Mark 9:30-50 || The Book of Mark || Pastor Haron Kaisa

All right, let me go ahead and pray, and then we have a word for you guys tonight. So bow your heads close you outs, Father, God have your way. Holy spirits, speak to us. May we draw near to you through your word. May you give us ears to hear, in hearts to receive. In Jesus' name, we pray, Amen. May you stand as we read our passage for tonight we're gonna be in Mark chapter nine, verses thirty to fifty. But we're gonna read just a hand select a few verses here and Mark nine, verse thirty says here they went on from there and passed through Galilee. And he did not want anyone to know, for he was teaching his disciples, saying to them, the son of man is going to be delivered into the hands of man, and they will kill him. And when he is killed, after three days, he will rise verse thirty two. But then they did not understand the saying, and we're afraid to ask him. And they came to Capernaum, and when he was in the house, he asked him, what were you discussing on the way, But they kept silent, for on the way they had argued with one another about who was the greatest. John said to him, teacher, we saw someone casting out demons in your name, and we try to stop him because he was not following us. But Jesus said, do not stop him, for no one who does a mighty work in my name will be able soon afterward to speak evil of me. Whoever causes one of these little ones in verse forty two, who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him if a great milestone were hung around his neck and he were thrown into the sea. Last verse, verse fifty says, this salt is good, But if salt has lost his saltiness, how will you make it salty again? Have sought in yourself and be at peace with one another. You may be seated. If you're taking notes tonight, we'll jump right into it. I title tonight's message the Call to Discipleships, and I'm gonna give you the four points up front if you takeing notes. The four points are this the difficulty in verses thirty to thirty two, the display in verses thirty three to thirty seven, the dispute in verses thirty eight to forty one, and the demonstration in verses forty two. To fifty. As we pick up back in the Book of Mark, chapter nine, we are still in this afterglow of the transfiguration. Peter, John and James experienced this divine glory of the Father and they hear his voice. But when they come down from the mountain, they did what Moses did, and they found a crowd of unbelief. And this crowd includes Jewish scribes, it includes the disciples, and it includes a demon possessed boy and his father who cries out, I believe, help my unbelief. So we saw that Jesus then cast out this demon and declares that some spirit can only come forth by prayer and fasting. That was how verse twenty nine ended that seed. Now we pick up in verse thirty chapter nine and verse thirty to fifty, and we are basically in a halfway mark of the Book of Mark. Mark has sixteen chapters, so this is kind of like the halfway point. We are in the middle of a discourse on discipleship, and we now receive some private instructions on how to live according to what Jesus is teaching. Here. We are no longer outside with the crowds. We are now in the house back in Capernaum, their home base, So this section is kind of a coaches huddle to review the game film and prepare them for what's next. The Disciples are supposed to be teammates. They're supposed to be a team. But with any team, that can be the temptation to fight for position, to compete, to make comparisons about who is better at what, and to try to show them selves by deserving the best and most prominent role. We live in southern California. I don't know if you remember back in two thousand and three, two thousand and four, probably one of the greatest splits in NBA landscape, when Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant decided to split. What happened, Pride got in a way and they eventually lost in the finals. They could have kept winning championship after championship. You see, everyone wants to be the star, and everyone wants to desire that glory that comes with making the winning shot, or scoring the last goal, or hitting the home run and being the brightest above our peers. And it is this aspiration for superiority that Jesus wants to refocus and reshape with the twelve disciples, Jesus teaches them the meaning of being a true disciple. Look at verse through thirty two. This is the difficulty that we get here, and it says this. They went on from there, passed through Galilee, and he did not want anyone to know. This is this private ministry. We have his public ministry, but now this is this private ministry. For he was teaching his disciples, saying to them, the son of man is going to be delivered into the hands of man, and they will kill him. And when he is killed, after three days, he will rise verse thirty two. But they did not understand the saying, and we're afraid to ask him. Jesus again foretells his death his prediction of what is to come, the resurrection. So this is the second passion prediction. The passion refers to the events leading up to the death of Christ. So this story is part of an extended story and teaching on discipleship that runs from chapter eight to chapter ten, in which Jesus repeats this passion prediction three times in chapter eight, verse thirty one, and this chapter chapter nine, verse thirty one. In chapter ten, verse thirty two to thirty four, the first passion prediction, Jesus had taught his disciples not only that he would suffer, die and rise, but also that they must imitate him by losing their life in order to save them. The