The Very Last and the Servant of All
First B Jackson
2022-03-14

Automatically transcribed. Where this and the recording disagree, the recording is the record.

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Yep. Let's do a love that will not let. Okay. Yep. Goodness of God.

Your great name. And then end with Christ alone. In Christ alone, we'll end with. Alright. Hey.

Greetings, everybody. Happy Monday. Good to see you all. Very good to see you. And, thank you to Scotty.

Brian, thank you so much for for your help. Just back in the kitchen and getting everybody fed. Thank you, Domino's Pizza. So we're in the gospel of Mark right now. And, tonight, Brad's gonna be sharing Brad a hand up there.

And, thank you, Brad, for stepping in. Ray and I are just we just got back, from a a trip of some kind of time together as best buds. So it was awesome. And and it's good to be here. It's good to be going through the the book of Mark.

And before we get into scripture, can we sing together and just worship in song? You wanna stand with me? God, thank you for this evening. Thank you for each person here, each precious soul here. God, I am so thankful for this church and the capital c church and for your word.

And I am very grateful this this evening that, we get to we get to hear from somebody else, another personality, the scripture saying the same thing to us. God, may we hear what you're what you're sharing, what you're telling us, and applying it to everyday life. In Jesus' name. Amen. Oh, joy that seeks us through pain.

Life is both, isn't it? It really is. There is joy. We recognize the grace of God in it even through pain. Yeah.

Thank you. Quiet our hearts. Quiet our minds, and and just be ready to receive, hear from you. In Jesus' name. Amen.

Hi. Can everybody hear me okay? No. No? Like, I told you to turn up the base of my voice and then turn me off.

Are we good? Am I am I rolling? How are we doing? Sure.

That's fine. There's so much. There's so much. Yeah.

In case you weren't standing next to me when I was singing, I have no idea what any of this does. So and if you stand next to Naomi, you'll be reminded of how off key you sing, which is painful for me. Okay. How are doing? Better?

The we got that? Yep. And the closer I get? Got it. Okay.

So I don't know about you guys, but I love movies with a plot twist. Ever since I was 10 or 12 years old and I saw Verbal Kent turn into Keiser Sose, I've just loved movies where I I didn't quite know if I was miss running the risk of missing what was really going on. So if you haven't seen the Usual Suspects yet, I'm sorry I ruined it for you. But it's been out for thirty years, so, like, deal with it. But but that's that's what we're gonna look at today.

We're gonna see where the disciples have completely missed the point, and we're also gonna look at what's gonna happen in the end. And I'm gonna warn you, still think we run this risk two thousand years later. So we're also gonna look at what Jesus calls us to in view of the real the real ending of the story effectively. So my caveats as usual, not a professional. If you can nod, if you can smile, if you can humor any jokes that I attempt to make, that helps me a lot.

And also, I'm teaching this week and next week. So if you enjoy this, tell your friends. If you don't enjoy it, don't tell anybody. But immediately before this and and we're trying something new. I'm not doing slides or anything.

So pull out your Bibles, your phones. I would recommend that you do it on something that doesn't give you notifications, ideally, but we're just gonna kinda go a little bit old school with that. So immediately, we're we're going Mark nine thirty through 50 or actually, we're going 30 through 38 today. So immediately before this in Mark, we have the transfiguration. Jesus takes John, James, and Peter up to the mountain, reveals the full nature of his glory.

And then as they come down from the mountain, Jesus heals a boy with a demonic spirit or an unclean spirit that the disciples were previously unable. And then as so they've seen these two amazing things, and then that sets the scene for what we're gonna deal with today. So if you'll pull out your Bibles, Mark nine verse 30 is where we're starting. They left the place and they passed through Galilee. Jesus did not warn did not want anyone to know where they were because he was teaching his disciples.

He said to them, the son of man is going to be delivered into the hands of men. They will kill him, and after three days, he will rise. But they did not understand what he meant, and they were afraid to ask him about it. So they came to Capernaum. When he was in the house, he asked them, what were you arguing about on the road?

