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It's time for us to begin.

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We'll be continuing our study in Mark chapter 10 this evening.

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we will be.

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Doesn't matter what they're going to be.

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Yeah, yeah, I gotta get it working.

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There, ring the bell.

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It's the one that's labeled Bell.

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There you go.

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It works it for the students at school.

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All right, we are in Mark chapter 10 this evening.

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We'll begin with a word of prayer and then we'll get into our study.

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A gracious Father in heaven, we bow before your throne, grateful for the day that you've
blessed us with, grateful for the opportunities that we have to serve you, and we pray

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that we might always be pleasing to you in all that we say and all that we do.

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We pray that you will be with those who have been afflicted by hurricanes and by uh storms
and natural circumstances in life.

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We're mindful of Christians in the Philippines and in Jamaica and throughout the islands.

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We pray also that you will be with those who are dealing with man-made catastrophes and
pray that you will be with those who are dealing with wars and things like that.

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We pray for our brethren throughout the world that they might have safety, that they might
have the provisions that they need for their daily needs.

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We pray always that we might be content with those things which we need.

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All this we pray and ask in Jesus' name, Amen.

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Mark chapter 10, beginning in verse 20, the rich young ruler replies to Jesus, he answered
and said to him, teacher, all these things I have kept from my youth.

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I wanted to spend just a moment with that idea.

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Is it possible for someone who has been taught the right thing, who has been taught

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the Word of God who has been taught how to live to then fail to do it.

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Absolutely.

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Do you think that this young man had also been taught, Thou shalt not covet?

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You think he was probably taught that in the youth that he references when he says, I've
kept all these things from my youth?

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You think perhaps that that was part of his instruction, was that command that Jesus kind
of breezed over and didn't mention in his list, thou shalt not cut it?

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Absolutely.

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Sometimes we wonder if people don't do what they should do simply because they've never
been taught, and sometimes that's true.

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Sometimes people have never been taught, and it's very hard to do better if you've never
been taught better.

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But we also realize that there's times where people know full well exactly what they
should do.

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They just don't do it.

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We know there are times where children are raised to do what's right.

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They're taught to live in a way that's right.

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They're taught what is right, and then they choose to do that which is wrong.

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What is a New Testament example from the parables of a young person growing up and doing
that?

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Prodigal son.

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Here's a father that clearly has taught his son what to do, has taught him how to live,
and we know that he taught him because what did the son realize when he was away from his

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father, when he was destitute, and when he was hungry, and when he desired to eat what the
hogs were eating?

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that he'd sinned.

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He knew what was right and he went the other direction anyway.

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but there's also the older brother.

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The older brother knew what was right and yet refused to forgive his brother.

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And he refused not because he had never been taught any better, but because it didn't
conform to what he wanted.

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And now we come back to the core theme of all of these discussions of Jesus.

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Jesus as he speaks with this rich young individual.

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is challenging this young man to not follow after what he wants.

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but rather to exchange what he wants for what God wants.

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And that's every one of our challenge.

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To exchange what we want.

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To exchange how we think.

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To exchange what we prioritize for what God does.

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And when we do that, then we're challenged to be content with that.

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To not go, all right, Lord, I'll do it.

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two weeks.

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I'll do it for three months.

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I can make it a quarter.

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I can do it free here, but patience is going to run out pretty fast.

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How long did Paul spend in prison in Caesarea after he was arrested in Jerusalem?

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Do you remember we talked about this not long ago when we were in the book of Acts?

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He spent nearly two and a half to three years in prison in Caesarea after being arrested
in Jerusalem before he ever even was put on a boat to go to Rome.

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two and a half to three years in prison.

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And yet, after he leaves prison, then he's going to be shipwrecked.

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Then he's going to spend the entire winter on an island after being shipwrecked.

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Then he's finally going to get to Rome.

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And what happens to him when he gets there?

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He gets put under house arrest.

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And yet, there's never an indication in anything that we read about what Paul was doing or
thinking where Paul determined that he was ready to just be done with this whole letting

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God decide what happens thing.

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We don't read that.

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We rather read over and over as Paul writes to these churches while sitting in prison.

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that he was there because he was a bond servant to Jesus Christ.

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When Paul uses that terminology, the implication of the message is, I am exactly where my
master wants me to be.

