The Gospel Of Mark | Check Your Blind Spots (October 7th, 2018) - Mike Armstrong

And you can go ahead as well at the same time and grab your Bibles and get them turned open to uh Mark chapter 10, going through the entire chapter today.

Mark 10 · chapter mention

Um well, speaking of the number 10, when I was about 10 years old, uh I have this uh kind of distinct memory of riding my bike down the street where our house was.

I was by myself, I wasn't with any friends or anything like that.

And um I remember I needed to cross over to the other side of the road, and so I I looked over my shoulder and and checked my my blind spot like any responsible uh 10-year-old uh when I was immediately confronted uh with another blind spot.

Okay, and that was the one directly in front of me, and I proceeded to slam right into the back of a parked car.

Okay.

Now it was one of those, I mean, pretty jarring moments, as you can imagine.

I remember like flipping up over the handlebars onto the hood or onto the trunk or whatever it was, and kind of like looking around, expecting to get yelled at by the owner or something, and it was like no one saw.

Right?

I remember just kind of like picking my bike up and straightening the handlebars and just sort of riding away in shame.

Now listen, as disciples of Christ, we have blind spots too, don't we?

Right?

We do.

These problem areas, these weaknesses, areas of sin for us that we can't see or sometimes even refuse to see.

And isn't it like just amazing when you stop and you contemplate our blind spots?

And it's amazing just how unable we are to see them.

I mean, that's exactly why they're called uh blind spots.

Or we begin to see one of them, but then another presents itself, just like my situation when I slammed into the back of that car.

Okay, well, well, this morning we're gonna be looking at how Jesus, when he calls you and I to himself as disciples, he begins this process in our lives of lovingly exposing our blind spots.

Right?

And it's all part of our discipleship.

That's really what sanctification, what growing in Christ-likeness is really all about.

You and I, we straight up we have these areas in our lives that we can't see very well.

Right?

And we need the Lord, we need light to be shone on these areas.

Okay, so the question isn't do we have these things, but more, uh, what are they?

Right?

So, so what are yours?

Right?

Do you do you know?

Do you have do you have a sense of this?

Are you growing in this?

Are you becoming more aware of what your blind spots are?

And do you sense the Lord working in these areas?

Listen, these are the things that we're gonna be exploring here today in Mark chapter 10.

Mark 10 · chapter mention

Before we jump into the verses, let me pray and give this time to the Lord.

God, we we come before you and and this morning, as we're gonna see in the scriptures, Lord, there are areas of our hearts, there are areas of our life that we just we don't see very well.

They are blind spots, and we need your mercy, we need your grace, we need you to point these areas out, Lord.

I pray that we would not uh assume that that just because we we can't see an area that it's not present, that it's not um causing us harm, it might be causing others in our lives harm, and and it's likely ruining some intimacy with you.

And so, God, in your grace and your goodness, I pray that as we're gonna see here lovingly, you would you would shine a light on these things.

Lord, that you would give us a heart to uh to want to grow.

You would give us uh a sense of urgency in these things, a desperation, Lord.

I pray that in the helplessness that we feel when when our sin is pointed out and and we realize we can't fix this, we can't change this, Lord.

I pray that we would just get that much lower in humility and cry out to you for your mercy and your grace to do a work.

And so, God, I pray that you would also encourage us today through these things as you so often do, Lord.

You don't convict us to just leave us feeling awful and terrible, but you actually encourage us and show us that you are at work and that forgiveness and all these things are available through Jesus Christ.

And so, God, uh, have your way today.

That's what we pray.

We pray all this in his name.

Amen.

Amen.

Well, Christ lovingly exposes my blind spots.

That's what we're covering today.

Here's the first one.

We've got uh five things we're gonna be working through here, uh, four of them blind spots.

The first one says, this just lowering God's standards to see what you and I can get away with.

Lowering God's standards.

You do this?

You do this?

Well, take a look at the verse here, verse one, and this is what it says.

It says, And he left there, that's Jesus, he left there and went to the region of Judea and beyond the Jordan, and and crowds gathered to him again, and again, as was his custom, he taught them.

So he's not just with the twelve anymore.

We've got the crowds who have heard that he's there, and they they come back out to him.

We've seen this, and then it says, keep going.

It says, And Pharisees, remember these guys?

These guys are gems.

Okay, and these Pharisees came up and in order to test him, asked, Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?

And he answered them with a question of his own.

He says, This, what did Moses command you?

And they said, Moses allowed a man to write a certificate of divorce and to send her away.

And Jesus said to them, Because of your hardness of heart, he wrote you this commandment.

All right, so we've got these Pharisee guys, right, these religious leaders, these kind of self-righteous guys who have come again to Jesus and they want to pin him to a wall, right?

They wanna, they wanna trip him up.

They wanna get him to contradict the law.

And so they ask him this question.

It says they're to test him, so we know that this isn't a genuine question.

They're not just like, wow, we really, we really need to understand this.

There's, you know, there's some gaps and some holes in our understanding.

That's not what they're that's not what they're saying at all.

They want to, again, they want to test him.

Now understand that back in this day, divorce certificates were basically being handed out like Halloween candy.

That's the way that that was working.

And and the Pharisees, they were they were giving approval to this very common practice.