But they kept quiet because on the way, they had argued about who was the greatest. Sitting down, Jesus called the 12 and said, anyone who wants to be first must be the very last and the servant of all. He took a little child whom he placed among them. Taking the child in his arms, he said to them, whoever welcomes one of these little children in my name welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me does not welcome me but the one who sent me. So before we get into the main thrust of today's passage, and there's so much that we could cover there, there's one thing that I wanna use as kind of a quick drive by that I think also sets up our time together, which is in verse thirty and thirty one.

Jesus did not want anyone to know where they were because he was teaching his disciples. This is intentionally this is Jesus with his disciples intentionally making space for the instruction of those who are seeking to grow in Christ. And that's a lot of what we're doing here today. So if we're trying to start with the parallels of of what we're doing and what Jesus was doing, I think that's the first one. Paul talks about in Ephesians four that one of the main purposes of the church is to equip his people for works of service so that the body of Christ may be built up.

That is the point of the church, and that's what we're doing here. And many of you that I've done life with have heard me say that this is church is not a spectator sport. So if you more than more than just claiming the title, if you claim Christ, if you believe in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, and if you are a follower of the way, then we're to get off the sidelines and we're to get in the game. So, you know, holy huddles like this are great, but they're for the equipping of works of service. So we take this and then we go out.

We don't just wanna be smarter sinners. So Jesus predicts his death a second time. This is a big deal. As Christians, we have to remember that at all times, Jesus knew what he was doing. This is no accident.

Jesus knew what he was buying on the cross. So every time that I screw up, every time you screw up, every time you fall short of what you feel like God has called you to, or you don't do the things that you feel like he has called you to, just remember that's been bought and paid for. Romans eight one is such a great reminder here that therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. I tend to preach a little bit more sort of exhortationally, applicationally, and that can often come across as heavy handed. So we have to always root ourselves in the fact that there is grace where all of that is, but we're also always called to to more.

So Jesus knew what he was doing. Ephesians or I'm sorry. Philippians two talks about that Jesus set aside his glory, his equality with God to take on flesh being born so that a perfect God may have communion with imperfect sinners just as we're communing here. And so Jesus has to repeat all of this basically to his disciples because they're not getting it. Right?

They just saw the transfiguration. They just saw him do a miraculous work. And then as they're walking along the road, they're arguing over who's gonna get what cabinet position, basically, when Jesus becomes the, military conquering messiah, that they expect him to be. And and I think that's similar that no one understood the scope. We do the same thing.

We think we know what God wants to achieve, and we know his broader plan. But then we get super upset when things don't go according to our plan. So we tend to ignore Philippians one twenty nine which says, for it has been granted to you on behalf of Christ not only to believe in him but also to suffer for him. And instead, we tend to focus on kind of these sparkly verses that are taken out of context that weren't even written to us like the famous one being Jeremiah twenty nine eleven. For I know the plans I have for you, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope in a future.

We wanna we wanna hold on to those because that just seems shiny and it seems simpler and easier when really the the reality is much messier. And those those two concepts can be reconciled throughout scripture, but we just have to read it. So we look at Romans eight twenty eight as a classic, and and and we know that in all things, God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. And so I tend to think that God should wanna bless me and make me the next, you know, great trader or CEO or Pro Bowl quarterback or whatever. So that, like, when they put a microphone in my face, I can I can go, yeah?

You know, all glory to God. You know, Jesus died for my sins, that sort of thing. But in reality, God's already put me in situations. And and I don't ask my server at lunch, even when I'm eating with a a brother in Christ or with Natalie, like, how can I be praying for you? I tend not to share my faith with my barista at at a coffee shop.

I I tend not to share the hope that I have an eternal life with the neighbors that that that live near me. And so the truth is I'm already kind of a coward in the places that God has put me. So when I when I fixate my plans, I'm not really fixating on God's purpose often and and I I think that's a common experience. So similarly with the disciples, they still don't get it. And I love the disciples because all throughout the gospels, they make me feel a little bit better about how much of a moron I've been and and how much I can still kinda get it wrong.

