Treasured (Mark 10:13-31)

Good morning.

We're going to be in Mark chapter 10 today.

Mark 10 · chapter mention

If you do not have a Bible, please raise your hand.

We'll get one right to you.

We'll be teaching from the CSB today, and Mr.

Barnes will get one right over to you.

So we're going to be in Mark chapter 10.

Mark 10 · chapter mention

I woke up this morning and Atascadero almost convinced me it was fall.

And then I'm going to wait a couple hours and be like, nah.

But we're getting closer.

So we're going to be in Mark chapter 10, starting in verse 13.

Mark 10 · chapter mention

Alright.

And if you are able, please stand for the reading of God's word.

Starting in verse 13.

People were bringing little children to them in order that he might touch them.

But the disciples rebuked them.

When Jesus saw it, he was indignant and said to them, Let the little children come to me.

Don't stop them, because the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.

Truly I tell you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.

After taking them in his arms, he laid his hands on them and blessed them.

As he was setting out on a journey, a man ran up, knelt down before him, and asked him, Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?

Why do you call me good?

Jesus asked him.

No one is good except God alone.

You know the commandments.

Do not murder, do not bear commit adultery, do not steal, do not bear false witness, do not defraud, honor your father and mother.

And he said to them, Teacher, I've kept all these from my youth.

And looking at them, Jesus loved him and said to him, You lack one thing.

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

Then come follow me.

But he was dismayed by this demand and went away grieving, because he had many possessions.

Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, How hard it is for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God.

The disciples were astonished at his words, and again Jesus said, Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God.

It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.

They were even more astonished, saying to one another, Then who can be saved?

And looking at them, Jesus said, With man it's impossible, but not with God, because all things are possible with God.

Peter began to tell him, Look, we've left everything and followed you.

Truly I tell you, Jesus said, There is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters, or father or mother, or children, or fields for my sake and for the sake of the gospel, who will not receive a hundred times more.

Now at this time, houses, brothers, sisters, mothers, children fields with persecutions and eternal life in the age to come.

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

Amen.

Have a seat, please.

And Lord, I thank you so much for today.

Again, I ask that you would be glorified, that your word would be spoken truthfully and accurately, and that we would draw closer to you and get to know you your heart better and to follow you.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

It is only by God's strange sense of humor that we're teaching on things having to do with wealth in the same week that someone in Morro Bay won$700 million in the lottery.

Kind of a strange, like, oh, okay, there's that.

So the timing is very odd in that sense.

Okay.

So imagine this.

We're going all the way back to Genesis 25.

Don't worry, we're not going to do everything in between there and Mark 10.

But yes, that would be something.

So in Genesis 25, we have two brothers, Jacob and Esau.

And as you might be surprised to know, they didn't get along.

And Esau was a mighty hunter.

And Jacob was a tent dweller, whatever that means.

But here we have a scenario where Esau is out in the field and he's hunting while Jacob is cooking, cooking stew.

And Esau comes back and he's starving.

Comes back and says, I am starving.

Give me some of your stew.

And Jacob goes, sure, just sell me your birthright.

So at this point in time, we're supposed to, as the audience, go like, that makes no sense whatsoever.

Because the birthright is not only the right of the firstborn, it is the double portion as the firstborn.

It is the spiritual authority and blessing granted by God to their father Abraham.

It's a big deal, right?

And so we're expected to be like, no, that's crazy.

Why would you do that for a bowl of stew?

And Esau's like, deal, give me the stew.

What good is it if I die if I had to have a birthright?

I want the stew.

I pick stew.

And thus Esau despised his birthright.

And you're going, what does this have to do with anything?

Hang on to that.

Hang on to that for a moment.

This is how I keep you paying attention to the whole time.

So, okay.

Back to Mark chapter 10.

Mark 10 · chapter mention

People were bringing little children to Jesus.

Why?

Why were they bringing little children to Jesus?

Well, I don't think it was for healing because he didn't heal them, and so that would be a little bit odd.

But rather, to bless them.

They wanted him to lay his hands on them.

The Luke passage, Luke 18, references this as infants.

So they were young children.

And they're bringing their children to Jesus to be blessed, dedicated.

And to the disciples.

The disciples rebuked them.

Okay, three categories of rebuking in the gospels.

There's Jesus and Jesus is right.

So there's number one.

