John Gunter: Tyler, thank you for leading us. It wasn't that long ago that you were doing it for the first time and weren't sure you could. I think I can speak from church. You can, brother. Amen.
And you're doing a great job, so thank you for that. I feel inadequate to stand before you. After all of this this morning, I I'm good to go right now. We can just leave. I am, I'll be blessed for the next week after what we've experienced.
But we we've been going through the Gospel of Mark, and tradition tells us I want you to remember this as we go through. Tradition tells us that that Mark is kind of writing down the words of Peter, the remembrances of Peter that the holy spirit has brought before them. I want you to remember that because the first, passage of scripture that we read this morning might sound a little familiar from last week. Says, they were bringing children to him that he might touch them and the disciples rebuked them. But when Jesus saw it, he was indignant and said to them, let the children come to me.
Do not hinder them for to such belongs the kingdom of god. Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of god like a child shall not enter it. And he took them in his arms and blessed them, laying his hands on them. That had to be a shocking thing for those disciples because it seems like and and Peter is reminding us through Mark writing this down that sometimes the disciples just didn't get it. You know, anyone like that in your family?
Need to nudge them this morning. Sometimes, we're hard headed and we don't get it. And what we talked about last week in in Mark chapter 9 was really this idea of, the the people and disciples especially kept kind of prioritizing themselves over other people. Were you in the circle? Were you not?
Somebody was doing a powerful work in your name, Jesus, and we tried to stop him. He said, don't do that. It it is not about coming and and trying to say, hey. We're up here. You're down here.
He said this today, he said, let the little children come to me. Children in this society didn't really hold any standing. Right? They were just kind of workers. You you had kids to have a family, to have workers to live and to thrive, and and on the the wrong in society, they were very low.
And so the disciples thought in their mind, well, society, culture tells us what we ought to do is keep the little kids away from our teacher, our good teacher. He said, no. Unless whoever does not receive the kingdom of God, like a child, shall not enter it. And think about the the faith that children have. They're not born into the world with all the skepticism that we may have.
Right? And so they come into the world with wide eyes. I think cartoons get this right, because they, the animation has the eyes about this big when a child sees something they love. Right? That's the way I see this.
Unless you receive the kingdom of God like this, that that's what I want and that's what I need, he says, you won't enter it. Okay? That's a stark revelation to the people who thought they needed to run these kids off. Unless you're like them, you will not enter the kingdom of god. So, he took these children in his arms and blessed them, laying his hands on them.
I don't know if that was, if I was one of the parents, I would have talked about that from the rest of the time of my life. If they would have had bumper stickers, I would have had one. My kid was blessed by Jesus. He held them in his arms. Put your name on there, probably, Evan.
But he continues on, and and I want what I want you to notice here, I went with twice. He said, and then he as he was setting out on his journey, a man ran up and knelt before him and asked him, good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life? And Jesus said to him, why do you call me good? Do you hear this again, lifting the lifting of someone else? What I'm supposed to do is call you good.
Okay? This idea that, okay, here's what I need to do. This is a teacher. Good teacher. What must I do to inherit eternal life?
And Jesus said to him, why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone. And he says this because those of you know the story, what this man is about to do is kind of lay out all the ways that he is good. Okay? And and Jesus reminds him before he says anything.
That's what I love it. They would answer in the prayer before you prayed it. What god is setting up, what Jesus is setting up here is, no one is good except god alone. So, better know that before you open your mouth, right? You know the commandments.
Do not murder. Do not commit adultery. Do not steal. Do not bear false witness. Do not defraud, honor your father and mother.
And he said to him, teacher, all these things, all these I have kept from my youth. And Jesus, looking at him, loved him and said to him, you lack one thing. And I had to I have to think. His his heart kinda dropped that that moment. Right?
Because I feel like, hey, you laid it all out here. Yes. I haven't done any of those things. I haven't murdered anyone this week. Right?
I've done all of these things. And and Jesus looked at him and he said he loved him. Note that. Before Jesus points out the flaw, Jesus still says he loves him. You you you understand that Jesus loves him.
Okay? Sometimes we feel like I sin, I do something wrong, I'm out, god doesn't love me anymore. Jesus knowing the flaw in this man's life said, he loved him. He's just looking at him. He loved him and said to him, you like one thing?
Go. Sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. And come, follow me. Disheartened by the saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions. Jesus has pointed out the one way, the one thing in his life that he hadn't turned over to God.
He's prayed about it just a little bit ago, didn't he? Stole all my thunder. I'll talk to him after after this. But that's exactly what has happened here is this man has done all the things. He's checked all the boxes, haven't murdered, haven't stolen, haven't done all of this.
But what Jesus points out, it's not all the things, all the check marks, all the check boxes, it said he himself has not had a change of heart. His heart still belongs to the world, and we're guilty of that today, church. We feel like, I've told you before, growing up, we saw a faithful brother, a faithful sister, someone who had faithfully the rear end of the seat, and that's where it started and that's where it ended. We didn't hold people to a higher standard. We didn't really look for changed hearts.
We looked for attendance. And what does attendance get you? I hope you're here. I want you to be here. I think this stuff's important.