Jesus has already been recorded twice in this gospel of Mark at this point, calling himself the son of man. So, like, son of man equals Jesus. Son of man equals Jesus. And here he says, son of man must be killed and after three days will rise. And the disciples were like, so you're gonna be the next Caesar or you're gonna be the next, you know, Moses or Joshua or something like that.

They still just don't get it. And similarly today, we tend to go, yeah, Jesus died on a cross for my sins, for the forgiveness so that I can participate in the kingdom and not be a part of this world. And then a bank in San Francisco goes bust and and and we get totally pulled off sides. Our attention is totally pulled into, well, what's gonna be the next banking crisis? You know, what's this gonna mean for our portfolios?

And it and it just draws us off sides. It takes our attention away. And I'm not saying that that's wrong, to be clear. Like, there's plenty of good reasons to worry about the banking system. I'm not getting into that.

But but I'm also I'm not gonna dunk on Thomas or Peter or John or James when I get to heaven. And I'm going to heaven. Like, any of y'all can come with me, but I'm going. And that that offer is always on the table today. It's probably gonna be on the table tomorrow, but there's no guarantees after that.

So if you guys are are on the fence in any way, if you're hanging back, there is always a last chance, there's not always a next chance. So keep that in mind. So Jesus turns to his disciples and he goes, what were you arguing about on the road? And I love this because Jesus is funny. You know, there's the old joke, like, how are we gonna recognize Jesus in heaven?

And it's gonna be it's because he's gonna be the one with the sloped forehead from just, like, dealing with these disciples. And this is so similar to what I do with my kids. You know, like, step on a Lego piece and you're like, how did this get here? And, like, I'm pretty sure Natalie didn't put it there. But I wanna see my children's hearts.

I wanna I want them to know the truth that I know how it got there, and I want them to work it out. And this is such a great reminder that God knows the true nature of our hearts. Jesus knew it then, and there's scriptural references for that. And God certainly knows it now, especially if we have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. So even if we sit in church, if we write checks, if we vote Republican, if we don't cheat on our spouses, God still knows the evil that's in our hearts.

We can live what seems like a perfectly moral life, and there's still evil and sin in our hearts. I know that's personally true for me, and I've gotta bring it to God, and I've gotta bring it to to the men and women that that we do life with. So the main point of today's text, we can get to in verse 35. Anyone who wants to be first must be the very last and the servant of all. And this is what we're gonna look at for the rest of our time today.

I've got five points, but don't worry. We're gonna move through them quickly. And they are, what is the kingdom of God? How does the kingdom of God work in the church? Two examples of who epitomized the kingdom.

What does this mean for us? And how do we live it out? So remember, Jesus is talking to his disciples. They've been expecting a military uprising, and they've just basically been caught red handing ran head red handed arguing about who is the greatest. Meanwhile, Jesus is trying to show them and by extension us the real nature of the kingdom of God.

So what do we mean when we say the kingdom of God? Simply is the reign and rule of God. I'll wake you guys up out of your pizza naps. Say the reign and rule of God. The reign and of God.

Great. Theologians have also referred to this as the the range of God's effective will. I'm not gonna make you all say that because altogether it won't work. But so when we pray, and Ray mentioned this two weeks ago, when we pray thy kingdom come in the Lord's prayer, we are praying for his reign and rule to happen on earth and in our hearts as it does in heaven. So we pray for God to do that outwardly, and we can also pray for it to be inwardly, that we can give our hearts more and more over to Christ, more and more over to the Holy Spirit.

And so what does that look like? It looks like complete and total submission from every living person to the living and active will of the eternal and holy creator God. So we are living in glad submission to God. That's that's the kingdom of God. So when you're living in the kingdom, you are living for God's benefit and not for yours.