And so they would take what Moses said, if you want to jot this down, uh, Deuteronomy 24, verses 1 to 4.

Deuteronomy 24:1–4

That's when they refer to Moses.

What did Moses command you?

It's referring to this passage right here.

So the Pharisees, they would take what Moses said in Deuteronomy 24, and they would they would misinterpret that.

They would twist it and they would use it as a proof text now for divorcing for basically any old reason, however they felt.

Okay, and and Jesus is saying here, okay, that that Moses wrote this commandment.

Why?

Because of their hardness of heart.

And so what was happening was was sin was severely, severely damaging marriages and damaging the community uh irreparably.

Right?

And so Moses allowed divorce, uh, but in very, you know, very certain circumstances only.

Okay, the the one word there in Deuteronomy 24 is in cases of indecency, referring to uh adultery.

And so Moses in these verses, he gives he gives very specific parameters that they're to go about in issuing uh a divorce certificate because he wanted to make sure that these women were not being taken advantage of.

They were not being uh exploited or being tossed aside by their ex-husbands, which was exactly what was happening.

Okay, so the Pharisees here, in an attempt to trap Jesus, end up inadvertently springing the trap on themselves.

Jesus, what does he do?

He exposes their blind spot in all of this.

He's showing that in their hearts, they're not really sticklers about the law and making sure that they're getting it right.

Though they're trying to show that outwardly to everybody by all of the religious deeds that they do.

Okay, and he's he's pointing all of that out.

And he's showing that instead they're actually lowering God's standards here to see what they can get away with.

Right?

In this case, making divorce easily acceptable to just about anybody who would want it for just about any reason.

Okay, but but Jesus, this is so great, he doesn't just expose how low their standards are and how they have warped the scriptures to basically feel more comfortable with it and do whatever they want.

He doesn't just do that, but he also shows what the standard is.

Right?

He points to that, he does that in verse six, take a look.

He says, But from the beginning of creation, God made them male and female.

Therefore, a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.

So they are no longer two, but one flesh.

This is a divine mystery in all of that.

And he says, Therefore, what therefore, God has joined together, let not man separate.

And in the house, so this is a little bit later on, the disciples asked him again about this matter.

And he said to them, Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her.

And if she divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery.

Okay, so Jesus here, what does he do?

He reveals God's standard, in this case, for marriage.

He's he's elevating it, right?

Elevating the sanctity of marriage and and pointing to what God's intention for marriage has been since creation, right?

Way back in Genesis.

It's this holy, this spiritual union that's not at all to be taken lightly or to be easily voided.

Now, Matthew chapter 19, you might want to jot that down as well.

Matthew 19 · chapter mention

In verse 9, that is the parallel passage to the one that we're that we're reading right here, and it adds uh an exception clause to all of this.

In verse 9, he says, Whoever divorces his wife except for sexual immorality and marries another, commits adultery.

Okay, so we see here that Jesus permitted divorce and and remarriage in the case of one spouse committing adultery against the other.

You know, personally, I can I can also get to you know the place of you know one spouse abandoning the other or you know, or um, you know, certain cases of of abuse as being the other you know legitimate grounds for divorce and remarriage.

Though it should be really clear here that the divorce is it's never mandatory.

Even in these in these awful situations that people have gone through through grace, through through the spirit, and and with you know, biblical godly counseling and help and community, we we've seen marriages, marriages be restored.

We've seen God do an amazing, amazing work, even in cases where you know biblically divorce and might be permitted.

Now listen, this this sermon here today, it it's not an exhaustive, you know, message about divorce and remarriage, and we're not, you know, we're not going through all of the nuances of all of that.

And I mean we've got to understand we got like 40 more verses uh to go here today, just in chapter 10 alone.

But but listen, I understand, I get it, that you can't cover some verses like this without making people in the church um, I don't know, uncomfortable.

Right?

And I I I understand that there are there are people here even who, you know, you've been through the the bloody awful wars of uh of divorce, and and it was way more horrific than you would ever care to explain to anybody here.

Now understand this.

Listen very carefully, church.

The point of all of this is not to make you squirm.

Okay, the the point of this is not to pile up more guilt and and more shame on you.

You're probably already carrying some of that.

I mean, that is not the thrust of this text here.

That's certainly not uh the heart of Jesus Christ.

That's that's not it at all.

Okay, and even if you were divorced andor remarried in in unbiblical ways or for unbiblical reasons, listen, Jesus Christ has made it so crystal clear that forgiveness is available for you.

Right?

He he he hammered that home back in uh Mark chapter 3.

Mark 3 · chapter mention

We've already covered this in verse 28.

He says, Truly I say to you, all sins will be forgiven, the children of man.

Not some, not most, not every sin but this one.

All sins, how awesome is that?

Right?

You can move forward.

You can move forward in this if you've if you've been through the awfulness that that divorce is there's forgiveness for you, there is there is grace, life is not over as much as it, you know, it might feel like it, and maybe you're feeling that even right now.

You can experience new life, you can experience joy in Christ.

I've seen it many times.

God is so, so gracious.

Hey, the point that we're taking away here, and don't miss this, is that you and I overall, we have this kind of this terror uh terrible tendency in in our hearts where you know we love to take God's holy standards, which are which are up here, and we you know we love to lower that bar, don't we?

