“The God of the impossible” - Mark 10:23-31

We're going to continue our series here. Last week, we looked at the rich young

ruler. We looked at how children come to the kingdom versus how a rich man comes to the kingdom.

This week, Jesus is going to apply that message to his disciples.

Maybe you remember being rich as a kid. Maybe the first time you had $100 and

you thought, I will never have to work another day in my life.

You know, you walk out of your birthday party and somebody's giving you $20

or 40 bucks and you're like, dude, I bet I can buy a whole McDonald's.

I can't imagine ever being poor.

I can remember graduating from high school. You know, everyone gives you graduation

gifts and you send them out to people that you haven't seen in 30 years,

right? It's like, oh, hey, my kid's graduating. Would you like to give us 10 bucks?

And, you know, maybe you end up with 500 bucks or a thousand bucks and you think,

I just don't understand how you could ever spend this much money.

And then 20 years later, it's like, I don't know how I ever thought that much money meant anything.

By the time you pay the electric bill and the water bill and probably one kid's sport, it's over.

The problem is for many people, I don't know that we ever outgrow the rush and

the feeling of getting something that we want.

Whatever the thing is, again, maybe when you were a kid, you wanted a video

game system or you wanted, I don't know, a wood-burning kit,

lawn darts, whatever it is for you, everybody can remember something that they wanted.

When they got it, they thought, I will never need anything else.

It turns out a week passes, two weeks, three weeks, four weeks,

six months, and you do want something else.

You want something different. You want the newer version of what you already had.

You want more of what you got, right? We're all guilty of that.

When you get your first car, you're just happy to have a car.

And three years later, you're like, you know what? I could really lose this car.

Whatever it is, maybe it's a job. You get a job. You think, man,

I'm so happy to have this job.

And six months later, you think, you know what would be better? That guy's job.

And I think this is the heart of what Jesus is getting at with the rich young

ruler and ultimately with his disciples today,

that the world, the earth where you live will always have something to offer

you that will entice you to say, if I had that, I would never want anything else.

If I made this much money, if I had this much possession, if I had this house,

if I had this yard, if I had this relationship, if I could get this job,

then I would never want anything else.

And that's a lie. And it's a lie that all of us believe.

Some of you who know my nerd hobby is collecting Bibles. I love collecting Bibles.

Even that has turned into that for me, where it's like, you know,

if I could get this Bible that has 36 GSM paper, and some of you are going,

man, that's really stupid. And I'm like, you're stupid. Okay.

You've never had a Bible that's 36 GSM paper that was printed in Sweden. Okay.

And you get that Bible and you go, you know, what would actually be good though? 42.

But that Bible is $800. Maybe someday, you know, listen, for the record,

I know some of y'all are really nice. Don't buy me that.

Okay. Don't feed the addiction. Don't try and be like, oh, you know what we

should get him. Don't do that. It only gets worse.

If you look at my eBay right now, like my watch list, it's just like,

you know, 1600 Geneva Bibles for $8,000. And I'm like, you never know. You never know.

What do I need that for? I don't need it. Anyway, that's the problem.

That was the problem with the rich young ruler. That's the problem with his disciples.

Remember this whole discussion, this whole, really these last two chapters began

with them walking down the road and arguing about what? Who's the greatest?

Who's the greatest? Who's going to be the greatest? Who's going to sit at the

right hand of Jesus? Who's going to rule with him? Who's going to reign with him?

Who's going to handle the money? Who's going to handle the finance?

Who's going to handle the job situation? Who's going to be the greatest in his kingdom?

And Jesus has been systematically breaking that down to say,

it'll be the one who serves the most, the one who gives the most.

You want to receive the kingdom? You receive it like a child.

So Jesus' gaze here goes from the rich young man, the rich young ruler,

to his disciples. We're in Mark chapter 10. We're going to start in verse 23.

Mark 10 · chapter mention

I'm going to read the end of what we did last week. He tells the rich young

ruler, because he loves him, you followed all these laws or you think you follow

the laws, go sell everything you have.

And he says in verse 22, this man was disheartened and he went away sorrowful

for he had great possessions.

Verse 23, and Jesus looked around and said to his disciples,

how difficult it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God.