But your benefit, I promise you, will come as a natural byproduct of that. And even secular psychological studies will show time and time again that the way to true joy to true happiness is not to live for for happiness in your life, but to live for something greater. And then we as Christians, we get to say, not only do we get to live for something greater, we live for a concrete greater that that outlives this specific world. Behold, I'm gonna make all things new. And so that's what the kingdom is, the reign and rule of God.

Natalie gets me. Love you, baby. So now we need to know how the kingdom of God works. This has long been called the upside down kingdom economics, and not economics in the monetary sense, even if that's what you're all reading about in the newspaper these days, but in the sense of, like, how things work. So said another way, this kingdom is very backwards.

It's totally different from how our world works. If you wanna be first in this kingdom, be last. If you wanna be a leader, be servant of all. If you wanna be rich eternally, give away every penny that you have. If you want rest, deep rest that pervades circumstances, pour out your life like a fragrant drink offering to God.

So the easiest point, the biggest takeaway here, and then you can all take pizza naps, is how God's kingdom works is most clearly displayed in the fact that the long awaited Messiah knowingly and willingly laid his life down for the very people that killed him. This is fulfilling prophecy of the suffering servant, Isaiah fifty two and fifty three, and I think Paul summarizes it really well in Romans five eight and ten. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this, while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. And then he goes on in verse 10, for if while we were God's enemies, we were God's enemies, every single one of us. Nods?

Yes. Okay. We were reconciled to him through the death of his son. How much more having been reconciled shall we be saved through his very life? So who lived this out the best?

Sunday school answer? There we go. Pastor Ray's paying attention. The last supper, and this is something I've been dealing with, I mean, just for the last six months. At the last supper, Jesus washed the feet of his disciples.

That was a lowly task that not even like the mid level servants wanted to do. That was the lowest servant. And he washed the feet of all of his disciples. That includes Peter who was about to just epically fail him, and Judas who was about to betray him. Now if one of you is putting a hit out on me, I'm not gonna come scrub your toilets the day before.

And that yeah. That's kinda what Jesus is is showing us, and that's a little bit of what he's calling us to in our text today. So trivia for second example then. Who is the only person that the resurrected Christ stood up for? Somebody not in in professional vocational ministry.

Who did Jesus stand up for after he was resurrected? Come on. Stephen. Who knows what Stephen did for for the church? He was not a pastor.

He was not a teacher. He was not a prophet. Acts six tells us that he was a man full of faith and full of the Holy Spirit, and his job was taking care of the Hellenistic widows. He was he was he was serving food in the church, and it's such a great reminder that we can't belittle or or look down upon any act of service within God's kingdom. So it doesn't matter if you're standing here on the platform playing music or teaching or if you're cleaning dishes or if you're taking care of the children or if you're cutting the grass.

If you're serving the kingdom, you're serving the kingdom. Paul, elaborates on this so famously in in first Corinthians with his with his body analogy. We are hands. We are feet. We are eyes.

We are tongue. We cannot downplay the role of any service in the church. But when Stephen is brought to the Sanhedrin, the dude spits the truth. Right? Like, he knows his he knows his gospel, and he is not ashamed of it.

And the other thing that I think is useful for us today is when Stephen makes his famous speech, there's not any immediate converts. It doesn't talk about any of them going, you're right. You got me. Them dropping stones and walking away. But there's one man there holding coats of the guys that were stoning him.

And so while Stephen is praying for the forgiveness for the men that are actively killing him while they're doing it, a man named Saul is standing there. And he goes on to be the greatest evangelist. That's an example for us. That's how the upside down kingdom economics work. And that's how you know that you're not losing the plot in the movie.

So why does the kingdom function this way? If Jesus had been who the Jews expected him to be, the kingdom would have lasted what? Ten years, forty years, maybe a thousand years. But we're standing here two two thousand years later celebrating the life and more importantly, the death of Jesus. There's a reason why we worship Jesus the Christ and not Alexander the Great.