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Wait a minute, why would God want anyone in prison?

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I mean, not an evil person.

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Alright?

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Well, so let's ask it this way.

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Why would God want a good person who was not guilty in prison?

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He does have a captive audience.

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That's true.

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All right, opportunity, Jesus said, or Eddie said, uh because what God had in mind was
going to happen through that experience.

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Paul will end up meeting with the Jewish leaders in Rome while sitting in prison.

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Paul will come time and time and time again to reason before Festus and before Agrippa to
speak to them concerning the judgment and righteousness.

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Do you think he would have had those opportunities had he just been preaching in the
street or preaching in the synagogue or preaching among the Gentiles?

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Would he have been before Agrippa and Festus?

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No.

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Or Felix?

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No.

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oh

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When we read that through Paul's imprisonment, Paul preached and taught and converted even
those within Caesar's own house.

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Would that have happened had Paul not been in prison and he'd just been a regular old Joe
missionary in Rome?

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Not likely.

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what we're seeing is that when we determine that we will do it God's way so long as we
don't have to suffer for too long, so long as we don't have to deal with out or go without

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for too long, so long as we don't have to put off our plans for too long, as long as it's
temporary, we'll do it God's way.

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Everything is.

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We fall into the same trap of many who have determined to just not do it God's way.

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Because what we're doing is qualifying how God does it.

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What we're doing is saying, God, I will do what you want to a limit.

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But then it has to go back to my way.

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I will obey your will.

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as long as it fits in my box that I already planned for how I think my life's going to
work out.

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It's a challenge to all of us because what Jesus has just told this young man is, I want
you to take your box that you thought your life was going to look like and I want you to

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throw it away and I want you to pick up your cross and come and follow me.

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And our challenge every single day is whose plan are we enacting?

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Whose process are we following?

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Whose will are we doing?

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Many people will tell you, I'm doing the will of God.

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Really?

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When you read his words and when you read what he says to do, do you do it?

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When He tells you how to live, do you do it?

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When He tells you what not to do, do you avoid it?

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When He challenges you with the Scriptures, do you listen?

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But at the same time, when you look at everything you do that you claim to be the will of
God, did He actually tell you to do it?

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And for many in the religious world, they go, listen, we're doing the will of God.

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Great, what are you doing?

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Well, we're doing this thing that God never told us anything about.

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then you're probably not doing the will of God.

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Jesus makes the point that this young man thought he knew how his life should be.

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And what he was missing was how his life should be.

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He literally missed the entire boat because he thought he knew how it should be.

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But further you'll notice this, how many things did Jesus say this individual lacked?

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One.

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How many things do you have to be guilty of to miss heaven?

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One.

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One thing that you say to God,

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I'm not changing that.

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I'm going to do that, I don't care what you say.

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That is more important to me than you are, God, than what you have said, than what you
have taught.

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That matters more to me than all of this.

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and Jesus made it clear one thing will keep you out of heaven.

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Now does that mean that if you make one mistake as a faithful Christian you're going to
miss heaven?

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No.

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If we believed that we would not believe in what?

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Huh?

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Grace.

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or mercy.

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or forgiveness.

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But now let's examine.

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What if you have an individual who has determined to do what's right, carry out what's
right, continue in what's right, and then they depart from that path and die having

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departed from that path?

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Then what?

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What if the prodigal son had died while he was out spending all of his time, interest,
money in the lusts of this world and never have repented?

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What would his state have been then?

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Lost.

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Jesus says to this man, take up the cross and follow me.

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But he was sad at his word and went away sorrowful for he had great possessions.

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Can people with very few possessions hold on to them so desperately as to lose heaven
because of them?

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Absolutely.

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You don't have to have great possessions for that to be a problem.

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But Jesus is about to make a point about possessions.

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

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Jesus doesn't, to my knowledge, ever say it's extremely hard for the poor to enter the
kingdom of God.

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Does he?

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No!

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But numerous times scripture draws to our attention.

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We just read about it, just studied it in 1 Timothy chapter 6.

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We went through nearly in half a chapter where Paul is writing exhortations to the rich,
telling Timothy to exhort the rich, making sure they know that these possessions can be a

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deterrence and a roadblock to their eternal salvation.

