Episode 1

Am I Doing This God Thing Right? (North OC)

In the first sermon of the series 'Am I Doing This Right?' Marcel Hall explores the common question, 'Am I Doing This God Thing Right?' He delves into various aspects of life where we often feel uncertain, from assembling IKEA furniture to practicing faith. Marcel emphasizes the importance of focusing on a relationship with Jesus rather than merely following religious rules. The sermon includes a deep dive into Mark 10, where Jesus addresses the rich young ruler, highlighting the necessity of sacrifice and true commitment. Practical steps for pursuing Jesus and aligning one's life with his teachings are also discussed.

00:00 Introduction: Am I Doing This Right?

01:45 Introducing the New Series

04:14 The Importance of Jesus in Our Faith

06:21 The Rich Young Ruler's Story

13:21 Signs of Doing It Wrong

18:41 The Call to Relationship Over Religion

30:15 Practical Steps to Pursue Jesus

33:24 Conclusion and Final Thoughts

Transcript
Speaker:

We've all been there.

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You're in the middle of something and then

you ask yourselves, am I doing this right?

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You've been there.

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Whether it's IKEA furniture, that's me

every time I get there and I'm like, man,

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can't they just write their instructions

in English and keep it simple?

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We've been there.

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Maybe it's cooking a recipe without,

I mean, cooking without a recipe.

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It's A-D-D-I-Y home project.

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Maybe you're trying to fix something

or replace something on your car,

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and you get to this point and

you're like, am I doing this right?

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Especially if you have more nails or

more parts than you're supposed to have.

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I was talking with Dallas Kauai

the other day, and uh, you know, it

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looks like I'm, I'm going to physical

therapy and, and, uh, I'm not sure

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if it's tendonitis or arthritis.

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What will, you know, God, God will

help me figure it out and I'm there.

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And, and you know, Dallas, uh, he, he

did some, uh, internship and so I'm

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trying to get his advice 'cause I'm

like, I'm doing this exercise, but

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like, I don't know if I'm doing this

right because I don't know if this

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is supposed to feel the way it feels.

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And so we've all been there.

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Maybe it's something new, but we've

also asked this question sometimes when

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we've been doing something for a long

time, maybe it's, maybe it's parenting.

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Am I doing this right?

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Maybe it's our job.

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Maybe it's marriage, maybe

it's just, it's just life.

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Am I doing this thing called life?

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Right?

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We've all been there.

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And so this is a good question

to ask because we desire to do it

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right and we desire to see the good

and the blessing from the effort

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in which we are giving ourselves.

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And so we are starting a new series this

week here called Am I doing this right?

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And we're gonna be talking about

relationships and finances and success.

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Are we doing these things right?

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And so for the month of May, this is

what we're going to be walking through.

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As we learn from God's word, how

can we go in these areas of our

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lives and do it the right way?

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And so today the question is, am

I doing this God thing, right?

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Am I doing this God thing, right?

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This faith, this religion,

this Christianity.

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Am I doing it right?

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Because maybe you've asked

yourself this before.

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Maybe you've prayed,

you've gone to church.

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You try to live a good life, but still

feel unsure, disconnected, or feel

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like you're, you're missing something.

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Or maybe you've been a disciple of

Jesus for many years and you know the

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language, you know the culture, you

know many scriptures, but maybe lately

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you're feeling like you've been missing

something or maybe you've been a disciple

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of many years and you are hit with that

question like, Hmm, am I doing this right?

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Still?

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The beauty of it is that you're not alone.

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Wherever you are in the spectrum,

you are not alone, and you're

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not too far gone either.

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In fact, Jesus had a conversation

with someone just like you that's

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gonna help us answer this question

and guide us to see how we can capture

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what it means to do this God thing.

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Rights.

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And so are you ready here to explore

this today in the next several weeks?

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Let's go ahead.

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Let's go to God in prayer.

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Then we're gonna dig into the scriptures.

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Father in heaven, Lord of glory, the

holy one, the one who resides in heaven.

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But yet you dwell within our hearts.

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We thank you that you have gone before us.

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We thank you for the fact that we

are part of a worldwide fellowship.

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But we thank you that we don't

have to guess about life.

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We thank you for your scriptures, and

most of all, we thank you for Jesus,

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the example of how to do things right.