But by worldly standards, Alexander the Great smoked Jesus. Miles conquered. People basically forcibly converted all in his thirty two years versus Jesus's thirty to thirty three depending on who you ask ask Ray. But the martyrs for this kingdom, they die with hope, they die with joy, with faith, and with peace. Similarly, if we live for ourselves, our kingdom dies with us.

Maybe maybe you're brilliant and you're lucky, and you accumulate massive amounts of wealth that'll last a few generations. But the number of American families that have had wealth last through three generations can basically be counted on two hands. And those families, you probably don't wanna be a part of. They make reality TV shows out of that. But if we die to ourselves, if we store up treasures for ourselves in heaven where moth and rust cannot destroy, we get an eternal glory.

If we pour ourselves out like a drink offering to show the love of Jesus to those both inside and outside of the body of Christ, this church, then we get to bring others with us, and it's called a crown. So what does this mean for us? Well, the lowest hanging fruit is that we can always check our expectations against the Bible. American capitalism and democracy are two of the greatest ideas that that that man has ever had, but they're not. So don't get me wrong on that.

Right? I am pro capitalism and democracy, but they're not divinely inspired. They are not in in God's word on the same level that the commands that were given in scripture are. So we are called as Christians, as American Christians in the twenty first century to follow scripture first. So we cannot fall trapped to the lie from Satan that Jesus wants us to be healthy, independent, and comfortable.

Instead, we can test our circumstances, we can test our time, our use of resources against biblical standards instead of against cultural ones because it is so easy to think that we're doing well when we claim the name of Jesus and then we basically lead a really boring moral life. And then we compare ourselves to this sort of New Age materialist or hedonistic culture that surrounds us. Instead, we have to remind ourselves of what our true calling is. When we believe the lie, when we think that our broken hearts, broken bodies, our our financial hardship, whatever it may be, is some sign that God is disappointed with us, that we didn't have a good enough quiet time or that we haven't been living out faithfully, we're missing the point. I think Hebrews 12 puts it really well.

In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood because the Lord disciplines the one that he loves and he chastens everyone he accepts as his son or daughter. If you are not disciplined, then you are not legitimate, not true sons and daughters of all. So in light of Hebrews 12, I would make the counterpoint that in the upside down kingdom, it's we who are prospering, who are comfortable, who are not experiencing hardship, that we've got to take a hard look at our lives and make sure that we're trying to run hard after Christ. Francis Chan says really well in his in his famous book, Crazy Love, that the point of your life is to point to Christ. I'll say it again.

The point of your life is to point to Christ. Whatever you are doing, God wants to be glorified because this whole thing is his. That's his quote. So we love the least. We be last.

We die to self. The first or last, the last or first. It's about the heart more so than it's about the actions. A man that was really instrumental in in my coming of faith, Jonathan Piclouda, pastors at church in Waco, Texas. He has a saying that it's it's about belief.

It's it's about how you believe, not how you behave. And I would add, but if you believe, it will change how you behave. In normal kingdoms, you would conquer to gain. In this kingdom, we are conquered to gain. We die to gain.

It's in our weakness that is strength. And Paul says that we are more than conquerors. So if we fight for ourselves, if we die for ourselves, you are not making progress, you're actually losing. And it just doesn't feel that way because we're surrounded, we're constantly immersed by by and again, I love the capitalist system. I love democracy.

I think it's done great. But we're constantly immersed in the marketing effectively of it, that if we're experiencing hardships, some we've done something wrong. And that's just not biblical. In the previous chapter of Mark in eight thirty four thirty five, he says, whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it.

So Jesus shows us how in the next section, how to live this out. He took a little child whom he placed among them. Taking the child in his arms, he said to them, whoever welcomes one of these little children in my name welcomes me. And whoever welcomes me does not welcome me but the one who sent me. Truly, I tell you, anyone who gives me a cup of water in my name because you belong to the Messiah will certainly not lose their reward.