second passion prediction, in which we get our texts Jesus makes it very clear that this pattern of discipleship means service to other people. In other words, following Jesus is not something a person does alone. It takes the village. And so Jesus continues to tell his disciples this message in verse thirty one, and notice that nothing had changed, nothing took place in the hearts of the disciples. And we pick up in verse thirty two, we read that the disciples still do not understand what Jesus is saying, and we're too afraid to ask him. That was the difficulty for them. So Mark continues to highlight the spiritual dous of the disciples. What Jesus is saying still does not make sense to the disciples. But worse than all of these things, the disciples were too afraid to ask him. They were too scared. And when you read in this gospel specifically, we see that fear has shown to be a problem. Notice what Mark four point forty says, why are you so afraid? Have you still no faith? We saw that fear left to itself prohibits faith. Mark five point thirty six says, do not fear, only believe. Fear is supposed to lead to faith. So we see that fear is a problem in this gospel. Rather than fear causing the disciples to ask questions for further understanding, the disciples fear kept them from further understanding. See the call of discipleship requires us to understand two things. If you're taking notes, write this down, pride and humility. Learning to be humble is finding an understanding santification. What is santification? This is what it means to be a Christian. Santification means I'm being more and more like Jesus and less and less like this world. Santification means I'm being more and more like Jesus and less and less like myself. Santification means I'm being more and more like Jesus. I'm being less and less like sin to be made set set apart. You see, the Bible gives us examples of humility. In Psalms twenty five, verse nine, God guides and teaches those who are humble Proverbs three thirty four. God mocks the proud, but gives grace to the humble Proverbs eleven two. With humility comes wisdom Micah six ' eight. God is looking for humble people Matthew eighteen four. The greatest in heaven is a person who humbles himself like children one Peter five to six. God lists up those who humble themselves. You see, the disciples needed to learn humility because of their pride. They needed it because they had a messianic triumphal experience with the transfiguration, and so they were expecting the Messiah to enter this glory. They're expecting them to do something. They were they were trying to enter this glory with them. They were excited about this glory. They wanted the exaltation. The disciples needed to be checked. But also because they had terrible examples of spirituality. If you know, in the New Testament, they had grown up with Judaism, which focuses on spiritual pride. The spiritual leaders often exalted themselves above the people. And if even if you go to Israel today, they wore this thing called tef lynn, which is a black leather and what they often would do is they would recite Versus the shamai israeel auto nay at ljundu a kad and they would say this repeatedly over and over to signify their spiritualness, to let people know that, hey, I'm doing something for God. And they often would wear these robes. They would often give money into the temple by hiring a trumpet tear to blow a trumpet to let them know that they're getting ready to give money. They wanted to be appeer, humble. They wanted to appear like they were doing something. They even threw ash on their face, sat in public places. They wanted people to know how diligent they were and what they were wearing and what they were saying. See, these were the spiritual models. You gotta remember they didn't have a church. There were no alternatives. So for Peter, James, and John they saw just that the rabbinical teaching of what it is to be a pharisee or religious leader, the scribe. They all wanted to exalt themselves. Consider the examples of the eye trouble in the Bible, King who murdered his brother because of envy. What is envy? But a quest to be great, or maybe the Tower of Babel was an attempt to exalt humanity over God's commandments. Or Lot who sought to be greater and riches than his uncle Abraham. Or Pharaoh who hardened his heart because he thought he was greater than Yahweh. Or Saul who became plagued with this murderous envy because he was not viewed as greater than David Zaiah who would make the sinful mistake of assuming that he was greater than the priesthood and would be struck down by God with leprosy. Or even King Nebuka Nezzar, we know history an infamous example of one who thought he was the greatest, but went through a humiliation process and God humbled him real quick. Even in the New Testament we get Hero who sends this potential threat of another king. So what does he do? He kills all the babies because he wants to what protect his dominion, protect his greatness. The religious leaders, driven by the pursuit of their own greatness, motivated by this pursuit of I want to be number one, would murder the one who was truly the greatest, Jesus Christ, that's the background experience that these disciples are going through and caught up in all of this. He was the Messiah, and God had chosen these disciples to follow me, elevated their pride and made it difficult for them to be humble. The disciples Jesus is twelve, the ones. They were so caught up with pride, as you just read that, they were arguing about which is the greatest, who's the greatest in this kingdom? The difficulty the display point number two noticed