How to Have Eternal Life

Transcript
Copy with timestamps
Copy with no timestamps
Download with timestamps
Download with no timestamps
0/0

0:18Let's pray together. Our Father, we come this morning needy, and so we ask, would you fill us up? Fill us particularly with faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Father, would you grant through the preaching of your word that we, each of us, would turn from our sins and follow Jesus full with assurance and hearts of faith. We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen. It's good to see you this morning. If you don't know me, I'm Joshua Griever. I'm one of the non-staff pastors here, and this morning we are continuing in our Matthew series. If you've been with us, there have been a lot of stories recently. Particularly in Matthew 19, we've already seen various interactions that Jesus has had with people.

1:16So for instance, the Pharisees and the scribes came at the beginning of this chapter and said, "We want to test you with a question about divorce," and Jesus then taught on marriage. And the next passage said that there were a bunch of people trying to bring children to Jesus, and his disciples were actually hindering them, and Jesus took the opportunity to use children as an example of discipleship. Today's story is yet another story about discipleship. In fact, if you back up, this whole section of Matthew from chapter 16 through, I think, 20, all the way up until the triumphal entry passage, it's all about discipleship. It's sort of like Jesus is circling the plane, looking at the topic of discipleship from different angles.

2:11It's sort of like Jesus is saying, "Let's talk about your marriage." That's the beginning of this chapter. Or in the middle of the chapter, "Let's talk about your parenting." Marriage, parenting, and now when a young guy asks Jesus, "What must I do to have eternal life?" Jesus says, "Let's talk about your bank account." So in other words, discipleship isn't just for one day of the week, but discipleship is about every day of your life. If you say, "Jesus is Lord," what you should mean by that is Jesus is Lord of all of me, not just some of me, but all of me. Jesus is Lord of the way that I think, the way that I feel, what I do with my life.

2:59So today, it's more about discipleship, isn't it? And I want to tell you upfront what I'm after today. I have some key takeaways, specifically three of them. I'll try to repeat these at the end of the sermon. Number one, our good behavior, the rich young guy, he has a lot of good behavior. Our good behavior never earns eternal life. That's a key takeaway for you. Your good behavior will never earn you eternal life. Second key takeaway today is that repentance means recognizing your sin and turning from it. Repentance means confessing, "I have sinned. I acknowledge my sin." There's an utter hatred that you have against that sin, and you turn away from it in faith to the Lord.

3:58And then finally, last takeaway for this morning is following Jesus is better than anything this world can offer. Following Jesus is better than anything this world can offer. This guy is 0 for 3 today. Today's story is a negative example. Actually, he's kind of like the negative counterpart to the children from last week. If you were here last week, the children Jesus used as a positive example for discipleship. This guy, interestingly, he's also a young guy. He's not a child, but he's a young guy, but he's very negative, not positive. He bats 0 for 3 today. So, my hope is that you're convinced by the end of today that this story is meant for you, no matter who you are.

4:52You don't have to be rich today for this story to apply to you. You don't have to be young today for this story to apply to you. This story is meant for everyone in the room who wishes to be a disciple of our Lord Jesus Christ. Let's take the story in two parts. The first part is just the interaction that Jesus has with the rich young guy. This is verses 16 through 22. And then the second part of the story is what I just want to call Jesus' debrief session. He has a debrief session with the disciples. After the guy leaves the room, Jesus says, "We need to talk about things like how difficult it is to enter the kingdom, and how worth it it is to follow Jesus."

5:40We'll take it in that order. First, in verses 16 through 22, we hear about a man who approaches Jesus with a question about what he can do to have eternal life. Isn't that what verse 16 says? Verse 16 again says, "Behold, a man came up to him saying, 'Teacher, what good deed must I do to have eternal life?'"I actually think Matthew means for us to find ourselves in verse 16. The reason I say that is because literally, the word man isn't even in the original Greek. It just says one person came to him. Now, he happens to be a man, but it's one person. We could just translate this as a guy showed up.

6:36We don't know much about this guy in verse 16. Yes, he's going to be young, yes, he's going to be rich. But notice Matthew in verse 16 doesn't present him that way. Matthew actually just calls him a guy. He shows up with honestly a rather normal question, and I think the point of that is you and I are in verse 16. This is not an abnormal guy with an abnormal question. He's asking, in one sense, what every person in the world wants to know. What must I do? What good deed must I do to have eternal life? There was one time when I was on a mission trip to Central Asia, and my group and I spent part of a day with a young Muslim man.

