Greatness in the Kingdom - Mark: The Messy Gospel

All right, we are in the book of Mark, chapter nine.

Going through Mark, we're calling it the messy gospel.

If your life hasn't been messy sometimes, then you're not really living.

We believe that when Jesus invades our life, he messes up your life.

For good.

Forever.

Often.

The group that Victor and I met with today at four are all hungry to grow in the Lord.

So as we came together, we talked about how do you start growing in kingdom life.

And for some in that group, the Bible is a new book for them.

And they're starting to grow with the Bible.

And for others, they've had the Bible, they've owned a Bible, maybe they even were into the Bible at one time, but but it's kind of a refresher.

They need to be refreshed again with God's word.

So what we do at the road is we go through the scriptures chapter by chapter and verse by verse, and we're in Mark, and we're calling it the messy gospel because when Jesus comes, he messes with your life.

Do you know that?

He messes with your life.

He messes with your relationships.

And when he does so, he wants to turn your life right side up.

He wants to transform us.

And he does that when we come together and we grow together.

So we're in verse 30.

And we've been talking about this, this fact that Jesus is doing a weird turn in Mark right now.

What he's doing, you guys, is he is preparing his disciples for his death and for persecution that's coming their way.

And he's really starting to speak some stuff in Mark from this point on to the end of the book about some tough choices that these men are going to have to face.

And they're not sure what to do with all this.

So in verse 30, he's now kind of warning them.

Look, I'm going to tell you some stuff about me that you're going to want to herald.

You're going to want to tell everybody about, but it's not the time.

So don't say anything about it, okay?

Has anybody ever told you something like that?

Where they say, Did you hear what Bobby did?

But don't tell anybody.

Well, yeah, no, I didn't hear what he did.

Well, you're you're just not going to believe.

I mean, this is like the worst thing that could ever happen.

But don't tell anybody.

What kind of Jesus sort of doing that to him here?

Verse 30.

Then they departed from there and passed through Galilee, and he did not want anyone to know it.

So here's the here's the rock star of Galilee.

And these guys get to be his groupies.

I mean, this is this is the Rolling Stones.

Going from concert to concert in the late 60s, early 70s.

Mick Jagger is the man.

Don't tell anybody where we're having our next concert.

Yeah, right.

For he taught his disciples and said to them, the Son of Man is being betrayed into the hands of men, and they're going to kill him, and they're going to kill me.

And after he's killed, he will rise on the third day.

But they did not understand this saying, and they were afraid to ask him.

So Jesus' timing in all of this is that as he's now headed on the road to Jerusalem, he's talking about his resurrection.

And the way they're going to treat it when the resurrection actually occurs, you'd think he never said it.

But he keeps saying it.

And he's going to say it again and again.

He's going to talk about betrayal.

But guys, think about this.

It's just not, it's not in their wavelength.

It's just, it's the most foreign concept.

Got to remember that the Jews at that time believed that the Messiah, when he came, was also going to be a political Messiah, a political savior.

What?

You're going to go get killed.

You're going to let people kill you.

And then on the third day, you're going to rise again.

That's never happened in the history of the world before or since.

You know, I'm thinking about when we get through Mark of possibly going into Joel and Revelation.

And when I'm going to start downloading information about the last days, you're going to go, yeah, come on, come, Lord Jesus, Marinantha.

You know, but if you said that out there, what are you talking about?

Oh, yeah.

I remember back when I was 14, I read The Late Great Planet Earth by Hell Lindsay.

That's the last time they've heard of it.

You know, and so this is this is such a foreign concept to me.

They don't know what to do.

And so Jesus is going to continue to repeat what he's saying.

In that same genre, it might be because the chronological order of the Gospel of John is different than the other synoptic gospels, he might have said this.

And as Moses was lifted up, the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life.

For God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved.

He who believes in him is not condemned, but he who does not believe is condemned already because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.