And then there is the religious leaders rebuking Jesus.

That's a bad idea.

And then there's the disciples rebuking Jesus, which is also a bad idea.

And so here in this scenario, they are rebuking parents for, or assumedly parents, for bringing their children to Jesus.

So we have to sit there and we have to think one of two things.

Either they are idiots, or they are not understanding what Jesus is about.

Let's pick door number two.

Because here's the thing: we are looking at these passages backwards, through the lens of the cross, through the gospel, all of these things, and we go, well, yeah, duh, of course.

Of course that would.

Why would you do that?

They're living this in real time.

And so the disciples here, everything in the book of Mark tells us that they are clearly not understanding Jesus' mission at this point in time.

How do I know this?

Because they keep trying to send away sick people, Gentiles, women, children, and pretty much anybody that's not them.

So, and when Jesus says straight up, this is my ministry, I am going to go and die and rise again, and they're like, they either go, What?

I don't get it, even though he says it repeatedly, or Peter tries to rebuke him.

It's one of those scenarios where clearly they are not understanding the mission of what Jesus is doing here.

And children are not, let me, I'll just say this.

If you're building a kingdom, if you are overthrowing an empire like Rome, children are not useful for that.

Especially infants.

And so that would be one of those, Jesus doesn't have time for this.

Come on.

And so they're acting as gatekeepers to Jesus.

Then we see Jesus' reaction.

When Jesus saw it, he was indignant.

Now, 21st century.

When I hear indignant, I see a stuffy British fellow.

And there he is, he's like, I say.

No.

Indignant, he's really mad.

That's what we're getting with this.

It's not a situation of, oh, he's like, oh, this doesn't, I don't like that.

He's really upset about this.

And he says, let the little children come to me.

Don't stop them.

Because the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.

Truly I tell you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.

And it's interesting because here the disciples, I would like to think that they think that they're doing the right thing.

And they're stepping up and they're showing initiative.

And Jesus has to make an example out of him in this scenario and be like, what do you know?

Stop.

Let the little children come to me.

And he turns it into a teaching moment.

That's something that Pastor Chris has said repeatedly that Jesus does.

He's he takes these weird situations and turns it into a teaching moment.

What does he teach them?

The kingdom of God belongs to such as these, number one.

And whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.

So here he flips the narrative on the disciples.

Not only does he say, What you're doing is not right, he also says, if you do not do as they do, you have a problem.

That's a big challenge at that moment in time.

So what does Jesus do in this scenario?

He takes them in his arms, he lays his hands on them and blesses them.

Little minor point, but I think this is cool, is what these uh people bringing the children to him, what they wanted was for him to touch them and bless them.

But Jesus isn't having that.

He scoops them up and picks them up in his arms and blesses them.

And that's just such a cool picture with that, is that I just I see such a great um parallel to where when we come to Jesus and we really hope he'll do this, and he's like, this.

And it's there is always more than we can possibly imagine that he has in that scenario.

So how do we receive as a little child here?

Don't the kingdom of God belongs to these, and whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.

Well, what does that mean?

Well, if you ask 50 people what this means, you will get 51 opinions on what it means.

So I'm not gonna tell you exactly what this means, but here's my take on this.

Contemporary example.

If you have, okay, I have a 12-year-old, a 10-year-old, and a seven-year-old.

And one of them's staring at me, so that's a little weird.

But uh, if you take them to the toy section in Target, this is not what happens.

They do not sit there, look pensively, look at the price tag, figure out that, figure out the value, go, okay, I need to work for this.

I need to work to earn a little bit more money, figure this out.

I gotta still gotta put some in savings just to be safe in that.

So give a little bit of overhead on that, and then I can thank you.

Thank you for taking us here, mother taking me here, mother and father.

I shall get to work.

What do they do?

And it's and in that scenario, a couple of things happened.

Number one, they are coming with need, with ask, with no concept of cost, with no delusion that they can do this themselves, that they can drum this up themselves.

Instead, it's, I see, I want help.

And um there's something beautiful with that because children are helpless in that scenario.

They're at the mercy of their parents, and they're at the mercy of understanding that their parents are good and will either do what is good, will do what is good for them, either to give or not give, given the context and the right thing with that.

But they don't try to buy it themselves, they don't take care of it themselves, they come to the parent.

And that's something that I see that I love here is that these children are coming to Jesus.

