Latest / Scripture Unscripted / Matthew chapter 19
Transcript
- 0:01Matthew chapter 19. Let us pray.
- 0:07Lord God, God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Adonai, Ilion, the Most
- 0:17High God, Lord Jehovah Rapha and Jehovah Jireh, Jehovah Nisi, you
- 0:29are provider, healer and the banner that we wave over our
- 0:34lives. Lord, I pray that our prayers
- 0:38are an incense and a pleasing aroma unto you.
- 0:41Father, I pray that we can be emptied of ourselves.
- 0:46Father, that we can come and lay prostate at your feet, Father,
- 0:51and worship you in spirit and truth.
- 0:55Lord, I pray that you, God Almighty, will come in.
- 1:01Lord, be well pleased with us, Lord, that you will search us.
- 1:06Search us out, Father, search our very being, search our
- 1:11motives, search our minds, Father, search us out.
- 1:15Lord, purge us of any iniquity, purge us of any selfish motives.
- 1:23God, I pray in the name of Jesus for advise Lord to see this
- 1:28world the way that you do. Lord, I pray that you'll unstop
- 1:33our ears, that we can hear this still small voice whispering to
- 1:37us. God, I pray that many people
- 1:41will be healed today. I pray God that Holy Spirit you
- 1:47will break out and that there will be freedom Lord, and that
- 1:53people will come to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ and
- 1:57what he has done for us on Calvary, the work of the cross,
- 2:03the shed innocent blood for us. Lord, I pray that we can be holy
- 2:08because you are holy. I pray that we can be righteous.
- 2:11God, I thank you for the ministry of prayer.
- 2:16God, increase our prayer life today.
- 2:21Lord, I pray that you will continue to make us the
- 2:25ministers of reconciliation. God, I pray for marriages all
- 2:30around the world. God, I pray for the family unit.
- 2:34Lord, to be strengthened in this hour.
- 2:37I pray that we'll take our eyes off of self.
- 2:40I pray that we'll take our eyes off of vanity.
- 2:43I pray that we'll take our eyes off of the world.
- 2:47In the cares of this world, in the riches, in the pride of
- 2:51life. God, I pray that we will set our
- 2:55eyes unto Zion, set our eyes unto you, Father God.
- 3:03I pray that your words, Lord, will become real to us, that
- 3:07will change us from the inside out.
- 3:10Lord, that will help us in this journey, help us to navigate
- 3:15through this tumultuous sea. God, I pray for the peace, Lord,
- 3:20that Jesus had in the boat. I pray God that you'll steal
- 3:24every storm that comes our way. Lord, I pray a hedge of
- 3:29protection. Lord, I pray circles God around
- 3:34our families, around our households, around our minds.
- 3:38Lord, give us a sound mind. Father, I pray in the name of
- 3:41Jesus that your words will reverberate off the rafters.
- 3:46God, I pray that your words will reverberate through our DNA,
- 3:52through our being, through our very bodies and our minds and
- 3:55our senses. God, I pray for a hedge of
- 3:58protection. Lord around the righteous judges
- 4:04and the righteous police officers and the righteous
- 4:09teachers and the righteous political proponents.
- 4:13God, I pray in the name of Jesus that you'll increase their voice
- 4:19over the next generation, that you'll increase your word, God,
- 4:25spoken in the courtrooms. Lord, I pray that it'll be your
- 4:29word spoken at the traffic stops.
- 4:33Lord, I pray that it'll be your word spoken in the classrooms.
- 4:37Lord, I pray in the name of Jesus that your word will be
- 4:40spoken at the highest levels of government.
- 4:44Lord, I pray that your word will never return void, Father God.
- 4:52Lord, let it go out to the ends of the earth.
- 4:56Lord and I pray in the name of Jesus for many to come into the
- 5:00fold today, or we thank you for your mercies that are new today.
- 5:06We do not worry about tomorrow, but today has enough worry of
- 5:10itself. It's sufficient for today.
- 5:13So God, let us do the next right thing today.
- 5:16Let us move in obedience today. Let us be found, Lord,
- 5:22fulfilling the Great Commission. Lord, I pray in the name of
- 5:26Jesus that you'll send us out into Jerusalem, Judea, and
- 5:31Samaria, God. Send us out into the
- 5:34neighborhoods and the highways and the hedges, Father, into
- 5:39distant lands, God, to the coastlands, Lord.