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Jesus says the same thing.

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He makes it a point to establish and visualize for the disciples that what they have just
witnessed is something that would not have occurred had this young man not been rich.

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I don't know if you ever thought about it that way, but Jesus is identifying that the
young man's heart would have been different had he not been rich.

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that his opportunity was the same either way to follow Jesus, but that the roadblock, the
stumbling block in his way was not the Jewish religion, it wasn't the scribes of the

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Pharisees, it wasn't the rabbis that he had met before, it wasn't any of those things, it
was a pile of riches that stood between him and being obedient to God.

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Jesus says that this situation is not abnormal.

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And it's a challenge for us.

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to realize that we are surrounded daily by people who live in the same state, or
technically a better state than this young ruler.

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We're surrounded in this country by wealth.

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We're surrounded by riches.

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I find it amusing somewhat when our president talks about becoming the richest country in
the world, as if we haven't been for the last 80 years.

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All you have to do is go travel for a while.

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Now, can you travel to places where the local population has a high density of ultra-rich
people?

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Sure, you can.

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But the fact of the matter is, by comparison to much of the world,

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The average American is a wealthy, rich person.

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that been in conversation throughout this week with some of our brethren that are in the
Philippines that just got hit by a typhoon.

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And the typhoon wouldn't have caused nearly as much damage except upriver from them, there
was a dam that they decided to open as opposed to letting it break.

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Well, what they let out from the dam did far more damage to the cities down below the dam.

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than what the typhoon did.

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But now you've got brethren in the Philippines who the entire first floor of their house
was underwater, which is by the way where the refrigerator, the rice, the food, the goods,

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the necessities of life were stored.

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And as they watched from the fourth floor of a school, they're watching and realizing
everything they've saved, everything they've put aside, everything that they plan to have

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for their provisions for the next months and year is gone in a day.

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And it wasn't because of the typhoon, per se, but because of the dam that wouldn't have
held back what the typhoon brought.

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And we think about that and realize, you know what, that happens to people.

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We all remember what happened when the hurricane came up and hit North Carolina.

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That happens in America too.

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And people have been just as devastated by it.

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But one of the major things that we have that Philippines doesn't, we have the US dollar
and we have the US government.

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Philippines don't have that.

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And it doesn't fix everything, but generally speaking across our nation, it's a different
scenario.

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When we have things like that happen, we usually have a few buffers, things like
insurance.

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That's not always the same in a lot of places in the world.

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But I bring that out to make sure we don't divorce ourselves and being American, go.

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Well, I drive by all the rich people's places in America, and I ain't one of them.

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Because what we don't often do in America is drive by real poverty like it is a lot of
places in the world.

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Because if we did, we would look at ourselves and go, I ain't one of them.

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This young man became an example that Jesus identified to the disciples and said, how
hard, not impossible, not it can never be, but how hard it is for those who have riches to

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enter the kingdom of God.

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Now let's see the opposite example.

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I don't want to spend the entire class on this, but we might before we're done.

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What's the opposite example of this rich young ruler?

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Turn back to Genesis chapter 11.

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Genesis chapter 11 verse 27, this is the genealogy of Tira, Tira begat Abram, Nahor, and
Haran.

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Haran begat Lot, and Haran died before his father Tira in his native land in Ur, the
Chaldeans.

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Then Abram and Nahor took wives.

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The name of Abram's wife was Sarai, the name of Nahor's wife, Milcha, the daughter of
Haran, the father of Milcha and the father of Iska.

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But Sarai was barren, she had no child.

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And Tyra took his son Abram and his grandson Lot the son of Haran and his daughter-in-law
Sarai, his son Abram's wife, and they went out with them from Ur the Chaldees to go to the

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land of Canaan.

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And they came to Haran and dwelt there.

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So the days of Tyra were two hundred and five years.

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And Tyra died in Haran.

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00:25:01,708 --> 00:25:10,382
Now the Lord said to Abram, Get out of your country, from your family and from your
father's house to a land that I will show you.

214
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I will make you a great nation, I will bless you and make your name great, and you shall
be a blessing.

215
00:25:15,562 --> 00:25:30,682
I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you, and in you all the
families of the earth shall be blessed." So Abraham departed as the Lord had spoken to

216
00:25:30,682 --> 00:25:31,502
him.

