The Gospel Of Mark | Humility Is The Core (September 30th, 2018) - Mike Armstrong

Mark chapter 9.

Mark 9 · chapter mention

We're gonna be in verses 30 to uh 50 here today.

And uh as you're getting yourself there, I don't know if you can see uh this from where you are, but this is all that remains of an apple uh that I ate earlier this morning.

Okay, just the core.

All right, that's it.

Now, this of course is the part that we generally speaking, we throw this away, don't we?

Okay, but what's kind of interesting, I was thinking about this uh a little bit this week, is that without the core and without the the seeds that that make up the core, uh we have no apple.

Right?

It's it's the seeds that that grow and become the tasty fruit that you and I uh get to enjoy.

Now, in Mark chapter 9, Christ gathers with his disciples, he meets privately with them, and he shows them that the core of discipleship is humility.

Mark 9 · chapter mention

It's humility.

Humility are again, they're like the seeds, okay, right, that we see in the apple here that that allows a Christian to grow into what he or she is to become a mature, godly, a Christ-like.

And you could say that without humility, there's no Christian to begin with, right?

Because to get saved and to be forgiven requires that fundamentally you and I, we humble ourselves and receive forgiveness.

We receive the salvation and the grace that Christ offers.

Okay, but what's kind of interesting, I find, is that after getting saved, it seems that many Christians treat humility kind of like we treat an apple core when we're done eating it.

And it's this.

We throw it away.

Don't worry, I'll clean that up afterwards.

Like I don't expect anyone else to do that.

Yeah, but isn't it true?

We do that.

We don't we don't spend a lot of time building up our foundation of humility, and I think we see this uh kind of fulfill itself in different things in life.

We see Christian marriages disintegrating because of an unwillingness and a refusal uh by the husband or the wife, or oftentimes both, to humble themselves and seek the Lord.

Or it's pastors who get caught up in building empires in their church and shameless self-promotion while growing more and more proud inside and not even realize that that's you know welling up in them and spewing out uh out of them.

Or it's it's way too many Christians who treat hardships in their life like they're from Satan, right?

And and they're to be avoided at all costs, not understanding that no, these are not from Satan, they're from God, right?

He has He has put them putting them in your life as the means of killing your pride and and creating the humility necessary to be a disciple, a Christ follower.

Hey, quite frankly, I think that far too often we do what we do with the apple core.

We take humility and we toss it aside.

But hey, if if humility is the core of discipleship, and as we're gonna see here this morning, Jesus Christ makes it clear that it is, okay, then I guess, I don't know, just going on on a limb, guess we probably should give it some attention, right?

Some put some energy into this.

Because listen, without humility, you cannot become what Christ is committed to transforming you into.

Okay, and that goes for every single person sitting here today.

This isn't this isn't just for Christian leaders, it's not just for pastors, it's not just for those in vocational ministry, whatever it might be.

And it's not something that you and I merely pay lip service to or you know, learn how to explain or an act that we put on in front of certain people.

That's not what humility is.

No, humility is at the core of what it means to be a disciple of Jesus Christ and what it means to know him.

And it has to do with the with the posture of your heart before Almighty God.

So there should really be in each one of us, not just today, but every day, uh an incredible amount of urgency and and unction welling up in us on our part to give humility the attention that it deserves.

And so let me pray.

And let us once again come before the Lord and bring our brokenness and bring our pride and our weakness, our sin, all of that before him and cry out to him for him to do whatever it takes to create this humility in us as his disciples, as his church.

So join me as we pray.

God, again, we come before you, and as we do every single Sunday, Lord, we just sort of limp in here, broken, our our tires are deflated, we've made mistakes, we've caused damage maybe to ourselves and to others through our sin and our pride, God.

And and so often we live our days as the opposite of what uh you would call us to, Lord, and that is as humble disciples and followers of your son.

And so, God, I pray that far from being discouraged about all of these things, I pray that your church would be filled with hope today.

Lord, I pray that we would be uh filled with a sense of your goodness, your grace towards us, Lord.

I pray that we would get on board with your mission and your purpose in our lives to humble us and to uh create this strong foundation in us, Lord, so that so much can be accomplished, not just in us, but through us as well.

So, God, would you have mercy on us again today, we pray.