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We pray that you will guide us,

that you will minister to us, that

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you'll put to the side any and every

distraction that will try to block

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us from hearing your word today.

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We pray in the name of Jesus.

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Amen.

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Yeah, so will we want to go somewhere

or where do we usually go when we're

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asking ourselves, how do we do something?

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You go to Google or you go to YouTube.

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Those are the two spots we go to, right?

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I know even this week when I was trying

to figure out these, these exercises I'm

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supposed to do, I was like, man, let me

go to YouTube and let me type this in

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and let me see how to do this correctly.

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And so if we're gonna answer this question

correctly, if we're gonna get the right

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answer, how to do this God thing, right?

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Yeah.

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We might find something from YouTube, but

we might find some good stuff on Google.

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But where we need to go is we

need to go to, actually, Jesus.

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We need to go to Jesus

because Jesus, he has He.

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He knows that God thing pretty well.

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Yeah.

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And in fact, in the scriptures we

see something that's gonna help us.

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You see in Colossians one, the apostle

Paul tells the church, he says, Jesus

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is the image of the invisible God.

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You wanna know what God would be like.

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Guess who you look to?

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You look to Jesus.

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He also says this in Hebrews chapter one.

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It says, Jesus is the exact

representation of God's being.

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Whatever Jesus was like, that's

what God is like you say, what

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would God be like in the flesh?

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We have that answer.

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It's Jesus.

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And in fact, over in John chapter one,

it says, no one has ever seen God, but

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the one and only son who is himself

God and is in closest relationship

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with the Father, has made him known.

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Jesus makes the Father known.

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To all of creation.

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And even Jesus said this.

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He says, anyone who has

seen me has seen the Father.

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And so one of Jesus' main objectives

in coming to, uh, to to earth

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here and living and dying was

to reveal this whole God thing.

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What to show us what

it's supposed to be like.

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So again, if we're, the very

starting point is Jesus, so

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let's go to Jesus as he reveals.

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How to do this God thing.

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Right.

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Brother and sisters, are

you with me this morning?

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Let's go to Mark chapter 10

and we're gonna go ahead and

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read here, mark chapter 10.

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In verse 17, mark is, uh, written

basically a biography about Jesus.

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And, uh, what we know from church

tradition is that Peter told,

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uh, mark about Jesus' life.

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And so Mark writes it down and it says

here in verse 17, as Jesus started on his

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way, a man ran up to him and fell on his

knees before him, good teacher, he asked,

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what must I do to inherit eternal life?

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That's a good question to ask.

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What must I do to inherit eternal life?

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Now, here's what's interesting is

that, again, this is the first century

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and first century Jews would've all

been able to answer this question.

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They would've said, Hey, how

do you have eternal life?

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Is you obey the law, the law

of Moses, you obey, and that's

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how you will have eternal life.

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So it's interesting that he would

even ask this question because

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he would know what the answer.

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Would be, however, he still asked

it, why I think he's asking what

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we're asking ourselves today.

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Am I doing this God thing, rights?

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And so he goes, and we see problems

already in his question, although

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he's very sincere, it says he

ran up and fell on his knees.

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Now, if somebody runs up to you and

falls on their knees and asks you

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a question, are they pretty sincere

about what they're asking you?

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Of course they really want it.

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There's a heart that desires what's

right and what's good, and we see that.

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But he starts off and

he says, what must I do?

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Did you catch that?

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What must I do to inherit eternal life?

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Problem number one, he thinks

he can earn eternal life.

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That's the problem right there.

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He has some stinking thinking going on.

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Is that he thinks if I do something, then

God will hon obviously reward me with

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eternal life so I can earn my salvation.

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And then we see here he is thinking

about really a checklist or rules.

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What's the one thing I need to do?

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Let me do it.

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Bam.

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I'm good.

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Let's continue in the past.

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And he says, why do you call me good?

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Jesus answered.

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No one is good except God alone.

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You know the commandments.

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You should not murder.

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You should not commit

adultery, you should not steal.

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You should not give false testimony.

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You should not defraud honor your father

and mother, Jesus goes on and he lists

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a number of the 10 Commandments, but

he says, you should not defraud, which

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actually isn't in the take commandment.

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So he's not saying just, Hey, you

gotta obey just 10 commandments.

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But he's talking to him

and he already knows this.