Men and women, if you're here tonight and you've not surrendered to Christ, you are not only not forgiven of your sin and the freedom that comes with that, but your destiny's hell.

And that's kind of a bummer.

I mean, I wouldn't.

We've got heaven and we got hell.

Where would you like to go for the rest of your life?

You know, Jesus is saying that I've been sent to die.

I've been sent to die for the sins of the world, to introduce the world to eternal life right now.

Some of you with Victor last week, to the best of the wisdom and the the uh heart leadings that you had, surrendered to Christ.

But then it was a really bad week.

And so you're kind of going, that was kind of a bum deal.

Okay, I gave my heart to Christ, and it was a really lousy week.

That's an indicator that you might have actually given your life to Christ.

Because there is a counterattack by Satan always ready to move on us.

That's why we had our meeting tonight.

Is how do we begin to counter the counterattacks of the work of Satan and demons in our life?

We do that by beginning to learn how to grow our hearts in love with Him.

So Jesus is preparing them.

Verse 33.

And then he came to Capernaum.

Now he's in and out of Capernaum like all the time.

This is like his main headquarters.

And when he was in the house, he asked them, What was it you disputed among yourselves about on the road?

But they kept silent.

For on the road they had disputed among themselves who would be the greatest.

Now, I don't know about you, but one of the most fascinating things about doing the Gospel of Mark for me has been to realize how human these guys are.

So here's Jesus.

How would you like it if your main leader said, I'm gonna go to Jerusalem, I'm gonna be brutally crucified, I'm gonna die for the sins of the world.

And he said it in so many different ways now.

And then they go, hmm, he's gonna die.

That means, that must mean something about he's setting up a kingdom like in eternity.

I wonder, I wonder where our thrones are gonna be.

Yeah.

Nothing, they don't care about the sins of the world.

These guys, these guys are gonna build a movement that's gonna rock the world.

Are you kidding me?

All they care about is who's gonna be, you know, where's the pecking order and who's the main guy?

I mean, we're pr we're building a church here, the road.

I look out at you guys and you go, no, is this what I got to work with?

I look in the mirror and I go, this is who they follow.

There's an honest man out there.

But you know, the reality is, aren't we all like that?

I mean, we're we're all up to no good, left to our own ways.

And we're selfish, we're cowards.

And the quicker we get that, and remember that that's actually who Jesus works best with, it gives you hope.

He works best with people like us who still have selfish ways, don't spend enough time with the Lord, don't pray long enough, and he still loves you.

And he still thinks you're awesome.

And he still calls you beloved.

Wow.

Some of you in this room are just coming to Christ and you're just starting to kind of test the waters, and it's kind of murky because you don't have enough friends yet on the other side of the stream, but you have tons of friends on the dark side of the stream that you've done drugs with, you've had sex with, you've partied with, and yet on the other side you're looking at it and you're going, that's kind of an unknown.

Don't know.

And my challenge to you would be don't look at the road, look at Jesus.

Look at him.

He loves you, he knows what's best for you.

And he's preparing these guys for his ultimate purpose, which is he went to Calvary for you and me.

And he is working out his best in our lives.

Verse 35.

And he sat down.

Okay, so he hears this, and so I can see Jesus going, oh why, I'm not surprised.

And he sat down and he called the 12 and he said to them, and here's what he's about to do.

Look, I'm gonna I'm gonna share with you guys the upside-down kingdom.

I'm gonna show you a new way of living that is counter to everything you've seen from the Jewish elders, everything you've seen from the Jewish scribes, everything you've seen from Roman culture and Greek culture.

If anyone desires to be first, he shall be last of all and servant of all.

Then he took a little child, and always had this idea of like this cherubic little child.

It's just you know, picking flowers nearby.

Innocent and sweet, that brings that child over.

Does anybody know any children like that?

And he set him in the midst of them, and when he had taken him in his arms, he said to them, Whoever receives one of these little children in my name receives me.

And whoever receives me receives not me, but him who sent me.