And the disciples were amazed at his words, but Jesus said it again. So just a quick Pause.

Why are the disciples amazed? Why are they amazed that Jesus said that?

Well, because they thought kind of like we thought, and you see this in the

way that they act. When the children come, we talked about this last week,

when the children come to Jesus, they kind of go, hey, listen,

he doesn't have time for everybody.

He can't take in everybody. Like at some point we got to draw the line and we

can't have everybody's kids coming up here trying to get in Jesus' lap.

Of course, Jesus rebukes them.

But then the rich young man comes up, this ruler, and you got to know the disciples

are like, well, obviously, sir, they unhook the rope, you come right in.

The way that they think is the way that a lot of us think.

The one that has cleaned themselves up, the one that has something to offer,

the one who's done well in their lives is the one that Jesus is looking at going

like, hey, I could use you on my team.

Now, we may not even say that out loud, and we may go on mission trips and say,

well, you know, we're going to go reach the poor kids in Africa.

We're that's all well and good. And it's easy to do for a week.

But think about the way you live your life. Think about the churches you've

been in, the people that make it to the top, the people that have the big positions,

the people whose opinion gets regarded to the most is always the people that

look like the rich young ruler.

Right, man, they're cleaned up. They look right. They've got the pocketbook to match.

I'm not necessarily saying I'm even opposed to that.

One of the requirements for being an elder, a leader in the church is what?

They need to rule their household well.

But the disciples can't understand at this point how money or how wealth gets

in the way of someone coming into the kingdom.

And so when Jesus says, it's so difficult for those who have wealth to enter

the kingdom of God, they're amazed.

The Greek word here literally could be said, stupefied.

Like they're dumbfounded. They can't understand. They can't wrap their mind

around why Jesus would say that.

And I love how Jesus responds to them. He says in verse 24.

The disciples were amazed at his words, but Jesus said to them,

children, how difficult it is to enter the kingdom of God.

Now realize what Jesus does. He removes the wealth.

Now he says children, right? The tone changes.

It changes from how Jesus would talk to everybody's kid that walked up to him,

to the kids that are right in front of him.

It's like when I coach all these kids, that's one conversation.

When I coach my kid, we have different kinds of conversations.

I know him better than I know the other kids.

I know his heart. I know his mind. I know what he's like. And that's what Jesus

is saying. It's like, hey, I've talked to the rich young ruler.

I've talked to the kids. I've talked to the crowds. Now I'm talking to my disciples.

And he uses a term of endearment. He says, children, it's almost like he's pleading

with them to listen. Would you listen? Please listen.

You don't get it. You're arguing about who's the greatest. You think the rich

young ruler should get in. You won't let the children in.

You're doing all of these things. You don't get it. And so it's like he's pleading

with them to listen, children.

Then he says how difficult it is to enter the kingdom of God.

Verse 25, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of the needle than

for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.

He says both things. Hey, number one, it's just difficult to enter the kingdom

of God. It's a hard thing to do.

It doesn't matter who you are, rich, poor, young, old, it's a hard thing to do.

And he says for a wealthy person, it's like a camel going through the eye of

the You may have heard the illustration that there was an actual place in the

wall they called the eye of the needle.

That's a 9th century thing. It's a really cool story. There's really no reference

to that in the Bible. So I'm just going to say that Jesus is literally saying

there's a needle. You know what the eye of a needle is. It's like trying to

get a camel through there.

To which the disciples rightly understand as impossible.

Verse 26, he says, and they were exceedingly astonished. First,

they're amazed, they're stupefied.

Now they're astonished, right?

They were hoping Jesus would clarify and he doesn't. He just doubles down.

You ever done that? You're talking to someone and they say something that doesn't

make sense. And you're like, well, that just doesn't make sense.

Let me have them clarify. And then when they say it again, They just say the

exact same thing stronger. And now you're like, well, now what do I do now?

Now he literally just said the same thing. And I thought he was wrong.

And then he clarifies. Then he actually says the same thing again.

So they say they're exceedingly astonished and said to him, this is a great

question. Then who can be saved?

