Mark 9:42-50--Exploring Discipleship, Selflessness, and Eternal Values in the Gospel of Mark-

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:12):
All right.
Mark, chapter 9, verse 42,.
That's where we'll start.
Hopefully you can hear me.
If not, just smile and nod,it's okay.
Smile and nod, nod, it's okay.
Smile and nod, all right.
Well, in the gospel of Mark wehave seen Jesus come from the

(00:32):
top of the mountain there, theMount of Transfiguration, where
he's seen in all of his gloryand he's going to the lowest
point Well, in so many ways thelowest point in our story.
He's going towards the cross.
Now, this is not right.
It's not the lowest point.
It in so many ways the lowestpoint in our story.
He's going towards the cross.
Now, this is not right.
It's not the lowest point, it'sthe highest point of the story.
But he's headed towards thecross, from here on down the

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mountain to Jerusalem, to thecross, and it's going to take us
a little while, but as he goes,we see that life with Jesus
involves discipleship.
He's teaching his disciples andin verse 33, just to back up a
little bit we see him inCapernaum, that's home base in

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the beginning of things.
He's in a house, possiblyPeter's house, and he confronts
his disciples on something thatwas going on on the road.
He asked them what was it thatyou guys talked about on the
road, and they knew.
They knew they were busted Allat once.

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They knew they had been arguingabout who would be the greatest
in the kingdom, who would havethe highest position.
And Jesus calls them on theirself-centeredness and their
pride.
And in verse 35, he says ifanyone desires to be first, he
shall be last of all and servantof all.
And then Jesus, as anillustration, takes a little

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child old enough to stand butstill needy, young enough to be
held.
And and he says in verse 37whoever receives one of these
little children in my namereceives me.
Whoever receives me receivesnot me but him who sent me.
And and so we picture it ashe's teaching his disciples,

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holding a little child.
There, his disciples aregathered sheepishly around and
Jesus is going to break down thesubject of what it means to be
a real disciple.
Look at verse 42.
We'll pick up there and we'llread to the end of the chapter.
But whoever caused one of theselittle ones who believes in me

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to stumble, it would be betterfor him if the millstone were
hung around his neck and he werethrown into the sea.
If your hand causes you to sin,cut it off.
It is better for you to enterinto life maimed rather than
having two hands to go to hell,into the fire that shall never

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be quenched, where their wormdoes not die and the fire is not
quenched.
If your foot causes you to sin,cut it off.
It's better for you to enterlife lame rather than have two
feet to be cast into hell, intothe fire that shall never be
quenched, where their worm doesnot die and the fire is not
quenched, and if your eye causesyou to sin, pluck it out.

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It is better for you to enterthe kingdom of God with one eye
rather than having two eyes tobe cast into hell fire, where
their worm does not die andtheir fire is not quenched.
For everyone will be seasonedwith fire and every sacrifice
will be seasoned with salt.
Salt is good, but if the saltloses its flavor, how will you

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season it?
Have salt in yourselves andhave peace with one another.
So here Jesus teaching hisdisciples some heavy stuff.
Here teaching his disciples,some heavy stuff.
Here he reminds them first,number one, that being a

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disciple is meant to be aselfless life, selfless life and
the direct context here you gotto picture it, jesus the
teacher, right.
Jesus the Savior is standingthere and he's holding a little
child in his arms.
Now notice how it all startsoff there in verse 22.

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With that picture in your mind.
Whoever causes one of theselittle ones who believe in me to
stumble, it would be better forhim if a millstone were hung
around his neck and thrown intothe sea were hung around his
neck and thrown into the sea.
So Jesus, with this littlechild, says don't cause one of
these little ones.
This is what being a discipleis about.

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Don't cause one of these littleones to stumble.
And we can think about our ownchildren.
Maybe this was Peter's kid, butwe think about our own children
.
And I don't know how it is inyour house, but many times we
act like our kids don't speakEnglish Right now, when they're
little.
It's one thing.
You can spell things out, right, and then after that you get a

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little more creative.
My parents they knew a littlebit of German growing up, and so
they would every so often dropsome German words so that I
couldn't understand what theywere saying.
Right, lila and I took a signlanguage class together, so we
would do finger spelling, youknow, and you know when we
didn't want our kids tounderstand.

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But there comes a certain pointwhen they're older where you
just kind of pretend I don'tknow what happens in our brains
but we just kind of pretend theydon't speak English anymore.
You know, we just just justtalk about it in front of them.
Whatever it is, if it's work orif it's some social problem
that we're having with someone,we just let it all out.
And I admit I think that'swrong, right, but I do it.

