This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

I want to welcome you to our last day of looking together through Mark chapter
9, day 5, verses 38 to 50, and in these verses we're going to meet ourselves
again in the lives of the disciples. We're going to see their insecurity. I've
never met anyone, including myself for sure, who doesn't deal with insecurity on
some level in their lives, daily lives.

Sometimes I've noticed that what we brand as arrogance is really insecurity in a
deep seated way in a person's life. And I've seen, as you probably have, that
this insecurity that we all struggle with, it can come out in very strange ways.
You can see this in Jesus' first followers.

And maybe in seeing it in them, you and I can learn something about ourselves.
You can see their insecurity coming out in feelings of anger. You can see their
insecurity coming out in feelings of unhealthy ambition.

Here in these verses we're going to look at how the disciples wanted to exclude
other people and in so doing make themselves feel more secure, more powerful.
One of the ways to make yourself feel more secure is by shutting other people
out and then you feel special. Listen to what happened.

Mark chapter 9 verses 38 to 41, "Teacher," said John, "we saw a man driving out
demons in your name, and we told him to stop, because he was not one of us. "
"Do not stop him," Jesus said, "no one who does a miracle in my name can in the
next moment say anything bad about me, for whoever is not against us is for us.
I tell you the truth, anyone who gives you a cup of water in my name because you
belong to Christ will certainly not lose his reward.

" Here's this feeling of being exclusive. John is saying, "because he's not one
of us, we made him stop," and Jesus said, "why? " This man was successfully
driving out demons and he was doing it in Jesus' name.

And remember, the disciples had just had a struggle with driving out a demon. So
they're saying, "don't do that. We don't want you to do that.

You are not in the club. " This is like when you're a little kid and you got
this clubhouse and you only let your three friends in and you feel better about
yourself because you keep other people out. The feeling of exclusivity that
gives you a sense of security is nothing but insecurity.

It may be owning something exclusive. It may be knowing someone exclusive. It
may be belonging to some exclusive club.

If the reason you own that, if the reason you know that person, if the reason
you belong to that is so that you can feel better than other people, you're
trying to make yourself secure at other people's expense. And Jesus warns his
disciples against it. They were doing it in a spiritually unhealthy way.

Jesus' teaching grows out of John's insecure desire to have an in-crowd and an
out-crowd. And he begins in these verses in some very in-depth ways to teach us
about how do you deal with these insecurities in our lives? How do you deal with
the fact that sometimes Christians want to make those who are not yet Christians
feel like they're outside so that we can feel better about ourselves?

And in so doing, we don't invite them in as Jesus has invited all of us in. How
do you deal with this feeling of insecurity that we have in our lives? Well,
Jesus talks about it when he talks about judgment.

He says, "You want to deal with the insecurity in your life? You've got to do
three things. You have to, first of all, stop judging others in order to cover
your own faults.

" Now in a minute, we're going to see that he also says you have to focus on
God's judgment. That's how you deal with your insecurity. And you also have to
live a life of purity.

That's how you deal with your insecurity. But let's focus on this first one. You
stop judging others to cover your own faults.

Insecure people are judgmental people. Have you noticed that? When I'm insecure
about myself, I'm judgmental of others.

And Jesus in these verses talks about some keys to letting go of judgmentalism
in our lives. And the first is stop your human judgments. Jesus says here, "If
someone's doing a miracle in my name, in the next moment he's not going to do
something bad.

He's just done something powerful in my name. He obviously has a real and
genuine trust in me. " Jesus here says, "If he's not against us, he's for us.

" He's not fighting against us. He's fighting for us. And Jesus here says, I
love these verses.

He says, "Somebody gives you as a disciple, just some small act. He gives you a
cup of water in my name because you're a follower of me. You should honor that,
because that person's not going to lose his reward.

Don't feel threatened by other people's ministry. Don't feel threatened by other
people's service. If you've been a believer for any length of time, you know
that we can do this as believers.

We feel threatened by the fact that somebody else is serving, like, well,
they're going to get in with Jesus and I'm going to be like pushed out, and now
I'm not going to have a place to serve. There's plenty of room for all of us in
God's kingdom. There's plenty of room for all of us in Jesus' service.

Don't feel threatened by the fact that other people are serving him, too. Stop
judging others to cover your own faults. Now, one of the ways to do that is the
second thing that Jesus talks about in these verses.

You focus on God's judgment. Instead of me thinking about how I judge others,
you get your eyes off of yourself, off the human plane, and you put your eyes on
God and His judgment of us all. We all stand before Him in judgment.

We're all equal in that. Jesus talks about that beginning in verse 42, and let
me read for you through verse 48. "And if anyone causes one of these little ones
who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to be thrown into the sea
with a large millstone tied around his neck.

If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It's better for you to enter life
maimed than with two hands to go into hell where the fire never goes out. And if
your foot causes you to sin, cut it off.

It is better for you to enter life crippled than to have two feet and be thrown
into hell. And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out. It's better for you
to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown
into hell where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched.

" Jesus in these verses focuses us on God's judgment. Instead of thinking about
how I judge others, are they in or are they out? Think about how God judges
others.

Jesus begins by talking about God's protection of these little ones. He's
talking here about new believers, people who are just beginning to follow
Christ. If someone causes one of these little ones who believe to sin, it would
be better that they were thrown into the sea with a heavy stone tied around
their neck.

That's how God's going to handle those who pray on new believers, on people who
are naive in their faith in order to feather their own nest, because they can
manipulate others to use them for their own ends. God can take care of that. I
don't have to.