How about you? That we we pray, we wanna grow closer to God and closer to each other. We can't do that unless we're coming to God's word, being together, singing together, praising God together. We can't do that unless we do this, but often we don't. Often, what we do is we go out, and we we hopefully stay away from the things that that people look down on us about.
I don't say cuss words or not that many. Right? Some of you work in in situations where that's all you hear all the time. You're wondering if if somebody can say a sentence without a cuss word in it. Right?
And so we avoid things. Well, I don't cuss and I don't drink and I go to church every week. Then I think if Jesus was standing here today, he would do the same thing he did to this man. One thing you lack and he would point it out in all of it. Because sometimes we've done all the things.
We've checked all the boxes we think make us look good. But we haven't given our heart to them, and we may go away sorrowful. One thing that you need to know in this story is, at times, and the disciples, by what they said, believed this, is that someone who had great possessions was seen as someone who was blessed by God because they had lived the right kind of life, that God has, basically cast a judgment on them saying, yes. This man has done all of these things. So I'm going to lavish upon him all of these gifts.
And so when they see this and they see this man go away sorrowful, they do have some questions. And Jesus looked around at his disciples. He says, how difficult it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of god. So that goes right up against what they're thinking. Wait.
Wait. Hold up. He has these gifts because he's living the right way. He is close to god. Right?
Jesus said, well, it's difficult for people who have wealth to enter the kingdom of god, and the disciples were amazed at his word. That's why. They were amazed at his words. It says, but Jesus said to them again, children, how difficult it is to enter the kingdom of god. It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of god.
And one thing I wanna dispel right now, you may have seen social media posts before and say, well, it's not really literal here. There's a certain gate that camels enter and it's called the eye of a needle. That doesn't exist. That's made up by somebody. I don't know.
Jesus is saying, it's easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle. That gate does not exist. You ever seen that on? I've seen it on social media. It's been on Facebook, shared.
That doesn't exist. Jesus is saying, 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 were exceedingly astonished and said to him, then who can be saved? If this man because I know he's lived the right kind of life, that's why god has blessed him. If this man can't enter, if this man cannot be saved, then who can be saved?
And Jesus looked at them and said, with man, it is impossible but not with god. For all things are possible with god. You hear that this morning, church? For all things are possible with god. If it was up to us, if it was up to our efforts and all of that, we would not enter the kingdom of god.
You can't work your way into it. You can't do it. You can't check enough boxes. But with God, it is possible. Jesus still loved that man who walked away.
We don't know. We'd love to have Paul Harvey the rest of the story. Did he come back? Did he did he go back and rethink it? We don't know.
But what we get is Jesus loved him but understood that he still lacked one thing, and so we ask, am I that person and still lack something? Then maybe I have given some things to God, but I have given it all. With man, it's impossible but not with God, for all things are possible with God. Peter began to say to him, see, we have left everything and followed you. Boy, don't you love that?
You know a Peter in your life? Just gonna speak up and you just shake your head and go, oh my goodness. But Jesus, Jesus doesn't get on Peter on this. What what I like here is, Jesus said, truly, I say to you, there's 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 a hundredfold now in this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, and you love that part, and he says, with persecutions. So if I was preaching health and wealth this morning, I I might leave that part out.
Right? I want lands and all these brothers and mothers and and and all of these things with persecutions and in the age to come, eternal life. You will be blessed following god. You understand that? You lived a blessed life following god?
Yeah. That's what he's saying. But it's also not easy. That persecutions will also come. He said, in the age to come, eternal life.
That's what you receive. But what he's saying here is the people that have done all of these things, that have left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands for my sake, they've changed their hearts because it has become real to them. It's not about just checking boxes, I will now go. Again, he's talking about going out, the 72, don't take anything with you. What does that take to do that?
Faith, dependence on God, where you can see that my heart has changed. Not that I'm doing something for you to impress you, but my heart has changed to follow god and for it to be real. We look around at our culture, and we feel like people aren't religious anymore. And the studies people have done is people are very religious, but what they want is authenticity. What they don't want is a bunch of people coming and gathering in a room and acting a certain way and trying to trying to say, yeah, everyone should act like us, but it's all fake, it's all phony, and once we get out the door, we're somebody else.
What people wanna see is your heart has been changed authentically, which is what Jesus is asking for here. And he says in verse 31, but many who are first will be last and the last first. One of those paradoxes. Because again, if you didn't think this tied to what we talked to last week, here it goes again. You wanna be first, you be last.
The last shall be first. And Jesus is saying this to his disciples, but he's often talking, again, to scribes and Pharisees and people who should they were the church people of the day, the people who talk, the people, really the religious leaders that people looked up to. And so what I wanted to pull into this lesson this morning is Jesus' conversation in Matthew 23. Jesus is in encountering some of those people. It says, and Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples, the scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses' seat.
So do and observe whatever they tell you, but not the works they do. So they're in the position of Moses. They're in Moses' seat. So, respect what they're telling you but not the works they do. You can respect them in their position but understand they're not right.
They're not right in how they act. And and look what he says here. For they preach but do not practice. You know anybody like that? They preach and do not practice.