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You know, you talk about yourissues in front of your kids
like they just can't hear, right, because I just don't have time
for it anymore.
And I think about all the timesin that literal sense that you
know, maybe I came talking aboutsome things that just weren't
good attitudes and I really didmisrepresent God's heart in

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front of my kids.
And Jesus says don't cause theselittle ones to stumble.
It's good to remember that,right, and how we talk about
other people or, you know, evenlife in general.
But it's not just kids here.
Obviously he's got a littlechild in his hand, but it talks
about those who are maybeyounger in the faith, maybe

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those who have no faith at all.
Right, and the thing weunderstand is that, no matter
where we are, what we're doing,people are watching us.
The people in our family arewatching us, the people at our
job are watching us, especiallyif they know you're a believer.
And Jesus lets us know howserious it is in verse 42.
This is where and I don't wantto be irreverent, but this is

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where mafia Jesus comes into thepicture.
Right, I mean, there's a lot ofserious stuff in this passage.
But Jesus says look, if youcause one of these little ones
to stumble, you ought to justtie a big rock around your neck
and jump into the lake.
Right, we have waves, you know.
And you're like, wow, jesus,that is very tough.

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Right, you might as well justjump in a lake.
Now, obviously it's not literal.
Jesus doesn't want us jumpinginto a lake with a rock around
our neck and drown ourselves,but it is serious, it is serious

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.
It's serious the way we presentJesus through our life.
Now, 1 Corinthians, chapter 8,verse 9,.
Paul is talking about a problemthat was in the Corinthian
church.
They had temples to idols and alittle backstory.
In these temples to idols, youcould buy some great steaks at a

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cheap price, right, becausethey would offer these
sacrifices, and then in the backdoor they would offer the meat
that was sacrificed to idols ata discount price.
Sounds good?
Well, in the early church there, some of the people understood
idols are nothing.
It's just a piece of rock.
It's just a piece of wood.
What can an idol do to me?
I'm gonna get me some ribeye.
You know what I mean, andthey're like good price on

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stakes, I'll take it.
What's an idol?
Now there were other people whowere younger in the faith and
had these convictions in theirhearts and they said well, idol,
idols, demonic man.
I used to worship idols.
I don't know if it's right toeat steak meat sacrifice to
idols.
And they were conflicted intheir hearts.

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And Paul says Corinthians, youneed a little love, you need to
be selfless.
I know you want to eat yourmeat, sacrifice to idols, but
don't do it.
You're going to cause one ofthese weaker believers.
They're called to stumble.
And we go.
Well, weaker believers, youought to get over it.

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I got liberty right, I can dowhatever I want.
And Paul go.
Well, weaker believers, youought to get over it.
I got liberty right, I can dowhatever I want.
And Paul says no, no, that isnot the way to look at it.
It's being selfless.
It's about looking out forother people over yourself.
Now check it out.
If you got all that about themeat sacrifice to idols, how
does Paul end it In verse 13,?

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1 Corinthians 8, 13,.
He says if meat makes mybrother, now picture this.
You got to catch this.
All right, because this isoutrageous.
He says if eating meat causesmy brother to stumble, I will
never eat meat again.
And you go no, paul, you becomea vegetarian, right?

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Oh, my goodness, that's likeworse than a sinner, right?
No, but you know, you look atthat Now I think he's serious.
He says if my liberty to eatmeat causes trouble in someone's
heart, I'll never eat meatagain.
This trouble in someone's heart, I'll never eat meat again,

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because their soul is worth morethan my liberty to eat meat.
Now check it out.
Being a disciple, not causingthe people around us to stumble,
is selfless.
It's meant to be a sacrifice inthat sense, and whatever it is,
we need to look out for theneeds of others.
Now he goes on.
We got to move on here.

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But he says it's alsosanctification.
Now pick this up.
Sanctification is this idea inthe Christian life that God
takes things out of our life.
He takes sin out of our life.
He takes sinful habits out ofour life and it's all to make us
more like Jesus.
Now check it out, follow Inyour life.

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If you've been a Christian fora while, you should look
different than the day you gotsaved.
You should look a little morelike Jesus.
And it's painful.
But he takes different habitsand things out of our life and
we see that pretty vividly hereand in the next little bit.
You'll remember PG 13, verse 43.