- 5:43I pray for the unreached people groups in this world.
- 5:47Lord, I pray that we will be able to reach them.
- 5:51God, in every way possible, let this word go out to the ends of
- 5:56the earth. And Lord, I pray in the name of
- 5:59Jesus, it falls on fertile soil and produces fruit, produces A
- 6:03crop, produces a harvest. In the name of Jesus, Lord, I
- 6:08pray that you'll hide me, hide my words, hide my thoughts.
- 6:13Holy Spirit, fill us up today. Holy Spirit, you be our guide.
- 6:19Holy Spirit, you convict, I decrease as you increase.
- 6:25Lord Jesus, Son of God, Son of man, son of David, thank you
- 6:34Jesus, for all that you've done. Thank you, God Almighty, that
- 6:39you've given us a life worth living.
- 6:42Thank you, Holy Spirit, for teaching and feeling.
- 6:46Thank you for correcting. Lord help us.
- 6:50Lord, I pray that your words do not return void.
- 6:55And it's in the mighty name of Jesus Christ that I pray.
- 6:58Amen. Let's start in verse one.
- 7:08And it came to pass that when Jesus had finished these
- 7:12sayings, he departed from Galilee and came into the coast
- 7:15of Judea beyond Jordan. Here's Jesus again in Judea.
- 7:21What's he got to say too? And great multitudes followed
- 7:25him, and he healed them there. So imagine that, this great
- 7:32multitude following Jesus around, and they're looking more
- 7:37for the healings than they are for the obedience unto Jesus
- 7:44Christ. And here he's going to put a
- 7:48line in the sand. And Jesus is very good at doing
- 7:51this. Jesus is very good at turning to
- 7:55the multitudes that are there for the healing.
- 7:58And he causes them to stop and to think and to reason and to
- 8:06make a love decision. And he's it's no different for
- 8:09our day and for our our hour. And for such a time as this,
- 8:14friends, Jesus is very good at causing us to make a love
- 8:21decision. And there are so many people who
- 8:24think that Jesus was a good man and that Jesus had great
- 8:28teachings. But they have not counted the
- 8:32cost. And when persecution comes and
- 8:35when hard times come, they fall away because they were only
- 8:39there as long as things were good.
- 8:42But they become offended with Jesus when the healing doesn't
- 8:46come. They become offended with Jesus
- 8:49whenever their marriage dissolves.
- 8:51They become offended with Jesus when the job loss comes and the
- 8:56cancer comes back. They become offended because
- 9:00Jesus can do it, but He knows what is best and He causes us to
- 9:07go deeper in our faith or to hit the eject button and to go back
- 9:13to our carnality. To go back to the barbaric
- 9:20thoughts and the animalistic instincts that tell us that this
- 9:24world is all that there is and that money is the answer to all
- 9:28of your problems. And it reveals to us the true
- 9:33heart that is within. And Jesus is so good at that.
- 9:37Let's go on to verse 3 to figure out where this line in the sand
- 9:41starts. Three of the Pharisees also came
- 9:45unto him, and they were tempting him and saying unto him, Is it
- 9:51lawful for a man to put away his wife for every cause?
- 9:56So here what they were doing is they were trying to trip Jesus
- 10:02up in His words, to trip Jesus up in His theology, to trip
- 10:08Jesus up amongst the multitude that were following Him.
- 10:13And they wanted him to either side with two different thought
- 10:19processes that was common amongst the Jewish people.
- 10:24There was Shamai and Hellel and these two rabbis were very
- 10:33divisive and one took a very casual approach and said you
- 10:37could divorce your wife if she didn't cook your breakfast the
- 10:41right way. And the other one took a very
- 10:45strict approach and made it nearly impossible to divorce.
- 10:51And so this two conflicting rabbis in the land is what is at
- 10:58stake here. And they knew that whichever way
- 11:02Jesus went, that half the crowd would be upset.
- 11:07And let's see how the King of kings and the Lord of Lords, and
- 11:11the Creator of everything seen and unseen Incarnate, Let's see
- 11:18how he answers. Move on to four.
- 11:24And he answered and said unto them, Have you not read that he
- 11:33which made them at the beginning made them male and female 5.