God, build your church, build us strong, not strong in pride, not strong in ourselves, not full of self, full of Jesus Christ, full of humility, deferring to Him in all things.

Lord, help us, we pray, in Christ's name.

Amen.

Amen.

Well, here we go, jumping right into the first thing here, if you're a note taker.

Okay, if humility is at the core of discipleship, then I must surrender my comfort and be willing to suffer.

Be willing to suffer.

Now let's pick it up here, like I said in Mark chapter 9, uh, in verse 30, reading down uh to the end of uh this chapter here today.

Mark 9 · chapter mention

But here's what it says in verse 30.

It says, They went on from there.

Okay, well, where's there?

Well, we know that uh Jesus has just healed the boy with the demon.

Remember, we talked about that uh just last week.

They've gone on from there now, and it says, and they passed through Galilee.

And he did not want anyone to know, for he was teaching his disciples.

And so what we have here is is Jesus, again, gathering with his with with his boys, right?

He wants some some time alone with them.

It was like the very first act like men, you could call it that, all right?

And he and he was telling them, he was showing them uh what it means uh to be a disciple.

He wants to teach them the very heart of all of that, not time for the the crowds.

Now we're gonna uh pour into you as a small group, as individuals.

All right, and so he was teaching his disciples, it says, saying to them, the Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill him.

And when he is killed, after three days he will rise.

But they did not understand the saying of the disciples, and they were afraid to ask him.

Yeah, I guess they were, because remember, the last time that Jesus, the very first time that he had told them that he was going to die and he was gonna rise again, they got in his face about it.

And they're like, Man, it never be so, this is not gonna happen.

Remember, he he met them with a very stern rebuke, and you can tell they're a little bit gun shy now.

Not to get in his grill about this again.

They're too afraid to ask.

They didn't understand.

And understand, this is the second time now that Jesus has foreshadowed his impending death and his resurrection.

And so, what is he doing through this?

Well, he he's pulling apart their faulty understanding and their misplaced expectations that the Messiah was gonna come as a political liberator.

That's what the Jews were expecting.

They were thinking military conquest, they were saying they were thinking, you know, goodbye, Assyrians, you know, the Jews are gonna rise to the top and reign supreme over the world.

That's what they were thinking.

But of course, Christ came for a much bigger purpose than that.

He came and he set aside all of those privileges and all of those rights and his glory that was that was rightly his, right?

And and and he surrendered his earthly comfort and and was willing to suffer to accomplish a greater plan, right?

God's plan of redeeming you and I.

Redeeming is creation.

And it's this surrender of comfort, this willingness to suffer that lies at the heart, really is the heart of humility, right?

And the core of what it means to be a disciple.

Now, this concept for for us here as a as a North American church makes us what?

So uncomfortable, right?

So uncomfortable.

And and that's really the issue.

And the reason for that, I think, is because we've so largely bought into this the world's value system that says that we should be able to live a life of comfort and and ease, right?

We we shouldn't struggle financially, right?

We we shouldn't get sick and have bodies that that break down and get fatter instead of get skinnier.

Right?

We shouldn't have relational problems with each other.

No, we think that we should have all the comforts of life.

And therefore, if there's a presence of these things, these these uncomfortable things, suffering, then it means that well, I must be doing something wrong, right?

Or there must be something wrong with me, and I've got to figure out the secret formula to my best life now.

Or or worse, we tend to think that that God's dealt us uh a bad hand, and so we we get bitter about about this, and we wrongly blame him and we blame others for our troubles.

And instead of understanding what our troubles and suffering and discomfort, the purpose of all of that really is.

We don't easily accept and and embrace the that the divine presence of uh of difficult things that that make us uncomfortable and and cause us to suffer are actually tools of uh of grace, right?

From from our loving God, not an angry God who who hates you and wants to make you miserable.

No, they're they're tools from a from a loving God, okay, who who wants to transform you, to lead you into the place of deeper humility, where our our hearts let go of their insatiable desire for comfort and pleasure and and the ravenous appetite that we have for all of that, and instead grow willing to suffer for the Lord, however, he would have us do this, because I realize he's making me new.

I realize that this is this is causing me to become a new creation, and he and he's preparing me for service in the kingdom of God to be used and and to point other people to him as well.

Listen, some of you need to hear this today.

God is not committed to your worldly comfort, he's committed to your humility, your discipleship, he's committed to his glory.