7:22Honestly, this young Muslim man reminds me a lot of the guy that came up to Jesus because he had tried to obey all these different commandments. In Islamic teaching, there's all these different commandments that you have to do, and this guy had really worked hard to be a pretty good Muslim. As we got to know him more that day, we asked him kind of frankly, what did he think would happen when he died? What would Allah think of all his good intent? And he told us, "I don't know what's going to happen when I die. I'm trying my best to please Allah, but at the end of the day, I actually have no assurance that when I die, Allah will welcome me into heaven.

8:07I actually don't know." And he mimicked or mirrored our own frankness by confessing, "Sometimes this question of assurance of salvation, it keeps me up at night." He was asking not an abnormal question either. He was asking the question of the rich young man, and it's frankly our question as well. What must we do to have salvation? No input, no output. Isn't that the assumption here? I have to do something in order to have eternal life, and again, our world assumes the truth of that argument, but not Jesus. I want you to look with me at verse 17. The first part of Jesus' response, I think, stunned the man. Verse 17 says, "And he said to him, 'Why do you ask me about what is good?

9:04There is only one who is good.'" Do you hear Jesus' words? Why are you asking me about what is good? As it turns out, there's only one who is good, and you are not he. Isn't that the sense of the verse? It's only God, of course, who is good, absolutely good, morally perfect. Our Father in heaven is perfect morally. God has never sinned. It's impossible for God to lie, we're told, in other texts in scripture. I think this stunned the man because we all, like he, tend to think of ourselves as relatively pretty good. We're fairly well-behaved. You might not sin as much as your neighbor, and you know that.

9:58As it turns out, though, God does not use our relative goodness as his standard for eternal life. Do you know that? God does not use our relative goodness as his standard for eternal life. If we get to the gates of heaven and God says, "Why should I let you in?" We're not going to be able to say something like, "I didn't sin as much as my neighbor. I was better than my brother, than my sister, than my parents," or, "I wasn't as bad as I could have been." That is a moot point at the gates of heaven. God's standard isn't relative, but absolute goodness. I think this stuns the man. Why do you ask me about what is good?

10:39There's only one who is good, and it's not you. So beware, North Church, of assuming you are a good person in yourself. Beware. And yet Jesus goes a rather curious route in verse 17. Notice he's not done in the verse talking. He says, "If you would enter life, keep the commandments." And we're kind of like, I thought you just said it's not about what good deed I can do. I can't be good enough. And yet, now you want to talk about my keeping the commandments. Do you see how that may not make sense to us? What's Jesus doing in drawing the man's attention to his commandment keeping? And I think the answer is Jesus is actually saying the exact same thing, but in another way.

11:30It's one thing to say with your lips, "Oh, yes, yes, only God is good." It's another thing to sense in your own heart your lack of goodness. So I think what Jesus is doing is he's turning it from the doctrinal assertion that only God is good to the experiential level of this man, and he's going to do it for several verses here. He's going to move from the behavioral level to the heart level, from the outside to the inside, so to speak. Jesus is not content. He won't be content simply with keeping external commandments, but rather he's going to draw attention to what the man's heart is like. What does he actually love?He does start, Jesus, in verses 18 and 19, by listing off some various commandments.

12:23When the guy said, "Which commandments?" Jesus said in verse 18, "You shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not bear false witness, honor your father and mother, and you shall love your neighbor as yourself." If you've been around Christianity long enough, you probably recognize a lot of these are just from the Ten Commandments. They're from the Ten Commandments, which are summary commandments of the old covenant law, and so is Leviticus 19:18, which says, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." Jesus is going to say in just a couple of chapters that that particular commandment sums up the law and the prophets. So these are summary commands, but what I want to draw your attention to with every one of them is they're all behavioral commands. They're all interpersonal.

13:13"You shall not murder" is an interpersonal command. "You shall not commit adultery" has to do with your behavior. "You shall not steal" has to do with your behavior towards another person. And what I'm struck by is the commandments that Jesus could have mentioned but did not. He could have said, "You shall not covet," for instance. You remember, that's one of the Ten Commandments as well. He doesn't go there. He doesn't say, "You shall have no other gods before me," which is also one of the Ten Commandments. He doesn't go there, and Jesus doesn't actually say the greatest commandment of all, which is to love the Lord your God with all of who you are. He doesn't go there.