- 11:40And said, For this cause shall a man leave father, mother, and
- 11:48shall cleave to his wife, and they too shall be 1.
- 11:53Flesh 6 Wherefore they are no more, 2 but one flesh.
- 12:03What therefore has God joined together, let no man put
- 12:08asunder? So here in verses four and five
- 12:15and six, Jesus does what he's good at.
- 12:20Jesus doesn't evade the question, but he actually
- 12:25expounds upon the question. He actually goes deeper and he
- 12:31forces them to think. He forces them to get out of the
- 12:36rat race. He forces them to get out of all
- 12:39their preconceived notions of their religious dogmatic
- 12:43approach to the world and how everything was set up and they
- 12:48had to make a love decision in this moment.
- 12:51And here the Creator of the world, the Creator of
- 12:56everything, seen and unseen, the only uncreated, is answering
- 13:01back His creation. Think about it for a second
- 13:04friends. We are created beings.
- 13:09He is the uncreated, the great I am, and we have called him into
- 13:16the courtroom and we're trying to take him into task.
- 13:20And he has the most beautiful way of showing us the error of
- 13:26our ways and how we get stuck in these thought processes and we
- 13:32justify all of our actions, which only shows the sinfulness
- 13:38of mankind. It only shows how debased we can
- 13:42be whenever we call God into the courtroom, when we call God into
- 13:47question and we try to ask God what He is thinking and why He
- 13:53didn't behave in the way that we needed him to, why He didn't
- 13:58behave in the way that we wanted Him to, and how completely wrong
- 14:05is mankind to try to question a good and loving and wholesome
- 14:11God. And what we would do well to
- 14:13remember is that no one truly dies in the eyes of God.
- 14:18Is that every single human being who has ever been born from Adam
- 14:23and Eve all the way to your next door neighbor who is far from
- 14:28God? Every single human being that
- 14:31has ever been born or will ever be born is going to spend
- 14:37eternity somewhere and to God, no one ever really dies.
- 14:41And here these people are trying to manufacture a lifestyle that
- 14:47is pleasing and fitting in their own eyes, and they forget who
- 14:51they're talking to. And we would do well to remember
- 14:55who it is that we're speaking to in this moment.
- 15:03It is God and God alone who deserves all the praise and all
- 15:07the glory and all of the adoration and the obedience of
- 15:13his children. Seven.
- 15:19And then they said unto him, Why did Moses then command to give a
- 15:25right, a writing of divorcement and to put her away?
- 15:30So here they're not satisfied with Jesus's first response when
- 15:36he calls them back to the garden, when he calls them back
- 15:39to Adam and Eve, and he shows them what the original intent of
- 15:46marriage was. It is a God ordained covenant.
- 15:52It is given by God, is the institution given by God, and we
- 15:59don't get to call the shots, we don't get to write laws into the
- 16:04legal process that supports divorce.
- 16:10God Almighty is the one who instituted marriage, and God
- 16:15Almighty is the only one that can put two people together as
- 16:21one, and God is the only one who can separate it.
- 16:25It is not that you go and you go through a legal process and you
- 16:30get a certificate that says that you're divorced and God just
- 16:34acknowledges it because the courtroom acknowledged it.
- 16:37It doesn't work that way, friends.
- 16:39It goes much deeper than that. Only God can separate a husband
- 16:46and a wife in a way that he acknowledges.
- 16:50The court doesn't get to to do that.
- 16:53Friends, the legal system and due process does not get to
- 17:00separate a man and a woman, a husband and a wife, which by the
- 17:05way, we can see here the attack on marriage and why the attack
- 17:10is on marriage. And God does not acknowledge 2
- 17:15men getting married. God does not acknowledge two
- 17:19women getting married. Friends, He does not acknowledge
- 17:23polygamy. He does not acknowledge it.
- 17:28It is only our court system that tries to manufacture that and
- 17:34it's false and God doesn't see it.
- 17:38And it's the same when a husband and a wife are irritated with
- 17:42each other and they go their separate ways.
- 17:44But there was never infidelity. God doesn't acknowledge that.
- 17:48Divorce, friends. And that is why He says that you
- 17:52will cause her to become an adulterer, because God still
- 17:58sees her as married to him. And so you can see it here,
- 18:03friends, you can see in the spiritual realm how God truly
- 18:07sees marriage. And it was for the purpose of
- 18:12raising up godly children. It was for the purpose of
- 18:17procreation, of filling the earth.