And he's got you in something right now, maybe it's been for a long time, that he is expertly designed to bring about those very things.

I've heard people say multiple times, I've heard people say that, you know, as since I became a Christian, man, my life has just gotten harder.

You know, or or or or since coming to harvest, man, my life is just it's challenging for some reason.

You know what I would say to that?

Yeah, sounds about right.

Right?

It really does.

Think about this.

What we're going for here as a church, what it means to be a disciple of Christ, there's there's very little comfort that's comfortable about that.

There's nothing easy about that.

I would say if you want a life of ease, if you want comfort, if you want, you know, happiness and and good feelings and all of that, don't become a Christian.

Don't do it.

Because what the Lord does, what a Christian is, is someone who opens up their heart and exposes all the brokenness, exposes the fear, those dark corners of our life.

We invite the Lord in and he begins to get in there with the wooden spoon and starts stirring junk up.

Right?

That's what he does.

He starts to expose it, he starts to heal it.

He starts to get us to talk about this with other believers.

None of that is easy.

None of that is a comfy process to just make you feel good.

And so if you just want good feelings and emotions that are fluffy and all of that, don't do what we're talking about here today.

Run away from the church.

Okay, run away from Jesus Christ.

That's easier.

Okay, but notice what I'm not saying.

It's not better.

And those of you who have been with the Lord for a while and you've seen him work in your life, and he forced you to look at areas that you don't want to look at, he's cleaning up some of those things, and he's challenging and he's encouraging you.

It's been so hard, right?

It's it's it's forced you to face that pride.

It's explained, it's stripped you bare.

But you realize as you go through this that you know what?

This is better.

Yeah, it's not comfortable, but it is good.

Christ is giving me a heart for him, he's creating humility in me.

And all of this, it involves it involves suffering.

Right?

And we will suffer in so many different ways.

So much of it is just has to do with our sanctification and the discomfort of all of that.

Some of it has to do with the persecution that you're receiving because you're following Jesus Christ.

But uh but a humble disciple is willing to face all of this in the power of Jesus Christ.

So if you think about it, you you kind of have two options here.

You can you can dig your heels in and you can fight God tooth and nail, and you know, you can double down on your pursuit of pleasure, and I'm gonna fill my life with all the things that I think I, you know, are gonna make me happy, so to speak, and I'm gonna, you know, kind of squeeze the Lord out to hear.

I'll keep coming to church, put on the smile, and you know, wear the mask and act like I've got it all together and all of that.

Okay, you can do all of that, or listen, you can surrender to your Heavenly Father.

You can surrender to him, yield to his ways, yield to his his plan, his purpose, be willing to suffer and be uncomfortable for his sake.

Okay, trusting and knowing that he is doing this in you for your good and understand what I'm really saying here.

This might seem like you've got two options, okay, but if you really are a follower of Jesus Christ, guess what?

It's really only one option.

So humble yourself.

Allow the Lord to do whatever it takes.

Take courage in this, be bold in this, whatever the Lord needs to do.

Yeah, it's gonna involve the presence of discomfort and suffering in the interim.

But have a bigger view of this, understand what the Lord is doing, understand the purpose of discipleship, understand what you are here on earth for.

It's not to live for self, to live for the Lord, to live for Him and to serve others, which is really what this next thing gets at.

If humility is at the core of discipleship, then I must, must, must shelf personal ambition and pursue a servant heart.

Now take a look at this here in verse 33.

It says that they came to Capernaum, and when he was in the house, he he asked them, What were you discussing on the way?

Now, pop quiz.

Does Jesus know the answer to that question?

Uh yeah, he does, right?

Because he is God, right?

He is omniscient, he he knows all things.

But but what is he doing?

So why does he ask the question?

Well, this was all designed to start a uh a conversation and to to unearth some things.

Okay, so we asked them what they were discussing on the way.

Look at their response, but they kept silent.

Interesting.

Okay, for on the way, here it is, they had argued with one another about who was the greatest.

Uh-oh.

Right?

Clearly, they could use a lesson on humility here.

Okay, keep going.

And he called the twelve to them.

Notice how he just gathers them in, right?

And he said to them, if anyone would be first, he must be last of all.

And what's the word there?

Servant of all.

And he took a child and he put him in the midst of them.