217
00:25:33,622 --> 00:25:41,258
Now, we understand that God promised Abraham many things as he tells him to leave.

218
00:25:42,776 --> 00:25:50,712
but he also tells him to leave everything that he's always had around him.

219
00:25:51,594 --> 00:25:56,818
Not just his country, but his family.

220
00:25:58,200 --> 00:26:06,186
In the day and time where multi-generational stability meant much of everything.

221
00:26:07,862 --> 00:26:10,924
You didn't grow up and leave home.

222
00:26:11,265 --> 00:26:16,330
You grew up and built your own home with your family.

223
00:26:16,590 --> 00:26:18,833
And then the next generation did that.

224
00:26:18,833 --> 00:26:19,874
How do we know?

225
00:26:19,874 --> 00:26:21,555
It's right there in the passage.

226
00:26:21,555 --> 00:26:26,699
When Tira left, who went with him?

227
00:26:27,341 --> 00:26:31,565
His son, his daughter-in-law, his grandson?

228
00:26:31,565 --> 00:26:33,396
They all left with him.

229
00:26:35,574 --> 00:26:38,446
When Abram leaves, who's going to go with him?

230
00:26:38,446 --> 00:26:42,068
Lot and all of his family.

231
00:26:43,756 --> 00:26:59,654
The stability of the family was a major factor in your wealth, your sustainability, your
ability to provide when hard times came, the support system around you, your own defense.

232
00:27:02,688 --> 00:27:06,933
Yet when God tells Abraham to do something, what does Abraham do?

233
00:27:07,980 --> 00:27:09,022
He does it.

234
00:27:11,414 --> 00:27:19,828
Now again, say, yes, but if we were going to be skeptics, yes, but look at all the things
God promised him.

235
00:27:21,614 --> 00:27:24,194
Sure, look at all the things God promised him.

236
00:27:25,114 --> 00:27:32,214
Let's go back and ask ourselves one thing about Mark chapter 10.

237
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In Mark chapter 10, what was the question the young man asked?

238
00:27:48,642 --> 00:27:55,370
What shall I do that I may inherit eternal life?

239
00:27:58,562 --> 00:28:10,516
were the promises of Abraham greater in substance in Genesis 12 than the opportunity that
the rich young man was after?

240
00:28:14,124 --> 00:28:19,099
God says, I'll make you a blessing, you'll have a nation, you'll have a land.

241
00:28:19,099 --> 00:28:24,604
Were those greater than the opportunity that this young man had available to him?

242
00:28:25,365 --> 00:28:26,245
No.

243
00:28:26,866 --> 00:28:28,788
Which one had the greater blessings?

244
00:28:28,788 --> 00:28:31,060
Which one had the greater opportunity?

245
00:28:33,068 --> 00:28:39,503
This one was after something greater than even was that which was promised to Abraham.

246
00:28:40,544 --> 00:28:43,666
It wasn't about the promises.

247
00:28:44,807 --> 00:28:50,271
Abraham's decision wasn't made based upon the promises.

248
00:28:50,912 --> 00:28:59,398
It was made based upon the fact that if the Lord told him to depart, that's what he was
going to do.

249
00:29:01,548 --> 00:29:11,284
Now ask yourself, do you think that the rich young rulers education included in education
about the life of Abraham?

250
00:29:13,632 --> 00:29:15,042
yeah, absolutely.

251
00:29:15,504 --> 00:29:17,705
What did Jews consider themselves?

252
00:29:18,086 --> 00:29:19,847
The children of Abraham.

253
00:29:20,888 --> 00:29:22,750
Who would they call their father?

254
00:29:22,750 --> 00:29:23,970
Abraham.

255
00:29:24,051 --> 00:29:26,973
You better believe he had an education on Abraham.

256
00:29:26,973 --> 00:29:31,196
Did he live the example of Abraham?

257
00:29:32,357 --> 00:29:33,958
Romans chapter 3.

258
00:29:42,168 --> 00:29:43,699
sorry roman chapter four

259
00:29:47,830 --> 00:29:53,334
Romans chapter 4 verse 1, what then shall we say that Abraham our father has found
according to the flesh?

260
00:29:53,715 --> 00:29:59,380
For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before
God.