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And Jesus, we, we, we know how Jesus is.

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He set him up for a longer conversation.

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But there is something important

that we can take from this is that

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obedience is a part of or right

response to God that we are called

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to obey his word, but he says this.

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Teacher, he declared all these,

I have kept since I was a boy.

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I've done it all.

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We can debate and we can speculate.

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Did he really do all this

since he was a young boy?

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Maybe.

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Maybe he was a good one.

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Maybe he was like Dallas, Kauai

and he was just the golden child.

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However, I knew Dallas when

he was two, and I'll tell you,

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he was not the golden child.

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Great person.

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Just having some fun.

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I've known him since he was two.

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No, but we see here that the ruler

that this young man we see here in

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different passages, call him young.

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He's called the rulers.

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So we call him the rich young ruler, is

that he, he wants to show off his resume,

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Hey, hey, you, you know what, Jesus,

you said I gotta do these things.

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Well, guess what?

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I've done them.

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And so maybe he's saying this with

confidence, maybe he's probably, you know,

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I've been doing this since I was a boy.

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You know what I'm saying?

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Or maybe he's saying with

insecurity and uncertainty.

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You know, I, I've been doing

all this since I was a boy, but

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something still doesn't feel right.

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Maybe I'm still missing something.

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Maybe this whole God thing I

don't have on as much as I thought

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I did since I was a youngin.

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And so we see some wrong things here.

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Is that he's thinking

again, more of rules.

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More than heart and relationship.

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Again, it's about following these

rules as opposed to the hearts and

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the relationship that God seeks.

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And so we continue in

Mark 17, in verse 21.

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Brother and sister, are

you still with me here?

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Jesus looked at him and loved him.

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What was that like?

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What was that like?

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What kinda look did Jesus give that

the people around said why he looked

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at him and you could tell he loved him?

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Obviously it wasn't one of condemnation,

it wasn't one of anger and frustration.

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Man, what's wrong with this guy?

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He thinks he's got it all together.

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No, he looked at him and loved him.

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He says here one thing you lack.

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Go sell everything you have

and give to the poor, and you

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will have treasure in heaven.

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Then come follow me at this.

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Demand's face fail.

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He went away sad because

he had great wealth.

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You know, Jesus offering mercy,

grace, he's patient and he's giving

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him an opportunity and a tragic.

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Tell.

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It says he went away sad.

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You know, if you go through the

gospels outside of Jesus's opponents,

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outside of his ops, the ones who come

to Jesus usually are sad, feeling

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something, and they come away with joy.

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This is one of the few occurrences

where he came in and left actually

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sad because he was called to

something and he didn't wanna give up.

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One thing, and that was his, his wealth

or his security or his ambition, and

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we can dive into that another day.

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But what do we see here is that he had

a belief, but there was no sacrifice.

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There was a belief in God.

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There was a belief that Jesus

obviously had some right answers.

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However, there was

belief with no sacrifice.

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You know, you can do all the right things.

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Still get it wrong.

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You can do all the right

things and still get it wrong.

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You know, I want us to look here

real quickly and we're gonna take

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some more from this passage and

also add a couple more things

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of some signs of doing it wrong.

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Hmm, as we see here from this man.

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And we can also see it in our lives.

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And so here are some signs of doing

it wrong, and these are perspective or

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practices that you and I and those around

us in this our society, that we can think

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that that could be our view, or these

could be our practices and our lifestyles.

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And, and this isn't necessarily

in the ranking order, but this

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is the order that I don't believe

it is exhaustive, but captures.

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How we can do it wrong.

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And so one rules based, when we have

a perspective of practices in which

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we think God just wants rules to be

followed, and included in that is

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performance or outside appearance.

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If I perform a way, if I look

good in front of those around

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me, but that's doing it wrong.

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Also, if we're morality focused,

this whole God thing is just

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about being a good person.

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As long as you're not a bad person,

you don't steal, you don't kill people,

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you don't rob, you don't lie too much.

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You don't get angry too much, as

long as you are a good person.

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So I'm just gonna focus

in on being a good person.

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Another way is when it's convenient

commitments, we're committed on

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our terms, but if we ever have

to stretch ourselves, sorry.

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Give financially sacrificially.

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Nope.

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Give them my time.

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Nope.

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No sacrifice.

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We also can see it in this being

self-centered, where this whole

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God thing is really about me.