- 18:20And God here knows what he's doing.
- 18:23And it's the 1/2 Mike Tyson punch out whenever you have a
- 18:28disciplinary father in the house and you have a nurturing mother
- 18:33in the house. And it's God's design friends.
- 18:36And it's beautiful. And it raises children up who
- 18:40are confident, confident in their self esteem, confident in
- 18:45the world. They're able to look you in the
- 18:47eyes. They're able to tell you how
- 18:49they feel. And you see it right now, this
- 18:52breakdown in society. You see so many children who are
- 18:58completely lost. You see how they are lacking in
- 19:03so many different departments. They do not have the self
- 19:06esteem. They do not have the discipline.
- 19:08They're being taught by so many different sources that are
- 19:11leading them astray. And it's all a demonic satanic
- 19:15attack on the family unit. We have to keep the family unit
- 19:19strong. We have to stay in the marriage
- 19:22when it's hard. We have to fight for our
- 19:24marriages, friends. Friends, we cannot just walk
- 19:26away because we are frustrated. We need to get our spouse's
- 19:32help. Friends, our knee jerk reaction
- 19:35should not be divorced. And that is what they are trying
- 19:45to call into question. And Jesus is going to answer and
- 19:48say that Moses never commanded it.
- 19:52He allowed it for the times where there was infidelity,
- 19:59where was cheating on the spouse or the abandonment.
- 20:04And here Jesus is going to make it plain and clear and show that
- 20:07it was never God's intention through Moses to command
- 20:14divorce. They're twisting the words, and
- 20:16it's no different than whenever the serpent in the garden
- 20:19twisted. God's words, friends, and we
- 20:22need to be on guard. A He said unto them, Moses,
- 20:30because of the hardness of your hearts, suffered you to put away
- 20:34your wives. But from the beginning it was
- 20:37not so. So here God had given some ways
- 20:46out. If there was infidelity, the
- 20:50cheating of the spouse on the other spouse, then God gave a
- 20:55special way out. And Jesus talked about it back
- 21:00at the beginning of Matthew of what was the only way out, which
- 21:06was infidelity. But Paul later on in Corinthians
- 21:11is going to talk about the abandonment of the spouse.
- 21:16And then nine, he says, And I say unto you, Whosoever shall
- 21:22put away his wife, except it be for fornication, shall and shall
- 21:29marry another commits adultery, and whoso marries her which is
- 21:35put away, does commit adultery. So here I want you to know
- 21:41something. Divorced friends.
- 21:45And you might be trying to scratch your head and trying to
- 21:47figure out if any of this actually applies to you.
- 21:51Because perhaps in your first marriage, there was not a good
- 21:56reason to divorce, but you did it anyway.
- 21:59Here, I want you to know there's nowhere in this verbiage that
- 22:04talks anywhere about any kind of unforgivable sin.
- 22:10It's sin, friends. It's sin and it's sin.
- 22:13And that is not a harsh word. That is something that should
- 22:18get our attention to let us know that there is this hardness of
- 22:22the heart and it was not a good reason to leave.
- 22:25But you need to know that if you are remarried, you need to stay
- 22:30with the one that you are with. You do not need to try to go
- 22:33back and make it right with your first.
- 22:35You need to walk in the calling of when God called you and when
- 22:40He got a hold of you and when you surrendered.
- 22:43And that is what God is asking for here.
- 22:45It is for us to repent, to admit when we were wrong, to soften
- 22:52our hearts friends, to receive that forgiveness from him and to
- 22:56walk in that forgiveness and to extend that forgiveness out to
- 23:01others, especially our ex spouses.
- 23:05We need to be the first to to extend forgiveness out and
- 23:11soften your hearts. That is the main theme here.
- 23:15Friends. 10 His disciples said unto him, If the case of the man
- 23:21be so with his wife, it is not good to marry.
- 23:25So here the disciples are all turned around and thinking that
- 23:35Jesus is promoting celibacy. And if you recall in Paul's
- 23:40writings, he's saying that he wished that we could remain
- 23:44single and remain celibate. But of course, it's better to
- 23:48marry than to burn with lust in our hearts.
