Powerful Sermon On Humility

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Hey everybody, I'm Pastor Jeff Durbin with Apologia Church. I want to thank you all so much for watching the content right here on Apologia Studios channel.

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What you're about to watch is a sermon, a message from Apologia Church's worship service. And again, I want to thank you all so much for watching, for liking, for commenting, for sharing the sermon itself.

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We truly believe that it's important for the Christian Church to have an engagement in the public square with the

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Word of God. So we thank you so much for partnering with us to send this out across the world. I just wanted to say something before you actually watch this, and that is that I'm not your pastor.

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Though I'd love to be, I am not your pastor. And it's very important as you're watching this, you know that it's

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That is vitally important and actually a biblical command. And so as much as, again, as we love for your participation, your partnership, and we are so thankful to God that He's using these in your lives, we want to encourage you to get plugged into a local church.

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So thank you again so much for watching these and sharing them. God bless you. This section of scripture is so powerful.

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It's one of those moments like it's the sayings of Jesus that are really tough sayings.

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They really are. I mean, you have, of course, in this whole section that I read today, just in the first few verses, what's that, the verse nine, you've got testimony from Jesus, from the

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Lord of glory himself. God becomes a man, and he talks to us. Like, hanging on every word, that's what we should be like with Jesus.

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When he speaks, the creator of the cosmos condescends, and he touches us, and he walks among us, and he speaks to us.

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We ought to be hanging on his every word. In this little section of scripture right here, Jesus says things that contradict the idol that's been created around him in modern culture.

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You know, we have a Jesus that would never confront sin, a Jesus who would never judge anybody.

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You hear us harping on this a lot, right? It can kind of get old in itself. But I want you to pause for a second and just think about it.

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We have created an idol. What's one of the great sins in the Old Testament is, well, it's in the

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Ten Commandments, right? You shall have no other God before me. That's no other

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God in my sight. And however, we know that it's possible to create idols.

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John Calvin said that our hearts are natural idol -making factories, and they are never idle in creating idols.

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They're always working. They're always manufacturing. They're always pumping out something new to worship, something that's not like God.

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It tastes like God, maybe looks like God, seems like God, but it's not God. But maybe that's just a problem for the unbelievers, right?

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It's just the unbelievers that are creating idols. No, I would actually argue that it's Christians and unbelievers that can be producing idols around the person of Christ, around his work,

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God himself. John says in his little epistle near the end of the

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Old Covenant era, before the destruction of the temple, he says to a church of Christians, he says, little children, keep yourselves from idols.

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That's John talking to Christians. He's speaking to a Christian congregation. Keep yourselves from idols.

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Now that sort of covers everything, right? He doesn't even speak about anything specific. He says, keep yourselves from idols.

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So idols can come in a lot of different forms. You can have the idols that you see when you go into nail salons, the obvious ones, right?

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You got the little Buddha thing. You got the coins and the oranges and everything else. Apparently these gods love oranges and pennies.

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It's the truth. You see them. It's obvious, right? Or you can say when you go to Kauai, it's all over the island of Kauai, our church plant there.

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You can't miss it. When you drive around the island of Kauai, you see all the cults, all that idolatry is all over the island.

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What was once a Christian kingdom is now just covered with idolatry, false churches.

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You've got all the cults and isms all over the island. But you even have really strange places that you pass by on the island of Kauai.

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And we've stopped a few times where you stop by places, Shinto temples, Buddhist temples, this really strange things, all the ornate sort of weirdness.

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You've got the idols sort of up there. And one time we went to one and really strange situation.

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They had like, it was obviously a celebration, a festival of some kind. But I don't know how this was a celebration.

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In the middle of the field was a platform with someone hanging from it.

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Not a real person. It was like a hanging, like a doll hanging, like from a noose.

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Like they were like celebrating, like celebration. We hung this guy. It was like really strange.

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You have all kinds of weird expressions of idolatry. But we have them too in the evangelical West. We have idols around the person of Jesus, right?

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Jesus calls everybody God's child. Everybody's a child of God. Lie, that's an idol.

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That sounds like Jesus, not Jesus. Paul says in 2 Corinthians chapter 11 verses 3 and 4 that he's worried about the church in Corinth.

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This is not long after the resurrection and the ascension of Jesus. This is not long at all after that.

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And Jesus says that he's worried about the church, that they would actually follow another Jesus, another spirit, another gospel.

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He says, you might even put up with these people who bring this false Christ and false spirit and false gospel in.

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And he's worried that they're going to be deceived by Satan, by his craftiness.

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The same kind of craftiness through which he deceived Eve, Paul says in 2 Corinthians 11. It's possible to be in a

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Christian community, a professed Christian community, and to have an idol of Jesus. This one text from Scripture, the gospel according to Matthew chapter 18 verses 1 through 9 shatters the modern evangelical idol of Jesus.

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Why? Because Jesus is actually saying that there's an exclusive path to him, to glory, to salvation, to redemption.

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And he actually says besides that, this exclusive nature of salvation, he says that there are people who will not enter the kingdom of God.

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There are people who will never enter into God's rule, his salvation. And he says that unless you turn, that is to turn away from sin, and humble yourself like a little child, you'll never enter the kingdom of Heaven.

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And only those who are turning and become humble like little children, only they are the greatest in the kingdom of Heaven.

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But then beyond that, Jesus even confronts people who lead others into sin, who lead

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God's children, his people into sin. And he says, of course, to them, be better for you to be fastened with a great millstone around your neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea.

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Where's the meek and mild Jesus there? Where's the Jesus who doesn't confront sin there?