Okay, children back in this day, they're often marginalized and and overlooked.

And I mean there are multiple experiences that we read throughout the, you know, throughout the gospels, where you know, the gos uh the disciples seem to be just kind of shushing kids and trying to usher them away and all of that, but Jesus shows the value in them uh all the way.

Okay, so he he he puts this child in the midst of them and and taking them in his arms, he said to them, Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me.

And whoever receives me receives not me, or not just me, but but him who sent me, referring to the Father.

Okay, so in all of this, Jesus is he's radically redefining what greatness looks like in the kingdom of God.

Okay, disciples, okay, that goes for us now too.

Disciples are not ones who are you know looking for spotlight and and honor and accolades and prestige.

Okay, real humility, it's not even thinking about all that stuff.

And it knows that all of those things, they're either they're either short-lived or or they don't truly satisfy you the way our pride thinks that they will, or, or worse, they they they just actually kind of foster and and promote more pride in us.

Okay, true humility cares about the about others primarily, okay, not self.

I love C.S.

Lewis's uh famous quote.

He said, humility isn't thinking less of yourself, it's thinking of yourself less.

Right?

Good little definition there.

Okay, it's serving others.

No matter how insignificant they might seem, no matter how insignificant your role in that, the role of being a servant, that might seem as well.

So hey, really think about this.

You know, think about your your own ambition just in the the role you play here in our church.

Are you content to serve?

Are you blessed by that?

Are you excited about that?

Is there joy in you uh in that?

Are you okay playing a uh maybe more of a background role and playing a part, uh a crucial part, but but but but but a cog in the wheel and in what it means to build up God's people and build up the church?

Or do you, in like a kind of a pride-driven, pride-fueled way, do you want and expect and and kind of demand more?

And do you find you have this narrative going on in your mind up here where you're kind of thinking, like, you know, don't they realize what I'm capable of?

Don't they understand what I used to do at my old church?

I used to do all kinds of things, and and people respected me.

And I had roles of leadership, and you know, why not?

am I doing blank?

Or or my gifts, they're being they're being wasted here.

And it's for you these feelings, these growing feelings, and this presence of of kind of entitlement and and arrogance even.

Listen, I was, I was at a church uh recently that had these words written on um on the door leading to the stage that the worship team would walk out of before uh beginning a service.

If you want to throw these words up here, I love this.

It is a privilege to be on this platform.

Thank you God for choosing me.

That's humility.

That's what our worship team, our leaders, everybody in our church should be thinking whatever role that we have and we play in this church, who are we to demand anything?

Right?

Who are we to to think we we should get more?

It's it's humbling ourselves, being a servant, letting the Lord take care of of the positions he puts us in and all of that.

I love that that's that's the heart of a disciple who gets it that their role their position their abilities their gifts their title all of it it's it's a gift from God.

And we don't serve in the church or lead in the church as some way to inflate our our sagging egos or to make us feel you know self-confident.

No, it's to serve it's to bless it's for the good of the other person.

Right disciples of Jesus Christ we shelf the the personal or self-centered ambition because that's exactly what Jesus did.

He he did the will of his father to what point?

To the death and and it's Christ's humility that we see in in the gospel that that drives us that that motivates Christ's followers towards authentic humility.

I want to be like that.

This is who Jesus is this is what he did.

This is what he's calling me to that's that's what I want and I want to get to the place where I know that it's not about me for for one second and never has been and never will be it's about Christ it's about joyfully serving others like he did.

Here's the third thing if humility is at the core of discipleship then I must snuff out my elitist attitude and think big kingdom.

Verse 38 You see that there says John said to him Teacher we saw someone casting out demons in your name and we tried to stop him because he was not following us emphasis mine.

Okay so he's kind of saying like because you know this guy wasn't part of our exclusive elite club we tried to stop that guy.

What does Jesus say?

He says do not stop him for no one who does a mighty work in my name will be able soon afterwards to speak evil of me.

For the one who is not against us is for us.

For truly I say to you whoever gives you a cup of water to drink because you belong to Christ will by no means lose his reward.

And then look at verse 42 but whoever causes one of these little ones because so now he's referring more to disciples in general not just not just to children whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him, listen to this, if a great millstone think heavy rock were hung around his neck and he were thrown into the sea there's some intensity in those words.