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It's about me.

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It's about what I can consume

or it's about my improvements.

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Yeah, I just don't wanna be

the same person I was before.

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I wanna be a better person, or I don't

wanna be the person I naturally am.

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Or it's a consumer mindset,

Hey, what's in this for me?

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What's the value for me?

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What can others do for me?

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And we might not say that out loud, but

it's our perspective and we look through

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the lens of how does this affect me?

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We can also have, and we don't really see

this in the story here, private faith.

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This is where it's about

me and God and that's it.

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Don't you get in my business,

it's about me and God.

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It's not between me and you.

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I can just do this on my, on my own.

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And you know what, you could argue

that with the rich young ruler,

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he is asking about himself and

private, he's not actually concerned

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with, how do all of us get this?

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And we can see this a lot of times,

a lot of people say, I do the God

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thing, but I don't do the church thing.

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It's private.

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Here's the thing, lemme

share this real quickly.

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Our relationship with God is supposed

to be personal but not privates.

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Our relationship with God's supposed

to be personal but not privates because

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God designed us for a relationship.

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Here's another way which we could be doing

the wrong, and this is the other extreme,

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which is it's about church over Christ.

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Meaning I'm all about the people.

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I'm all about the routines.

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I'm about the tradition, but I'm not

too much about the whole Jesus parts.

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And this can be seen in language

like, Hey, I go to church.

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When you're thinking about

problems and answers for your

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life or others, it's about church.

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Hey, what do you need?

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You need to go to church with me.

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You get what I'm saying here is that

church becomes the focus and not Christ.

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Come on man.

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And here's another one and last one that

we'll briefly mention here is faith only.

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And this is where we believe we have

faith, but there's no relationship.

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We believe, but there's no obedience.

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And so it's faith only.

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These are the signs that you may be

doing it wrong, and I want you to

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humbly ask yourselves right now, do

any of these things describe me today?

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Because here's the thing, if this is

the case, God wants to take you from

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doing it wrong to doing it right.

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Amen.

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And so it's okay if

you say, you know what?

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That has been me.

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Because I can say, this has been me

prior to becoming a Christian and

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at times after becoming a Christian.

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And so we need to honestly look and

observe and ask, am I doing this wrong?

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Because I don't wanna do this wrong.

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I wanna do this God thing, rights.

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And so Jesus is going to help us.

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Brothers and sisters, are

you still with me here?

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All right.

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Don't get too quiet on me now.

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Let's go back to Mark chapter 10 here.

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It says, Jesus looked at him

and remember he looked at him.

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He says, Hey, go sell everything.

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No, he is not calling everybody

to sell, but he calls it for him

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because that's the one thing that

he knows that he needs to give up.

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He says, then come follow me.

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Jesus invites him to relationship.

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Hey, come follow me.

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He invites him not to a list of rules,

not to some restrictive religion

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and some restrictive lifestyle,

but he invites him to relationship.

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And you see the man, he had religion,

but he didn't have relationship.

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He wanted heaven, but he didn't

want the one from heaven, and

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he walks away from the relationship.

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He didn't walk away from his religion.

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He didn't walk away from his

faith, but he walked away from the

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one who was the author of Faith.

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You see, the main part of doing it

right is this whole relationship thing.

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That's the main ingredient and the

main components of this God thing.

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It's about a relationship.

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And we even see this

even some more in Mark.

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As Jesus continues, let's continue.

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He says, Jesus looked around at his

disciples and he said, how hard is it

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for the rich to enter the kingdom of God?

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The disciples were amazed.

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What?

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What did he just say?

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The rich can't enter the kingdom of God.

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I thought if you were rich, God bless you.

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You had God's favor.

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But Jesus said again, children, how

hard it is to enter the kingdom of God.

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It's easier for a camel to go through

the eye of a needle than for someone

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who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.

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Everybody like, well, that's impossible.

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A camel can't go through

a eye of a needle.

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What are you talking about?

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The disciples are even more

amazed and said to each other,

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well then who can be saved?

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Then Jesus looked at them and said, with

man, this is impossible, but not with God.

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All things are possible with God.

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We gotta remember that verse, y'all.

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All things are possible with God.

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It was possible for that rich young ruler.

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It's possible for you, it's

possible for every soul.