13:54He could, but he doesn't. Why? And I think it's, again, because he's moving from the outside to the inside. He starts out by letting the man say, "I'm a good behavioral person here. I treat other people fairly well." Isn't that what the man goes on to say in verse 20? The man who's now called the young man said to him, "All these I have kept. What do I still lack?" The man is ready to assert his goodness despite Jesus' warning that he's not actually good. Jesus is doing the same thing He's done frankly throughout the Gospel of Matthew, where He moves from the external to the internal. So one example of this would be the Sermon on the Mount when Jesus says, "Your righteousness must exceed that of the scribes and the Pharisees." Do you remember that section, Matthew 5?

14:45"Your righteousness must exceed that of the scribes and the Pharisees." And we're like, "How so?" Well, it has to do with not just what you do, but who you are on the inside. So the rest of Matthew 5, the second half of that chapter talks about do you have anger in your heart? Do you have lust in your heart? How willing are you to hold grudges against other people? Jesus goes to the heart level in Matthew 5, and I think the same thing is happening here. He starts out with these behavioral commands, and then He says, "You lack one thing." It looks like a behavioral thing at the outset, but I think it's actually a heart-level issue. Look with me at verse 21.

15:27Jesus said to him, "If you would be perfect," you know, like your heavenly Father is perfect, "go, sell what you possess and give to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven, and come follow me." That's the one thing he lacks. Verse 21, the one thing. He's got six commands down, but he needs a seventh. He needs the perfect command, the perfect number, so to speak. The guy had eternal life at his fingertips if only he could do verse 21. Go, sell what you possess, give those proceeds from the sale to the poor. Come follow me. You'll have treasure in heaven. I think treasure in heaven is just the same thing as eternal life here. And rather than repent and believe, what does the man do?

16:27Verse 22 says, "When the young man heard this, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions." And now we learn, ah, he's not just a young man, but he's rich. Do you see that? He could not do verse 21 because he had so much wealth. One old preacher paraphrased the guy's problem this way. The problem is this guy did not own his money, but his money owned him. You get that? He had a lot of possessions, or better said, his possessions had him. He could not bear to part with the great amount of wealth he had. He couldn't bear it, and so therefore, he went away sorrowful instead of receiving eternal life.

17:18I told you he batted 0 for 3 today. The guy had it right at his fingertips, and he couldn't do it. I'm going to say a few words real fast about money since that's ostensibly this guy's problem. Money can be dangerous. Can you hear that in today's passage? Money can be dangerous. Why? Because money can offer you a chance to build your own Tower of Babel, to make a name for yourself. Money can give you a chance to have other people like you. It can buy you a lot, a lot of pleasure, a lot of things. And don't you remember, there's two other passages. We've already touched on these earlier in Matthew's Gospel.

18:01There are two other passages that especially come to mind here that have the same accent as today, and that is Matthew 6, which talks about you cannot serve God and money. You can't serve them both. That doesn't mean money is intrinsically evil, but can you see how dangerous it can be?It's something that we can easily see as a god in our life. The other passage that comes to mind is Matthew 13, in the Parable of the Sower. It was the thorny soil particularly, do you remember, that represented the cares of the world and the deceitfulness, that's the word, the deceitfulness of wealth. Can you hear the danger zone there?

18:42When you have wealth, there's a danger zone. And this guy, he falls into the trap, doesn't he? I need to note, it's possible, though, to be a disciple of Jesus and be quite wealthy. Why do I say that? Well, we haven't gotten there yet, but almost 10 chapters from now, so I don't know, months from now, in Matthew 27, there's going to be another rich guy. His name is Joseph of Arimathea. The same word for wealth that's used in our passage will be used of that guy in Matthew 27. So it's the same idea, but he's actually a positive example because he's called a disciple. So notice, it's possible to be a Joseph of Arimathea, but the point in today's passage is don't fall into the trap that wealth can offer everything to you.

19:36That's the danger zone. It can be your own kingdom, your own Tower of Babel. Almost every week, isn't it true that the person giving the announcements comes up here into the pulpit and says, "Thank you all for being so generous. Please continue to give generously so that we can do the sorts of ministries that we aim to do." Money can be, when gained honestly, quite a good gift from God because it enables generosity. It enables generosity. You can't give what you don't have, so to speak. So money can be a good gift. I need to say that. And yet again, the accent of today is don't set your hopes on them.