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He says, be better for you, if you lead these little children into sin, be better for you to take a great, big, heavy thing, wrap it around your neck, and for you to die and drown in the depth of the sea.

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That's where you belong. That's what Jesus says. Those are the cutting words of Jesus.

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And then Jesus, when talking about sin in our lives, He says it'd be better for you to cut off your foot, to cut off your hand, to cut out your eyeball, and to enter into life maimed than for you to go into life — than to go into eternity and be thrown into the hell of fire with your feet and your hands and your eyeballs.

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And of course, I want to just say as an aside, I never thought I would have to say this, but I do. I spoke to doctors before that said that people have gone into the emergency room and they've cut off their hand or they plugged out their eyeball because they read the message of Jesus.

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Jesus is not teaching you to literally maim yourself. If you cut out your eyeball or cut off your hand, it wouldn't stop you from sinning.

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You would still sin. That's not the source of your sin. Jesus is speaking here in a way telling you to go to the root cause of your sin and to get rid of it and to do what's painful and necessary because it's better for you to enter into life maimed than for you to go and be thrown into the hell of fire.

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So much for Jesus never teaching on hell. Nine verses into the Gospel according to Matthew chapter 18, we have a totally different picture of Jesus than the modern picture of Jesus.

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A Jesus who teaches that there is an exclusive way to life. A Jesus who teaches us to turn from sin and to take radical steps to get away from our sin.

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But Jesus here is speaking to the disciples, and it's interesting because we don't really know what brought on this question.

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And I want to say in light of everything that's already taken place before this in the recent chapters I'm talking about from Matthew 16, this is actually a really strange question for the disciples to be asking.

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Jesus has already expressed what it looks like to come to Him for life, giving up life and taking up the cross.

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He's already said this. He's already expressed the humility and the meekness and to follow Him into the sufferings.

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And yet His disciples are saying, who's the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven? We want to know.

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In your rule, you're the Messiah. When you're ruling the world, Jesus, who's going to be the greatest?

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Now I do want to highlight something here. I keep saying to us that I think it's important for us to be merciful and gracious to the disciples.

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When we see them in the text saying such silly things, oftentimes we're kind of prideful and arrogant.

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Like, how could you be so stupid as to ask Jesus that question? Or when Jesus says

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He's going to die and rise again in Matthew 16, when Peter rebukes Jesus for saying that, we often think,

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Peter, how could you have ever done something so stupid, right? You should know better. Jesus told you

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He's going. Why would you be so resistant? And I want to say, we have to be gracious to them because there's an incomprehensible nature to God's story of what

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He's going to do in history. And what I mean by that, I'll just say this briefly today. What I mean by that is in the

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Old Testament, you have this vivid portrayal of these different aspects of the

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Messiah. You have the confusing, for them, aspect of the Messianic kingdom, and that is that you have this conquering, victorious, mighty

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Savior, Jesus the Messiah, who's going to come and do what? Psalm 1101, the most popular text from the

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Old Testament, quoted from in the New, and it's what? The Lord said unto my Lord, sit at my right hand until what?

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I make your enemies a footstool for your feet. Now I have to say this, in terms of being gracious to the disciples, they understood that the promise of Messiah's kingdom was total victory over the entire world.

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Every enemy — think about it — every enemy under the feet of the Messiah.

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Let's say it again. Every enemy under the feet of the Messiah. So when Peter hears

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Jesus saying, I'm going to die and rise again, I'm going to go to Jerusalem and they're going to kill the king of the world.

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We say, how could you say something so silly, Peter, as to rebuke Jesus? Here's the point.

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Peter knows the story of the kingdom of heaven, the kingdom of God. When God sets up His reign on this earth,

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Daniel chapter two, stone that becomes a mountain that fills the entire earth, the

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God of heaven sets up a kingdom that will never be destroyed. Daniel seven, 13 through 14, in the night visions, one like a son of man coming on the clouds of heaven, and to Him was given dominion, glory, and a kingdom that all the peoples, nations, men of every language might serve

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Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion which will not pass away, and His kingdom is one which will not be what?

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Destroyed. Someone said, destroyed? Destroyed. So, my point is this. We have to be gracious.

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They have this picture of the kingdom, the Messiah, that's vivid in the Old Testament. It's total victory.

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It's all the nations. It's all of them coming to God, streaming up to the mountain of God. Isaiah two,

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Isaiah nine, all these texts. Isaiah 11, Psalm 72,

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Psalm 110 -1, Psalm 22, Genesis 49 -10. We can go and go and go.

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It is vivid, total victory. And so, they're saying, who's the greatest in the kingdom of God?

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We've got to know because you're the king. You're setting it up. You're ruling reign. He is entering into history.

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Jesus said to the Jews in Matthew chapters 12, He said, if I cast out demons by the

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Spirit of God, then the rule of God has come upon you. They were like, it's here.

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You're the Messiah. But you see, that was one vivid portrayal from the Old Testament.

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Total victory, all the nations, every enemy under His feet. There are other vivid portrayals though.

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These other facets of the work of the Messiah in the Old Testament. It's not that it wasn't there. It's not that they couldn't see it.

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It's that they could not possibly comprehend it. It was too divine. It was too majestic. It was too beautiful, too powerful for them to be able to pack into their three -pound brain.

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They couldn't get it. What other things? The suffering of the Messiah. Isaiah 53, crushed for our iniquities.

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The chastening for our well -being was upon Him. He's pierced through for our transgressions. He'll justify the many as He'll bear their iniquities.

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The Lord was pleased to crush Him, putting Him to grief. He's an offering for our sin. He's being condemned for our sins.

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You see Psalm 22, He's pierced His hands and His feet. His heart is like wax, melted within Him.