Right, so that we can we can attain it, bring it down to a place where you know I'm more comfortable with where it's at now, and it's it's easier to to achieve, you know, where it doesn't force me to grapple with my my awful sinfulness in light of God's perfect holiness.

Why?

Why do we do that?

Well, because you and I just flat out love to see what we can get away with, don't we?

We we love that.

You know, how how close can I can I get to the line of uh uh of sin without sinning?

You know, or or or how much sin can I allow into my life and play with before I start to feel uncomfortable and feel like I need to confess this to somebody or to the Lord?

So, hey, what are the different ways that that you do this?

Right?

We we all do, but hey, what are your blind spots here?

Right?

These are the different ways that we we move the goal line, we move the goalposts so we can get into the end zone easier.

But God is constantly confronting us with how broken we are and how holy He is.

So, what are your blind spots?

I kind of thought of just a couple here, there's probably tons of them, but maybe given this the the the the text here today that we're looking at, maybe it's that you're sitting here straight up contemplating divorce.

Maybe that's you.

And for whatever reason, things aren't going well in your marriage, and so you're in that that justifying stage.

And you're you're you know you're you're trying to massage the text to make yourself feel more comfortable and and give yourself a way out of this, or you you've you've run away, you've tossed the scriptures out completely, and and you just straight up want to do what you want to do.

Maybe you're googling a divorce lawyer or talking to somebody about this.

Listen, don't do it.

Don't move the goal lines here.

Understand the sanctity of marriage, understand that every marriage is difficult, every single one.

We all go through our challenges, we all need help.

Cry out, ask for help from the Lord, talk to somebody here today.

How about this one?

Sexual sin.

Sexual sin.

Is this a blind spot for you?

Okay, I mean, every like high school kid used to be a youth pastor, right?

Every high school kid who's kind of like somewhat interested in Jesus has asked the question, how far is too far?

Right?

Everyone's asked that question.

Can I tell you that's the wrong question?

Right?

Because what is that suggesting?

I I I want what I want, right?

I want pleasure, I want good feelings, I want this.

The wrong question is how how far is too far?

The right question is, how can I glorify God in this relationship?

How can I glorify God in my in my sexuality?

Sexual sin is something we lower the bar constantly.

Maybe for you, it's like, well, I'm not looking at porn anymore.

But like on social media, you're following all kinds of sketchy stuff.

Why can I so I can let in a little bit?

Right?

So I so I can play with this.

I don't feel real guilty about this.

Yeah, why is that?

Your hardness of heart.

Right, you see how that's happening?

It's like we don't even believe or don't even understand that 1 Thessalonians 4 verse 3 exists.

1 Thessalonians 4:3

Right?

What does that verse say?

One translation says, not even a hint of sexual immorality.

Right, oh that's too convicting.

I'm gonna pass out aside and allow uh lots, actually.

Just a hint, just a touch.

Right?

Is this a blind spot for you?

How about this this one?

Um every sin.

Right?

Just junk drawer.

Let's just let's just call them all like that.

Right?

We we do that.

We lower the bar on everything.

It's a blind spot for us.

We don't we we like some gossip, not tons.

We don't want to be obvious about it, but I do love to kind of like talk about that person.

I love the like kind of sick sense of power that I feel over that person when I gossip about them.

Or slander, whatever it might be, maybe it's anger.

Well, I'm not like beating my wife, so therefore, you know, snapping and having a trucker mouth every time, you know, things don't go right, that's okay.

Okay, is that a blind spot for you?

How about this one?

I was gonna mention like gluttony and vanity and all that, but that's like too convicting for us, right?

Should I just move on from all of that?

That's that one too, those two as well.

Maybe it's not just in our sin, but it's just our overall approach to following Christ.

It's just super half-hearted.

Do we understand that the call of the gospel is to lay down our lives?

As Jesus Christ did this for us, we lay down everything in humility before Him.

And yet we're like, don't care, or I'm not interested in that, or I don't want to.

And so it kind of comes out in your life by ways of, you know, not discipling men, not discipling your wives and your kids with any kind of urgency or any kind of clarity.

Maybe it's just in your giving.

Well, I'm giving some to kind of pat myself on the back and feel pretty good, but there's no there's no sacrificial giving in that.

And maybe it's it's it's in serving people and and and loving others.

You do a little bit, but but you're kind of mailing it in, and you know that, and maybe others see it too, maybe they don't, but allow Christ to lovingly expose your blind spots today.

And then bring these things to him in repentance of all the ways that you've gotten far too comfortable with a modified version of his standards.

They're not even his anymore.

You're not following the word of God, you've mutilated it, and now you're just following the word of self.

That's what it is.

You've created your own rendition of what God expects of you.

Now, why?

Why do we do that?

Simple, one word.

Pride.

Right?

We do it because of pride.

At the end of the day, you and I, we straight up, we do what we want to do.

Right?

We don't like the you know the prick that the Holy Spirit often is on our hearts and the conviction that we feel of all of that.

There's there's there's little to no surrender to the Lordship of Jesus Christ in in this area or these multiple areas.

They're blind spots that that listen, Christ will shine a light on.

Allow him to do that today.

I I would even encourage you, embrace it.

Yeah, there's some serious discomfort in that.

We know that that's what part, you know, part of what our sanctification is.