That's the win, coming to Jesus, not figuring out how to do this, not being gatekeepers, not all these different scenarios.

And that's such a beautiful thing in that is that they understand their need and they go to the Savior rather than figuring out how they can be autonomous in this situation.

That makes sense?

So let the little children come to me.

The kingdom of God belongs such as these.

Whoever doesn't receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.

Interesting thing in this scenario, at some point in time, uh in church, we've come to grow to a scenario where the sermon is the pinnacle of the church experience and everything else is periphery.

Somehow that has become the cultural norm in that.

And so typically what we want to do is try to make the children as quiet or invisible as possible during the teaching time or during the message so that the adult can do the spiritual heavy lifting.

And something I love is I was able to talk to our children's mystery director, Amy Allen, quite a bit about children's mystery and the vision for that, and ask things like why are the kids with us during worship?

What is the vision for that?

What's the heart for that?

And it's number one to have them participate as a family, as a part of that, to be together with that.

I was like, okay, that's cool.

So what do you do down the hallway?

And the goal is not to entertain them, necessarily just to basically make them, to babysit them until they can be jettisoned back to their parents full of sugar.

But rather, it is here's the fourfold thing that um she told me in terms of vision for children's ministry: that the children would grow, would connect with Christ, would grow in Christ, would know God's word, and would serve Christ.

Isn't that cool?

Connect with Christ, grow in Christ, know God's word, and serve Christ.

And so the goal is to disciple them in that sense, to participate in the discipleship process that begins at the home and we get to participate in.

It's not something that's delegated to the church or to another program.

So, but that's the the love that I the thing that I love about that.

By the way, shameless plug, uh, we need children's ministry helpers.

Who here likes kids?

See, I'm guilting people now, because if you don't raise your hand, okay.

Especially, and this is gonna sound strange, but especially if you are male, we would love to have some more male children's ministry helpers.

So please talk to uh Miss Amy Allen or to Nikki, my wife.

Raise your hand, please.

Thank you.

Um if you are interested in helping out with that, because there is there's a need with that and a blessing that comes with that.

So, um, something to chew on.

How do we not be like the disciples?

In what ways do we put up roadblocks to Jesus?

In what ways do we put up hindrances to people who might be coming to Jesus?

That's a good thing to chew on.

I'm not I'm not connecting dots, I'm just asking questions and not giving answers and then shuffling slowly off the to the next thing.

But ultimately, anything that we are putting up that is preventing people from coming to Jesus is something we would want to examine in that scenario.

Because it makes them indignant.

Okay.

You still holding on to the Esau-Jacob pot of stew?

Is that like simmering in the back burner, going like that's still there?

Well, okay, we're gonna keep going here.

Verse 17.

As he was setting out on a journey, a man ran up, knelt down before him, and asked him, Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?

Okay, so um cool thing about this is that Jesus has a full dialogue with this guy.

If I am about to set off on a journey, you don't want to have a dialogue with me.

It's not a good moment for me in my own.

I have a thousand details and variables going on.

And so it's cool that Jesus actually stops and talks and has not only that, but a very probing conversation with him in the midst of him getting set out on a journey.

If I am packing the van, it's best that I'm out there packing the van and not in there gathering family members.

So it's awesome that he did that.

Now, what do we know about this man?

Okay, according to the Luke passage in Luke 18, he's a he is a ruler.

We see that he has many possessions, that he is very wealthy.

So he is a ruler, he is wealthy, and so far you've said, yeah, it says rich young ruler in the subheading, I know this.

But he also knows he's lacking something.

It's interesting because otherwise he wouldn't have come to Jesus.

And so this guy who is a leader among his people, he is very, very successful, very wealthy, is coming up to Jesus and he is saying, What must I do to inherit eternal life?

What's the secret here?

And so, which is interesting because we see how this plays out, and and from our outside human eyes, this looks like a ringer for like, you look like you need to delete our next ministry.

So you are successful, you have leadership skills, you're wealthy, you're eager, awesome.

But Jesus is gonna probe here in this scenario.

And Jesus says, Why do you call me good?

No one is good except God alone.

Now, I would like to think that Jesus said this with a little bit of mischief, because number one, he's about to demonstrate that this guy is not as good as he thinks he is.

But then number two, he's saying, Why would you call me good?

Nobody's good except God.