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The dogs surround Him, wagging their heads. All that's there in the Old Testament. The death and the resurrection of the

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Messiah. The total victory of the Messiah. The priestly nature of Jesus. The temple pointing to Jesus.

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The animal sacrifices. This was something they could not possibly hold in their arms without some stuff slipping out.

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And here's a moment where the disciples, they're hearing Jesus. They're hearing Him say what? The meek shall inherit the what?

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The meek shall inherit the earth. Blessed are you when you are persecuted for righteousness' sake, right?

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Blessed are the poor in spirit. All of that. They know the Beatitudes. They know the blessings. They hear

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Jesus saying, come die. Come and die. Come and die. Give up everything.

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Humble yourself. Turn from sin. They hear Him saying that, but it's not connecting. Because all they're thinking about is this one aspect.

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Kingdom of Heaven. Kingdom of God. The rule of the Messiah. God undoing all that Satan brought into this world.

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All that sin and death brought into this world. And so, we don't know why, specifically, they asked the question.

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But they did. Who's the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven? Their understanding of the

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Kingdom of God was flawed. It's a strange question to ask. And I want to just point you to the text.

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Well, let's wait on this. Let me just say, I'm going to unpack for a moment now some of the things

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Jesus says just in this Gospel in terms of humility and turning from sin and coming to Jesus and giving everything up for Him.

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But watch. This is where, this is where this becomes intensely personal. And I didn't want to do a message like this.

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I'll just be transparent with you as a pastor right now. I'm going to say this. I didn't want to do a message like this and just keep repeating the things that we say at Apology at Church all the time.

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About giving everything up for Christ, losing everything for His sake, turning from sin in a radical way, entrusting in Jesus, entering into the suffering of the

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Messiah. I didn't want to do it so we can just bring out our cheering tools and cheer and say, yes, we believe all that, doctrinally we check off.

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I want to say that it's important for us to actually do the inventory internally. Am I there?

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Have I humbled myself like a child? Have I been impacted by Christ and His Gospel in such a way that I understand what it means to enter into the sufferings of Christ and to come and die and rise again?

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Because watch, they kept hearing Jesus say, give everything up, turn to me, give up your life, take up your cross, and they still don't get it.

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Because look, this is Matthew 18. But I'm going to show you, it didn't change them.

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Move to Matthew chapter 20. That's 18. Matthew 20. He's already confronted them about being a child.

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And you see in Matthew chapter 20, starting in verse 20, this popular moment.

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You're probably familiar with it. Then the mother of the sons of Zebedee came up to him with her sons and kneeling before him she asked him for something.

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And he said to her, what do you want? She said to him, say that these two sons of mine are to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your kingdom.

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Jesus answered, you do not know what you're asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I'm to drink?

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They said to him, we are. They said to him. So, they send their mama to go ask a question to Jesus, right?

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Have them sit next to you, Jesus. I want them to be famous with you on your right and on your left.

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And Jesus says to them, you don't know what you're asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I'm to drink? And they said to him, we're able.

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He said to them, you will drink my cup, but to sit at my right hand and at my left is not mine to grant, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared by my father.

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And when the ten heard it, they were indignant at the two brothers. But Jesus called to them, to him and said, you know that the rulers of the

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Gentiles lorded over them and their great ones exercise authority over them. It shall not be so among you, but whoever would be great among you, you must be your servant.

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Must be your servant. And whoever would be first among you must be your slave. Even as the son of man came not to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.

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It's another moment where Jesus has to constantly reiterate to them, recapitulate to them, you must come and die.

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You must serve. Be like me. I didn't come to be served, but to serve others, to give myself up for others.

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Jesus keeps telling them, but it didn't connect. And I want to say, after the death and resurrection of Jesus, it does connect.

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Quick historical moment here. All of the disciples, all of the disciples died martyrs deaths to follow

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Jesus. Except for one, and it wasn't for lack of trying. Nero tried to kill the apostle

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John. He boiled him in a pot of oil. Nero was freaked out and superstitious because John didn't die.

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And so he sent John into Patmos, which is where John wrote the revelation in Patmos.

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But every one of the disciples actually gave up their lives to die. Paul, the apostle, says at one point in his letters, he says, even at this very hour, we are in rags and we are hungry.

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He says he's in danger constantly from false brethren. He says he's been shipwrecked.

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He's been afloat at sea. He is in danger from robbers, from his own people, and from false brothers.

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It was a life of suffering and death. Just consider this. Some of these disciples were flayed.

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They had the skin cut off their body while they were alive. The disciples were crucified.

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They were decapitated. Paul was killed in that way. The disciples lived lives of suffering and poverty and, what most people would say, wasteful lives for the cause of the gospel.

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Something did connect with them, but not here. I'm going to talk here about what the text says.

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It says in Matthew 18, at that time the disciples came to Jesus saying, who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?

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And calling to Him a child, He put Him in the midst of them and said, truly

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I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

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And here's where the definition of what it means to become a child. He says, whoever humbles himself like this child, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.

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Jesus taught that coming to Him meant there was a humbling experience.

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And I'm going to point to those texts, so just go with me in the gospel according to Matthew for now. Matthew 16, just go back two chapters.

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Matthew 16, Jim preached on this text. Matthew 16, starting at verse 24, then

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Jesus told His disciples, if anyone would come to Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow

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Me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.

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For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul?

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For the Son of Man is going to come with His angels in the glory of His Father, and then He'll repay each person according to what

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He has done. Jesus is talking to an audience that knows the terrifying experience of taking up your cross.