It's not just you know all fun and games, but but ultimately the Lord is leading you to greater joy in all of this.

Embrace him.

All right, here's the second blind spot.

We'll move a little more quickly through the rest of this.

Okay, refusing to treat the least of these as equals.

You do this?

Verse 13.

It says this and they were bringing children to him that he might touch them or bless them.

And and the disciples, how do they respond?

Okay, they rebuke them.

Okay, they rebuke the crowd.

Uh but when Jesus saw it, he was indignant.

That's such a great word, isn't it?

He was indignant.

He's like he's like grossed out by their response here.

And he said to them, Let the little children come to me, do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God.

Truly I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it.

And he took them into In his arms, the children, and he blessed them, he laying hands on them.

Now we've we've seen this elitism from the disciples before.

We just looked at it in the last last message, right?

In chapter 9.

Once again, they they reveal their lack of care for the marginalized, the outcast, the so-called less important uh in society.

It's clearly a blind spot for them, and the Lord is like you know, he's pointing it out.

Right?

But they I mean they think that Jesus, what should he do?

He should concern himself with with more important matters, right?

Bigger, bigger things.

But as always, what Christ does is he flips the world's values upside down, doesn't he?

And he shows that that children are every bit as important and valuable to God as adults.

And so he he blesses them.

And he's modeling this for them to his disciples, and he uses this as a as a lesson to them that humble, simple, childlike faith is what leads to leads to salvation.

And this, think about this.

Is it is this refusal to treat the least of these as equals?

Is that is that a blind spot for you?

Right?

Is it do you have a bit of that, I don't know, like snobbish, you know, like holier than thou?

Look down your nose at the other person, this judgmental, you know, I don't I don't give that guy or that woman the you know the time of day.

Do you have that kind of vibe about you at all?

Listen, don't be don't be too quick to assume that you don't give that off.

Right?

Like only, you know, only more inferior people than me would would struggle with that.

Right?

Don't like two of you caught that, okay?

Don't give off that vibe.

Right?

And don't assume that you're that you're maybe not.

Okay, maybe this plays out in the way that you that you look at kids, that you treat kids, your view of them.

Maybe it's just like the disciples were.

And you're like, talk to me when you're an adult.

I don't care.

Moving on to real discipleship, which is with with adults or whatever it might be.

Maybe you've got a little bit of that in you.

Maybe it's maybe it's other socioeconomic uh classes.

Right?

Maybe you're, you know, this can go both ways.

Maybe you look down on people who don't have money and you're simplistic and just straight up wrong about your understanding of the reasons for why they don't have as much money or or as or as driven as you are.

And maybe it's the other way, and you look down on people who do have money and you assume that, oh, that's captured their heart.

That's an idol.

Right?

And they're arrogant and they think they're better than me.

No, no, they don't.

Not at all.

But you're you're judging them and you're treating them like they're inferior.

Maybe it plays out in some form of racism.

And for you, it's it's kind of subtle, right?

And it's not blatant, you're not wearing a white hood or something like that, but it's in the way that you, the way that you talk, it's in your humor, it's in the way that you don't build relationships with people who are different than you.

Maybe that's it.

Maybe it's your attitude towards the opposite sex.

And men, it's this grossly unbiblical, patriarchal looking down on women, and they need to be under your foot and you need to control them.

Or maybe, ladies, you have completely bought in to where the where where the world is going now.

And it's gone the other way.

And it's like women are up here, men are down here now, and every single man is a pig in every single way, and you've bought into that.

And maybe it's people with spiritual gifts that you don't deem are as valuable to the kingdom of God, or they're not quite as awesome as yours seem to be.

Listen, all of that stuff, every single bit, it's all got to go.

It all has to receive the loving correction from your Savior here today.

And just as you have received his love because you deserved it, no, undeservingly, right?

Show others the same.

Okay, no matter who they are, no matter what they're like, no matter when, okay, they're just as loved by God as you are.

Here's the third blind spot.

My lurking self-righteousness and idolatry.

Okay, verse 17.

I'm gonna read through this chunk here.

It says this, and as he was setting out on his journey, a man ran up and knelt before him and asked, Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?

And Jesus said to him, Why do you call me good?

No one is good except God alone.

And he said, You know the commandments, do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not bear false witness, do not defraud, honor your father and mother.

And he said to them, Teacher, all of these I have done and kept from my youth.

And Jesus, looking at him, look at this, look at this, loved him.

He loved him.

And he said to him, You lack one thing.

Go, sell all that you have, and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven.

And come, follow me.

Now look at this young man's response, disheartened by the saying, he went away sorrowful, because he had great possessions.

And Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, How difficult will it be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God?

And the disciples were amazed at his words, they were blown away by it.

But Jesus said to them again, Children, how difficult it is to enter the kingdom of God.

It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, by the way, that's impossible, than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.

And they were exceedingly astonished, right?

Because having money was so highly valued.

He paid so much attention to those folks back in this day.

I'm not sure that anything has really changed all that much today.

Okay, but they're astonished and said to him, Then who can be saved?

And Jesus looked at them and said, Well, with man it is impossible, but not with God.

For all things are possible with God.

Peter began to say to him, See, we we've left everything and followed you.

Is he justifying himself and trying to make himself feel good?

Maybe.