Right?

Jesus is instructing his disciples here and and us that that those who serve the cause of Christ should be appreciated.

They should be celebrated they should be in in encouraged and and sent off with our with our blessing and and and watch out because you don't want to be that that that kind of arrogant elitist type guy who who looks down on on other believers and other churches and other mental ministries and all of that because you think that you've you know got it on and no one else does you might end up doing damage to another little one another precious one another disciple who who Jesus Christ has called and loves every bit as much as he loves you.

Now Christians don't struggle with that at all do we right not at all you know we're we're so great at appreciating the work that God is doing in other people we love hearing you sense the sarcasm in this right the sarc we love what God's doing in other churches and other ministries.

Okay we we we struggle with this now let me be really clear it's it's not wrong okay to have differing theological you know convictions and positions right it it's good to stand firm on the scriptures and the scriptures drive you know who and what we are as a church and and as a Christ follower and all of that stuff.

We're not tossing any of that aside but but all this is to say that we should be able to rejoice in what God's doing in I don't know let's say other churches even in our own town right we should be pumped up as a church here about what God is doing at like Cedar View or what he's doing at New City or or Victory Baptist, just to name a few.

Right?

The kingdom of God thankfully is so much bigger than our little thing that we've got going on here at Harvest.

Aren't you glad for that we should we should have a big kingdom mentality here not elite not proud not any of those things that's that's humility this whole proud and arrogant approach that Christians so often have if you want to see this lived out join Twitter okay it it's it's a gas can of of Christians trying to one each uh up each other and and and tear down another's work and and hypercriticism about this that and the other thing we gotta think big pick uh big kingdom here we don't have a corner market on anything we should never think that just because God is moving here and praise him he is it doesn't mean that he's definitely not moving over there.

That attitude it's it's so wrong it's so backwards it's so unchristlike it's so void of what humility but this elitist mentality isn't something that just happens at you know a big C church level right it's not just something that happens between denominations and all of that that's something that also happens inside these walls it's not something that's just projected on us the people out there but also on others in here.

And I kind of wonder how many of us have have even come in here today and we've already given certain people in here sort of that inner eye roll right because of I can't believe you know she would say it like that.

You know or or or or small group right and we come and we kind of look down at the other person because they just don't seem to have arrived like I have and and we don't love people the way that we should trust me this elitist attitude it runs it runs deep and all of this as I've been in God's word has been extremely convicting to me there's there's no humility in any of it.

It's what do we do?

Not if but but when we start to notice this in our hearts how do we handle this what you know what do we do when our attitude goes sideways in this and the presence of this elitism and I'm I'm better than that person in in certain ways kind of starts to come out or it's we're harboring that that whole thing.

Well you can jot these things down I will snuff out my elitist attitude by doing these three things okay three things first one identifying it identifying it you you you you have to first see that this is a problem in your life before you can get over it.

Does that make sense?

Pretty simple right you got to see this here.

Well how do I see this?

Well again by looking at the fruit of your life look what what what's coming out if you think that you can hide an elitist attitude and that never you know leaks out of you in some way you're buying into a lie right sin always finds a way out we have porous hearts we can't hold that in we can't hide that completely we can't and so maybe the elitist attitude for you it's come out in just a critical spirit maybe that's one for you and maybe you've even you you started coming into to our church and you've been like Harvest you know why why don't they do it more like this you know and I can't believe that listen this is kind of a side note here to all of this.

When I hear people coming in to our church and I meet you and I hear you slander or speak negatively about the church that you came out of you know where my mind is automatically going?

Yeah they're already doing that here.

And it's just a matter of time before it gets back to me and I hear about it and this becomes a huge problem.

I've seen it so many times this critical spirit listen this is a problem it's a huge problem in all kinds of churches is it a problem for you maybe that's it maybe the maybe the elitist attitude is is kind of coming out in your life by way of of isolation you isolate yourself like I don't need to be in community I'm gonna show up on Sunday mornings and and and open up my Bible and you know maybe I'll even skip the worship part I'm just gonna come in for the teaching and as soon as the service is done you better believe I'm out of here I don't need to join a small group I don't need to serve I don't need to get involved I don't need anybody to help me guess what you've got no Bible to back up that mentality none zero you you you can't do it on your own and if you think you can if you've bought into that lie guess what that's gonna come crashing down at some point is it isolationism for you is that it for you you're not open about where you're at you don't engage in the help that comes from the community maybe it's isolation maybe it's it's grumbling and and complaining it's it's anger it's bitterness all of these things happen as we have an inflated view of self and we think that we're elite and we've arrived and other people have not you've got to identify it what is it for you here's the second thing you've got to grieve it before you can ever truly get past this and see the Lord work on this in you you've got to grieve the sin that's there.