Connect the dots, connect the dots, connect the dots.

I'm God, I'm God.

And he continues here.

He gives him the commandments don't murder, don't commit adultery, don't steal, don't bear false witness, don't defraud, honor your father and mother.

This is interesting because he gives the, there you can take the Ten Commandments, split them into two categories.

The first four are the vertical commandments, and then the second six are the horizontal commandments.

What I mean by that is the first four deal with your relationship with God, and the last six deal with your relationship with one another.

And Jesus here in paraphrase lists out the six horizontal commandments.

He says here, do not murder, which is number six, do not commit adultery, which is seven, do not steal, which is eight, do not bear false witness, which is nine, do not defraud.

Okay, covet, it's a paraphrase for ten, and then honor your father and mother, which is five.

He gives them all of the do no harm commandments.

You know these things.

Are you doing these?

And the guy says, I've kept all of these from my youth.

So add to his resume that he is of noble character, that he is upright and following the law.

And he is still lacking.

That's interesting in this scenario, that he is doing all these things and is still going, okay, what am I missing?

I am a good person.

What am I missing?

So, Jesus' response, looking at him, Jesus loved him and said to him, You lack one thing.

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

Okay.

Couple things to pull out here.

Number one, Jesus goes straight for commandment one no other gods before me.

And he pinpoints the idol in this guy's heart, his possessions.

This is what you lack.

This is what you're missing.

Your stuff.

Sell all your stuff.

Give it to the poor and follow me.

Basically, this all of this that you have, your your whole life, what you have built up of this scenario, your autonomy, your safety, your identity, I want that all off the table so you can follow me.

That's intense, is what that is.

And it's here's something that I love is that Jesus is not in rebuking mode here.

Jesus loved him in this scenario.

Isn't that cool?

This guy, this individual who on the outside looks very, very successful, coming to him, wanting help.

And it's interesting that Jesus has a soft spot for this guy, which is awesome.

And then as an extension of his love, he takes a chainsaw to his idol.

Is that that's something that we that is interesting to me that in that scenario because we like to take Jesus and Jesus' love as an example of we're gonna make as much of a safe, comfortable space and hope that somebody can connect the dots on their own.

Here, Jesus just goes straight forward.

Okay, number one, he's Jesus, so he's always right.

Number, but but and this can be abused when taken without that love part.

So, not all tough love is love.

Sometimes it's just tough.

But with that, it's interesting here in this scenario that an aspect of Jesus' ministry and shepherding is actually calling out that which is preventing somebody from coming to him.

And here's what the guy does.

He was dismayed by the demand.

He went away grieving because he had many possessions.

It's interesting that he considers this as to be a demand.

Jesus is like, here is your stipulation, this is my requirement of you.

And the guy is dismayed.

He grieves because he has many possessions.

Isn't that interesting?

Like he seeks Jesus' out, Jesus out, there's only one of them, and he goes for him, asks what he misses, what he's missing, and when Jesus gives it to him, he's like, I can't I can't do that.

This is interesting too because in the Luke passage, a chapter later in Luke, in Luke 19, a chapter after this passage, you have the story of Zacchaeus, where a guy is pinpointed by Jesus, hey, come follow me, and he comes follow him, and this rich uh individual, this chief tax collector, responds by doing what?

Giving away his stuff and his money.

Isn't that interesting, the juxtaposition there?

That it wasn't even asked of him, and he did.

So, and Jesus' response is today, salvation has come to this house.

So, we're gonna pause for a second and say a very, very important stuff salvation and righteousness.

Does not come from just from giving away your stuff.

It comes from surrendering that which prevents us from coming to Jesus.

Very important distinction.

So, but I something that I love is the way that Tim Keller put it in this scenario.

When you meet the real Jesus, you'll find that he wants much more from you than you ever thought.

And he offers much more to you than you have ever dreamed.

You can only have one of two responses.

You can either bow down in wonder and give yourself to him, or you can go away offended.

And his scenario basically is no one reacts passively to a direct to a real encounter with Jesus.

You're either going to bow down before him or go away offended.

But Jesus wants much more from us than we've ever dreamed.

And will give us, he offers much more, well much more than we ever thought, and he gives much more than we have ever dreamed.

It's an interesting scenario.

And the the axis on which that swivels is Jesus.

So you have this individual going away grieving because he had many possessions.