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But he continues in verse

28, and Peter spoke up.

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We have left everything to follow you.

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Truly, I tell you, Jesus replied,

no one who has left home or brothers

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or sisters, or mother or father

or children or fields for me.

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And the gospel will fail to receive a

hundred times as much in this present

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age, Holmes brothers, sisters, mothers,

children, fields, along with persecutions

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and in the age to come eternal life with

many who are first will be last, and

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the last first will stop right there.

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Did you catch that?

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Peter says, Hey, you know what?

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We left everything to follow you.

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And Jesus says, Hey, guess what?

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Everybody here if you've

sacrificed anything for me.

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I'm gonna reward you in the present.

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And for all eternity, Jesus

points them to himself.

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The disciples at this time weren't trying

to follow a religion or a set of rules.

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They were trying to follow the one

who invited them to a relationship.

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And so here's the thing here,

brothers and sisters, here's what it

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comes down to is that Christianity

is not about a what, but who.

390

:

Ooh, Christianity is not about a what?

391

:

What should I do?

392

:

It's about a who and that

who being Christ himself.

393

:

You see Christianity

while Christ is craziness.

394

:

You don't even have Christianity

if you take Christ out of the word.

395

:

Are you with me there, Chris?

396

:

You caught that one.

397

:

You see, it's all about

a focus in on Jesus.

398

:

That's what this God thing is about.

399

:

It's about a relationship with Jesus.

400

:

It's about becoming more like Jesus

in our character and in our nature.

401

:

It's about working alongside Jesus in

his work to redeem all of creation.

402

:

And this life that Jesus offers

again, isn't one of restriction.

403

:

We can have some stinking thinking,

thinking, man, following Jesus

404

:

means this life of restriction.

405

:

It's actually one that produces freedom

and security because it's in relationship.

406

:

Think about the people that you're

close to use your, your best friend.

407

:

For example, my, my best friend, uh, by

the grace of God is, is my wife Karina.

408

:

She's my best friend.

409

:

And y'all tell her I said that.

410

:

Okay.

411

:

Because she gonna have some other things

to be mad about Maia and be like, okay,

412

:

well you did that one thing right?

413

:

You know, after.

414

:

And part of the reason why I didn't marry

her was because of our, our, our, our, our

415

:

friendship, our relationship that we had.

416

:

But after we got married, after

there was a full commitment.

417

:

20 years ago, our relationship

got better, but it also became

418

:

more freeing in our relationship.

419

:

I was no longer trying to impress her.

420

:

I'm like, girl, you already said yes,

but I wasn't trying to impress her

421

:

and I wasn't nervous and insecure.

422

:

Uh oh.

423

:

If I do this, will it

mess it everything up?

424

:

Will it blow up?

425

:

Why?

426

:

Because of the commitment

to the relationship actually

427

:

made me more free and secure.

428

:

Before the commitment, Hey, there could

be some insecurity and uncertainty

429

:

because we're not fully committed.

430

:

Are you with me here?

431

:

Thinking about your close friends?

432

:

Maybe it's your spouse, your

your best friend from 20

433

:

years, whatever the case is.

434

:

As you guys built this relationship

and you understood, we're down for each

435

:

other, that's my ride or die, whatever

the case is, it made you more free in the

436

:

relationship to show the ugly, to show

the bad, and to rejoice over the good.

437

:

You didn't feel restricted

in that relationship.

438

:

You actually felt freedom

and security because of the

439

:

commitment in the relationship.

440

:

The same with Jesus.

441

:

When we commit in the

relationship, there's freedom.

442

:

In Christ, perfect love dries out fear.

443

:

The scripture tells us when we have this

relationship, we don't have to fear.

444

:

Oh no.

445

:

Where am I at with you, God, because

everyone likes and enjoys you.

446

:

Notice that.

447

:

So what I'm saying here is when

you're in a relationship and you're

448

:

committed, you oftentimes do things

that maybe they're not your preference,

449

:

but you start to do them with them.

450

:

And over time you even start to

enjoy and like some of those things.

451

:

I seen that, you know what I mean?

452

:

Like, I, I, I got Karina

listening to a lot more rap

453

:

music than she probably used to.

454

:

She's into basketball more than she's

used to, and she, she likes sports, you

455

:

know, but I'm into certain things that

I, I'm like, oh man, I, I would never

456

:

do this, but because I love you, girl.