20:18Don't set your hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but on God. You know that passage in 1 Timothy 6? He richly provides us with everything to enjoy. So don't let your money grab you. Don't set your hope on your money or your wealth or anything. Well, that's the interaction with the rich young guy. The second part of today's passage is the debrief session. The guy has left the room in verse 22, and now from 23 to the end of the chapter, Jesus has a little conversation with his disciples. And there are really two questions that Jesus wants to address. Number one is how difficult is it to enter the kingdom, to have eternal life?

21:09And the other question is, is it actually worth it to follow Jesus? How difficult is it and how rewarding is it? Well, humanly speaking, the difficulty level, Jesus says it's impossible. Look with me at verse 23, where Jesus said to his disciples, "Truly I say to you, only with difficulty..." Do you see that word? "Only with difficulty will a rich person enter the kingdom of heaven." Now, that sounds like Jesus is saying it's difficult but possible, right? It sounds like there's a chance for the rich person in the room, until you read the next verse. The next verse says, verse 24, "Again I tell you," so I think he's going to clarify what he means, "it's easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God."

22:04So Jesus is like, "Guys, let me give an illustration. Imagine a really big animal. Okay, let's go with a camel. All right? Now imagine a really small space, not like a tunnel, but the eye of a needle, something that you can barely thread anything through. You got it, guys?" The disciples are like, "All right. Big animal, small space." "Well, it's easier for that big animal to go through that really small space than it is for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God." In other words, when I say it's difficult, I actually mean impossible. Do you all see that? That's what I mean. So the takeaway isn't, oh, that's really hard, but still possible.

22:43Rather, it's impossible. And the disciples get the illustration. Don't you see verse 25, where they say, when they heard this, they were greatly astonished, saying, "Well, who then can be saved?" You see that word can? Who can be saved? It's not a possibility for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, and yet it's easier for that to happen than for a rich person. Do you all see the-- Like they get it. Now, their assumptions here may be a little bit off. It seems like their argument is God shows more favor to wealthy people than the poor. So from a greater to a lesser kind of argument, if the greater group of people can't be saved, neither can the poorer people. It's sort of like Jesus is saying the pastor can't be saved, and the congregation says, "Well, then who can be saved?" Right?

23:39If even the pastor can't be saved, what hope does the rest of us have? Now we can quibble with their argument there because as it turns out, God's actually not partial to the rich or the poor. There are many passages in the Bible that say He doesn't show favoritism, no matter what your bank account is. But actually, Jesus, He doesn't show a quibble with their argument. I think it's fallacious to a point, but they're right in as much as they end up at the right place. Their conclusion is correct with the who then can be saved question. Notice Jesus says, "You're right." Verse 26, "With man, this is impossible."

24:20This is impossible.Now, some interpreters have interpreted this to mean that Jesus is only talking about the impossibility of the salvation of a rich person, not a poor person. You see how maybe that's a way forward here. But I don't want any of you leaving the room today thinking, "Whew, that was a close call, because if I was rich, I couldn't be saved. Good thing I'm poor today." You all see what I mean? If that's in your mind, I want you to put it out of your mind, because that's actually not what Jesus is after. Remember, he doesn't quibble with the argument of verse 25, because the conclusion is right. I'm not just talking about rich people at the end of the day, I'm talking about people people. If you are a human being, I'm talking about you. This act of you entering the kingdom is not possible.

25:17And so I think we're supposed to feel the angst with the disciples, who themselves I don't think were super rich, as it turns out. They feel angst. I think we should as well. Why? Why is it impossible for every one of us to enter the kingdom and have eternal life? And the answer is because, as it turns out, we're rather sinful. That's why. We're more like the rich young guy than we know. There are many verses in the Bible that say this, but Ecclesiastes 7:20 is one of them. Ecclesiastes 7 says, "Surely there is not a righteous man on earth who does good and never sins." Do you feel that verse?

26:01"Surely there is not a righteous man," we could say or woman, "on earth who does good and never sins." The best person you know on earth has sinned so many times. So many times. I wonder if you said, "Yeah, but I'm not as bad as I could be." Remember that argument. Remember James chapter 2, verse 10 says, "Whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it." In the sense that if you break the law even once, now you are a breaker of the law. Do you see how that works? You are a transgressor if you have transgressed even one time. We are more like the rich young guy than perhaps we know.