Children in those days were viewed as a nuisance and were basically the lowest status holders in society. Nobody set aside time to make sure that children were being built up. But God makes clear that in his kingdom, children are important. And the analogy works well for all of us too. If you do something kind for me out of generosity and you don't expect payment, that's great.

I really appreciate I hope I'm grateful and I hope I express that well. But, man, if you help one of my children, like, I'm all in. Like, if Crystal Updike ever needs to be broken out of prison, like, I'll ride or die for that woman. Like like, the the Van Slyke knows. Right?

Like, he and I, we're going. But it's just like that woman has has fundamentally influenced the way that our children grow up and grow up in Christ. And so if you wanna serve the father, serve the lowest in society. This is why we as Christians, why why every hospital, why every major educational system, why even the basic concept of human rights, these are all Christian things. So even if you're not a Christian, it's example number 9,000 of why it's better to live in a Christian or post Christian society.

But we don't simply provide these people with food and water. We should do that. But Jesus makes clear here that we need to tell them why we do it. If we care for a perceived enemy, be it personal personal, social, or political, we also need to tell them why we do it. And what does that look like?

We know a short version of the gospel, practice it, and share it. It doesn't have to be super articulate. It's okay if it's the Americanized individualized version of the gospel. Say, Jesus died for your sins because that's true. That he was a historical person and that he claimed to be God and they killed him, and three days later, he walked out of that grave.

And because of that, we can have communion with God. That's the gospel. You can even distill it down further than that. Make it about Jesus. The other way you can do it is share your story.

Sharing a story has three really basic parts. Who you were before Christ, what or who brought you to Christ, and what your life has been like ever since. Tell them tell everyone about the freedom that you have known since then. So just like Stephen, we can use what God has given us. We can use where God has put us even if it's not what we wanted.

He has given you what you need for the purpose of his glory and your good. So we look to Jesus every day reminding ourselves and everyone around us of the truth of the gospel so that we don't miss the point, so that we don't miss the ending, we don't miss the plot twist, that it's not about you. It's about the crazy, backwards, upside down kingdom of God, which is, again, for his glory and your good, and those two things are inextricably linked. So the point of your life is to point to Christ, change your heart by meditating on what Christ has done for you. He set aside his perfect glory to live the most humble and perfect life and to die on a cross for you.

Share your story and take care of the least of these and tell them why you do it. That's all I have for us today. Just that. Just that. But I would love I mean, this is this is not supposed to just be a monologue.

So I would love I mean, thoughts, like, ons, like, did you know, like I love that. K. Oh, yeah.

Yeah. She shared oh, boy. That section that you shared about Stephen and his martyrdom. First of all, the the church was clumped up. Like, you kinda mentioned at the beginning, there's a holy huddle.

There's a holy huddle around Jerusalem, although Jesus had said, you will be my disciples. You'll be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and other parts. And they weren't anywhere except for Jerusalem, which is in Judea until Stephen was murdered. And Saul was standing there watching, and everything that Stephen said was true. Oh, man.

Everything that he said was true, and anybody listening to that could not have objected to what he said until he got to the very last. And it was because they had already made up their mind about that part. And and Saul, as he's sitting there, I mean, he's gonna still pursue the followers of the way because that's what a good church man, I guess, at the time synagogue member would do. But he had seen that and, you know, Jesus standing up, like you mentioned. When Saul goes after, just a little while later, Saul goes after the Christians and is knocked on his knocked flat, knocked blind.

And Jesus doesn't say, why are you persecuting these people? He says, why are you persecuting me? And so there's just so much, man. So much in what you said is it just kinda got the the juices pumping. But I love that it was through Stephen being obedient obedient even unto death, which is exactly the verbiage in Philippians for Jesus.

And it was at that point that the church spread out and did prophetically from what Jesus said they would do. They were gonna be the disciples of the the witnesses in Samaria and the uttermost parts. That's that's pretty awesome.

Yeah. And and to add on, like, through persecution. Exactly.

That was God's

Right. That was for their good.