261
00:29:59,521 --> 00:30:01,262
For what does the scripture say?

262
00:30:01,262 --> 00:30:07,267
Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him for righteousness.

263
00:30:07,267 --> 00:30:12,471
Now to him who works, the wages are not counted as grace, but as debt.

264
00:30:12,472 --> 00:30:14,775
But to him who does not work,

265
00:30:14,775 --> 00:30:28,130
but believes on him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness."
Just as David also describes the blessedness of the man to whom God imputes righteousness

266
00:30:28,130 --> 00:30:33,502
apart from works, blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven and whose sins are
covered.

267
00:30:33,502 --> 00:30:37,844
Blessed is the man to whom the Lord shall not impute sin.

268
00:30:38,024 --> 00:30:44,256
Does the blessedness then come upon the circumcised only or upon the uncircumcised also?

269
00:30:44,258 --> 00:30:47,920
for we say that faith was accounted to Abraham for righteousness.

270
00:30:47,920 --> 00:30:49,230
How then was it accounted?

271
00:30:49,230 --> 00:30:51,981
While he was circumcised or uncircumcised?

272
00:30:51,981 --> 00:30:54,593
Not while circumcised, but while uncircumcised.

273
00:30:54,593 --> 00:31:03,597
So in the context here, Paul is dealing with can those who are Gentiles be saved without
circumcision?

274
00:31:03,597 --> 00:31:11,662
Because there were the Judaizing teachers in the first century teaching that a Gentile had
to be circumcised and keep the law in order to be saved.

275
00:31:11,662 --> 00:31:17,167
Paul's pushing back on that, but don't miss the rest of the argument as he does so.

276
00:31:17,167 --> 00:31:24,432
He's looking at Abraham and says, here's Abraham, the pattern of faith.

277
00:31:25,013 --> 00:31:26,674
Then notice what he says.

278
00:31:27,955 --> 00:31:38,924
He says, verse 13, for the promise that he would be the heir of the world was not to
Abraham or to his seed through the law, but through the righteousness of faith.

279
00:31:38,924 --> 00:31:41,516
For if those who are of the law are heirs...

280
00:31:41,516 --> 00:31:44,607
faith is made void and the promise made of no effect.

281
00:31:44,607 --> 00:31:47,168
Because the law brings about wrath.

282
00:31:47,168 --> 00:31:51,830
For where there is no law, there is no transgression.

283
00:31:51,830 --> 00:32:02,325
Therefore it is of faith that it might be according to grace, so that the promise might be
sure to all the seed, not only to those who are of the law, but also those who are of the

284
00:32:02,325 --> 00:32:06,296
faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all.

285
00:32:06,517 --> 00:32:10,388
As it is written, I have made you a father of many nations."

286
00:32:10,388 --> 00:32:23,265
in the presence of Him who believed, God, who gives life to the dead and calls those
things which do not exist as though they did, who contrary to hope in hope believed, so

287
00:32:23,265 --> 00:32:39,560
that He became the father of many nations according to what was spoken, so shall your
descendants be." Paul makes it clear that the evidence of what God had promised

288
00:32:39,560 --> 00:32:44,329
in Abram's actual life was nonexistent.

289
00:32:46,006 --> 00:33:02,596
The evidence of Abram's ascent to being the father of all who believe, of being the one
who was the blessing for many nations, the one who would have descendants, had no evidence

290
00:33:02,757 --> 00:33:07,160
surrounding him of that being the case when God told him it would be.

291
00:33:08,141 --> 00:33:10,162
He had none of that.

292
00:33:10,903 --> 00:33:15,884
Rather, he had faith that God could do what God said.

293
00:33:15,884 --> 00:33:17,055
he could do.

294
00:33:18,337 --> 00:33:27,888
This all comes back to what we should understand about the problem with riches.

295
00:33:29,151 --> 00:33:35,258
The problem with riches is not the riches themselves.

296
00:33:37,994 --> 00:33:44,764
It is our tendency to trust in them.

297
00:33:47,246 --> 00:33:54,566
What is it that Paul wrote to Timothy to exhort the Christians in 1 Corinthians chapter 6?

298
00:33:55,026 --> 00:34:03,226
Teach them not to trust in uncertain riches.