Then who can be saved? They're saying, Jesus, it's difficult for everyone to

enter the kingdom. And if wealthy people have to go through the eye of the needle

and you're saying this doesn't work and that, well, then how are people saved?

Realize where they've come. They started with who's the greatest.

So confident, so prideful in themselves that they can look at the King of Lurie

and go, I should sit at this guy's right hand.

I'm the one that should lead with him. I'm the one he should put in charge of things.

I am so sure of myself and so, again, prideful that I should be in his cabinet when he takes over.

Jesus has taken them from thinking that way in a matter of, in your Bible,

about two chapters to saying, who can even be saved?

Now they're not arguing about salvation. They're not arguing about who's the

greatest. They're arguing about who could even get in.

Just as a practical note, let me tell you, that's how Jesus works on people.

That's how it looks to come to Christ.

When you come to Christ and you think, well, I'm going to pray the prayer.

I'll walk the aisle. I'll get baptized. I can do this.

I'm a pretty good person. I've done some pretty good things.

I've accomplished quite a bit.

I've given some money. I've gone on the mission trip. I've served.

I can handle this myself. And then Jesus begins to work on you.

And every Christian who's been a Christian very long has had this experience

where you think, man, I've got this thing figured out.

And then it's not long after that, that you look at Christ and you go, how can I be saved?

How can this happen?

How do I come to this place? Right? I thought I had it figured out.

I thought I was doing great. I thought I had every answer.

And now, Jesus, I don't even know how anyone could be saved.

It's a great question to ask. It's a great question to ask.

And Jesus is essentially saying, listen, the person who attaches themselves

to this world and what the world offers them is a person that will never see the need for Christ.

And we give rich people a hard time. I don't know that that's really Jesus' driving aim here.

Obviously, he has the rich young ruler.

It's a case in point example, but now he's talking to his disciples.

Not all these guys were rich. Maybe some of them had more money than others.

Now they're walking around with him and all the money they have is just gifted

to them pretty much. We don't know how much money they had or how much they didn't.

But he's talking to his disciples now, not some rich young ruler.

And he says, there's really no way that somebody that thinks what the world

has to offer is worth it will ever get in the kingdom.

So again, he calls them children. He stupefies them. He amazes them.

It's hard for me to read this and not think about the fact that Judas hears this.

The same person that will soon sell Jesus for some silver hears Jesus say,

man, it's almost impossible for a rich person to get into the kingdom.

It's so hard for them to do it.

Judas sees his conversation with the rich young ruler. He sees Jesus have these

moments where he says, listen, if wealth and what the world has to offer you

is what you want, you'll never enter the kingdom.

And it's interesting that Judas has the same response the rich young ruler did,

he ends up walking away. What? He walks away sad.

He realizes that the money has a hold on him.

He realized that the world has a hold on him.

As Jesus is saying this, we learn later in the Bible that Judas is actively

stealing from the disciples.

But here's the kicker. If Judas is taken by wealth and he wants to be wealthy,

he wants to have what the world offers him, but yet he sees every miracle.

He hears every teaching. He witnesses every moment. He sees Jesus raise people

from the dead. He sees blind people regain their sight. He sees lame people

start walking. He sees Jesus walking on the water.

He sees Jesus and holds the basket as he feeds five to 10,000 people with little

more than some loaves and a couple of fish. He sees all of that.

He experiences all that.

He is one of the ones that Jesus sends out to cast out demons.

And yet that doesn't break Judas of his love of the world.

That doesn't break Judas away from what he's doing.

So what will break him away from the world? What will do it? Jesus is.

The disciples asked the right question. Jesus, verse 27, Jesus looked at them

and said, with man, it is impossible, but not with God.

For all things are possible with God.

How are you saved? Because God can do anything.

Because God can do anything. Again, if it was about your experiences,

if it was about your mind, if it was about what you could see,

and what you could feel and what you could touch, then Judas would have every

single advantage on you.

There is nothing that you will experience on this side of heaven that Judas

didn't experience tenfold.

I highly doubt that Jesus is gonna come down from heaven and go to a hillside

and go find a couple loaves of bread and some fish and bring you with him and

say, hey, watch this. He's not gonna do that.

