken fist fight, and we had to go to church the next Sunday to make up for that.

Uh and it was weird for me because they sang a lot about the cross, and they sang out of this thing called a hymnal.

It was a they had a little rack on the back of the pew, and these were in there.

Uh, and there was a man, Jerry Matthews, he wore short-sleeved dress shirts and a tie, it was a clip-on, and I thought that was the fascinating, that's the most fascinating thing in the world.

And then he had those Sansa belts before they went out and came back in, uh, beltless, and I was just like, rock on, pimp, you got it right there.

Uh, and he drove a sky blue Volkswagen Beetle, and he sold insurance, had a magnetic sign on the side of it.

And as a deviant seven-year-old, me and my friends would take the sign off and turn it upside down and put it back on there.

We thought, man, we're disrupting the world with this.

But I remember going to that church, and I'm not these are not sexy Ken and Barbie blonde-haired worship leaders who write two songs and they're set for the rest of their life.

These are people who smelled like brill cream and old spice.

That's how long ago it was.

And it messed me up.

I mean, these people shelled peas, they fixed their own cars on the weekends, uh, and and and they sang out of this book.

And so I got this book off my shelf that I borrowed from First Baptist Church of Pensacola, Florida.

I'm gonna return it one day.

It's stamped right there in the front.

They want you to know.

But I remember them singing this alas, and did my savior bleed, and did my sovereign die.

Would he devote that sacred head for such a worm as I?

That was so degrading to humanity.

We've changed it since then.

It now says, for sinners such as I.

But Jerry Matthews would sing about what a worm he was, and he would throw his hands up and yes! And I'm a seven-year-old like Jane Goodall among the chimps, just looking around.

What in the world?

Was it for crimes that I had done?

He groaned upon the tree.

Amazing pity, grace unknown, and love beyond degree.

But drops of grief could ne'er repay the debt of love I owe.

Here, Lord, I give myself away. 'Tis all that I can do.

And then they get to the course and they would honk it off.

At the cross, at the cross where I first saw the light, and the burden of my heart rolled away.

Rolled away.

It was there by faith.

I received my sight, and now I am happy all the day.

I was so unchurched when women would sing the echo.

I thought, why can't they keep up?

What are they?

I mean, I'm I don't know.

There's a guy doing this down there.

I was like, why is he making news in the air?

What are we doing here?

And then I've never heard this song anywhere but this church.

I'm sure it has been.

This song says this.

Kookie, seven years old, dysfunctional family, was fascinated by adults that sang this.

I must needs go home by the way of the cross.

There's no other way but this.

I shall ne'er get sight of the gates of light if the way of the cross I miss.

Then I bid farewell to the way of the world to walk in it never more.

For my Lord says, Come and I seek my home, where he waits at the open door.

The way of the cross leads home.

The way of the cross leads home.

It is sweet to know as I onward go that the way of the cross leads home.

I remember one Sunday coming to the conclusion, these people are kooky and fascinating.

And this place isn't home.

There's a place that's home.

This isn't it.

And look at me.

As a seven-year-old, that was mercy to me.

That was water to my part's soul.

Oh my God, my family's not all the, okay, this couldn't be better.

Okay, well, all right.

And then one more, maybe, huh?

They would sing this, and Jerry Matthews would do this.

Like he was frosting a cake in heaven.

I'm like, what are you doing, man?

Put your hand down.

Years I spent in vanity and pride, caring not my Lord was crucified, knowing not it was for me he died on Calvary.

By God's word, at last my sin I learned.

Then I trembled at the law I'd spurned.

Who says anything like that anymore?

By God's word, at last my sin I learned.

Then I trembled at the law I'd spurned, to my guilty soul imploring, turn to Calvary.

Oh, the love that drew salvation's plan.

Oh, the grace that brought it down to man.

Oh, the mighty gulf that God did span at Calvary.

And then they would go crazy and they would sing, Mercy there was great, and grace was free.

Pardon there was multiplied to me, and there my burdened soul found liberty at Calvary.

And then the piano player goes, and I would just be like, and you'd hear sniffling in the crowd.

And I remember thinking, I don't know what Calvary is, but these people sing about this cross, and it sounds like if you go to that cross, that's where you get set free, and that's what gets you headed home.

So I would just ask you today, have you ever been set free by dying to yourself?

Not being so self-centered, not being so self-obsessed, but just, hey, I I, oh man, absolutely.

Because again, and we're done.

Christianity is about a life that starts with a death.

Not his, but yours.

His makes it possible, yours makes it personal.

Let's pray together.

We like to teach the Bible, then we give you a little bit of space to think about it.

A lot to think about today.

Jesus comes to dinner with a sword.

So let's just think about what the Lord has said to us this morning.

God, we're not trying to be morbid today.

We're just trying to be mature.

We're tired of trying to have some affection for things that should be our priorities.

We want to look honestly, why do I love this so much?

And why don't I love that like I should?

And so, Lord, would you expose all the less wild lovers in our life, the insufficient idols that we've allowed to take up a place of prominence and residence inside of us?

This is our prayer we prayed in Christ's name, and everyone said, Amen.

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