verse thirty three to thirty seven. It says this, And they came to Capernaum, and when he was in the house, he asked them, what were you discussing on the way? But they kept silent, for on the way they had argued with one another about who was the greatest. And he sat down and called the twelve, and he said to them, if anyone would be first, he must be last of all and a servant of all. And he took a child, and he put him in the midst of them, and taking him in his arms, he said to them, whoever receives one such child in my name receives me, And whoever receives me receives not me. But him who sent me context Right, they're moving in the direction of Jerusalem, and they're going to Capernaum, and they're going to Judea, and they're eventually being Jerusalem in chapter ten. But before he does that, Jesus spends some quality time with his disciples, some private one on one, some team building, some team huddle. So this is his private ministry, and so he spends time with them, prepping them for the future. So they're in this house and they're confronted by Jesus. Jesus says, what what were you discussing on the way and what do they say? They've been walking a long time and on the way they had this this discussion and they didn't want to admit that they were talking about their ambitions and their self seeking and their highly competitiveness. Why because they were struggling with this idea that I'm the greatest. Now I got to know it all. And we get three implications from the text notice verse thirty three to thirty four. The first implication is the display of pride destroys unity, destroys unity. He says to them, what were you discussing on the way and what was their response? They kept silent. They know how to respond. Why were they silent? Because they were embarrassed, and they were scared, and they were ashamed. They were silent because they had been discussing with one another who was the greatest. Jesus just talked about his own humiliation, and all they can think about is their greatness. See pride unity because pride is critical, Pride is judgmental, pride is comparative, pride is self seeking. You're the story in John chapter thirteen, verse thirty five, where Jesus is in the upper room and his disciples and he tells them by this note this, people will know you that you are my disciples by what by your love for one another? Having just washed your feet, Jesus told him to humble yourself. Take no, you want to unified church, It begins with humbling yourself. You want a unified company. It begins with humbling yourself. You want a unified marriage. It begins with humbling yourself. You want a unified family, It begins by humbling your self. Only humble people love, and there is no unity apart from humility. You see, the unity of God people is a critical reality for the testimony of the Gospel That's how people will know when you step out in the highways and the byways, when you're at school, when you're at work. They gotta know by your love. The display of pride destroys unity. Look at the second implication the verse forty thirty five. The display of pride not only destroys unity, but it drops honored. He says this in verse thirty five. He sat down and called the twelve, and he said to them, if anyone would be first, he must be what the last of all and the servant of all? It not only kills pride, but it loses honored. That's what Jesus is saying here. Because prideful people, they want to battle for position, They want to battle for self promotion, they want to battle for self elevation. So what does Jesus do? I love the way he does things. He takes a teaching position, by what by sitting down? He sits down with them. So you want to be first. You want honor, you want promotion, you want position. You're thinking about being first. You think the path to being first is to save yourself or to elevate yourself. The way to be first is to humble yourself. Because pride will lose the very thing that you perceive you want. That's what pride will do. It drops honored, it loses honored. Jesus often got on the religious leaders because what they love to be elevated, and they love what they loved honored. They love recognition with the robes and the teflons and the trumpet tears. The greatest example of humility is who is Jesus. You see, the son of man didn't come to be served, but to serve and give his life a ransom for many. It's all about serving. If you want to be great, find the path to being last. That's what Jesus is saying here. And what does it mean to be last? It means It means this a servant of everybody and a servant of all. Pride will lose that. Pride will lose honor. You find true honor when you're willing to be last, not when you have to be first. The difficulty the display the display of pride destroys unity. The display of pride drops honor, and third, the display of pride in verse thirty six to thirty seven denies Jesus. Notice what it says here, and he took a child, and he put them in the midst of them, and taking him in his arms, he said to him, whoever receives one such child in my name receives me, And whoever receives me receives me not but him who sent me, Jesus here gives us. In the objective lesson a visualization, a picture of what humility looks like a child. So Jesus is doing here. We need to have this right culture view to understand this message, because if we see the perspective of how we see it, we see our culture. The Western culture views children as innocent, vulnerable, gentle and peer. But this is not the way they viewed it. This is not the ancient Near Eastern view of what children is for them. In their world, children were considered insignificant