Jesus is not gonna come down just so that you can see him raise dead people

from the grave. He's not gonna do that.

Judas has every advantage on you. And it is simplistic to think,

And I would honestly go as far to say prideful to think, well,

I'm just better than Judas.

If I was Judas, I wouldn't have done that.

If I was Judas, I would have never done what he did.

My response to you, especially this morning, would be simple. Is that what Jesus says?

Is that how Jesus differentiates the person that's in the kingdom versus the person that isn't?

No, just we do this in the morning now with all the students and they're gonna

get tired of me hearing it, but like, just read the book.

It tells you the answers. It's an open book test.

Don't guess. Don't use your brain and go, well, I think it's this.

Just read it. What does Jesus say?

How can anyone be saved? They ask. And Jesus says, well, actually with man, it's impossible.

Man can't save anybody. You can't save yourself.

I can't save you. Your grandma and grandpa can't save you. No pastor can save

you. No YouTube pastor can save you. No video can save you.

No prayer can save you. No baptism can save you.

Anything that man can do in and of themselves cannot save.

It doesn't have that quality. And Jesus is intrinsically and perfectly clear

to his disciples, you can't do it.

It's the final straw that breaks the camel's back from who's the greatest.

Who's the greatest? The quickest way to realize for these disciples that none

of them are the greatest in the kingdom is because all of them think they are.

And Jesus says, you can't even save yourself. You can't even do that.

He says, but with God, all things are possible. All things are possible.

Right? So there's a couple of ditches that we fall into. We think,

well, I've done so much wrong.

I've done so many sinful things. I've made so many mistakes that God could never save me.

Right? That's not really in view in this passage, but that is a ditch.

I would say the other ditch is I can do it myself.

Like, I need Jesus to help me, but if he tells me what to do, I'll do it, right?

Tell me what to say. Tell me where to go. Tell me what to do. I'll do it, right?

Both of those approaches miss what Jesus is saying, which is you can't send

yourself into a place where God can't save you, and you can't do enough good

things into a place that God will save you. That's not how it works.

It's not about what you have done or will do or could do. It's just about what

God wants to do, what God can do.

When someone asks you, man, why are you saved? The best response you can give

them is because God can do anything.

Because God can do anything. They say, Brady, why are you saved?

Because God can do anything.

Oh, you know, but you went to Bible college. You have degrees and,

you know, you read your Bible and you know some Greek words. So?

So? Judas saw him raise someone from the dead.

I don't know if you can put that on a plaque and put it on a wall,

but that should mean more than a degree.

I'm not saved because of something I've done or accomplished.

I'm saved because God can do anything he wants.

And he, in his gracious kindness, saved me.

The next question somebody is going to ask you, which is a good question,

is, well, how do I get saved?

The answer is, man, there's good news. God's willing to save anybody.

He tells us before, right? How do you get saved? Accept the kingdom like a child.

Again, some of the things we say in here, even what I just said,

doesn't really make all of the sense in the world, right? We want it to make

sense. We want to be able to tell somebody, here's X, Y, and Z. Here's how you do it.

Pray the prayer, walk the aisle, get saved. You're good.

But that's not how children receive things. Children don't receive things because they make sense.

Children receive things because they realize the person giving them is good.

Their mom, their dad, their teacher, their pastor, whoever it is.

When kids receive things, they're going, this person is good and they want to give me something.

This person is good and they're giving me something.

Salvation is, at its essence, that. When Jesus comes to preach,

repent and believe, what he's saying is, hey, turn from yourselves.

Stop relying on yourselves. Stop looking at your sins or your accomplishments

and look to me. Repent. And then what? Believe.

Trust me. I'm good. I'm gracious. I'm kind.

We've already seen this principle played out in Mark's gospel over and over and over again.

He's taken poor beggars like the blind man or the lame man, and he's made them walking rich sons.

He's taken adulterous people like the woman at the well and caused her to drink

from a stream that will quench her thirst eternally.

He's taken legalistic religious people like Nicodemus and given them the pathway

to be born again to new freedoms only found in Christ.

He's looked at this rich man who he loves dearly and has hopefully helped him

to see that this world is worth nothing if he loses his soul.