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Just consider this, we talked last week about the fact that you could not in the first century speak about crucifixion like we do so easily today.

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They thought public speech of crucifixion was like talking about what you did in the bathroom.

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It was gross. It was icky. Like, let me tell you,

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I went to Australia, and I would say in Australia, I would say, hey, where's the bathroom, right?

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And the Australians just mocked me. They just loved when Jeff, hey, Jeff, hey, Jeff, hey, listen, ask the question you asked again,

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Jeff. I would say, where's the bathroom? And they would all just giggle and laugh, and it was very offensive.

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Because they don't say bathroom, they say toilet, right? And when

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I said, see, watch the American faces right now, right? Where's the toilet? And I said, you would never want to say that in America.

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And they said, well, why wouldn't you? That's what that is. I said, because you're mentioning the thing we all think is gross.

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There are gross things that happen there. So we in America, we're more polished. We don't say toilet.

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We say bathroom. And they're like, what are you going to do, wash yourself in there? Are you taking a bath? So it's just sort of a debate going on, like which one's the better term.

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But I was thinking about that. Even as Americans, we don't even want to say the word toilet because that's kind of a gross thing.

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Well, in the first century culture, they considered talk of crucifixion like bathroom talk.

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It's disgusting. You don't mention crucifixion because it's so unbelievably awful.

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They saw people hanging on these crosses sometimes for days, suffocating, bleeding, screaming.

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You see, we like to sanitize the death penalty even in our culture today. We do something different in our culture entirely.

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When we do the death penalty in our culture, sometimes in some states still, there's like 34 left in the

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US that still have capital punishment. Even when the states have capital punishment, we say, let's do it in a way that's easiest.

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Let's do it in a way that's not horrific to watch. Some states have stopped doing electrocution because electrocution is such an ugly way to die.

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People that have watched the electric chair have talked about what a horrifying thing it is to see, to see somebody electrocuted in a chair, to see their body start smoking, to see their eyes coming out of their heads.

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It's too ugly. It's too graphic. So what do we do? Well, let's do lethal injection. Why? Because we want to sanitize the death of somebody that even the people say is worthy of death.

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Yes, this guy murdered a family. Yes, this guy deserves capital punishment. But let's make it easy.

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Let's make it less graphic for us to watch. We would never, because we're the enlightened ones, want to see somebody die in a grotesque way, even if they deserve it.

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But in the first century, this was such a graphic way to die that they said, don't talk about it.

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Don't speak about it publicly. It is so awful. Now watch what Jesus says. In that context, with such a disturbing way of capital punishment,

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Jesus says this to His disciples. Ready? How's this for salesmanship? Jesus is not a salesman.

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How do you know? He says this, I'm gonna win the entire world, and this is my message for everybody.

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Take up your cross and follow me in the death march. Come to me and die.

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How do you know Jesus isn't a charlatan and a con artist? Well, one, by nature who He is, and two, just listen to what

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He's saying. Nobody starts a religion selling this. Hey guys,

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I have a new idea now. Follow me, world. I'm gonna die on a cross and be crucified, die a gruesome death.

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I want you all to take up your cross and come with me. Come on. Like, where's everybody going?

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Jesus says, come and die, humble yourselves and give everything up. Lose your life for my sake.

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That's the humility with which Jesus calls us to come to Him. You must take up your cross and come and die.

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And I want to point something out. In our culture today, we have megachurches.

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We have large churches with large crowds. Now, I can't see into the hearts of any particular person, and I don't want to be haughty here in speaking to the subject of megachurches, because there are megachurches that are faithful and God is using, and God strikes straight blows with crooked sticks.

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But I just want to say, sometimes we see churches that are filled with thousands of people. And I wonder, in our culture today, the way that we preach and we talk about Christ, and we've set

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Him up and talked about what He's like, and what His standards are, and what His gospel is. I wonder if we really, truly understand

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Jesus' call to come to Him for life. I wonder if we really understand what

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He said. Would our churches today be so large if we just preached for one year on Matthew 18, 1 through 9?

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Would they be so large when you see the demands of Christ to come to Him, to die, to take up your cross, to let go of everything, to maim yourself, to enter into life?

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We also see in the Beatitudes, Jesus taught in the blessings. He said, Matthew chapter 5, verse 2,

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He opened His mouth and taught them, saying, Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

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Blessed are those who mourn, for they should be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.

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Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.

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Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.

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Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when others revile you, and persecute you, and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.

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Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven. For so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

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I wonder, does this sell well? Does this sell well religiously and spiritually to tell people these things?

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You must be poor in spirit, bankrupt spiritually. You must be the kind of person that is persecuted for righteousness' sake.

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You must be merciful. You must be meek. See, we don't like that. We like the messages that talk about having our best life now.

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We like to talk about steps to success. We like to talk about gaining life here and now, and things.

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And Jesus' message cuts to the core of it all, and it guts us of our pride. It takes us and it breaks us at the cross.

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Another text to show you Jesus talking about humility. Matthew chapter 18 is where we are.

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Just move forward to Matthew 19, verse 13. Jesus says in Matthew 19, 13, then children were brought to Him that He might lay hands on them and pray.

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The disciples rebuked the people. Watch that again. Children were brought to Him that He might lay

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His hands on them and pray. The disciples rebuked the people. But Jesus said, let the little children come to Me and do not hinder them.

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For to such belongs the kingdom of heaven. And He laid His hands on them and went away.

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That's Matthew 19, 13. But as you move forward in verse 16,

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I'm going to read through this text so you can see it once again. And behold, a man came up to Him saying, teacher, what good deed must

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I do to have eternal life? And He said to him, why do you ask me about what is good? There's only one who is good.