He can't do it, can't let go.

Why?

What is it about his possessions that are that is so entwined his heart that he cannot let go of it?

Well, this is uh oddly enough, one of the aspects of, I believe, the thorns in the Four Soils parable that's mentioned, that the riches are one of the things that actually choke out the seed and choke out the word.

But Jesus again takes this and turns this into a uh teaching moment.

Do you ever wonder if he's hurt?

I wonder that.

I don't have an answer for that.

But basically, like if Jesus is like grieving himself, he loves this guy.

Basically said, This is killing you, let go of it and have me instead.

And the guy's like, I can't do that, and leaves.

I mean, that hurts.

To people who care, that hurts.

So, Jesus looks around and says to his disciples, how hard it is for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God.

And the disciples are astonished at his words.

They're not like, huh, I don't get it.

They're like, wait, what?

What?

And so Jesus says it again.

How hard it is to enter the kingdom of God.

And he he expands it.

It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.

And they were even more astonished, saying, To who can be saved?

Now, I've heard this stated that there's this metaphor to where you have this whole like rock formation that's like the eye of a needle and a camel, and in order to go through it, you have to get it, you have to unload all of its stuff.

I don't think that would astonish the disciples.

I don't think that's what's freaking them out here.

Uh like if that was the case.

Ultimately, they're freaking out because Jesus is saying it's hard to enter the kingdom of God if you're rich.

Wow.

This is the part where we awkwardly shuffle on to the next passage and move on because we've been talking about a building project for weeks, and now that's really gonna be a really awkward thing to preach at this moment.

We're not talking about a building project.

But here's a scenario.

This is this is uh we gotta we gotta do some work here.

This this is the he who has he or she who has ears to hear, let them hear a moment.

We have, as a uh as an evangelical church, the evangelical church, for decades run a crusade, a noble one, against legalism, right?

And against what we call religion, which is problematic in its definition, but there we go.

A campaign constantly.

Do not be legalistic, do not be religious.

Noble.

The side effect is that we have taught scores of people that you don't actually need to follow Jesus' words.

That's a hard thing to say.

Some of you looking at me like, what did you just say?

Hi, Cajon.

Uh and but here's what I mean by that.

We have tried so hard to enforce and encourage for people do not, do not fall into legalism.

It's not about works, it's not about works, and that is truth.

It's not.

However, Jesus does require things of us that are idols in our hearts.

And we have very easily fallen into a culture of going like, uh, I I can I can work with both.

It's okay.

Or it's basically where you glow you gloss over.

And here Jesus is hitting one of the biggest idols that I think pervades our current culture.

Wealth.

And this is the difficult thing.

I originally had a bunch of passages, and I'm like, you know what?

This is where people glaze over.

So I challenge you, do a study in the New Testament on wealth, money, riches, gold.

Almost categorically, it is viewed as a negative thing and as a danger to your soul.

Is that weird?

Does that is someone a little, are you guys kind of like, is this kind of a little bit of friction here?

A little challenging?

I understand that.

That's why I get these passages.

Um but almost categorically, you look at and you look at these passages where, especially throughout the Gospels, we have that to where it is a snare, potential snare and a very real possibility of idolatry.

And we see that really hard in James, because really pretty much everything is intense in James.

We see that in 1 Peter, we see that in Hebrews, we see that throughout the book of Revelation.

It is interesting that this is like if you do a study in the specifically in the New Testament on wealth, it's not, it's viewed at best neutrally and usually as a potential danger.

And this is the moment where we usually go, okay, but there's that one verse in Proverbs, or three or four or five, there's quite a few verses in Proverbs that say this.

It's like, I understand that, then that is true.

It doesn't erase what the New Testament says about it.

So that's the challenge, just to homework.

Look that up on your own, go through those, do just a little word study of just those words and see what Scripture has to say about that.

It's a challenge, and here Jesus is saying, look, it's hard.

Not impossible.

It's hard to enter the kingdom of God with wealth.

Why is that?

Why is that so hard?

Because, again, taking another Keller quote, he's like Yoda.

Um, Jesus wants that through which you dream of a life of power and joy without God.

He wants that through which you dream of a life of power and joy without God.

And what wealth gives us is autonomy.

We can go to Target as a child and go, I want that, I got that, we're good.

Put it on credit, we're good.

Or, in this scenario, this is a difficult thing.