- 23:52And the disciples here are saying that it is better to stay
- 23:57single and to serve God and to not have to have responsibility
- 24:02to your spouse. But let's see what old Jesus has
- 24:05to say. 11 But he said unto them, All men cannot receive the
- 24:12same, except they to whom it is given. 12 For there are some
- 24:19eunuchs which were so born from their mother's womb, and there
- 24:24are some eunuchs which were made, eunuchs of men, and there
- 24:28be eunuchs which have made themselves eunuchs for the
- 24:33Kingdom of heaven's sake. He that is able to receive it,
- 24:38let him receive it. So here these eunuchs are the
- 24:43ones who are choosing to stay celibate.
- 24:49They're choosing it, some of them by birth.
- 24:52They did not choose it. They were born that way and they
- 24:55were not able to procreate. Some were made that way by men,
- 25:03which would be very similar to being castrated or neutered.
- 25:09And they're not able to procreate.
- 25:11And some are choosing to serve God and in that capacity.
- 25:17And they are stiff arming all of the pleasures that marriage
- 25:22brings, all of the pleasures that having a family brings.
- 25:26And God is well pleased with those that can do that.
- 25:32But Jesus is saying that not everyone can.
- 25:35I would say most people cannot. Most people desire to have a
- 25:40marriage and to have a family and to have the pleasures that
- 25:46comes with all of that. And here Jesus is saying that
- 25:52they will be blessed. He's saying It is only those
- 25:58whom it is given that can accept it and receive it.
- 26:04Let him, he said, He that is able to receive it, let him
- 26:07receive it. 13 Then were there brought unto him little
- 26:16children, that he should put his hands on them and pray, And the
- 26:21disciples rebuked them. This would have been a Jewish
- 26:25customary action of the parents bringing the little infants to
- 26:31their priest, and the priest would bless them, and he, the
- 26:37priest, would take him into his arms and to bless them.
- 26:41It was very similar to our dedicating of our children.
- 26:46And here they were doing this customary Jewish tradition with
- 26:50Jesus. And Jesus is not your customary
- 26:58priest. He's not your customary dressed
- 27:02person. He is a rogue St. preacher.
- 27:05But these parents understood that Jesus was who he says he
- 27:10was. They understood the power and
- 27:13they knew that they were going to push through and not look at
- 27:19the outward appearance, but to look at the inward sayings of
- 27:23Jesus. And they were bringing their
- 27:25little children to him. And here the disciples, they
- 27:29were thinking that Jesus didn't need to be bothered with this
- 27:33act, and let's see what Jesus has to say. 14 But Jesus said,
- 27:40Suffer little children, and forbid them not to come unto me,
- 27:47for of such is the Kingdom of heaven here.
- 27:51He's already expounded on it in the previous chapters.
- 27:54But Jesus here is saying, The Kingdom of God belongs to these
- 27:59little children, and unless you become like one of these little
- 28:02children, unless you have faith like a little child, you shall
- 28:06not enter the Kingdom of God. And the disciples had missed it
- 28:10at this moment. They were thinking that these
- 28:12children were a distraction or some kind of intrusive object of
- 28:19Jesus's ministry. And here you can see the hearts
- 28:24of the disciples. They had not yet been softened.
- 28:27They were thinking that this was some kind of hostile takeover of
- 28:32the Roman government, and Jesus here is showing them again.
- 28:36And that is what God does to get our attention.
- 28:38He tells us the same thing over and over and over and over and
- 28:43over and over until it sticks. Friends 15 And he laid his hands
- 28:50on them, and then departed from there.
- 28:53Praise God. Jesus loves the little children
- 28:57that praise God that he doesn't look at the outward expression
- 29:03and you can see that these children were blessed by Jesus.
- 29:09And it is no different today that children are blessed by
- 29:15God. And that you can see in the
- 29:19story where David lost his little child and he says that he
- 29:27will not come back to me, but I will go to him.
- 29:30You can see that children, before they ever reach their age
- 29:40of accountability, you can see that if they were to die,
- 29:44they're going to go and be with the father.
- 29:49And we can bank on it. And we can bet our bottom dollar
- 29:54that all of the unborn children, all of the aborted children,
- 30:04they're there with him. All of the stillborns and all of
- 30:10the miscarriages, they're there with him, friends.
- 30:15And it is a thing that you can bank on and bet your bottom
- 30:22dollar on that there is this time that comes in a person's
- 30:28life where they come out of themselves and they finally see
- 30:32the world and they have to make a decision for Jesus.