And it still is.

Knew that story when he was writing Romans eight.

That's right.

Yeah. Yep. Yep.

Anyone else? Maybe

I misinterpreted or took it out of context or didn't understand exactly what was being said, but how is being last being first? I mean, if if somebody isn't successful or they're getting an f and everybody else in the class is getting an a, how are you first? You know? I mean, how do you stand out as being a winner if if you're last in line?

Right? The the the lowest and the least of these. That's why we use the example, you know, he's talking about children. Right? Children were despised if they were given any attention.

They were despised. And so that that sort of least of these approach is God has not forgotten the one who's getting the f's, who's getting who's last in the class. In fact, God's heart is specifically in many ways for them. Does that answer your question?

Yes, it does, sir. Thank you.

Thank you. And

to follow-up too, think that the least of these isn't necessarily can be like financial life situation, but I think that's about humility, if I'm not mistaken, but it's more it's not that I made lots of bad choices, therefore, I'm at the bottom of society. It's that I've decided to serve and humble myself instead of chasing after what I want, chasing after what the Lord wants. And that is the humility that that brings that down. So, because you can have people who are very humble and maybe first in God's kingdom, and they might have some money or, you know, down at the bottom, they've made a lot of bad mistakes and stuff like that. God God's looking out for all stratas, all levels.

We see him. He reaches out to the the Pharisees. He's there to the centurion, coming up dry. Cornelius? Cornelius, he's reaching to all the stratas and stuff like that.

So it's not necessarily economic, but it's mostly about humility. So that's

That's really it's about the heart.

Yes, about the heart.

Please don't take it in the wrong way. I do not want to praise myself, but in light of that. At Smiths, I've been asked to be a manager for every month, every two, three months. And I choose not to be a manager so I can serve at the self checkout because it gives me a freedom to talk to people. And because I choose that position, I can serve God better, but I'm not a manager.

I'm nobody there. I'm just a simple servant. But in God's eyes, I'm his servant. So kind of an idea of but again, please, I'm I'm not praising myself at all. Well, will.

No. No. No. No.

I mean, legitimately, I mean, I bet 10% of the local Smith business is because people wanna see Florid's smiling face. You know the blessing that he brings to them.

Thank you. That

that might be the busiest Albertsons in the entire country, but that Smiths is outperforming all metrics too, I very highly major.

That reminds me. I this is probably, like, five or ten years ago now, but I heard a pastor say, you know what? I actually do think you know, society says that the rich, the powerful, the beautiful, like, they're more like, greater are those. Right? And it's and our pastor said, you know what?

I actually think there's a benefit to that because they realize that happiness or joy or, like, the ultimate is not found in those things. And the, you know, the poor man might say, oh, if only I had more money. That would solve my problems. Or the ugly is, only if I were beautiful, that would solve my problems. But once you've experienced all that the world has to offer and it still leaves escaping hole, then you can like and then it points you to Christ.

And I love the in the beatitudes. I just did a study on that and that the blessed was God was like overjoyed that they were so empty that there is room for him. That in those lowly positions that they had nothing else left And that's why, like, I think in third world countries, like, especially there's just this such this joy and the simplicity of, like, they have faith and they don't have much else. Yet they live in conditions that we would be appalled, like, couldn't even fathom ourselves living in.

Yeah. There's if if anybody wants to look up a great example of that, there's two quotes. There's a quote from Tom Brady right after he won, like, his fifth Super Bowl or something. And it it was he, like, married Giselle. It was, you know, more money than we can count.

And it was, like basically, the idea was there has to be something else. And there was a similar quote from Brad Pitt around a similar time. So if you ever want a funny, secular version of what we're talking about today, look up quotes from the great prophets, Tom Brady and And Empress they'll talk about these guys that are the pinnacle of society that are sitting there going, like to Natalie's point, we should be jealous of the rich. But we should be jealous of the rich because they know that riches are not what bring life. And the rest of us are sold that idea.