Why pray about it?

I can take care of this.

It gives us influence in our society, in our culture, it gives us power.

So, gotta pause here, because everyone's really sad right now.

Um but no one has left, so you're doing better than the guy in the passage.

So um and wealth is a pot of stew.

Has any aside from allergies or something like that, or joking times?

I'm going weird with this, but has anyone died from a pot of stew?

Only unless a pot hits your hair.

Well, okay, yeah, there that this is true.

But the scenario with this is that it's a neutral object unless you're willing to sell your birthright for it.

So that's what I want to uh hammer home in this point is that it is not a bad thing in a neutral heart.

The problem is our hearts are often not neutral in that scenario.

So here's a thought.

Literally, for the last year and a half, we have been given free money on a regular basis.

Would you see the typical temperature right now as happy in our world?

I mean, it doesn't cure the problem in that scenario.

And yet, it is something to where we can find autonomy and we can create in those things.

It's easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.

And they're freaked out and they go, well, who can be saved at that moment?

What do we do?

Like, I mean, because they were taught that wealth is the blessing of the Lord.

If you are not wealthy, then you must not be blessed, or you must be doing something wrong.

And here Jesus is saying, it's hard.

It's a hard thing.

So who can be saved?

And here's what I love here.

He looks at them, he says, With man it's impossible, but not with God, because all things are possible with God.

Isn't that cool?

So, who can be saved?

And Jesus is like, by your own means, nobody.

No one.

There's no hope by our own means, by our own power, wealth, influence, ability.

There is nothing we can do to enter the kingdom of God.

There is not a single soul in heaven that cares about our bank account.

And it's strange because you hear that and you go, oh, that feels weird to say.

That feels a little odd.

There's not a single soul in heaven.

When you get, when you are received into glory at the end of your life, they're not going to stop you and say, Did you use the envelope system?

Now, to be fair, they're not going to ask you if you didn't.

It's a neutral thing, okay?

Also, to be fair, we want to make wise decisions.

I believe it's the 1 Thessalonians, where they also tell where Paul is also telling people who are like, Jesus is coming, I'm not gonna work, I'm gonna live off of the church, everything's gonna be fine.

He's like, dude, be quiet and get a job.

So, responsibility, make wise choices.

So, that is an aspect of that.

I'm not discounting that.

However, we cannot bridge that gap, no matter what.

But with God, it's no problem.

So, what is it that we would need to do in that scenario?

We would need to come to Him like a child, full of need, full of hope, full of desire, trusting that he can do this.

And that is the beauty of these passages.

When I first saw these three together, I'm like, okay, but that's what I love about this is that children are good at coming to the parents when they have a need.

All things are possible with God.

This is not a problem for Jesus.

Isn't that beautiful?

Because this is discouraging, because before that statement, it's like there's no hope.

Even the bright and shiny individual here has no hope.

The one who walked away from Jesus, from following him, has no hope apart from him.

But following him is no problem.

There's nothing that can prevent you from him in that scenario if we don't allow it.

Isn't that awesome and encouraging to see how that plays out?

And these what we get, these treasure we have in, what do we get?

We get him.

We get more of him.

And we get all of that.

We have an inheritance in heaven, we see in 1 Peter.

Reserved in heaven, pure, undefiled, reserved for us.

It's beautiful to see in that scenario.

And so here's the thing, the tough question.

If Jesus asked you to do something, if God told you to make a decision that possibly reduced your bank account or hindered your career path, would we automatically say that is clearly not the Lord because that's not wise and we're not gonna do it?

And would we be willing to do that?

Yeah.

Now, big red flag here.

If a person says, hey, empty your bank account because I have this thing and you know you're gonna get this blessing from me, don't do it.

But if the Lord asked that of us, what would we say?

It's a challenge.

And those in those moments we're like, no, no, mm-hmm, I don't know, I'm not gonna think about that too hard.

That's a big thing.

This is what prevented this man from actually coming to Jesus.

What if we also used the resources we have to not only continue to glorify him, but to bless others in that scenario?

Um, and that's what I love here.

In Peter's like, look, we've left everything and followed you.

I kind of feel like Peter's feeling a little defensive here.

After the whole children, you know, the rebuke, and then the children and everything is like, look, we left everything.

We left our families, we left our jobs, we left our livelihoods all behind to follow you.