Now, church, in any job or family, or institution, government, there's two positions of authority.

One is a position by virtue of the role that you've been handed.

So you become boss over these people because that's what you're paid to do.

That's a positional authority.

But then there's a second form of authority, and it's called spiritual authority.

And spiritual authority is not based on role or position, it's based on your heart.

It's based on your relationship with the people, it's based on your relationship with God.

Spiritual authority is the most important of the two.

Spiritual authority is based on serving.

Spiritual authority is based on love.

And so, and so when we come into a job in a situation and we think that the positional authority is what gives us authority, we're only kidding ourselves.

Because it's the spiritual authority of that position and the heart relationship with our people that makes the difference.

And he takes a child and he brings that child here and he and he says, Look, this is the lowest of the low in society.

A child can't really do anything.

But this represents kingdom power and kingdom authority from the perspective of God.

And so, you know, I can't think of anyone who did this better and exemplified this more deeply than Mother Teresa.

Mother Teresa was fond of saying, do little acts with great love.

Do little acts with great love.

And they're ministering to these little kids.

And the scripture would say that by receiving them in the name of Christ, there's a reward and there's a blessing.

Every time you take that little child, I was just with a man this week who talked about his little girl coming up to him and plopping herself right in his lap and saying, Read.

And then she gave him a little um picture Bible, I think it was.

And guess what?

Guess who God spoke to?

He's reading a little story, but there was this one line in the story that spoke to him about something in his life as he read it to his little, this little girl.

Men and women, when we gather children and we hold them, we're gathering Jesus and holding him.

When we hold the hand of a child, we're holding the hand of Jesus.

When we kneel down and we listen, we're gonna go into this lobby in a few minutes and we're gonna be hanging out, and kids are gonna be going.

I don't know if it's the size of my family or what, but every church I go to, there's like kids everywhere.

And, you know, every church I've done, they they come.

They're just millions of kids.

And so they're gonna be going.

And you may have to just help a child.

And I want to challenge you to think of your helping Jesus.

I want you to see Jesus in that child.

You know, some of you came early and helped Ryan and others set up chairs.

You are setting up chairs with Jesus.

Some of you are gonna stay behind and help clean up when we're leaving.

You're cleaning up with Jesus.

You're going to be in some situations in the coming years where you have to visit somebody in the hospital who is deathly ill and it really doesn't fit your schedule, but you go and you do it, you're visiting Jesus.

We're gonna be at a Walmart, you're gonna be at Chapel Hills Mall sometime, you're gonna be driving out, and there's gonna be the guy with the sign.

And your first reaction, I know you, is like, God needs to get a job.

I've never said that.

But I've heard other people say that.

And maybe God would say, you know, you know, we don't know his story.

And maybe it'd be good if we we didn't because we'd be even more judgmental.

But we might be called by God to love that guy somehow.

We're loving Jesus, we're loving him.

So the kingdom way is just so different than the way we think.

It's not in power, it's not in position, it's not in prestige, it's in love, it's in serving, it's in taking time to listen.

One of my favorite authors is a guy named Eugene Peterson.

Eugene Peterson writes a lot of pastor books.

Like some of you guys that are engineers, you read engineer books.

You guys that are into software, you read software books.

Well, pastors have pastor books.

And most of them are really boring.

And I would not recommend 99% of them.

But Eugene Peterson's pretty cool because he's more of a kingdom guy and he doesn't, he he just comes from a different perspective.

And he has this chapter in this one book called the Contemplative Pastor, which is one of my favorite, called The Unbusy Pastor.

And basically, he just hammers all of us in that chapter about how busy we become.

And he and his here's his thesis.

His thesis is we're busy because we're lazy.

It's like, I don't like to hear that.

That's like a stupid idea.

I remember when I first read that, I went, that's because you got this dinky little church in Pennsylvania.

But here's his thesis.

His thesis is that we get busy to fill a need in our heart because we never take time to listen.

It's true though.