But Jesus says, Truly I say to you, there is no one who has who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands for my sake and for the gospel who will not receive a hundredfold in this time.

Talking about the blessings that come in this life from following Jesus Christ.

Okay?

Houses, brothers and sisters and mothers and children with lands, but then look at this.

With persecutions, right?

There's gonna be challenges, there's gonna be difficulties as well in this life.

And then he says, and in the age to come, and eternal life.

He's talking about that goodness that is that is still ahead of us.

He says, But but many who are first will be last, and the last first.

Right?

Our ultimate blessing, of course, comes in the next life.

Now, in this in this back and forth that Jesus has with this the rich young ruler, that's kind of how we what we call him, Jesus, we saw there in the verse, he's lovingly exposing his blind spots to him.

Right?

His blind spots are our self-righteousness and the idolatry that in this case his wealth had become.

And he uses this interaction with this guy to instruct and teach his disciples on these things.

Okay, so the man, let's go through this a little bit here.

This man asks him a question, right?

What must I do to inherit eternal life?

So this guy, he obviously by this question, he's revealing where he's at.

He shows that he thinks that to get saved, it's about works, right?

I I gotta do a bunch of things to impress God enough to, like, yeah, come on in to my kingdom, you're you're in, you are, you are morally uh righteous here.

Okay, the gospel, of course, tells us that salvation is not about what you and I can do for Jesus.

It's about what Jesus has done for us.

The gospel's not about do, it's about done.

That's it.

He performed, Jesus performed the all the the righteous requirements of the of the law that the law and God demanded of us, but that we that we couldn't do.

And so Jesus, he tries to help this guy understand that it's actually his overinflated, puffed up sense of his moral goodness through his religious behavior, through the different religious duties that he did.

It's those things that are that are blinding him from being able to see and understand his true spiritual bankruptcy.

His blindness is what's stopping him from humbling himself and receiving Christ as savior.

He can't see his sin.

And so Jesus, what does he do?

He takes him to the law.

Right?

And he says, you know, you know the commandments, and he shares a bunch of them.

And and this guy's like, Yeah, yeah, yeah, I've obeyed them all.

Right?

I've done them all from the very beginning.

Now, is that true?

Is that true?

Has he actually done that?

Have any of us done that?

No, we haven't, we haven't obeyed the law, we haven't done that perfectly.

On the outside, it looks like we have in certain ways.

I've I've obeyed my parents, but yeah, the problem is we haven't done that perfectly.

Right?

We haven't, we haven't, we just straight up haven't.

Right?

We're we're flawed.

I just killed a fly.

That was awesome.

I'm just gonna keep going though.

Okay, so Jesus tries to help this guy here.

And of course, he thinks he's just he's done it, and it's it's self-righteousness.

That's his blind spot.

And so, and so Jesus points points out the one much more obvious area that this guy can't obey.

Right?

He can't do it.

And he says, he says to him, he exposes it by saying, Well, go sell your possessions.

Go sell your possessions, give, give, give it to the poor.

But but this he can't do it because his his possessions had become, again, the idol, right?

That he wasn't willing to let go of.

He wasn't willing to give that up before the Lord.

Now understand this.

Christ's intention with all of this, it wasn't to get the man to give up the things that were hard for him to give up so that he would be good enough to enter the kingdom.

That's not it.

It's not about works-based anything, right?

He's trying rather to get this guy to realize how impossible, right, it is for him to obey this particular command, so that he falls helplessly in brokenness and humility before Christ as his Savior and receives the forgiveness and the grace that he needs.

But of course, what does he do?

Not that.

Right?

He he goes away and he remains entrenched in his blindness, his self-righteousness, his idolatry.

Now, listen, we've all got self-righteousness and idolatry lurking under the surface, don't we?

We've talked about this like every Sunday, right?

Like we do.

And because God's word confronts us with this constantly, and so you know, if you've been coming for a while, this shouldn't be, you know, hitting you out of the blue necessarily unless the Lord is pointing out yet another area of self-righteousness.

But but of course, we like a lot of these guys that we're seeing in the scriptures, they kind of realize, especially the disciples, they realize an area, oh, that's not real good, but then they forget about it, it becomes a blind spot again.

And so the Lord has to unearth it again, and that's what God does with us.

We've all got these areas.

These areas of pride, these things that we think we need deep down in our hearts, or or things that we that we want deep down in our hearts much more than we want God.

Right?

Idols, I I've said it before, I love it, it's just so simple.

A good definition of an idol is a good thing that's become a God thing.

Right?

The idol of family, it's the idol of money, it's the idol of comfort.

It's these aren't things, these things aren't sin in and of themselves, but they can capture our hearts in such a way where it becomes an idol.

And listen, if they remain blind spots to us, we we we just continue to carry on like nothing's wrong.

And these things end up inflicting more damage to us spiritually and and often to other people as well.

And so if you're so you know, you're trying to figure out like what are my blind spots and how do I know, and how do I see these things, and have my eyes open.

Well, here are three warning signs.

Okay, three warning signs that self-righteousness and idolatry are lurking uh in your heart.

Okay, you see the presence of this, it means you've got some self-righteousness and idolatry down there somewhere.

First one boredom with God.

Bored.

Like right now, this pastor guy keeps talking, keeps going on and on.

I just want to crash.