Does that make sense?

Like if you just if you just notice that it's there if you just identify it and pray really stiff and and wooden lip service type prayers but God would you you know change this in me I guess that's not accomplishing anything you've you've got to you've got to understand how this grieves the heart of God.

Your elitist attitude is going 100% in the wrong direction upstream from where God wants you to be and what he is trying to create in our church.

You've got to be broken by this you've got to grieve the sin.

God give me a hatred for this listen if you do not grieve the sin guess what you're gonna do it you're gonna keep doing it you're gonna go back to it time and time again because you're not broken by it.

So snuff out my elitist attitude I'll do it by identifying it grieving it and then fighting it you got to fight it.

Well how do we do that?

Well by things like prayer do you pray do you do you give this like intentional focused prayer not casual prayer once in a blue moon you know I guess I'll mention this no like I'm going after this I'm gonna do what it takes I'm gonna I'm gonna take some time this evening you know before I start my week I'm gonna go on a walk with the Lord I'm gonna bring these things before him I'm I'm gonna search the scriptures because I'm gonna need encouragement in this I'm gonna need I'm gonna need truth in all of this I'm gonna get in in my Bible constantly all the time and I'm gonna use that to fight this as well.

I'm gonna fight this through accountability I'm gonna get other people men or or women to to to help me in this to to talk about all of these things that's a good word for small groups if you wanna if you want to grow in all of this if you want to fight your sin you want to snuff out this elitist attitude you got to talk about it.

Are you doing this in your small group?

Has your small group moved beyond those surfacey prayers of you know we need to pray for my great aunt's arthritic hip right hear me I we're not I'm not saying that never pray for those do you hear what I'm saying here we but we need to go if we're never going beyond that if we're never getting deeper into the real stuff that's going on and just kind of vomit out what's actually happening in our hearts and and small group leaders leading by example in that modeling that if you're not asking for for accountability I I need this in my life because I can't do it you're not fighting it you're giving in and you're getting smoked you fight your proud and elitist heart by fighting in these ways and all of that fighting it through prayer and scripture and accountability all of that is really what?

Surrendering to the Lord surrendering all of it to him you should feel helpless in this hold on a sector like I I don't know I've tried certain things and I feel like I'm kind of I don't know I'm kind of discouraged about this and I don't really know how to move forward and and wow I can't really fix this in my life I would say good that's exactly where you need to be it means you're dependent now it means you can cry out to the Lord from a place of of brokenness and and and neediness and what humility God I need you to do this in my life I can't do it myself Lord transform me.

Snuff out this elitist attitude give me a heart for you give me a heart for others allow me to rejoice in what you're doing in me.

Allow me to rejoice in what you're doing in other people that's a big kingdom mentality last thing here.

If humility is at the core of discipleship then I must must sever what hinders and become a pleasing offering sever what hinders cut it off take a look at this here verse 43 if your hand causes you to sin you've seen this before cut it off it is better for you to enter life crippled than with two hands and go to hell to the unquenchable fire.

If your foot causes you to sin cut it off it is better for you to enter life lame than with two feet and be thrown into hell.

And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out.

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

Now do we understand what Jesus is saying here what he's doing he's not advocating literally for physical mutilation.

He's using hyperbole it's it's intentional it's it's extreme exaggeration to prove a point to show us here what's at stake if you and I refuse to sever the sin that stands in the way of our humility.

So when he says if your eye causes you to sin you see it there when he says tear it out he's saying that if your eye leads you to something like sexual immorality for example you must sever those strongholds in your life okay so if it's if it's porn that you're watching on your phone when you think no one is watching or no one is watching you you need to get rid of that man you need to smash the iPhone you need to go back to one of those awesome like Motorola razor flip phone things like actual physical buttons but you need to go back to that but I I don't know if I could because there's no Wi-Fi.

Is it worth your soul?