without social status. That's what they were known for. Children couldn't offer anything back, They couldn't give anything back to you. So doing something for a child meant you're not going to get anything in return. And because of that, to welcome a child and that society was to break social norms. It was it meant to lower yourself their standard and meant to lawyer yourself to accept another lower status than you, therefore risking your own power, prestige, position, and status. Welcoming this child is an illustration of what it looks like to make yourself last of all people and a servant of all people. So Jesus is painting for us. Why because a child has no power, They have no achievement, they have no accomplishment, They got zero status, they have no greatness. A child is weak, dependent, ignored, and has nothing to offer. What is Jesus saying here? When a Christian comes to you, Christ comes to you, That's what he's saying here. How you treat another believer is how you treat Christ, That's what he's saying here. Because because pride destroys unity, pride drops honor, pride denies Jesus. So how you treat other people? That's what he's saying here, a profound lesson Jesus is teaching us here. You're stepping on each other's neck. Here, you're trying to promote yourself above each other. You're trying to do all this thing to elevate yourself. And instead of opening your arms to become a servant of all like a child, you're worried about who's the greatest. You see how you treat other Christians, it's how you treat him, because Christ comes to you and his children. That's what Jesus is saying here. Christ comes to us and every other believer. And the bottom line is this. You better be careful how you treat other believers, because how you treat someone else, you're denying Jesus. That's what he's saying here. You've got to change the way you think. Instead of thinking you're better than everybody else, you've got to become the servant of everybody else and realize that every other believer is a child of God. That's what he's saying here. The difficulty, the display of pride destroys unity. The display of pride drops honor. The display of pride denies Jesus. Third, the Dispute Notice, verse thirty eight to forty one says here John said to them, teacher, we saw someone casting out demons in your name. We try to stop him because he was not following us. But Jesus said, do not stop him, for no one who does a mighty work in my name will soon 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 it gives you a cup of water to drink, because you belong to Christ, will by no means lose his reward. So here John is in the picture and he tells Jesus they saw someone cast out a demon in the name of Jesus, and they try to stop him because he was not following it. But if you were calling Luke Chapter ten, Jesus, Jesus ordained seventy people to go two by two, So it wasn't just the twelve, but it was the seventy and more. And so the disciples were trying to hinder the work of God because he wasn't part of the group. And so Jesus says, don't hinder them. Jesus reminds them about the diversity of the Kingdom of God. Right, they're either for us or against us. And if they're for us, they're for us. They aren't competitors, they aren't competition. What Jesus is essentially saying here is this, stop competing even with people who are outside of your group. Then Jesus says, this humility will get you far. It will get you where you need to go. Because humility gains blessings, Humility gains rewards, Humility gains favor. Look at verse forty one. For truly, I say to you, whoever gives a cup of water to drink an act of humility because you belong to Christ, will by no means lose his reward. The disciples we're thinking of this greatness equals reward. But Jesus saying here, it's not about greatness in your perspective, because pride wasn't going to get them that humility humility would It looks like this. You give a cup of water to drink to someone who belongs to Christ. That's humility. It's the sacrificial way of bearing the name of Jesus. That you go out of your way, whichever one of you goes above and beyond, to give a cup of cold water for the sake of Jesus. You won't lose your reward, because the fear was this, if I end up at the bottom, I'm gonna lose my reward. I'm gonna lose the pride. You see, the simple act of sacrificial kindness to one who belongs to Jesus will result in what you will never achieve by elevating yourself, you won't lose your award, you actually gain it. That's what Philippians chapter two says. Turn on me there real quick. It says here in Philippins chapter two, verse one through four. So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, same love, being in full court and one mind. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit. But in humility, count others more significant than yourself. You look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. That's a call to humility, and that's the model we get. If you go down to the next verse, it says this, have this mind among yourselves, which is yours, and who he's the model. He's an example that we follow. Did he lose his reward by becoming last? No, what happened. Look at verse nine. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name. God gives grace to those who humble themselves. God exalts Jesus. God gives grace to the humble, and God will exalt you if you walk in humility, the difficulty the display dispute. And as we close the demonstration Verses forty two to fifty, it says here, whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him if a great millstone were hung around his neck, and he were thrown into sea, Verse forty three. And if your hand calls you to sin, cut it off, it is better for you to end it and in life crippled, then with two hands, to go to hell, to the quenchable fire Verse forty five. And if your foot cause you to sin, cut it off, it is better for you to enter life lame, then with two feet, to be thrown into fire, into hell verse forty seven. If your eye causes you to sin, tear it out. It is better for you to enter the Kingdom of God with one eye, then with two eyes to be drown in, to be thrown into hell, where the worms does not die and the fire is not quenched, for everyone will be salted with fires. Salt is good, But if salt has lost this saltiness, how will you make your salty again? Have salt in yourself and be at peace with one another. This is probably one of the great reality of scripture. I'm reading this specific text. There's a lot of things going on here, and so one of the things that we want to do is preserve the texts from its original language, from Hebrew, Greek, and Aramaic. And so what's happening here is that you'll notice verse forty four and forty six are left out. And if you have a newer translation like the NAS the New American Standard, the RSV Revised Standard, the NASV, or the NIV or the NLT, any newer translation, you see brackets around him. That is because the earlier manuscripts these two statements did not occur. However, the statement in verse forty four and forty six is found in verse forty eight. So we assume this that describes saw the urge and see of this and just piled it all together, and that's what it is. And so the demonstration here in this section is very unique because what Jesus uses here and Mark specifically, is it's full of graphic terminology. It's full of severe warning and violent threats. What is this passage talking about. It's talking about radical discipleship that if you are real about it, you will do some real things about it. It's called for radical behavior, and we see three demonstrations of this radical discipleship. The demonstration of humility leads to devotion. In other words, the call of discipleship demonstrates love. Notice verse forty two, whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him if a great millstone were hung around his neck and thrown into the sea. Jesus is talking about love for other believers. That's what he's saying here. He warns us in this verse that before you lead another believe to sin, you would be better off to die of horrible death. That's what he's saying here. Very graphic. This verse is built on the principle of what verse thirty seven. You guys remember verse thirty seven, where it says here, whoever receives one child and my name receives me, And whoever receives me receives not me but him who sent me. That's what he's describing here. How you treat a Christian and believer is how you treat Christ. Because how you treat Christ is how you treat God. That's what he's saying in verse forty two, it's a kind of love that works very hard never to be a source of sinfulness to another Christian. That's what he's saying here. Doesn't solicit sin, That's what he's saying here. A demonstration of humility leads to devotion, second demonstration of radical discipleship. Is this a demonstration of humility leads to decency or purity? No, this verse forty three to forty seven. We're gonna look at forty three, forty five, and forty seven. It says in and if your hand calls you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life crippled than with two hands to go to hell, to the quintuple fire, and in verse and if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life lane then with two feet to be drawn into hell. Verse forty seven. 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. You're never going to be able to lead someone else into righteousness if you're not righteous yourself. That's what he say here. That's what he's saying, how can you ask people to go deep with God when you ain't going deep with God? How you gonna ask someone to read the Bible if you ain't reading the Bible. I remind myself every time I'm hanging out with these, with these high schoolers, eleven to eighteen year olds, I'm like, I gotta get deeper with God, because if I'm requiring them to read, I gotta get in tune with God. You're never going to be able to lead someone else into righteousness if you're not righteous yourself, if your heart is impear, you will lead others to sin. That's what he's saying here. Jesus is talking about radical, severe action against any and all sin and body parts of mentioned here, the hands, the feet, and the eyes. These are pretense verbs which emphasize the continual struggle with temptation and sin. An amputation here is radical. That's what he's saying. It's an action against anything that stands in the way of holiness, anything that stands a way of righteousness, anything that stands in a way of purity. Obviously, he's not talking about physical mutilation, but he's talking about metaphor mutilation. What is he saying, deal seriously with sin, and I love what John Owen says, one of the greatest Puritans. He says, kill sin or sin will kill you. That's what he's saying here. So the results of not doing this is what what's the result? Hell? That's the result? Very radical, right, You're like man Mark, like Jesus was doing his thing, because Hell is mentioned how many times three times in verse thirty forty three, forty five, forty seven. Because Hell is at stake here. That's what he's saying. Probably one of the strongest language Jesus gives throughout all of the Bible is this specific verse, because he wants you to know that Hell is real and that it takes