Psalm 3.8 says, salvation belongs to the Lord, that he possesses it.

He owns it. It's his.

It is his to do what he wants with. Now, what does that do for us as we live

here, as we breathe here? Well, number one, it should give you hope.

The God who is all loving, all knowing, good, gracious, kind,

long suffering, that salvation belongs to him.

Because if it belonged to you or to me, the number of people that would qualify

for it would get a lot smaller, right?

There's a lot of people that would get kicked off the list that salvation is

possible for if I was in charge of it.

Number two, in your evangelism, as you share the gospel with people,

what it should do is embolden you to share the gospel with anybody, with anybody, right?

Because who they are, what they've done, where they're from,

what they know or don't know, what they can do or can't do, what they have done

or haven't done has no bearing as to whether or not God is going to bring them into the kingdom. None.

And you or me get to be free from being the arbitrator of who gets to hear the gospel.

Also free from being the reason that they get saved or not, right?

Jesus takes that off of your hands. He doesn't say, hey, listen,

if you don't do it right, right? If you don't get the Romans road right,

and that person goes to hell, that's on you.

If you don't have the answer to some question they ask, if you don't go to the

right verse, if you get cloudy and you're like, oh, I can't remember what to say.

Jesus is essentially telling you, hey, take a breath, man. it's not yours to

give anyway. It's not about you.

You get to be used. You get to be an instrument of God's mercy and grace.

Share the gospel with everyone.

Share the gospel with anyone at any time.

It's not your job to save them.

Revelation chapter 7, verses 9 through 10, actually quote Psalm 3, 8.

Revelation 7:9–10

And John, having this vision, says, after this, I looked and behold a great multitude

that no one could number from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and

languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb of God,

clothed in white robes with palm branches in their hands

and crying out with a loud voice,

salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne and to the Lamb.

When all things are said and done.

Every person who has ever been saved, if you want to use that terminology,

redeemed, glorified, every person that has been made right before God stands

before his throne. You know what we're all going to cry out?

We're going to cry out, salvation belongs to our God. How will we know that? Because we'll be saved.

We won't stand around his throne and talk about what we've done or what we've

accomplished or what we did or what we gave.

We will stand around the throne and say, salvation belongs to our God.

And the disciples are learning firsthand what, again, every Christian either knows or will know.

So if they're saved, they've been saved because it belongs to God and he gave

it to you. He gave it to you.

It may have come different ways. You may have been at church camp.

You may have been at VBS. You may have been out in the field with a friend who

shared the gospel with you. I don't know.

You may have prayed the prayer. You may have not prayed the prayer.

You may have walked the aisle. You may have not walked the aisle.

You may have stayed in your seat. You may have got baptized in a church.

You may have got baptized in the lake. I don't care. It doesn't matter.

The means and methods are not the issue.

God saves. That's the issue.

Salvation belongs to the Lord. So we've covered the problem,

loving the world, loving what the world offers to us. We've covered the solution.

Salvation belongs to God.

What's the motivation? The motivation, Jesus continues here.

Peter in verse 28 began to say to him, see, we have left everything and followed you.

Man, as if Peter still doesn't get it. Salvation belongs to God.

But look what we've done to deserve it, right? Look what we've done.

Lest Peter thinks he can outgive God, Jesus says in verse 29, Truly I say to you,

there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father

or children or lands for my sake and for the gospel who will not receive it a hundredfold.

Now in this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and

lands with persecutions and in the age to come eternal life.

But many who ate first will be last and the last first. It's like a bookend there.

He begins, how do you become the greatest? Last shall be first,

the first shall be last. And he bookends it right here.

But he gives you a motivation. He says, no matter what you leave to follow Christ,

no matter what it costs you, right?

If the rich young man could have heard this, Jesus could have said,

no matter how many millions and millions or billions of dollars you would have to give away,

you will receive it back a hundredfold, a thousandfold, right?

And people will say, well, if you do it that way, then you're really just using

Jesus to get what you want.

Well, no, you're trusting that Jesus will do what he said. And there's a big difference.

We've used this illustration a ton. I think it works really well.

If I told someone, hey, I got $5 million buried back there, 200 feet deep,

but you can only use a spade shovel.