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Jesus says if your hand causesyou to sin, chop off your hand
Verse 45,.
If your foot causes you to sin,chop off your hand Verse 45,.
If your foot causes you to sin,chop off your foot.
If your eye now this one'sreally vivid If your eye causes
you to sin, pluck out your eyeand I made that sound, but I'm
not going to do it again Pluckit out, eject it from your eye

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socket.
It's kind of the Greek there.
And you go wow, whatever thatmeans.
That takes some determination,some determination to take sin
out of our life.
Hebrews, chapter 12, verse onecompares it to being in a race.
The Christian life is likebeing in a race and the author

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to Hebrews says when we'rerunning this race, let us lay
aside every weight and the sinwhich so easily ensnares us and
let us run with endurance.
The race that's set before usNow a little less intense than
chopping off a hand, foot orplucking out an eye.
But he says, if we're going torun this race we've got to lay
aside things.
That this obviously doesn'tmean to go literally cut your

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hand off or cut your foot off orpluck your eye out, because
many in church history duringthe monastic period, you know
where there were monks andpeople would move out to the
caves.
You know, society is evil.
I'm going to move out to a cave, you know.
You know clothes is too muchtemptation, so I'm going to wear

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sackcloth, rough sackcloth on,and they would do all these
kinds of things, even down tothese literal things.
They should never done it.
Literal things of plucking outeyes and cutting off hands.
Not what God intended, that'sthe devil would do that kind of
thing to you.
But they would do that and manywould say in those situations,

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I've done it and I still have asinful nature.
You're like, wah, wah, you know, don't do that.
It's not about taking off a handor plucking out an eye.
It's about dealing radicallywith sin.
Sanctification is prettyradical stuff, so check it out.
Maybe a more reasonable way tolook at this is you know, if

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your internet causes you tostumble, disconnect the service.
You know, if a relationship isbringing you to sin, you might
have to cut that relationshipoff and you go.
You know, that's pretty radical.
That's painful.
It's about as painful asplucking an eyeball out.
But Jesus here says it isserious.

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Now notice something else here.
Notice there's a repeatedphrase here and there's kind of
an idea.
He says it's better to cut offa hand, cut off a foot, pluck
out an eye than to look at verse43, go to hell, into the fire
that shall never be quenched,where the worm does not die and

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the fire is not quenched.
And it says it three times,basically the same way.
It becomes almost like a littlebit of a commercial, right?
You kind of feel the idea.
That's a little bit like ajingle.
You know liberty, liberty,liberty, liberty, liberty.
You're like it's in my head now.
Thanks, you know.
You know, whatever thecommercial?
When my kids were younger itwas red Robin, yum, I mean so

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simple.
And they would go around theneighborhood and they would just
sing that all day long.
Red Robin, yum.
Well, this is kind of like that.
This is actually the last verseof the book of Isaiah that he's
quoting.
There the worm does not die andthe fire is not quenched.
And Jesus says it three times,I think, to get it in our head.
He's talking about hell.

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Right, jesus is talking abouthell.
In our Bibles it does say hell.
Now, some will point out thatthis word hell in the original
text is Gehenna.
Gehenna is what this word is,and Gehenna was actually a place
on the map.
Hell is a place on the map.

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Well, gehenna is a place on themap.
On the map, well, gehenna is aplace on the map.
Gehenna was an area outside thecity of Jerusalem that, during
the time of King Manasseh andKing Ammon, sacrifice to the
idol Molech took place.
It was horrible, horriblesacrifice it was.
We're not even going to talkabout how horrible it was, but

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they led the people out intoidolatry.
And Josiah comes around andJosiah's heart is changed.
He starts throwing things outof the temple, the idols.
He does away with the idols andall the false, you know,
priests and stuff, and there's arevival under Josiah, ammon's

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son.
Well, he takes this now.
Listen, he takes this valleythat used to be used for
sacrifice to Molech and hedefiles it and makes it a
garbage dump right.
That's how you get rid of theplaces of worship.
You turn them into garbagedumps, right.
And so check it out Outside thecity of Jerusalem.

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They would bring their garbageand they would burn it.
So, nonstop, day and night,there was a field and there was
a fire going.
You could bring your trash andburn it.
If you brought food stuff oranimal stuff, there was
decomposition, right, you know.
And so this phrase here theworm does not die and the fire

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is not quenched.
Put with this term Gehenna wasthat picture of the garbage dump
outside of the city ofJerusalem.
But you know, with all of itshistory, it was a pretty like
just heavy place.
History, it was a pretty likejust heavy place, continuous
fire, continual likedecomposition and worms.