Like I'm so tired, I'm done.

I don't, why am I even here?

Right?

So many.

Can I just go after the men again?

I love to do this, right?

The men are the leaders of the home.

So many men, so bored with God.

Right?

I I'm mailing in.

My wife is the spiritual leader in my home because I I don't care.

And I don't want to do this, and I have no interest in this, and it's maybe it's been years and years of just poor discipleship, and you're not owning it yourself.

And listen, if there's boredom with God in your life and you would admit that and you would see that, that's a warning sign that something else has captured your heart's affections.

If we're supposed to be, you know, fired up about Jesus Christ, the God of the universe, who has saved us from eternal damnation, sin and hell, all of it, we should probably be excited about him, no?

And if we're not, I mean something's in the way.

There's a blind spot there, I'm not seeing it.

Well, maybe for you it's boredom with God.

You gotta start thinking, why am I bored with God?

What am I most excited about?

What has captured my heart?

What's wrong there?

How about this one?

An overfocus on others' problems.

An overfocus on others' problems.

Some of you guys are like ninjas when it comes to like pointing out other people's flaws.

I have no problem calling that out, right?

I'm gonna I'm gonna mention this to you, and you know, it's it's that critical hypercriticism that comes out, and I see what's wrong with my wife, I see what's wrong with my husband, I could point out all the flaws about our church.

We know there's lots, right?

I can point all of these things out, but but it's to the gross neglect of your own.

Right?

And and and people do this.

And listen, the the older I get and and the longer that I'm in ministry, I just find it to be a rule in life that the people most critical of others are the ones who have the biggest issues that need facing.

Have you sensed this?

Have you seen blind spots in people before?

Like pointing this, that, the other thing out about all kinds of stuff, and yet they're like, man, that guy has serious work that needs to happen there.

Maybe you're that person.

Maybe right now you're thinking about, yeah, that guy needs to listen to this.

Pastor's on fire right now.

No, maybe it's you.

Maybe it's you.

It's an overfocus on others' problems.

And if you're doing that, you're you're too blind to your own.

The more we grow and the more that blind spot comes into focus for us, and we see our own problems, the more gracious we are to other people.

The more patient we are with them.

Why are we patient with them?

Because the Lord better be patient with me.

Because I'm awful at fixing myself.

I am so slow at the growth thing.

And so you see that as you understand that of yourself, you're gracious towards other people as well.

Ditch the overfocus on other people's problems.

That's a that's a blind spot for you.

It's showing that there's serious self-righteousness there in you.

How about this last one, your third one?

Out-of-control flesh.

Your flesh is just going crazy.

It's going haywire.

I can't stop my desires from just going after sin.

I keep making the same dumb decision, dumb decision, dumb decision over and over again.

It's the dog returning to its vomit constantly, continually, it's doing damage to me, and it's doing damage to other people, and maybe you can't see it and and you don't even really care at this point.

All I can hope to do, I can't change this.

I'm starting to realize that.

I can't, I can't change it.

All I can hope to do is hide it so that people don't see it.

This is likely a sign of just self-righteousness, uh, an unwillingness to humble yourself, an unwillingness to get some help, an unwillingness to cry out to the Lord and ask for more of his power in your life.

Maybe there's some idols of pleasure that are there that you just keep going to.

You think you need them, but they're they're causing harm to you.

Listen, growing Christians will see a presence of the fruit of the Spirit.

Right?

Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.

You will see these things.

The Lord will grow these things in you as you grow, and your flesh will begin to, you'll see that start to dissipate.

But listen, I want to be really careful about this.

Let's not have an overly simplistic understanding of how growth in the Christian life works.

It's not like you, you know, you get saved and then I used to struggle with sin and now I do.

And so when I see this, I see these things nipping at my heels and coming after me, now I need to feel like, oh no, am I am I not saved now?

Or or I get despondent and I despair about all of these things because there's still sin.

Forgive me if I shared this with you once before, but I was talking with my brother who's a pastor as well, and he was saying, he's saying, My my view of sanctification now is so much different than it would have been when I was like 20 years old.

My view of sanctification, I understood it in an overly simplistic sense of like the older I get, the more I follow Jesus Christ, the more, the more it's gonna be victory.

The more I'm going to, you know, triumph over my fears.

It's like I I've I've conquered that mountain.

Right?

There's no more flesh nipping at my heels.

And and and what he explained to me, he's like, the more I'm sanctified, the more I'm just I'm aware of my brokenness.

I don't seem to give into it as much, but I'm like hyper-aware it's there.

And I and I realize the sin and I and I'm more grateful.

I've I'm not proud and kind of arrogant and cocky like I used to be.

I'm more, the Lord is just leveling me.

Right?

That I believe is an accurate picture of sanctification.

So when we talk about out of out of control flesh, know that you're still gonna battle with some of this, and Christian life is a war.

We've talked about that, right?

Don't live in peacetime mentality and kick your feet up like everything's supposed to be easy.

It's not.

You're gonna get smoked.

The out-of-control flesh, though, if it's going, if it's going haywire and it's all over the place, I mean that's a warning sign that you've got self-righteousness there, that you've replaced the love of the Lord with the love of some kind of idol.

If talking through some of these warning signs triggers for you some, you know, an eye-opening awareness of uh of one of your blind spots.