It's easier to be busy than to listen.

And yet it seems like Jesus always had time to listen.

I think he's speaking of a child and listening to a child because it seems like with a child they have the least to say.

I mean, at least adults have something kind of, you know, challenging to say.

But kids, ugh.

But that's the kingdom.

There's something there about the kingdom that when we listen to a child, that shows the love of Christ.

Now, John answered him saying, I mean, you gotta, we gotta, we gotta just flow with this thing.

Every time he says something, the question they ask has absolute nothing to what he just said.

So they say that, and then this is what John says.

This is John the beloved.

This is like one of his favorite guys.

And we know from 1, 2nd, and 3 John in the book of Revelation, he was, he seemed to really have the heart of Jesus.

This is the guy that's leaning on Jesus' breast at the Last Supper.

He could hear the heartbeat of Jesus before he goes to Gethsemane, but here's what he's concerned about.

Teacher, we saw someone who does not follow us casting out demons in your name.

What's that got to do with anything we've been talking about?

We saw this guy, he doesn't follow us, because remember, he's thinking, who's going to be the greatest?

Jesus talks about a child and service, and now he says, We saw this guy, he does not follow us, casting out demons in your name, and we forbade him because he does not follow us.

And Jesus said, Well, do not forbid him, for no one who works a miracle in my name can soon afterwards speak evil of me, for he who is not against us is on our side.

So we all tend toward sectarianism.

We all tend toward my church is the best church, my way is the best way, and everybody else is weird.

Right?

And I think that's okay at the road.

You can think that.

No, no, I'm not kidding.

Sort of.

Um No, we do.

And that's why we have so many denominations.

I take a different tact than some others about denominations.

Like, ugh, look at this, everybody splits up and got denominations, and we're all so disunified.

My feeling is I think it's awesome.

I mean, I do.

I mean, look at, I mean, just look around at this group.

I mean, there's so much creativity here.

There's so many different viewpoints.

Some people like stained glass, some people are into pipe organs, some people are into bells and whistles.

Some people like to roll around in the aisles.

Some people even like snakes.

I mean, you know, I'm from Georgia.

They're just up the road.

Um, and Jesus is saying, look, if they're not against us, they're for us.

But he says one thing that just catches my heart.

He says, John says, they were casting out demons in your name.

But they don't follow us.

Men and women, the power of the name of Jesus.

They're not following Jesus.

I mean, Jesus is it right now.

There's no Holy Spirit released yet.

There's no other churches.

They're following.

So somebody's got an inkling about Jesus.

Maybe they were healed by him, and they know a little bit about him, and they are using the name of Jesus and casting out demons.

Church, don't miss this.

There is power in the name of Jesus no matter where you are in your journey.

You could be the most immature believer.

You could be struggling.

You could have issues happening in your life that you don't feel very spiritual about.

But you can still use the name of Jesus.

I'm not talking about superstition or magic.

I'm talking about a belief that there is power in the name of Jesus.

These guys are literally casting out demons in the name of Jesus.

And I want to say this because I've heard so many of your stories over the last few months.

Many of you are having bad dreams.

Many of you have seen specters in the night recently.

Some of you have seen shadows in your house.

Some of you have been driving along and you feel like there's a spirit or something in the car with you.

And you're kind of getting tired of it.

Use the name of Jesus.

In the name of Jesus, I say leave.

You have no right to be here.

This is a house committed to the blood and to the cross and to the glory of Jesus Christ.

You have no right to be here.

Leave in the name of Jesus.

They'll leave.

Believe me, I've cast out hundreds of demons and they will leave.

Some of you are being tempted right now to get back into drugs.

Some of you are getting tempted to go back into the bars and stuff like that.

And you, when you get those thoughts and they do come regularly, you've got to learn, you've got to start building a new habit of in the name of Jesus, I cast out that thought.

I am a bloodwashed saint.

I'm a child of the king.

I'm a daughter of the king.

I am a prince of God.