457

:

But the more we get

closer to God, guess what?

458

:

We start to like what he likes.

459

:

We start to enjoy what he enjoys.

460

:

Guess what?

461

:

We start to become more like him

and our character and in our nature.

462

:

And so how do we know when

this God thing is on straight?

463

:

It's when we're becoming more like Jesus.

464

:

Our relationship leads to

taking on the traits of others.

465

:

I remember there was a time I noticed this

when, when, uh, my oldest brother, uh, um.

466

:

And moved back from Arizona and we

were spending a lot more time together.

467

:

And my oldest brother has a certain

kind of laugh and for some odd

468

:

reason I started to laugh like him.

469

:

And my mom was like, can

you stop laughing like that?

470

:

You sound like your older brother.

471

:

And I've seen that and I've seen this

in in my relationships, and I even got

472

:

this thing that I'm trying to stop.

473

:

I love my boy Martin Shires, but

he does this thing with his hands.

474

:

Have you ever noticed that he does that?

475

:

And I saw myself doing

this and I was like, stop.

476

:

But it's because we've been spending

this time together that we start

477

:

to take on each other's traits,

and guess what happens spiritually?

478

:

When we spend more and more time in

relationship with Jesus, we start to

479

:

take on his traits again, becoming more

like Jesus, building in our relationship,

480

:

and then we spiritually, day, week, and

years, start to become more like Jesus.

481

:

So again, Christianity's not about a

what's but who and why is this important?

482

:

Because we can be getting this

thing wrong and we could be missing

483

:

out for today, but we also could

be missing out for all eternity.

484

:

We don't know what happened

to the rich young ruler.

485

:

The fact that we never hear about

him makes me think it didn't,

486

:

it didn't go well for him.

487

:

And what a tragic story it is.

488

:

You and I have the opportunity

to respond differently.

489

:

We have the opportunity to go.

490

:

Maybe I'm doing it wrong, but now I can

focus in on Christ and I can do it right.

491

:

You know, I've been at all these stages.

492

:

As I mentioned earlier, before I

became a Christian, I was wilding out.

493

:

I was way out there knee deep,

not even knee deep in sin.

494

:

I was neck deep in sin.

495

:

And by God's grace, I had a time

where I decided, you know what I,

496

:

I need to become more religious.

497

:

And, uh, and so I end up

becoming more religious.

498

:

I didn't fully commit to Christ,

but I became more religious and I

499

:

feel like I became like the rich

young ruler and I became religious.

500

:

But there was all this, there was always

this idea that I don't really know

501

:

if I'm doing this God thing, right?

502

:

And I knew it, but then my

pride wouldn't accept it.

503

:

But then I knew it deep down.

504

:

You, you, you guys

understand what I'm saying?

505

:

And so in, in 2001, uh, over at Howard

University, I was doing an exchange

506

:

program, uh, by God's grace and mercy.

507

:

I started studying the Bible with

some member members of our church

508

:

in Washington, dc and as we were

there, we're studying the scriptures.

509

:

I'm like, man, I haven't

been doing this right.

510

:

And you know what?

511

:

I haven't been doing

this right my whole life.

512

:

I didn't even know about these things.

513

:

Then I decided, you know what?

514

:

I'm gonna pursue Jesus and follow Jesus.

515

:

And by God's grace on May 1st,

:

516

:

and became a new creation.

517

:

But after 24 years, God has used many

people to bring me back to focus in on

518

:

Christ, because many times I have veered

in my perspective or in my practice.

519

:

And this Holy Spirit through the word

has convicted me and reminded me, and

520

:

still to this day, continually convicts

me and reminds me, make it about Christ.

521

:

Even as I was thinking about

preaching, uh, I think maybe it was

522

:

yesterday, I can't even remember.

523

:

I was like, man, I was

starting to think about me.

524

:

How am I gonna look man?

525

:

The people who came to East, are

they gonna come back to hear me?

526

:

And guy's like, it's not about you.

527

:

Right.

528

:

It's about me.

529

:

And so God has been

reminding me, he refines me.

530

:

And so the question for the our

brothers and sisters is, am I

531

:

doing this God thing rights?

532

:

And for some of us, am I

still doing this God thing?

533

:

Rights.

534

:

Again, Christianity is

not about a what, but who.

