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Feb 27, 2022

No Other Goods Before Me

No Other Goods Before Me

Passage: Mark 10:17-30

Speaker: Patrick Lafferty

Series: Follow: Learning from Mark about Jesus’ Most Misunderstood Command

No understanding of what it means to follow Jesus would be complete without knowing how to think of what most competes for our attention–namely, our things. Things without a theology become an intoxicant. We exist in a culture where acquiring is both so commonplace and so necessary to keep things running that we easily become unaware of what it may be doing to us. What theology of things does Jesus offer?re

Readings & Scripture

PREPARATION: Proverbs 30:6-8
LEADER: Two things I ask of you;
deny them not to me before I die:

ALL: Remove far from me falsehood and lying;
give me neither poverty nor riches;
feed me with the food that is needful for me,

LEADER: lest I be full and deny you
and say, “Who is the LORD?”

ALL: or lest I be poor and steal
and profane the name of my God.

OLD TESTAMENT READING: Deuteronomy 28:1-6
Deut. 28:1 “And if you faithfully obey the voice of the LORD your God, being careful to do all his commandments that I command you today, the LORD your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth. 2 And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, if you obey the voice of the LORD your God. 3 Blessed shall you be in the city, and blessed shall you be in the field. 4 Blessed shall be the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your ground and the fruit of your cattle, the increase of your herds and the young of your flock. 5 Blessed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl. 6 Blessed shall you be when you come in, and blessed shall you be when you go out.

CENTRAL TEXT: Mark 10:17-30
17 And as he was setting out on his journey, a man ran up and knelt before him and asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” 18 And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone. 19 You know the commandments: ‘Do not murder, Do not commit adultery, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Do not defraud, Honor your father and mother.’” 20 And he said to him, “Teacher, all these I have kept from my youth.” 21 And Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, “You lack one thing: go, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” 22 Disheartened by the saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions. 23 And Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, “How difficult it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!” 24 And the disciples were amazed at his words. But Jesus said to them again, “Children, how difficult it is to enter the kingdom of God! 25 It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.” 26 And they were exceedingly astonished, and said to him, “Then who can be saved?” 27 Jesus looked at them and said, “With man it is impossible, but not with God. For all things are possible with God.” 28 Peter began to say to him, “See, we have left everything and followed you.” 29 Jesus said, “Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands, for my sake and for the gospel, 30 who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and in the age to come eternal life.

CONFESSION OF SIN: 1 Cor 4:7, Phil 4:12, Isaiah 55:1,2

ALL: What do we have that we did not receive? And if we received it, why do we boast as if we did not receive it? This we forget, and still contentment we lack, both in plenty and in want. What will help us to know you are enough? What will free us to make all entrusted to us available for you and your purposes? What will feed us to be satisfied with what we cannot purchase? You alone. You alone.

ASSURANCE OF PARDON: 2 Corinthians 8:9
LEADER: though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich.
ALL: Thanks be to God.

BENEDICTION: Hebrews 13:5-6

LEADER: Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” So we can confidently say,

ALL: “The Lord is my helper;
I will not fear;
what can man do to me?”

RELATED SCRIPTURES:

  • Deuteronomy 28:1-14
  • Job 1:10
  • Proverbs 10:22
  • Proverbs 30:8
  • Mark 4:19
  • Acts 20:35
  • 1 Timothy 6:10, 17-19
  • Hebrews 13:5

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

  1. Cute question: think back–what was your “woobie”--that object that was for you as a child a source of comfort you carried with you everywhere? Now deep question: What’s something you thought you could never live without, but later lost all importance to you? What accounted for the change of mind?
  2. Before we learn what all this man who approaches Jesus has, what do we notice about him? How would you describe him? How does the brief exchange still allow for a bit of development in our understanding of him? Why his response to Jesus’s command?
  3. In saying that it’s difficult for a rich person to enter the kingdom of heaven–to become part of the purposes and program of God that will endure forever–what kind of warning if Jesus making about the effects wealth can have on us?
  4. Why are the disciples “amazed” and “astonished” at Jesus’s words? 
  5. Peter begins his response to what Jesus has said with, “Look!” Why so demonstrative, do you think? What do you think Jesus’s answer to Peter is meant to do for him? His promise appears to involve riches of a different kind–in what sense(s)?
  6. Is this passage meant to tell us about salvation or about wealth? Defend your answer.
  7. How might one know when one’s hold on things exceeds their true worth?
  8. Paul tells us how Jesus, “though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich.” (2 Cor 8:9). How is that belief meant to work on more than our will–more than some demand–but more so on our heart, so that we view what we have in Him as greater than anything else we might possess?

ILLUSTRATIONS:

QUOTES:

  • They have their faith because what they believe in doesn’t judge them. Who am I to tell them that what they believe is irrational? . . . I cannot tell them that there is nothing beyond this physical life. It would be cruel and pointless. In these last three years, out from behind my computers, I have been reminded that life is not rational and that everyone makes mistakes. Or, in Biblical terms, we are all sinners. We are all sinners. On the streets the addicts, with their daily battles and proximity to death, have come to understand this viscerally. Many successful people don’t. Their sense of entitlement and emotional distance has numbed their understanding of our fallibility. Soon I saw my atheism for what it is: an intellectual belief most accessible to those who have done well. - Chris Arnade, Dignity
  • I do not believe one can settle how much we ought to give. I am afraid the only safe rule is to give more than we can spare. In other words, if our expenditure on comforts, luxuries, amusement, etc., is up to the standard common among those with the same income as our own, we are probably giving away too little. If our giving does not at all pinch or hamper us, I should say it is too small. There ought to be things we should like to do and cannot because our commitment to giving excludes them. - C.S Lewis, Mere Christianity
  • There are two ways to have enough money: one is to acquire more; the other is to desire less. G.K. Chesterton
    “It’s not about money. It’s about sending a message. Everything burns.” - The Joker in Dark Knight
  • “Money isn’t everything. It’s the only thing.” - Floyd Mayweather

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