Rejoice.

Rejoice in this.

That's awesome.

Because that's the Lord opening up your eyes.

That's the Lord sanctifying you, that's the Lord making you aware of your shortcomings.

That's the Lord turning your heart from self-sufficiency, and I think I'm pretty good, to like, I need to depend on him more.

All that stuff's amazing.

He's removing your blind spot.

As he's pointing these things out to you, it's a great opportunity to anchor back into the gospel.

It's a reminder, oh yeah, Jesus went to the cross to forgive me of all of these things.

And yeah, I'm gonna see them nipping at my heels, like we've said, and yeah, I'm still gonna have problems and I'm not gonna be perfect, not in this life.

But it's an opportunity to rejoice in what Christ has done, to thank him for his love for me, to praise him for this, to rejoice in his righteousness, not my own.

And to praise him.

What an awesome opportunity.

Okay?

Fourth.

A fourth blind spot is the insidious desire for my own glory that runs deep.

But kind of you feel just reading that.

Okay, verse 32, look.

It says, and they were on the road, going up to Jerusalem, and Jesus was walking ahead of them, and they were amazed, and those who followed were afraid.

Okay, probably because he'd just been talking about the persecution that they'd receive as followers.

And they're like, oh man, like there's gonna be some some real challenges.

He's giving me some insight into that.

They didn't understand all of it, but they were probably afraid of that.

And and it says, keep going, and taking the twelve again, he he began to tell them of what was gonna happen to him, saying, See, we are going up to Jerusalem.

And so Jesus has set his sights now on Jerusalem.

What was gonna happen in Jerusalem?

He was gonna die, right?

It was his death, and so we have here now this his third and final prediction of his death to his disciples.

It says, And the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and the scribes, and they will condemn him to death and deliver him over to the Gentiles, and they will mock him and spit on him and flog him and kill him.

And after three days he will rise.

So he's getting into more detail as to what this is actually going to look like here.

Okay, and then it says James and John, these two guys, the sons.

Of Zebedee came up to him and said to him, Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.

Oh no.

Like, do you sense that like this is not gonna go well?

Right?

Have you ever had your kids come up to you and be like, hey mom, hey dad?

Like, I'm gonna ask you a question and you have to say yes.

You you've had your kids do this, right?

You know the answer is like, yeah, no chance, not happening.

Right?

You're gonna ask me something about like only eating candy forever or something like that.

Okay?

But um, but look what they do.

They ask, they ask this question.

He said to them, What do you what do you want me to do for you?

So he kind of goes along with it.

And then he said to him, Grant us to sit one at your right hand and one at your left in your glory.

Right, which is kind of interestingly like a it's it's an own self-glory type of move, right?

Which is kind of funny here, right?

And and and Jesus said to them, You do not know what you're asking.

Are you able to drink the cup that I drink or or to be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?

And they said to him, Yeah, oh yeah, oh yeah, we got this.

We're able.

We know now for us, right?

We we kind of know the story, right?

We know that when he's talking about his baptism in the and the cup, he's talking about his his his suffering and and and and his death that he's about to endure.

But in their minds, if we want to throw them a bone here and give them some, you know, so that we understand them a little bit here, they were still, who are they, who are they picturing the Messiah to be?

A conquering political victor, right?

That's what they were thinking.

And so they're thinking when he's talking about persecutions, they're like, okay, so he's gonna he's gonna rule Israel here, but it's gonna be kind of a tough slog to get there.

There's gonna be some battles and persecutions, and and so when they say we're able, they're not super, super blind to all this, oh, there's some of that there.

They're actually trying to be, they're trying to be courageous.

Yeah, we're able, we're we're with you.

We'll fight.

Whatever war is coming, we'll engage.

Okay, but what is what does Jesus say?

Keep going, he says, says to them, the cup that I drink, you will drink.

And the baptism with which I am baptized, you will be baptized.

And so he's foreshadowing their own suffering that they're gonna go through, the persecution that they'll endure for the sake of the gospel.

He says, But but to sit at my right hand or or my left is not mine to grant, but is for those for whom it has been prepared.

Okay, so he's like, I'm leaving that in the hands of the Father.

He's completely submitted to God the Father's will, and the Father uh figures all of that stuff out.

I love this.

This is hilarious.

And when the ten heard it, so the other ten guys, okay, they began to be indignant at James and John.

How rich is that?

Right?

They, you know, these two guys, you know, want to get in there and want to be at the left hand and the right hand of Jesus.

And so the moment that Jesus kind of corrects them, they're like, Yeah, guys, shouldn't have done that.

That was a pretty dumb move.

I used to do this with my brother and my dad all the time, like growing up.

Like my brother and I would be doing something dumb, and my dad would come in and he would, you know, he would can you know kind of confront the issue and expose the issue, and and I would immediately, like in a kind of a fake suck-up way, just be like, I'm with you, dad.

I can't believe Kev would do that.

And my brother would roll his eyes and we would all kind of have a laugh about it, but that's that's kind of what's happening here, don't you see it?

Right?

Yeah, that's what he's doing.

They're they're being indignant about this?

No, all they do is they feel bad that they didn't think of asking the question first.

And when Jesus confronts it, they're like, dodged a bullet.

Yeah, guys.

And they're in their face about it.