That's the question is it worth that sexual morality is just one example here.

We can go on and on and on maybe it's online chat rooms and you and you're you're talking to other men or women maybe it's maybe it's flirtatious behavior at work where your spouse is not maybe it's straight up other men or other women on the side listen if you don't deal with these things what does the scripture say here what is it what is it getting at what's the consequence hell hell it says that you are going to hell understand that dealing with sin is never a a casual if you feel like it you know if you got a free you know Sunday afternoon.

Why do you think about this?

That's not how the Bible operates if you and I fail to sever the sin in the power of the Holy Spirit and grow in holiness and and do what a disciple does you're revealing a lack an extreme lack of humility which could very well be proving a lack of salvation to people like this Jesus speaks in Matthew chapter 7 he's like I I I don't care how many good deeds you've done in my name.

Matthew 7 · chapter mention

I don't care how many services you sat down in at a church.

I don't care how many fancy Bibles you own.

I don't care how many Bible studies you joined I don't care how many act like men nights you came to I don't care about any of that outward stuff where the heart is untouched and unreached the answer is at the end of the day Jesus Christ will say to you I don't care about any of it I never knew you listen if you're a true disciple of the Lord you will face the garbage that's in your heart you will do it because that's what disciples do.

We have the Spirit of God creating a new spirit in us right uh a heart of humility a desire that that says Lord I'm willing to do whatever it takes I don't care how extreme it is to whatever it takes to kill this sin that's killing me and killing others I will hack off an appendage hyperbole if I have to I will sever what's hindering damaging others robbing God of glory halting my discipleship do you feel the urgency in this you should be welling up like I man I need to get to the Lord I need to go to him I need to bring this junk to him I need to talk to somebody I need to do business with him and as you do look what happens to you and and and in the church verse 49 it says for everyone everyone will be salted with fire salt is good but if the salt has lost its saltiness how will you make it salty again?

Have salt in yourselves and be at peace with one another now that might seem like man that doesn't seem to fit at all with what he's been talking about.

Okay but the salt and the fire there it's it's best understood in the context of of temple sacrifice both both salt and and fire were used in in those offerings right in in in the sacrifices the offerings of worship to God and so they're mentioned here as the as the as symbols of the trials and costs of discipleship.

Okay that's that's what they are and you need to know there there are deep costs to your discipleship.

You know that right we've been talking about that already this morning and James Edwards actually said that and he goes on to say I like this the the testing by fire is is not simply a painful necessity of discipleship what it but it is as or as much as it is but it's an offering itself pleasing to God.

A seasoning or salting With fire.

In other words, as you and I, we humble ourselves as we get low by doing these four things we've been talking about all morning here.

What does it do?

It pleases the Lord.

Right?

It is itself an offering of sacrifice that blesses God immensely.

Which listen, pleasing the Lord, that should be like at the top of our priority list as Christians.

So listen, I know that you've got sin in your life.

And so do I.

I know that it's that's murky.

Right?

And it's a lifetime of realizing, oh, it's actually worse than I thought.

You start to kind of peel back the layers, and the Lord is you're kind of shining the flashlight on that, and you're realizing, oh, like it's even worse.

And oh my goodness, this is a complete mess.

Listen, I get it.

Those waters are muddy and so are mine.

But really, if you think about it, there's no need to be discouraged here.

As you and I, as we humbly submit these things before the Lord, he is He's pleased by that.

Understand, he's blessed.

He loves that there's this willingness growing up inside of you.

He's smiling down on you when you do those very things.

And then he does what with that?

Well, he creates humility, right, in you, in your heart, in your mind, which is the core, of course, of what every other thing that discipleship is, is all about.

So listen, as I invite the worship team up here now, we're gonna sing that song that I just think we love so much.

Lord, I need you.

Right?

And as we sing this, I would just encourage you, allow this to be your song of surrender.

Allow this to come from that needy place.

It may not be for you filled with joy in this very moment.

It may be filled with discouragement.

Maybe you sense the the hope that you have in your savior.

It's it's been leaking away.

Well, find hope, find, find strength in him today.

As we sing this song, may it be a prayer, a prayer to him.

Cry out for grace.

Weep if you need to over your sin.

But at the same time, again, cling to the hope that we have in the Lord, in the one who has called us and gives us grace.