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If you would enter life, keep His commandments. He said to him, which ones? And Jesus said to him, you should not murder.

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You should not commit adultery. You shall not steal. You should not bear false witness. Honor your father and mother and you shall love your neighbor as yourself.

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The young man said to Him, all these things I have kept. All these I've kept. What do I still lack?

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Jesus said to him, if you would be perfect, here it is. Go sell what you possess and give to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven.

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And come, follow me. When the young man heard this, he went away sorrowful for he had great possessions.

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And Jesus said to His disciples, truly I say to you, only with difficulty will a rich person enter the kingdom of heaven.

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Again, I tell you, 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.

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When His disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished, saying, who then can be saved?

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But Jesus looked at them and said, with man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.

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Then Peter said in reply, see, we've left everything and have followed you.

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What then will we have? That's a beautiful thing. Here's the disciples, now

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I think in a moment of vulnerability, saying to Jesus, Jesus, we've left everything for you.

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What's it look like now? What do we have? And this is beautiful.

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Jesus said to them, truly I say to you, in the new world, when the Son of Man will sit on His glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.

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And everyone who has left houses, or brothers, or sisters, or father or mother, or children or lands, for my name's sake, will receive a hundredfold and will inherit eternal life.

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But many who are first will be last, and the last first. This message contradicts everything, humanly speaking, that we would think you would want to tell people to start a religion, to start a movement.

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Jesus is telling people to abandon everything for His cause, to come to Him.

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And Jesus turns away a rich man who says that he wants eternal life and wants to come to Jesus, but he's not willing to part with his stuff.

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Jesus, by the way, we're gonna unpack this later, Jesus knows the man's heart. No, he had not kept

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God's law perfectly. Jesus was calling to him to tell him the way to life.

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He needed to come and follow Him to abandon his things. But as the disciples see that Jesus turns away a rich man who won't part with his stuff,

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Jesus gives them the blessing and the promise of their future. They will inherit eternal life and receive a hundredfold what they've lost.

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But notice the humility that it takes to come to Jesus. How many of you have actually lost family?

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Because you're a believer. How many of you lost a wife, a husband?

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How many of you have lost your mother and your father? How many of you lost children because of your faith in Jesus?

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That is a humbling experience. Why? Because you are coming to God with no status, with brokenness, only receiving from Him.

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And as you do that, as you humble yourself and you turn to God away from sin, away from your stuff, away from your idols, as you turn to Him and you do that, you notice it's a humbling experience because you start to lose other things as well as you follow

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Jesus. As you follow Christ, you give up all these things. It is a breaking experience.

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It is an experience that will shatter your heart, break your mind, bring tears to your eyes.

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Some of you to this day, this very Sunday, this Lord's Day, you are suffering because you've lost mother or father or family or possessions for Christ.

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And Jesus gives you promise, coming to Him like a child, being humbled, taking up your cross, following Him means eternal life and you're receiving a hundredfold blessing.

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But you notice Jesus keeps teaching this. This isn't a one -off thing where it's just in one place. Jesus, His consistent message was you abandon everything to come to Him for life.

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That was the message of the Gospel and I wanna just, I wanna highlight this one point. Why am I stressing this so much?

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I'm gonna say I wanna stress it as a pastor because Jesus stressed it constantly. Lose everything to gain

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Him. Lose your life to gain life. Lose family to gain

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His kingdom. Jesus taught it constantly and it needs to be pointed out because today we have this easy believism

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Gospel that looks like this. All one must do to receive eternal life is read this magic prayer, right?

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No real heart change, no repentance. Do you know that there are people preaching today that if you preach repentance and faith in Jesus that you're preaching a false

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Gospel? People actually teach today that if you say someone needs to repent of their sins to trust in Jesus, that that's a false

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Gospel because the Bible only teaches faith in Christ for salvation. But the truth is if you actually take the

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Bible in context, faith, true saving faith is a repentant faith.

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It's a faith that turns to God away from sin and things and idols and it totally depends upon Jesus humbly like a child.

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You see, we have truncated the Gospel to just particular propositions about what

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Jesus has done so you can go to heaven one day, right? Nothing about this life.

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Jesus, I prayed that magic prayer, my ticket was punched, and so you owe me heaven one day.

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We have a video that Marcus, I believe Marcus edited not long ago and it was outside the abortion mill in Glendale.

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It was Zach. Zach was out, Conover, was outside this abortion mill and there was a woman at the abortion mill who tried to get into it with Zach.

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She walks past him and she was purposely walking past him to get into conflict. Zach was so gracious and so respectful and gentle but so bold and so truthful with her.

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And if you watch that video, go watch it. If you watch that video, she says things in that video that perfectly codify the modern evangelical and professing

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Christian in the West. And what does she say? She says, I know that mother effing book.

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I know that book. And she says, I'm the Christian. You're judging people.

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I'm the Christian here. She says, there's nothing I could ever do, nothing I could ever do that would keep me out of heaven.

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I know that book. And she said, I've had faith in Jesus. And so basically her entire thesis is,

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I believe in this concept of Jesus and so God must give me heaven one day, but everything happening here and now in my life and my heart means nothing to God.

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And I want to say, false gospel. False gospel, completely false gospel.

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Not the message of Jesus. Yes, it is faith in Christ alone that saves us, amen? Apart from any work of law, there is no amount of works, not now, not ever, that will merit salvation.

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It is solely on the work of Jesus. However, the way that Jesus talked about the gospel and faith in coming to him was a faith in him and dependence on him and a losing of yourself, your righteousness, your sin, your stuff.

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It was coming to Jesus like a child. And what's that mean?