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It was not a nice place to be,and Jesus here says it's better
that you lose a hand, lose afoot, lose an eye, then go to
hell.
Now, many will take this ideanowadays and say well, hell is
not a place that we're told ofin the Bible, it's not an
eternal place it'srepresentative of this field

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outside of Jerusalem where itwas burned, but there's no
eternal hell.
In the church it's actuallyrather popular to explain hell
away.
There's no eternal judgment,like the Jehovah's Witnesses say
, outside of Christianity.
Once you're dead, you justoblivion, you disappear.
That's it, and many in thechurch today would rather that,

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and I get it.
Eternal punishment does notsound nice.
It's hard to say, oh, god islove, and then say but he sends
some people to hell to punishthem for eternity.
However, the Bible is veryclear.
There is a literal place calledhell eternal fire weeping and

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gnashing of teeth so many timesthe Bible talks about it and
there sin is judged.
And we see in hell that sin isserious stuff.
We look at sin and go oh, letbygones be bygones.
But God says sin, the wages ofsin is death.
Jesus died for our sin on thecross.

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Now, if there's no eternalpunishment, we go well, it's
only so important that our sinwas taken care of.
It's just.
You know, it's a thing, butit's not everything.
No, the Bible says that a justand righteous God will punish
sin forever.
Now, he doesn't want it thatway.
He hasn't created us for hell.

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He created hell for Satan andhis angels.
But many of us will go that wayif we reject what God's done
for us, and that's seriousbecause sin is really bad.
God is really righteous andhe's just, and so Jesus here
paints this for us and he saysit's better to lose a hand than

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go to hell and burn forever.
Right now we don't always seeit that way, but eternity is a
real thing.
When you die, it's heaven orhell and both are eternal heaven
or hell.
Now check it out.
This last week has been prettyheavy.

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A lot of weeks lately have beenheavy.
This last week has been prettyheavy.
A lot of weeks lately have beenheavy.
This last week has been prettyheavy because we've experienced
two major airline crashes right,and you know that's serious
business, but I've really beenthinking about it and this is
just where we're at today.
But you know you think aboutthat.
No warning, we've seen twofireballs explode on I'm sorry,

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explode on the TV, and all atonce, in an instant.
It was pretty quick, I think.
All at once people went intoeternity, heaven or hell, all in
an instant.
And you know, I got to say inmy hard heart that doesn't

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really bother me enough?
I don't think.
I mean I know you've got tokind of like guard your mind and
your heart a little bit or yougo nuts, but the idea of
eternity on both sides of thecoin doesn't really bother me
that much.
And yet, all in an instant,people, souls, faced eternity.

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And I think what Jesus is reallygetting at here is that it's
serious.
Life is serious, we'll see.
Our witness is serious, andit's serious.
Life is serious, we'll see.
Our witness is serious and it'seternal.
There's eternal consequences.
It's crazy to think that 80, 90years we live here whatever a

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hundred, we're really lucky it'snothing compared to eternity in
the grand scheme of things.
And yet, how we live our life,it's worth way more to go
without an eye, without a hand,without a foot, than to
ourselves go there.
There's theological issues inthat.
Are we losing our salvationhere?

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But let's just look at thepeople around us.
How we live our life is worthit for the eternity that's all
around us.
And we don't know what thisnext week is going to look like.
I hate to put that in front ofus, but that's really true.
We don't know how much time wehave with people around us and

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eternity is in the balance here.
So sanctification is importantstuff, but Jesus goes on.
We should probably chew on thatlonger, but Jesus goes on.
Verse 49.
For everyone will be seasonedwith fire and every sacrifice
will be seasoned with salt.
I have a little bit of troublewith this, but really I think
it's pointing to sacrifices.
If you're reading through theBible in any kind of way, you
get to the book of Leviticus andyou got a good long time

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talking about sacrifices.
If you're reading through theBible in any kind of way, you
get to the book of Leviticus andyou got a good long time
talking about sacrifices.
You're like why do I got tolearn about sacrifices?
I don't, we don't do thisanymore.
Jesus was our sacrifice.
We don't have to do this, andthat's part of the joy of
reading Leviticus.
We don't have to do it.
But sacrifices uh, lots ofthings you could sacrifice for
in the old Testament sinsacrifices lots of things you
could sacrifice for in the OldTestament Sin.
There were sin sacrifices,there were trespass sacrifices,

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there were burnt offerings whichwere really good, and I think
this is kind of what that'spointing to.
But you would take an animal.
You would offer it to the Lord,maybe in your place for sin,
maybe in your place forcommitment there to God.
And it would involve fire.
That's what the sacrifices wereburnt.