- 30:37And these little children, they are an astute judge of character
- 30:43and they look upon Jesus and they're, they are so happy to be
- 30:49embraced by him. And if we will teach our
- 30:53children when they are young, teach them on the road, teach
- 30:57them in the way, teach them when you're at home, teach them when
- 31:01you're out and tell them about the Lord God Almighty.
- 31:04They receive it and they receive it wholeheartedly.
- 31:09And that's how we have to become friends.
- 31:11We cannot harden our hearts. We cannot just hold back from
- 31:19teaching our little ones. We need to talk about it with
- 31:22them, friends, and it needs to start from infancy.
- 31:27Sing over your children, parents. 16 And behold, one came
- 31:33and said unto him, Good, master, what good thing shall I do that
- 31:38I may have eternal life? Jesus is going to flip the
- 31:44script on this rich young ruler. Here he is calling him good.
- 31:48Let's see what Jesus has to say. 17 And he said unto him, Why do
- 31:55you call me good? There is none good but one, and
- 31:59that is God. But if you will enter into life,
- 32:04keep the commandments. 17 Highlight it, mark it, circle
- 32:10it, make some notes next to it. Journal about verse 17.
- 32:16You're going to see that Jesus Christ is asking him, why do you
- 32:21call me good when there is only one that's good and that is God.
- 32:25And so therefore, if you call me good, then you must be calling
- 32:29me God. And if you're calling me God,
- 32:32then you must take heed of what I'm about to teach you.
- 32:37And here he's telling them obey the commandments.
- 32:41So here this is a challenge unto this rich young ruler who had
- 32:47everything. He had money, he had his youth,
- 32:52and he had power. And we would do well, friends,
- 32:57to lock in. We have raised an entire
- 32:59generation of rich young rulers. They're all around you friends,
- 33:10and he's telling them if you want to inherit eternal life,
- 33:17then obey all of the commandments, which we know that
- 33:23Jesus did not come to abolish the law, but to fulfill it.
- 33:26So he's he is the fulfillment of the commandments.
- 33:32And so he's telling this rich young ruler to place his faith
- 33:37in him who he is called good, which is in reason.
- 33:42He has acknowledged that Jesus is God, and Jesus is saying to
- 33:49fulfill all of the law, to make it into heaven, and which is in
- 33:56a way saying, the only way that you're going to get there is
- 34:00through me, whom you have called good. 18 He said unto him,
- 34:16which? So here he reveals that in verse
- 34:2318, this rich young ruler is revealing that he has made a
- 34:30love decision for his riches because he could not obey all
- 34:35the law, he could not obey the commandments.
- 34:41So he wants to know which ones count.
- 34:45So that I know that I can make it into heaven, I can have this
- 34:48world and I can make it into heaven.
- 34:53Jesus said, You shall do no murder, you shall not commit
- 34:59adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not bear false
- 35:04witness, honor your father and mother, and you shall love your
- 35:11neighbor as yourself. So here Jesus is revealing the
- 35:17rich young rulers covetousness. He is revealing to this rich
- 35:24young ruler that he is coveting his riches through what Jesus is
- 35:30showing him. 20 And the young man said unto him, All these
- 35:34things I have kept from my youth up.
- 35:38What do I lack yet? So the rich young ruler is
- 35:41showing that he's been trying to measure up with the commandments
- 35:47and he's been doing all of this behavior based salvation tactics
- 35:52and it's still is bringing misery to him because he wants
- 35:56to know why there is lack in his heart, why there is lack in his
- 36:00mind, why there is lack in his spirit.
- 36:03He has everything and it's still not enough.
- 36:06And we are all born with a God shaped void in our hearts.
- 36:11And it's not until we put Jesus Christ in that void that we feel
- 36:16the fulfillment that everything is going according to plan and
- 36:22that we have the peace of God and the no matter what storms
- 36:26come our way, we can say it is well with my soul.
- 36:30And this rich young ruler could not say that he wanted to know
- 36:34what else there was, because there was back in his heart and
- 36:40mind. What lack I yet?
- 36:4421 Jesus said unto him, If you will be perfect, go and sell
- 36:51that you have and give to the poor, and you shall have
- 36:54treasure in heaven, and come and follow me.