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Because you know what? When I think about children, we love children at Apologia Church, amen? Obviously. But let's be honest about these children.

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Take it at face value. If Jesus says, you must come to me like a little child, if you left it at that and you're a parent, you have children, you go, well, wait a minute.

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Because children are selfish. Man, are they selfish.

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So what is Jesus saying? Come to me like a child and just a little three -foot tall selfish being?

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No. Children are sinful, amen?

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Children are not innocent. So, when Jesus says — this is important — when Jesus says, come to me like a child, we go, wait a minute.

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Children are not innocent. Children are very sinful. Children are selfish. So, Jesus, you want us to come to you like that?

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I mean, just think about for a second children. A friend of mine told me a story once about how he was going to surprise his kids with a trip to Disneyland.

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He was going to surprise his kids with a trip to Disneyland. They had prepared this whole thing.

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They secretly packed the bags. They had this whole week planned at Disneyland, I mean, just to bless the kids.

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And it wasn't for the parents, it's for the kids. Like, ultimately, if you've been to Disneyland, you know that after a while it's like, this ain't about me, it's about them.

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And I'm ready to go home, right? Like, it's not always the happiest place on earth, but you're there happy because you're like, well, they seem to be happy, so I guess

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I am too, right? You're there, not for you, but for them completely, right? And so this parent does all these amazing things, secretly packing the bags, saving the money, ready to take the trips to get the kids to Disneyland.

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And they get into the car, and they're like, okay, we've got to stop somewhere to eat first, and then we're going to tell the kids on the way that we're going to Disneyland.

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So they're in the car, they're driving, and they're like, hey, let's stop at McDonald's to get something to eat real fast.

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They hadn't told the kids yet that we're going to Disneyland. That's actually where we're headed. They hadn't said anything yet.

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And they tell the kids, we're going to like McDonald's real fast to eat, and we have a surprise for you. And as soon as the kids heard where they're going to eat, they got all upset.

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They're like, I don't want to go. I'm tired of McDonald's. We eat at McDonald's all the time. And they went on this tirade, talking about how sick they were of this, and they start fighting with each other, and they're yelling at each other, and the dad's like, you know, swinging his arm back in the car.

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And what happened was, is he decided, I'm not taking them to Disneyland.

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And they got to where they were going to eat, they ate, and they went home, and the kids never knew that they were actually going to Disneyland.

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But they were so stinking selfish, and sinful, and not innocent, they lost out on this incredible blessing.

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Why? Because children are sinful, not innocent, selfish. So is Jesus saying, be like a child, and come to me, and have those characteristics?

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No, Jesus says, humbly, humble yourself like a child.

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What are children like before Jesus? They have no status. Think about your children.

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Children have no status. They've got nothing to offer, right? They can't pay the bills.

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They're totally dependent. Children are at others' mercy.

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So when Jesus says, come to Him, humble like a child, you have to come to Him with nothing, no status, nothing to offer.

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You come to God dependent upon His mercy. Those who know

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God have no status in themselves. Those who know God, and come to Him like children, are completely at God's mercy.

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Jesus says, truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, it's one of those moments where Jesus actually pauses.

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You see it in some of the older texts, verily, verily, I say to you, truly, truly, I say to you.

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It's the moment where Jesus actually snaps you to attention. He says, truly, take this and believe it.

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This is a truth that cannot change. Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, unless you do an about face, unless you change your thinking, unless you have a change of mind and become like a child, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

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You'll never be saved. You'll never enter into God's kingdom. Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.

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So we need to talk for a moment about true faith versus false, false faith. And we'll just do this in a way that I think we can all embrace and understand.

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You see, it is possible to have false faith. In the book of Galatians, the apostle

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Paul talks to a church that was being impacted by a false gospel. And Paul talks about the people who had brought, had come into the church.

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He calls them pseudodelphoi, pseudodelphoi, pseudodelphoi, false brothers.

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These are not Christians. They're false Christians. And he says, what? They came in to spy out our liberty.

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They came in to destroy things, not to bring us to God. These people don't know

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God. See, it's possible, according to the scriptures, to have a true faith, a saving faith, and a false faith.

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It's possible to be a real Christian and a false Christian.

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There are those categories in scripture. It's real. But what does it mean to come to God and have true faith, like a child, humbled?

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Well, the first thing a person recognizes who is coming to God and is truly being transformed by God is their total dependence upon God's mercy, their lack of status or anything to offer to God.

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And I just want to take you to the book of Romans to see it explicated quickly. I'm just going to do a cursory look through it.

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Go to Romans, and I want to point some things out in terms of humility, no status, dependent upon mercy, only reception.

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Look at chapter one, Romans chapter one. I'm not unpacking the whole text here, but I want you to see it.

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Paul talks about how we all know God, but we suppress the truth of God in unrighteousness, and it says, God gives us over.

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Romans 1, 24, therefore God gave them up in the lust of their hearts to impurity.

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Verse 26, for this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. Verse 28, and since they did not see fit to acknowledge

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God, God gave them up to a debauchery mind to do what ought not to be done. Now watch this list.

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They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice.

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They're full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, slanderers, and here it is, ready?

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Haters of God. Haters of God. Inventors, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless.

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There's a description of fallen mankind. There's a description of our true nature outside of God's grace.

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But look at chapter 3 now. Move over to chapter 3. Here's a description of all of us.

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Verse 9, what then, are we Jews any better off? No, not at all, for we have already charged that all, both

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Jews and Greeks, are under sin. As it is written there, none is righteous. No, not one. None who understands.

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None who seeks for God. All have turned aside. Together they become worthless. No one does good. No one.