299
00:34:04,846 --> 00:34:06,646
Abraham didn't trust in riches.

300
00:34:07,506 --> 00:34:09,226
Abraham trusted God.

301
00:34:09,886 --> 00:34:14,306
And therefore, when God said, this, Abraham did it.

302
00:34:15,046 --> 00:34:16,326
Now notice.

303
00:34:16,726 --> 00:34:24,169
Jesus says how hard it is for those who have riches to enter the kingdom of God and the
disciples were astonished at his words.

304
00:34:24,169 --> 00:34:31,332
But Jesus answered again and said to them, children, how hard it is for those who trust in
riches to enter the kingdom of God.

305
00:34:31,332 --> 00:34:37,054
When you don't trust and believe Jesus the first time, what does he do?

306
00:34:37,054 --> 00:34:39,675
He repeats his statement to you.

307
00:34:40,556 --> 00:34:46,118
When you are astounded at the statement that was made

308
00:34:47,766 --> 00:34:50,951
Jesus is going to tell you again.

309
00:34:52,234 --> 00:34:54,888
Why would they have been astounded at the statement?

310
00:35:06,350 --> 00:35:13,982
uh Why would anyone assume that the rich were headed to heaven?

311
00:35:25,752 --> 00:35:26,843
There's the key.

312
00:35:26,843 --> 00:35:27,663
All right.

313
00:35:27,663 --> 00:35:46,411
Because if we in our minds have equated riches with blessings from God, we will draw the
conclusion that if someone is wealthy, if someone is, his wealth is growing and his

314
00:35:46,411 --> 00:35:54,208
abundance is growing, therefore he is blessed by God.

315
00:35:56,000 --> 00:36:09,998
And now our assumption is if we look at him and say, well, look at what he does, look at
how God is blessing him, I should live more like him so I can have the blessings he has.

316
00:36:11,694 --> 00:36:15,514
Jesus said, you have made an incorrect calculation.

317
00:36:16,834 --> 00:36:28,230
Your math doesn't work because you have looked at physical possessions as a blessing and
I'm telling you they're a stumbling block.

318
00:36:33,792 --> 00:36:41,182
Notice, he says, how hard it is for those who trust in, oh, there's your problem.

319
00:36:43,116 --> 00:36:47,287
He first said those who have riches.

320
00:36:48,548 --> 00:36:54,829
He comes back with trust in riches.

321
00:36:55,750 --> 00:37:01,711
How hard it is for those who trust in riches to enter the kingdom of God.

322
00:37:01,711 --> 00:37:09,153
It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter
the kingdom of God.

323
00:37:09,826 --> 00:37:11,130
Why?

324
00:37:12,770 --> 00:37:20,737
Some have suggested there's a gate of Jerusalem that they call the Eye of the Needle and
that it was not large enough for a camel.

325
00:37:20,737 --> 00:37:23,720
That's not what Jesus has said.

326
00:37:24,721 --> 00:37:28,284
He's not talking about a small gate in a wall.

327
00:37:28,505 --> 00:37:34,230
He is talking about the Eye of a Needle and a camel trying to fit through it.

328
00:37:35,830 --> 00:37:40,258
He's not talking about something that's hard, he's talking about something that's
impossible.

329
00:37:42,936 --> 00:37:43,657
How do I know?

330
00:37:43,657 --> 00:37:47,306
Because he says the same thing in Matthew chapter 6.

331
00:37:47,832 --> 00:37:48,733
Watch it.

332
00:37:48,733 --> 00:37:50,680
Matthew chapter 6.

333
00:37:56,174 --> 00:38:03,574
Beginning of verse 19, do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and
rust destroy, where thieves break in and steal.

334
00:38:03,574 --> 00:38:11,494
But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, where
thieves do not break in and steal, for where your treasure is there your heart will be

335
00:38:11,494 --> 00:38:12,134
also.

336
00:38:12,134 --> 00:38:14,074
The lamp of the body is the eye.

337
00:38:14,074 --> 00:38:18,314
If therefore your eye is good, your whole body will be full of light.

338
00:38:18,314 --> 00:38:21,974
But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness.

339
00:38:21,974 --> 00:38:24,898
If therefore the light that is in you is darkness,

340
00:38:24,898 --> 00:38:29,340
how great is that darkness?