- 36:57So Jesus beckoned him, much like he did all of the disciples, and
- 37:01he was saying, Come and follow me.
- 37:03Sell everything he knew. Jesus knew that the rich young
- 37:08ruler was coveting his riches and that he was unwilling to
- 37:14give it up. This isn't a blanket statement
- 37:16to every believer that we should just be poor and and in poverty.
- 37:22This is something that Jesus has zeroed in on this man's heart
- 37:28and he knows that it's going to undo him.
- 37:35It's going to lead him into hell.
- 37:37He knows that his riches was his God, and he's telling him to
- 37:43give everything up. And that is a call for us today,
- 37:46friends, that we need to be willing.
- 37:49When Jesus comes and highlights things in our lives that's going
- 37:54to lead us into destruction. We need to be willing to give
- 37:58them up in a moment's notice. It's not a blanket statement
- 38:02that riches are inherently bad. It is not evil to be rich.
- 38:08There are many rich people that are doing mighty things for the
- 38:13Kingdom of God. It is not as if that we can use
- 38:17a barometer to say that if you're rich then you are evil.
- 38:21That is not the case here, friends.
- 38:23What we need to understand is that God will put His finger on
- 38:28the things that are going to lead us into destruction, and we
- 38:32need to have the strength to be able to give them up in a
- 38:35moment's notice. If it is your riches, then you
- 38:38need to be able to do that to sell everything and follow after
- 38:43Him. And you will have more riches in
- 38:46heaven than you could have ever had on this lifetime, friends.
- 38:51And he's showing the rich young ruler this principle here.
- 38:56And it could be your physical ability that Jesus is asking you
- 39:02to give up. It could be the sports that you
- 39:05are idolizing. It could be the vanity that
- 39:09you're idolizing. It could be your house, it could
- 39:13be your car, it could be there's so many things that we idolize.
- 39:18Your heart is a perpetual idol factory that's pumping out idols
- 39:23left and right, and we need to be on guard and be able to put
- 39:27it all down and follow after Jesus in a moment's notice.
- 39:31Friends follow Him and you will never ever have lack in your
- 39:37house and and it is counterintuitive friends, you
- 39:41think by giving it all up you're going to be miserable, wretched
- 39:45and poor, but it is by giving it all up that you get more and
- 39:49that's the way of God and you have to have faith.
- 39:52Friends. That is the currency that we
- 39:55operate out of, is faith. And he is able to give it all
- 40:00back to you a hundredfold, which we will learn. 22 But when the
- 40:04man, when the young man heard that saying, he went away
- 40:08sorrowful, for he had great possessions, and these
- 40:11possessions possessed him. It is not wrong to have things,
- 40:18but you can't have things have you?
- 40:22Those things cannot have control over you.
- 40:25And so many people, they want this world with Jesus sprinkled
- 40:29in, and it doesn't work that way.
- 40:31We have to be sold out to the King of Kings and the Lord of
- 40:35Lords. We have to know that everything
- 40:38seen and unseen in the heights above and the depths below
- 40:42belong to Him and they're under His authority.
- 40:45And we need to know that when He calls us to give up something,
- 40:48it's for our good and not for our detriment.
- 40:51We need to to know that, and to honor that, and to move in that,
- 40:55friends. 23 And then Jesus said unto his disciples, Truly I say
- 41:04unto you, that a rich man shall hardly enter into the Kingdom of
- 41:09heaven. And again, this is not a blanket
- 41:13statement that rich people don't make it there.
- 41:15Because there was Joseph, Joseph of Arimathea, and you can see
- 41:20that he put Jesus in his carved out grave, his carved out
- 41:31sepulchre. You can see how God used that.
- 41:37You can see so many times, even Abraham, father Abraham was very
- 41:44wealthy. You can see how God can use your
- 41:49wealth to bless others. And that should be our heart.
- 41:52If you're wealthy, it's not that you just give it all up, but
- 41:56make sure you got that wealth the righteous way.
- 41:58Make sure that you're not stepping on people to climb the
- 42:02corporate ladder so that you can have more.
- 42:05And then you become greedy and you forget about God.