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Not even one. So it's interesting how he says that, ready? No one does good.

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And someone goes, really, no one? He goes, not even one. Not even one. Their throat is an open grave.

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They use their tongues to deceive. The venom of asps is under their lips. Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.

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Their feet are swift to shed blood. In their paths are ruin and misery. In the way of peace they have not known.

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There is no fear of God before their eyes. There's a description of you and I outside of the grace of God and Christ.

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Verse 23 now, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. There's a description of you and I.

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Haters of God. Insolent. Not righteous. Not good. No fear of God before our eyes.

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Fallen short of the glory of God. Romans chapter 4.

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I want you to see it in verse 3. What does the scripture say? Abraham believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness.

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Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift but as what is due. And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly.

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How many of you guys have a translation that says wicked? Some of the translations use the word wicked.

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So watch this. It says that God justifies the wicked. So think about what you're seeing here in terms of our status before God.

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What do we have to offer God? We are haters of God. We fall short of God's glory. We are not righteous.

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We are not good. And what does it say? We are actually wicked. Go on to the chapter 5 now.

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Chapter 5. Here's what its description is of us.

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Chapter 5 verse 6. For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for thee, what?

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Ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die.

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But God chose his love for us and that while we were still what? Sinners. So what do we have here?

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We are weak. We are ungodly. We are sinners. Keep going. Verse 8.

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But God chose his love for us and that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since therefore we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God.

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For if while we were what? Enemies. We are enemies.

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We are haters of God. We are not righteous. We are not good. We are helpless. We are ungodly.

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This is our position before God. That's our status. But you do see in Romans, Paul speaking to the situation in his day.

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He says to the Jews that they were trying to establish their own righteousness.

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They were trying to establish their own righteousness. They were rejecting

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God's righteousness through Christ and they were trying to establish their own. So Jesus is speaking in the context of people who are very religious that think, watch, they can come to God and have some boast, have some right to stand in his presence, some righteousness or merit that he can accept.

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And Jesus tells people universally unless you humble yourself and come to me like a child, unless you turn and become like this child, you'll never enter into the

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Kingdom of Heaven. What is it like to come to Jesus like a child? Is to recognize this, you have no status.

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Nothing, nothing. All of our righteousnesses are as filthy rags, amen?

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So every good thing that you and I think that we have done, even that is tainted somehow with our sin.

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How many of you have even been on a missions trip? You've actually given up time in your life and money to serve

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Jesus on a missions trip and while you're there serving the Lord, you've sinned on that trip. Daniel, good job, thank you man.

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See, even the good things that we think we're doing before God, even those are tainted with our own pride, our own selfishness, our own sin, our own falling short.

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There's nothing that we have before God, no status. We're completely dependent upon his mercy.

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The people who come to God and know God truly are those who recognize like children, they have no status and they are fully dependent upon the mercy of God.

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They come to him with nothing. All they are is receptive. All they can do is receive.

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They have nothing to offer. They have nothing to give. So when these disciples, and this is where we're wrapping it up, when these disciples come to Jesus and they say this, who's the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?

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They want status. They think they have something to offer on those thrones.

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They think that they have some ability to, to convince and have power and to convey some spiritual higher purpose.

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They have something to offer God's kingdom. And Jesus says the first thing you need to recognize is that you have nothing.

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You are completely broken. You have no status. You are dependent upon mercy. Come to me like a child.

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And then Jesus starts to push even more on this point. He says come die, take up your cross, give up everything, sell what you own, give it to the poor, come follow me naked.

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And I want to say this. My story is not that important.

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But I believe that I had a false profession of faith early on in my life.

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And it wasn't until I came out of my addiction to drugs and alcohol and the life of sin that I was pursuing that I began to reexamine the scriptures.

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And I was seeing in the text of God's word all these calls to come to Christ like a child, to turn and become like a child, to humble yourself, to give up everything, to turn from sin, to abandon everything, to come to Christ whole in him.

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I heard the gospel before in the way that it's preached commonly today. And it was this.

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You're a sinner. God isn't. You want to go to heaven and not burn in hell?

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Okay. Pray this prayer. Great. Congratulations. You're saved.

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You prayed that prayer. I even heard somebody suggest that people get saved.

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You need to invite friends to church because when unbelievers come to church, if they sing the songs, if they sing the lyrics that are on the screen, then

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God will save them. Because they've been professing true things in a worship service and God will redeem that because he says, believe in the

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Lord Jesus Christ, you'll be saved. They said those words on the screen. They're probably saved now they came to a Christian worship service.

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That's the context I was in. And when I began to reexamine the scriptures,

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I saw that Jesus had a different message all together. He had a message that said, you come to him and die.

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And that began the course where I began to look at my own heart to question whether I'd ever actually turn to Jesus.

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I had what seemed like affections for God and a love for his word. But there was nothing in my life that looked like turning and becoming like a child.

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Total dependence upon Christ and his lordship. And so my question to us today, when you think about the humility that Christ calls us to, becoming like a child and coming to God, have you taken up the cross?

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Have you come to die? Or are you still seeking to save your life? Have you come to die and rise again?

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Or is this life the most valuable thing to you? Have you denied yourself?

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Have you given up what you love, what gives you pleasure, what gives you joy, but is dishonoring to God and not pleasing to God?

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Have you denied yourself? Have you turned to God? Have you had a change of heart and had a change of mind?

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Are you coming to God, putting things before him that you think merit salvation?

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Or are you coming to God like a child, only receiving? You see, those who are saved who know

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God in scripture are receiving. Their mouths are open to receive living water from God.

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Their hands are open, nothing to bring. From the beginning of the

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Bible to the end of the Bible, you see this thread, and it is the grace of God.