How would I know whether or not you believe me? Because you'd have a shovel

in the back digging a hole.

If you came up to me and you said, I think you put it there,

but I just don't have time. How am I going to make time for that?

I got to go to work and I got to do this. I got to do that.

No, what sets the Christian apart is that,

he does what Christ asked him to do, no matter how outlandish or how foolish

the world thinks it is, because he believes that Christ is honest,

that Christ is true, that he trusts Christ's promises.

And his disciples here are saying, listen, we have given away everything to

follow you. And Jesus goes, and you will receive a hundred fold back.

And the question is not, are you using Jesus to get things. The question is,

are you trusting that those things will happen after you die?

Are you trusting that those things will happen not in your lifetime?

That your lifetime may be filled with persecutions. Your lifetime may be filled,

we talked about it again this morning in student ministry, is just being the

weird Christian kid who doesn't watch what everybody watches.

It doesn't say what everyone says. It doesn't act how everyone acts.

That may be your lot in life. And then every time it happens,

you go, I know what Jesus said.

I know what he promised me. I believe that those things are true.

This is exactly how Jesus lived his life.

Jesus didn't just live his life getting persecuted and beat down,

trusting the father and thinking, well, none of this is ever going to get better.

That's not what the Bible says.

It says that Jesus lived his life through faith, faith that he knew no matter

what happens to me, the father is going to raise me up on the third day.

That I will sit at the right hand of my father, that I will come back and rule and reign forever.

That's how Jesus thought. That's how we could think. as we get ready to close

and move into the Lord's Supper.

When you come to the table, that's really what you're admitting.

You're admitting that I don't have a right to be here.

That for me to gain access to God's table, God had to be beaten and bruised.

His blood had to be spilled.

I didn't earn my way to a seat at the table.

That's why when we take the bread, we break it as a reminder that Christ's body was broken for you.

When we drink the cup, it is a representation of the blood that was spilled

for you, that you didn't do it.

Your blood didn't have to be spilled. Your body didn't have to be broken.

You didn't earn your seat at the table. That salvation was bought for you.

Salvation was purchased on your behalf. The righteousness that you and I have

in light of Christ was bought for us by Christ.

His life was lived in spite of my life.

The death that he died, the wrath that was poured out on him was in spite of me.

I should have been the one that paid for that eternally, but the eternal son of God paid my debts.

And hopefully we're learning the same lesson the disciples are learning.

For us to sit around and argue about who should be the greatest in the kingdom is a fool's errand.

Actually reveals that we don't understand the gospel at all.

But to humbly ask Jesus, man, how can anyone be saved? How is that even possible?

Is the right question.

To which the right answer is, God can do it.

If you know someone in your life that you think, man, there's just no way,

there's no way that that person will ever come to know the Lord.

You don't know who God is. If there's any part of you that when you look at

your salvation, you think, well, of course, that makes sense. Why wouldn't he save me?

You don't understand the gospel. You don't get it.

If there's anything that God does for any person that we look at and go,

well, yeah, that makes sense. He should do that.

That we have mistaken the gospel for some version of works-based salvation.

And it is shocking to me how many people live their Christian lives bitter and angry and upset,

bemoaning what the church has become, bemoaning all the things they look around

and see, man, look how awful it is. Look how bad it is.

Can you believe what they're letting happen in the church now?

Can you believe those things have crept in? So we shouldn't be surprised by that.

We should be surprised by the fact that anyone's saved. We should be surprised

by the fact that we can come in this room and talk to each other and say,

man, isn't it great to know the Lord? That's what's shocking.

The perversion of the things of God, that's been going on forever and will go on forever.

Don't worry about looking around and going, man, can you believe it?

Yes, you should be able to.

There was four people on the planet. One of them murdered the other one.

Been this way for a long time.

What should excite us and what should encourage us and what should keep us from

being bitter and angry and upset with people who have wronged us is the fact

that we have wronged the Lord of glory and he has not done so in return.

Actually invited us to his table. And he has paid for our invitation by his

own life, death, burial, and resurrection.

And that one day when we gather around the throne, we'll be able to sing to

him, salvation is of our God.