a radical approach, with the radical behavior and the radical mindset to be a radical disciple of Jesus. And once we run from sin towards righteousness and embrace the Savior, the only one who can save us from sin and grant us that righteousness. Until we do that, we haven't even begun to be a disciple of Jesus. It takes a radical approach. Close with this call a discipleship demonstrates devotion decency in the Third Dedication, though this verse forty eight to fifty. It says, where the worm does die and the fire does not quench, for 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 yourselfs and be at peace with one another. There's a lot to go into in this specific portion, but what he's saying here is this Ezra six 's nine is probably the verse he is referring to, because the salt that was often stored up before sacrifices was combined with fire because sacrifices were burned, and these sacrifices had sought, and so salt was added to sacrifices as a symbol of God's enduring covenant. So these Jews would often add these salts into the sacrifice because it was a preservative. And why does he do that? Because that's what they needed to hear. Back in verse thirty three, Jesus says, what were you discussing on the way to comparn them? Jesus is wrapping his teaching all the way back around. What were they talking about? Who is the greatest? They kept silent and on the way they had discussed with one another. Jesus is saying this, stop fighting, stop elevating your stop the competition, stop being the cause of temptation. Because the result of this is Matthew five point thirteen. You are the wet, the salt of the earth. That's what the Lord is saying here. To soort yourself in Mark. There are no other spiritual influences in this world than the true disciples of Jesus, who are known by the radical nature of their discipleship. I'll close with this quote by Tim Keller says this discipleship is not an option. Jesus says that if you, if anyone would come after me, he must follow me the difficulty, the display, the dispute, and the demonstration. Let's pray, Father God, we thank you for this word, your word that sanctifies us to make us set apart from this world. I pray that you would continue to help us to draw near to you. Help us to see your word as important. Help us to live this radical behavior of discipleship. Help us to walk in humility, help us to treat one another with respect, Help us to live your word daily. Jesus day, we pray before we leave. I want to share the most important message. Do you daily realize that your life is being examined by the audience of one person. Do you daily realize that everything around you, skyscrapers, the buildings, staple center, wherever it is, will burn one day? Do you daily realize that there are only two destinations in life? Heaven and hell? If you were to die today, how do you know how sure of you that you will go to heaven? Some of us in this room I say I think I'm going to heaven because I'm a good person, when no, we're in a Bible. Doesn't say because you're a good person you have access to heaven. Well, some may say I think I'm going to heaven, when no, we're in a Bible. Does it say you can think yourself into heaven. That's not how you get there. I know I'm going to heaven because I love God. What know, We're in a Bible. Does to say because you love God that you have full access to Heaven? Well, I know I'm going to heaven because my mom and dad told me I'm a Christian. We know Where in the Bible does it say because your mom and dad tells you you're a Christian that you are going to heaven. Why know I'm going to heaven because I got I gotta, I gotta cross on my body, I got tattooed on it, I gotta I got a necklist that has a big symbol of the cross, and where jewelry that reflects the Christian faith and wearing these T shirts. Nowhere in the Bible does to say because you have a cross around your neck, you have a cross on your body, that you're going to heaven. Well, I know I'm going to heaven because I serve in the church, I serving patriot kids, I'm Patriot youth, and I singing a choir, and you know, and handing out brochures. Where nowhere in the Bible doesn't say because you serve at church serving a choir, that you're going to heaven. Jesus tells Nicodemus in John chapter three, verse three, and he says this, you must be born again. Here Nicodemus, the keeper of the law. He understood the word, he debated with the word, he memorized the Torah. He wasn't even he was even a good guy. Being born again means this given everything to Jesus. It's an all or nothing relationship Jesus plus nothing equals everything. That's what he's saying. So you want to you want access to heaven. That's how you get to heaven. John fourteen, verse six says, I am the way truth in life. No one comes from the Father but through me. It only happens through Jesus Christ. Romans ten, verse nine and ten says that if you confess with your mouth, turn from your sins, that is how you are saved. So on account three, if you want to be saved tonight, if you want to be sure in your heart and your mind, who is this for? Is the person that's been running from God and not running to God? Who is this for? Is the person that hasn't completely given their life to Jesus. Who is this for? Is the person that is on the fence. I don't know if I'm going ahead on account? If I want you to raise your hand one, two, three, raise your hand. See some hands right here, Praise God. If you made that decision, feed after me, say, Dear God, I confess my sin, turn away from this world. Help me to live for you. Help me to love you with all my heart, all my mind, and all my soul. In Jesus' name