How far will that get you, church? If I'm up here preaching this morning, but you know I'm living this crazy life outside of these walls, do you have any care as to what I say? I think you ought to get away from that sin. And you know, as soon as I get out of here, I'm going to live a life of sin. They preach but don't practice.
Sometimes we kind of even joke about that, don't we? We say, Do what I say, not what I do. Well, that's the biggest cop out in history, isn't it? I had cousins, growing up who who got into, you know, they smoked and all of that stuff, and I and I I love that my cousins still, who live rough lives, would still tell me, do not start smoking. It's all the value in it, but they didn't they didn't see it enough to stop it themselves.
They saw the value in it. But what the religious leaders are doing are are are binding things on people. They're making it tougher people. Notice what he says. He says, in verse 4, They tie up heavy burdens hard to bear and lay them on people's shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to move them with their finger.
I'm real concerned with how you live your life, but I'm not concerned enough. It's not important enough to me. It hasn't made a heart change in me for me to do anything to even lift a finger. He says, they do all their deeds to be seen by others, for they make their phylacteries broad and their fringes long. This is just kind of a look at me.
I am important. You see my garments and all of this. And they love the places of honor at feasts, and the best seats in the synagogues, and greetings in the marketplaces, and being called rabbi by others. Now, we don't have this, this tradition in churches of Christ. No one has ever called me reverend.
No one's ever given me a special title. Most of the titles you guys have given me, you shouldn't say out loud. Okay? These people are just kind of soaking up this reverential treatment in a way that they they feel important. They wanna sit at the right places.
They wanna be seen by the right people with the right people, but their heart is not with Jesus. They're not they're not with god. Right? And it says, but you are not to be called, rabbi, for you have one teacher, and you are all brother. Well, we get this messed up sometime.
Because just like for them, it was prioritizing, well, I'm here and you're here, obviously. Jesus keeps saying, I want you flip that. Won't you be last? Won't you be last? He says, you are all brothers.
You're all equal. And we still, when I went through the leadership series that I did, I kept telling you over and over, I kept pointing to Scripture over and over. You want to be in charge? You be servant. You be last.
And we still ask the question, well, who's in charge? Don't we? I want to know, I still want to know, the priority list. You are all brothers and call no man your father on earth, for you have one Father who is in Heaven. Neither be called instructors, for you have one instructor, the Christ.
The greatest among you shall be your servant. Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted. And we still struggle with that, don't we? I'd like to humble you, but I don't humble myself. I'd like to go get mine, but I won't put myself and see something from some other vantage point.
I still want to be up here. Jesus says, but woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut the kingdom of heaven in people's faces. That is strong. You shut the kingdom of heaven in people's faces, for you neither enter yourselves nor allow those who would enter to go in.
Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel across the sea and land to make a single proselyte, a single convert. And when he becomes a proselyte, convert, you make him twice as much a child of hell as yourselves. Whoo. You would put out all this effort.
Now, historically, we don't think Jesus is being literal. We don't think they actually traveled and tried to make proselytes that much. But the people we read about in Scripture that said were God fearers that may have converted even to being Jewish, going through circumcision and all those things. Jesus is looking at them and saying, You will put all of this effort into making this person, but you're making them not into the image of God, you're making them into the image of yourself and saying, You make him twice as much a child of hell as yourselves. Are we doing things in the right way?
Are we bringing people into the mold, into the image of Jesus, or are we bringing them to the mold, an image of me or you or somebody else? When the man calls Jesus a good teacher, Jesus reminds him that nobody's perfect, nobody's good, except God. We are gonna struggle, we are gonna fail, we are going to be imperfect, we're gonna have those moments that we're embarrassed because we know better, and we shouldn't have acted that way, we shouldn't have done that, shouldn't have said that, and Jesus still loves you. We point to God knowing that we are hypocritical at times, but we point to God knowing He saves us because He loves us and He is gracious. One one thing I think about when I I think about this scripture, sometimes we are so concerned with the image that we project and that we think we are so right that we get things messed up.
You ever seen where, we've had missionaries go into other places like Africa? I had a buddy from Africa, and instead of wearing traditional African garb, he's wearing a suit and tie, because Americans brought suit and tie, and that's what good Christians do, is wear a suit and tie. And as crazy as that sounds, we have some some of those things, don't we? Unless you do this, you're not a good and we're making people in the image of us and not in the image of Christ. And so, this morning, I hope that you have encountered Jesus.
I hope that through our worship, through the word of God, that you have encountered God and that you feel closer to him, that you can draw near to God and experience something that we all need. I don't wanna go through this world feeling like I'm all alone. I have God walking side by side with me every day. The scripture that I cling to in the Old Testament said, God will be your rear guard. God has your back, and he goes with you.
So as we go church, let's do so in the image of Jesus Christ. And as we prepare to send that message, as we prepare to have Mr. John Rowe in here, Let's do so. Let's start preparing our minds. How can we impact this community?
Whether this community means here in Mont Belvieu, where some of you live, Baytown, wherever. Let's do so in the image of Jesus. We're we've got a song of invitation. We're gonna ask that you come as we stand and sing this morning.