535

:

So how should we respond?

536

:

I believe it's this, it's to

pursue Jesus again, pursuing Jesus.

537

:

Will we pursue a relationship?

538

:

We pursue?

539

:

Focusing in on getting to know

Jesus, adopting his mission for

540

:

our life and, and working alongside

Jesus in his great commission.

541

:

And guess what?

542

:

We all need help with this.

543

:

None of us can do this alone.

544

:

That's that private faith

that we were talking about.

545

:

We all need help in this, so I encourage

you to seek help in pursuing Jesus.

546

:

That's not a bad thing.

547

:

That's the way God designed it.

548

:

Ask for prayers and wisdom for

certain areas, but we pursue Jesus

549

:

by making Christianity about Christ.

550

:

Let's get real practical here.

551

:

Are you still with me?

552

:

Church?

553

:

Yeah, let's get some action

steps here for the week.

554

:

First one here, reflect on

the signs of doing it wrong.

555

:

I want you to do this.

556

:

Don't wait till Wednesday.

557

:

Don't wait till Tuesday.

558

:

Do it today or do it tomorrow.

559

:

It's to reflect.

560

:

Hey, are any of these things me right now?

561

:

Rules based morality, focus, convenient

commitment, self-centered private faith,

562

:

church over Christ, or belief only.

563

:

Is to go ahead and ask yourself

and to reflect and answer it.

564

:

Honestly, the worst thing we can do is

when we're dishonest with ourselves, well,

565

:

we just don't want to face the truth.

566

:

It's like looking in the mirror and

go, no, I just don't wanna face that.

567

:

It doesn't make sense.

568

:

Look in the mirror, accept it so that

God can move you to his direction.

569

:

But after we do this, here's the second

part here, is to go ahead here and

570

:

take a practical step to pursue Jesus.

571

:

A practical step for some of us that's

making a decision to study the Bible.

572

:

Appreciate Anna sharing how

once she studied the Bible, she

573

:

came to know the real Jesus.

574

:

Not a tradition, not a culture, but

Jesus and who he is, what he's done,

575

:

and what he's calling us all to.

576

:

For others, that's making

a decision to repent.

577

:

Whatever are the distractions, I'm going

to make a decision to address those,

578

:

confront those, and get rid of those.

579

:

Maybe it's to study out

Jesus in the gospels.

580

:

You know what?

581

:

I need to get focused in on him.

582

:

So let me just go to the gospels,

let me get reacclimated with my Lord.

583

:

Let me see what he was like so

I can become more like him so I

584

:

can join him in his good work.

585

:

Regardless, we need to

pray and get some help.

586

:

So as we take a practical

step, God show me.

587

:

And you know what?

588

:

Let me get some input.

589

:

Hey, what can I do to take

a practical step this week?

590

:

To pursue Jesus.

591

:

Imagine the freedom, the security, the

fulfillment, and the joy that can start,

592

:

that you can start to experience in

this life and in your faith, and you

593

:

can stay the course for all of eternity.

594

:

This is why important that we

just don't like this today,

595

:

but that we implement it today.

596

:

Am I doing this right?

597

:

Next week we're gonna talk

about, am I doing relationship?

598

:

Am I doing this relationship stuff right?

599

:

So please come on back

and join us for that.

600

:

But let us learn from Jesus and let

us learn from the rich young ruler

601

:

today that we could be doing many

things right, but still get it wrong.

602

:

However, in God's grace and mercy,

he's calling us to do it right,

603

:

and that's by focusing in on Jesus.

604

:

Focusing on how we can get him to

be more of our Lord and Savior,

605

:

not just in theory, but him to

be our character and our nature.

606

:

And when we focus in on him,

then we will get our life right.

607

:

We'll get our faith right.

608

:

We'll get this God thing right,

and we'll get eternity rights.

609

:

So let's close out with this last

passage, which I believe captures

610

:

this for us in Hebrews chapter 12.

611

:

It says this in verse two.

612

:

I'm reading from the, uh,

the old school:

613

:

It says, let us fix our eyes on Jesus,

the pioneer and perfecter of faith for

614

:

the joy set before in he endured the

cross scorn in his shame and sat down

615

:

at the right hand of the throne of God.

616

:

Brother says, I pray that we may

all do this God thing, right?

617

:

Amen.

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