God's going to use me.

God's got a purpose for my life.

Get out of here.

Just start memorizing that.

Start saying that constantly.

And the thoughts will leave.

Because there's power in the name of Jesus.

For whoever gives you a cup of water to drink in my name, so now Jesus goes, okay, look, I took care of that.

Would you guys quit talking about everybody else?

Here's what I'm trying to say: whoever gives you a cup of water to drink in my name, because you belong to Christ, assuredly I say to you, he will by no means lose his reward.

Now what Jesus is saying, church, don't miss this, is that anything we do, anything you do in the name of Jesus is going to be rewarded.

Anything.

The smallest of things matters to God.

I remember when my mother-in-law just came here, and many times, Ruth, you're coming in, you know, and somebody helps you, don't they?

So many times people come up and they grab your arm and they help you to your seat.

And there's a couple other folks that are that have been sick and stuff that can barely walk and they're in here.

I just look around, I see someone's helping them.

There's a reward.

Jesus said, that's what I reward.

It's not how big your company is, it's not how big your bank account is.

It's what you do with what you've been given.

And you can be the poorest of the poor.

And some of you feel like you are.

And maybe you are, I don't know.

But I know that when you help that kid up to get a drink of water at the fountain, or when you go out here and you look around and you see someone and you help them out with that cookie, or you help someone with a flat tire, is a reward.

Not because I said it, because Jesus said it.

He says he'll reward you.

Some of you cook meals.

We've been the recipients of it in our home.

You've cooked meals for us when Liz is sick and stuff.

Now, when I'm sick, we don't ever get anything, but when she's sick, you know, you kind of figure, you know, he's not he's doing he's doing really well right now while he's sick.

You know.

But Liz is sick, the whole family suffers.

Some of you have D groups and C groups in your home.

And that's a lot of work.

You gotta get your house ready and you've got to vacuum, and then they come and they mess up your house.

And some of them don't do, they don't even care.

They leave cookie crumbs everywhere, and then they grind them in on the way out.

Thank you.

This is life-changing.

They never thought, you know, they like the trash cans full now and everything.

And so you clean up.

There's a reward.

You get a reward.

And some of you need a few more rewards.

No, you do.

You're lazy, you're just kind of coast.

Some of you young people are really lazy.

Your parents do everything for you.

And it's like, wake up and smell the coffee, man.

I mean, your mom gets up and she cooks you a meal, two, maybe two in a day, maybe three, I don't know.

She cleans, she's there, your dad has provided you with a home.

You know, like a thank you here and there might be kind of nice.

Or maybe you might take the trash out once in a while.

There's a reward for you.

I'm getting, as I get older, greedier and greedier for reward.

I want a lot of stuff when I get to heaven.

I want a lot of stuff when I get to heaven.

And I'll be able to walk out.

I mean, I can't right now because we just have a good home, but I mean it's not like a massive mansion or anything.

But but I'm gonna have a big old house in heaven, and I'm gonna walk out.

And some of you guys, I'm just gonna go, hmm.

Because you're gonna be in a little shack.

You didn't do squats, man.

You know?

That's what he's talking about.

He's got, hey, we want to know where our thrones are and where we're gonna be in heaven.

And he said, this is how you get, this is how you get rewarded right here.

This is how you cash in.

This is where your equity comes.

This is your investment in kingdom finances.

Love people, serve people, care about them.

Listen, quit being so busy, Steve.

Listen, care and love.

Hello?

Don't we want that?

Everybody go like that if you want that.

Amen.

It's a good deal.

But here's where it gets really sticky.

And I think about ISIS right now.

I think about pedophiles.

Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to stumble, it would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck and he were thrown into the sea.

Those guys like this, was it today?

You know, they beheaded this Japanese guy, and and and the uh Fox News was saying that what's weird about what's happening with ISIS is the more mayhem, the more killing, the more hangings, the more murder, the more popular they become.