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He's the giver. He's the doer. He's the one that can boast. We have nothing.

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And so the question that should snap us to attention is, have you become like a child to receive him?

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Now, there's a danger in this. I'm a fallible person.

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I am only human. I'm still being sanctified as a pastor.

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I can't always communicate God's truth in a perfect way, and I can't always communicate

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God's truth in a way maybe that's winsome or powerful or amazing.

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You know, everybody wants that sermon. Everyone who wants status wants that shocking youth message from Paul Washer, right?

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Some guys are like, you know, they're building their life off of being able to preach that sermon that becomes the shocking youth sermon of Paul Washer, right?

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Some guys live their lives like that, trying to preach sermons like that. But I just want to confess,

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I can't always preach the message that's going to change the world. I can't. It's not in me. I have no power to do it.

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And there's a danger in a message like today, and this is the danger. You can hear all these things, all very true things about Christ, about humility, about becoming like a child, about taking up the cross.

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You can hear all of it, and you've heard it before, and you think that you've contemplated it or meditated on it appropriately and well enough.

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But there is a real danger to being in a Christian communion and being very comfortable with all the spiritual things that you hear.

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You're just accustomed to it. It's natural to you. And if you've been an apology at church for any time, you're probably a person that's heard this message preached a number of times.

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Things like this, take up your cross, deny yourself. But can I just be just intensely personal with you for a minute?

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Have you? Examined yourself to see whether you're in the faith?

01:00:04

And I'm not asking you this. I'm not asking you if you've had what seem like spiritual experiences in your past.

01:00:10

That's not what I'm asking you. I'm not asking you if you've served God in some ministry somewhere. I'm not asking you if you have theological books on your shelf.

01:00:18

I'm not asking you if listening to Christian sermons gets you excited. I'm not asking you if you have what seem like affections for God.

01:00:26

And so I feel like I'm all good. I'm asking you, have you ever truly come before the

01:00:33

Lord and examined yourself and asked God to open your heart, to open your eyes to him, to expose yourself, to expose you, who you really are before him?

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Have you ever come to God and actually said, Lord, here I am, expose me.

01:00:50

Is there any false way in me? Have I come to you in a way that is not true?

01:00:59

Like I'm so scared for Christian kids. I am. Kids raised in Christian homes. I am.

01:01:04

I'm terrified for children raised in Christian homes. Because I feel like there's a danger to children being raised in Christian homes that they will go through their lives assuming they're

01:01:17

Christians because of their surroundings. Assuming they're Christians because mom and dad are.

01:01:22

Assuming they're Christians because there's a Bible. Assuming they're Christians because they've gone to youth group. Assuming they're Christians because they had some mountaintop experience at a youth camp.

01:01:31

Assuming they're Christians because they are comfortable with the Christian culture. And that terrifies me that there are children maybe even in this church that have been around the

01:01:43

Christian faith. They love the message of Jesus, but they've never actually gotten on their knees and asked God, God, do

01:01:50

I truly know you? Have I truly turned from my sin to trust in Jesus? Am I depending totally in you?

01:01:57

God, expose any wrong way in me. There are people in this room, no doubt about it.

01:02:03

There's no question that there are people in this room that have had an experience with Christ in the past, have turned to a life of sin today, and love their sin more than they love

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God, and are just hiding out in church. Why?

01:02:24

Well, it's like insurance, right? I have all of the marks of what looks like a

01:02:30

Christian, but my heart hasn't been truly transformed. I want to say this.

01:02:35

This might seem like a hard message to preach, right? It's not a comfortable message, but the loving thing is the

01:02:42

Christ thing. And Christ actually confronted crowds of people by actually exposing where they were.

01:02:48

He says things like this, if you don't pluck your eye out and throw it away, you won't enter the kingdom of heaven.

01:02:54

If you don't turn and become like a child, you won't enter the kingdom of heaven. If you don't hate mother, father, sister, brother, wife, even your own life, you're not worthy of being my disciple.

01:03:05

He actually goes to the heart of it. Why? Because the worst thing ever, I believe, is to be the person that receives these words on judgment day.

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Depart from me, you workers of iniquity. I never knew you.

01:03:24

And I want to say this. Jesus did not say, and I want to give you encouragement here for those who know Jesus. Jesus did not say there, depart from me, you didn't do enough.

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Depart from me, you weren't good enough. Jesus doesn't say, depart from me, you were saved and lost it.

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He says this, depart from me, you workers of iniquity. I, what? Never knew you.

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There never was a relationship with me. Lord, Lord, didn't I do this in your name? Didn't I serve you in this ministry?

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Didn't I go to this Bible study? Didn't I go to this church service? Didn't I read my Bible, God? Didn't I do all these great works in your name,

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God? Didn't I do it for you? And Jesus says, depart from me, I never knew you.

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What a terrifying thing. What a terrifying thing. And you know why it's so terrifying in my mind?

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It's just when I consider it, when I think about this, the terrifying thing is that this message of life and forgiveness and peace and grace is offered out and there's nothing you have to do for it.

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You can't earn it. You have nothing at all. All you do is you receive life and forgiveness.

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You turn to him to be saved. That's it. It's all God has nothing to do with you.

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But the challenge is breaking past that point where you're willing to actually say,

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God, expose me for who I am. Open my heart and show me who

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I am, God. Break my heart. Show me my sin. Grant to me eyes that see, God.

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I want Jesus. Save me. Unless you turn and become like little children, you'll never enter the kingdom of heaven.

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The person who is the greatest in the kingdom of God is the one who becomes like a little child. Are you a child?