God can take care of that. So I leave that judgment in His hands. Now that
doesn't mean I don't warn people about wolves, people who have false teaching
towards the good news of Christ, but it also means I leave judgment to God.

He can handle it. In fact, Jesus immediately goes from others to you and me. He
says if your hand, your foot, your eye causes you to sin, it's better to cut it
off or to pluck it out in the case of the eye than to go into hell.

Immediately Jesus says instead of thinking about judging others, why don't you
look at your own life? If you've got something in your life that's keeping you
from connecting with God, if you've got something in your life that's keeping
you from salvation, from a relationship with God, Jesus says let go of that
thing. Now it's obvious here that He's painting a picture, a dramatic picture.

I could cut off one hand and still sin with the other hand, so He's not talking
about hands here, He's talking about hearts here, but it's an incredible
picture, especially for that day. Remember that in that day, if you had an
infection in your hand or your foot or your eye, it would have to be cut off or
taken out so that that infection would not go to your entire body. And so Jesus
is saying here in order to live spiritually, there are some things that you
might have to cut out of your life, even some things that may seem deeply
important to you.

And Jesus says why? Why? Because to be cut off from God for eternity is to be in
a place called hell.

In eternity, we're either going to be in heaven with God for eternity or if we
haven't chosen a relationship with Him, God's going to let us have our choice
for all eternity and we'll be separated from Him for all eternity, and that
place is called hell. And in hell there is no God, so hell is a horrible place.
Jesus paints it this way, "Where there worm does not die, where the fire is not
quenched, a place where there is all desire, but there is no fulfillment.

" By the way, I read these verses from Jesus. How do you imagine Jesus's tone
here as He talked about hell? Judgmental?

Irritated? Angry? No.

Jesus has a compassionate and broken heart about hell. That's why He died on a
cross, to save us from hell. Jesus went to a cross to pay the price for our sins
so we would not have to face this.

And Jesus says, "If there's something that's keeping you from My forgiveness,
even as important as it might seem to you, in light of eternity, cut that thing
out of your life. Let go of that thing in your life so you can enjoy eternity
with Me. " Focus on God's judgment.

You want to stop being judgmental. Stop focusing your judgment on others. Start
focusing on God's judgment of us all.

We're all going to stand before Him. And Jesus says the third thing you do is
you begin to live a life of purity. One of the reasons we're judgmental of
others is we don't want the eye on ourselves.

We know we've got some problems in our own life. Jesus says, "First of all, take
a look at your own life. You live a life of purity.

" And He gives us some pictures here that have to do with salt, verses 49 to 50.
"Everyone," Jesus says, "will be salted with fire. " Salt is good.

But if it loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? Have salt in
yourselves and be at peace with one another. That phrase, "Everyone will be
salted with fire," is one of the most difficult to translate and understand in
all the sayings of Jesus.

Most likely what He's talking about here, as we look at the picture of that day,
He's talking about you and I growing through trials in our lives. The salt was a
purifier. And when He says, "Everyone will be salted," there's one sense in
which He's saying, "Everyone will be purified through fire.

" And fire is a picture of persecution. So we are salted. We are purified
through the trials and the difficulties of life.

We know that this is true, not only from many verses in Scripture, but through
the experience of our own lives. And Jesus is saying, "We're all going to face
this. Every one of us is going to face difficult times in our lives.

We're going to all face trials. And God can use those to grow us to be purified,
to be more like Christ. " When I have a problem in my life, instead of trying to
figure out why the problem is happening, I should be trying to figure out what
does God want me to learn.

I could drive myself crazy trying to figure out why every problem happens. Some
of them I'll never figure out, but I can always know that God has something for
me to learn. Even in a problem that someone else has brought upon me, an evil
problem, God can teach me and grow me.

Everyone will be salted with fire. And Jesus says salt is good, but if it loses
its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? You got to stay salty.

How do you do that? How do you stay pure? How do you continue to live a life of
purity?

Well, Jesus says, "Have salt in yourselves and be at peace with one another. "
The way that I decide in my daily life, the way that I walk through my daily
decisions is going to determine the saltiness, the kind of purity that I have in
my heart. And Jesus says here, "It's especially true in my relationships.

Be at peace with one another. If I've got a bad relationship with someone, it's
going to show up in an impurity in my life. " Now, you may think you're
punishing that other person by keeping that bitterness going, but it shows up in
an impurity in my life.

Have salt in your life. Be the kind of person that, because God's light, God's
salt is in your life, people can see that God wants to be at work in their
lives. That's what Jesus is saying here.

As we come to the end of this look at Mark chapter 9 and these verses about
living a life of purity, let's pray together for God's power. Jesus Christ, help
us to live the kind of life that you've caused us to live through your cross,
that you invite us to live, empower us to live through your resurrection, a life
of purity. Instead of focusing on others and their problems, help us to focus on
you and help us to focus on what you want to do in our lives today.

Instead of focusing on our imperfections and our problems, help us to focus on
your invitations and on your power and on what you want to do. Thank you Jesus
that you never give up on us. Thank you for your power in our life today.

Help us to learn to grow, to be more pure in thought, heart and action this day.
We pray it in Jesus' name. Amen.

We'll see you back next week as we continue our study in Mark, Mark chapter 10.
It's a chapter where we learn from Jesus' teaching and Jesus' example about the
awesome relationships that he intends for us to have with himself and with
others. See you next week for Mark chapter 10.