I love that.

And Jesus called them, it says, to him.

He said to them, You know that those who are considered rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them.

And their great ones exercise authority over them, but it shall not be so among you.

He says, In the Gentile world, rising to authority and positions of power were used to like make yourself feel awesome and be over top, lording over top of other people.

That's not the way the kingdom of God rolls at all.

He says, But for whoever would be great among you must be your servant.

We talked about servant uh being a servant uh last week, and and whoever would be first among you must be slave of all.

For even the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.

Now listen, what we can't miss here as we read this and we look at the interaction between the disciples, and they make some outlandish claims and requests, and and and they like, you know, turn on their own and they just behave kind of kind of terribly here in all of this, but just notice how loving and how patient Jesus is with them.

He's not ready to like scissor kick them away or anything like that.

That's not what he's doing.

He loves them, he cares for them, he's he's working with them.

Listen, he knows the blind spots that you and I have.

He's not surprised by any of this.

He knows that at the end of the day, deep in our flesh, we just want what we want.

He knows all of that.

We want our glory.

We we want to be exalted, we we want positions where people will respect us.

We want honor, we want spot life, we want to be the center of the universe.

Right?

The disciples were the exact same, and and as gross as all of that is in light of the gospel, it doesn't change the way Jesus feels about you.

It doesn't, it doesn't change his his love.

He doesn't pull that back because you've got some ugly areas that that need some work.

He still he loves you 100% of the time, no matter what you do or don't do.

That's the gospel.

Listen, don't forget that.

You and I, we we can't afford to forget that.

Because the more you and I absorb the love of God for us, despite the depth of ugliness that's there, you know, in our hearts, but despite the depth of the desire for our own glory, listen, the more you're just gonna want his.

The more your heart starts to change.

I want God, I want you to be glorified through me.

I am your servant.

Which, as that is happening, it's meaning that your blind spot is starting to come into full view.

Right?

The blind spot is disappearing.

I get so much encouragement in that.

I find encouragement in that, don't you?

He's changing me.

I'm transforming me.

He's growing me, he's gracious, which really leads us to this last thing here.

Christ lovingly exposes my blind spots by healing my blindness as I cry for mercy.

Okay, verse 46.

Verse 46 says, and they came to Jericho, and as he was leaving Jericho with his disciples and a great crowd, Bartimaeus, a blind beggar, the son of Timaeus, was sitting by the roadside, and when he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he he began to cry out and say, Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me.

And many rebuked him, telling him to be silent.

But but he cried out all the more, Son of David, have mercy on me.

And Jesus stopped and said, Call him, call him over here.

And they called the blind man, saying to him, I love this, take heart, take heart, get up, he's calling you.

You already see right here in this moment the disciples are starting to grow.

They've treated children like dust, they've treated other people like dirt, but here now they're starting to get it.

You see that growth there that's happening in them?

They're like, Take heart, man.

Come on, you're about to have your life transformed.

And throwing off his cloak, it says he sprang up and came to Jesus.

And Jesus said to him, What do you want me to do for you?

So he asked them the question straight up.

And the blind man said to him, Rabbi, your teacher, let me recover my sight.

And Jesus said, Go on your way.

Your faith has made you well.

And immediately he recovered his sight and followed him on the way.

Listen, do you understand that this little section here that we just read, in light of everything that we've covered here today, these verses right here, it's so much more than simply a blind guy, you know, having his sight given back to him.

It's way deeper than that.

It's showing us that just like how Christ heals this blind man from his physical sight, he's doing that very thing in all of his disciples.

He's healing our our our spiritual blindness.

He heals you and I.

He exposes all those ways that you and I, we lower his standards, the way that we shamefully treat other people made in his image, all the self-righteousness, all the idols, all the desire for our own glory.

He heals all of it.

That's what Jesus comes to do.

That's what Mark chapter 10 shows us.

Mark 10 · chapter mention

He heals it all.

That's what sanctification is.

The Lord exposing these shortcomings and this brokenness and then healing it bit by bit, piece by piece, over time.

He pointing out our our weaknesses and our flaws, not to just make you feel terrible and make you feel miserable, because he wants to change you.

And that's what he's doing throughout your life.

It's a lifelong process.

And and everything that he doesn't get completed here in this life, in our sanctification, he will complete when?

When we are glorified, when we are given our new bodies, and there's no more sin, and there's no more pain, no more tears.

All the effects of sin and all of that are gone and we are made perfect.

Can't wait for that day.

But listen, in the meantime, you and I, we we don't sit back and do nothing.

We don't respond passively here.

Jesus asks this guy, what do you want me to do for you?

Jesus knows what what the guy wants, right?

But he wants to know, does this guy really want it?

I'm gonna ask him.

And the guy says, I, Lord, heal me.

Give me my sight.

There's a desperation here in him to be to be treated to be made new.

Listen, do we do we have that same kind of desperation?

Are we gonna be like the majority of Canadian churches?

Great sermon, Pastor, I guess.

You know?

I guess I'll see you next week.

Are we gonna be like that?

Are we gonna like feel the fire dwelling up in us as the Spirit of God is moving?

Are you gonna, in your, in your desperation, in your brokenness, in all of those blind spots that we've talked about, are you gonna bring these before the Lord?

Are you gonna cry out in mercy?