And what Jesus says here is there's no one who left house or brothers or sisters, or father, a mother, or children's or fields for my sake and for the sake of the gospel, who will not receive a hundred times more.

Now, at this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children in fields, with persecutions, and eternal life in this age to come.

I think one of the best ways that I see this is that Jesus takes care of his sheep.

Is there a point in scripture in the gospels where we see those who follow Jesus going, dude, I am starving?

We haven't eaten for days.

What are we gonna do?

What are we gonna like?

And Jesus is like, don't worry about it.

They're basically like, don't bother me with your problems.

I have this up here.

Jesus takes care of his flock.

Which is exciting and awesome to see that.

And then also, I think of the the book of Acts, the first couple chapters after Pentecost, after the impartation of the Holy Spirit, people coming together and they have things in common, and they're taking care of each other.

They are taking care of widows, they're taking care of those in need, they're selling their possessions to do so.

And that just really smacks of this passage, in my opinion.

This idea of those people living in that way had uh more brothers and sisters and fathers and mothers and children than you could possibly have dreamed in that scenario, as they lived in that thing.

And that's the beautiful thing about being in the body of Christ, is you have that.

You have that.

But that statement persecutions in there really don't like too much.

That was kind of one of those, like, okay, so this is not a this is not a wealth program.

You're not putting into spiritual annuity to get back blessing.

Rather, there's there's promises of difficulty, promises of hardship in that scenario.

But the last will be the will be sorry, the first will be last and the last first.

So, in society, in their society and in ours as well, those who are the wealthy are typically the first.

We see that in the book of James with people coming in, place of blessing.

We see that in a Jesus' statement to his followers.

Look, when you come in, don't go up to the front, go sit in the back and let and let the other thing happen.

And the and the last will be first, and that reminds me of the children coming to him.

Because in our modern convention, children are useless in that world, in that moment for building a kingdom, and yet this is exactly what needed to happen, is coming to him.

I love that.

I love that he is saying very clearly, it is impossible apart from me.

It is easy with me.

But in order to have me, you must have me.

You cannot have other gods before him.

And praise God, he's gracious to work with us in that process.

Not one and done, which is wonderful.

I love that.

I love that it's a continue, a continued process in that.

Um, and that that's such a blessing with that.

But this is this is what I chew on.

Whether it's wealth in this passage or another concept, I do not want to trade my birthright for a pot of stew.

Pot of stew ain't bad.

Have it, use it, enjoy it.

But it is not worth selling our treasure in heaven.

It is not worth losing that.

It is not worth losing a scary word, it's not worth um refusing that spiritual birthright that we have, that only we have in him.

And so that's that's my challenge in this, is that I've been chewing on for a few weeks.

If Jesus asked us to do something that threatened our career or our bank account, would we?

Not saying he will, but if he did, would we?

And also, how do we cling to our birthright?

And view a pot of stew as a neutral thing.

Neutral things, not like going like, ah, stew, get away, but rather just being like, okay, we can use that, we can use that for good, we can use that to steward for our families and for our lives and stuff, we can use that for one another as well.

But that's my challenge.

And then also, how do we come to him as a child?

Because everything that we have in our mental bank accounts is not what it takes.

What it takes is coming to him with with and being willing to lay aside everything that we have.

That that is our that is our God.

It's not enough to just do no harm.

It's not enough to just be, I didn't do these things.

But rather, how do we drop everything and come to him?

That's praying.

Lord, I thank you so much.

I thank you for your faithfulness.

I thank you for I thank you that there is nothing too hard for you.

I thank you that there is no other way apart from you, and that we can have confidence in you, that we can be anchored to you as our hope.

Help us to come to you as a child, full of hope and absent of deceitfulness, full of expectation that you take care of us, that you are good, that you are faithful.

And if you ask something of us, it is because you are good and you are faithful.

Let us do so with joy and with hope and not with fear.

Let us not put words in your mouth and think you want something that you don't care about.

But rather let us let us rest in you.

I ask, Lord, that we would do nothing to hinder others from coming to you, and I ask that we would come to you with full abandon, being willing to drop everything that is uh not treasure in your eyes.

I thank you for your love and your patience, and I thank you that you work with us and you have grace and your constant process, and I thank you that you love us, and that is why you guide us.

I thank you that you're a good shepherd.

Be glorified in your name.

Amen.