They are really, they are recruits are pouring in from all over the world.

Because what they're appealing to is the basis of humankind.

The very base.

And Jesus saying, nothing's changed.

Those that do these kind of things, they will be judged.

They will be judged.

Now, they may not be judged in this lifetime, but they'll be judged.

And if you guys, if you've ever studied any of the history of World War II, I'd encourage you to read Gibbon's book, The Rise and Decline of the Rise and Fall of the Third Reich.

Um, Gibbon's actually rise and fall of the Roman Empire.

But this is another book based on that same title, but it's The Rise and the Fall of the Third Reich, and then some of Churchill's stuff on World War II.

This was the same thing happening in Germany at the time.

And at that time, under Neville Chamberlain, basically England and France and all of Western Europe turned their heads and let it happen, and it got out of control.

And I'm looking at what's happening, and anybody who knows history knows this is dangerous times.

These are dangerous times.

So Jesus warns of that.

Verse 43.

Now he uses hyperbole.

If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off.

It is better for you to enter into life maimed rather than having two hands to go to hell into the fire that shall never be quenched, where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched.

Now he's talking hyperbole.

So hyperbole is to get their attention with something that's an exaggeration.

And his first point here is that if your sins, in other words, the things that you're doing are causing you to sin, you've got to stop that, or you're destined to go to hell.

Where the worm does not die and the fire is not quenched is a proverbial quote, which is this idea that there'll be this fire that is burning unquenchably, can't be put out, but yet the worms, the roaches, the rats, the varmits will still live.

It's impossible.

But in hell, it's not.

Verse 45, and if your foot, so where you go, so first what you do, but also where you go, if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off.

It is better for you to enter life lame rather than having two feet to be cast into hell into the fire that shall never be quenched, where their worm does not die and their fire is not quenched.

Now, church, anytime God repeats himself in Scripture, he's really trying to make a point.

And he's going to say it a third time.

If your eye, so what you look at, causes you to sin, pluck it out.

It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye rather than having two eyes to be cast into hellfire where their worm does not die and their fire is not quenched.

So, hand, what we're doing, feet where we're going, eyes, what we're seeing.

Men, look at me.

Do you remember the story of David on a rooftop?

He's on a rooftop when he's supposed to be in battle, and he's looking around at night when women bathed.

Don't think this was like this innocent guy who just had a rough night and he hadn't taken his melatonin.

He gets up on the roof, he knows what's going on.

He knows that he has the highest palace in the area of the city of David, and he can see stuff, and that's when women traditionally bathe because of privacy reasons.

And he sees her and he lusts after her.

Because he wasn't in the battle, he was on the rooftop.

New way to look at bed, bath, and beyond.

The reality is this, church, especially men, you need to be busy.

You need to be in the battle, or your feet will take you places you don't want to go.

Or you do want to go, but you don't want to go.

And your eyes will look at things you want to look at, but you don't want to look at, and your hands will touch things that you don't want them to touch, but you want them to touch.

And he's saying it's so serious that I want you to consider the fact that if you keep doing that, you might not be saved.

You might not be saved, and you and your destiny might be hell.

Hell is described in Revelation 20, 10 this way: the devil who deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone where the beast and the false prophet are, and they'll be tormented day and night forever and ever.

Jesus, speaking of hell, said, And they cast the unprofitable servant into the outer darkness, there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

So hell is a place of despair and torment and utter anguish.

That's the level of where Jesus places this.

For everyone will be seasoned with fire.

I love this in verse 49.

This is for all of us, church.

Everyone will be seasoned with fire, and every sacrifice will be seasoned with salt.

Salt is good.

But if the salt loses its flavor, how will you season it?

Have salt in yourselves and have peace with one another.

Wow.

He's saying evaluate your life because you are going to go through the fire.

Everybody goes through the fire.

Men and women, every one of you will go through a fire.

You will go through many fires in your life.

And I've come to believe there's about three reactions to persecution and fire in our lives.