26:50Like him, the penalty of our sin weighs heavy on us. Like him, the power of our sin enslaves us. It deceives us so easily into thinking we can have it all apart from Jesus. We can believe that everything the world has to offer is worth it. The power and the penalty of our sin make our salvation impossible so far as it depends on us. Do you feel the angst of the disciples?

27:29Aren't you grateful verse 26 isn't finished? Did you notice I read only the first half of it? Jesus says, "With man this is impossible." Would you say these words with me? "But with God all things are possible." And Jesus, with these words, frees us like a bird from a cage. He makes our heart sing with these words. Notice Jesus doesn't say, "You know what? But if you try really hard, you can still do it." That's not what he says. He directs our gaze to God, doesn't he? He says, "Enough of thinking of yourself. Enough, because you can't do it. But with God, not some things, not most things, but all things, including your salvation, is possible."

28:23The arm of the Lord is not too short to save even us. Psalm 130 says, "O Lord, if you should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand?" And the answer is nobody but with you. Do you remember that? "But with you there is forgiveness, that you may be feared." Or Isaiah 45 says, "There's no other God besides me, a righteous God and a Savior. There is none besides me. Turn to me and be saved, all the ends of the earth. For I am God, and there is no other." You are not your own savior. I am not your savior, but there is one who can alone save because He alone is God. He alone can cancel the penalty of our sin. He alone can break its power over our lives.

29:21Now, this passage does not say how that happens. Verse 26 is rather just witty, isn't it? It's just right to the point. But I'll simply remind us that Jesus got his name Jesus way back in Matthew chapter 1. Do you remember what it means? "For he will save his people from their sins." Or if you stick around, in a couple of weeks, we're going to hear these words from Jesus, where he's going to promise to give his life as a ransom, oh, keyword, a ransom for many. And at the Last Supper, when Jesus takes the cup, he interprets his death as the blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.

30:11His death frees us from sin's penalty and sin's power. So you and I are way more like the rich young ruler this morning than perhaps we think, and yet with God, all things are possible. Whether you're rich or poorSinners or saints, we alike find forgiveness and freedom at the cross. Yeah. So how difficult is it to be saved? Really hard. Impossible for us, but not with God. Turn to Him. The final question of the debrief is, so how rewarding is it then to follow Jesus? Notice Peter has this very question in verse 27. Peter says, "See, we have left everything and followed you. What then will we have?"

31:02Now, I actually read Peter pretty charitably here. Some interpreters think he's just pretty greedy, he's a glory seeker here. But I actually think Peter's asking the same kind of question that the rich, young man was asking. The rich, young man wanted to know, "What must I do to have eternal life?" And Peter is saying something like this, "Jesus, you just said if we follow you, if we turn away from everything that enslaves us, if we repent and follow you, then we'll have eternal life. Are you sure about that?" I think that's the question. Are you absolutely sure about that, Jesus? I need some certainty of my own salvation one day.

31:45And Jesus answers this way in verse 28. Jesus says, "Truly I say to you, in the new world, when the Son of Man will sit on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on 12 thrones, judging the 12 tribes of Israel. And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or lands for my name's sake will receive a hundredfold and will inherit eternal life." Now, this promise is for everyone, everyone who follows Jesus. That word everyone shows up in verse 29. Did you see it? "Everyone," the verse says, "who has left houses and so on for my name's sake will inherit eternal life." We're still talking about eternal life.

32:35Everyone who follows Jesus will have eternal life, is what verse 29 says. Indeed, eternal life is seen here as a future reality. Yes, we have eternal life right now, but it's not the last of it. There's a consummation to come. There's a greater gift to come. Verse 28 speaks of a new world. Did you see that, verse 28? "Truly I say to you, in the new world, when the Son of Man will sit on his glorious throne." Well, that hasn't happened yet. This is the new creation language, the new heaven and the new Earth. It's like a new genesis, a new and improved Garden of Eden. In that new realm, which has yet to come in its fullness, when Jesus sits on his glorious throne, which I take to be a reference to the final judgment that's the first of that age to come. When He sits on that glorious throne, God's people will be vindicated. God's people will be with Him forevermore in that world to come.