341
00:38:30,061 --> 00:38:37,964
And then he says, no one can serve two masters.

342
00:38:38,545 --> 00:38:45,948
For either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one
and despise the other.

343
00:38:45,948 --> 00:38:50,050
You cannot serve God and money.

344
00:38:55,372 --> 00:38:57,624
Jesus is making it clear.

345
00:38:58,746 --> 00:39:10,738
If you serve wealth, if you serve money, if you serve mammon, as the King James
translates,

346
00:39:12,616 --> 00:39:17,752
If your trust is in that, why would you put your trust in it?

347
00:39:17,752 --> 00:39:19,554
Because that's what you serve.

348
00:39:22,370 --> 00:39:30,582
He says, you do that, then your whole body, your whole existence is full of darkness.

349
00:39:32,994 --> 00:39:43,087
How hard is it to leave an existence personified by darkness and come to the light?

350
00:39:44,269 --> 00:39:45,851
Jesus will tell you how hard it is.

351
00:39:45,851 --> 00:39:48,895
You have to get rid of the darkness.

352
00:39:48,895 --> 00:39:51,338
What did he tell the young man he needed to do?

353
00:39:53,550 --> 00:40:02,470
take not not 25 % not a tenth not a tithe not 50 %

354
00:40:04,248 --> 00:40:06,988
Go sell all that you have.

355
00:40:06,988 --> 00:40:07,811
Why?

356
00:40:07,811 --> 00:40:11,691
Because the light in you is darkness.

357
00:40:13,352 --> 00:40:17,407
and darkness is pervasive.

358
00:40:19,544 --> 00:40:22,458
He says, go sell all that you have, give it to the poor.

359
00:40:22,959 --> 00:40:24,320
Come follow me.

360
00:40:24,402 --> 00:40:34,296
He's challenging him to do exactly what Jesus had told them in Matthew chapter 6, to lay
up for yourself treasure in heaven.

361
00:40:34,296 --> 00:40:35,838
Doesn't even tell him that?

362
00:40:39,682 --> 00:40:48,068
He's challenging this young man to do the same thing that he's challenging all those who
are rich to do.

363
00:40:49,029 --> 00:40:56,994
He's not challenging all those who are rich to sell everything they have, he's challenging
all those who are rich to not trust in riches.

364
00:41:06,050 --> 00:41:07,622
Verse 26.

365
00:41:09,442 --> 00:41:12,744
says and they were greatly astonished.

366
00:41:13,426 --> 00:41:19,370
They just went from being astonished two verses before to greatly astonished.

367
00:41:20,512 --> 00:41:23,654
It's not as though it immediately clicked for them.

368
00:41:23,874 --> 00:41:33,182
It was further from their thinking than it had ever been when he used the analogy of the
camel.

369
00:41:37,112 --> 00:41:41,044
So they ask themselves, who then can be saved?

370
00:41:48,630 --> 00:41:54,963
Jesus looked at them and said, with men it is impossible, but not with God.

371
00:41:55,686 --> 00:41:58,150
For with God all things are possible.

372
00:42:00,510 --> 00:42:10,273
Jesus lets them know that as they consider their actions, as they consider their deeds,

373
00:42:12,522 --> 00:42:17,024
as they consider how they understand the world that is around them.

374
00:42:17,185 --> 00:42:21,307
Hey Jacob, if you will hit the bell for me, first bell.

375
00:42:22,118 --> 00:42:22,378
he did?

376
00:42:22,378 --> 00:42:23,849
All right, I missed it.

377
00:42:23,849 --> 00:42:26,100
That happens pretty regularly, by the way.

378
00:42:29,664 --> 00:42:35,436
When Jesus challenges them with these things.

379
00:42:37,730 --> 00:42:44,493
He is challenging the fundamental thinking of their lives.

380
00:42:46,934 --> 00:42:52,832
the fundamental preconceptions of everything they believe.

381
00:42:55,086 --> 00:42:59,199
Because what was it that the Jews were looking for?

382
00:43:01,088 --> 00:43:09,963
a kingdom where they would be at peace, where they would be prosperous, where they would
be wealthy, where they would again return to the state of what they were as a nation when

383
00:43:09,963 --> 00:43:12,387
David and Solomon reigned.