- 42:08And this the little compromises along the way that drag us off
- 42:12into hell. And he's saying that it's hard
- 42:16for rich people to enter into the Kingdom of heaven. 24 And
- 42:20again I say unto you, it is easier for a camel to go through
- 42:23the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter into the
- 42:27Kingdom of God. This was a humorous saying it
- 42:30You cannot see a camel going through the smallest hole.
- 42:35You cannot see it. It doesn't work that way.
- 42:37And there are some that can, but by and large mostly cannot.
- 42:43And it's very similar to the saying of being celibate.
- 42:47By and large, most people cannot accept it.
- 42:51Most people will be drug away by their riches.
- 42:54And there's a proverb that we would do well to remember.
- 42:57Don't give me too little that I might steal, or too much that I
- 43:01forget about you, but give me just enough God, just enough
- 43:07God. And there are some who are
- 43:10called to exceedingly great riches that do mighty things
- 43:15with them. But by and large it is the
- 43:18equivalent of a camel passing through the smallest hole. 25
- 43:27And when the disciples heard it, they were exceedingly amazed,
- 43:31saying, Who then can be saved? So here again, the disciples are
- 43:37scratching their heads. They're still kicking the tires.
- 43:41They're saying that in their Jewish tradition, to be rich
- 43:46meant that you were blessed by God.
- 43:49And they were trying to figure it all out, and they couldn't
- 43:52figure out how people with riches could not make it into
- 43:57heaven. 26 Jesus beheld them and said unto them, With men this is
- 44:06impossible, but with God all things are possible.
- 44:09There is a very minute few that can have riches and not get drug
- 44:15away by them. Very small few is what he means
- 44:20there. 27 Then answered Peter, and said unto him, Behold, we
- 44:25have forsaken all, and followed you.
- 44:28And what shall we have? Therefore?
- 44:32Here's Peter again. Peter is wanting to know what's
- 44:36it all about? Jesus, we've left everything.
- 44:39What are you going to give us? 28 And Jesus said unto them,
- 44:48Truly I say unto you, that you which have followed me in the
- 44:55regeneration, when the Son of Man shall sit in the throne of
- 45:00his glory, you shall sit upon 12 Thrones, judging the 12 tribes
- 45:06of Israel. So here we can see in the
- 45:09Millennium Kingdom for the thousand year reign, you can see
- 45:14that the apostles will sit and judge the tribes of Israel.
- 45:20You will see how they will have a very special privilege and
- 45:28that's what Jesus is referencing.
- 45:30Here is this 1000 year reign of Christ on the earth. 29 And
- 45:36everyone that has forsaken houses, brothers, sisters,
- 45:42father, mother, wife, children, lands, for my name's sake shall
- 45:48receive a hundredfold, and shall inherit everlasting life.
- 45:54So here Jesus is promising us that when we give everything up,
- 46:00then in the age to come, we will be richly rewarded.
- 46:05And this is a spiritual application.
- 46:08We can see that in the life to come in our resurrected bodies,
- 46:15we will receive rewards for all of the things that we did not go
- 46:20around trying to tell people about, that we did not let it
- 46:26let them steal our reward. That we did things for God and
- 46:30unto God and for God only. And it was all about King Jesus
- 46:34for us, and we were sold out. Lay down lovers of the Lord of
- 46:39Lords and the King of kings, and he sees it all.
- 46:43And what we do in secret, He will openly reward friends. 30
- 46:51But many that are first shall be last, and the last shall be
- 46:57first. Think of all of those children
- 47:05that never get a chance to be born.
- 47:10Think of all those that are born with all kinds of problems that
- 47:16are bound in wheelchairs. Think of those that have the
- 47:20disabilities, they will be first.
- 47:26And for those of us who have had great success in this life, woe
- 47:32to us. We shall be last.
- 47:36We'll be there. But if you count yourself as
- 47:44blessed in this life, there's a chance that we will be standing
- 47:51in line for all those who are aborted and all those that were
- 47:56born with all kinds of issues, all kinds of retardation and all
- 48:06kinds of problems in their minds and bodies, all kinds of
- 48:12sickness and diseases eat up with cancer.
- 48:18We will be standing in line as they received their crowns for
- 48:23the life that they had to go through here.
- 48:31What amazing chapter here. This has been in Matthew.
- 48:35I hope you've been blessed by it.
- 48:40I'm praying for every single one of you.
- 48:46I love you, so does God. We'll see you back here
- 48:52tomorrow. God bless you.