And we're rich by global standards. Every single one of us in this room. I wanna be clear about that. But, like, because of the way that we stratify in America, we think that riches are what bring happiness. And so there's a few of the rich,

a few of the beautiful, a few of

the famous that have been so bold as to say, nah. This ain't it.

Yeah. What really makes me sick about society and it's disturbing is Miley Cyrus could be in some skimpy attire shaking her booty and young girls and young boys are idolizing it, admiring it, looking up to it, and it it's bothersome. I mean, it bothers me a lot when honorable soldiers that fight for our country that are fighting for family and freedoms don't get the publicity, don't get the honor that they truly deserve. They're the true heroes, not Miley Cyrus shaking her butt.

I mean

But this this is a broken world, and it's always been broken. And and it will be broken until Jesus returns. And so there is there is brokenness, and and I would argue it's been that way all throughout society, all all throughout the history of civilization that we have prioritized the wrong things even in what I would call Christendom. Right? Which you could roughly consider this a Christian nation still despite what most politicians will say.

Anything else?

Brad. Crispy. There was something in the middle that you mentioned. You said comfortable, healthy, and

Oh, I don't know.

A third word. That was basically

We'll have to go to the tape.

You said to you you you exhorted us to compare our life to scripture, not to society. Yeah. And and I think that that pops up in revelation in the letters to the church so often where we're we're trying to continue to compare ourselves to people around us, but we get called to compare ourselves to what what Jesus calls us to. And and then there's that discernment of, you know, taking care of and and taking care of your family. Right?

Because we're called to take care of our family and to not live at the same standard as as the world.

Yeah. But my and I guess some of what I could have elaborated on is, like, my idea of what providing for my family looks like can be very different from what God's idea of providing for my family looks like. And that's where I'm right. 90% of the time, I'm preaching myself on this stuff. Because I know that I swim in the waters that I do of materialism, of capitalism, of things like that, that says, unless you have this truck, this beer, these boots, this whatever, you are not complete as a man.

You're not providing for your family unless your kids wear this brand, do these things, go to these schools, whatever. And I'm 100% indoctrinated in that sort of stuff. And so I need to run to scripture every morning and probably more than just in the morning to be reminded of real truth. That that's why I bring up that Philippians one twenty nine verses. It has been granted to you not only to believe in Christ, but to suffer for him.

And gosh, that's one of those hard verses in the Bible that I just have to stew in for a while. And then I have to remind myself of Romans eight one. And so that's where, you know, we kind of pair. And this is some of what I'll talk about next week's plug is like, how do we match sort of the sort of criticism of easy believism versus the condemnation that comes through kind of the apparent legalism that some verses seem to espouse? And how do we make the two?

So tune in.

Thanks, Brad.

Can I just say this real quick? Awana has ended. And so if you've got children in Awana and you need to grab them, please do. But we we'll keep going here.

Hi, everybody. How much how many minutes do I have?

We're kind of wrapping up, but I would love to have a, like, a conversation just you and me.

Okay. Well, I just wanted to say something. And kind of the answer, I have seven answers, but I'm probably going to tell you just one. But also because Pastor Ray is here, and I think he's going to like it because you said you are from you migrated your family from Georgia. But before Georgia, well before Mexico, what about Scotland?

Way back. That's where Batman is from, right? And Goodscotch. So that's why I wanted to say. And last is first, there is a magic the way it works.

I figured it out because I lived through experience. So but the story I would like to tell is about so first, last. As a human, we were set as the first in animal kingdom. And if you only afford a new animal, right, then then you lust. But the difference is not every human knows their they have a creator, but animals do know.

I'd love to close in in in a song, though, and and sing in Christ alone because this is really this is this is what we're proclaiming here. We're proclaiming Christ. Alright. Here we go. Amen.

I've got here it is. Then I wanna end with this one from Mark four as a benediction. Jesus says, pay close attention to what you hear. The closer you listen, the more understanding you will be given, and you will receive even more. Amen.