384
00:43:12,387 --> 00:43:15,532
That's what they were looking for.

385
00:43:17,794 --> 00:43:29,574
Well, in that system, in that envisioning, you think they were imagining that as the
ministers and the disciples of the Messiah, they'd be paupers?

386
00:43:36,749 --> 00:43:39,008
And yet, what does Jesus call them to be?

387
00:43:43,508 --> 00:43:47,263
Jesus would tell those who desired to be His disciples.

388
00:43:50,392 --> 00:43:57,832
Foxes have holes, birds of the air have nests, but the son of man has nowhere to lay his
head.

389
00:44:00,822 --> 00:44:03,785
He says the son of man, homeless.

390
00:44:05,538 --> 00:44:06,981
He doesn't have a bed.

391
00:44:08,206 --> 00:44:14,142
He doesn't have a home tied to His name on this earth.

392
00:44:16,234 --> 00:44:21,056
And here's someone who says, I'll be your disciple.

393
00:44:22,830 --> 00:44:24,450
And Jesus says, really?

394
00:44:25,112 --> 00:44:27,153
Do you know what you're asking for?

395
00:44:28,374 --> 00:44:31,436
Do you know what you're actually saying you'll do?

396
00:44:32,577 --> 00:44:34,868
Do you know what it will cost you?

397
00:44:38,648 --> 00:44:39,945
for Abraham.

398
00:44:41,580 --> 00:44:43,069
He cost him everything.

399
00:44:47,284 --> 00:44:49,397
One last passage as we close.

400
00:44:49,880 --> 00:44:51,462
Hebrews chapter 11.

401
00:45:05,794 --> 00:45:17,843
Hebrews chapter 11 verse 8, By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to the
place which he would receive as an inheritance and he went out not knowing where he was

402
00:45:17,843 --> 00:45:18,743
going.

403
00:45:19,284 --> 00:45:28,330
By faith he dwelt in the land of promises in a foreign country dwelling in tents with
Isaac and Jacob the heirs with him of the same promise.

404
00:45:28,850 --> 00:45:34,304
For he waited for the city which has foundations whose builder and maker is God.

405
00:45:35,564 --> 00:45:48,505
by faith Sarah herself also received strength to conceive seed and she bore a child while
she was past the age but because she judged him faithful who had promised therefore from

406
00:45:48,505 --> 00:46:02,826
one man and him as good as dead were born as many as the stars of the sky and multitude
innumerable as the sand which is by the seashore these all died in faith not having

407
00:46:02,826 --> 00:46:05,258
received the promises

408
00:46:07,160 --> 00:46:08,631
What did it cost him?

409
00:46:09,672 --> 00:46:10,732
Everything.

410
00:46:11,894 --> 00:46:13,595
What did it cost the next generation?

411
00:46:13,595 --> 00:46:14,616
Everything.

412
00:46:15,057 --> 00:46:16,328
What about the generation after that?

413
00:46:16,328 --> 00:46:17,378
Everything.

414
00:46:18,460 --> 00:46:30,229
These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off,
were assured of them, embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims

415
00:46:30,229 --> 00:46:31,500
on the earth.

416
00:46:34,286 --> 00:46:35,368
What are they saying?

417
00:46:38,030 --> 00:46:39,491
Same thing Jesus did.

418
00:46:40,614 --> 00:46:46,822
Foxes have holes, birds of the air have nests, the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.

419
00:46:48,610 --> 00:46:51,625
They said, our home's not here.

420
00:46:54,399 --> 00:46:59,332
We traveled from Ur-of-the-Caldes and we got to the land of Canaan and guess what we found
out?

421
00:46:59,332 --> 00:47:00,724
Our home's not here.

422
00:47:05,474 --> 00:47:06,897
but it is in heaven.

423
00:47:08,994 --> 00:47:20,040
And we need to be reminded that no matter what wealth can buy you here, can't buy you a
home with God.

424
00:47:21,866 --> 00:47:25,250
only faithfulness to him can.

425
00:47:25,250 --> 00:47:33,798
We have to challenge ourselves to be faithful to him and not trust in uncertain riches.

426
00:47:33,939 --> 00:47:35,040
Thank you for your attention.