He's our God. It doesn't say salvation is of a God, it's of this God,

of the Jewish God, of the Christian God. No, salvation is of our God.

Our God has saved us. Our God has redeemed us.

Again, our God has invited us to his table to feast and to eat every single day, free of charge.

To live in his house, free of charge.

To enjoy every good and perfect gift he offers us, free of charge.

Why? Because God can do anything and that's what God chooses to do for his kids.

I'm gonna pray here in a moment. We're gonna move straight into the Lord's Supper.

If you haven't done that with us before, I'll pray.

We'll throw some music on. I'm going to ask you to come up front.

There's juice in a cup in here.

It's all together. The juice is on top. The bread's on bottom.

You'll just pull those apart.

Have you come and get that. If you want to get that for your family,

that's totally fine. If you want your family to come up with you,

that's totally fine too.

We just remind you that the Lord's Supper is for Christians only.

And I would also add that it's not just for Christians only,

but for Christians that are in, I would say, right standing, right?

If you have some egregious sin, if you have some unforgiveness in your heart

to somebody else, the Bible's pretty clear that maybe the Lord's Supper is not

what you need to do right now. Maybe you need to seek forgiveness,

right? Seek repentance from the Lord.

And Paul says it's a dangerous thing to partake in the Lord's Supper when you've

not taken care of your own spiritual household, essentially.

But if you're a Christian here, we invite you to partake in that with us.

And as you do that, as you do that, it's not just juice, it's not just whatever

dehydrated bread they use. I don't know what it is.

Unless you can go to Mardell's right now and get them a thousand dollars for

like 10 bucks, right? This is not some special thing that we're doing here.

What is special about it is it is in remembrance of who Christ is and what he has done.

And the reason that Jesus and Paul are very clear about not taking it lightly

is because what you're saying when you partake of the Lord's Supper is,

I trust that Christ has saved me and I trust that Christ has set me free from

being a sin to slave in this world.

And to partake of the Lord's Supper and to not truly believe those things or

to be harboring unforgiveness towards your brother or sister in Christ is a

terrible thing because it's not just sinful.

It's sinful against the very act that you claim has saved you.

And so when we come to the table this morning, man, of course,

it is a time of rejoicing, a time of remembering what God has done for us that

salvation belongs to the Lord and he gave it to me.

He bought it for me to remember that. Let me pray and we'll come forward and grab the Lord's Supper.

As always, thank you for our time in the Word. Thank you that you are good, gracious, and kind.

God, would we learn the lesson that the disciples are learning?

That we wouldn't walk around and try and figure out how great we are.

We wouldn't walk around thinking that we're the coolest people in the world,

that we're the Christians that have got it all right, that our theology is perfect,

that our lives are perfect,

that of course God should use us in a massive way because of who we are,

but that we would be reminded that as we received the kingdom like a child,

that we were carried,

we were given something that we had nothing to give in return.

God, we, all of us, are prone to want the things the world has to offer.

To want the next thing, to want the bigger thing, the more expensive thing,

the better job, bigger house, more money.

God, you have made it clear that the wealth is not the issue.

It's not a bad thing to want those things. It's not a bad thing to have money.

It's not a bad thing to have a big house and a big yard and nice cars.

None of those things are inherently sinful. What is sinful and what you have

tried to break us of, I believe, through these passages is thinking that those

things are worth more than what you have offered us in your son, Christ Jesus.

That if any of those things ever got in the way of us living the way that He

has called us to live and trusting in Him the way that He has called us to trust

Him, loving Him with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, or loving our neighbors,

that we would forgo whatever it is that we're seeking after and follow wholly after You.

As we do that, we would be reminded this morning that salvation is of our God.

That we, no matter how much we've given up, no matter what it's cost us,

parents, brothers, sisters, jobs, money, stuff, no matter what it's cost us

that you have promised, we will receive that and a hundredfold more when we

live with you for eternity.

Would you help us to trust that?

Would you help us not to sit? and wallow in self-pity of the things that we don't have.

Would you help us not to sit and be bitter about the things that may have been

taken away from us or the things that were never offered to us,

but rather to sit and bask in the glory and in the promise that you've given us. We now pray. Amen.