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But they would also involvesalt, which is really strange.
And salt is part of a sacrifice.
And here we see, I think, jesuspointing his selfish disciples,
who are arguing about who's thegreatest, to the idea of a
sacrificial life.
Right, guys, your life will beoffered with fire, your life

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will be offered with salt, butit's a sacrifice.
I think that really points towhat Paul says in Romans 12.
Good one to memorize Romans 12,verse 1.
There Paul says I beseech youtherefore, brethren, by the
mercies of God, you present yourbodies a living sacrifice
wholly acceptable to God.
So check it out.

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Everything you do can be asacrifice to God.
You can say God, here's my day,use it, here's my time, my
energy, use it for you, and youjust offer it up like a living
sacrifice.
And I think that's what Jesusis pointing to.
But let's end with verse 50.
Salt is good.
There's a statement you canjust kind of underline Salt is

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good, right?
Unless you have high bloodpressure.
It may not be good, I don'tknow, I'm not a doctor but salt
is good, right, we know that.
Right.
If you've ever had to eat likesodium, a low sodium diet,
you're like what's the point?
I don't even know why I'meating this anymore.
You know, I had a big problemwith salt when I was a kid.

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I used to go to the restaurantsand embarrass my parents.
I would put salt in my hand andI'd look around, I go.
It was like I was a weird kid.
I really liked salt.
It was probably some kind ofdeficiency.
But you know, salt is good,right, and you could do a whole
study on this.
All the things that salt does,right, salt is for taste, that's

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a good one.
It preserves.
There's some degree that saltis a healing kind of thing,
right, salt is good.
And Jesus here says now check itout.
In verse 50, if the salt losesits flavor, how will you season

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it?
So Jesus puts in this strangeidea here.
He says if salt stops beingsalty, what are you going to do
with it?
And you kind of your brain doesbackflips and you're like
unsalty salt.
I mean, it's in its name.
How can it be unsalty salt?
Is it possible to have unsaltysalt?

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Maybe it is, I don't know.
But I feel like when salt losesits saltiness, it's not salt
anymore.
I don't know what it is Right.
And Jesus puts that in there.
If you, being the salt of theearth, as he says in the Sermon
on the Mount Matthew, chapter 5,you're the salt of the earth,

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you're the light of the earth,you're the light of the world,
you're like salt.
You go into this world and youmake things taste better.
Yay, you bring healing.
Yay, you preserve things inthis rotting world.
Yay, but if you stop beingsalty, what good are you?
A disciple, a Christian, ismeant to be salty in this world,

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and Jesus says if you just stopbeing salty, what good are you
Now?
In other places, jesus says theonly thing unsalted salt is
worth is throwing out and beingtrampled underfoot.
I don't know what that's allabout, but it is concerning our
witness here, as we bring it alltogether.
It's concerning our witness,the, as we bring it all together
, it's concerning our witness.
The disciple's life is to besalty, that you're put in this

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world, to make a difference inthe relationships that you have
and check it out.
People are watching.
The little ones in your lifeare watching you.
The little ones at work arewatching you every single day.
We need to be sanctified.
Not only are we selfless, butwe need to be sanctified.

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God's taken things out of yourlife, things like sin and things
that tempt you.
You may have to pluck thosethings out or cut those things
off, but it's worth it.
It's sacrificial life, it'slaying down your rights, getting

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on the altar, that we can besalty in this world.
But I think the big thing that Iget from this because it was a
heavy chapter, right the bigthing I get from this is that
it's serious.
Jesus is absolutely seriouswith his disciples and us.
Take a deep breath.
Jesus is serious with us.
Life is about eternal things.

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I know you don't see it, butpeople are going into eternity
every single day.
One day we'll go into eternityand only what's done for Christ
will last.
And so good encouragement todisciples.
And notice he does end it thereand he says have salt in

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yourself, have peace with oneanother.
Guys, don't argue about sillythings.
Get out there and live thateternal, meaningful life, silly
things.
Get out there and live thateternal, meaningful life.
God, another pep rally in somany ways.
But yet I know a pep rallyisn't what we need, god.
We absolutely need your spiritto work these things into our

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life.
God that we would really seethings from an eternal
perspective.
God that we would see heavenand just how wonderful that's
going to be it really is.
But God, we would see hell andjust how so many people are just
going there and it's not whatyou want.

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God, help us to make adifference in this world and God
forgive us for being hypocrites.
God forgive us formisrepresenting you, but God,
help us this week to justrepresent you in all that we do.
God, take our hearts and ourtime, our lives, everything.
God, I pray for my friends.
You would protect them thisweek.

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You would give them strength.
God, you would encourage themand lift them up every single
day.
God, we love you.
Thank you for your faithfulness.
In Jesus' name, we pray Amen.