33:45I say vindication because notice what He promises the 12. He says, "You who have followed me will also sit on 12 thrones." And I just think that's the language of rulership or kingship. You will reign with Christ. I actually don't think verse 28 is just for the 12 apostles. There's some debate on this. But I actually think the number 12 represents the whole people of God. So I think verse 28 is for all of us. We will reign with Christ. Another way to say this is Matthew 25, just a few chapters from now, where every Christian will hear these words, "Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little." And then hear this, "I will set you over much." I think the setting over much corresponds to the judging the 12 tribes of Israel. Again, that's somewhat debated.

34:44My point is we, in fact, will reign with Christ forevermore. We will be vindicated. Vindicated before the world and in the presence of the Lord. So is it worth it to do verse 29? Is it worth it to leave everything? Isn't that what verse 29 says? You got houses, you got all these family members. Is it worth it to leave those behind? I actually don't think this is just about cross-cultural missionaries who literally leave their houses, leave their home countries behind, and go to another house in a new land. I actually think the leaving here corresponds to what the rich, young guy should have done. He should have left everything and followed Jesus. In other words, every Christian turns from their sin. They deny themselves, they pick up their cross daily, and they follow Jesus, whatever that looks like in your own sphere of life.

35:47And is it worth it to do that? The answer is a resounding yes. Compared to the eternal weight of glory, we never make sacrifices, do we? We actually never make a sacrifice because we give up a pittance for everything. We get it all, the best being Jesus Himself. Those who follow Him will never be put to shame. So let me close with those three takeaways. Remember I said them at the beginning. Here they are again. Our good behavior, number one, it never earns eternal life. I hope I've made that clear. I want to say something to the children. Aren't there children in the room? There's a lot of you in the room.Did you notice this was a young man today?

36:35Yeah. It wasn't an old man, it was a young man. I don't know exactly how old, but I don't think he was quite an adult. I think he was maybe a teenager or so. And this guy had lived a pretty good life. I'm willing to bet a lot he had grown up in a pretty upstanding Jewish home. Pretty upstanding. He had kept all these commandments. Sounds like he had a devout group of parents and maybe some siblings. Did you notice that growing up in a house that loves Jesus does not earn you eternal life? Did you see that, children? You're here at the North Church, praise the Lord. You have parents that love the Lord, praise the Lord for that.

37:15That doesn't earn you eternal life. Only Jesus can save you. I want you to know that, children. Only Jesus can save you. Don't leave here thinking, "I can be better than that rich young guy." No, you can't. But Jesus can save you. Second, repentance means recognizing our sin and turning away from it. Did you notice how the rich young guy simply worshiped his money? He worshiped his wealth. What does repentance mean but turning away from your gods? Whatever it is that holds you in its sway, turn from it. Identify, maybe some of you aren't flowing with wealth like this rich young guy today, but I imagine there's something that you're tempted by, "I can't be happy if I lose that thing.

38:03I cannot have the good life if that doesn't come with me." If there's a fill in the blank for you there, turn from it. That's a god to you. Turn from it. Find your ultimate satisfaction and contentment in the Lord. So what holds you this morning? I'm asking every one of you, what has a grip on your life? Trust in the Lord, who alone satisfies and who alone can give you life. And finally, number three, following Jesus is better than anything this world can offer. Do you believe this? Does your family know that about you? Can they tell? My dad, my mom, my brother, my sister, I can tell that person thinks having Jesus is better than anything this world can offer.

38:52So I encourage you all, keep cutting off the hands, keep gouging out the eyes, keep bearing fruit and keeping with repentance. Let's pray. Father, I ask now that none in the room would leave today sorrowful like this rich young guy. May none of us be like Esau, who sold his birthright for stew. May none of us be like Demas, who fell in love with the world. Open the eyes of our hearts that we may see you in your glory and so turn from our sins and find true life in you. We ask in Jesus' name. Amen.

Jump to live
Jump to live

Christ Has Come, He Will Come Again

The End Is Not Yet

Woe To Hypocrites!

How to Have Eternal Life

Christ Has Come, He Will Come Again

The End Is Not Yet

Woe To Hypocrites!

The Humble Shall Be Exalted

Son of David, Son of God

The Greatest Commandments

God of the Living

God, or Caesar?

The Parable Of The Wedding Feast

The Rejected Cornerstone

A Tale of Two Sons

Jesus’ Authority

A Serious Call to Repentance and Prayer

Our Passover Lamb: The Provocation of Jesus’ Anger

Jesus’ Entry Into Jerusalem

Behold the Merciful Messiah

The Great Servant King

Forming Continuing Faith

Not Just Justice