Let me give them to you.

Number one, for some, God is always to blame when hard times come.

They tend to grow bitter and walk away from Christ.

If you're a God blamer, I want to challenge you that that's not really a good way to live.

You know, God can handle our anger for a while, but then at some point you got to turn that corner.

I mean, some of the stuff, you know, over the last year that I've gone through, that I can say this, that though I was angry, I wasn't angry at God, but but I was tipping the scales that way sometimes.

But if you go that direction, it will always lead to bitterness.

Number two, others never learn and they just keep making the same mistakes and they never find their destiny.

I call it the one-knock method or the two-knock method.

The one-knock method is that the guy in front of you comes walking up and boom, he hits his head on the overhang, and you look at it and you go, that's really stupid.

And then you go, I think I'll duck.

And then you duck and you learn.

Or you can be a two-knocker.

And that is, you see the guy go poof, and then you go, Oh, I want to do that too.

And then you do it.

And then for some of you, it's like a hundred knocks.

I know it's job security for me as a pastor, I can guarantee you.

But you just keep going boom, and then boom, and then boom, and then call the pastor, and then boom, and then call the pastor, and then boom.

And it's like I just want to say, isn't your forehead so scarred that you might want to duck sometimes?

Guess what?

We're all number two sometimes.

But then there's a third, and this is where we want to be, right?

We never quit growing.

We go through hard things, we actually grow stronger through hard times.

That's what the salt is.

You actually become saltier.

Some of you in this room have become really salty because you've had a good marriage.

You've been through hard times.

You might have been through a divorce or two, you might have been through some alcoholism or some drug addiction or some big mistakes, but you're walking with God now.

And I want to say this, I want to challenge you.

You need to be mentoring others.

You need to be looking around and putting your arm around some of the younger folks and loving on them.

You need to be leading a D group.

I've heard this so many times from especially men like, I'm not a leader.

I'm not a leader, I'm not a leader.

I'm like, then what are you?

I mean, I look at their house and I look at their car and I go, you're leading somewhere.

Now, how long have you been married?

Oh 25 years.

Oh, you've raised a family, and you're not a leader?

You're absolutely a leader.

You're a servant leader.

You're you're you need to be giving that away to others.

You see, that's what he's saying here.

He's saying, look, if if salt is good, you've become salty, but you can lose your flavor if you don't give it away.

If you don't help others.

Some of you women, man, you're awesome.

I mean, you're not that awesome, but you're you're you're you're doing all right, you know.

And um, and and you're and you're just sort of, you're, you're kind of there, you're but you, but you're really making it.

You have done well.

You think you haven't because you look in the mirror and you think of all the things you've done wrong, and I want to say to you, my goodness, that's not what Jesus sees in you.

And it's time for you to get salty again and love others and maybe lead a Bible study or lead a D group or C group or something.

We we want to learn from you.

I mean, I don't want to learn from you, but I mean, ladies want to learn from you.

So we want to learn from each other.

And then here's what the result is have salt in yourselves, and I love this, have peace with one another.

When we pass the test of choosing Christ, we have peace.

Glorious peace.

So, men and women, that's who you are.

You're people who are salty, and God wants to use you to bring peace to other men and women.

Remember the upside down kingdom.

Let's tonight, as we leave and we're out there in the lobby, look for ways to love and serve.

Because aren't you greedy for rewards?

Does anybody ever look at their 401k?

Does anybody ever look at their Roth IRO?

You know you do.

Well, you got a Roth IRO in heaven, and every time we love someone and we serve someone, especially when no one notices, you just made an investment in your retirement plan.

You just made an investment in heaven, and you'll get rewarded.

Let's stand.

Well, Father, as we uh settle our hearts for worship.

Lord, light a fire in us to take all our unsaltiness, all our selfishness.

We're gonna give it to you, Lord.

But God make us salty again.

God, give us a thirst for the kingdom, a thirst for you.

We love you and we bless you in your name.