A Magic Prayer Can't Save You

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for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.

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Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see

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God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God. Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

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Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely in my account, 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 his hands on them and pray.

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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 gonna 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 it 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 12 thrones, judging the 12 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 because you're a believer?

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How many of you lost a wife, a husband? How many of you have lost your mother and your father?

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How many of you lost children because of your faith in Jesus? That is a humbling experience.

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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 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 him.

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Lose your life to gain life. Lose family to gain his kingdom.

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Jesus taught it constantly and it needs to be pointed out because today we have this easy believism gospel that looks like this.

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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 gospel?

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

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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, it was

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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 a 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.

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But everything happening here and now in my life and my heart means nothing to God. And I wanna say, false gospel.

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False gospel, completely false gospel. Not the message of Jesus. Yes, it is faith in Christ alone that saves us, amen?

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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 and coming to him was a faith in him and dependence on him and a losing of yourself, your righteousness, your sin, your stuff.